Returning to Town

She walked to the living room and sat on a chair. "Sorry if my home is a bit imposing and makes me seem well off. It was given to me by my uncle about 95 years ago."

'It's not imposing. Merely a perfect artifact of architecture, something you wouldn't find anywhere else so quickly.' she stood still in the middle of the room. 'So you were interested in my statement before, about not being of biological making, correct?'

She nodded and crossed her legs. "I'm curious what you mean by this."

Kati reached for her back, and undid her robes. One by one the white cloths fell off her, until revealing her entire body. Mostly it was what you would expect of any human female physique. A nice build, well curved and nothing too small or too big. Except for the fact that there were gaps at many places. As if her skin was porcelain, and had broken at many places, revealing the truth that was hidden beneath. Machinery, advanced technology, power couplings and conduits lighting up with energy coursing through them, circuitry that runs on high capacity in order to keep up with everything that is going on and much more. At her hip she even lacked a piece of the metal housing, revealing part of the junction of her leg. 'I was originally created as a War Machine. One of a Team of 8 units, meant to do stealth black ops in Umbria at the time of the War. As only of my entire squadron which survived, I went into hiding and have never been placed into service again, nor has the Xenon Order sought to find me. Deserted by my manufacturers and leaders, I sought a reason to go on. I found my place, in the Church, helping others. I've lived like this for 200 years now.'

She uncrossed her legs and sat up. "I see." She said this a bit dazed and shocked having not seen technology like this that often. "so you're fully sentient?"

'Since I was turned active, yes. Though at first I was sentient merely for the things I was programmed in, the obvious military training and such. As I lived longer and prolonged my shut down, I gained access to more files, experience, and you could say the massive pillage of data started to process itself, creating what you could call a none-artificial AI. an AI that created itself.'

"Hmm...well that may have some people view you as a threat or in fear if they ever found out about you. I can see why you didn't want to talk about this in public."

'As much as I appreciate the concern you display there, it is not fear that keeps me from discussing this publicly. Recently there have been riots in the south, near the Umbrian border. I know for a fact that my creators and leaders no longer live. But the same cannot be said of my enemies. If they salvaged the wreckages of my team mates, they could create something far more powerful then me. That is, if they understand this technology. If they found out I am still operational, they will come after me. And to prevent they get their hands on me, I best not give them any reason to suspect me. And I can trust you, because you are not the type of person they would ever hire. Along with the fact, Illyrians are not easily bribed. You'd need their entire family line at gunpoint to get them to do something.'

She turned away. "They would be unable to do that anyway." She then faded out leaving a white washed out after image of herself for a few seconds before that diminished and vanished she then reappeared sitting on the nearest chair holding a glass of tea. "Do you need a place to stay?"

'I have the Cathedral. Thanks for the offer, but I would prefer not to put burdens on someone's shoulders, where they do not belong. And if they would find out about me, the Church would have to harbor me. That's their duty. And who in their right mind would launch an attack on the Church?'

"Plenty of people would and then there's people who aren't in their right mind." She then sipped her tea and crossed her legs again. "I mean really the only thing preventing a person from attacking anyone is a wall and their own will."

'Or the fear of the consequences. The Church has invested money. Not just in books and white robes. but in more then that. She conceals secrets that I have stumbled upon, which would cause another war if revealed. Reason of which I do not reveal them. I cannot. I have a program that prohibits me to endanger a persons life directly. If I were to bear these secrets open, it would cause a lot of damage.'

"Hmm..." She set her cup down and looked at Kati. "I understand."

'Either way. I would like to stay here and learn more about things around here. But I cannot afford myself such luxury, nor can you afford yourself such a burden. It would be a bad choice for either of us.'

She nodded slightly and sipped her tea again. "I know. It's just lonely living in this large house alone. If you ever want you can drop by sometime."

'I'd be glad to. Maybe you could inform me more about your race, it's habits. I'd love to learn more about the Elves. They've always remained hesitant and withdrawn in the War, I never managed to talk to one that much.'

"Sure. Just let me know what you'd like to know and I'll help if I can."

'For one, I am interested in how a person can feel "in synch with nature", since nature is not a physical form. It's a name given to the mystery of living things. We do not understand nature nor its intentions, so how then can someone be in synch with it?'

"Hmm...we're not entirely in synch with it. Some are so closely in synch though they can actually commune with animals and sometimes plants."

'This is done through reading not only their body language but their behavior, too. Though I can see the electric currents through living beings sometimes, it doesn't allow me to communicate on an understanding level with each other. So how do elves achieve this level of understanding with animals? Or for that matter, plants?'

"Sometimes we don't and we just try to tend to the animals and plants. I feel like some have gifts that let them get closer to nature. Though I was talking with a wolf yesterday."

'I am sorry, I simply cannot fathom how you talk to a wolf, or any other animal or plant even. Off course each creature has its own language and their own means of communication, but to acquire them all and be able to use them, that takes a lot of data. And I'm talking hundreds of terabytes of data.'

"Well it could speak. At least as much as I can tell. Maybe only I can understand it but it sounded like it spoke english."

'Maybe it happened that somehow, that wolf managed to learn to speak our language. Animals are not said to have no consciousness or cognitive presence.'

"It had a human form. But anyway. I'm a little curious about technology, I rarely use it myself so me and you are basically from different worlds."