engineered constructs. They
follow programmed instructions resting at
the juncture of magic and technology."
"…so…as long as I’m careful, the real
ones won’t show up, right?"
"Your magicians have dug in their
heels." Xik shrugs. "They have no choice.
Humans are being harvested everywhere. But
noticeable delays in schedule will show up
in their analyses. It won’t be long until they
launch a real attack. In the meantime, your
goal is to cautiously build your strength."
"You mentioned something else—an
overseer."
"I did. Spawns are created and
maintained by extractors. Extractors
themselves are automatons; they can adapt
somewhat to a changing situation, but as you
said, they’re just magical robots. They can’t
really plan ahead. Overseers are the first
actual sentient individual within the Vorid."
"What’s above them?"
"Soul energy is like their currency," Xik
said. "Their overseers are as farmers and are
the majority of their population. Above them
are the nobility, the lords and their families,
the warrior caste. Above them, several
thousand of what you might call princes, who
each command the loyalty of many lower
nobles."
"Who’s the boss?"
"The royal family, led by their king."
Daniel put his hands on his hips. "Are
you serious? Why are the Vorid here, feeding
on us? If they’re so advanced, can’t they do
something else for energy besides suck out
our souls? Invasions sound really
inefficient."
"You’re right, of course," Xik said,
"though you underestimate the amount of
energy in a soul. Like an atom, souls have
huge amounts of potential energy given their
size. But for them, it’s a religious matter."
"…are you joking?"
"Absolutely not," Xik said. "They have a doctrine of continual expansion and
conquest. They’ve consumed all the sentient
life in their home universe and have ventured
beyond it in search of greener pastures. They
consider it their holy mission to reunite all
the magic of the universe, all the souls, back
into one supreme being from whom their king
claims descent. They believe that this act
will activate a magical singularity that will
overcome the natural degradation of entropy
and reset the entire multiverse. Then, the
cycle will repeat. If they don’t do this, they
believe that all useful energy will inevitably
be consumed and everything will languor for
all eternity in total dissociated heat death. In
order to propagate life, they must consume
it."
Daniel took a long breath. "Holy shit."
"Quite."
"Back up a minute. What’s a heat
death?"
"The probable end of every universe.
You know that your star is burning through
its fuel, correct?"
"Well, yeah," Daniel said. "But it’s got enough for a few billion years, right?"
"True. But what happens when it runs
out?" Xik pointed into the sky. "The sun is the energy source of your entire solar system.
You could move to another sun, use other
stars. But eventually, eons into the future,
they will all burn themselves out. That, or
collect into black holes. But even black
holes will eventually radiate away the last of
their energy. One by one, all the billions of
galaxies will vanish into blackness. The
universe will be nothing but scattered gases
and background heat—a silent state known
as heat death. The energy which sustains life
and motion itself will have been used up."
Daniel mulled it over in his head. "And
their solution to this problem, basically, is to
gather everything together?"
"Yes. We’ve run the numbers, to borrow
a saying from your language. According to
our mathematics, it doesn’t work out.
Therefore, on both moral and factual
grounds, we oppose their campaign of
universal genocide."
"You gave me the impression they were
bugs. Mindless drones." Daniel sat on the
roof tiles and folded his legs underneath him.
He looked up. Puffy clouds floated along in
the sky, oblivious to the tiny things on the
ground. "This is worse.
follow programmed instructions resting at
the juncture of magic and technology."
"…so…as long as I’m careful, the real
ones won’t show up, right?"
"Your magicians have dug in their
heels." Xik shrugs. "They have no choice.
Humans are being harvested everywhere. But
noticeable delays in schedule will show up
in their analyses. It won’t be long until they
launch a real attack. In the meantime, your
goal is to cautiously build your strength."
"You mentioned something else—an
overseer."
"I did. Spawns are created and
maintained by extractors. Extractors
themselves are automatons; they can adapt
somewhat to a changing situation, but as you
said, they’re just magical robots. They can’t
really plan ahead. Overseers are the first
actual sentient individual within the Vorid."
"What’s above them?"
"Soul energy is like their currency," Xik
said. "Their overseers are as farmers and are
the majority of their population. Above them
are the nobility, the lords and their families,
the warrior caste. Above them, several
thousand of what you might call princes, who
each command the loyalty of many lower
nobles."
"Who’s the boss?"
"The royal family, led by their king."
Daniel put his hands on his hips. "Are
you serious? Why are the Vorid here, feeding
on us? If they’re so advanced, can’t they do
something else for energy besides suck out
our souls? Invasions sound really
inefficient."
"You’re right, of course," Xik said,
"though you underestimate the amount of
energy in a soul. Like an atom, souls have
huge amounts of potential energy given their
size. But for them, it’s a religious matter."
"…are you joking?"
"Absolutely not," Xik said. "They have a doctrine of continual expansion and
conquest. They’ve consumed all the sentient
life in their home universe and have ventured
beyond it in search of greener pastures. They
consider it their holy mission to reunite all
the magic of the universe, all the souls, back
into one supreme being from whom their king
claims descent. They believe that this act
will activate a magical singularity that will
overcome the natural degradation of entropy
and reset the entire multiverse. Then, the
cycle will repeat. If they don’t do this, they
believe that all useful energy will inevitably
be consumed and everything will languor for
all eternity in total dissociated heat death. In
order to propagate life, they must consume
it."
Daniel took a long breath. "Holy shit."
"Quite."
"Back up a minute. What’s a heat
death?"
"The probable end of every universe.
You know that your star is burning through
its fuel, correct?"
"Well, yeah," Daniel said. "But it’s got enough for a few billion years, right?"
"True. But what happens when it runs
out?" Xik pointed into the sky. "The sun is the energy source of your entire solar system.
You could move to another sun, use other
stars. But eventually, eons into the future,
they will all burn themselves out. That, or
collect into black holes. But even black
holes will eventually radiate away the last of
their energy. One by one, all the billions of
galaxies will vanish into blackness. The
universe will be nothing but scattered gases
and background heat—a silent state known
as heat death. The energy which sustains life
and motion itself will have been used up."
Daniel mulled it over in his head. "And
their solution to this problem, basically, is to
gather everything together?"
"Yes. We’ve run the numbers, to borrow
a saying from your language. According to
our mathematics, it doesn’t work out.
Therefore, on both moral and factual
grounds, we oppose their campaign of
universal genocide."
"You gave me the impression they were
bugs. Mindless drones." Daniel sat on the
roof tiles and folded his legs underneath him.
He looked up. Puffy clouds floated along in
the sky, oblivious to the tiny things on the
ground. "This is worse.
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