Cinder

17 - Blue Drift

A/N: Before you continue, I have some important news to share!

First off, yesterday was the one-year anniversary of this series! It was on August 24, 2016 that I first published "Inferno", and it's always amazing for me to see how far this whole thing has come. Thanks to all who have been here since the beginning and drove my motivation to write!

Onto the second piece of news; there's now an Architects' Discord server! It's not much, just a place for people to talk and hang out while being partially dedicated to the series. It's a better method of communication with updates and talking to the community than these author notes, so if you'd like to join then please feel free!

The invite link is:    https://discord.gg/6nwfXCj 

If you want to talk with me directly or just have a good time in general, then this will be the best place to do it!

Now, onto the chapter.

Now that he'd embraced her, he didn't want to let go; but he still had a job to do, and so it was with a bit of reluctance that he relinquished his hold on her and stepped back as he rose to full height again.

Slowly, she stood up and took her previous position against the wall. The wounds between them weren't fully healed, they wouldn't be for a while- but it was definitely a more comfortable atmosphere than it had been a few minutes previously.

"So," he began, his mind back on trying to figure out as much as he could about her peculiar situation, "you mentioned others. Are there more of you? Besides you and Artemis, I mean."

She gave a small nod of confirmation. "There are five, at least as larger fragments go. There could be any multitude of smaller shards that each has within themselves. It's a struggle to remain in control as-is, let alone when trying to hold yourself together as well."

The way she spoke, it sounded like it was a constant battle just to be coherent. He could only imagine how it would feel to have different aspects of yourself all vying for control. "Five of you? And even then-?"

"Yes. When I originally split apart, Artemis was the first persona to materialize. Something about her pleased Spyglass, but he kept wanting more. That was how I- the one you see in front of you- came to be, though it still wasn't enough. Apparently, I wasn't what he was looking for- he kept tearing until he had another fragment he considered useful, and then stopped. Maybe he didn't want to risk further damage- maybe he just didn't want other personas worthless to his cause, like me."

The thought of Spyglass hurting Kay made Tobias' blood boil, and he unconsciously tightened his hands into fists. He would find out what exactly the AI had done to her, and make him pay if it was the last thing he did.

"What was he looking for?"

"I don't know- I only know that after the fifth was created, he stopped. He gave my pieces designations to specify their nature and order- you already know Artemis." She made a small gesture towards herself. "My current designation is 'Pietas', the second to appear. After me came 'Virtus', 'Themis', and 'Athena', the last to be created. After her, Spyglass ceased all attempts to fragment me further and opted to work with what he had."

"Pietas?"

Pietas looked at him and nodded, though her manner was a bit more reserved now. Was she afraid that he saw her differently again?

"Don't worry," he assured her, "I'm not going back on what I said. I'm just using the name for clarification's sake."

Her mind at ease again, she relaxed. "Alright. Yes, the current persona is Pietas."