Shae knows she doesn't have long.

The Empyreal Knights are on their way to claim the artifact for the Archonate. She can see their airship in the distance, its bloated shape chugging ponderously beneath the clouds. If they discover her, they will kill her. No one outside the Archonate has ever seen an Origin Core and lived, and Shae intends to do a lot more than look.

She reaches the center of the ruins and kneels, thrusting empulse into the earth beneath her feet, feeling the shape of her imbuement in her mind.

With each beat of her heart, her empulse spreads downwards. There is a hollow space beneath the lush meadow, too regular to be natural. The hollow is capped by a solid slab that could be straightforwardly lifted with the proper application of pulsebinding.

Shae calms herself. She could probably lift the slab with an exemplar technique, but that would leave signs. She has just enough time to do this right.

She severs the empulse in the slab, recovering the rest. Her new exemplate is hers. She can feel its presence. Also hers are the leather bracers on her wrists, becoming exemplates with a single heartbeat each.

Shae darts backwards. One she has what she hopes is enough distance, she stops by a handy rock and two heartbeats make an exemplate of it as well.

Holding her arms up in front of her, she joins each bracer to the the rock with an orthogonal pulsebind, forcing the horizontal motion of her bracers to match the vertical motion of the rock, with the intersect pointed towards the hollow. Then she joins the the rock to the slab with a linear pulsebind and biases the intersect heavily towards the slab.

Shae leans into her bracers and starts walking forward.

The weight of the rock presses against her arms. It rises into the air at precisely the speed she moves forward, but its weight isn't the only thing she's lifting. With every step she takes forward, the slab creeps upwards by a tiny fraction of that distance.

By the time she's walked back to the hollow and the rock is clearing the treetops, a section of meadow has torn itself out of the ground, levitating upwards just enough to reveal a gap big enough for Shae to squeeze through.

Shae wriggles through, dropping into the dark.

Once she's down, she breaks the joinings on her bracers, and lets the slab and the rock fall.

The slab falls slower than gravity, the small rock much faster. Both hit with comparable thumps.

The floor is smooth, glossy, like glass cut into tiles.

With the light from outside cut off, it's too dark to see anything at all.

Shae calmly reaches out to feel the wall behind her. She follows it.

The wall is smooth. She finds a corner, another corner, another corner, and another corner.

The room is perfectly square, with no exits, and feels like smooth dry glass.

It's true.

A dormant Origin Core.

This is the power to forge a new world.

Shae turns and walks confidently into the center of the room, hand out in front of her.

Her hand meets a cool, curved surface with the same texture as the walls.

At the instant of contact, light ripples out from under her fingers, revealing the shape of a perfect sphere hanging in midair in the exact center of the chamber. It is big enough that two of her could not quite wrap their arms around it and link hands, if there were two of her and she was inclined to try.

She feels a pressure against her skin, against her mind. A pressure she might recognize if she's ever interacted with a shok'ush. It is very weak, and the glimmer of light released by her touch is already fading.

Shae recognizes the sensation.

Shae also came prepared. She's wearing black leather travel leggings edged with white fur, which split at her inner thighs and wrap around her hips without covering anything important, and a matching half jacket with nothing underneath.

She leaps up and vaults onto the top of the Origin Core, settling herself against it with her legs spread wide. The smooth featureless surface feels hard and warm as it makes direct contact with her bare vulva, and she focuses on that feeling, letting it cut through her adrenaline.

Her jacket provides no barrier as she knocks its flaps aside and seizes her own breasts. Her nipples harden under her fingers as her hands slide up over her pliant swells, and her hips begin to rock, grinding her flesh against the unyielding crystal sphere.

The Origin Core doesn't have enough power left to participate in Shae's efforts. There is nothing but smooth dead glass to help her stimulate herself.

The surface under her is slippery with her arousal.

Shae fondles herself and humps the slick hard surface. She doesn't need anything more. Shivers of hot liquid pleasure ripple through her with each undulation of her hips, and her nethers throb with the torment of her nipples.

It's more than enough to bring her to orgasm after a while, but she's in a hurry.

Shae lifts her breasts up, stretching her nipples to take both into her mouth. A muffled moan escapes her as she clamps down with her lips. That leaves her hands free to go to her sex, one in front, one behind, knuckles knocking against the Origin Core as she humps.

Her body ignites, spasm after spasm clenching on her fingers, each kindling a glint of empulse that drains out of her core into the Core.

Light. Abstract patterns and whorls of glowing sparkles spread through the Origin Core and play over its surface.

The lights do not form symbols or words, but are perfectly comprehensible to Shae anyway.

Awakening

This core has successfully imprinted.

You may decide this core's next action, awakener.

It can create many things. It can gather power in many ways.

It will only respond to you while resonating with your power.

It will remember you while it lives. It will forget you if it dies.

The sparkling lights shift, taking on a new meaning. The light spreads, somehow jumping from the sphere to the walls, filling them with the same sparkling light.

Status

This core's awakener is currently linked.

This core has ONE command link and ZERO feeder links.

This core has ONE block of linked territory and ZERO subordinate units.

19 of 10,000 storage circuits are charged, and power draw is currently 0.26 glints per measure. This core's power reserve is critically low.

It takes her a moment to focus after her orgasm, but only a moment. It takes far more than an unremarkable orgasm to interfere with Shae's awareness of her surroundings. She looks down into the glowing sphere and takes in the information it presents to her. It's fractal, nested within itself. She can look at any one term and see its explanation inside it without having to ask.

There is a lot of information, though. It's all right there in front of her, and parsing it is much faster than reading text, she can still only take in so much in the time she has. But resonant links are two-way.

"I need a way to fight two Empyreal Knights and win."

A shift in the currents of light draws her eye.

Subordinate Units

This core has enough power to create a subset of possible eromorphic empulse-based organisms.

In addition to a unit's basic form, there are several complimentary and several mutually exclusive properties that may be given to a unit upon creation for additional cost.

And again.

Subset of Possible Units

There is enough power to create two of the first two of the simplest mobile units.

There is enough power to create several of the simplest passive defense units.

There is enough power to create one of the first three symbiotic enhancer units.

Passive defense is going to be useless against Empyreans.

Shae looks into the other two.

The Two Least Expensive Mobile Units

The PHALLIC TENTACLE is a serpentine length of flesh with a penile head capable of nimble movement. It lacks dedicated sense organs, but will seek a lubricated orifice by touch if given no commands. Creation expends 8 glints and occupies this Core for 0.2 measures.

The YONIC TENTACLE is a serpentine length of flesh with a lubricated throat running through its body, that is capable of nimble movement. It lacks dedicated sense organs, but will seek a warm member by touch if given no commands. Creation expends 8 glints and occupies this Core fore 0.2 measures.

Glimmering lights.

The Three Least Expensive Symbiotic Units

Symbiotic units must be worn by a human. If no human is present, the unit will deactivate and request matrix storage in this Core.

The BREATH HOOD is worn on the neck and covers the face to provide breathable air in any environment. Breathing the air provided by this unit may cause intense sexual arousal when this unit is low on power. Creation expends 10 glints and occupies this Core for 0.2 measures.

The DILDO STRAP is worn on the vagina and clings to the hips to provide a temporary penis to the wearer. This unit will perform direct genital stimulation when low on power or when stimulation is applied to the shaft. Creation expends 10 glints and occupies this Core for 0.1 measures.

The GLIDE LEGS are worn on the legs and provide high overland mobility through friction manipulation. This unit will perform direct genital stimulation when low on power. Creation expends 14 glints and occupies this Core for 0.2 measures.

Whirling patterns.

Erovores. This thing can create designer erovores to order. But none of the things the Core has enough power to make are going to be any use. The Empyreal Knights must be literally on top of her by now.

"None of these are enough. I need something powerful. Something that can do damage, keep me alive, and let me escape when I'm surrounded."

The currents of light shift.

PORTAL GAUNTLETS

This symbiotic unit is worn on the arms and provides a pair of linked portal emitters which may deploy a portal's two ends to any location within line of sight.

Portals remain tethered and may be moved while open. Control of open portals diminishes with distance.

This unit will perform tactile stimulation of the chest area, or if possible compel the wearer's hands to provide direct genital stimulation, when low on power.

Creation expends 1,565 glints and occupies this Core for 6.8 measures.

Oh blit that's a lot.

At an average kindling rate of of two and a half glints per beat, that comes out to more than a quarter-measure of continuous orgasm. Shae is as hot between her legs as they come, but even she can't manage that, here, in the time she has left.

She starts grinding her sex against the Core again, just in case.

"Show me the properties that can be added to symbiotic units."

Luminous currents shift. There is a lot of information. Books worth.

It seems to fall into four natural categories.

Properties of the substrate, like native empulse storage capacity and how much empulse is sent back to the Core, are first and most obvious.

But there are also deep wells of possible morphologies, behaviors, and special powers. Some of which she might even recognize as characteristic of common naturally occurring erovores.

So they really are to order and the units on offer are just presets.

And if wild erovores follow these rules... did she just discover the origin of erovores? And if she did, do the Archonate already know? Speaking of the Archonate, they have two Origin Cores already. What are they doing with them that Shae has never heard of Knights with portal powers?

Absorbed in the whirling lights, Shae's orgasm catches her off guard.

Her spasms of pleasure throb through her body, and her kindling empulse drains out of her into the Core.

The Origin Core pulses brighter for a moment.

37 of 10,000 storage circuits are charged, and power draw is currently 0.26 glints per measure. This core's power reserve is critically low.

"Show me a blank symbiotic unit and all properties I can assign it that will result in a creation cost of less than forty-six glints."