Suze snort-laughed as she reached up to cover her mouth. “I missed that part of you.”
Tate didn’t let herself soften as she glared at the two. “I mean really? What were you thinking? Why didn’t you disable that function in the first place?”
Suze’s lips quivered as she forced herself to sober. “In our defense, we didn’t expect our descendants to build a city over the Aurelia’s remains.”
“At the end of the war, that area was known for being under the Creator’s control. It’s why there’s such a large population of sleepers located under the city,” Jax explained. “They’d already placed many of their creations in the cryostasis pods by the time we took the ship back.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t kill them in their sleep,” Tate said.
“You told us not to.” Suze’s smile was bittersweet. “You said they deserved a chance. We’d just betrayed you and couldn’t bear the additional sin of ending all of those lives.”
“Yet we also couldn’t allow them to jeopardize the world we were building,” Jax added.
“So, you left them for the future to deal with,” Tate finished.
Jax inclined his head.
“Why wouldn’t we? You were the one who saw potential in them; you should also deal with any potential messes they made.” Kenneth stepped onto the outcropping, his expression just as grumpy and irritable as Tate remembered.
Tate glanced at the three of them. “What is this? A reunion? Is Trace next?”
“You called?” Trace appeared out of the haze, joining the rest of them on the outcropping with a teasing grin. “Tell me, our wayward leader, how exactly did you manage to get stabbed by such a novice?”
“There were mitigating circumstances,” Tate grunted.
That reminded her.
She glanced at Jax. “What exactly is Ai?”
The others traded looks before avoiding Tate’s stare, leaving Jax in the hot seat.
“She and the rest of the avatars were an experiment,” he finally said.
Tate’s eyes narrowed. There was more to it than that. Tate had a suspicion, but she wanted him to confirm it. “What kind of experiment?”
Unlike the rest, Jax met her gaze calmly. “The Ijiri created Ai and the rest of the avatars. They’re half Ijiri.”
Tate shook her head. “How is that possible?”
Ai and the other minor gods were an existence that defied even her understanding. Until now, Tate had thought they were artificial intelligence programs Jax created, but unlike the programs she’d known they had an ego and will. Human-like in the way they perceived and interacted with the world. Tate suspected they felt loneliness and pain—even if it wasn’t to the same extent a human did.
Or perhaps there was simply never anyone to teach them what emotion was.
“The Ijiri wanted to leave behind a being who would be compelled to resurrect them after we were gone. When I found the first of the Creator’s resting spots, I also found Ai. She was born into this world fully formed, practically a blank canvas since the Ijiri went into their sleep before they could program her. She was—” Jax paused, his face showing a remembrance of wonder. “Glorious. Machine and organic in one. Self-aware but in a limited capacity. Far beyond anything I had ever dreamed of. A new form of life. It would have been safer to let her fade. Instead, I bound her and the others to their domains so as to limit the damage they could cause in the event their Ijiri half ever overshadowed their other side.”
“And you didn’t see any potential problems with this?” Tate asked.
His smile was faint. “Many. However, you’re the one who taught me to take risks when it came to preserving life.”
Tate squinted.
“I don’t know what Nathan did but she’s not the Ai I know anymore,” Tate said.
“He’s likely managed to awaken the original programming the Ijiri left.”
“So that’s why her appearance changed,” Tate guessed.
“It’s her original form.”
