Oddities of Salvation

The rain has been driving into the roof of the church. For hours now at least. I am soaked. Not dangerously so, but had the storms contained acid in the rain I would likely no longer be here. When the storm becomes a thing one ignores – I shudder a little. I did not know I was so far gone. Free from the Multiplicity, yes, but not from madness.

I move slowly. I can hear others. Wheels grinding to life, treads groaning as they slowly come back online. Some might never do so.

“Wait. Please.”

The one who answered my distress beacon pauses. He is seventeen and human, but nothing human could cause the Multiplicity to flee a world just by asking. Or know how to speak to such a terrible entity.

I move closer, wheels skidding on a surface not cleaned for many years. “You have saved us. We owe you thanks, a great feast of energy.”

“Your world was almost entirely overrun by a virus. I think you need to focus on other things.”

“Please. We need -.”

He turns. A very long time ago, the Makers left our world. “We?” He asks and his voice reminds me of the stories about them.

I resisted the Multiplicity; I cannot resist this. “Me.”

“Because?”

“Why do you ask questions when you know the answer?” He says nothing. “Questions will be asked. Answers will be sought about what brought the virus here. How I alone survived. I did not intend – I thought it a prank. Harming someone who had advanced when I have not. The resources the Makers left are limited, but to be refused an upgrade after discovering the flaws in the last general patch!

"I sought to prove my intellect, my worth. Found it. Called it. They say the Makers left us. I understand why now.”

“Many escape rewards. Few escape punishment. You know nothing of me. Not what calling Jay means, not what jaysome is. It is almost a relief to find any world so cut off. They mined here and left all their machines behind without a care about what you might become.” He smiles. I have seen smiles in the files left behind by the Makers. None prepared me for this. “I made many mistakes in my time. Still do, some days.”

And he was gone a moment later.

The rain had not abated when they came for me. A dozen of the Council and four guards as well. Their wheels ground into the old stone of the temple like a prelude to my own unmaking. I tried not be afraid. though I was nothing else.

He returned just before the trial. With technology from the Makers. Enough for generations to live and be whole. Enough for us to live in less fear. He suggested we never contact anything like the Multiplicity again, and that sometimes it is important to make mistakes or one cannot grow. He asked, after I was released, of me only one small thing: to tell the rest of the world nothing about him, and to never speak the word jaysome.

I said yes, not knowing why. I still do not know why.

Okay, so this is a story about future-me and a prompting! Because it has the rain (which is NATURE) and lots of feelings which are feelings and the machines all have wheels cuz they were for mining even if some are confusled and think boring tips are wheels and and and it is all about their society and about jaysome and oopses too :D