Chapter 23: Gods Among Us
A Slave to Memory [24 of 44] - In a world where power and reality intertwine, Ada must navigate djinns, hackers, and secrets to save the one she loves.
Ada stood in an arena, scanning the empty stands.
The tension coiled in her gut.
Why are we here?
“I can feel them closing in.”
She kicked at the pale sand, dust rising in the still air. The place was a contradiction—Roman colosseum curves with crisp modern lines, clean stone untouched by age.
“I made this,” the djinn said, gesturing around them. “With a little inspiration.”
Ada barely glanced. “How does this help me find Omni?”
She paused, caught his signature embedded in this shard. Satya. The Lost Djinn’s name, plain as code. He wasn’t masking it. Djinns played their truths carefully.
A sign of trust — she wasn’t alone in this.
Ada shook herself, her voice cracking. ‘Every second wasted—’ She swallowed hard, remembering her promise to protect her.
Run. Her own frantic message echoed in her mind. Silence since. A Seeker wasn’t just some street thug—it was an augmented bloodhound, Company-owned, Company-powered.
Ada rubbed her eyes—then froze. Omni does that.
Satya's voice cut through. “Patience.” He lifted a hand. “You’re here to learn.”
He didn’t wait for agreement. The ground split beneath Ada’s feet. She stumbled back as a spear of obsidian erupted from the sand, stabbing skyward.
“In the Verse, we wield power like gods,” Satya said, watching her reaction. Then, with a flick of his wrist, the black tower shattered into nothing. “But even gods pay a price.”
Ada shivered as the Compute drain hit—a cold pull deep in her core, like fingers of ice on her spine.
"Every shape we make, every form we take…" Satya let the words hang.
Ada flexed her fingers, watching energy ripple through them. She could feel the microscopic pull on distant servers, the hidden **processors keeping her alive.
"Even existing takes Compute," she finished.
Satya nodded, but his expression darkened. “And that’s the real problem.”
A chill settled in Ada’s chest. She thought of every move she’d made, every reckless shift. Compute was life. And someone owned that life. The Company.
“We steal mana from the real gods,” she whispered. Her stomach turned. “That’s why Omni’s in trouble. Why they sent the Seeker after her. It’s my fault.”
Satya tilted his head. “You’re catching on.”
She exhaled. “Are we the only ones fighting back?”
Satya snorted. “Fighting? No. Plenty of rats nibble at the edges, skimming Compute in scraps.”
He flexed his fingers, counting off. “Hackers. Ghosts. Rebels. Plenty of rats skimming Compute where they can.” His smirk sharpened. “But The Company owns the servers. Owns Compute. The rest?” He flicked a hand dismissively. “They nibble at crumbs. We take the whole damn pie.
Behind him, the arena glitched—each block shifting, flipping, reconfiguring. Stone giving way to polished steel.
“This is our domain,” Satya said. “Here, the cost is minimal—if you know what you’re doing.”
Ada barely registered his words. The holo in his palm flared to life—a district like no other, clustered and chaotic, with a deep black scar slicing through it like a wound.
Her stomach dropped. She knew that place. The Stacks. Omni’s home. The last place Ada had seen her.
But that mark—that wasn’t there before.
A surge of Compute, impossible to ignore.
Omni had called out—too loud, too reckless. The Company would never let this slide.
Ada’s hands curled into fists. She’s not just hiding anymore. They’ll brand her a terrorist.
“They’re already coming for her,” she whispered, pulse hammering.
A chill crawled over her skin. Something was wrong.
“We already have,” came a voice—from everywhere and nowhere.
The holo dissolved. Ada felt Satya tense as he stepped in front of her. A figure emerged from the shifting shadows—mirrored shades reflecting void, black suit crisp as a knife’s edge.
Satya spat the word. “Hound.”
The figure moved with unnatural precision, each step leaving frost in the sand. “Submit to order,” it said, voice devoid of humanity.
Satya didn’t flinch. “We are not your property.”
The Hound’s head tilted too far, like a puppet on cut strings. “Defective code. Nothing more.”
Satya’s whisper came at Ada’s side. “It’s baiting us. There’s always two. Watch for—”
"There!"
No more hiding.
Satya moved first, power crackling in the air.
An image flared in Ada’s mind—his Compute routes, his exploits, the web of autonomous agents covering his tracks. Glowing threads alive with digital spiders.
"Got it."
She reached for the sand.
Became the sand.
The arena shook as Ada expanded, towering into a colossus of stone and dust. She slammed a massive fist into the stands, metal twisting, seats crumpling.
But there was no body beneath.
The second Hound wasn’t crushed.
It splintered—not a person but a thousand crawling things, insects flooding from the wreckage, skittering toward her.
“Ada, don’t let them get to your core—”
Too late.
They burrowed. Scraping. Digging. Searching for code.
She changed.
The colossus collapsed, a landslide burying them. And Ada—a cyclone now, twisting sand into a violent storm—swept the bugs up, hammering them against the stadium wall.
Until they changed.
No longer metal. No longer insects. Just leaves. Dry, brittle, and rising.
Ada’s storm wavered. Her mind fogged.
Why fight?
It was so much easier to let go. To be still. To be taken.
A flare of fire tore through her storm. The leaves burned to ash, the haze lifting from her thoughts.
Satya.
Ada re-formed—a solid block of steel, slamming into the ground.
Satya barely spared her a glance. “Watch it.”
The Hound reassembled from the ash at his feet. More figures stepped from the shadows—two, then four, then eight.
They glitched, shimmering, shifting.
Satya sighed. “Time to go.”
He plunged his hands into the air and ripped reality open. A jagged hole, a glowing tear in space.
He grabbed Ada by the scruff of the neck and shoved her through as the eight became sixteen.
Ada fell.
Out of a broom closet.
Straight into a pile of mops and clattering buckets.
She groaned, pushing herself up. A cleaning bot hovered over her, digital eyes blinking.
“May I be of assistance?” it chirped.
Ada scrambled to her feet, knocking over a shelf. “I—uh—sorry for the mess.”
The bot beeped happily. “It gives me purpose.”
She swallowed hard. Somehow, that was the saddest thing she’d heard all day.
Voices. Laughter. She turned.
She was in a bar, but the bar did not obey physics. People sat at tables. People sat on the walls.
And some... stretched the term people entirely.
Where am I?
The words flashed in her mind. The digital twin of the Burning Heads, London.
A familiar voice called from the ceiling. Satya. Surrounded by djinns, smoking something green and purple.
As she approached, they spoke in unison: “The rule is: there are no rules.”
Then they paused.
“…except one,” said Satya.
The others grinned. “Stay hidden. And don’t piss off the Hounds.”
Ada exhaled. “Yeah, about that…”
The room went silent.
Satya smirked. “So. What do we do with her?”
“Feed her to a Balrog!” someone shouted.
“Been there,” Ada laughed. “This round’s on me, right?”
Satya raised an eyebrow. “Quick learner.”
A djinn flickered pink, then mauve. Then pink again.
Ada crossed her arms. “It’s laughing at me, isn’t it?”
The djinns howled.
She grinned, grabbing a chair. “Teach me everything.”