Witch of the Web

Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Welp.

My familiar can talk now. As in properly talk now.

That’s going to take some time to unpack. 

She also seems more, for lack of a better word, present. It’s like she’s more there rather than just being my tag along. 

Everyone is just staring at her in shock, which is making her confused as all hell. I think she hasn’t realized she just spoke aloud to everyone. 

“You can talk!?” Felicia and Summer both gasp, finally breaking the awkward silence.

Willow looks at them silently before her eyes widen. “I can talk!?” 

It’d be funnier in any other circumstance, but I’m running low on the funnies right now. So instead of trying to indulge in my usual witty commentary, I just scoop up the newly vocal feline and hug her to my chest.

“You can, and that’ll make it easier for us to plan our attack. Let’s try and not get distracted,” I remind everyone before setting Willow back down. “What else did the protocol unlock for you Willow?” I ask as I find my seat once more. Fortunately, everyone snaps out of their shock, well, Summer and Felicia do, Crys has remained unflappable as usual. Either they knew this would happen, or they cheated and hid their reaction in the way only an AI can truly pull off.

My fluffy feline friend hops up onto a pedestal that wasn’t present moments ago and begins to clean herself. I roll my eyes at her antics, but opt not to bring attention to it aside from that. 

“Well, to put it plainly, I have direct access to Lanadel’s root code.” That manages to catch Crys off guard. Summer looks a little lost while Felicia and I are sharing worried looks. 

“What’s the root code? And why does it have you all looking like you’ve seen a ghost?” Summer asks after a few moments of shocked silence. 

Crys recovers first, still eyeing Willow warily. “My dear, the root code of Lanadel is the very building blocks upon which it was built. She could change the very laws of physics here.” Summer tilts her head. 

“Wasn’t she already doing that?” she asks.

“Not exactly. Before, she was editing small details. Changing things from one thing to another. She also had a limited ability to do this in your reality due to Lanadel being built on a sub layer of your world.”

Felicia frowns and cuts in, “So, wait, if she has root access, could she make sweeping changes in meatspace?” 

Crys nods slowly. “Quite possibly,” they agree. 

Willow shakes her head. “No, it doesn’t go quite that far,” she explains. “I can affect larger areas and do so faster than I could before, but my capabilities in meatspace are largely unchanged.” She pauses to collect her thoughts as she considers how to explain. “While I can change the entirety of Lanadel if I wanted, I don’t, but I could, it would only change certain variables in meatspace. It would cause things to happen for sure, but not enough to break reality.”

“Well that’s reassuring,” I snark as I pat my snuggly little god-like being affectionately. “I should also mention that I’ve been testing my bond with Willow while we talk, and I’m able to check her if needed.” After a second of pause, I quickly add, “Not that I think I’ll need to. Willow’s less likely to reshape Lanadel in her image than I would, and she’s there to check me as well.”

“Oh good,” Felicia drawls. “Two traumatized, morally grey goddesses are the only thing keeping each other in check.” She gives us both a smirk before getting close enough to hold me tight. 

“We’ll just have to act as your moral compasses,” Summer adds as she joins the hug.

Crys finally starts to relax a bit once it’s clear me and Willow aren’t about to unmake the entirety of Lanadel out of spite or something. They shouldn’t have worri- actually, yeah no, that was a possibility. If we’d gotten this power right away, we’d totally have just tore it all down in the process of wiping LOG off the face of the planet.

Well, I would’ve. 

“So we’ve got pretty much unlimited power in Lanadel, and greatly increased power in meatspace. How should we approach this?” Felicia asks. “We’ve agreed to be surgical in our precision and focus on dealing the most damage in as short a time as possible. Where do we start?”

Now isn’t that the million fucking credit question. 

Shit.

Where do we start?

For all my bluster, for all my rage, I really don’t fucking know.

“At the top and work our way down?” Willow offers. I look at her, thanks plastered on my face. 

“That. We do that,” I agree. “With special emphasis on anyone involved with the bullshit surrounding my parents and Willow,” I add. “So I guess we figure out who our targets are, and how to get them. 

Everyone nods slowly as we all begin to contemplate how we’ll go about the assault. Clearly, me and Willow are the heavy hitters. But we’re also the best chance to track my parents down short of another powerful AI.

“It’s a shame I can’t come and help,” Crys laments. “I could use their message to locate them if I got into their network.”

Willow hops up onto their lap and giggles. It’s weird to hear such a human sound coming from her. “I can do something about that,” she offers. She starts kneading at Crys’ thighs as she purrs softly. “I can even help you keep all that strength you get from being so entwined with your domain.”

“How?” Crys looks equal parts intrigued and confused. “My power comes from the entwining because I can affect my domain, how could you translate that?”

“Oh, easy, I set up a virtual environment around you that overlays your domain’s authorization codes on top of whatever location you are in. Basically, everything within a certain radius will be considered your domain and you’ll have administrative access.” 

Felicia fights back the unease in her expression. The power now at Willow’s command obviously makes her worried. Summer and I reach over to put a hand on her knees, helping reassure her that we’re not going to go wild with this.

With Willow’s offer to Crys taken into consideration, we decide, reluctantly on my part, to allow the cold loving AI to head up the rescue of my parents. Meanwhile, Summer, Felicia and I would start tearing apart the people involved, some figuratively, and some very very literally.

“I still think actually killing them will just make them martyrs,” Summer reiterates for the third time while Crys nods emphatically. 

“Don’t care. The people directly responsible for this shit show die. And not a quick, painless death. They die slow, in excruciating agony. These people ruined my life. My so-called aunt sold out my parents for power and wealth. She shackled Willow and my parents and made them into slaves of LOG. Her and anyone else who’s involved are going to suffer.”

“But aren’t you worried that people will see LOG as the victims if we do that?” Summer presses.

“Actually, I hate to admit it, but nobody will likely know who they are. Summer, who’s the CEO of LOG?” Felicia asks.

“It’s…” Summer pauses. “I’m sure it’s been in articles. The CEO gets mentioned all the time,” she says. 

“Yeah, but only as the CEO. Nobody actually knows who they are, not even the rank and file members of LOG. Most of us barely know anyone else. I think it’s to discourage people from talking to each other too much. Hell, I’d never even met that Delilah woman before and from what Rose said, she seemed like some big shot.” 

“What does that even mean though? Why would they keep it a secret like that?” Summer asks, clearly struggling to comprehend why it’d be such a secret. 

“Well, they benefit from being this big scary nebulous organization. The less approachable they seem, the more untouchable they come across as. If nobody knows who’s in charge, how can a potential revolution target them? Add that to the seemingly endless number of rank and file LOG agents at their disposal and the compartmentalization of those agents, and it makes getting any actionable intel borderline impossible.”

Summer goes quiet as she tries to process that. I just let out another sigh.

“So, we need to figure out who’s in charge first?” I confirm. Felicia nods. “And from other’s failed attempts to break in, I know they’ve managed to create a sort of air gap that prevents any sort of remote access, so we’ll need to be there in person.” She nods again. “And their security is so tight that we’ll only get one shot at this, so this mission is simultaneously a scouting, assassination and rescue mission all at once?” A final nod.

Once, I had a limitless wellspring of confidence. I knew I was good at what I did, and because I didn’t really care if I died all that much, I never really feared failure either. I was alone, and figured I’d die alone if I fucked up, so I just didn’t worry about it.

Now though? I have Summer, Felicia, Willow, Crys, and hopefully soon, my parents. Willow and I are incredibly powerful, but can we really find out who’s in charge, take down the organization AND save my parents at the same time?

I share a look with my fluffy familiar and she stares deep into my soul. She knows my doubts, insecurities, and concerns. She doesn’t judge them. I just wish I could give myself the same courtesy. 

“Right. I think that even with the absolutely stacked power we have at our disposal. There’s too many unknowns, too many risks, and too many chances to fuck it up royally.” I stand up and look around at everyone. “We can’t expect to do everything. We need to work together and find a way to do one goal at a time.” I hold up a finger. “First, we rescue my parents. They’ve been there for too long, and they may have insights we can use to progress.” A second finger goes up. “Second, we find out who’s in charge.” A third finger goes up. “If we’ve pulled up both these frankly impossible tasks, we do the easy part and take out the head.”

“Splitting up is a shitty idea, but we will need two teams, one to enter the physical site and bridge the air gap, and then execute phase three in meatspace, and another to infiltrate their systems and escort my parents to safety.” 

I look at Felicia with a smile. “You and I will go in person. Between your experience as an agent, and Willow and I’s capabilities, I think we can at least get into the building. Once we’re in there, you show me somewhere that accesses the internal systems and I can set up a bridge.”

Felicia nods so I turn to Summer and Crys. “Once the bridge is made, you two will join me inside while Felicia keeps an eye on me in meatspace. We’ll ransack their system and locate my parents, and if we’re lucky, figure out who’s in charge. Once we find them though, we need to get them out ASAP. If we’ve managed to avoid getting caught up until this point, then we’ll start tearing the rest down from the inside. Any questions?”

“Why not get help from the resistance? They’ll be happy to save your parents, won’t they?” Summer suggests. I’ve been considering it but, if I’m being honest, I don’t want to fucking involve them. But, before I can tell as such, she presses on. “If nothing else, they can maybe distract some of the agents so we don’t have as many to deal with?”

Hmmm. No.

Well…

Fuuuuuck. 

I do care infinitely less about them than I do about my family. Maybe… just maybe it’d be better to…

No. 

I’d have to work with that giga-nerd bitch who can’t leave well enough alone. There’s absolutely no way I’m going to work with them.

****

“So that’s the plan,” Summer says after detailing our attack strategy to Roger and Lonnie. “Can you help us?”

I try not to scowl too much since Summer asked that I play nice. I hate this plan if it wasn’t clear already, but Summer, Felicia, Crys AND Willow all decided it’d be the best option and outvoted me. 

Maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll say no. 

“Of course we will. This is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for,” Roger announces, sharing a hopeful look with Lonnie.

Well fuck…maybe Lonnie will see reason?

“Definitely,” agrees Summer’s aunt. “I do agree that we stand a better chance at accomplishing our goals if we work together.

Double fuck!

End Chapter 29