5 - Moxie & the Maverick: The Arcana Glen Major Arcana by Tara Maya

Author:Tara Maya [Maya, Tara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Arcana Glen Major Arcana#5
Publisher: Misque Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

May 19, Thursday

Arcana Castle

Maverick stood up, still aware of dislocations in his form that he registered as pain, as anyone might would feel after an injury. He wished he could retreat to his laboratory to conduct a self-diagnostic and repair himself. But he had no idea whether Alephander Guiscard planned to destroy him or hire him.

“You are right,” said Alephander, looking nonplussed. “Dr Errant is dead. I recognize you as his handiwork, but I have no sense of his magic anywhere near you. The magical signature that controls you is unique.”

That did not sound good to Maverick. “Are you saying that I am controlled by someone else besides Dr Errant?”

That possibility chilled him. But it made sense. What if Erasmus Errant had not died of old age after all? What a rival scientist have discovered his bunker and killed him in order to steal his work… the Maverick robots?

The Magician’s lips worked into a little smile. “The light that controls you is your own. One name for it is a spirit. Where the spirit interfaces with your body, a soul is born. You have autonomy in all three elements: body, soul, and spirit. In short, your claim to be human, although one of an extremely unusual form, appears to be correct after all.”

Alephander paced in front of Maverick.

“I see a puppet before me, but I don’t see the puppet master,” Alephander muttered. “Who cut your strings, Pinocchio? How did you become a real boy?”

“I am a robot,” Maverick said flatly. “I believe I am sentient, but I am not a ‘real boy.’ I am a machine, not a golem. There’s nothing spiritual or magical about me.”

“And yet you just claimed to be sentient!”

“Yes, my programming is self-directed, as you surmised. But I do not have a soul or a spirit. Frankly I don’t think those things exist, even in flesh and blood humans.”

“I suspect we have a disagreement about semantics rather than substance,” shrugged Alephander. “However, I will need to experiment on you further to see if you are trustworthy. The experiments will not be the kind you are used to in Dr Errant’s laboratory. They will involve magic and spells and mystical visions of worlds beyond this plane of existence. Do you agree to this?”

“I am willing to be experimented on if it does not destroy my physical chassis or my programming and memory store,” said Maverick cautiously. “But how can you perform experiments with ‘magic spells’? It’s like trying to fix a car engine with a Ouija board.”

The Magician only smiled.

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