Broker-Chapter 223

Ishtar pulled her hand away from the mote with a jolt, her brow furrowing in consternation. For a moment there she felt Sonya’s mind reach out to her, offering reassurance, but the message was indistinct. She couldn’t make out much beyond the vague sense that Sonya had faith in her. Ishtar frowned, hovering in that vacant space that served as a representation of their inner mind. She regarded the threads that weaved around the mote and watched as they moved and shifted position, reasserting themselves and undoing much of her work. The patterns changed as well, acting as if the artist that had created the original work had been replaced.

What does it mean? What is she doing?

She sighed, she had no time to really think much more on it. Days had passed since her first attempt to breach the weave that held that mote of Sonya’s consciousness in containment and she’d only just then finally burrowed open a hole large enough to push her thoughts inside-only to be rebuffed at entry.

“Silly girl, are you really going to let me run off and fight this battle without you?” she asked the mote, cupping it in her hands.

A whisper of a thought passed through her mind; You got this.

She squinted, “Sonya?”

Nothing. Only silence greeted her call.

Ishtar clicked her tongue and pulled herself out into the waking world. She ran her fingers through her hair irritably before leaning back in her chair. “Two days,” she murmured to herself and got to her feet, following her senses over to one of the many hidden cabinets in the walls of Sonya’s new office. She pressed the panel in and opened it, reaching in and grabbing a bottle of chilled liquor. She was about to open it when a knock came to the door. She shook her head and sighed.

“Enter,” she commanded and set the bottle back in the compartment, closing it as Marta stepped in, “Hello Marta.”

“My Lady,” Marta greeted politely, “You’re awake. How is it going?”

“Mmm,” Ishtar agreed, “That girl is stubborn,” she said absently and leaned against the wall, “But something has definitely changed, her presence feels stronger but she still seems to be waiting to come out for whatever reason. I may have to fight this battle for her.”

“Hmph,” Marta grunted, “I’ll be sure to give her an earful on your behalf when she returns.”

Ishtar chuckled, “You do that,” she said, “Now what brings you?”

“Amos is ready for you,” Marta said and paused, Ishtar felt the woman’s gaze and knew what she was looking at, “Looks like I caught you right on time. Amos says no alcohol before the procedure.”

Ishtar huffed, “Fine,” she grumbled, “I’m developing a taste for amber spirits, though, I should invest in a distillery.”

Marta chuckled, “Sonya hates them,” she said, “She’ll be pretty mad if you do that without consulting her first. She prefers the sweet stuff.”

“Ugh, no thank you, she can consider it a consequence of leaving me to my own devices,” Ishtar said petulantly, “If I’m going to be making so many decisions, some of them might as well be ones that I like.”

“You’re sounding more independent every day, my lady,” Marta said with a chuckle, “Shall I escort you to the medical level?”

Ishtar nodded, “Please.”

–

“So I may have gone a little overboard,” Amos said as Ishtar sat down on the operating table. She turned her blind gaze towards him as he sat down in his own chair, tapping at a few keys. She felt her technopathy react to an incoming signal and opened the file presented to her. In her blind darkness she saw a window pop up showing an intricate schematic. Numerous pieces and lenses all spread out across the diagram. “This is the original eye that’d been in your head since the beginning.”

Ishtar raised an eyebrow, “This is… complex. I’m no engineer Amos, and Sonya has the chemistry background.”

“Oh right, she did do that for a while, I keep forgetting,” Amos chuckled, “Anyway, you might notice that the majority of the body of the eye is… basically fluff. Cosmetic.”

Ishtar frowned.

“I’m not kidding! While the portions that interacted with your cybernetic brain were super useful for creating the implants and other things, the rest of it is just uh… nothing really. The important parts were the lenses,” he tapped a key and a new image replaced the previous, showing a disk with lines pointing towards it. The image of the disk was flat and featureless. Then he tapped the key once more and an overlay appeared over it showing a remarkably intricate pattern on the surface of the lens.

“I’ve been working with mana for a while and I’ve experimented with some of the magic items brought back from dungeons so I know this kind of pattern. It’s what makes a magic item work, sort of, there seems to be a level of intent involved as well. Materials are crucial to the process. So on and so on,” Amos explained tapping through a few more images that showed cross sections of the pattern, analysis of the eyes, and even zoomed in views of where the eyes connected to the ocular nerves and brain.

“Da-Som and I have been studying your eyes ever since we started working together, as you well know, so recreating the originals would have been easy,” he admitted.

Ishtar turned her head towards his voice, “...Amos. Did you just say that I could have had my sight back earlier?”

“H-hey now! Gimme a break, if I’m gonna do something, I go all the way, you know that,” he laughed nervously.

She shook her head and smiled ruefully, “Yes, yes, I suppose you are correct. So what kind of madness have you wrought?”

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“Madness is Barry’s thing. I make improvements,” he said proudly and tapped another key. A new image appeared before her. This one of a new eye with a smoother exterior and far more intricate innards. The lenses were all set into a line without the odd clockwork machinations positioning them. Circuitry ran through the entire device at a density she could barely understand. She tried to parse through any of it to make heads or tails of what she was seeing but even if she had superhuman intellect, this was not her field of expertise.

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“What am I looking at?”

“Farsight 2.0!” he declared, “Enhanced image processing to go with those reflexes of yours. As great as they were, even your old eyes could only take in so much. Visual range has been increased, the outputs and inputs have been updated and made more secure. Those plates around your eyes that are supposed to hold ‘em in aren’t necessary anymore.”

Another person in the room cleared their throat and she turned, she’d forgotten that Da-Som was in the room with them; “What that means is that we can restore your tear ducts and the space around your eyes if you want as part of the procedure. That also means that these new eyes will be more directly integrated with your cybernetic brain. Neither of us have any idea how that will influence your ability or how it will react though…”

Ishtar frowned and Amos picked back up, “So we made another set of eyes with the original design, just in case there’s a rejection.”

Ishtar reached up and touched her face, running her fingers around the rim of her eyes. Neither she nor Sonya really thought about the thin plates that were present there. They were the first thing most people saw, though, and while generally speaking most people overlooked it, some were still unsettled by it. Sonya always resented being unable to shed tears, she thought absently as she pulled her hand away from her eyes. It seems unfair to make this decision without her, but…

“How long will the procedure for the improved eyes take?” Ishtar asked.

“I’d say two or three hours,” Amos said and got a grunt of confirmation from Da-Som, “Recovery should be one to two weeks but I have a feeling you’re going to ignore that and pop one of those healing snacks of yours and be done with it.”

Ishtar sat in silence for a moment, thinking, “Lets go over the other details, I want to know about the extraction process if there's a rejection and the rest of it.”

“Sure thing.”

It was ultimately decided that they would go ahead with the improved eyes, while Ishtar had her reservations she knew that whatever advantages she could get, she would take. War wasn’t something you pulled your punches on. In just a few minutes she was dressed down into the surgical gown and laying on the table. It was hard for her to allow herself to be put under for the surgery, but she trusted Amos and Da-Som enough to set her instincts aside and let it happen.

The next thing she knew she was laying in a very familiar feeling hospital bed, bandages wrapped around her head.

<Deus Ex Machina has detected a new Cybernetic Implant>

<Analyzing.>

<Prosthetic Eyes Detected. Lost Cybernetic Eyes from Cybernetic Eyes ability have been replaced. Comparing to existing ability blueprint.>

<Error: Mismatch. Rejecting- Addendum: Deus Ex Machina has begun altering ability blueprint. Analyzing. Adjusting. Correcting. Integrating. Integration complete. A new ability has become part of your merged ability suite: Cybernetic Eyes - Uncommon has been replaced with Farsight 2.0 - Rare.>

<Farsight 2.0 has been fully integrated. Sense of sight online. Missing physical components have been confirmed as restored, you may now complete the healing process.>

Ishtar let out a relieved breath and just lay there for a moment, basking in the feeling. She felt someone shift in a seat next to her and turned her head, “Marta?”

“I’m here, my lady,” Marta said quietly. She heard Marta get to her feet and walk over to the side of the bed.

Ishtar reached out and patted the woman’s hand, “Thank you, Marta. Help me get these bandages off.”

“Of course,” she said and helped Ishtar sit up. Her largely restored strength notwithstanding, she felt fairly weak after enduring a surgery. She lowered her head and allowed Marta to begin unwinding the bandage, steadily unraveling the fabric from her head until it all fell into her lap. Ishtar kept her eyes closed, taking in how they felt. They were about as heavy in her head as the old ones were and knew with enough time she’d forget they were there as before. She listened to the faint whirr of the machines inside her head. It wasn’t as noisy as the ticking of the old eyes, something she greatly appreciated.

She tilted her head up and opened her eyes.

Marta’s face was still youthful and pretty, dark brown hair hanging around her head and styled with a careful neatness that went with her love of prim and proper maid cosplay. Ishtar could make out and count every strand of hair on her head at a glance, she could see the lines on Marta’s face where life after the flash had taken its toll despite her restored youth. Marta’s brown eyes searched her own, “They’re… they look so real,” her caretaker finally said.

Ishtar reached up and touched her face, the plates were gone.

“Get me a mirror,” Ishtar said, “I want to see it.”

Marta nodded and quickly departed the room as Ishtar held out her hand. She concentrated and an apple appeared with the sound of a bubble popping. She rolled the perfect red fruit between her fingers before bringing it to her lips and taking a bite. She felt the dull ache that was growing behind her eyes fade. She took another bite, the last vestiges of weakness in her body began to fade, she took another and felt her muscles expand, withered tissue restoring to its optimal state. Another and another and another, until the apple was gone and she was on her feet.

She flexed her will and the surgical gown vanished in a cloud of scattering blue motes, in its place, a white shirt and silver vest, white slacks and heels, then a white blazer that she straightened a little on her shoulders. She conjured up a pink tie and wrapped it around her neck, fumbling through a quick knot. She knew a little more about how to do it than Sonya at least. Satisfied, she buttoned up the coat and smoothed it out. She reached up and ran her fingers up and through her hair, letting it fall in a cascade down her back as the door opened again.

She turned and watched Marta step inside, looking at her with wide eyes.

Ishtar smiled at her caretaker’s expression and flexed her fingers, “Full strength,” she said smugly, reveling in the feeling of strength flooding through her body. Her power was back though there was still that aching sense of something missing in the form of Sonya’s presence, but her gut told her that problem would work itself out on its own.

Marta returned the smile with one of her own and approached, her black and white gown fluttering around her before coming to a stop and presenting the mirror. Ishtar looked at her face. Smooth, pearl-white skin, pale as a ghost. Her sunken features were restored to a healthy glow and fullness. It was a good thing to see, but what arrested her were the eyes that stared back at her. White sclera with no discernable mechanical parts around them. They looked almost natural except for one key difference; the brightly glowing pink irises that blazed within.

“I can see why Sonya enjoys this kind of thing,” Ishtar said approvingly, “It feels nice.”

“Would you like to do a little shopping?” Marta asked, “I’m sure Sonya wouldn’t mind if you picked out your own look.”

Ishtar raised an eyebrow and imagined herself waltzing off to a shopping mall with Marta in tow and laughed, “No, that’s quite alright. We may have different tastes in food but…” she reached up and adjusted her tie only for Marta to sigh and undo it, tying it again for her. “...we share the same taste in clothing.”

“And yet you still can’t tie a tie properly,” Marta teased, “Even with that ability that lets you replicate actions you can see.”

Ishtar chuckled, “Well that’s because we agreed never to pick it up. We like it when you do it.”

Marta scoffed, “Hmph!” she pulled back and looked Ishtar over before breaking into a smile, “It’s good to have you on your feet, my lady. What’s next?”

“Next, I shake the rust off,” Ishtar said, “I want to be at the top of my game for this war. If that silly girl is going to make me fight it, might as well do it right,” she said and nodded to the door, “First, let’s check in with Amos and Da-Som. Then, I think some exercise is in order.”

“What do you have in mind?”

Ishtar grinned, “I think I’ll clear a dungeon today.”