Under a Starless Sky novel Chapter 40

“Welcome home,” TL said, physically greeting him in the courtyard. He accepted her embrace, knowing they had never been separated as she had continuously walked with him, and yet- she had stayed physically manifested here. This cave fortress temple was as much hers as his- if not more so hers.

The tower was finished. It was beautifully constructed, with complicated stone pieces, no two stones cut the same. North tower held a steady flame. His Torch was still in the stone. The entry door to the castle wall was made of gold or gold plated, and it would lower to become a bridge across the moat. The moat ran the length of the castle and down the two sides, and appeared to go into the mountain.

“I thought we agreed, no moat,” Shen said.

“I changed my mind,” TL said.

“Fair enough. Irksome’s was in the corner, though,” Shen said.

“Yeah, the nest was disbanded six months after you left,” TL said.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You didn’t ask,” TL said. He grimaced at her. “Seriously, you were in a mood when you left. You held that mood for a while. The subject never came up. I have video if you like.”

“Did they kill him?”

“No. I intervened,” TL said.

“Thank you,” Shen said.

TL took his hand. “Come, let me show you some things.”

She took him up the winding stairs. The room was expansive. A window on the far end overlooked the courtyard. On either side of the window were balconies, hollows carved into the rock, with balustrades, and one could lower a bucket down into the moat- or dive into it. Each patio had a table, two chairs, potted plants, on the floor and hanging, flowering vines. A King size bed was near the window, the head of which was sectioned to fit the head frame. It had the appearance of floating. It was connect to a half wall, sectioned like three sides of a hexagon. The head of the bed was salt rock. The arrangement of the bed reminded him of how his bed faced the window on his ship. He had sudden pang for being there, not here. There was an open closet, and another partial salt rock wall, thin, three sides of a hexagon, perhaps a modesty wall, and a vanity station with mirror. It was completely unnecessary given if he wanted to change clothes, he simply modified the look of the clothes. TL didn’t need it, either. She could change outfit, even her physical attributes, in the wink of an eye.

“Someone other than us going to live here?”

“You never know,” TL said. “The dancing ghosts can be solid, and they like creature comforts.”

“They’re still coming around?” TL asked.

“Yeah,” TL said.

“You didn’t tell me this,” Shen said.

“You didn’t ask. They don’t talk much. They do like to dance,” TL said. “Would you like to go dance?”

“Not yet,” Shen said.

There was a private bath and toilet upstairs, adjoined to the bedroom. There was an open room, unfurnished, no door. There was a library on the top floor. He cried at seeing the books. TL touched him, leaned into him.

“I took liberty of printing everything you ever read. I even printed books you had on your to read list,” TL said.

“Do you have everything ever written?”

“Oh, no. I carry some stuff, the essentials, your favorites and books I assumed you would enjoy, but the rest of origin world is in the cloud,” TL said. “The Torch crystal has quite a bit of information stored holographically in the crystal, but much of that is base operation code and primary function, in case the virtual caches fails or capacitor falls below critical threshold.”

“I wasn’t aware of that,” Shen said. “So, what happens in that instance?”

“If the only High Tech here was the Torch, everything I have learned would be lost. If there is energy enough and time enough, in an emergency I could make a crystal that would contain all the memories of the entirety from coming online to present.”

“Do you have a backup?” Shen asked.