She stared at the servo skull in her hands. The Magos had brought a selection of human skulls with him to teach her how to produce one. She had gotten the process correct with the first skull, perfected with the second skull, and now her mind whirled with visions of how to improve it.

“Excellently done. Your second Gryphonne-pattern familiar is complete, although you shall need implants to commune with it properly. That can wait for you to finish your growth period.” Magos Calculatus spoke, looking over her shoulder at her work. “Your previous tutors did well to instill knowledge of the most basic truths. I should speak to them at some point.”

“Why a skull?” She found herself asking, staring at the thing in her hands. Human bone wasn’t a particularly durable substance, surely plasteel or wraithbone would be better. The manipulators also weren’t particularly reinforced or powerful, and she knew she could improve both with improved servos…

It was practically all one weak point. Nothing here would resist a man with a hammer.

“I could elaborate upon the spiritual significance, but such is not needed here. The most practical truth is that skulls serve as a convenient housing for the machinery, harvestable from our own fallen, of roughly correct proportions, and requiring no manufacturing lines to produce. A cost-saving measure.”

“It’s weak.” She said, turning it over in her hands and gripping the bone. She could crush it without much effort. Too fragile, too easy to shatter.

“Indeed. Just as man is weak. That does not make it useless.”

She turned her attention to the Magos, sensing a lesson oncoming. He scratched at his short beard with one hand, gesturing at the skull with the other. “Tell me, student, what is the function of this machine?”

“This model is secretarial. Transportation of documents and messages, recording of information, projection of recordings.” She listed, turning her gaze back to it for a moment. Looking at it’s manipulator-claws, it’s pict-recorder, it’s image-projector. “It contains a basic machine spirit anti-grav engine, and battery. It is housed in osseous tissue.”

“Is it a combat unit?”

“No.” She frowned, although she could easily see how to modify it to be such…

“Are any of the components in short supply or difficult to assemble?”

“...No.” She finished, looking at the fragile thing in her hands. A bold “II” carved into its side. She didn’t imagine skulls to be very difficult to gather upon a world of humans. Nor were any of the components difficult to put together if you had the refineries already established and metals being actively extracted from earth.

“Therein lies its value. Many hundreds of thousands of such devices are in service. Each and every one could be made with the most durable and effective materials. But how much more would those materials cost on that scale? Would the exchange of rare materials and increased labor be worth the potential increase in individual durability and effectiveness?”

“...I can improve it without either of those things.” She confidently stated, looking at the skull and reviewing its schematics in her mind. Eliminating all her ideas for how to improve it in ways that cost more time, skill, or materials, she still had some left.

“Oh?” The Magos sounded intrigued, reaching up to scratch his chin again. “The design is assembled from merely basic truths… Very well. If you can improve the design without increasing the cost of manufacture, I’m eager to see it. I’ll send a copy of the finished schematics back to Gryphonne if you are successful.”

“I will be.” She said, looking at the skull in her hand. Frowning, she raised her head and looked at him. “You said to remember the sixteenth law at the start. Why aren’t you mad?” She figured he would be angry at her declaration, that she could improve an established design.

The Magos hummed in understanding, moving over to retrieve a dataslate, and sitting down on the opposite side of the table from her. “Please recite Universal Law thirteen, fifteen, and sixteen.”

“The knowledge of the ancients is beyond question. Flesh is fallible, but ritual honors the machine spirit. To break with ritual is to break with faith.” She dutifully spoke the laws she didn’t particularly believe in. She had no reason to put faith in some god. Her brother was going to fight two gods to rescue a third, worshiping a god seemed quaint compared to him.

“Have I explained the difference between basic truths and higher truths yet?” He mused aloud, scanning through memory-banks before coming to a conclusion. “No, I don’t believe I have. A failure on my part. We shall correct that now.”

“The sum of any two numbers, is the sum of those two numbers. This is a self-referential law. It is based on nothing but itself, but it is something that can clearly be observed in the universe. Two and two will always equal four. It is foundational, it is self-evident, it is something that the most basic sapients can observe. It is not built on any prior law, but it is demonstrably truth. This is one of the most basic truths.”

“There are many basic truths, many of the most essential are observable by any basic sapient. Fire is hot compared to us. Ice is cold compared to us. Gravitic force pulls us to large objects. These things have more complex mathematical truths, but their practical effects remain to all who see. The wiring of a dataslate is complex to a layman, but to one who comprehends enough basic truths of motive force, it is also a basic truth.”

“Now. Do you know what a Hermes Array is?”

She shook her head in denial. The Magos nodded, expecting such an answer, and continued.

“A Hermes Array is a large machine that can connect two points in material space, allowing for information to be sent across while the points are connected. This allows Faster-Than-Light communications without the use of psychic technologies. Do you know how it connects two points in material space?”

She shook her head no again, and he nodded. “None alive do.”

“What?” She furrowed her brow. “You just told me how it works.”

“I told you what the priesthood of Gryphonne knows of the device and its function. We know of it from scattered recordings found in destroyed facilities, and the half-destroyed complex on one of our vassal worlds. It is non-functional. We do not know how to repair it, for we have none to teach us the truths required to reach it any longer. It is a Mystery, and we have no path to it.”

“A higher truth is in-between a Mystery and a basic truth. We know how to keep the machine functional. We know how to repair it, and in optimal scenarios we can even build more of the machine. But the basic truths required to comprehend it are lost to us. We can only perform the rituals handed down to us, preserved by our forebears, established truths that have long been mapped.”

“But a higher truth cannot become a basic truth until enough requisite basic truths are known to us. Truth is a ladder we seek to ascend, for comprehension is divinity, but too much was lost in the Age of Strife. We may never truly comprehend again, so we must perform the rituals, we must have faith in the machine.”

“The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all. We perform rituals, and await his arrival. For he will lead us to understanding again. That is all we can do anymore.”

“Why not try to understand again? It was done before.” She questioned, staring at the skull in her hands.

“We cannot afford to.” Calculatus shook his head sadly. “The Age of Technology was long ago, and too much of the galaxy has been ravaged already. We can pray for a golden age to come, in which understanding can be reached again, in which we can afford to learn once more. But we cannot plan for it to arrive, for we do not know. To seek understanding in the destructive manner required may waste resources needed to survive, something we cannot afford in such a dangerous age. All we can do is perform the preserved rituals, and keep faith that the machines will endure for another day.”

“My brother will make an empire big enough to protect everyone. Father is working on the same.” She spoke with absolute conviction.

“The priesthood is certainly hopeful of such.” The Magos replied with a small smile on his face. “If the galaxy can be made safe enough for comprehension to be reached once more, it will be a most holy place indeed.”

He nodded at the servo skull in her hands. “A servo-skull is composed of basic truths. Attempting to innovate its construction is something most apprentices attempt at some point. There is nothing lost by this, the experience can only be helpful to your own development.”

His visor glowed a happy yellow. “And should you succeed, and make something truly exceptional, that will be a most wonderful blessing to receive. You are intelligent and dutiful, I am confident in your ability, and eagerly await your finished work.”

Yes, Petra liked her current tutor. Even if he made her recite prayers that she didn’t believe in. She could tolerate doing so just fine.

Честно говоря, нет. Я в замшелые 90-е защищала диплом по психологии игр, и у меня вышли какие-то нечеловеческие данные (136 респондентов) кривая социального интеллекта ролевика в зависимости от срока игровой активности стартовала в глубоком минусе, проскакивала условный ноль за два года и перла вверх под углом где-то 50 градусов.
(Тесты Розенцвейг, Гилфорд, Ханд)

У меня главное предположение было что в ролевики идут люди с нехваткой социального интеллекта и там прокачиваются, но такого сурового эффекта я даже не ожидала, думала до нормы дорастет