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More from Thetral
Greetings to all.
So yet another new story in such a short period of time. This one however is very different, It was penned by my dear friend and pet
ruco and was something he apparently was working on for a while.
A story of "Ruco" his persona within my own little world. Many of my followers may not really be fermilar with him within my stories, mostly because the persona 'Ruco' these days does not feature in my 'smutier' works which tend to be the most popular.
That said I do hope my followers may read and in enjoy this work. Please leave your comments and feedback. Writters always do crave feed back ;)
=====================================
In the great reaches of Thetral’s ‘Hive’ (as it was sometimes called), the immensely powerful Synthetic Felinoid life form known as “Ruco” was deep in thought with his most challenging pupil…
It, or more accurately “He” reflected on his current life and existence serving and facilitating the needs of the strange hybrid that ruled over the mountain clad community. The existence of Mistress Thetral (though he preferred to think of her more as an Employer these days) was one that did not have the smoothest of beginnings. Much like his own life, to call it “rocky” would be a bit of an understatement.
But the two of them had met one another, and through a variety of strange quirks of fate, the two had both benefited deeply from their strange relationship. They had both, in thier own ways been a bit “broken” when they met. The Hybrid known as Thetral still trying to work out her own meaning and what her existence was for, what she was supposed to do with her world. And of course for Ruco, he was more literally ‘broken’
A synthetic machine ‘clone’ of what had once been his biological body, that ended up housing both his own mind and soul, as well the corrupted and homicidal mind of the machine clone itself.
That of course, had over two hundred years ago…
In the stretch of time since a certain unfortunate incident had “fixed” Ruco’s mental state, he had pledged his vast intellect to the grand plan and vision of Thetral. To bring her world into a technologically advanced state which could utilize the immense riches and magical properties her world offered. More importantly to Ruco, he saw himself as a crucial monitor to Thetrals own ambitions, to guide the world into a cultural, ethical and philosophically advanced state as well as technological.
But such grand schemes involved countless small battles along the way. Trying to teach complex concepts about science and the laws of physics to people who had barely grasped the idea that mixing certain ground powders together made ‘interesting’ things happen, was rather taxing. And, of all of those Ruco had taught in his time, his most challenging student…
Was also his ‘Employer’.
“I will begin again Mistress… While the knowledge for such sources of artificial light is, as I perhaps unfortunately put it ‘trivial’ the fabrication of the key component for a Light Emitting Diode is far from trivial. The principal of the ‘LED’ is, yes, rather simple, but the construction of the silicon semiconductor that is required to emit the light for them is, at best another thirty years away.”
The person he spoke to towered over him, she was massive, imposing, and the ‘Queen’ of the hidden and secret community devoted to carry out her wishes. She was also at times rather stubborn about things…
“Aha! Yes I know you normally say such things my metal friend, but I availed myself of your ‘com-pu-ter’ and decided to look at this information myself!” Thetral said with a note of pride. The great beast did not usually like using the more advanced pieces of Technology Ruco had fabricated over the years, but she prided herself on being able to use it when she felt it was required.
Typically however, doing so often just led to incidents such as this one. The immense Dracobus continued, now reading from a page she had scrawled.
“The ingredients seem to require “plastic” which you can produce, yes? Lead filaments it said, and we have lead in abundance! And this ‘semi-conductor’ you spoke of… That, that is something you can make as well?” She said, her voice now not quite as certain as it was a moment ago…
The trouble had started a few days ago when, upon the near completion of his latest long term project, the implantation of electrical lighting for Thetrals’ inner sanctum, Ruco had in a moment of pride exclaimed that:
“This lighting system will be the most advanced system possible, next to an LED device.”
This simple comment had unfortunately raised the question within the Hybrid of why they weren't using it? Thetral always strode to achieve the best, sometimes even when the best wasn’t possible, or, at least not possible for another 20 or 30 years. It was like the “Internet” fiasco all over again.
Ruco sighed.
“My beloved Mistress” Now it was Thetral turn to sigh, this was a title he seldom used these days, and usually only when he was trying very hard not to be, abrupt, with her.
“The fabrication of a silicon semiconductor is, I will admit, something that is ‘technically’ possible. However, It currently takes about a week of fabrication time to produce one such chip. I will remind you that, even in our small ‘testing’ area for the new electrical system, we have currently fabricated over 200 of the Mercury vapor fluorescent units.”
It had not been long after that statement, that Thetral had finally relented and Ruco was allowed to return to his own ‘Inner Sanctum’ the one place within the great mountain palace that even Thetral, it’s Queen, often did not visit.
Ruco paused as he padded back into the outermost area of his lab. This place would appear ‘mostly’ normal to the casual visitor. It was a comfortable room, hung with tapestries, smooth polished stone floors, furniture, and of course various bits of machines that Ruco often used for demonstration purposes in his lectures. Teaching teachers, so they may go on to teach others. To spread knowledge again and again.
Ruco picked up one of the crafted, yet primitive Tungsten Incandescent bulbs he had used just a few days ago in one such demonstration.
He had been explaining the new electrical system to a large auditorium full of workers and other laborious from the Community. While they would not yet be directly interacting with the new electrical system, it was prudent that they all understood the fundamentals of it’s processes. He smiled as he recounted the memory of demonstrating the principle of it to the group and how pleased he had been when they seemed to understand it. That the understanding of technology was slowly spreading gave him a rare moment of pride in his accomplishment.
It had been almost a year since the first such demonstration was made to his more advanced students, and that the project was begin. Running electrical wiring for the purposes of lights was a good way to begin the process of eventually running it through out the entirety of Thetrals great community.
He let his mind drift a bit, contemplating how with the accessibility of electricity through albeit “magical” means, such advances would come so much more easy then on many worlds before. He imagined a world that would not need a “Steam” age, no burning of coal for boilers, no burning of oil for engines, but one that could move from simple industrial practices, directly into an age of electricity.
Ruco, decided to allow a brief indulgence…
His mind expanded into the immensely powerful computer space that occupied part of his body. “His” body, a statement false on so many levels, yet, it was utterly his now. His ‘mind’ and, for lack of a better term his ‘soul’ took up and lived as it were in a small part of the unfathomably powerful Quantum computer matrix that resided inside him. Briefly, he let himself sink into it, wishing to experience a sea of memories in a few moments. Pleasures, joys, happiness and love flashed across his mind.
A year began to pass in a minute. On the outside, as it were, the lightbulb he held flared into brightness. Soft ambient energy began to drift off of the metallic exposed parts of his body. The light bulb flared brighter, and brighter still. And then it burst.
Within the rampant computer matrix, the year long memory had come and gone, and continued to go… Memories came newer and newer, until in a matter of seconds they ran out… But the mind continued forward. It hurtled forward on a projected theorized wave space of his work. Technology and culture spread, art and music and song and stories blossomed out from their small seed. Several hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.
An industry age pushed upwards fed by the magic of the world and of materials infused with magic offering electricity, power, and fuel. Ruco’s mind accelerated the projections further. Cities grew up now, population exploded as food production went up, medicine and sanitation increased lifespans. Cities of wood and mud, become stone and brick. Nations expanded, diplomacy spread and peace guided by an unseen power pushed the forces quickly, and they accelerated yet still.
The lightbulb he held steamed as energy curled off from his body, visible now to the naked eye. The filaments inside, despite having burnt out, still glowed, heated now from the energy forced into them. The glass itself soon began to glow as Ruco’s body seemed utterly still and locked in place.
The cities of rock had long ago been left behind. Concrete and steel gave way to plastics and alloys, faster still they were replaced as carbon fibers and nanotubes surged out into the sky. The world become fully occupied by life, and soon pushed out into the stars. Time moved even faster. Two thousand years had moved on and the ‘calculations’ began to take further and further leaps. The bigger things became, the simpler predictions and estimations became. Life expanded, consumed, and moved on. Resources were burned, worlds were used up and the inevitable spread of Entropy began.
Countless cities become devoid of life, stone wore away, concrete crumbled, steel rusted and grew brittler. 10,000 years went by, 50,000. Soon even the nano alloys would begin to degrade. Yet they were always replaced and remade. Life expanded more. Yet everywhere it went, it had to consume to continue. The equations were slow, yet unyielding. Indeed the universe seemed to be reduced to pure numbers. And as the numbers grew from thousands, to millions and then hundreds of millions, the one great, all consuming number, Life, began to grow smaller....
The remains of the bulb flashed a final time, and they fell to the ground in liquid droplets. The molten remains of now liquid glass and lead spluttered to the floor, a few drops splattering against the edge of a tapestry…
A short distance away in the upper reaches of Thetral’s secluded living area, the Great Hybrid relaxed reading a new story. She liked stories very much, and hungered for new ones. Either tales told by travels, or stories crafted by the minds of those she kept. Lately she had been receiving such wonderfully amusing stories from some of her most recent newcomers.
Finishing a page, the great hybrid smiled and put the large book down. To savor, to have patience, to let enjoyments linger. These were things she had taken hundreds of years to teach herself. A story can only truly be enjoyed once after all…
In the calm and gentle quiet of her study, a scream erupted in the air. Thetrals mind rose quickly from it’s slow thoughts and sprung upwards. Shouts filled the hallways and the running of feet and sandals on stone and rugs.
Under different circumstances she would have called a servant to find out what was happening, but something deep in her heart seemed to sense a blind panic spreading outwards from something, no, someone.
“RUCO!”
She leapt forth now, cumbersome cloak and cape thrown aside, the giant beast leaping at speed down the hall. She grabbed the first running servant she saw and lifted him up as she continued to sprint.
“How bad is he?” Thetral said quickly, not speaking of Ruco, but of the one whom had discovered him. The servant, a young catboy whom had only ever been told of Ruco’s, episodes, wiped tears from his face, trying to hold back sobs while being cradled in the Dracobuses huge arm.
“I-I was there, i-it j-just looked like light, b-but the tapestries, the room was on fire. W-we tried to put the fire out, b-but, h-he tripped, an-and f-fell, fell on….” The boy whimpered and began to cry again. Thetral tried so very hard not to scan his mind, but she couldn’t help it. She saw what had happened to the other.
The other young servant that had been with the catboy had fallen forward into the corona that surrounded Ruco and… Thetral winced. He would heal, eventually, second degree burns would be on much of his body. Thetral knew she would have to attend to him personally to try and heal such damage...
But for now there was a more pressing “wound” that needed healing. Thetral came to the opening of Ruco’s office. Steam billowed out from it as the fires had been put out, yet the small group that had gathered dared not go in any further. Thetral could feel the heat from here… A guard saw her and looked up.
“I’ve never seen it this bad before Mistress, we got the boy to the infirmary, he’ll… He’ll live...But…” The guard shivered. “What do we do? We can’t even get near him. It’s been almost three years since the last episode, you know I was there as well and was able to help the two of you, but that was nothing like this.” Thetral nodded and said nothing.
Looking inside she could see a burning halo with Ruco at the center. The fire had gone out because there was nothing left to burn. Everything inside had been reduced to ash and liquid metal. Only stone remained, and yet around Ruco’s feet, even that was starting to glow. Thetral closed her mind and briefly touched upon Ruco’s before flinching back as if bitten.
“S-So fast.. Oh Ruco, poor, poor Ruco, How can you let yourself go this far.” she said almost too herself. She breathed deeply, pushing the others back, and stepped forward.
“Everyone stay back, no one is to come to his aid other than myself, is that understood? NO ONE Is to come into this rome after me!” She said, an icy tone to her usually calm voice as she stepped forward.
The energy around Ruco flared a moment as it enveloped Thetral. The great beast said nothing but grit her teeth as heat from his energy tore around her. She dared not try to absorb any of it fearing what the raw, pure heated energy would due to her. She bent the heat as best she could around her body and reached out. Four hands gently pushed through the corona of energy and clasped his head.
Thetral concentrated as the whirlwind of images and numbers tore by at unfathomable speeds, she struggled to try and leap into his mind, to catch up with the forces unleashed.
She found her courage and leapt… The outside world seemed to slow, then time seemed to come to a halt as her mind was ripped into the hurtling stampeed within Ruco.
Deep, deep inside the now burning computer, time had come unhinged. The stars had begun to fade, burning themselves out now as the one universal constant was obeyed. To consume. The worlds were used up and life had all but gone out. The stars gave off light dimmer and dimmer as speed seemed to push faster. Through the void of the galaxy Thetral felt for the now tiny grain of light that was Ruco’s mind.
She plummeted down through uncounted distances, the stars ever going out around her until she at last dropped onto a dead world. The oceans dried up, it’s forests consumed, it’s life utterly spent. And in the middle of an ever expanded sea of sand that had once been gleaming cities, sat Ruco. His eyes fixated on his paw as sand passed through his fingers.
“Time, nothing, can, stop, It” his voice was the only thing that seemed not to race as Thetral, or, the mind of Thetral reached him. Again his voice spoke as he picked up another handful of sand. “All, existence, ends, why, go, forward, only, oblivion, awaits.” Thetral was in tears herself now. It had never been this bad before.. The last time it had happened, he had been able to stop himself, still with her help, but, he had been able to hold back, to not give in, but this…
“RUCO! Ruco please listen to me, please you are in danger, we are all in danger! You must slow down!” The shade of Ruco seemed to look up for a moment, then, as if it had only heard a whisper, looked back down to the sand. Thetral trembled, could he even hear her? With a mind moving at such a speed, burning and generating such energies. In the outside world, she knew her own body was in trouble…
She thought perhaps to try and make her own mind faster, but, no, no it wouldn’t help. Slowness, calmness, she concentrated, and let her own mind slow. Deeper, and deeper. To reach deeper still into Ruco. to reach his very soul.
“Ruco, hear me, hear me my beloved. Time may come to all things, but hear and now, we are alive, come and let us live together…”
The clap of thunder that boomed out as the sphere of heat collapsed echoed around the cavern causing all inside to pause in their labors for a moment. Ruco opened his eyes within the dead world. Then, opened them again as he awoke.
“M-Mistress?” he said, his voice quivering. Around him the room steamed, the plink of cooling rock could be heard as the silence of the moment spread as loud as the clap of noise that preceded it.
“Yes my pet, it’s ok, I have you.” Thetral said as Ruco looked up. The machine hybrid whimpered. And then, Ruco, who was regarded as the only one that could equal the Queen in power, thought of as a Sourcer for his mystic ways, regarded as a sage, a thinker, a philosopher, as one as ageless as Thetral herself… He looked up, and cried.
“Shhh shh...its ok, do not fret my child, I have you, Mistress has you, be at peace” She said as she held the construct, great wracking sobs heaving from him as he now relieved what had happened, what he had done...And whom he had almost killed. Those that had gathered departed quickly and left the two in privacy. Knowing that some things should be kept private between the two of them.
It was much later that evening, the moon high overhead as Ruco lay at the feet of Thetral. It had been a long time since he had shared the bed of his ‘owner’. Physical pleasure was something that did not hold the same power over him that it once did. Indeed, since he had been changed by her almost 300 years ago, he had thought himself beyond such notions as “Pet” and “Owner” But.. Some things were needed. And for the first time in years he felt vulnerable.
He looked around the lavish interior of her inner chambers, the one place where the word ‘Palace’ was the most definitive . Everywhere he looked there was color, life and beauty. Light sparkled off gems, gilded statues and rare treasures. Polished marble gleamed with radiance and every rug seemed to throb with colors. Flowers of radiant hues bloomed and vines of emerald green hung down, leaves covered in moisture and dew. Everywhere he looked was life and the beauty of what was crafted by both Nature and of Life that lived within nature.
Ruco was brought out of his moment of reflection as four massive arms cradled him against the bosom of Thetral’s form.
“Thank you, you have saved me from myself yet again” He said.
“You are forever welcome. Now, lets us begin our lessons… Relax Ruco, and join your mind with mine. Slow down, be at peace, Let time move at a crawl…” The two breathed slowly together.
“Let a minute, become a year.”
So yet another new story in such a short period of time. This one however is very different, It was penned by my dear friend and pet
ruco and was something he apparently was working on for a while. A story of "Ruco" his persona within my own little world. Many of my followers may not really be fermilar with him within my stories, mostly because the persona 'Ruco' these days does not feature in my 'smutier' works which tend to be the most popular.
That said I do hope my followers may read and in enjoy this work. Please leave your comments and feedback. Writters always do crave feed back ;)
=====================================
In the great reaches of Thetral’s ‘Hive’ (as it was sometimes called), the immensely powerful Synthetic Felinoid life form known as “Ruco” was deep in thought with his most challenging pupil…
It, or more accurately “He” reflected on his current life and existence serving and facilitating the needs of the strange hybrid that ruled over the mountain clad community. The existence of Mistress Thetral (though he preferred to think of her more as an Employer these days) was one that did not have the smoothest of beginnings. Much like his own life, to call it “rocky” would be a bit of an understatement.
But the two of them had met one another, and through a variety of strange quirks of fate, the two had both benefited deeply from their strange relationship. They had both, in thier own ways been a bit “broken” when they met. The Hybrid known as Thetral still trying to work out her own meaning and what her existence was for, what she was supposed to do with her world. And of course for Ruco, he was more literally ‘broken’
A synthetic machine ‘clone’ of what had once been his biological body, that ended up housing both his own mind and soul, as well the corrupted and homicidal mind of the machine clone itself.
That of course, had over two hundred years ago…
In the stretch of time since a certain unfortunate incident had “fixed” Ruco’s mental state, he had pledged his vast intellect to the grand plan and vision of Thetral. To bring her world into a technologically advanced state which could utilize the immense riches and magical properties her world offered. More importantly to Ruco, he saw himself as a crucial monitor to Thetrals own ambitions, to guide the world into a cultural, ethical and philosophically advanced state as well as technological.
But such grand schemes involved countless small battles along the way. Trying to teach complex concepts about science and the laws of physics to people who had barely grasped the idea that mixing certain ground powders together made ‘interesting’ things happen, was rather taxing. And, of all of those Ruco had taught in his time, his most challenging student…
Was also his ‘Employer’.
“I will begin again Mistress… While the knowledge for such sources of artificial light is, as I perhaps unfortunately put it ‘trivial’ the fabrication of the key component for a Light Emitting Diode is far from trivial. The principal of the ‘LED’ is, yes, rather simple, but the construction of the silicon semiconductor that is required to emit the light for them is, at best another thirty years away.”
The person he spoke to towered over him, she was massive, imposing, and the ‘Queen’ of the hidden and secret community devoted to carry out her wishes. She was also at times rather stubborn about things…
“Aha! Yes I know you normally say such things my metal friend, but I availed myself of your ‘com-pu-ter’ and decided to look at this information myself!” Thetral said with a note of pride. The great beast did not usually like using the more advanced pieces of Technology Ruco had fabricated over the years, but she prided herself on being able to use it when she felt it was required.
Typically however, doing so often just led to incidents such as this one. The immense Dracobus continued, now reading from a page she had scrawled.
“The ingredients seem to require “plastic” which you can produce, yes? Lead filaments it said, and we have lead in abundance! And this ‘semi-conductor’ you spoke of… That, that is something you can make as well?” She said, her voice now not quite as certain as it was a moment ago…
The trouble had started a few days ago when, upon the near completion of his latest long term project, the implantation of electrical lighting for Thetrals’ inner sanctum, Ruco had in a moment of pride exclaimed that:
“This lighting system will be the most advanced system possible, next to an LED device.”
This simple comment had unfortunately raised the question within the Hybrid of why they weren't using it? Thetral always strode to achieve the best, sometimes even when the best wasn’t possible, or, at least not possible for another 20 or 30 years. It was like the “Internet” fiasco all over again.
Ruco sighed.
“My beloved Mistress” Now it was Thetral turn to sigh, this was a title he seldom used these days, and usually only when he was trying very hard not to be, abrupt, with her.
“The fabrication of a silicon semiconductor is, I will admit, something that is ‘technically’ possible. However, It currently takes about a week of fabrication time to produce one such chip. I will remind you that, even in our small ‘testing’ area for the new electrical system, we have currently fabricated over 200 of the Mercury vapor fluorescent units.”
It had not been long after that statement, that Thetral had finally relented and Ruco was allowed to return to his own ‘Inner Sanctum’ the one place within the great mountain palace that even Thetral, it’s Queen, often did not visit.
Ruco paused as he padded back into the outermost area of his lab. This place would appear ‘mostly’ normal to the casual visitor. It was a comfortable room, hung with tapestries, smooth polished stone floors, furniture, and of course various bits of machines that Ruco often used for demonstration purposes in his lectures. Teaching teachers, so they may go on to teach others. To spread knowledge again and again.
Ruco picked up one of the crafted, yet primitive Tungsten Incandescent bulbs he had used just a few days ago in one such demonstration.
He had been explaining the new electrical system to a large auditorium full of workers and other laborious from the Community. While they would not yet be directly interacting with the new electrical system, it was prudent that they all understood the fundamentals of it’s processes. He smiled as he recounted the memory of demonstrating the principle of it to the group and how pleased he had been when they seemed to understand it. That the understanding of technology was slowly spreading gave him a rare moment of pride in his accomplishment.
It had been almost a year since the first such demonstration was made to his more advanced students, and that the project was begin. Running electrical wiring for the purposes of lights was a good way to begin the process of eventually running it through out the entirety of Thetrals great community.
He let his mind drift a bit, contemplating how with the accessibility of electricity through albeit “magical” means, such advances would come so much more easy then on many worlds before. He imagined a world that would not need a “Steam” age, no burning of coal for boilers, no burning of oil for engines, but one that could move from simple industrial practices, directly into an age of electricity.
Ruco, decided to allow a brief indulgence…
His mind expanded into the immensely powerful computer space that occupied part of his body. “His” body, a statement false on so many levels, yet, it was utterly his now. His ‘mind’ and, for lack of a better term his ‘soul’ took up and lived as it were in a small part of the unfathomably powerful Quantum computer matrix that resided inside him. Briefly, he let himself sink into it, wishing to experience a sea of memories in a few moments. Pleasures, joys, happiness and love flashed across his mind.
A year began to pass in a minute. On the outside, as it were, the lightbulb he held flared into brightness. Soft ambient energy began to drift off of the metallic exposed parts of his body. The light bulb flared brighter, and brighter still. And then it burst.
Within the rampant computer matrix, the year long memory had come and gone, and continued to go… Memories came newer and newer, until in a matter of seconds they ran out… But the mind continued forward. It hurtled forward on a projected theorized wave space of his work. Technology and culture spread, art and music and song and stories blossomed out from their small seed. Several hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.
An industry age pushed upwards fed by the magic of the world and of materials infused with magic offering electricity, power, and fuel. Ruco’s mind accelerated the projections further. Cities grew up now, population exploded as food production went up, medicine and sanitation increased lifespans. Cities of wood and mud, become stone and brick. Nations expanded, diplomacy spread and peace guided by an unseen power pushed the forces quickly, and they accelerated yet still.
The lightbulb he held steamed as energy curled off from his body, visible now to the naked eye. The filaments inside, despite having burnt out, still glowed, heated now from the energy forced into them. The glass itself soon began to glow as Ruco’s body seemed utterly still and locked in place.
The cities of rock had long ago been left behind. Concrete and steel gave way to plastics and alloys, faster still they were replaced as carbon fibers and nanotubes surged out into the sky. The world become fully occupied by life, and soon pushed out into the stars. Time moved even faster. Two thousand years had moved on and the ‘calculations’ began to take further and further leaps. The bigger things became, the simpler predictions and estimations became. Life expanded, consumed, and moved on. Resources were burned, worlds were used up and the inevitable spread of Entropy began.
Countless cities become devoid of life, stone wore away, concrete crumbled, steel rusted and grew brittler. 10,000 years went by, 50,000. Soon even the nano alloys would begin to degrade. Yet they were always replaced and remade. Life expanded more. Yet everywhere it went, it had to consume to continue. The equations were slow, yet unyielding. Indeed the universe seemed to be reduced to pure numbers. And as the numbers grew from thousands, to millions and then hundreds of millions, the one great, all consuming number, Life, began to grow smaller....
The remains of the bulb flashed a final time, and they fell to the ground in liquid droplets. The molten remains of now liquid glass and lead spluttered to the floor, a few drops splattering against the edge of a tapestry…
A short distance away in the upper reaches of Thetral’s secluded living area, the Great Hybrid relaxed reading a new story. She liked stories very much, and hungered for new ones. Either tales told by travels, or stories crafted by the minds of those she kept. Lately she had been receiving such wonderfully amusing stories from some of her most recent newcomers.
Finishing a page, the great hybrid smiled and put the large book down. To savor, to have patience, to let enjoyments linger. These were things she had taken hundreds of years to teach herself. A story can only truly be enjoyed once after all…
In the calm and gentle quiet of her study, a scream erupted in the air. Thetrals mind rose quickly from it’s slow thoughts and sprung upwards. Shouts filled the hallways and the running of feet and sandals on stone and rugs.
Under different circumstances she would have called a servant to find out what was happening, but something deep in her heart seemed to sense a blind panic spreading outwards from something, no, someone.
“RUCO!”
She leapt forth now, cumbersome cloak and cape thrown aside, the giant beast leaping at speed down the hall. She grabbed the first running servant she saw and lifted him up as she continued to sprint.
“How bad is he?” Thetral said quickly, not speaking of Ruco, but of the one whom had discovered him. The servant, a young catboy whom had only ever been told of Ruco’s, episodes, wiped tears from his face, trying to hold back sobs while being cradled in the Dracobuses huge arm.
“I-I was there, i-it j-just looked like light, b-but the tapestries, the room was on fire. W-we tried to put the fire out, b-but, h-he tripped, an-and f-fell, fell on….” The boy whimpered and began to cry again. Thetral tried so very hard not to scan his mind, but she couldn’t help it. She saw what had happened to the other.
The other young servant that had been with the catboy had fallen forward into the corona that surrounded Ruco and… Thetral winced. He would heal, eventually, second degree burns would be on much of his body. Thetral knew she would have to attend to him personally to try and heal such damage...
But for now there was a more pressing “wound” that needed healing. Thetral came to the opening of Ruco’s office. Steam billowed out from it as the fires had been put out, yet the small group that had gathered dared not go in any further. Thetral could feel the heat from here… A guard saw her and looked up.
“I’ve never seen it this bad before Mistress, we got the boy to the infirmary, he’ll… He’ll live...But…” The guard shivered. “What do we do? We can’t even get near him. It’s been almost three years since the last episode, you know I was there as well and was able to help the two of you, but that was nothing like this.” Thetral nodded and said nothing.
Looking inside she could see a burning halo with Ruco at the center. The fire had gone out because there was nothing left to burn. Everything inside had been reduced to ash and liquid metal. Only stone remained, and yet around Ruco’s feet, even that was starting to glow. Thetral closed her mind and briefly touched upon Ruco’s before flinching back as if bitten.
“S-So fast.. Oh Ruco, poor, poor Ruco, How can you let yourself go this far.” she said almost too herself. She breathed deeply, pushing the others back, and stepped forward.
“Everyone stay back, no one is to come to his aid other than myself, is that understood? NO ONE Is to come into this rome after me!” She said, an icy tone to her usually calm voice as she stepped forward.
The energy around Ruco flared a moment as it enveloped Thetral. The great beast said nothing but grit her teeth as heat from his energy tore around her. She dared not try to absorb any of it fearing what the raw, pure heated energy would due to her. She bent the heat as best she could around her body and reached out. Four hands gently pushed through the corona of energy and clasped his head.
Thetral concentrated as the whirlwind of images and numbers tore by at unfathomable speeds, she struggled to try and leap into his mind, to catch up with the forces unleashed.
She found her courage and leapt… The outside world seemed to slow, then time seemed to come to a halt as her mind was ripped into the hurtling stampeed within Ruco.
Deep, deep inside the now burning computer, time had come unhinged. The stars had begun to fade, burning themselves out now as the one universal constant was obeyed. To consume. The worlds were used up and life had all but gone out. The stars gave off light dimmer and dimmer as speed seemed to push faster. Through the void of the galaxy Thetral felt for the now tiny grain of light that was Ruco’s mind.
She plummeted down through uncounted distances, the stars ever going out around her until she at last dropped onto a dead world. The oceans dried up, it’s forests consumed, it’s life utterly spent. And in the middle of an ever expanded sea of sand that had once been gleaming cities, sat Ruco. His eyes fixated on his paw as sand passed through his fingers.
“Time, nothing, can, stop, It” his voice was the only thing that seemed not to race as Thetral, or, the mind of Thetral reached him. Again his voice spoke as he picked up another handful of sand. “All, existence, ends, why, go, forward, only, oblivion, awaits.” Thetral was in tears herself now. It had never been this bad before.. The last time it had happened, he had been able to stop himself, still with her help, but, he had been able to hold back, to not give in, but this…
“RUCO! Ruco please listen to me, please you are in danger, we are all in danger! You must slow down!” The shade of Ruco seemed to look up for a moment, then, as if it had only heard a whisper, looked back down to the sand. Thetral trembled, could he even hear her? With a mind moving at such a speed, burning and generating such energies. In the outside world, she knew her own body was in trouble…
She thought perhaps to try and make her own mind faster, but, no, no it wouldn’t help. Slowness, calmness, she concentrated, and let her own mind slow. Deeper, and deeper. To reach deeper still into Ruco. to reach his very soul.
“Ruco, hear me, hear me my beloved. Time may come to all things, but hear and now, we are alive, come and let us live together…”
The clap of thunder that boomed out as the sphere of heat collapsed echoed around the cavern causing all inside to pause in their labors for a moment. Ruco opened his eyes within the dead world. Then, opened them again as he awoke.
“M-Mistress?” he said, his voice quivering. Around him the room steamed, the plink of cooling rock could be heard as the silence of the moment spread as loud as the clap of noise that preceded it.
“Yes my pet, it’s ok, I have you.” Thetral said as Ruco looked up. The machine hybrid whimpered. And then, Ruco, who was regarded as the only one that could equal the Queen in power, thought of as a Sourcer for his mystic ways, regarded as a sage, a thinker, a philosopher, as one as ageless as Thetral herself… He looked up, and cried.
“Shhh shh...its ok, do not fret my child, I have you, Mistress has you, be at peace” She said as she held the construct, great wracking sobs heaving from him as he now relieved what had happened, what he had done...And whom he had almost killed. Those that had gathered departed quickly and left the two in privacy. Knowing that some things should be kept private between the two of them.
It was much later that evening, the moon high overhead as Ruco lay at the feet of Thetral. It had been a long time since he had shared the bed of his ‘owner’. Physical pleasure was something that did not hold the same power over him that it once did. Indeed, since he had been changed by her almost 300 years ago, he had thought himself beyond such notions as “Pet” and “Owner” But.. Some things were needed. And for the first time in years he felt vulnerable.
He looked around the lavish interior of her inner chambers, the one place where the word ‘Palace’ was the most definitive . Everywhere he looked there was color, life and beauty. Light sparkled off gems, gilded statues and rare treasures. Polished marble gleamed with radiance and every rug seemed to throb with colors. Flowers of radiant hues bloomed and vines of emerald green hung down, leaves covered in moisture and dew. Everywhere he looked was life and the beauty of what was crafted by both Nature and of Life that lived within nature.
Ruco was brought out of his moment of reflection as four massive arms cradled him against the bosom of Thetral’s form.
“Thank you, you have saved me from myself yet again” He said.
“You are forever welcome. Now, lets us begin our lessons… Relax Ruco, and join your mind with mine. Slow down, be at peace, Let time move at a crawl…” The two breathed slowly together.
“Let a minute, become a year.”
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