Cyberwitch Academy: Learn or Burn

Chapter 30

I'm running, and really does the sim need to be so detailed that I'm sweating in hyperreality?

Up ahead, 26 witches, eight-point six recurring covens, stare back at me, whispering to one another. And there are two teachers. One of whom is actually looking at an ornate pocket watch, holding a clipboard in the other. The other teacher is so beautiful I nearly trip over my own sneakers. She doesn't even seem to be in the same world as the rest of us.

And I pull up in front of this wall of snickering and judgement, and I see my coven, and they're mouthing it's ok. Ty makes a rude gesture at me. So, I hang on to that and join him and Vash in the line-up.

We're in a medieval village square, except it's all kinds of theme park style, no wait, not even that it's like a Korean mmorpg I used to play. European Middle Ages fantasy through the eyes of a kid who grew up in Seoul. And beyond the teachers, who are standing, of all things, on the steps leading up to the village well, the 9 covens in a crescent around them, expectantly watching and waiting. All kinds of different avatars. I catch whispers in a dozen different languages.

And behind the village, rising up sharply, impossibly dark, a forest. A forest that pulls at your guts, it's so scary, the kind of place where it's always night, even in the noon day sun. and you just know that it has no limits. It's The Forest. The same forest that swallowed up Hansel and Gretel.

And the teachers raise their hands for attention.

"Good morning, my loves. My name is Rhiannon. Alright babies, now as you know the rhizome can be a bit... fruity. So, all you little darlings here could do with a helping hand, am I right?"

She has the most disarming smile, one crooked tooth and big gold hoops swinging as she moves her head. She communicates from her toes to her hair, somehow making me feel like she's confiding in me, giving me a wink.

"Now there's a lot of shivers out there in the woods and most of them are lovely aren't they Shell?"

The siren nods gracefully.

"But there are a few cheeky ones to be aware of, nothing too serious, we've got some of our senior girls out there just in case, so nothing to worry about."

"What is a shiver?" The woman called Shell asks, without warning. Her eyes sweeping our ranks like a searchlight in a prison yard.

"An automaton, a self-directed piece of code!" Vash bursts out.

"Raise your hand before you answer me, Vashni Weaver."

I sense her shrink inside of herself. I feel my brow knit.

"Well done Vash my love. You've been doing your homework!"

"Yes, out there in the gaps between all the important proper systems made by the big important companies, where all the old code that never got tidied away goes out to play on all the bits of the networks that are too big to police, they flourish in the gaps don't they Shell? They evolve out there in the corners of the data centres, travelling across all kinds of vectors. Clever little beggars."

Shell (Michelle?) takes over.

"The Loveless Coven fed the Shivers huge data sets, taught them how to take on forms and identities. Trained them to become useful, the best of them can live inside your own local Rhizomes and operate as system sprites. They can be helpful, first of all in giving you more control, especially in hiding your gifts.

Shell throws in "They'll keep you alive maybe just long enough to learn some real codeSpells."

We all look pretty non-plussed.