Muse 9 (ONC 2020)

Chapter 19

As I jumped down from the fountain, the Sparks shimmered and vanished. Picking up my rifle from the stones, I slung it over my back, under the poncho. The Insprix went beside the Orphoid in the leather bag next to my rifle.

Without a look back at the fountain, I ducked through the corridors leading back out of the capitol building complex. I just needed to find a place to build the rifle before contacting the ones who had captured Luktor.

Leaving the capitol building by the back door, I closed it behind me and forced my pace to slow as I reached the paths leading down from the hill. Clouds were gathering overhead, blotting out the sun, and the pleasant wind had died down, leaving the air still and expectant. Tugging my hood up over my short hair, I made my way off the capitol grounds and back through the city, looking for an area where I could construct the Muse 9 without attracting attention.

Then, it began to rain.

The drops dappled my hood as I picked up my pace. The cool, small raindrops touched the exposed skin of my hands as I began to run, head turning left and right as I searched for a place to go. But it took a while before I spotted an alleyway with a small overhang extending from one of the buildings. Darting down the alleyway, I slipped under the overhang and crouched, shoving my hood back.

Thunder rumbled as I pulled my tool kit from my bag, placing the Orphoid, the Insprix, and the Muse 8 beside it. Removing the Muse 9 texts, I flipped to the part where the building of the rifle was discussed and got to work.

The rain grew steadily stronger, pattering on the pavement next to me as I deconstructed the Muse 8, occasionally consulting the schematics as I worked. Years of dealing with the Muse rifles had led to me being very familiar with the basic structure of the weapon and the rifle came apart easily in my hands.

As I inserted the Orphoid and slid the Insprix in after it, I ensured everything was firmly in place and then sat back to examine my handiwork. The rifle, while still holding the same shape of the Muse 8 rifle, showed the glint of the Insprix gem on the top of the magazine, near the butt end of the gun. But it wasn't done yet.

Tapping at my wrist tracker, I pulled up two memories, one from the Shadows and the other from the Sparks. Both of them were simply my name on an endless loop: Sable Huntris Sable Huntris Sable Huntris Sable Huntris Sable Huntris....

But while the Shadows memory was pitch black, the Sparks memory was fiery, like the sun. Projecting both memories out in front of me, I removed my stylus from my belt and took a deep breath.

Touching my stylus to the Shadows' memory, I watched as the key structure revealed itself. A slight grin playing over my lips, I traced my stylus over the points and then turned to the Spark memory, doing the same there.

The memories were exactly the same, structurally wise. I just needed to overlay them and then weave them together, so they would play as one.

With my stylus, I moved the Sparks memory on top of the Shadow one, positioning it so all of the points of the structure lined up. Once that was done, I then began to stroke my stylus over the image, reaching through and tugging wisps of the second memory forward, pushing strips of the first one back.

The fire and the dark intertwined, showing me both sides of the world as I worked. It took some time, but finally I had finished with the weaving and removed my stylus, tapping my wrist tracker to play the completed memory.

The whispered intonations of Sable Huntris blended together, somehow forming a totally different word: Mnemosyne. Mnemosyne. Mnemosyne.

I stared at the manipulated memory for a long while. Mnemosyne. When the memories were combined, my name became a legend.

I didn't know what to think about that.

After a moment, I remembered why I had woven the memories together and moved my stylus to grasp the memory. The image condensed into a small rectangle and I slid it over to the Insprix.

As soon as the memory file touched the gem, a small jolt shot from the gem and up the stylus to me. I fell back as the rifle hummed to life.

I had done it. I had built the legendary rifle.

I had constructed the Muse 9.