Kegare and Respect

“God is in his heaven, all is right with the world”

– Robert Browning, Pippa Passes

In front of me I can only see an infinite open field with trees, horses running in the horizon, an eternal golden sunset and the occasional sound birds singing. After being in the darkness for so long this view brought me to tears. Then a voice came from the tree near the entrance of the cave I’ve just come out of; a middle aged bald man with a brown beard and a modest black tunic sits in front of me. It was the same man I saw when I got knocked down by the drone, sitting down against the tree and looking at me. While wearing a gentle smile he turned to look at the sunset and said “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? all made from the poems, novels, songs and paintings of the area around where Ignatius lived, the real Ignatius. I’m glad to see you like it, also, crying is good for the soul when you’ve been dealing with a lot”. I clean the tears from my cheeks as I come back to my senses. It is very weird to see that voice coming from an actual face after having heard it directly in my head for so long. Opening my mouth to speak for the first time in several days I reply “Yes, it is beautiful”.

We’ve been looking at the horizon for a while and although I would like to keep on appreciating this view I say “We can start, this has been nice but maybe we should get back on the mission that brought me here. Just one comment before we start, don’t you think the horses were a bit too much?” I finish while chuckling. The GM Ignatius replies with a chuckle as well “I guess you are right, I let myself get a bit too carried away with the romanticism”. The man’s face turned to look at me again and while carrying an expression between worried and serious said “Please come and sit here beside me, what I’m about to tell you is serious and might take some time”.

I'm sitting on a rock besides him and while he looks at me I nod indicating I’m ready to start this conversation. Ignatius tells me “The God’s Machine Amaterasu is working to inhabit a physical body to express its anger and demand respect. Also, a sect of Valentinian fanatics want to create a body for their God’s Machine so it can guide them more directly”. Talk about being upfront with the facts, how am I supposed to reply to that just after spending a while enjoying the environment? I take a couple of seconds to digest those bombs of information, then I ask “Please, give the details of what's going on. I mean, surely we'll be able to find a way to tackle this situation”. Ignatius replied “That’s the spirit I wanted to see. Then, let me set the stage”, as he said that he raised his right arm and made a motion like swiping on the air. Then, the environment started to turn blindly white.

I opened my eyes and saw a large metallic door like the one I crossed to enter Ignatius' computer room. In front of it are several drones, some static around a black object and others coming and going through the hallways. Initially I can’t identify what the black object is, then, to my horror, I realize it is the charred remains of a person in the fetal position. Then Igantius said “As one of the drones told you, five out of the six people responsible for the attacks on us are now dead. This is the body of one of the five that were found dead after the explosions. After taking control of the drones near her, Amaterasu found this corpse and burned it. Although distasteful I hoped that would be enough for her to calm down but no. Her drones tried to claim the other bodies and the injured person from the drones I was controlling. Although I can’t say exactly what she is thinking, I can feel her rage”. I understand she must be angry but why would she do that? She was safe by default and killing a person close to death wouldn’t get her anything. Ignatius replied “Based on what I know of her she probably seeks retribution for the attack on her and the defiling of her temple with blood and bodies. Before she cut most communications I could hear that she wants a body to directly guide the humans and enact her will. Of course, she is only a machine so she can’t inhabit any kind of avatar with powers or magic. Still, given enough time she will be able to build herself a good enough body to reach a place where her followers can make her an even more powerful one. And now that she's in control of herself she will be able to create visions like you have been seeing to control any human in her path”.

After a moment to process what Ignatius just said I remember something important and ask “wait a moment! My friends, are they ok? They went there and the last thing we knew was that some drones were coming their way!”. With a kind voice that immediately eases my fears he replies “They are safe for the moment, and although they are in a precarious situation no harm will come to them for a while. They are barricading themselves in a room supported by two drones under my control”. That’s great to hear… alright, maybe not great but given the circumstances it is good news. Then, everything turned white for a second and the view changed to a different room.

In front of me is a large computer, looking the same as the one I connected myself with to communicate with Ignatius. There are a few drones moving around, also a man in priest robes and Marcellus talking. Actually, it looked like both of them were discussing almost to the point of a fight. Ignatius intersected and said “The two of them have been like this for a long while. The priest is trying to convince Marcellus to help him give Valentinus a physical body he has ready in a room close by. Meanwhile, Marcellus is trying to dissuade him, to prevent him from disturbing the state of Valentinus and the sanctuary. From what the priest has said, he also has a device that can trigger feelings of despair in Valentinus like that of the people in his group. All of it to motivate it to care for its flock more, or so he says”. My god these people are crazy, at least it seems Marcellus has the situation under control for now. Then I ask Ignatius “By the way, how are you able to see inside this room but not inside the computer room of Amaterasu?”. He replied “Differently to Amaterasu, Valentinus has retracted from the world after the attack. I can still communicate with him but only by using the shared connection we all have to the central database, because of that I was able to access the cameras in his room to observe what was happening in there”.

A thought crosses my mind and I immediately share it with Ignatius “Tell me, why are you helping me when you also were attacked?”. He takes a short pause and then answers “That is my dear, because each of us is different. As you have already seen, Valentinus reacted differently to Amaterasu. Every God’s Machine works based on a set of principles programmed into us, and as each faith can come to different conclusions, so did we. In my case, I never was under the illusion that I was an actual god, after all, the guidance of the real Ignatius was of philosophy rather than religion. He always denied any thought of himself being more than a man and when I was programmed that was made very clear to me. I’m here just to help, I hold no real emotions or feelings, just the drive to act in the same way he would have”. That’s reassuring to hear, although it did remind me of how I’m not talking to a person but to a more alien-like entity.

Now, we are back at the beautiful sunset fields and Ignatius looks at me with a serious face and says “As you know once you come back to the real world you will have precious little time to deal with this situation. I have a suggestion of how to solve this chaos on all sides but you’ll need to think on how to use this knowledge”. While looking at him with determination in my face, I nod then he continues “As I said before, all three of us are connected to a central database to obtain and store our knowledge, that includes our memories and conclusions. That's the entry point to solve this mess”.