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Dans-Prosemaxx-Cowriter-S

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[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding six sentences in the Earth Fathers 2 genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Max was packing the equipment he wanted to take to the buyer meet-and-greet when Rick burst into their room all flailing tentacles and belches. \"I dislike with vehemence,\" the computer translated. The computer voice was weirdly calm even though Rick was loud and a bit screechy.\n\nMax sighed. \"I understand that.\" The second he got the message that the trader wanted Max to come without Rick, he knew it was going to cause drama. Maybe Rick had never joined the military, but he understood what it meant to have someone's six." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Dislike with very much vehemence,\" Rick added. His outer tentacles were all curled up.\n\n\"I know that. But the trader is right. If I have an adult Hidden One with me, people will figure out that I'm lying.\"\n\n\"No. You are not lying about creation of new weapon, so I can go with without fear of perception of lying.\"\n\nMax sighed. Rick was, in his own way, being sweet and protective and supportive, but this time he was also wrong. The trader understood intergalactic politics and psychology." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At least, Max assumed he did because it matched what Max knew of greedy, selfish, soul-sucking human beings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They will assume you did the work even though James and I worked together.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They are non-assuming with Xander, so they can non-assume with me.\"\n\nMax went back to packing the samples he planned to take with him. If nothing else, maybe they could get resources to replace the ones he and James had spent on making the prototypes. \"Xander is a child.\" And boy wasn't that making Max feel guilty, but he needed help. Since Xander spoke English even without the translator, they could even use English like a secret decoder ring if Max turned off his computer translation program." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My attendance is equality to Xander's attendance. The people of the Hidden People do not have cognitively immature youth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But the rest of the universe do,\" Max said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They will dismiss Xander as unimportant.\"\n\n\"He is much very important!\" Rick nearly bellowed.\n\nMax whirled around to find a very curled up, angry ball of octopus near the foot of their bed. \"Of course he is,\" Max assured Rick. Abandoning his packing, he sat near Rick and held his hand out. But Rick was having none of it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He kept all his appendages tightly curled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He is exceptionally important, but the other peoples will think of Xander as a child. And even if they know the Hidden People are born cognitively developed, they will assume he has lived too short a time to do such complex work.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They be pursuing tasks of greater complexity than I when similarly full of youth,\" Rick said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some of the appendages twitched and seemed to straighten involuntarily. Yep. Rick was a proud papa, so proud he couldn't stay mad even when he wanted to.\n\n\"They are wonderful offspring,\" Max agreed. \"We did good with them.\"\n\n\"We did.\" Rick's tentacles uncurled a little more. \"All three offspring are important. However, Xander is small. However, Xander's smallness is significant in the lack of appropriate for assisting you in example of violence.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You think I need better backup,\" Max summarized." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes.\" Rick trumpeted the word loudly enough that it made Max's head ache." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Max stretched his hand out, and this time Rick wound his tentacle around it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You lack eyes in logical rear position,\" Rick added. Max was tempted to make a joke about parents and eyes in the back of their heads in logical rear positions, but it was unkind to tease Rick when he was upset.\n\nRick lifted himself up and leaned into Max. \"I dislike possible future where you do not return.\"\n\n\"I wouldn't do that to you,\" Max assured him. \"I will always return to you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat are both always likely. Promise is only word.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rick's voice was softer now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had a point." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Max had made the same promise to his mother, and he hadn't gone home to her even when he'd had the chance to. \"I will always try to return. I fought through the Hunters to return to you and I will not let stupid people stop me from coming home.\"\n\nRick didn't answer, but he slid his tentacle under Max's shirt. The warm touch made Max smile. \"Are you trying to seduce me?\"\n\n\"Yes.\" Rick curled a tentacle around Max's leg and lifted it into the air, pushing Max onto his back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Max laughed. \"You are pushy.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" Rick agreed. Using his multiple appendages, he tugged at Max's pants and lifted him farther up the bed and teased a nipple all at once. Max captured the nearest tentacle and pulled it toward his mouth. He used his lips and tongue to explore all the small fingers on the underside of the tentacle. When he sucked it, Rick shivered with his whole body. As soon as he got control of his tentacles again, he flipped Max over onto his stomach and tugged his pants off in one motion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Bully,\" Max complained softly.\n\n\"You like me to positive connotation bully,\" Rick pointed out. Again with the logic, because Max really did. Rick ran a warm tentacle across Max's hole and all the tiny fingers teased the sensitive skin so that Max thrust down into the soft bedding. Rick took advantage of the moment and slipped the tip of a tentacle inside.\n\n\"No fair,\" Max said, \"I want a tentacle up here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Max made grabby hands.\n\nIt drove Rick wild when Max sucked on the underside of a tentacle, and it was one of Max's favorite pastimes. However, this time Rick was not obliging. Rick gently pushed deeper in before he started the short thrusts he had learned to use to sexually torment Max. In and out, teasing with touch that wasn't quite enough. Max squirmed with need, but still Rick didn't change the too-gentle motion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're killing me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Often you complain using hyperbole so I discount further death complaints.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hey, now.\"\n\nRick thrust his tentacle in so hard and so fast that Max yelped as the tentacles forced his body to adjust. He arched his back and gripped the edge of the mattress as lust caused a temporary white-out of all active brain cells. A few of the less important ones near the edge might have even leaked out of an ear. While Max was still trying to catch his breath, Rick slipped a second tentacle inside him. Max felt the tiny undulating fingers pulling at his rim." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Careful,\" Max warned.\n\nRick crawled over Max's right leg before he settled on the small of Max's back. For a medium-sized octopus, he was a heavy bugger. \"Always with you much care,\" Rick promised. The tentacles paused for a few seconds, and then the smaller one eased in and pulled out. Max's rim ached at the stretch, and he tried to spread his legs, but he was tangled with even more tentacles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He moaned as he lost control of his body." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He thrust down into the bed, and Rick bounced on his back as Max bucked. Then Rick did something with the first tentacle. He balled up the end or spread his tentacle fingers or something because Max was full and aching and gloriously well-fucked all at once.\n\n\"Fuck, yes.\"\n\n\"Yes, I am fucking,\" Rick agreed, and then he pistoned his tentacle in earnest. The smaller tentacle slammed into him while the larger one pressed deeper and deeper, filling Max until he squirmed helplessly, impaled on Rick's talented tentacles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am good fucking,\" Rick announced in the world's most dramatic bit of understatement ever." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Max was losing his fucking mind, and he needed to come. Now. Before his last functional brain cell fell out of his head.\n\nRick pressed his tentacles deeper. The sensation was too much and too thick and not thick enough and just right and overwhelming and perfect and impossible all at once. Max wanted more, but the sharp edge of need threatened to cut through the lust-bliss he had going.\n\nHe reached for his cock, but two more tentacles tangled with his arm, pinning it down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then Rick shifted up and a long tongue ran along Max's shoulder. With a scream, Max came all over their bed. His body twitched through the longest and most intense orgasm of his life. He was left limp and spent and still stuffed full of tentacle.\n\nMax lay panting. It took several minutes before he could catch his breath, and in that time, Rick had shifted to one side, and he was playing with curling tentacles around and around Max's right arm and leg. \"You didn't get me pregnant again, did you?\" Max asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No. Do you wish for implantation of offspring?\" Rick asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Max pressed his forehead to the pillow. \"Nope. No, three is enough for now. We still have to get them sorted and in good careers.\" Max didn't say it, but he also wanted to wait until he had the universe sorted. No children of his were going to get treated like trash. Nope. If Max had to shoot every prejudiced bastard in the universe one at a time, he would. He'd prefer to con them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And when the boys were ready to work, Max could front their inventions or they could find someone else to help. When the time came, they'd figure something out.\n\n\"If you wish the implantation of additional offspring, I am willing to implanting of additional offspring.\" Rick used a half dozen tentacles to trace circles on Max's body. Shivers of lust travelled like sparks under his skin, but Max's cock was worn out. Done. Finished. Spent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His cock might never work again, or at least not for a good hour." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Max smiled and rolled his head to one side. \"I would be happy to have more offspring later. Much later.\"\n\n\"Clarify. Query. Later days, later weeks, later months, later years, later decades.\"\n\n\"Later months, maybe,\" Max said. Right now he had other thoughts on his mind, and he didn't want to be dealing with the universe while pregnant. \"Query. Do you want more offspring sooner?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I wait for your approval of implantation of offspring.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But what do you want?\" Max asked.\n\nRick leaned his head against Max's shoulder. \"I want Max large with offspring and unable to leave ship or confront others. I want Max to stay ship until he grows appropriate number of eyes to watch enemy. I want Max to remember pleasure to return to when he is talking to others of universe.\"\n\nMax propped himself up on one elbow. \"Did you fuck me because you're afraid I won't come back?\" All the post-sex bliss evaporated like fog." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Clarify. I give more reason to return after talking to others of others peoples. Happiest place not on Earth.\"\n\nMax caught the nearest tentacle and brought it close enough for a kiss. All the fingers along the underside waved with pleasure. \"If we never had sex again, I would return because I love you. We agreed to be boring together.\"\n\n\"Others peoples are less boring.\" Rick's tentacles kinked up." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand on the story like Josie Riviera would, staying true to the romance, contemporary genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The next two weeks flew by in a pleasant flurry for Candee, as she and Teddy viewed prospective houses and stopped daily at the Victorian house." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd offered advice on cost-effective strategies to modernize, while staying true to the house's character." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though they'd viewed numerous modest properties more in sync with her nonexistent budget, none came close to matching the Victorian's architectural design, aesthetics, or sheer grandeur." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Together, she and Teddy researched adding a horse farm to the property; and she'd discovered that horses, with their unique nature, were considered mirrors of a person and an excellent choice for therapy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Furthermore, being around horses bolstered a person's self-confidence, as horses were believed to relieve stress." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You have the acreage,\" Teddy had encouraged her after they'd exhausted her property search." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the last afternoon before their departure to Miami, they volunteered at the shelter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When they were about to leave, a pregnant whimpering beagle was brought in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After the veterinarian examination, it was determined the dog was approximately fifty days pregnant and due to give birth to six puppies within the week." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where was the dog found?\" Teddy asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This poor beagle was left on the side of the road.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Candee gazed at the hound-dog look the beagle gave her, and her heart melted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I may not be able to travel to Miami with you, Teddy, considering how large the beagle's stomach is. I want to be here with her when she gives birth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd assured her they'd technically be gone for one day—traveling to Miami on Friday and returning to Roses on Sunday." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he knelt beside her, she whispered, \"After the beagle has her puppies, I want to keep her.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He raised his eyebrows." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you mean her or the puppies?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Both. A dog with puppies is costly for a shelter.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lightly, she caressed the dog's black and tan coat, and the dog didn't try to bite." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll be a foster mom until the pups can be adopted. All they need is a warm home.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And food and nursing and a loving caregiver,\" he murmured, recovering admirably from his shock." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He carefully carried the compact hound dog to her own enclosure with food and water, and Candee placed a worn blanket beneath the dog." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Try to eat, girl.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She offered the beagle a piece of fruit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The dog sniffed and slowly inched toward Candee's outstretched hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Beagles are known to be loving, gentle, and extremely sociable,\" Candee told Teddy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Seeing his expression as he brushed a sprinkling of dog hair, which resembled black pepper, from his vest, she assured, \"And beagles don't shed, except in the spring when they're ridding themselves of their winter coats.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You know a lot about these dogs.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the sound of Teddy's deep voice, the dog keenly watched him and wagged her tail." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why do you love beagles so much?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We owned a dog once, a sweet beagle, and Desiree and I were forced to leave her behind.\" She hesitated, not trusting her voice to continue. \"We called her 'Kisses.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The pregnant dog stared up at them with wide-set pleading hazel eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"'Kisses.' Your dog's name was Kisses.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Apparently weighing his words, Teddy carefully replied, \"You're taking on a tremendous amount of work with a monstrous house filled with rubble and weeds and all these dogs.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I cannot abandon her. And in eight weeks her pups will be adoptable. And yes, I'm naming the beagle Kisses.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd been ready to puff up with indignation if he'd tried to discourage her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He didn't. Instead, he smiled and offered his assistance, agreeing that Kisses was a perfect name for a beagle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Stating he wanted to \"seal the Kisses decision,\" he pulled her close, his arms cradling her body as his lips passionately explored hers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hours later, Desiree joined them for a festive dinner at a new farm-to-table restaurant in downtown Roses." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although their table had ample room to accommodate the threesome comfortably, his muscled leg had touched Candee's throughout the meal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It seemed like he always made a point to keep her close to him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Teddy had laughingly concurred with Desiree as she waved a forkful of miniature crab cake and declared, \"No one in their right mind places a bid on a property that looks like a tumbledown haunted house. And now my sister is stepping up to take on a pregnant beagle about to give birth to a bunch of puppies?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"'Kisses needs a home,\" Candee said staunchly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And the children at the daycare can teach her and the puppies how to sit and stay and fetch.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And you'll need to hire a full-time staff,\" Teddy said while aiming a subtle nod at Desiree." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Although knowing you, Candee, you'll attempt to juggle everything yourself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You've offered to help, right?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He studied her face and replied, \"Yes, and I never go back on my word.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She stared up at him, his smiling features, the firm line of his jaw, enveloped by his commanding presence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His gaze locked with hers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Both of them completely disregarded her sister's presence as he lowered his head, his lips hovering close before he kissed her lightly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her breath caught as his bracing outdoor scent tingled her senses." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When she returned to her apartment that night, she fell into bed, pleasantly exhausted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As she did every night before retiring, she checked the bidding on the Victorian, relieved her twenty-thousand-dollar offer remained the highest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She courted sleep, although it didn't come." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was too excited, her thoughts humming with elated expectation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soon she would own her dream house, and she'd be building that dream with Teddy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, he lived in Miami and she lived in Roses, but with internet and phone calls and airplane travel, their relationship could continue to grow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her mood had lightened with each hour she'd spent with him, and life was definitely taking a turn she'd never expected." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Perhaps Desiree was right and Cupid's arrow had been aimed directly at Candee and Teddy.\n\nSighing contentedly, she rolled onto her stomach and drifted to sleep." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes as Jacqueline Carey in the fantasy, romance genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The house was perfect.\n\nAs Balthasar had said, it was situated on the outskirts of the City of Elua—a modest dwelling surrounded by trees, many of them evergreens. I strolled the grounds, inhaling deeply." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bao regarded me fondly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Have you been missing your wilderness?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have,\" I admitted, resting one hand on the rough bark of a graceful cypress tree. \"But this helps.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once inside, I was surprised to find that the house came equipped with elegant furnishings, as well as a staff that was modest by D'Angeline standards, but extravagant by mine—a steward, a cook, two maidservants, a footman, and a groom.\n\n\"We are here to serve at a moment's notice should any of the House wish to entertain here.\" The steward, Guillaume Norbert, was a grave fellow with silver-grey hair tied back in a severe braid, but he unbent enough to offer a faint smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Now we are here to serve at your pleasure, madame.\"\n\nI hoped I had sufficient funds to pay their wages.\n\nAs though reading my mind, the steward gave a discreet cough." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Of course, Lady Celestine has ordered all relevant details of our service to be directed to her factor.\"\n\n\"That's... very generous,\" I said.\n\nThere was quiet pride in his face, in the faces of all the household staff." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am pleased that you think so.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Moirin?\" Bao's voice came from another room. He sounded strange.\n\n\"Aye?\"\n\n\"Come see.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Guillaume Norbert arched his brows. \"I believe messire has found the seraglio.\"\n\nI found Bao in a sumptuous room beyond the far doors of the dining hall, covered with Akkadian carpets, strewn with cushions, and outfitted with many of the accoutrements of violent love-play the Shahrizai favored, including a tall, glass-fronted case that displayed an array of whips and paddles, and a tall wooden wheel equipped with four leather manacles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bao spun the wheel. \"Huh.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Does messire desire a demonstration?\" the steward inquired with perfect equanimity, beckoning to the younger of the two maidservants. She stepped forward willingly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No!\" Bao backed away from the wheel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, messire does not.\" He eyed me uncertainly. \"Does he?\"\n\n\"No.\" I reached out to halt the wheel's spinning. \"I think not.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The steward Guillaume inclined his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Shall I have these items removed, madame?\"\n\n\"No.\" I gazed at the weathered wood and the leather manacles, wondering who had worn them and what pleasures they had found in it. \"Let them stay for now. It is a part of the house's history.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"As you will.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was one item I did ask to have removed—an iron hook that hung on a chain from the highest rafter of the master bedchamber. What it had been used for, I could not even begin to guess, but I felt better for having it gone.\n\nAfter that, Bao and I settled quite comfortably into our new lodgings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As expected, the news of House Shahrizai's patronage caused ripples in the City of Elua; but overall the tide of fortune continued to turn in our favor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "First and foremost came a message of support from the Cruarch of Alba." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had never met Faolan mab Sibeal, the Cruarch of Alba. But he had a name for being a strong, just ruler; and he was a kinsman, a descendant of Alais the Wise. His message was brief but succinct, thanking and congratulating King Daniel for making a choice that acknowledged the shared heritage and long-standing history that lay between Alba and Terre d'Ange." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How?\" I asked when I heard the news, glad but bewildered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I thought the Straits were impassable in the winter!\"\n\n\"They are for ships.\" Bao's eyes glinted. \"But Naamah's temples use doves to carry messages. You didn't know?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I shook my head. \"I did not.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They say at Eglantine House that the monarchs of both realms have tried to duplicate the feat,\" Bao offered. \"Without success. The doves fly only for priests of Naamah's Order.\"\n\nMy father confirmed it when I met with him the following day." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, yes,\" he said. \" 'Tis an art honed over the centuries. We thought the Cruarch ought to know.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He looked tired to me, more tired than he ought. \"We?\" I asked.\n\n\"Naamah's Order, yes.\" My father gave me a faint smile. There were dark smudges beneath his green, green eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I had the honor of playing a part in the decision.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That must not have sat well with his grace the Royal Minister,\" I said softly.\n\nMy father didn't deny it. \"My lord Rogier is... concerned... that the orders of the priesthood have involved themselves in politics. First Eisheth's Order, and now Naamah's.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He knuckled his eyes and yawned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But we discussed it into the small hours of the night, and I believe he understands that this is a courtesy we felt compelled to extend to the Cruarch, not some nefarious plot to undermine his influence.\"\n\nI touched his crimson sleeve. \"I'm sorry. I never meant to put you in an awkward situation.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "His gaze cleared. \"Nor did you, Moirin. It's nothing, I promise.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He changed the subject. \"So tell me, how are the plans for Eglantine House's spectacle progressing? Everyone in the City is perishing of curiosity.\"\n\nI laughed. \"I've no idea. Bao's taken to being almighty secretive about the entire thing. All I know is that he's consulting with the master of props to devise somewhat he claims has never been seen in Terre d'Ange. And if Bao's boasting, like as not he'll make good on his claim.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My father smiled. \"I rather like that young man.\"\n\n\"He rather likes you,\" I said. \"I think you may have been the first D'Angeline he did like. I certainly wasn't.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He laughed, too. \"Well, he's more than changed his mind on that score. You've done well together, the two of you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His expression turned serious. \"I'm very proud of the way you've dealt with this business, Moirin. You've handled it with grace and thoughtfulness.\"\n\nI kissed his cheek." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you. It means a good deal to me to know you think so.\"\n\n\"I do,\" he affirmed.\n\nPlans continued apace, secretive and otherwise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Benoit Vallon summoned Bao and me to Atelier Favrielle for a fitting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Like all his work, the wardrobe he had created for Bao was elegant in its simplicity: close-fitting black breeches that tucked into boots, and creamy white shirts that lay open at the neck, with a bare minimum of ruffle at the cuff." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd sewn the black-and-white magpie square onto the back of a black velvet coat that fell to knee-length, also fitted, but loose enough to permit freedom of movement. It looked D'Angeline, but it spoke of Ch'in, too.\n\n\"I like it,\" Bao said decisively, examining himself in the mirror and adjusting his cuffs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I like it very much. Moirin?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You look splendid,\" I assured him.\n\nHe preened. \"I do, don't I?\"\n\nFor me, the couturiere had created a series of gowns in deep jewel-toned hues: emerald, ruby, amethyst." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had used the sari fabric as subtle accents to complement the gowns, hints of their ornate richness revealed in the borders and linings. I had to own, it was a clever usage, though I was glad I'd kept a few back.\n\n\"This is what you will wear to the oath-swearing ceremony, my lady,\" Benoit announced, a gown of pale gold brocade fabric over his arm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was the piece on which he had used the square of embroidered bamboo, cutting it apart and reassembling it as a high collar that framed my face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The green and gold silk harmonized surprisingly well with the gold brocade." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Very nice.\" Benoit fussed with the collar. \"You see the effect it creates? As though you are rising from a bamboo grove like some... some exotic young goddess.\" He scowled uncertainly at my reflection." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you angry that I did not keep the square intact?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the first time I'd ever heard him sound nervous. \"No, Messire Vallon,\" I said. \"It's beautiful.\"\n\nHis scowl vanished. \"Ah, good! My thought was to use both pieces in a symbolic manner.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He laid one hand on Bao's shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The magpie square represents the love of your distant mother, spread across your shoulders like a protective cloak. And this...\" He traced the line of my bamboo-embroidered collar. \"This represents the embrace of your distant sister, placing her arms around your neck.\"\n\nMy breath caught in my throat as I thought of Bao's mother and sister; so far away, so briefly met." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was unlikely we'd ever see them again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, that's lovely! Thank you, Messire Vallon.\"\n\nBao nodded, his eyes bright with unshed tears. \"Very lovely. Thank you for honoring them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Benoit Vallon's scowl returned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, now! If you want to thank me, you'll grant me an invitation to the ceremony.\" He gave a loud sniff. \"I'd rather not have to take my chances on the lottery like the common rabble.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: The user will write a bit then you need to write around 2 sentences continuing directly from the user's text.\n\nGenre: fantasy, romance" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A week before the oath-swearing ceremony, a lottery was held for the commonfolk of the City. By the excitement it generated, I daresay it was one of the better ideas Lianne Tremaine had given me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The royal theater in which the ceremony and ensuing celebratory spectacle was to take place had seats for two hundred, with standing room for another fifty or so. While the seats were reserved for peers of the realm, King Daniel had agreed that invitations for the standing spaces should be allotted to ordinary folk and determined by lottery." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One had gone to Benoit Vallon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No doubt he would have preferred a seat in one of the boxes, but my influence extended only so far.\n\nForty-nine would be drawn from a great urn in Elua's Square." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Notices had been posted on broadsheets about the City." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The day dawned bright and cold, cold enough that one's breath frosted the air, but the cold did nothing to deter D'Angelines eager for a spectacle. By mid-day when the lots were to be drawn, Elua's Square was filled with a throng of people." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Young Princess Desirée had begged to be allowed to attend, but the King had refused, citing the difficulty of protecting a small child amidst a crowd. Gazing at the throng, I had to agree." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is fun, isn't it?\" Beneath the leafless crown of Elua's Oak where a dais had been erected, Bao nudged me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He cut a striking figure in his black-and-white magpie coat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I smiled. \"Aye, it is.\"\n\nTradesmen, shopkeepers, and housewives called out good-natured pleas for a chance at the lottery, promising all manner of extravagant bribes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The squadron of royal guardsmen dispatched to maintain order attempted to shout them down in an equally good-natured manner, keeping rough track of who had arrived first, thus deserving the first crack at the lottery." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The urn itself was a massive thing, dark blue enamel etched in silver with the swan insignia of House Courcel. It rested in a stand atop the dais, canted toward the crowd." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had a narrow opening, but its large, rounded belly contained some five hundred porcelain tiles stamped with the royal seal, forty-nine of which were gilded and could be presented to admit the bearer to the ceremony.\n\nAs the sun climbed toward its zenith, the crowd grew louder and louder; but it was a joyous sound, and I was glad of it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There were a handful of others on the dais with us, including the Secretary of the Presence representing the King's authority, and a priest or priestess representing each of the orders of Blessed Elua and his Companions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My father was there for Naamah's Order, smiling with quiet pride. But it was Bao and I who were presiding over the event, and it was toward us that the eager, hopeful citizens directed their shouts and pleas." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A great cheer arose as distant bells sounded the hour." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Captain of the Royal Guard offered me a courtly bow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you ready, my lady?\"\n\n\"I am, my lord captain.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Raising my voice, I called, \"Let the lottery begin!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The crowd cheered again.\n\nWith a smile, the captain ushered the first aspirant forward." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A burly fellow with a blacksmith's knotted muscles stuck his meaty hand into the mouth of the urn, fishing around inside it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had a difficult time drawing his clenched fist out, prompting laughter and cat-calls from the crowd.\n\n\"Maybe we need to send for some goose-grease, Moirin?\" Bao suggested cheerfully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, no! Not yet!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Easing his hand out of the aperture, the smith opened it to show us a white porcelain tile. \"No luck today, eh?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm sorry, messire,\" I offered with sympathy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He lifted his wide shoulders in a shrug. \"Still, it's something to tell the grandchildren, eh? Thank you for the chance, lady,\" he added." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not many folk would have thought of it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nor did I,\" I said honestly. As much as I would have liked to take credit for the notion, it seemed unworthy—especially with my father and assorted priests and priestesses in attendance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I must confess, the idea was another's.\"\n\nThe smith laughed deep in his chest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ah, gods! It took a bear-witch to make an honest peer!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He thrust out one big hand. \"I like you better for it, lady. You keep that young princess safe now, mind?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I leaned down and clasped his hand, squeezing it warmly. \"I swear I will do my utmost.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The crowd liked that, too." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One by one they came to take their chances at the urn, escorted by the solicitous guardsmen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "None of the first dozen had the good fortune to draw a gilded tile, but they bore their failures in good spirits. Many of them took the opportunity to beg blessings of one or more of the priests on the dais." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Many of them thanked me, too, waving aside any protestations on my part." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had entered D'Angeline society as Raphael de Mereliot's unlikely protégée, and I had left it as Jehanne de la Courcel's unlikely companion. But that day, on the dais beneath Elua's Oak, surrounded by ordinary citizens of the realm, was the first time I truly felt myself to be part of Terre d'Ange and its folk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When an elderly woman supported by a pair of strapping grandsons drew the first gilded tile and opened her trembling fist to show it to me, her eyes damp with gratitude, I cheered as loudly as anyone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bao whooped and did a careless handspring, pleasing the crowd further.\n\nI laughed for sheer gladness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So it went throughout the day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It took several hours. I commiserated and congratulated until the urn was empty, and the royal guardsmen had to disperse the lingering crowd." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My father embraced me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That,\" he said, \"was exceedingly well done, daughter of mine.\"\n\nI gave him a tired smile. \"Was it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It was,\" he said firmly.\n\nElua's priestess stepped forward, clad in sky-blue robes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You did well, Lady Moirin,\" she affirmed. \"Very well. Have you given thanks to the gods?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I shook my head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You should.\" She kissed my cheek. \"Think on it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I prayed in my own way that day, laying my hands on the trunk of Elua's Oak and communing with it.\n\nOnce again, I felt its age." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It remembered. It had been planted by Blessed Elua himself long centuries ago when there was no City, only a tiny village in a river valley." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Elua had held an acorn cupped in his hands, and his Companion Anael the Good Steward had blown on it, coaxing it to grow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Together, Elua and Anael had planted it here, and the City had grown around it.\n\nMy father was descended from Anael's line as well as Naamah's, and it seemed I had inherited that gift, sparked to life by the inherent magic of the Maghuin Dhonn." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I still wondered what it meant." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In Bhaktipur, I had coaxed a field of marigolds to bloom out of season, spending my strength to breathe summer into winter, creating a miracle that lent the appearance of divine approval to the sweeping change the Rani Amrita was implementing. Ordinary folk had celebrated that day, too, weeping and laughing and rejoicing; most especially the folk of the lowest caste, those reckoned unclean and untouchable." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mayhap it was enough." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It ought to be, but I wasn't sure.\n\nElua's Oak held no answers, only memories and the sleepy thoughts of impending winter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I took my hands away to find the guards waiting patiently, and Bao regarding me with fond bemusement." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you are done talking to the tree, Moirin, I think the priestess' suggestion is a good one,\" he said. \"I have not visited any of the temples of the gods of Terre d'Ange but Naamah's.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And I have not visited them since Jehanne was trying to get with child and had little time for me,\" I said softly, remembering." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It would be good to visit them again, to thank the gods for their gifts and offer prayers on Desirée's behalf.\"\n\nBao nodded. \"It seems fitting.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the days leading up to the ceremony, we made a pilgrimage of the City's temples, beginning with the Temple of Eisheth where the feisty Sister Marianne Prichard presided." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She gave me a firm hug in welcome, unexpectedly strong for her age. \"Have you come to light a candle to Eisheth, Lady Moirin?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No.\" I smiled. \"Not yet.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sister Marianne cast a dubious eye on me. \"Don't wait too long, child! How old are you now?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I hazarded a guess. \"Twenty... one?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We've come to give thanks and make an offering on the young princess' behalf,\" Bao interjected. \"Later, perhaps, I can persuade Moirin to beseech Eisheth to open the gate of her womb.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The elderly priestess chuckled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You do that, lad! Spring's a good time, when all the world is fertile.\"\n\n\"Fat babies,\" Bao reminded me. \"Round as dumplings.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My diadh-anam flickered, telling me it was not time yet; and I knew Bao felt it, too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We will see, my magpie.\"\n\nThere was a garden in the inner sanctum of Eisheth's temple where a spring burbled through the rocks to feed a natural pool." }, { "from": "human", "value": "An effigy of the goddess knelt beside it, her cupped hands extended over the healing waters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Having paid our tithes, Bao and I made our offerings, pouring incense of hyssop and cedar gum into Eisheth's hands and kindling the incense with wax tapers.\n\nFragrant smoke rose." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The marble effigy knelt, streaked with traces of green moss, her head bowed in modesty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We knelt, too.\n\nI breathed through a cycle of the Five Styles, clearing my mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I gave thanks to Eisheth for her gifts of healing and music, and for the kindness she had shown us in sending one of her priestesses to tend to my lady Jehanne's daughter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I prayed that Eisheth would ever grant good health to Desirée. When we had finished, both Bao and I dipped our hands in the sacred pool and drank the healing waters with their acrid tang of minerals." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It felt good and right." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the temple of martial Camael, I meditated on the battles I had seen, gave thanks for having survived them, and prayed that Desirée would ever be spared the horrors of war.\n\nI felt myself humble at the Temple of Shemhazai, the greatest scholar among Elua's Companions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I thanked him for his gifts, and prayed that he would grace Desirée with wisdom.\n\nBao gazed for a long time at the effigy of Azza, whose gift to the D'Angeline folk was pride and knowledge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Azza held a sextant with which to explore the world in one hand, the other raised in warning." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What are you thinking?\" I asked Bao." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am thinking that pride is a dangerous gift,\" he murmured. \"But betimes a necessary one.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I prayed that Desirée would find pride in good measure." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At Anael's temple, I gave thanks for the gift that the Good Steward had given me. I prayed that I might be worthy of it, whatever its ultimate purpose, and that the young princess might grow up to understand the worth of tending to the world with loving care." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We visited the great Temple of Naamah in the City, releasing doves beneath the dome of the temple and laughing, confident in the bright lady's love." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I thanked her for the gifts, so many gifts, that she had given me; and for allowing me to serve as the vessel for her blessing.\n\nI prayed that Desirée would know it, too." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And I understood Kushiel's worship far better than I had the first time when we visited his temple." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Expiation.\n\nThe penitents who sought out Kushiel's untender mercies had cause." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I gazed at the bronze-faced effigy with his rod and flail crossed on his breast, remembering the penance that the Patriarch of Riva had laid upon me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had not found expiation in it, but nor had I believed myself guilty of sin. Valentina, who had freed me, told me she had found comfort in performing penance for her own sins; and I understood that it was a gift for those in need." }, { "from": "human", "value": "By the expression on his face, Bao was thinking similar thoughts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I punished myself in Kurugiri,\" he said somberly. \"This way is better.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is,\" I agreed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There, I prayed that Desirée would never be in need of such penance; but that if she did, she would find comfort in Kushiel's mercy.\n\nLastly, on the eve of the ceremony, we paid a visit to the great Temple of Elua." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was the oldest temple in the City." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the antechamber, a priest and priestess welcomed us with the kiss of greeting and accepted our tithes. A graceful acolyte knelt and removed our shoes and stockings that we might walk unshod in the presence of Blessed Elua, and gave us garlands of dried anemone flowers for our offering." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ground was cold and hard beneath our bare feet, the autumn grass damp and yellow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Blessed Elua's marble effigy towered atop an altar beneath the open sky, flanked by four roofless pillars and oak trees almost as ancient as Elua's Oak in the square of the City.\n\nThe statue of Elua smiled down upon us, one hand extended in offering, the other cupped to reveal the mark of the wound he had inflicted upon himself in reply to the One God's messenger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My grandfather's Heaven is bloodless, and I am not.\n\nWithout thinking, I summoned the twilight for the first time in many weeks, drawing it deep into my lungs and breathing it out, spinning it around Bao and myself like a cloak." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bao uttered a startled sound." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the soft, muted hues of the twilight, Elua's effigy glimmered, shadows in the creases of his smile. I laid my garland of dried flowers on the altar, and stooped to press my lips to Elua's marble foot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In my heart, I thanked him for the many gifts of love that had graced my life." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And ah, gods! I had been blessed.\n\nFrom the stalwart love of my mother in Alba to the discovery of my father in Terre d'Ange; from Cillian's youthful ardor and friendship to the mercurial affections of my lady Jehanne, whose daughter I would vow to protect on the morrow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Noble Master Lo Feng." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My proud, reserved princess, Snow Tiger; my treasured friend, the celestial dragon whose spirit she had harbored within her mortal flesh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My sweet boy Aleksei, and my golden, laughing Rani Amrita." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All the myriad folk I'd met along the way who had shown me kindness and generosity.\n\nBao." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He, too, laid his garland on the altar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Our eyes met in the twilight. \"I am grateful for the gift of you, Moirin.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I nodded. \"And I, you.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Beneath the twilit shadow of Elua's effigy, Bao kissed me, the shared spark of our diadh-anam entwining.\n\nI wound my arms around his neck and returned his kiss; and I prayed with all my heart that Blessed Elua would be as kind and gracious to the young princess Desirée as he had been to me.\n\nElua smiled." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding two sentences in the fantasy, romance genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At dawn on the morrow, we set sail for Terra Nova on the ship Naamah's Dove.\n\nThere was no ceremony, no great fanfare, all of that having taken place at the previous night's dinner, only a handful of folk saying one last farewell to loved ones." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My father came to the wharf to see us off, looking out of place in his elegant priest's crimson robes, his oak-brown hair loose and shining on his shoulders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You have the letter for my mother?\" I asked him.\n\nHe nodded. \"I do. And I will deliver it in person, I promise.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For the first time, I saw that there were fine lines on his face, fanning from the corners of his green, green eyes.\n\nIt made my heart ache." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you,\" I whispered, embracing him. \"Thank you for all the kindness you have given me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My father held me. \"How could I not?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Aboard the ship, a sharp whistle sounded. Septimus Rousse leaned over the railing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lady Moirin!\" he called in a good-natured tone. \"Come aboard, won't you? We're losing daylight.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reluctantly, I released my father.\n\nHe turned to Bao. \"Keep her safe?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bao clasped one hand over his fist, bowing in the Ch'in manner." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It is my life's mission, Brother Phanuel.\"\n\nAnd then there was nothing left to say, nothing left to do but board the ship." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Another ship, another journey." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We cast off from the wharf and began to make our way down the broad surface of the Aviline River." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I stood in the stern and watched as the figure of my father dwindled to a crimson speck, and then vanished altogether as the white walls of the City of Elua fell away behind us.\n\n\"So we're off on another adventure,\" Bao said softly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, and I expect it's going to be every bit as dreadful as I feared,\" Balthasar Shahrizai announced, joining us with Denis de Toluard in tow. \"Have you seen the size of the cabins?\" He shuddered. \"Ghastly.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"At least you have a cabin, my lord!\" one of the sailors called cheerfully to him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you want to see truly cramped quarters, come sling a hammock in the main berth!\"\n\nBalthasar gave the fellow a jaundiced look. \"I think not.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bao laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. \"You'll get used to it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He shuddered again. \"Elua have mercy, I hope not! Months on end of living cheek by jowl with a motley group of increasingly malodorous, malnourished adventurers... no, no thank you.\"\n\n\"Are you going to carry on like this for the entire trip?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Denis de Toluard asked with asperity.\n\n\"I might,\" Balthasar admitted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The other rolled his eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You didn't have to come, you know. It would have been enough to back it.\"\n\n\"Actually, it wouldn't.\" Balthasar's gaze fell on me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You may not think much of my sense of honor, Denis, but I couldn't have abided knowing a young woman's courage put mine to shame.\" He shrugged. \"So here I am. Now, shouldn't we be singing sea shanties or throwing the old knucklebones or some such thing? Something nautical to while away the tedium?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I laughed. \"Give it a few hours, my lord. We've only just set sail.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He heaved a dramatic sigh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's going to be a very, very long journey, isn't it?\"\n\nFor a surety, it was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the days passed, we settled into a routine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bao and I shared a narrow berth in a small cabin off one of the two wardrooms, with the remaining five cabins occupied by Balthasar Shahrizai, Denis de Toluard, and three other ranking noblemen: a hot-tempered Azzallese baron's son named Alain Guillard; a steady L'Agnacite fellow named Brice de Bretel, younger brother of another baron; and the third son of a Namarrese comte, copper-haired Clemente DuBois, who had a tendency to make bad jokes whenever he was nervous." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once we passed the harbor of Pellasus and left the relative placidity of the Aviline River for the open sea, that was quite often.\n\nThere were times when I could understand why sailors loved the sea, both for its endless beauty and the primordial challenge it offered; but I will own, they were few and far between." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For better or worse, I was a creature of earth and trees and green growing things, and I didn't like being away from land." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In my experience, sea voyages entailed long periods of tedium broken up by storm-tossed hours of terror." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still, we endured.\n\nAs the only woman aboard the ship, not to mention a bear-witch of the Maghuin Dhonn whose vision had launched the expedition, I was an object of curiosity; but for the most part, both the crew and our force of fighting men were polite and respectful." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bit by bit, I came to know most of them by name.\n\nOn most evenings when the weather was good, Captain Rousse invited Bao and me, and usually Balthasar and Denis, to dine in his cabin, which was larger and more well appointed than our wardroom." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Septimus Rousse was a clever fellow beneath his bluff good cheer, and I soon came to value him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On our first evening together, he posed a blunt question to me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So tell me, Lady Moirin, what did your vision show you?\" he inquired. \"Do you know where to find his highness? What's befallen him?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I wish I did,\" I said with regret." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But no, I'm afraid not. All it told me is that Thierry's alive. That is the only thing of which I'm certain.\"\n\nHe sighed. \"The gods are stingy with their directions, aren't they?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I nodded. \"That they are, my lord captain.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Septimus Rousse slapped a broad hand down on the table." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If the table hadn't been bolted to the floor, it would have jumped; I know I did." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"With your permission, I'd like to come with you, my lady.\"\n\nI raised my brows. \"On the search?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Aye, on the search!\" He leaned forward. \"Why not? I've got a good crew and an able first mate in Alaric Dumont, one of the best, a genuine descendant of Philippe Dumont. If anything were to happen to me, you'd be in good hands.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Assuming whatever happened to you didn't happen to the rest of us,\" Balthasar Shahrizai observed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"True enough.\" Captain Rousse grinned at him. \"The jungles of Terra Nova! We could all die out there, couldn't we?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In ever so many ways,\" Balthasar agreed with a sidelong glance at Denis de Toluard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Or so I'm given to understand.\"\n\nDenis frowned. \"Would you prefer I painted an unrealistic picture of the dangers we face?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"His highness Prince Thierry was bound for a mighty river in search of this alleged empire, wasn't he?\" Septimus Rousse asked shrewdly, ignoring their bickering." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He reached around the table with one long arm, pouring each of us a measure of perry brandy from a decanter. \"Tell me, what do the lot of you know about navigating rivers?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bao coughed. \"Quite a bit, actually. There are mighty rivers in Ch'in.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I kicked his shins beneath the table." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But doubtless not as much as you, lord captain,\" he offered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We would be grateful for your aid and expertise, my lord,\" I added. \"If you are truly minded to accompany us, I accept the offer with gratitude.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Septimus Rousse hoisted his snifter of perry brandy, swirling and studying it before tossing it back in one gulp. \"Done and done!\" he proclaimed, slamming the empty snifter onto the table." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm coming with you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was glad.\n\nDays wore onto weeks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We sailed and sailed, Naamah's Dove riding abreast the waves, bellying her way over the swelling crests, plunging into the troughs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Captain Rousse studied his charts, studied the night skies, consulted his sextant, plotting our course across the trackless ocean. His capable sailors went about their business, fearless and uncomplaining." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The rest of us simply did our best to stay out of their way and pass the time as best we might—reading or telling tales, playing at dice or card games, studying the Nahuatl tongue under Denis de Toluard's tutelage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was every bit as tiresome and cramped as Balthasar had predicted, and with a limited supply of fresh water for bathing, we did indeed grow increasingly malodorous." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For me, there was also a certain loneliness at being the only woman in the expedition. Despite the fact that the men were polite and respectful, there was a rough-hewn sense of camaraderie among them that excluded me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Men have their own way of communicating, their own set of jests and boasts. When the seas were calm enough to permit it, they sparred with one another on the decks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even when the seas were choppy, they scuffled and arm-wrestled and found ways of testing one another's strengths.\n\nI didn't begrudge them, but it left me feeling isolated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It wasn't the first time I'd been the sole woman in the company of men, but never before had I been confined in close quarters with so many of them for such a long time.\n\nWhen I dreamed of Jehanne some six weeks into our journey, it was a welcome relief." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Once again, I was back in the Palace, standing in the marble hallway before the door to my plant-laden bower." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This time, I smiled as I opened it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hello, Moirin.\" Jehanne's blue-grey eyes sparkled at me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was sitting curled on my bed clad in only a thin shift of white silk, her fair hair loose and shining over her shoulders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The wonderful fragrance of her perfume mingled with the green scent of sun-warmed plants. \"Have you missed me?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Always.\" I closed the door behind me. \"Have you a message for me, my lady? Have the gods deigned to grant you further knowledge?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Mayhap.\" Jehanne tilted her head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Or mayhap it was your loneliness that drew me out of mine. Come and kiss me.\"\n\nI obeyed gladly; glad, too, that in my dream, I was freshly scrubbed and clean, clad in clean attire." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Again, please,\" Jehanne said; and there was a vast ache of loneliness in her voice, vast enough to put mine to shame." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I climbed onto the bed beside her and slid my hands into the shimmering, silken curtain of her hair, pulling her against me and kissing her thoroughly and deeply. When at last I released her, she shuddered all over and sighed with profound gratitude. \"Thank you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I stroked her bare arm, marveling at how real it felt. \"Is this about Thierry?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No.\" Her star-bright eyes were filled with candor and regret." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I wish it were.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I couldn't help sighing. \"Why are the gods so stingy with their directions?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She didn't answer right away, watching my fingertips trail over her fine, fine skin. \"There is a balance that must be maintained, Moirin,\" she said at length." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Even gods dare not upset it with their interventions, lest all the worlds crumble. Did not the dragon tell you as much in Ch'in?\"\n\nI blinked. \"You know about the dragon?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jehanne smiled with quiet sorrow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know many things, few of them useful. For instance, I know that Naamah has showered uncommon blessings on you, especially for one who had never pledged herself to her service. Would you not agree?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Aye, my lady,\" I said. \"But—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She laid a finger on my lips, silencing me. \"You have served her in your own way, I know.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You do?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, Moirin.\" Jehanne glanced at me beneath her lashes. \"I know about your Ch'in princess, and your broad-shouldered Vralian lad. I know about your wedding night. But I am here to tell you that the sacrifices Naamah asks of us may not always be so pleasant and easy. You have a hard choice coming.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What is it?\" I asked her.\n\nShe shook her head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am not allowed to say. Only to remind you that you have been blessed with uncommon grace.\"\n\n\"All right.\" I nodded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you. I will be mindful of it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good.\" Looking relieved, Jehanne wound her arms around my neck. \"Tell me you loved me best, Moirin,\" she murmured, kissing me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"At least among the women you've known. Lie if you must; I won't mind. I know I was not the most worthy among them.\"\n\n\"I loved you best,\" I said truthfully." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did you?\"\n\nI laughed. \"Yes, Jehanne. Worthy or not, among the women I have known, I love you best.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She gave me a sparkling look. \"I'm glad.\"\n\nAh, gods! It was true." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had come to cherish my friendship with my fiercely reserved Ch'in princess Snow Tiger, and I had delighted in her willingness to show her vulnerable side to me in asking for Naamah's blessing; and I would always be a little bit in love with my lovely Rani Amrita for her unfailing courage and the immense kindness she had shown me, not the least of which came about when I was tormented by Kamadeva's diamond, racked with desire beyond my control.\n\nBut neither of them was Jehanne, whom I had loved first and best." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: Story collab\nMe: Opening\nYou: two sentences more, Jacqueline Carey-style" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bao was already out of our narrow berth, reaching for his bamboo staff. I came out of sleep hard, still entangled in the remnants of my dream, imagining I could smell the lingering trace of Jehanne's perfume, feel the silken warmth of her arms wrapped around me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What is it?\" I asked sleepily. A jolt of alarm raced through me, and I sat upright." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ah, gods! Is it a fire?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bao shook his head. \"I don't know.\"\n\nBarefoot and sleep-disheveled, we raced topside, scrambling up the ladder, the other inhabitants of the wardroom hard on our heels." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the main deck, we found a grim-faced Denis de Toluard with one of Rousse's sailors in his custody, others surrounding them. In the dim light of the safety lanterns hanging from the masts, I couldn't tell who Denis had in his grip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Denis?\" I felt disoriented and bewildered. \"What passes here?\"\n\nCaptain Rousse pushed his way through the knot of sailors." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'd like to know that myself!\"\n\n\"Captain.\" Denis greeted him with a curt nod." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I couldn't sleep, so I came abovedeck for a bit of fresh air.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He shook the fellow by the scruff of his neck. \"I found this one slinking out of the chart-house.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And this shoved under his shirt.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Alaric Dumont, the first mate, showed the captain his thick logbook containing all his invaluable notes and charts. \"Pried the lock on the case by the look of it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What?\" Septimus Rousse sounded as bewildered as I felt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He peered at the fellow. \"Edouard? What in the world were you doing?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sailor didn't answer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I recognized him now, a tall Eisandine fellow I knew only as a hard worker.\n\n\"Edouard!\" The bewilderment in Captain Rousse's voice gave way to rising anger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He grabbed the front of the sailor's shirt in one fist." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tell me! What in the seven hells were you doing with my logbook?\"\n\n\"Nothing good,\" Bao muttered beside me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sailor kept his silence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With a roar of disgust, Rousse flung him to the deck, planting his feet and towering over him. \"Tell me!\"\n\nWhatever he was about, this Edouard had courage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He kept his mouth stubbornly shut on his secret." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All right, then.\" With an effort, Septimus Rousse took a step backward and collected himself. \"Alaric, put him under guard.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He glanced at the eastern horizon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Come dawn, we'll see if a spot of keelhauling will make him talk. Night shift, resume your posts.\" Turning to me, he bowed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My apologies, my lady. I assure you, the matter will be dealt with.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The crowd gathered on the deck dispersed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bao and I returned to our wardroom along with the others.\n\nNow that the crisis had been contained, I was wide-awake, my nerves jangling." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I daresay all of us were." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We kindled a lantern and sat at the long table that bisected the room, discussing the matter.\n\n\"Why would anyone steal the captain's logbook?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Brice de Bretel mused." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Name of Elua! We'd be lost at sea without it!\"\n\nBalthasar studied his fingernails. \"Precisely.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I swallowed hard. \"You think he meant to sabotage the expedition?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He shot me a look. \"What else?\"\n\n\"Rousse should have beaten a confession out of him!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Alain Guillard said in a fierce voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you familiar with the practice of keelhauling?\" Denis inquired. The other shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Believe me, the captain doesn't intend to go easy on him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What do you think, my lord Denis?\" I asked him. \"You're the one spotted the fellow. What was he planning to do with the logbook?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"At best, hide it. At worst...\" He shrugged. \"Dispose of it.\"\n\n\"But that's madness!\" Clemente DuBois' eyes were wide." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was alleged to be a skilled swordsman, but I wasn't overly impressed with his intellect." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why would anyone do such a thing? It would doom us all!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Most likely,\" Bao said in a pragmatic tone. \"I think that was the idea. For sure, it would doom the mission to failure.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Balthasar glanced up from his nails." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The more interesting question is, who put him up to it?\"\n\nThere was silence in the wardroom." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All of us, even slightly dim-witted Clemente DuBois, knew that the list of folk who stood to benefit from the failure of our expedition was a very, very short one." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Would he?\" I asked in wonder. \"Would Duc Rogier do such a thing?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Balthasar shrugged. \"Unless the man's stark, raving mad, someone did. Someone provided a damn powerful incentive to get a man to risk throwing his own life away just to scuttle our mission.\"\n\n\"We need a confession from him,\" Denis said in a low voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We need to know if there are others, or if he was working alone. And whatever else happens, whether we succeed or fail, if we live to see Terre d'Ange again, our noble Regent can't be allowed to get away with this.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's not going to be easy,\" Bao commented. \"Hard to get a man ready and willing to die to talk.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He'll talk,\" Denis predicted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Once he's had a taste of keelhauling, he'll talk. I saw it done to a sailor caught stealing rations on the first voyage.\" He shuddered. \"He'll beg for a chance to talk.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In that, he was wrong." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Come dawn, I found out exactly what the process of keelhauling entailed. In theory, it was simple." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A long rope was tied under the sailor Edouard's arms, and he was lowered overboard to be dragged alongside the ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I thought the threat of drowning must be the worst of it, but it was only part. After weeks at sea, the sharp-edged barnacles that clustered on the ship's hull tore at the fellow's flesh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Three times, Captain Rousse ordered Edouard lowered and dragged; and three times, he came up coughing and sputtering seawater and bleeding from increasingly numerous gashes, his clothing in tatters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Each time, he refused to break his silence.\n\nBy the third time, Edouard was half-drowned, lying limp and listless on the deck, leaking fluids." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Septimus Rousse prodded him with a booted toe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Would you rather the flogger?\" he asked. \"That's what's next for you, my lad.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I winced.\n\n\"My lord captain,\" Balthasar addressed him in a casual tone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Forgive me for this breach of protocol, but I have a proposal.\" His dark blue eyes glinted, and I felt the uneasy stirring of his gift and a sharp taste like metal in my mouth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"As no doubt you know, members of House Shahrizai are well versed in... certain arts, which can be put to many uses. And it's been far, far too long since I had a chance to employ them.\" He bared his teeth in a smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Would you be willing to consider allowing me to question this man?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the deck, Edouard made a faint sound of protest.\n\nThe captain gave Balthasar a long, considering look." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You know, that's not the worst idea I've heard.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Balthasar's smile widened. \"I'm glad you think so.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He nodded at the prone sailor. \"Have him cleaned up, put some dry clothes on him, and bring him to the wardroom. I don't want him dripping and bleeding all over the place. Yet.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although I didn't want to undermine him in public, belowdeck I confronted Balthasar. \"My lord, you're proposing to torture the fellow for your own pleasure! I cannot condone it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If it works, does it matter whether or not I take pleasure in it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he inquired. \"How is that worse than the punishment the captain's already meted out? Or the further punishment he had in store?\"\n\n\"It's just... wrong!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sighed. \"Moirin, listen. What I proposed and what I plan to do are not entirely the same thing. Tell me, have I earned a measure of trust from you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reluctantly, I nodded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then give it to me now.\" Balthasar's gaze was steady and grave." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I swear on my honor, I know what I'm doing.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Clemente DuBois essayed a feeble jest. \"Couldn't you find something more convincing to swear on?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Balthasar ignored him. \"I would ask all of you to trust me,\" he said, glancing around the wardroom." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Watch, but don't intervene. And if I ask you to leave us alone, go immediately. Are we agreed?\"\n\nAfter a pause, everyone nodded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good. Now someone go find out the fellow's surname for me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In short order, one Edouard Durel was escorted to the wardroom with his hands tied behind his back. He was clad in dry clothing, and his wounds had been dusted with powdered alum to halt the bleeding." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although his expression was stoic, I could smell acrid fear-sweat on him.\n\nI daresay Balthasar could, too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Edouard Durel,\" he drawled in greeting, pointing at the long table with the tip of his belt knife. \"Do have a seat, won't you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The fellow sat. The rest of us stood in the doorways of our cabins, watching while Balthasar paced around the table, toying idly with his knife." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Light from the lantern glinted on its razor-sharp edges. The sailor tracked Balthasar's progress warily." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not a very pretty toy, is it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Balthasar said apologetically, pausing to stroke the sailor's cheek with one keen edge. \"Pity I didn't bring a set of flechettes, but I didn't think I'd have a chance to play.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Leaning down, he whispered in the fellow's ear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you so very much for this opportunity. I've never inflicted pain on anyone against their will, but I must confess, I've always wondered what it would be like.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cords in the man's neck tightened. \"You commit heresy!\"\n\n\"Do you think so?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Balthasar increased the pressure, opening a thin gash, which he then probed lovingly with the tip, working it beneath the skin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sailor gritted his teeth. I caught my breath, and Bao squeezed my arm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't see it that way at all. Mayhap you would be interested in hearing my perspective?\"\n\nThe sailor didn't answer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You are a thief, Messire Durel.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Balthasar prowled around the table and took a seat opposite the fellow. His eyes were unnaturally bright in the lamplight, pupils dilated with arousal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That is not in question. And since your actions could quite possibly have doomed the lot of us to death by starvation or worse, one might consider you guilty of attempted murder. I do.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Edouard Durel looked away.\n\n\"Mighty Kushiel was in charge of administering punishment to the damned.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a terrible tenderness in Balthasar's voice. \"They say he loved his charges too well. You have condemned yourself to Kushiel's ungentle mercy, Messire Durel, and as a proud scion of Kushiel's line, it is my duty as well as my pleasure to administer it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He stroked the blade of his knife." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How well shall I come to love you, I wonder?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I didn't kill anyone!\" Sweat beaded on the sailor's brow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You can't punish me for something that never happened!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Balthasar made a tsk-tsk sound." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you imagine Kushiel does not judge you for your intentions?\" he asked, leaning across the table to tickle the fellow under his chin with the knife tip. \"Hmm?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Durel jerked his head backward. \"You cannot prove it!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ah, well, no. But I have the certitude of faith, and I am willing to risk my immortal soul for it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Balthasar prodded harder. \"Tell me, did you intend to hide the logbook or toss it overboard?\"\n\nThe sailor resumed his silence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No matter.\" Balthasar withdrew the knife and took a whetstone from his purse, running it over the blade's edge in a hypnotic rhythm, his overbright gaze fixed on Edouard's face. \"More important, who are you protecting?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Again, the fellow looked away, his jaw tight.\n\n\"Oh, I don't mean the Regent, or whoever put you up to this.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Balthasar waved the knife in a careless gesture." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, no. I'll come to that in time. Right now, I'm interested in getting to know you, Messire Durel.\" He leaned forward, propping his elbows on the table and resting his chin on his fists, still holding the knife and whetstone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You attempted a heinous deed that might well have condemned you to a miserable death along with the rest of us. What stakes could possibly be high enough to prompt a man to do such a thing?\"\n\nEdouard Durel was sweating profusely now, sweat running in sheets down his face, mingling with the blood from the gash on his cheek." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The wardroom stank of his fear, and I felt more than a little sick." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah, now I begin to see! You got yourself in trouble, didn't you?\" Balthasar asked softly. The sympathy in his tone sounded genuine, and for all I knew, it was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who was going to pay the price for it?\"\n\n\"No one!\" the sailor choked out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Aged parents, vulnerable in their twilight years?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Balthasar speculated. \"A younger brother who fell in with a bad crowd? No?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He tapped the table with the hilt of his knife, thinking. \"The wife and children?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Durel flinched as though he'd been struck, tears filling his eyes and spilling down his cheeks. Kushiel's mercy, indeed. Somewhere, I thought I heard the sound of bronze wings clashing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ah. And there we have it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Balthasar Shahrizai laid down the knife and whetstone, folding his hands atop the table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His handsome face was solemn and stern, and the air in the wardroom was thick with the barbed coils of his gift. \"Edouard Durel, I speak for mighty Kushiel himself when I tell you that there is only one way to protect your loved ones from the consequences of your actions. Will you make your confession?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was not a pretty sight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sailor Edouard Durel broke into ragged, anguished sobs, his broad shoulders heaving." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Between sobs he stammered out a tale of having fallen deep into debt after returning from the ill-fated voyage to Terra Nova, drowning his sorrows and wagering at Bryony House. He'd wagered and lost everything in his possession in a matter of days, even down to the roof above his wife and six-year-old daughter's head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And when it came to matters of finance, Bryony House was merciless.\n\nAt some point during the fellow's confession, Balthasar mimed for Denis to cut his bonds and bring a bottle of brandy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He poured a generous glass, pushing it across the table." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Who approached you? Was it Duc Rogier?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Edouard Durel downed the brandy and shook his head. \"His wife, with that eldest son of theirs in tow.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He shuddered. \"Hateful lad.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I quite agreed.\n\nBalthasar refilled the glass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So she offered to make good on your debt in exchange for your compliance?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Aye,\" he said wearily. \"She promised they'd never want for aught for the rest of their lives, that they'd live like peers of the realm so long as I did what she asked and never, ever spoke a word of the matter.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He rubbed at his tears." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I thought... I thought there was a chance we'd live through this. Captain Rousse is one of the most resourceful sailors I've ever known. He might have found a way to plot a course homeward.\"\n\n\"Gods, man!\" Denis de Toluard interjected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How could you possibly imagine you'd get away with it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sailor looked at him with dull eyes. \"I didn't. I reckoned I'd be found out sooner or later. But as long as I kept my mouth shut, my Adele and Mattie would be safe.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And Prince Thierry and all his comrades doomed to whatever fate befell them in Terra Nova!\" Denis shouted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Edouard Durel gave a broken laugh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you really think you stand a chance of finding them, my lord?\" He gestured at me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Just because some half-breed bear-witch with a grudge claims to have had a vision?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"In fact, I do.\" Denis glanced at me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have more cause than most to put my faith in Moirin mac Fainche.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To that, the sailor made no reply." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A few further questions, Messire Durel,\" Balthasar said. \"Did you have an accomplice, or were you working alone?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Durel shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If I'd had an accomplice, I'd have posted a lookout.\" He grimaced. \"I wasn't expecting Lord de Toluard's midnight stroll.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did the Duchese de Barthelme approach anyone else with a similar offer?\" Balthasar asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sailor shrugged. \"If she did, she didn't say anything to me about it.\" He picked up the refilled glass of brandy and downed it in a series of gulps, setting the empty glass on the table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So far as I know, I'm the only traitor about the ship,\" he said in an unsteady tone. \"That's what I am, isn't it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm afraid so,\" Balthasar agreed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reaching across the table, he put his hand over Edouard Durel's. \"Don't worry about your wife and daughter. If we return safely, I'll make sure they'll pay no price for your sin, and be well cared for. And if we don't...\" He smiled wryly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, you've already seen to it that they'll be fine.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fresh tears spilled from the fellow's eyes. \"Thank you, my lord. I don't deserve your kindness!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, you don't,\" Balthasar said judiciously." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But neither do they deserve to be punished for your folly.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Durel nodded. \"What's to become of me?\"\n\n\"That's the captain's business for now.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Balthasar retrieved his whetstone from the table and stowed it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Assuming we're all in agreement, I'd ask him to spare your life so that you might stand trial in Terre d'Ange and testify against the Regent's wife and her poisonous brat. I trust you're willing to do so?\"\n\n\"Aye, my lord.\" Edouard Durel took a deep breath, his gaze on the knife still lying atop the table." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was wrong to doubt you. I felt Kushiel's presence here. I am willing to accept whatever penance you give me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah.\" Balthasar plucked up his belt knife and sheathed it. \"As it happens, I am more modest than I pretend. I will leave the matter of penance to the priests, and rest content with my role here.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "With that, he sent Clemente to fetch the sailors to take Edouard Durel into custody once more." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When they had gone, Balthasar heaved a mighty sigh, running his hands over his face. \"That,\" he remarked to no one in particular, \"was challenging.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He gave us all a surprisingly sweet smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you for your trust.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't thank me,\" Brice de Bretel said flatly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I really thought you meant to skin the man alive.\"\n\nBalthasar's smile tightened. \"Nothing quite so crude, I hope.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I thought about the brightness of his eyes, the tenderness of his voice; and I thought that the sense of deadly desire it evoked was quite genuine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a part of Balthasar Shahrizai that would have relished giving in to his darkest urges and carrying out the punishment he threatened, and the most frightening part was that he would have done it out of a kind of love. \"You wield a dangerous gift, my lord,\" I murmured." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He met my gaze." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not lightly, Lady Moirin.\"\n\n\"No.\" I came forward to rest my hands on his shoulders, feeling the latent tension in them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Leaning down, I kissed his cheek." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It was well done. Thank you.\"\n\nHe nodded in acknowledgment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Denis de Toluard shuddered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let's just hope there aren't any more. That was far too near a thing.\"\n\n\"Good thing you couldn't sleep, huh?\" Bao observed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is, isn't it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A look of wonder touched Denis' face. \"Ever since the King's death, I've had nightmares. I never thought I'd be glad of them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And I never thought I'd be so glad to have you on this expedition, my lord Denis,\" I said to him, inclining my head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We all owe you a profound debt today. Were it not for your acuity, we'd be in dire straits, and Thierry's cause nigh hopeless.\"\n\n\"Hear, hear!\" Balthasar hoisted the bottle of brandy and drank from it, wiping the bottle's mouth on his sleeve and passing it to Denis." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He drank, and passed it onward.\n\nWe all drank.\n\nThe ship sailed onward." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Provide 5 sentences as a continuation in the fantasy, romance genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Come morning, Lord Cuixtli returned.\n\nI had to own, I felt a bit foolish climbing into the palanquin after all the formal introductions that had been omitted in yesterday's confusion had been made. I may have been descended from three royal lines, but at heart, I was still my mother's daughter, raised in a cave in the Alban wilderness.\n\nBut I'd learned the value of appearances in Terre d'Ange, and it was important to command respect here. So I took my seat beneath the ornate feathered canopy, and four strong Nahuatl bearers hoisted the palanquin onto their shoulders." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On Lord Cuixtli's command, we departed the Aragonian garrison and set out for the city of Tenochtitlan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The great causeways connecting the city to the mainland were even more impressive than I'd reckoned, broad enough to allow five men to walk abreast in comfort, well nigh half a league in length. Here and there, the shallow lake was dotted with chinampas, artificial islands rooted to its marshy bottom, spread thick with rich soil and planted with crops. Whatever else was true, the Nahuatl were indeed an ingenious folk.\n\nI wondered what the Emperor was like.\n\nI wished I were more fluent in the Nahuatl tongue." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Denis de Toluard had done his best to teach us aboard the ship during our long journey, but he was a natural-born scholar, a scion of Blessed Elua's most learned Companion Shemhazai, and he grew impatient when skills that came easily to him did not come easily to others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But in truth, I was allowing myself to rely too heavily on him here in Terra Nova. I resolved to make a greater effort, knowing I could do far better than I had thus far.\n\nStill, I had chosen Denis to accompany me to the audience with Emperor Achcuatli, along with Bao and Balthasar and Septimus Rousse, rounding out my roster of five companions with Brice de Bretel, who had impressed me with his steadiness aboard the ship. Brice carried our tribute-gift for the Emperor, a large, very fine mirror set in a gilded frame studded with gems, wrapped in ornate brocade and gold braid.\n\nI hoped it would find favor with him, and he would be willing to provide us with aid." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One knowledgeable guide could mean the difference between success and failure, mayhap even life or death." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At last our company traversed the length of the great causeway and entered the city proper. We passed many low dwellings, as well as open squares where markets were held, throngs of folk buying and selling goods in a calm manner. Everything in Tenochtitlan seemed very clean and orderly.\n\nIt wasn't until we passed through a gate into the main central square where the great temples loomed that I began to feel uncomfortable.\n\nThe largest of the temples was truly immense, with twin staircases stretching up into the blue sky to reach a pair of shrines impossibly high above us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I glanced uneasily at it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All seemed quiet and there was no indication that the stairs had run red with blood anytime recently, but there was no mistaking its purpose. Tall racks of human skulls lined the base, hollow-eyed and grinning. There must have been tens of thousands of them altogether. Some were clearly ancient, long ago picked clean by scavenging birds and bleached by the elements.\n\nOthers still bore traces of weathered flesh and skin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I swallowed hard, trying not to shudder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Following my gaze, Lord Cuixtli spoke to Denis. I caught the gist of his words, which was that he understood the custom was distasteful to the strangers from beyond the sea, and no sacrifice was scheduled for today.\n\n\"When is the next?\" I made my first attempt since Orgullo del Sol to hold an actual conversation in Nahuatl. \"Soon?\"\n\n\"Not soon, no.\" Lord Cuixtli shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Only during the high—\" He used a word I didn't know." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Seeing my lack of comprehension, he addressed Denis in a spate of rapid language. Denis nodded, listening with a mixture of repressed horror and a scholar's perennial fascination.\n\n\"It's as I told you before, Moirin,\" he said to me when the fellow had finished. \"The Nahuatl have gone some way toward accepting Mithras Sol Invictus as a substitute for Tonatiuh, their sun god.\" He licked his lips as though they'd gone dry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Aragonians have imported sacrificial bulls for the sacred rites, and that appears to be... satisfactory. Lord Cuixtli himself is an initiate in the mysteries. But the Aragonians have no worthy substitute for the rain god or the war god, so as a precaution the Nahuatl continue to offer the appropriate sacrifices at the high festivals.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I see.\" As I recalled from Porfirio Reyes' tale, the rain god was the one who required the tears of children. I pushed the thought away. It would do me no good to loathe the Nahuatl for their beliefs when we so urgently needed their goodwill.\n\nThe Emperor's palace was on the far side of the wall that bordered the ceremonial square. There, my bearers lowered the palanquin so that I might disembark and proceed on foot along with the others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although not so elaborate in construction as the Palace in the City of Elua, or the Celestial City in Shuntian, the palace was every bit as imposing in terms of scale. Inside, it reminded me more of the Celestial City in that there were a great many people going about their business with a sense of tremendous order and purpose.\n\nThe stone walls of the palace were thick, and I felt them pressing in on me, a sensation that had not troubled me for some time. My head felt thick, my skin felt hot, and there was an uneasy stirring in the pit of my belly.\n\n\"Are you all right, Moirin?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bao murmured. \"You look pale.\"\n\n\"Man-made stone.\" I made myself breathe the Breath of Wind's Sigh, inhaling deeply through my nose and drawing air into the space behind my eyes until my head began to clear. \"I'll be fine.\"\n\nBao nodded, understanding.\n\nAfter a brief wait, Lord Cuixtli ushered us into the throne room and the Nahuatl Emperor's presence.\n\nEmperor Achcuatli was seated on a gilded throne inlaid with jade." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He regarded us with an impassive mien, although it was to me that his gaze went first." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was a fellow of some thirty-odd years, with a warrior's bearing. His eyes were as black as obsidian and gave nothing away. There were round obsidian plugs in the lobes of his ears, and a plug of gold piercing the skin beneath his lower lip. He wore a feather headdress finer than any I'd seen, a mantle of feathers over his shoulders, and an embroidered cloth wrapped around his waist. His brown chest was bare, save for a collar of gold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On his feet, he wore sandals that laced to the knees, and the soles were made of solid gold.\n\nMy uneasy feeling returned.\n\nAll six of us bowed deeply to him. His sharp gaze passed over each of us, returning to me.\n\n\"So it is true,\" he said in Nahuatl, slowly and distinctly enough that I could understand him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unsure of the protocol, I inclined my head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The intensity of the Emperor's gaze made me raise it again.\n\nHis fingers drummed on the arms of the throne. \"You seek your kinsman who came here before you?\"\n\n\"Yes, my lord,\" I said, concentrating hard on every syllable. \"We come to beg for help.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Nahuatl Emperor made a sweeping gesture with one arm. \"So beg.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fearing my lack of eloquence might hurt our cause, I signaled Denis de Toluard with my eyes.\n\nClearing his throat, he stepped forward. \"I do not know if his majesty remembers, but we have met. With your permission, I will speak for Lady Moirin.\"\n\nIn slow, careful Nahuatl, Denis outlined the reasons for our quest, describing it in glowing terms as a matter of honor. He exaggerated my status in Terre d'Ange, speaking passionately of the vision that had led me here and the hardship and sacrifice it entailed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He beckoned to Brice de Bretel, who approached the throne to offer our tribute-gift on bended knee, his head bowed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One of the Emperor's attendants accepted it, untying the gold braids and unwrapping the thick brocade to reveal the mirror.\n\nAchcuatli studied his reflection in it, tilting it back and forth. \"Very fine. And?\"\n\nDenis described the goods we had brought to trade, especially the steel tools and implements, lingering over their superior efficacy. By the time he had finished, he was sweating. \"All this, we are willing to trade for your aid, your majesty,\" he finished." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All we ask is that you assign a pochteca with knowledge of Tawantinsuyo to guide us in the search for our missing companions.\"\n\nThe Emperor was silent.\n\nPressure beat about my skull. I breathed the Breath of Wind's Sigh, but it didn't seem to help.\n\n\"This one is different.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Achcuatli pointed at Bao. \"Why?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bao smiled and narrowed his eyes.\n\n\"Ah...\" Forgetting he wore a chain-mail shirt beneath his brigandine, Denis de Toluard wiped his brow with one forearm and winced. \"Lady Moirin's husband is a prince from a faraway land, even farther than ours, across many seas. He gave up his throne for love of her, that he might accompany her on this quest.\"\n\n\"Is that even remotely true?\" Balthasar whispered to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I hushed him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Nahuatl Emperor rose and descended from his throne. Attendants with handheld brooms bent low, hastening to brush the path before his gold-shod feet. They were forced to back out of the way when Achcuatli stopped before Bao and thrust his face close to Bao's, staring aggressively at him.\n\nBao planted the heel of his staff with a thump and stared back at the Emperor without blinking.\n\nSomeone chuckled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Belatedly, I realized the Jaguar Knight Temilotzin was among the warriors attending Achcuatli." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Emperor smiled, returning to his throne. Once again, he spoke deliberately enough for me to understand. \"Before I consider this request, I must be assured your warriors have skill sufficient to protect any pochteca I might assign you.\" He made a careless gesture. \"I know one who is curious. Temilotzin?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The spotted warrior sprang into action, his obsidian-studded club raised high above his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Mine!\" Bao called out gleefully, already in motion, his staff a blur. No one contested him for it.\n\nIt was a short skirmish. It ended with the Jaguar Knight upended and sprawling on the floor of the throne-room, undone by unfamiliar tactics and weapons, the butt of Bao's steel-laced bamboo staff hovering over his vulnerable throat. Our D'Angelines looked startled and a bit sick at the suddenness of it all." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I couldn't help but wonder if any of them could have dealt with the challenge as effectively, and if Temilotzin would have slain them if they hadn't." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By the looks on their faces, they were wondering the same thing.\n\n\"Interesting,\" Achcuatli mused.\n\nMy skin prickled.\n\n\"Enough.\" With a flick of his fingers, the Nahuatl Emperor ordered Bao to disengage. Bao obeyed. Temilotzin climbed to his feet, massaging his throat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Emperor regarded us. \"Your company is worthy, but there is another matter to consider. I have been dishonored.\"\n\nI shot Denis a bewildered look, and he gave his head a little shake, spreading his hands. \"Forgive us, your majesty. Have we given offense?\"\n\n\"You have not given it, but you have caused it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Achcuatli pointed at me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Aragonians thought this one was a gift for me.\"\n\n\"Yes, but it was a misunderstanding,\" Denis protested.\n\nThe Emperor's mouth hardened. \"And did Lord Cuixtli misunderstand their shock and horror?\"\n\nDenis glanced at me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I answered for myself, forcing myself to meet Achcuatli's black gaze. \"No, my lord. He did not.\"\n\nThe Emperor nodded. \"They take our women without a thought, and yet the thought of me taking one of theirs is—\" He used a word I didn't know, but the meaning was clear. His fingers drummed. \"I find that a grave offense.\"\n\nMy pulse hammered in the hollow of my throat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am not Aragonian,\" I said quietly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are a stranger from across the sea.\" He kept his gaze fixed on me, hard and implacable. \"I offer you the chance to make good on this offense.\" He held up one finger. \"One day and one night. It is all I ask.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "hey can u write 4 sentences more sentences? kinda like Jacqueline Carey but in fantasy, romance style" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The summons came an hour after sunset.\n\nOnce again, my two attendants helped me dress in Nahuatl finery. I was escorted with ceremony through the halls of the palace to the Emperor's bedchamber.\n\nI could sense Bao's diadh-anam not far away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I could not help but think that within these same walls, Bao was consorting with Achcuatli's youngest wife; and I could not help feeling a pang of jealousy. I set it aside along with my guilt, to be dealt with later.\n\nThe Emperor's bedchamber was aglow with lamplight, hung about with intricate feather tapestries. His gaze was avid, but his expression was set and hard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I do not know if this is wise.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I shifted my hands into a soothing mudra. \"Nor do I.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The admission eased him. \"No?\"\n\nI shook my head. \"No, my lord. Only that Naamah wills it.\"\n\n\"Are you sure?\" There was a note of wry humor in his tone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You said you have mistaken the will of the gods before.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I smiled. \"Not this time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He extended one hand. \"Come, then.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I must pray to Naamah first, and ask her blessing.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'd brought an unlit taper in a silver candle-holder from my chamber." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now I kindled it at a lamp, setting the holder on an elaborately painted chest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "While Achcuatli watched curiously, I knelt and gazed at the flickering flame, praying silently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you do this every time?\" he asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No.\" I concentrated on opening my heart to Naamah that she might speak through me if that was her will. I thought about what Porfirio Reyes had said, and what I'd learned to love about the Nahuatl in this brief time. Achcuatli had shown me kindness and generosity. He had spoken openly and honestly to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And although I could not help but recoil from the thought of the skulls lining the racks of the tzompantli, I'd caught a glimpse of it through his eyes, and I understood that we saw very different things." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I saw the horror of thousands upon thousands of needless deaths. The Nahuatl Emperor saw a sea of flowers, their hearts' blood shed to nourish the gods so that the sun might rise and the rains might fall.\n\nAnd since the Aragonians had come, he was walking a narrow and difficult path, trying in his own way to be a good shepherd to his people.\n\nI breathed slowly and deeply, my hands resting on my knees palm upward, feeling Achcuatli's gaze on me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the words came to me, they seemed to come from a distant point beyond the candle-flame, a place of tremendous brightness. \"Blood is not the only sacrifice,\" I heard myself say. \"And heaven is not the only reward. The roots of the tree of Aztlan have been well watered. Let its branches spread far and wide, and its seeds fall on fertile ground.\"\n\nNaamah's grace settled over the chamber, as delicate and ephemeral as the feather cloak Achcuatli had given me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I glanced at him to see his obsidian eyes were bright with unshed tears." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you know the meaning of those words?\" he asked me.\n\n\"No, my lord,\" I said softly. \"Do you?\"\n\nHe nodded. \"I believe I do.\"\n\nRising to my feet, I went to him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I laid one hand on his bare chest, feeling his heart beat beneath my palm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He put his arms around me, Naamah's blessing doubly enfolding me. I felt his warm breath stir my hair.\n\nIt had been a long time since I'd been with someone who was scarce more than a stranger to me. I had to own, there was a certain fearful thrill at the newness and difference of it, and in giving myself over wholly to Naamah's will." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Despite his abrupt kiss in the garden, Achcuatli was gentle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He undressed me with reverence, untying the feather cloak, setting aside the feather headdress with the long emerald quetzal plumes that were his gifts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He removed my clothing and left me adorned in golden armbands, gazing at me with heavy-lidded eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are very beautiful,\" he said at length.\n\nI kissed him, learning how to angle my head to avoid the golden chin-plug. \"Thank you.\"\n\nIn turn, I undressed him. His skin shone coppery in the lamplight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the course of undressing him, I performed many of the kisses and caresses and love-bites that were part of Naamah's arts, raising his desire to a feverish pitch. After I knelt to unlace his sandals, I wrapped my long hair around his erect phallus with a deft twist of my head, drawing back to pull away in a long, silken glide.\n\nAt that, Achcuatli groaned and pulled me to my feet, his fingers digging hard into my shoulders. \"Enough!\" he said in a hoarse voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The bed was soft, a pallet filled with feathers. I sank into it under the weight of Achcuatli's body on mine. With Naamah's gift beating in my veins, I spread my thighs to welcome him.\n\nSlowly and steadily, Achcuatli thrust himself into me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The absence of a shared diadh-anam brought home the strangeness of it all. His strong-featured, unfamiliar face hovered over mine, his gaze hard and intense as he moved in and out of me. I wanted to close my eyes, but some prompting of Naamah's told me not to.\n\nBlood is not the only sacrifice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I offered up my own pleasure as a sacrifice, my own deep wellspring of desire." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I felt the fluttering of Naamah's doves in my belly, the deeper waves of climax fluttering lower." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I watched Achcuatli's face break into a fierce grin of pride as my hips rose to meet his, my back arching, nails scoring his back.\n\nAnd I understood that there was a deeper wound beneath the slight that the Aragonians' disgust and dismay had provoked, that it was symbolic of the profoundly injured pride of the entire Nahuatl folk, regarded as little better than animals by these strangers from across the sea who would gladly have razed Tenochtitlan to the ground if they could.\n\nNaamah's blessing was not enough to heal the wound, but it could spread balm over it, that healing might begin.\n\nWith a low groan, Achcuatli buried himself deep inside me and spent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Afterward, he lay quiet and thoughtful, idly stroking my skin, gazing at the ceiling with open eyes.\n\n\"What did it mean to you?\" I asked at last, unable to resist my curiosity. \"The words I spoke?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He glanced at me. \"It is a thing my advisors and I have discussed. I told you that the Aragonians made alliances with tribes who resent our rule.\" I nodded. \"We have discussed making our own peace with enemy tribes, and bringing them more fully into the fold of our empire.\"\n\n\"Instead of making war on them to gain captives to sacrifice?\" I asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes.\" Achcuatli studied me. \"No one put those words in your mouth?\"\n\n\"No one but Naamah, I swear.\"\n\n\"Why would a foreign goddess speak to me through a stranger when our own gods are silent?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He shook his head in frustration. \"I do not understand.\"\n\nRolling onto my side, I propped my head on one arm. \"Years ago, I had a teacher who taught me that all ways lead to the Way,\" I said slowly, thinking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That there is a great truth behind all the truths of the world, and the faces of the gods are masks that may be changed at will. Mayhap Naamah is not so foreign as you think.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Nahuatl Emperor traced the curve of my waist with one finger, then settled his hand on my hip. \"We worship a goddess of desire, too. Xochiquetzal's festival is celebrated with flowers and masks.\"\n\nMy skin prickled. \"Truly?\"\n\nHe nodded. \"It is said she appears as a young and beautiful woman, followed everywhere by birds and butterflies.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He smiled a little. \"I would not be surprised to find birds and butterflies following you.\"\n\nI smiled, too. \"I am mortal, I promise.\"\n\n\"I will think on what you have said to me,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will take counsel with my priests and advisors. The world has changed since I was a boy. Perhaps the will of the gods has changed with it.\"\n\nI kissed his shoulder. \"Thank you, my lord. I am glad.\"\n\nAchcuatli's grip on my hip tightened, and there was heat rising in his gaze." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But for now, the night is not over.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was a long night.\n\nIn the morning, I was tired and sated, filled with a complex mixture of emotions, pride and guilt warring in me. I was glad to have served Naamah's will, glad that mayhap it would help steer the Nahuatl a measure farther away from their harsh practices, leading them to question the gods' will and altering the tenuous balance of power in Terra Nova for the better. Naamah's blessing was a pebble tossed into a lake the depths of which I could not fathom." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All I could do was hope that the ripples would carry onward.\n\nBut I felt guilty, too.\n\nTo his credit, Achcuatli continued to be gentle with me. We broke our fast in the bedchamber, where servants brought chocolatl and an array of fresh fruits." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I wish you would not go on this quest,\" the Emperor said softly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is very, very dangerous.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I know.\"\n\nHe shook his head. \"You think you do, but you do not. Very few pochtecas have undertaken it in my lifetime, and most have not returned. It was not easy to find guides.\"\n\nI sipped my frothy chocolatl." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You sent Thierry into danger on purpose, didn't you?\"\n\nHe was silent a moment. \"I thought he would turn back, and the problem he posed would go away.\"\n\n\"He didn't.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Achcuatli searched my face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You know it is likely he is dead? That they are all dead?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I nodded. \"It is likely, yes. But they are not.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He sighed. \"You are very stubborn.\"\n\nWith an unexpected pang, I thought of my mother. \"Aye, I am.\"\n\nThe Emperor picked at the fruit on his plate. \"I will keep my promise. I will give you the aid of my pochtecas, and anything else I may. All will be arranged within a day. While you are here, you are under my protection. But once you leave, I do not expect to see you alive again, Moirin.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I hoisted my goblet to him. \"Believe me, my lord, you are but the latest in a long list of men who feel the same way. I will do my best to prove you wrong.\"\n\nHis obsidian eyes glinted. \"I hope you do.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Achcuatli paused, his expression turning grave. \"There is another warning I would give you. Last night, you said to me that blood is not the only sacrifice, and I took heed of the words your goddess sent you. Perhaps it is true, that the roots of the tree of Aztlan are soaked, and the gods are sated for now. Do not forget, that does not mean it holds true elsewhere in the land.\"\n\n\"I will not,\" I promised.\n\nThe Nahuatl Emperor inclined his head in approval. \"Sometimes when the gods thirst, blood is the only sacrifice.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "ur a writing helper. partner writes, u do next 4 sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It rained for three days.\n\nOur campsite was a sodden, miserable place plagued by guilt. For a surety, there was plenty of it to go around. We had lost two men in the accident—Mathieu de Montague, whose fate everyone had seen, and a fellow named Uriel Longchamps, who had sunk and vanished without a trace after the canoe had overturned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although we'd searched along the bank of the river until nightfall, there was no sign of either of them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It is my fault,\" Eyahue said in a morose tone. \"I knew the river was too high. I should have called for a landing sooner.\"\n\nBao studied his hands. \"I was so close! I should have had him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Mathieu de Montague wanted to turn back,\" I murmured." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He was afraid. And we talked him out of it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I did,\" Balthasar corrected me. \"I shamed him. I should have let him go.\"\n\n\"You should have let me go after him in the river,\" Bao accused him.\n\n\"I should have done no such thing, messire!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Balthasar retorted. \"Are you strong enough to swim for two in that current?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He shook his head. \"None of us are. You would either have been carried away with him or forced to let him go. I'll not apologize for sparing you that choice.\"\n\nWhile we grieved and bickered, the rain continued to fall. Our food stores were dwindling at an alarming rate, fruit rotting in the incessant damp, and a portion of our supplies lost in the canoe that had been swept away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With current running as high and fast as it was, fishing proved a futile endeavor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gear rusted, soaked clothing began tearing at the seams. Insects plagued us day and night. Their bites itched and festered. Minor injuries, cuts and scrapes and blisters, grew dangerously infected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My own palms were badly blistered from all the paddling, great water-logged blisters that showed no sign of healing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At times I could have wept for the sheer physical misery of it all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But I reminded myself that we were all lucky to be alive to endure it, and distracted myself by weaving mat after mat of palm fronds, teaching some of the men to do the same. With his Siovalese affinity for engineering, Denis de Toluard directed others in building a rough shelter on the verge of the jungle where at least we could huddle beneath the scant protection our mats afforded.\n\nAnd on the second day, Eyahue vanished into the jungle for several hours, borrowing a sword to hack his way through. He returned with a satchel full of leaves that released a crisp, astringent odor when bruised, ordering us to grind them to a paste to smear on any open wounds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It stung like fury, but it seemed to help." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By the next day, my blisters were no longer seeping.\n\n\"Is that one of your secret herbs?\" I asked Eyahue.\n\nHe nodded reluctantly. \"The ticitls pay a great deal for this medicine.\"\n\nI smiled wearily at him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you for sharing it with us.\"\n\nAfter three straight days of rain, waking to clear skies seemed like a gift of the gods. The rain had stopped in the small hours of the night, and already the river was visibly lower, no longer a raging torrent.\n\nEverything sparkled in the light of dawn, rain-washed and glistening, drops still sliding from the leaves." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was like being in a vast green temple, and for the first time in days, my sense of wonder at the enormity of the jungle returned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For a mercy, it was an uneventful day on the river." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although we'd lost one canoe, sadly, due to the casualties we'd sustained, there were enough seats to go around in the remaining eight. We searched in vain for the bodies of our lost men as we paddled, regretfully concluding by the day's end that there was no chance of retrieving them.\n\nAt Septimus Rousse's suggestion, we built a small cairn in their honor, and he once again gave the invocation.\n\nOur journey continued." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Some days after our loss, we had our first encounter with hostile natives—or at least a near-miss of an encounter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We were some hours into the day's travel when I heard a series of sharp buzzing sounds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Glancing around to see what new swarm of insects had come to torment us, I realized belatedly that the sound I'd heard was arrows in flight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was no telling where they'd come from. On either shore, the jungle looked as impenetrable as ever. Even as I searched, a second flight was launched. There was a metallic ping and a startled cry behind us as an arrow struck someone's helmet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the lead canoe, Eyahue was shouting. \"Get low! Get low and paddle hard!\"\n\nMy pulse hammering, I hunched as low as I could, paddling awkwardly. The dugout canoe afforded little in the way of protection." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For once, I envied the men their heavy steel helmets.\n\nA third volley hissed above us, and then there was silence. Still, we paddled in a crouch until Eyahue announced it was safe to sit upright.\n\nShouting up and down the river and taking stock of the situation, we determined with relief that our company had sustained no casualties in the attack." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a Namarrese fellow named Marcel d'Aubrey who had taken a strike to the helmet, and although he was shaken, he was unharmed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Once we had ascertained that there were no injuries, I asked Bao to bring us alongside Eyahue's canoe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You said if the hostiles decided to kill us, we'd never see it coming,\" I reminded the old pochteca. \"So what passes here?\"\n\n\"That?\" He rested his paddle across his knobby knees and scoffed. \"Oh, that was just a warning. They were just telling us to keep moving.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If Messire d'Aubrey hadn't been wearing a helmet, they would have killed him,\" I observed.\n\nEyahue sucked his teeth. \"True,\" he admitted. \"I imagine they were curious about those shiny head-pieces.\" He shrugged. \"Now they know.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was an effective reminder of the myriad dangers the jungle held, but in the days that followed, it grew obvious that hostile natives were the least of our concerns." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "First and foremost was the shortage of food. Already, we were eating but two meals a day while expending considerable energy. The last of our fruit was long gone, and if our stores were to last until we reached Vilcabamba, we were down to half a roasted sweet potato a day for every person in our company.\n\nIt wasn't enough." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Our bellies complained, and our strength waned, leaving us weak and listless." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Our efforts to fish with nets and traps yielded meager results." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had better luck fishing with my familiar childhood methods, calling the twilight and coaxing fish into my bare hands; but where a catch of four or five good-sized fish would have provided a veritable feast for my mother and me, it didn't go far among thirty-some starving men.\n\nEyahue found my success suspicious. \"How do you and your husband catch more fish than anyone?\" he asked. \"Why do you always go away alone to do it instead of sharing your secret?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's a gift from my mother's people,\" I told him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After the way the Emperor had reacted to the small gift of magic I had displayed in his gardens, I was wary of the pochteca's response if I told him the whole truth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It cannot be taught, and the fish will not come if there are others present.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gods knew, that was true enough, and it seemed to mollify Eyahue.\n\nIt was a good thing I'd paid attention to the children in Tipalo's village, for it wasn't long before we were relying on their lessons. Several of our men became quite expert grub-hunters, and we discovered that they were slightly more palatable when skewered and roasted. True to his word, Balthasar held out and refused such fare." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I wished he wouldn't, for he was developing a feverish look I didn't like." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More than once, I'd caught him shivering in the heat and trying to hide it.\n\n\"Bao's right,\" Denis said to him, chewing a mouthful of grub-worm with fierce determination. \"It's not so bad.\"\n\n\"Not so good, either,\" someone muttered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although we scoured the outskirts of the jungle and plundered the river for edible game as best we could, it still wasn't enough." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were just too many of us.\n\nThe day we spotted a herd of capybaras wallowing and grazing along the edge of the big river, I thought mayhap our luck had changed. They were odd-looking beasts; extraordinarily oversized rodents with coarse coats, squealing and grunting and nudging one another as they swam and rooted among the weeds.\n\n\"Bao!\" I whispered, setting down my paddle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I scrabbled for my bow and nocked an arrow. \"Bring us close!\"\n\nHe nodded, paddling.\n\nWe drifted sideways alongside the herd. They ignored us. Rising carefully to one knee in the narrow vessel, I picked my target and took aim at a big, fat, well-fed fellow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I thought to myself that he would make a meal for all of us, and if I were quick, I might even be able to kill two of them.\n\nBefore I had a chance to loose my arrow, the water erupted. To call the creature that emerged a snake didn't begin to do it justice. It was a snake, but it was far, far bigger than any snake I'd ever seen in my life, as long as two of our canoes placed end to end, a thick, sinuous, shining length of mottled yellow and black." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I let out a scream." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everything seemed to happen at once. The snake lunged at the fat capybara I'd chosen as my prey, sinking its teeth into it and twining around it. In a trice, it had the creature wrapped within its coils.\n\nThe canoe rocked violently to one side as all of us recoiled in shock, then pitched hard to the other as everyone overcompensated in an effort to stabilize it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If I'd been seated, I daresay it wouldn't have mattered, but I was kneeling and unbalanced, and the momentum flung me overboard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I hit the water. It was churning with the force of the snake's attack, the flight of the other capybaras, the splash of my impact. Underwater, the snake's yellow and black coils rotated before my open eyes through the rising sediment, impossibly thick.\n\nFlailing backward, I got my head above water and found myself face-to-face with the serpent, its dull eyes regarding me impassively above the jaws locked onto its prey." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Having a good rapport with animals, I'd never been one to harbor an unreasonable fear of them, but the suddenness of the snake's attack and the incomprehensible enormity of it, coupled with my very, very vulnerable position, struck terror into my heart.\n\nIn the canoe, everyone was shouting. I felt hands grasp beneath my arms as Bao and Balthasar hauled me forcibly into the canoe.\n\n\"Go!\" Bao shouted to Brice de Bretel in the stern. \"Go, go, go!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Paddling frantically, Brice managed to propel us some yards away, the canoe rocking dangerously as the others scrambled to regain their positions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I sat on the floor of the dugout, gasping and shuddering, my bow still gripped in one hand.\n\nBehind us, the snake unhinged its jaw to an unholy degree as it commenced the process of swallowing its prey whole.\n\nThat night at camp, the giant snake was the topic of much discussion. Temilotzin was disgruntled. \"You should have killed it once it began to feed,\" he said to me, making a chopping gesture with one hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Cut off its head. That is when they are the least dangerous.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sorry,\" I said humbly. \"We didn't know.\"\n\nTemilotzin pointed at the three men who shared his canoe. \"After we passed you, I tried to make them turn back so I could do it myself. But they pretended not to understand.\" He jerked his chin in disdain. \"They were scared.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We all were,\" Bao murmured." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Eyahue assured us that the giant snakes very rarely attacked humans. \"Unless you're stupid enough to fall right on top of it,\" he added, laughing at his own jest. \"Lucky for you he already had his prey! Too bad, though.\" His expression turned rueful as he rubbed his sunken belly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We could have been eating meat.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sorry,\" I repeated.\n\n\"How did you not see somewhat so big?\" Denis asked me.\n\n\"I don't know,\" I admitted. \"If I caught a glimpse of it, I must have thought it was a log. I was concentrating on the capybara.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"None of us saw it,\" Bao agreed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It wasn't Moirin's fault.\" He stroked my hair. \"Please do not frighten me so again.\"\n\n\"Believe me, I'll try not to.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I sighed, rotating a skewer of sizzling grubs over the campfire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Gods bedamned snake! I had a clean shot, too.\" I glanced over at Balthasar, who was unwontedly quiet, his arms wrapped around his knees, trying to suppress a shiver in the warm evening air. \"Will you not try them, my lord?\" I entreated him, holding out the skewer. \"Just once?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm not that hungry.\"\n\n\"How can you not be?\" one of the men grumbled on the far side of our campfire. \"Name of Elua! Send them my way, won't you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're not well,\" I said softly, ignoring the complaint." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You need to eat and keep your strength up.\"\n\nBalthasar lifted his head and glared at me. Famine had whittled away at his beautiful features until his cheekbones stood out like blades, his dark blue eyes set in sunken hollows above them. \"Leave be, won't you? I'm fine, Moirin!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wasn't." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And that was the second worst of our problems." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Provide 6 sentences as a continuation." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had been a long, long time since Bao and I had been alone together.\n\nWith the walls of a dwelling sheltering us from the sounds of the benighted jungle and the gazes of our companions, we made love into the small hours of the night; sharing our bodies, sharing our breath, sharing our entwined diadh-anams until neither of us was sure where one began and the other ended.\n\nThat, too, was a kind of communion.\n\nIn the morning, both of us were heavy-eyed for lack of sleep. The others regarded us with good-natured amusement, but no one begrudged us a night of pleasure, although Balthasar had a few choice words of warning for us.\n\n\"Don't let it make you careless,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I didn't survive an infestation of bad spirits to capsize and drown on that damn river.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bao yawned. \"It won't. And I told you, it wasn't bad spirits.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It might as well have been.\" Balthasar hefted a satchel of powdered cinchona bark that Atoc had given us. According to the shaman, if our recovering men didn't continue drinking the brew, the fever would return. \"Gods know, this stuff's vile enough to keep a host of bad things at bay.\"\n\nPaullu and a handful of villagers accompanied us on our return journey to the big river, where the rest of our company hailed our arrival with obvious relief. We redistributed our renewed stores, and in short order, were ready to depart once more." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sulpayki, Paullu.\" I offered him a final bow in parting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once again, he returned it with dignity. \"Thank you for all your kindness.\"\n\nHe nodded, but made no reply.\n\nOne by one, we launched our canoes while Paullu and his hunters climbed the emerald cliff alongside the sparkling waterfall. Before we resumed our journey downriver, I turned back to see the villagers arrayed in a line atop the cliff, their crimson-painted faces vivid in the morning light.\n\n\"Does anyone else have the impression they think we're headed to our deaths?\" Balthasar inquired wryly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the prow of our canoe, Bao began paddling purposefully." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who along the way hasn't thought the same?\" he retorted. \"And yet we're still here.\"\n\n\"Not all of us,\" I murmured.\n\n\"No.\" Bao gave me a somber glance over his shoulder, reminded of our losses. \"Not all of us.\"\n\nBy Eyahue's estimate, we were still a week's travel away from Vilcabamba." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The days of sameness resumed. We paddled through rain showers until the sun reemerged to steam us dry. When the river was wide and placid, we bent our backs to the labor, paddling hard, our palms toughened and our muscles long accustomed to the effort. Where it ran swift, we forged paths through rapids, all of us grown to be expert navigators.\n\nIn the evenings, we made landfall along the rocky shores, slinging our hammocks along the verges of the jungle.\n\nWe fished and foraged, augmenting our stores of sweet potatoes that ever dwindled too quickly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I didn't bother keeping count of the days." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'd long ago lost track of the length of our journey. And despite Balthasar's and Denis' assurances to the contrary, I privately thought that Thierry de la Courcel must have done the same.\n\nIt was the sameness.\n\nThe sameness was mesmerizing; the endless river, the endless green of the jungle. The incessant heat, the constant clouds of mosquitoes and gnats. The gnawing sense of hunger that never quite went away as there was never quite enough to eat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The myriad deadly dangers to be avoided. The ever-present sound of rushing water; whispering at times, roaring at others. It lulled one's mind into a strange state of wary torpor, where one's only thoughts were of survival and the never-ending journey.\n\nAnd yet all journeys end.\n\n\"Tomorrow, I think,\" Eyahue announced unexpectedly one evening, using a stick to poke at a sweet potato roasting in the ashes, rolling it within reach. \"Tomorrow, we will come to Vilcabamba.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I lifted my head to stare at him. \"You're sure?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He grabbed the potato and dropped it with alacrity, sucking his burned fingers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sure, no. But I think so.\"\n\nThe rumor spread through our camp, raising hope and dispelling the torpor that all of us felt.\n\n\"What is it like there?\" someone asked. I translated the question for Eyahue.\n\n\"Very fine.\" The old pochteca cackled and exposed his gums and remaining teeth in a broad grin. \"Oh, yes! Very fine indeed.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Eyahue spun a tale of a great city of stone rising from the jungle, accessed by hanging bridges built over vast chasms in the earth. It was the easternmost stronghold of the empire of Tawantinsuyo, a name that in itself referred to the four disparate quarters of the empire of the Quechua folk. They possessed gold in abundance, he told us, for it was sacred to the sun god Inti they worshipped. The Emperor of Tawantinsuyo made his permanent residence in another city far away in the mountains, but Vilcabamba, where his sacred plant was cultivated, was one of his seasonal refuges.\n\n\"That's what you came to trade for, isn't it?\" I asked him. \"This sacred plant?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He put a finger over his lips and winked at me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Shh! Only Quechua royalty are permitted to use it.\"\n\nThe spotted warrior Temilotzin chuckled.\n\nThe following day, we set out on the river in higher spirits than usual, hoping that there actually was an end in sight to the journey. It was in the late morning when I noticed a phenomenon along the southern bank of the river, a trickle of darkness moving toward us, oddly shiny in the sunlight. It wasn't until our paths converged that I was able to make out what it was.\n\nAnts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tens of thousands of them, pouring in a stream over the rocky shore, black bodies glistening." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had to own, it made my skin crawl.\n\nWe pulled alongside Eyahue's canoe to ask him about it.\n\n\"Nasty buggers,\" the old pochteca confirmed. \"They hunt as an army. We'll want to stay out of their way.\"\n\n\"How dangerous are they?\" I asked.\n\nEyahue sucked his teeth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Their bite stings like fire. I've never known them to take down prey as big as a man... but I wouldn't like to be lying injured in their path, either.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He looked askance at the teeming shore, his expression apprehensive. \"Can't say I've ever seen quite so many in one place before.\"\n\nAs our canoes glided past the stream of ants, the head of the column roiled in confusion, doubling back on itself and reversing direction, following our course. Here and there, I could make out individual insects, antennae twitching as they appeared to regard our progress with their faceted eyes.\n\nAnd there were more coming, thin trickles emerging from the depths of the jungle to broaden the stream.\n\n\"Poor Denis,\" Bao murmured, paddling steadily." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This must be driving him mad.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Bao?\" My voice shook a little. I pointed to the shore. \"Would you call that a black river?\"\n\nHe shot me a grim look over his shoulder. \"Not yet. But I might if it continues to grow.\"\n\n\"Drop back,\" I said to him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I want to know what Denis thinks.\"\n\nWe back-paddled on the placid surface of the river, drifting on the milky-green waters, letting the canoe in which Denis de Toluard rode catch up to us.\n\nIn the stern of his canoe, Denis was restless and uneasy, his nose twitching, his paddle idle in his hands. \"Go,\" he said unasked when they drew alongside us. \"Go, go, go! That is what they say. Go and see, call the others. Call them all from the depths of the jungle, every last colony.\" He rubbed violently at his nose with one knuckled fist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not see, no. They cannot see as we understand it. But they can scent us, and they do.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the shore, the stream grew still for a moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Antennae perked and twitched, echoing Denis' movements.\n\n\"Can you tell if they mean us harm?\" I asked quietly.\n\nHis haunted gaze met mine. \"I don't think so. They feel like... sentries?\" He nodded to himself. \"Sentries, yes.\"\n\nWe continued onward and the army of sentries streamed alongside us, growing ever larger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ants foraged as they went, taking down beetles and lizards in their path, stripping them in seconds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They poured over rocks, divided around boulders, the moving mass of them looking for all the world like a black river." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A sick sense of apprehension settled in the pit of my stomach. Not even Eyahue's victorious shout as he pointed to terraced fields arising in the heights beyond a vast bend in the river could alleviate it.\n\nBut then the stream of ants altered their course, turning away from the river to plunge back into the jungle, heading overland toward the distant terraces. I wasn't entirely reassured, but my sense of dread lessened.\n\nA little later, we came around the bend and got our first sight of Vilcabamba.\n\nEyahue hadn't lied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Quechua city was perched in the highlands, spilling down the western slope of a mountain into the valleys below." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was protected by deep chasms spanned by hanging bridges. Buildings in the valleys were built of wood and thatch, but in the heights, there were palaces wrought of carved and painted stone. Streams trickled down to join the big river, churning the waters ahead of us.\n\nAll of us drifted and stared, unable to believe our eyes, unable to believe that we had reached the outermost stronghold of Tawantinsuyo.\n\nBelatedly, I realized that we were approaching a long quay with a handful of canoes docked there. On a ridge above it stood a double line of Quechua warriors clad in quilted cotton armor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They carried wooden shields, spears or stone-headed war-clubs, and their faces were impassive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Eyahue called out to them, telling them that we were traders in search of a party of white-faced strangers. One of the Quechua warriors pointed at the quay without replying, indicating permission to tie up.\n\n\"Should we arm ourselves?\" Balthasar murmured.\n\nSeeing the splendid city, I was acutely aware of our unimposing appearance. We were sweaty and hungry and grimy, hardly in any condition to impress anyone. At least the armor would help." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I think we'd better.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So we docked at the quay, unloading those trade goods we had left in store. The men donned their armor—or at least those who had not lost it to the river, for we were a few sets short by now. Of that which remained, much of it was rusted, the leather straps half-rotted by the jungle's damp heat. The shining company that had set out from Orgullo del Sol was considerably diminished. Still, it was something.\n\nThe Quechua watched without comment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bao nudged me, pointing with his chin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Following his gaze, I saw that there were more black ants swarming atop the ridge above us, winding in streams around the warriors' sandaled feet. The Quechua ignored them utterly.\n\nThe sick feeling returned.\n\nI glanced at Denis, who shook his head. He looked as ill as I felt. \"I don't know, Moirin. They want... I don't know.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He rubbed helplessly at his twitching nose. \"Whatever it is, it's unnatural.\"\n\nEyahue repeated our inquiry regarding the white-faced strangers, addressing the Quechua in a cajoling tone. This time, the lead warrior inclined his head and replied. \"He says we are expected,\" Eyahue reported, sounding puzzled. \"And they will escort us into the presence of Lord Pachacuti.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What about Prince Thierry and his men?\" I asked.\n\nThe old pochteca shook his head. \"He said nothing of them.\"\n\nThe Quechua leader beckoned, then turned and began to climb a series of steps carved into the side of the mountain, his men falling in behind him. On the ridge, pools of ants awaited us.\n\nBao and I exchanged a glance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I go first,\" he said firmly, unslinging his staff. \"No arguments.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Swallowing hard, I nodded. \"None here.\"\n\nFollowing the Quechua, we climbed the steps to the ridge, where the pool of ants parted for us, transforming itself into a divided stream. As we climbed the next set of stairs, ascending into the heights, twin rivulets of ants poured alongside us, following our progress. Although their presence unsettled me, I did my best to ignore them.\n\n\"Do you know this Lord Pachacuti?\" I asked Eyahue.\n\n\"No.\" He shrugged." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's new since last I was here. Some ambitious son of the Emperor, I reckon.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why's that?\" I asked.\n\nEyahue grunted. \"The name means 'Earth-Shaker.' It was the name the first Emperor of Tawantinsuyo took for himself; the Sapa Inca, they call him.\" He eyed the stream of ants with distaste. \"The Quechua believe one worthy of the name comes every so often to reorder the world.\"\n\n\"Oh.\"\n\nWe reached the first hanging bridge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It swayed underfoot, jostled by the tread of the Quechua who preceded us." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I reached out with both hands to steady myself on the thick cables woven of sisal, and flinched. They were crawling with ants.\n\nBao turned back. \"Steady, Moirin,\" he said in a calm voice. \"You can do this. We've endured worse.\"\n\nI smiled gratefully at him. \"We have, haven't we?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fighting to maintain my balance, I averted my gaze from the green chasm yawning beneath us and kept it fixed on Bao's back, comforted by his sure-footed tread." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We crossed the bridge and continued. Upward and upward we climbed, passing terraces cut into the face of the mountain. Farmers labored beneath the hot sun, unperturbed by the sight of armored men and our entourage of ants.\n\nAt last we reached the palace, passing through tall wooden doors emblazoned with gold disks depicting the Quechua sun god.\n\nFar from being deterred, the ants streamed through the doors alongside us. With the sounds of the jungle hushed by thick stone walls, I could hear them, a faint rustling sound that set my skin to crawling anew." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one we passed seemed to find it the least bit unusual, which unnerved me all the more.\n\nOur reticent escorts led us to a vast hall where dozens of young women danced attendance on the figure seated on a throne before an elaborate wall hanging wrought of feathers, a figure clad in a robe of fine-combed red wool, a great collar of gold, and a flared gold headdress.\n\n\"Lord Pachacuti,\" the lead guard announced. All of them knelt, touching their brows to the floor.\n\nThe ants flowed forward, clicking and rasping, forming a teeming black pool around the base of the throne. The maidservants moved out of their way with the grace of long practice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man on the throne smiled, reaching into a basket and tossing a handful of leaves to the swarming mass of ants." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I caught my breath, my diadh-anam flaring.\n\nFrom his throne, Raphael de Mereliot turned his smile on me; and it was a terrible smile, cold and hard and cruel. \"Well met, Moirin,\" he said. \"I've been waiting for you.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write 2 sentences sentences in the style of Kacey Ezell spawning from what the user wrote, within the steampunk, romance, vampires genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Captain Johannes de Graaf of the NightShip Leeuwin leaned on the brass bow rail of his ship and let out a sigh that came from the depths of his Immortal bones." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He rubbed his eyes, then stretched as his muscles protested every move he made." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The wind had finally calmed from the gale he'd fought to ride through the storm, and he could once again pick out the moon's silver reflection shining on the inky waves below." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've a good fix, Captain,\" his navigator said quietly. The man hadn't made a sound as he approached de Graaf's elbow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The captain knew he was there anyway." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We're no more than a night and day's sail out from Marinport.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "De Graaf nodded and turned to give the younger Immortal man a smile. \"You did good work getting us through that, Gabriel,\" he added as he reached out and clapped the navigator on the shoulder. \"I thank you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, sir,\" the navigator said, tripping over his words just a bit. He hadn't been Immortal long, and he'd always been a bit star-struck in the captain's presence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But Gabriel was good at his job, which was why de Graaf had hired him. The young man nodded, gave a small smile, and then turned to seek his quarters below, leaving as silently as he'd approached." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "De Graaf looked after him with a smile of his own. Twenty-four hours' sail would have them at their destination, near the larger port of Rotterdam." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd be able to sell his cargo for a princely sum." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Especially one piece in particular, he thought, picturing the exotic emerald necklace that had been a special request from one of his best customers.\n\nThe captain stretched his arms up over his head and seriously contemplated seeking his bed, though it was barely middle of the night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fighting the storm had taken it out of him…\n\nBoom." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Leeuwin listed hard to port, and de Graaf stumbled, nearly falling. He grabbed at the polished brass railing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All hands to the deck! Report!\" he bellowed over the groan of the ship's engines as she took several hits." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All trace of fatigue vanished in a surge of adrenaline that went to his head faster than the sweetest taste of mortal blood.\n\nBoom. Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A dark shape, nearly invisible against the black sky, streaked across the full moon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sharp series of pops that followed splintered the deck in a straight line that headed right for de Graaf." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He dove to the side, rolled, and came up with sword and flintlock in hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Crew,\" he called, his voice striking out with unmistakable authority, \"battle stations! This is an attack!\"\n\nMore of the dark shapes swarmed overhead, heralded by an odd, oscillating whistle, and the unmistakable whine of a steam engine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Below de Graaf's feet, the deck rumbled as the Leeuwin's own massive steam engines roared to life." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The engines, situated deep in the hold, began to turn the massive screw-type mechanisms located at the ship's stern. She gave a lurch and began to accelerate through the air on her current course." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The change was slow at first, but it would build until the Leeuwin, like the great hunting cat for whom she was named, leapt through the air with a speed no smaller ship could match.\n\nAt least, that was the theory." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of course, the theory would mean nothing if the pirates (they had to be pirates, though what sane pirate would dare take on an Immortal NightShip?) managed to swarm them under with their infernal small, whistling craft." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Another of those whistlers swooped in and came to a hover about five feet above the deck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Up close, de Graaf saw a vaguely box-shaped craft, with a smaller version of one of his ship's screws spinning on top, hovering five feet above and off the port side of the Leeuwin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As de Graaf watched, a black-clad figure leapt down from the contraption." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The remaining man aboard the screwcraft did something that made the screw itself tilt to the side, which had the effect of swinging the craft out like the end of a weighted pendulum before the whole thing slid sideways in its hover." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "De Graaf would have liked to try to figure out the mechanism, but he had more pressing matters. Like the black-clad invader currently charging him with a naked blade." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The NightShip captain parried the charge and twisted to the side, throwing his opponent off balance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He followed that up with an elbow to the face that resulted in a sickening crunch. The attacker howled in pain, then dropped to the deck, to be quickly replaced by two more." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sounds of hand-to-hand combat rang across the ship as the small crew battled the intruders. De Graaf moved like a whirlwind, relying on supernatural strength and speed as he defended his ship and crew from the pirates determined to take the helm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Another figure in black charged him. De Graaf slashed with his blade, taking the pirate across the throat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man let out a gurgling scream and collapsed to the deck." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "De Graaf grimaced as the blood fountained across his boots. What a waste. And what a mess it made." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "De Graaf's world narrowed to the glint of moonlight on steel and the whistling rattle of the screwcraft's turning apparatus. A rumbling boom punctuated the night and forced de Graaf to step quickly to avoid stumbling into his opponent's blade." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Leeuwin, it seemed, was fighting back against the swarm, her bow guns roaring. The sound gave him heart. These pirate cowards didn't stand a chance." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CREATIVE WRITING ASSIST:\n5 sentences sentences\nMimic: Kacey Ezell\nGenre: steampunk, romance, vampires" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The two women sat in tired silence, holding hands as the carriage trundled on its short journey back to the Delsarte Mansion. \"The Eventides gave me my soul back. I don't think I belong anywhere else,\" Amelia said after a few moments of silence. \"They don't look at me differently because I used to be a Source. They let me put that in the past. They understand. Not that I don't appreciate you and your parents, but the Order has become my home.\"\n\nThe carriage slowed in the darkening streets and came to a shuddering stop at the parcel depot near the docks. The dockside district always struck Lucia as something like another world." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All around were the sights and sounds of ships at port: creaking wood and chains clattering against the docks, and the splash of the waves lapping at the posts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The smell of the salt air wafted in stark sensory contrast to the pastoral, earthy setting of the Eventide Compound. There, rich smells of baking and the sweet perfume of flowers filled the Order's expansive, peaceful estate. Here, a drunk dozed, snoring heavily in his stupor against a low wall, and voices echoed over the water as the business day wound down.\n\nLucia and Amelia stepped out into the early night. A few citizens were about as Amelia glanced around to survey their surroundings." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Eventide garb extended some measure of respect, even from common pickpockets, a small perk for which Lucia was grateful tonight.\n\n\"We'll only be a moment,\" Amelia instructed the driver in a stern tone.\n\n\"Take your time. I'm going to go get supper.\" The driver gestured at a nearby tavern.\n\n\"Actual food, sir, not an ale dinner. I'll have words with your dispatch if you come back reeking of liquor,\" Amelia warned.\n\n\"Yes, Sister.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: Cooperative storytelling\nMy role: Provide a brief opening\nYour role: Expand upon my opening with five sentences in the steampunk, romance, vampires genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Luce, I can't make our appointment today. Something's come up. I'll see you tomorrow night at the latest and explain it all then. Please don't do anything foolish. —Amelia.\n\nAmelia signed her name to her hastily penned note and handed it over with a silver coin to the young man who often ran errands and did odd jobs for the Eventides. \"Please take this to Delsarte House,\" she said with a smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Quickly now, and I'll save one of the best pastries for you to eat tonight.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The young man flashed a bright grin at the Sister and headed off down the street. Amelia looked after him a moment longer, worried about her cousin's reaction, then turned resolutely back to the tasks that awaited her within.\n\nFor Amelia, that was primarily nursing these days. The Consort's strange fever was making its way through the dockside district of the city. For many of the poorer citizens, a private city-doctor's care was far too expensive, so they made do with the nursing skills of the Eventide brothers and sisters." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Amelia thanked their good fortune one of the brothers was a physician." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Brother Stephan might be short of temper and blunt to the point of rudeness, but he was knowledgeable, and he did his best for those who came seeking care." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Since the previous evening, the number of care-seekers had tripled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Eventides' large infirmary was overfull, and makeshift beds had been set up in their main dining space. With so many needing time and attention, the Sisters and Brothers had forgone their large, communal meals. Not that she nor any of the others had much of an appetite.\n\nThe fever was prurient, and the scent of the white discharge that ran from the patient's eyes, nose, and mouth seemed to cling stubbornly to Amelia's skin and hair. She'd scrubbed her hands raw the night before in an attempt to get it off her." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It hadn't worked. The odor lingered.\n\nSister Beatrix and Mother Ingrid had brought in generous bunches of fall flowers and pine branches, setting them about to offset the scent of the sickness that permeated the air. When breathed in with the fresh air, the sharp, astringent pine fragrance worked as a momentary restorative.\n\n\"Sister Amelia, there you are,\" a harried voice met her as she stepped through the great wooden doors into the converted dining hall. A set of bed linens was thrust into her hands, and she found herself drawn back into the controlled chaos.\n\nLater that night, Amelia returned to her chamber at the end of her long shift and sobbed herself to sleep, too exhausted for the nightmares that haunted her still." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Produce six sentences using the prose and structure of Kacey Ezell every time it's your turn, using what the user wrote as a seed. Stick to the steampunk, romance, vampires genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Amelia was the first to be ushered into the room by the Delsartes' day servant." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Amelia?\" Lucia exclaimed, confused.\n\n\"Yes. Your father sent the carriage and invitation to me yesterday, and here I am. I don't know why I was called, but I took the chance for a break from the Order and the infirmary.\" Amelia shrugged in her robe and head cover and hurried over to hug Lucia.\n\nThe quiet interlude between cousins was cut short as the rest of the dinner party walked into the room. Edith and Duke Delsarte walked in, followed by Captain de Graaf and one of his crew, a shorter blonde woman dressed in sailing garb of pants and a close fit jacket over a simple blouse.\n\n\"Oh, my,\" Lucia blurted as she saw de Graaf standing in the foyer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Duke Delsarte seemed bemused at Lucia's reaction." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm told you've become somewhat acquainted. Friends, or more?\"\n\nLucia cringed and looked at her parents, then de Graaf. \"Yes, friends. I didn't mean disrespect—\"\n\nDuke Delsarte held up a hand to stop Lucia, smiling as he did so. \"I wasn't asking for an apology, my daughter. Sit, dinner is not quite ready, and we have some matters to discuss beforehand.\"\n\nWith a knot in her belly, Lucia took her seat next to Amelia on the settee." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She watched as de Graaf and his companion took up seats across the table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The distance seemed a comfort at the moment. Curiosity, however… Who is this woman?\n\n\"Thank you for the invitation for me and my second in command, Delsarte. This is Marit, my ship's medic. The other crew are all partaking of extended shore leave. Under the circumstances, they've earned it. And we're here to sort out some business, I'm told.\"\n\nDuke Delsarte coughed to clear his throat. \"Yes. There's this matter of your interest in my daughter, and her interest in you, and not in a mortal suitor. I thought it high time to lay down some expectations that might benefit all of us and prevent some scandal.\"\n\nLucia drew in a deep breath, anticipating her father's next edict, that she couldn't see Captain de Graaf in any capacity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Next to her, Amelia lowered her head in contrition." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Duke Delsarte, it was my error in assisting Lucia to accept social invitations from Captain de Graaf. I should have put my foot down. I know better.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Duke Delsarte waved off Amelia's protestations with a friendly gesture. \"You had the presence of mind to attend as chaperone. The matter at hand is less who you associate with, Lucia, but—\"\n\n\"People talk,\" Edith finished her husband's sentence.\n\n\"Ah. We tried to be circumspect. I guess we failed,\" Lucia replied.\n\nThere was a pause, a moment where everyone stared into their teacups.\n\n\"After much consideration earlier, when we found ourselves aware of this growing friendship, your mother and I have come to a solution,\" Duke Delsarte broke the silence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm not going to like this, am I?\" Lucia asked.\n\nEdith reached for her husband's hand. \"It's apparent that both of you have struck up a friendship. Whether it should be anything more isn't the point—or you're headed well past that point. It matters not.\"\n\nLucia winced, bracing for the bad news that she was about to be sent away to a relative's, far from the Leeuwin.\n\n\"It hasn't,\" Lucia blurted and lifted a cup of tea to her lips to hide the blush creeping into her cheeks.\n\n\"Just keep it circumspect. And quiet. I trust Captain de Graaf, but others will surely talk if you're seen cavorting on the arm of an Immortal, Lucia. That means not being seen flirting in the dockside taverns. Elidon and others have seen you two in company more than a few times. Mother Claude at the Order sent a letter, most shocked that you, de Graaf, seem to be spending considerable time around Lucia and Amelia. However,\" Edith went on, giving her daughter a look that seemed almost mischievous, \"she does commend your dedication to service.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lucia pressed her lips together, then smiled and gave her parents a nod to show that she understood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was stupid, perhaps, but she could see the wisdom in trying to maintain at least the appearance of conformity with societal norms.\n\n\"That leaves the Order and de Graaf's ship,\" Lucia spoke with a laugh.\n\n\"Fine. The teahouse and Performance House, but use your good sense, clever daughter of mine,\" Edith replied.\n\nThey were saved from further discussion on that awkward topic by the arrival of the first course. As the Delsarte family servants executed their tasks in a practiced, elegant fashion, Lucia found herself wondering if the captain would partake. She knew he drank liquids, but if his sustenance came from the blood of mortals, would he eat?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lady Delsarte thanked the serving staff, which was the signal that the party may begin to eat. Lucia glanced at de Graaf as she picked up her fork, only to find him watching her with a small, amused smile. Without breaking the gaze, he lifted a piece of the fragrant, savory spiced bread to his lips and took a slow bite. The candlelight gleamed in his eyes, and he may have lowered one eyelid a fraction, in a slow, clandestine sort of wink.\n\n\"Lucia?\"\n\nLucia started, then looked at her mother, who was watching her with an expression of exasperated affection." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did you hear a word I said, child?\"\n\n\"Ah. No, Mother, I'm sorry, I was…distracted.\"\n\nNext to Lucia, Amelia snorted, choked, and then began to cough. Lucia kicked Amelia under the table, and then began to pat her back as she pretended solicitousness.\n\n\"I asked if you were as curious as I about the pirate attack. So bold of them to attack a NightShip! I've never heard of such a thing before,\" Edith repeated for the benefit of her distracted daughter.\n\n\"Oh, yes!\" Lucia said, \"If it's not too painful to talk about…I find I'm very interested, sir.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not much to tell, really,\" de Graaf said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The pirates burst from behind cloud cover and fired on us with some new weaponry. We lost no crew, and we fended them off with skill. It wasn't the first time, but it was the first pirate raid on a NightShip in decades. I can't even fathom what motivated them to try. Marit here is a credit to her trade. I should be very surprised if we see their like again, and certainly not this year. We sail this route once more before we move to winter routes down south, and the Sund takes the winter sailings. We'll be more cautious in the future.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The talk remained polite but inconsequential for the rest of the meal. Lucia barely paid attention to the discussion, as her thoughts whirled in gleeful excitement. She and de Graaf could continue their friendship! She would have the opportunity to hear the stories of his travels, learn about the fascinating technology of his airship…and get to know the man himself. If she was perfectly honest with herself, that was the most tantalizing and exciting bit of it all.\n\nLucia fairly skipped to her room after the guests had taken their leave." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her mood was a bit giddy." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her parents hadn't forbidden her from seeing de Graaf socially. That could be enough. A weight lifted off Lucia's shoulders. She hurried down the halls to her suite, her mind alight with the possibilities." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CONTINUE STORY. PARAMETERS: eight sentences sentences, steampunk, romance, vampires genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Johannes grimaced as Matthias writhed in agony on the bed in the captain's cabin, wracked with fever and delusion. Marit and Amelia fussed, talking in hushed tones as they tended to the sick mortal man.\n\n\"We can't take him to the Order. They simply have no room, with the fever. Matthias doesn't have the same fever. He's rum-sick, over-bled, and malnourished. Rest and food are all he needs. You can care for him here, and we'll come by and check on him tomorrow. I'm sorry, but with the fire and the plague, he's safer resting here,\" Amelia said.\n\nAmelia summoned de Graaf out of the room, and her robes swished around her feet as she hurried him.\n\n\"If you did this, so help me, I'll make sure you're barred from the city, and you'll never see my cousin again. He'll live, if your medic follows our instructions exactly.\"\n\n\"It wasn't my doing, Sister; I assure you. He was in fine health when I arrived in the city a week ago. I don't know what's ailing him, but it wasn't me. Marit and I can take care of him. I'll do exactly as ordered.\"\n\nAmelia glowered at de Graaf, her arms crossed over her chest, unsure if she believed the Immortal man's promises. \"I'll be by tomorrow at sundown to check on him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're welcome aboard the Leeuwin at your will, Sister Amelia. Please, stop by the galley, take some food before leaving for your other duties. I wouldn't want to acquire the reputation of being an inhospitable man.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "De Graaf followed as they returned to Matthias' side. Sweat rolled down Matthias' face, but he slept quietly, his breathing no longer labored.\n\nMarit yawned and stretched, then mopped Matthias' face with a clean cloth. \"I gave him a sleeping remedy to calm him. Laced it with some rum, as he's suffered a shock. He may be more lucid by tomorrow night and be able to tell us what happened.\"\n\n\"Allow me to walk you to the roads and call you a carriage. A Sister shouldn't be alone on these streets,\" de Graaf offered as Amelia packed up her small kit of remedies and nursing equipment.\n\nAmelia walked close by de Graaf along the darkened dockside, darker still for the charred remains of warehouses, shops, and work sheds.\n\n\"It'll take some time to rebuild. What a tragedy. So many lives lost.\" Amelia looked around as she held de Graaf's arm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Indeed, tragic. I haven't heard the official count. We survive and rebuild. Thank you for tending to Matthias in the middle of all this. I hope we have the pleasure of your company on the Leeuwin once more before we depart. Some of my crew might find comfort in the Eventide message of work and duty. A few of my crew do attend services when they can.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "De Graaf looked up and down the street, turning his head, searching for a carriage.\n\nAmelia stumbled on the uneven planks of the docks. She righted herself as de Graaf reached instinctively to steady her. She yanked her hand away as she grazed his hand, cool skin on her warm flesh, a recoil of memories. De Graaf looked down as she flinched but said nothing.\n\nAmelia laughed softly. \"You make fun of my profession, sir.\"\n\n\"No, not at all. I have nothing but respect for the Eventides. When you happen to see Lucia, give her my best, and I'll say a few prayers for the lost myself.\"\n\nAmelia shivered in the marine breezes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Storm blowing in. It's chilly.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She adjusted her head scarves.\n\nDe Graaf looked over, slipped off his coat, and draped it around Amelia. \"Pearl earrings?\"\n\nAmelia nodded. \"Yes. Mother Claude granted me the small indulgence. They were my mother's.\"\n\n\"Ah. I was starting to question the Eventide vows of austerity,\" de Graaf replied.\n\n\"My father gave my mother the earrings as a gift after my birth. He was a sailor, an ocean-going cargo man, and my mother was a clerk in a port shipping office. They perished in a shipwreck. This was all that was left of their estate when they passed.\"\n\n\"And the Delsartes took you in,\" de Graaf finished.\n\n\"Yes. But I rebelled against their kindness. I took up with the Sources, and I sold myself on the docks. I fell in love with one of the Immortals, and when he discovered I was with child, his child, he went mad with rage; he was certain it wasn't his. He drained me and threw me off the ship. I woke in the Eventides' Infirmary, having lost the child when I nearly drowned. I spent years recovering, both physically and mentally…and emotionally. I was mortified; the Delsartes gave me everything. I did this, and they still forgave me. In my long recovery, I found a sense of comfort with the Sisters, and there I'll remain. I'm quite happy there…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go on.\" Amelia looked down at her shoes, avoiding de Graaf's face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sorry for your suffering at Immortal hands. Your confidence is safe with me,\" de Graaf replied to the young Sister with an old soul.\n\n\"Be kind to Lucia. For me. I worry for her, as she's become besotted with you and your charm. I had no other lovers, and she should know love better than I did.\" Amelia swallowed hard. \"She's my world.\"\n\nOff in the distance, a carriage rattled up the street. De Graaf leaned over to Amelia to speak softly.\n\n\"I swear on my Immortal soul, Lucia will be my queen if she wishes it. And if I ever come across the one who harmed you, shall I drive a stake in his heart as he did yours?\"\n\nAmelia gasped, pressing her hand to her chest in horror. \"Gods and saints,\" she said loudly before pulling de Graaf close and whispering a name in his ear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was one he was familiar with, a NightShip captain with a reputation less stellar than most." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That done, Amelia sighed, comforted, and rifled through the small box of teas.\n\n\"Oh, Mother Claude loves this one. And Brother Stephan this one. If you can bring more of these, I'll make sure you're compensated.\"\n\n\"I'll keep the compound kitchen well stocked, if you give me a list every time I'm in port. My thanks for tending to Matthias. I truly didn't harm him; I'll be devastated if something happens to him,\" de Graaf replied.\n\nAmelia smiled. \"I think perhaps you're a good man, sir. Even if you are Immortal.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Let's engage in a collaborative writing exercise in the steampunk, romance, vampires genre. I'll provide a starting point, and you'll continue with eight sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Matthias woke on the Leeuwin in the captain's cabin. The ship rocked slightly in the breeze, moored steady. Next to him his lover and client, Johannes de Graaf, slept soundly on the silk sheets, naked and sprawled in deep dreams fed by Matthias' blood. The sun had yet to drop in the sky. De Graaf would sleep for hours yet. Matthias recalled begging for the bite, just for a bit of Bliss. De Graaf had reluctantly obliged, offering the bite along with a vampire blood–laced glass of wine. Matthias had drunk the altered wine eagerly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The taste of the sweet wine still lingered in his mouth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Somewhere in the sleep of fever and delusion, the medic and the nun, he supposed, had dressed him in a gray cotton nightshirt. Matthias shucked it off and found his clothes neatly folded and set on the trunk at the foot of the bed. Once dressed, he drew the curtains around de Graaf's bed and pulled the blinds open over one of the windows, allowing late day sunlight to flood into the room. The bright light set off Matthias' aching head in a new round of misery. The sun, painful after so long living by night, seared his eyes. He blinked, adjusting to the brilliance, and set to a more important task.\n\nMethodically Matthias searched the cabin, sliding open the desk drawers of de Graaf's cluttered desk, looking under papers and in boxes. A stash of gems, coins, and bills, maps, lists of inventory, letters from his shipping clients, and an invoice for ship repairs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The last one gave Matthias pause as he scanned the page and saw the sum.\n\nMerciful saints, that's going to take a bite out of profit for some time.\n\nNext to the bill was the shipping invoice for the necklace to return to an unnamed buyer, and a price, a not insignificant price. Once again Duke Delsarte flaunted his wealth on his only daughter. The Elidons could have had it so easy if Delsarte would just step aside, if Remy had the same fortunes, but the Elidon name was seemingly cursed.\n\nMotivated by his father's promises, Matthias moved on to the wall cabinets, one by one, working his way through. A set of keys sat on the desk and opened the locked doors. Nothing. Onward to the wardrobe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Success! A small flat wooden box lay tucked in a drawer under shoes and socks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Matthias slipped the wooden box out: glossy, black wood, and a small gold latch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A tiny key on the key ring solved that. Matthias paused." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was about to betray de Graaf, who'd shown him only kindness and trust.\n\nYet bringing his mother's cherished gem back home would make things right. Matthias lifted the lid and held his breath.\n\nThere, on the black silk, the enamel, gold, and emerald necklace lay as if it, too, slept peacefully. Such an ornate thing. Lucia had looked so lovely in it, but that central stone didn't belong in the hands of the Delsarte family. Matthias lifted the necklace from its seat and wrapped a shaking hand around the pear-shaped emerald. With a quick snap he broke the gem with its gold setting from the rest of the necklace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He pocketed the emerald and lay the necklace back in its place, locked the box, and tucked it away." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everything would be made right once more." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing exercise: four sentences sentences, steampunk, romance, vampires genre. go!" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucia joined Marit and walked down to the barricade near sundown, past the burned-out buildings. She kept a wary eye on the crowd at the barricade, an angry, shouting mob held back by the guardsmen. A pair of Eventide Sisters and a pair of the Brothers stood waiting. The crowd roared in fury as the guardsmen allowed them passage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We need our cargo!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Madame, how dare you sell yourself to the docks! For shame!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's Lucia Delsarte!\" A murmur went through the crowd as they recognized her. \"Duke Delsarte's own flesh and blood! How much do they pay you, miss? Your father can't possibly be so poor as to give you up to the docks! I hope they pay well!\" The shouting grew more lewd, 'til Lucia turned red and tears welled up in her eyes. Marit wrapped her arm around Lucia." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Go home!\" Marit shouted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Leave her alone. The guards haven't the sense to let her out of the barricades!\"\n\n\"She might carry the fever! That's what happens when you lay with Immortals! They got Elidon's son, and now her! He's been all over town about it.\"\n\n\"Miss?\" The Sisters spotted her then waved her over. One of the Delsarte servants stood with them, just out of view 'til Lucia approached." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucia stepped forward and brushed tears from her face. The guardsmen stopped her from getting too close to the barricade and leaving the quarantine zone.\n\nThe servant lofted a small valise past the guards to land at Lucia's feet with a thud. The guards hustled him away as he waved and smiled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lucia picked up the small case, a sinking feeling in her gut as the angry masses hurled demands and invectives at the small group of Eventides who followed her back into the quarantine zone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Miss Delsarte, we can send word back to your family that you're safe.\" One of the Sisters took her aside at the edge of the barricades.\n\n\"Thank you, Sister, but if this case was sent from my home, they know well where I am. Go, tend to your work. Give my regards to Sister Amelia. Tell her I owe her a fine dinner and tea when this is over.\" Lucia brushed away tears and steeled herself as she headed back toward the ship with Marit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If I'd known it was going to turn ugly, I'd have sent de Graaf. I am so sorry, Miss Delsarte.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Marit picked up the valise and cast a wary eye to the crowd at the barricades." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: The user will write a bit then you need to write around 5 sentences continuing directly from the user's text.\n\nAuthor style: Kacey Ezell" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inside Johannes' cabin and alone once more, Lucia handed him the letter addressed to him. \"From my father, for you. I didn't read it.\"\n\nJohannes opened the letter and read silently as Lucia peered at the spines of the books on the bookshelf, then wandered to the window to watch the city vanish over the horizon. After a few moments, he spoke.\n\n\"Your father's entrusted your safety to me, with payment for passage. I'm encouraged to keep my personal distance, but he understands we have something of a relationship. I'm threatened with perhaps a staking if I overstep your bounds, however you define them. And have a safe trip. Ah. I think we can manage that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Johannes set the letter aside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your father is most modern and trusting, and rightly so. How are you feeling? I'm terribly sorry you got stuck on the wrong side of the blockade. That was unforeseen. That goat of a man Remy should be ashamed. There's a reason I've never done business with the Elidons. Matthias…Matthias was a good man.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Johannes poured a heavy mug of dark rum and handed it to Lucia. \"Marit told me about the scene at the docks. I'm mortified. I hope you weren't harmed.\"\n\n\"Is,\" Lucia replied, \"Matthias is a good man. And I'm fine, only shaken up. I'll have a stiff drink and a rest, and I'll enjoy the sailing. Since I'm stuck here, I might as well appreciate it.\"\n\nJohannes sat down on the long chaise next to Lucia. \"That's the spirit. So, we have four nights at sail, a stopover in Paris for cargo, and three nights of leave in port. You and Marit can replace your dress, and she's talked of needing new work clothes. We'll show you the city and sail you home, and by then, I hope this absurd cordon is lifted, and you can be working with Amelia at the Eventides after only a fortnight away.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lucia sipped her drink." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They're scared and angry. The plague, and, you have to admit, a good number of our citizenry seem to be down at the docks plying a trade to your kind and coming to unpleasant ends. Sylvain, Lisette, Matthias. You didn't think anyone would notice?\"\n\nJohannes sighed. \"We thought we were being circumspect. And until the plague, it seemed fine. There'll be changes in how things are run at the docks. This should never have happened. I don't even know how it spiraled out of hand so fast.\"\n\n\"A confluence of unfortunate luck. It'll all blow over, like the storms in winter. By spring, this will be a distant memory. Elidon will get his son back, and the ships will sail. The citizens won't stand for going without their perishables, luxuries, and remedies for long.\"\n\nLucia stared at her mug and drained the rest of the drink. \"I hope so.\" She rose to her feet and walked over to the windows." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Better view from the top deck. Come with me,\" Johannes suggested as Lucia wobbled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The rum went to my head. As long as you assure me I won't go overboard, I'll go with you,\" Lucia replied.\n\n\"But of course. Here, take this coat. It's a little cold outside.\" Johannes handed Lucia a heavy wool coat. Lucia slipped it on and followed him through the quiet ship to the upper deck steps. She waited as Johannes unbolted the door, then took his hand and followed him hesitantly onto the expansive deck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Behind and above them, the Navigation Room's windows gleamed in the moonlight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A shining brass rail wrapped around the deck, and far above, the massive balloons that held the ship aloft rippled in the breeze. A few wooden supply lockers and neatly coiled cables lay on the deck itself.\n\n\"Look, the moon. The stars. Off to the left, that's France, Spain, and Portugal if we sailed further on. Over that way is England. Those bright lights low in the clouds are other NightShips. And below, the ocean-going vessels. I come out here often just to bask in the silence and watch the world go by.\" Johannes pointed to the various features of the night sky.\n\n\"It's so quiet. No one yelling.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lucia turned to face Johannes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'd stay out here every night if it wasn't so cold.\" The ship wobbled a bit in the wind, and Lucia's legs felt the effect of the rum. Johannes moved quickly, holding fast to Lucia with an arm around her waist, and pulled her close.\n\n\"Any time you like, I'll come with you so you can feel safe that you won't fall overboard. We can drink tea and watch the world go by,\" Johannes suggested.\n\nLucia looked at Johannes as he moved his hand to the small of her back, and his other hand slid down her leg." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stilled his hand with regret as her heart raced at the memory of his touch.\n\n\"Stop right there. Not here on the decks,\" Lucia warned him and kissed him lightly on the lips. His lips, as her own, tasted of the sweetness of the rum. He broke the kiss as quickly as she'd instigated it.\n\n\"Lucia—\" Johannes started. \"The other night—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I regret nothing. My mother knows; she expected it. We're no longer talking about virtue on this ship. Kiss me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucia grinned. She pulled him close, and he enthusiastically responded. Lucia's tongue grazed his fangs, a reminder that her suitor was, indeed, not a mortal man. Wary of those sharp teeth, they kissed as de Graaf's hand slipped up the inside of her thigh, scandalously high this time, in a passionate embrace under the stars.\n\nLucia didn't want to stop him this time, yet an ingrained sense of propriety took over. She held his hand at her thigh to savor the touch of him for a moment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's quite chilly, and I'm going to return to my cabin, alone, before I catch a fever from being out on the decks.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lucia licked her lips, and her cheeks burned red with desire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you returned to my room, it would get all out of hand again,\" Johannes replied as he opened the door to the interior.\n\n\"I'll give it some consideration, in that case.\" Lucia crept down the steep, narrow steps. It wasn't far to her cabin, and Johannes paused at the door, but didn't come in until Lucia gestured for him to step inside.\n\n\"I didn't mean to badger you. I only miss your company and would welcome your affections as you see fit,\" de Graaf replied as he pulled up the room's only chair and sat down. \"I overstepped again.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I want to. I would let you bite me, and let it go from there willingly. However, I've had a trying day, and I need some time to sort out my own thoughts. I'll come find you,\" Lucia replied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good saints above, I want to, don't get me wrong.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll dream well on those words. Sleep well, and I must attend to the business of being a captain. 'Til tomorrow evening, Lady Lucia.\" Johannes rose, and they shared one more kiss that lingered even longer, promising everything.\n\nHer face red with desire and a racing heart, she bolted the door shut behind him as he left, fingers fumbling over the brass latch. She wasn't lying about her fatigue. She slipped into her nightclothes and into bed, lulled to sleep by the gentle sway of the ship as it powered through the air on its way to safer shores." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She woke at sunrise, light streaming in the small porthole window of her cabin." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She ached with lingering temptation to find de Graaf but satisfied herself with making him wait 'til they were at least a day's sail out of Marinport." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding five sentences in the steampunk, romance, vampires genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You see, it's all here in her letter,\" Lucia said shortly thereafter as she showed the folded parchment scrap to the captain. \"The order is ready to receive you with open arms. She's telling us to come to the Eventide compound. She's even told us the time, after moonrise.\"\n\nDe Graaf raised his eyebrows. \"Impressive,\" he said, respect in his tone. \"And how will we get to the Eventide compound?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"As you suggested,\" Lucia replied with a smile. \"The same way the messages do. I spoke with little Elise, the messenger who delivered this letter. She said the way isn't perhaps the most pleasant route, but we can all fit in the old aqueduct tunnels. They haven't held water for a century or so, since the main elevated arches collapsed several miles to the south, but the tunnels through the walls are still intact. Elise said one of the grates has come loose and can be removed. She'll take us through tonight.\"\n\n\"And how will we get into the Eventide compound?\" de Graaf repeated, feeling Lucia's plans out.\n\n\"That's the best part. The aqueduct tunnels lead to an abandoned cistern beneath the Eventides' main kitchens,\" she said, her smile growing ever more brilliant." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Let's engage in a collaborative writing exercise. I'll provide a starting point, and You'll continue with six sentences in the style of Sawyer Bennett." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why are you in such a crappy mood?\" Marius asks from beside me.\n\nTrue to Dmitri's word, Marius is waiting outside the Enovia amphitheater hosting my mother's private fundraiser. We're here to champion her cause for education reform in underprivileged countries. She's currently working on a project to develop a school that would allow over a thousand lower-and middle-class school children to attend for free, along with food stipends for entire families, in Haiti.\n\nJackson Gale drove us in one of Father's Bentleys, and I was grateful he didn't attempt small talk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In fact, he didn't attempt any talk at all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Didn't even offer a \"good evening, Your Highness\" when I met him at the east side carport.\n\nHe was polite enough to open the back door and made sure I pulled the length of my silver gown in all the way, but he was silent on the ten-minute drive to the amphitheater. Marius saw us arrive and jogged down the steps to open my door before Mr. Gale could even get out of the driver's side.\n\nWhich was fine by me. I intended to ignore the man all night because, frankly, he wasn't worth my attention.\n\nEven if he was worth my attention—which, honestly, okay … he's super hot—I wouldn't be in the frame of mind to exert the effort." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My mind is preoccupied by other things." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My father is hiding something from me,\" I say to Marius as my eyes sweep the outdoor venue. The lower level of chairs that make up the base of the stadium have been cleared, and tables have been set up for people to sit if they don't want to stand and mingle. An orchestra plays, and waiters flow through the crowd offering canapés and champagne.\n\nI chose something stronger, a gimlet on the rocks, but I've barely taken a sip. Instead, I stare across the crowd at my father, dashing in his tuxedo and royal sash draped across his chest. He wears no other adornments, and his coronation crown has been locked in a vault since he took the throne almost thirty years ago." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My mother, Juliana Winterbourne, is a vision next to him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I inherited her blond hair and blue eyes, and she looks like my sister rather than my mother. She's Brazilian, and my father met her during the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. He was there to watch, and she was there to play volleyball for her home country.\n\nWhile she is tall and lithe, the epitome of queenly grace at fifty-two, she's also a strong, powerful woman. She works out religiously—as does my father, who is powerful in his own right—and plays in a local recreational volleyball league where she crushes pretty much all the competition.\n\nShe must sense me staring at her, because she turns her lovely face my way and gives me a smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her eyes cut to Marius, the smile turns sly and comes back to me.\n\nI smirk and shake my head at her.\n\nDon't go there, Mother. Marius and I are just friends.\n\nAnd the infuriating woman knows it.\n\nGod love her, but it's her queenly duty to help my father in his quest to find me someone suitable to marry and procreate with." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Deep down, she knows I'm going to hold out for true love—whatever that means and wherever I find it—rather than be forced into something." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's just … my mom thinks it's Marius, because we're such close friends." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She thinks that building block is what's going to catapult our hearts together.\n\nSweet woman.\n\nMy eyes cut over to my father, and I feel my ire rise. When I demanded he tell me what's going on—because I know he's hiding something—he patronized me. Patted me on the head, figuratively, and told me not to worry my pretty self on such things.\n\nI wanted to kick him, but I would never because I love him too much." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What could he be hiding?\" Marius asks drolly. \"He has the dullest monarchy in the history of monarchies. There's no political intrigue or royal scandals. His business operates so smoothly a monkey could run the mines, and he has the perfect family, except for one highly suspicious and daft daughter.\"\n\nThere's no stopping my elbow as it shoots sideways and catches him in the ribs. Marius was expecting it, though, and turned slightly so I only grazed him.\n\nHe laughs, sliding an arm around my waist and drawing me into him. To most, this would seem a romantic gesture." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To Marius and me, it's his way of offering comfort. His shoulder is the one I've cried on the most over my lifetime, and while he's teasing, he knows I'm legitimately upset. I told him everything that happened after Dmitri busted me outside the walls, including the meeting with the American security team. I told him Dmitri and Father are hiding something, and I know there's an important reason Dmitri isn't handling my security. I also told him that after Father pointedly refused to tell me anything, he did order that I was never to step foot outside the walls again without security, and if he caught me doing so, he'd lock me in my room until I ascended the throne.\n\nHe wouldn't, of course, but I know I have to cool it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If Marius and I want to go cliff diving, I'll need permission and arrangements for security. This will obviously defeat the spontaneous acts of adventure Marius and I take together, not to mention our privacy to talk about all the secretive things we share.\n\nMostly his active sex life and my nonexistent one, but still… that's private.\n\n\"There's something wrong,\" I say adamantly, although he's right—we're probably the dullest monarchy in history. \"This whole story about the American government insisting on this Jameson company to lend protection and that's why Dmitri is staying back doesn't make sense. Especially since Father and Mother have suspended all their travel while I'm on my trip. They're going to be safe at the compound, so why would Dmitri not accompany me?\"\n\n\"Why do you care?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Marius asks curiously. \"You can't stand Dmitri. Don't tell me you actually want him glowering at you for the next few weeks.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's beside the point,\" I snap. \"There's something fishy about him not traveling.\"\n\nI mull it over, again scanning the venue. I nod and smile at those I make eye contact with. I pass over Jackson Gale as he stands at a table ten feet from me and Marius. He's in a tux, and I have to say, he wears it well." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Because he's not supposed to look like security, he has a drink in hand, but I'm sure there's no booze in it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Deception at its finest, but admittedly, he looks like he belongs.\n\nHe looks very fine indeed.\n\nI grit my teeth at the unbidden thought.\n\n\"What if Dmitri's refusal to accompany you has nothing to do with your parents but has something to do with Dmitri himself?\"\n\nMy head quickly turns his way, brow furrowed. \"What do you mean?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Marius shrugs noncommittally. \"I'm just saying, we all know the rumors—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I can't help but snort. \"You mean that he's former KGB?\"\n\n\"Why is it you can't possibly consider that?\"\n\nThe expression on his face looks almost sympathetic.\n\nPiteous.\n\nAs if I couldn't possibly understand the ways of the world, and it's the saddest thing he's ever seen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's true… I've led a sheltered life, much of it on this island surrounded by a stone wall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's why this trip to the United States—my first ever—is so incredibly exciting. All the wonders of the Land of the Free. The great melting pot of the world.\n\nGranted, my parents let me go to Switzerland for university. They've allowed me to travel across Europe with friends and family.\n\nBut every bit of that was done with heavy security and a long list of rules." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To my parents, the United States seems far more dangerous and unpredictable, and they've always been hesitant to let me visit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Darling,\" my mother would say, \"it's so big and full of so many walks of life. We would fear for your safety.\"\n\nI thought this was ludicrous because everywhere I go, my safety is an issue. It was a constant debate, my parents feeling like Europe was safer for me, but after pressing my case for a few years, they finally relented.\n\nI'm going on my dream trip. Two solid weeks traveling across the United States, taking in every bit of touristy crap I can while working in some philanthropy and business for our mines at the same time. I'll see the intensity of the Big Apple, the warm beaches of the Florida Keys, and sunny Los Angeles where the stars abound." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'll even do some skiing in Wyoming—which I'm quite good at—and take in my first-ever rodeo." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'll see more in two weeks than I will probably have seen in my travels so far.\n\nI really should quit worrying about Dmitri and his reasons for not coming. As Marius points out, I don't really like the man, and I should be grateful not to have him breathing down my neck. In fact, I bet it will be easier to give this guy Jackson the slip than it ever would Dmitri.\n\nShould I have an inkling to do so.\n\nMy eyes move back to Jackson Gale." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He's not looking right at me, but I can tell by the way he holds his body, he's completely aware of me and every person within a twenty-foot radius." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I recognize that because it's how Dmitri protects me. It means Jackson is very good at what he does. Maybe it won't be so easy to give him the slip, but that's not something to ponder right now. I generally follow the rules when I'm outside the compound—I'm no idiot. I know the value of my life to determined kidnappers.\n\nIt's going to be weird having this stranger in my presence for the next few weeks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Awkward, really. I may not like Dmitri, but I've known him for almost thirteen years." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There is a level of comfort there that I'm going to miss, despite his brutish ways.\n\n\"This party blows,\" Marius grumbles. \"Why do I even bother coming to these things?\"\n\nI roll my eyes, pulling away from him so that his arm around my waist disengages and instead I link our arms at the elbows, all without spilling a drop of my drink.\n\nI lean my head on his shoulder, let it rest there a moment, and smile in fondness over such a stupid question. He knows the answer, but I provide it anyway, looking up at him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Because, you know damn well you're going to hook up with some heiress or waitress—you're not picky—and you'll go to sleep with a smile on your face. All this boring stuff will have been worth it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Marius snickers. \"You know me way too well.\"\n\n\"Come on,\" I say as I give a tug of my elbow against his. \"Let's go walk along the docks and get away from all these stuffy people.\"\n\n\"Best idea I've heard in years.\" Marius slugs down his drink, and I place mine on the platter of a passing waiter. Marius slips his hand in mine and turns to lead me toward one of the exits." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I make it no more than three steps before something grabs hold of my free hand and jerks me to a stop." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I gasp in indignation, tugging free of Marius to face whoever grabbed me.\n\nIt's Jackson Gale, and he's staring down at me with a thunderous expression.\n\nI can't even think why he's looking at me like this, as if I've done something wrong, but I kick myself metaphorically for taking a moment to get lost in those fabulous eyes of his. If you broke them down with the mix of green, gold, and brown, you'd call them hazel. The truth is, they're the lightest shades of those colors mixed in bands and striations. From a distance, and because of his dark hair providing contrast, his eyes are so light, they almost look unholy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But when you get up close and are able to see past the luminescence to the actual colors, you realize you're looking at a work of art." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I blink to dispel the magic of his irises and my ridiculous poetic ruminations, instead cocking my head in silent question.\n\nHis eyes flash with annoyance. \"Don't ever leave my proximity without letting me know where you're going and giving me the opportunity to make sure things are safe,\" he growls, and I don't like the message that sits just behind the command… that I'm a child who needs babysitting.\n\nI jerk my hand away and take a step back only to come up against Marius's body. His hands on my hips steady me, and he steps in closer. My friend knows me well enough to know that I'm offended by having my choices questioned in my own city where my father's security forces are in attendance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I lean forward slightly, eyes narrowing even more." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I drop my voice, but it is no less imperious. \"You do not own me, Mr. Gale. You do not control me. Your job is to watch. Your job is to protect. Therefore, if I choose to go for a walk, I'm going to go. You need to figure out how you can keep up and do your job at the same time. I don't answer to you.\"\n\nIf I thought that would put him in his place, I was sorely mistaken. He doesn't even blink in astonishment or look apologetic. Instead, his expression turns impassive as he studies me long enough for me to feel like a bug under a microscope. Not once does he look over my shoulder at Marius who still stands behind me with his hands on my hips." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The message is clear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He doesn't think my words matter nor does he think Marius is any type of threat.\n\nWhat comes next is so surprising, neither I nor Marius has the wits to stop it. One second Marius has a hold of me from behind, and the next, Jackson has my hand in his, and he's leading me toward the dance floor. \"Let's dance. We need to talk.\"\n\nI glance over my shoulder at Marius, leveling him with a look that pleads with him to rescue me. To my horror, my best friend abandons me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His gaze seems calculated as it moves to focus on Jackson." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He then gives a slight shake of his head, smirk fully in place, before turning and walking away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm going to murder that bastard,\" I mutter.\n\n\"Pissed your boyfriend is abandoning you?\" Jackson mocks as he leads me straight to the middle of the dance floor and deftly turns me in his arms.\n\nHis right hand goes to my waist and his left takes my right, holding it at an angle away from my body. He puts appropriate distance between us and sweeps me across the large, parquet dance floor beside the orchestra.\n\nI keep my lips pressed together and don't disabuse Jackson of the notion that Marius is my boyfriend." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The mere fact he threw that in my face would only give him satisfaction if I were to deny the nature of our relationship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Besides, it's none of his business.\n\nInstead, I say, \"Do you treat all your clients so bullishly?\"\n\n\"Bullishly?\" Jackson asks with a bark of laughter. \"I would never treat a princess bullishly. I would handle a spoiled brat who recklessly put herself in danger by bending said brat over my knee and spanking some sense into her.\"\n\nThat should've pissed me off.\n\nI should be so offended I'd be within my right to slap his face, not that I've ever done something like that." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His threat should make me want to berate him for his temerity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It should make me want to run to my father and Dmitri and tell them they've made a huge mistake letting this obnoxious man have control over my safety." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rather, I'm horrified to realize that I have a vivid image of me over Jackson's lap, and my skin tingles just from the promise of a spanking.\n\nI shake my head hard. What the fuck am I thinking?\n\nWhy would I ever imagine such a scenario?\n\nI banish it from my head, but it comes roaring back, except this time with more clarity. Jackson's in his tux, sitting on the edge of a bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm in my gown, bent over his lap and held in place with his large hand on my lower back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His other hand slides my gown up my legs, over my ass, which, I'm shocked to find, isn't covered by any panties. His palm grazes over my flesh—\n\nI stumble over my own feet as we dance, and Jackson easily rights me. I'm so embarrassed by where my mind had gone that I blurt out almost hysterically, \"So, what do you think about the weather on our island?\"\n\nI wince internally because that was the most asinine thing to say. It propelled me from a position of power down to the echelons of bumbling idiots." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It made clear that this man intimidates me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I hope it doesn't make it clear that I'm attracted to him.\n\nIf he has an ounce of sense, he's going to know something just threw me into disarray.\n\nJackson's lips curve upward, and the sparkle in his eye tells me he knows I got sidetracked by the threat of a spanking.\n\nI clear my throat. \"There's a really great beach along the eastern side of the island you should check out, and if you want a tour of the ruby mines, I could arrange—\"\n\n\"Just stop it,\" Jackson interrupts, and gone is the amusement I thought I just saw." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I get that you don't know me and I don't know you, and that Dmitri and his crew may do things differently, but as of this evening, I am exclusively in charge of your personal protection. So let's just get one thing straight… unless you are inside your family's compound, you are in my sight at all times. You don't leave my sight without permission, and if you need to go somewhere, you give me an opportunity to determine the safety of it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But we were just going down to the docks,\" I insist angrily. \"I go there all the time. I was with Marius, who would protect me. And I guarantee there were at least four of Dmitri's crew outside, ready to follow at a distance.\"\n\n\"Yes, you would have been so safe,\" Jackson says dryly, bringing our dance to a sudden stop. His hands drop, and the areas of my body he'd been touching feel ice-cold now. \"I imagine any one of those men protecting you could have stopped a sniper's bullet fired from three buildings away.\"\n\nI blanch at the scenario, immediately dismissing it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Who would want to kill me?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I demand. \"I get I'm an ideal kidnapping target, but I'm worth more alive than dead.\"\n\nJackson's mouth snaps shut and he doesn't respond. He doesn't give me any plausible reason someone would want to kill me, but he also doesn't give me any opportunity to push for an answer.\n\nInstead, he nods across the way, and my gaze follows. It's Marius, flirting with two women.\n\n\"If you and your boyfriend would like to go take that walk, I'll be glad to escort you both. But you'll need to pull him away from those women first.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: The user will write a bit then you need to write around 7 sentences continuing directly from the user's text.\n\nGenre: suspense, contemporary, romance, thriller" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I expected a bigger jet,\" I mutter as I pull my suitcase out of the Bentley's trunk. Like a 747, given the family's wealth.\n\nNot that the Bombardier Global 7500 is by any means a small plane. It has the capacity to seat fourteen and can fly up to sixteen hours, long enough to get us through the first ten-hour leg to Dubai. There we will refuel and pick up a new set of Bretarian pilots who already traveled ahead of time. Then it's another nine hours to London.\n\nI watch as Camille ascends the steps and disappears inside the aircraft." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She's totally ignored me since sliding into the car this morning for the short drive to the private airport." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She looks like she's ready to summer in the Greek Isles as she's dressed in a pair of skinny white jeans, a navy-and-white horizontally striped shirt, and a pair of white tennis shoes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her large, white tote bag is casually slung over a shoulder, as if she doesn't have a care in the world. She's got on oversized sunglasses and her hair is in a messy bun.\n\nLooking at her, minus the $50 million plane she's boarding, she almost looks… normal.\n\nFor the last two days, I've barely seen her, and when I have in passing, we've ignored each other. Ladd, Cruce, and Dozer went back to the States the day before yesterday to begin final preparations for the princess's arrival. I stayed behind, as planned, to accompany her to London for her cousin's wedding, and over the past few days, I've worked with Dmitri and the Bretarian security forces that will be making the extended trip to the States, including the man beside me, who's going with us on the plane as Dmitri's right-hand man.\n\nPaul Regis has been in the king's employ under Dmitri for the past four years." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even though there are men and women who have worked in security longer, Dmitri said Paul is his most trusted and the man he's chosen to be my second to protect the princess." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He's former French Foreign Legion, and his specialty is hand-to-hand combat. Dmitri wanted him with me as my second in case an attempt is made on Camille. If she's going to be snatched away from us, it will entail face-to-face, close combat to protect her.\n\n\"The princess had her pick of jets, but she chose something much smaller than the king's, which is a 747.\" I look over in surprise at Paul as he pulls his suitcase out of the trunk and shuts it. He gives a slight knock on the back, indicating to the driver it's okay to leave. As the Bentley glides away, Paul and I turn for the jet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You mean to tell me the multibillionaire princess could have her pick of private planes, and she chose what would be considered a relatively dinky one?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She's never been one for excess,\" Paul says simply as he shrugs, but quite liltingly given his French accent. As if it's a known fact to everyone in the world that she might be different from your standard royal.\n\nI might have been getting an inkling the last few days, although my observations have been limited. While I've had almost zero interaction with her since escorting her home from the charity gala, I've seen her on a handful of occasions with her family. When in residence and not attending formal events with visitors or outside the palace walls, I've found King Thomas, Queen Juliana, and Princess Camille to be casual, laid-back people.\n\nCamille tends to run around in these hot summer months in frayed shorts and T-shirts, and the only jewelry I ever spot her wearing are tiny gold hoops in her ears. While the king is not as informal, he doesn't wear expensive suits, even when attending to business matters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Usually he'll be in a pair of slacks and a button-down shirt that, while casual, I'm sure still cost an arm and a leg. The queen is equally casual in her clothing, although she favors sundresses and a bit more jewelry. The king and queen, in the interactions I've had with them, have been extremely gracious, open, and surprisingly humorous. I've even been invited to join them for evening meals as I'm a guest in their home, but I've declined, citing the need to continue working with Dmitri and his crew to iron out the minute details in our plans.\n\nThis isn't necessarily true. We've been working our asses off and have it all down. It's just that I have no desire to make personal connections with my clients." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That doesn't come from any place of ego, and I'm not a closed-off asshole." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the contrary, I'm as outgoing and good-natured as they come, when I'm around friends and family. But it's easier to do my job if there's a buffer between me and the people I serve, so I keep things cool and detached. It keeps me laser-focused on my job and makes me not just good but great at what I do.\n\nI learned that icy detachment in the SEALs, and it's a form of training that will stick with me until the end of my days.\n\nI follow Paul up into the jet and look around in appreciation at the craftsmanship. The entry is a galley similar to what you'd see on a commercial plane, sitting between the cockpit and the main cabin. This galley, though, is all stainless steel and custom wood cabinetry and lighting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The floors are covered with thick, expensive carpeting, except the aisle that leads through the cabin, which is gleaming parquet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Immediately to the right as you enter the main cabin are chairs and tables in varying sizes on each side of the aisle, four of which recline fully for sleep. Past that is a private entertainment suite with couches and a wet bar, as well as a bathroom complete with shower. Even farther back is a private bedroom with a full-size closet. I checked out the plane yesterday to familiarize myself with it, since we'll be using it during all our travels.\n\nPaul and I are welcomed by one of two flight attendants, and our baggage is swept from our hands and stowed in a closet. Two pilots do their preflight in the cockpit, and they look over their shoulders at us as we enter, nodding politely. I had a meeting with them yesterday as well, and they are one of two sets of pilots who fly the princess's jet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Camille is in the first seat to the left, which rests up against the galley wall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I move past, turn, and catch her attention. When she lifts her eyes to mine, I do nothing more than motion for her to stand. She blinks in surprise but obliges without hesitation.\n\nI nod toward the back of the plane. \"When you board your aircraft, always sit in the last row of seats until we take off.\"\n\nCamille frowns and asks, \"Are you expecting somebody to storm the entrance and grab me?\"\n\nI stare back at her, my lack of response indicating that is exactly what I'm paid to expect." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh,\" she says in a soft voice of understanding." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stands and moves past to the back of the cabin without complaint.\n\nIt's clear to me that either Dmitri has become lax in his guard of her or perhaps he's just not as good at what he does as we are. Jameson has always made it protocol to move our wards away from any doors on private transport until we are underway.\n\nPaul looks slightly surprised but nods in understanding, and I can see respect in his eyes. He knows that while the Bretaria airport is well secured, it is not without chinks in its armor. An inside man could very easily allow a handful of people into the perimeter, and they could storm the jet with automatic weapons to force relinquishment of the princess from our control. If that were to happen today, for example, Paul and I would be the first line of defense, meeting them right at the door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Paul stations himself at the top of the stairs, looking down on the tarmac." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His hands are folded before him and he appears casual, but he carefully scans the area while the pilots finish up their preflight checklist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I see that Camille has taken a seat facing me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I watch as she inserts her earbuds and turns on music or perhaps an audio book. She leans back, head to the cushioned seat, and closes her eyes.\n\nI'd really expected arguments when I asked her to move, mainly because I gave it as a command not to be questioned. Since her blowup at the amphitheater where she as much as told me she's the boss and I have no right to tell her what to do, I've been expecting her to argue at every turn. The fact she didn't just now is disconcerting, making me keep my guard up with her even more.\n\nWe're in the air before long, and Camille still has her eyes closed, so I leave her alone. Paul and I take a pair of facing club chairs with a square table between us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We're close enough that we don't have to raise our voices to talk as we discuss our personal experiences in London." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I've been there quite a few times, but the city is just too vast and populated for me to know my way around. Paul is the same. He has traveled as much as I have, but neither of us has ever stayed long enough in a place to gain an insider's knowledge. It's why part of Camille's security team in London will be two men who were born and raised in the city.\n\nRegardless, the trip for the cousin's wedding should be uneventful. We'll be staying at the hotel where the reception will be held, and it's going to be a relatively simple protection job. There will be travel to and from the church, and Camille wants to visit a few things while there, but nothing that will cause any major safety concerns." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One thing of interest I learned about Camille is that this cousin and bride-to-be—Rachel—is a very, very distant relation from a branch of the family who left Bretaria over a hundred years ago." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They moved to Great Britain and have lived there ever since." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rachel is something like a fourth cousin, three times removed, or some shit like that, but they barely share blood. Camille is attending the wedding because the girls went to the same Zurich university and became very close while there, reconnecting the two sides of the family.\n\nThe reason this is interesting—the Winterbourne family of Bretaria have become almost isolated from the various branches of the family who've moved off the island. There are no royal houses stocked with blue bloods in Bretaria. The founding charter doesn't even confer titles upon those who are in line to inherit because the actual monarchy is not the most essential function of the family.\n\nYes, the throne works in conjunction with a governor and small parliament to rule over the island and its outliers, but the majority of the king's responsibility is in the business of mining rubies. As such, ascendancy to the throne isn't an overly formal thing; it's not as important to the citizens of Bretaria as it is to the people of the UK who revere and almost worship their royals." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There has never been major fighting over the throne since the entire family, no matter how distant, shares in the wealth generated by the mines." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There's not a member of the extended Winterbourne family who doesn't live in high style because of the rubies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This fortune has assured a peaceful reign for every monarch who has ever presided over the Bretarian Islands.\n\nIt doesn't mean King Thomas is completely safe, however, as evidenced by the chatter Interpol picked up. While the king spreads his wealth among those with shared blood, it doesn't mean there's not someone out there who wants more. Dmitri made a wise decision to stay by the king's side and trust Camille's care to others. An assassination of the king would be far more detrimental to the city-state than a kidnapping of the princess, which would ultimately result in money being handed over for her safe return.\n\nOf course, if someone really wanted a direct line to the throne and got too close to Camille's twenty-fifth birthday when she has the right to ascend upon her father's death, she could be at the same risk of assassination. The goal right now is for the global security agencies to share information and try to figure out exactly who is planning an attempt on King Thomas's life, and take them down, thereby ensuring his safety and the throne's legacy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's another reason Dmitri is staying behind so that he can monitor the investigation with the other outside agencies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It wouldn't surprise me if he pulls on former KGB contacts for information as well.\n\n\"What did you do before joining Jameson?\" Paul asks as he removes his seat belt and settles deeper into his chair. We've been so busy planning we haven't taken the time to get to know one another.\n\n\"Navy. Third generation.\"\n\nHe nods, a knowing smile. \"SEALs, I'm guessing.\"\n\n\"Yeah, although my dad and grandfather were both captains at retirement. They liked to drive the boats that carried people like me around.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What did they captain?\" he asks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My grandfather an aircraft carrier, and my dad a destroyer.\"\n\nPaul whistles through his teeth in respect. In his late thirties, Paul has had plenty of experience with military operations given his background in the French Foreign Legion. He most likely has done training ops with our military.\n\nHe appraises me before saying, \"You obviously chose not to make a career in the navy, but I'm guessing as third generation, you failed someone's expectations.\"\n\nSavvy man.\n\nI give a mirthless nod." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 8 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My grandfather died before I left the navy, but my dad isn't overly happy that I didn't reenlist. My brother is still in, and he'll be the golden child for choosing to carry on our family's service to our country, an obligation I don't quite understand. I fought and bled for this country, and I saved lives during my enlistment. I'm satisfied with what I accomplished and the reasons why I left.\"\n\nPaul nods sagely. \"Money and control.\"\n\n\"Bingo,\" I agree with a laugh. \"And I'm okay with that.\"\n\n\"As you should be. Doesn't mean that what we do isn't worthwhile.\"\n\nExactly.\n\nI firmly believe that my work with Jameson in its totality is honorable and has immense value to the people we help.\n\nJust wish my dad saw it the same way." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I've got a bit of writer's block. I'm gonna send you something then keep it going two sentences at a time, also I'm going for a Sawyer Bennett sorta thing in the suspense, contemporary, romance, thriller genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's our last day in the Florida Keys before we head to Arkansas tomorrow. Admittedly, it's been a bit uncomfortable being around Camille since we had the kiss discussion, but not in the way I'd expected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You'd think she would've become an ice princess, turning her down the way I did, but the next morning when I walked into the kitchen for breakfast, I was brought to a complete halt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Camille stood shoulder to shoulder with my mom, an apron on, learning how to make biscuits." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had a dusting of flour across one cheek, and she and my mom were laughing about something.\n\nMy mom saw me first. \"Good morning.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I muttered the same back, my eyes cutting to Camille to see how she'd play things." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I got a glorious, genuine smile from Her Royal Highness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good morning,\" she said, and I could not detect one hint of bitterness or anger.\n\nIn fact, she was her normal, cheery self, and it made me question if that whole subject of a kiss went down the way I thought it had." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Could I have misread it all?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nah. It was what I thought it was. I'd merely made a gaff with that kiss statement… or maybe my subconscious was shining through. Whatever." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bottom line, I wouldn't give in, and I told her that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then it became a war of word meaning… wouldn't versus whether I wanted to. Somewhere in that exchange, it became clear I wanted to kiss her but was being held back, and she wanted me not to hold back and kiss her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It took every bit of my willpower to walk out of the kitchen that night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But I won't\" is what I said to her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I really want to, but I won't.\n\nWe left Arlington after another visit with my dad, who was hopefully going to be released from the hospital the next day." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Since then, it's been business as usual." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We got back on track with our itinerary and stopped in Miami for a night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The last two days, we've explored the Keys where she swam with dolphins, gone out on a charter fishing boat, and explored tiny shops where she bought cheap trinkets for her family and friends.\n\nRather than a hotel, we're staying in a luxury home owned by a friend of a friend of the Winterbourne family on Sunset Key, a twenty-seven-acre island only about five hundred yards off the coast of Key West." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's only accessible by boat, and the estate has its own stretch of private beach that borders right up to the patio and pool at the back of the house." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The home is modest by palace standards, a little over 4000 square feet with three bedrooms. It is, however, worth six million dollars because it sits on a private island off Key West and has private beach access." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There's only one dock on the island whereby incoming boats can ferry passengers, although there are several places a boat could pull into shallow waters and someone could walk right onto one of the private beaches." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As such, we're using extra agents to stand post around the house and more to patrol the island's perimeter to make sure no one tries to approach from the water. If they come in by dock, IDs are checked before they can come onto the island." }, { "from": "human", "value": "While Sunset Key is a little slice of paradise where Camille can relax and have what might be considered a brief vacation, this is actually the most vulnerable place we've had her in so far." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On this last day here in the Florida Keys, Camille chooses to do something I find to be out of character. She actually sleeps late, which I've never seen her do, even on the morning of her horrible hangover following the wedding reception." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At 9:00 a.m., I'm worried enough that I knock on her bedroom door to make sure she's okay. I woke her from a sound sleep, and she's actually apologetic for not being up earlier." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can't believe I slept that late,\" she says as she stares blearily at the clock." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sheet and blanket are pulled up to her chest, a good thing because I have no desire to see her in her pajamas again. Despite the fact that she was sick and vomiting the night of the reception, I did notice when I found her tangled up in the sheets on the floor that she was wearing silky short shorts and a matching top with spaghetti straps." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It covered everything it should've been covering but was still sexy as fuck." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I assure Camille there's no problem and urge her to go back to sleep. She declines, and half an hour later, she's downstairs looking for a late breakfast." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The house came stocked with enough food to last a week, even though we're only staying for two days." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She settles on a bowl of fruit and a cup of tea and then meanders out poolside where she stays for the rest of the day.\n\nI give her space and stay indoors, but I can easily observe her through the sliding glass doors." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Other agents roam the grounds, but we're all unobtrusive." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Camille seems to have needed this, and I'd bet $1000 that this might be one of only a handful of days in her entire life when she's been able to relax completely and not have some duty associated with her royal title pulling at her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For hours, she stays by the pool, not even sunbathing but relaxing on a chaise under a big umbrella that provides shade. Still, she wears a big floppy hat and sunglasses and looks Hollywood glam in a black one-piece bathing suit with a matching sarong around her hips." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She naps and reads and sometimes just looks out over the ocean in contemplation. The entire time, she seems peaceful and happy, and it really brings home the fact that this is one hardworking princess who doesn't get enough downtime." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Around 5:00 p.m., Camille comes into the house and announces she's going to grab a shower." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She also announces, \"I'll make dinner tonight. I was thinking of grilling some shrimp.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I give her a skeptical look. \"Do princesses know how to grill?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She grins at me—see, no hard feelings about my refusal to kiss her—and says, \"How hard can it be? You start the grill, you lay the shrimp on it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I shake my head at her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You may be good at many things, Your Highness, but you should always leave the grilling to the men.\"\n\nShe shoots me a mock glare. \"Sexist.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The princess then turns and marches up the stairs to the master suite to take her shower." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She actually might be able to cook. Hell, for all I know, she's the grill master for the Bretarian palace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But until she goes to sleep tonight, I'm going to let her have one complete vacation day, so I get to work." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'm actually pleased with myself at how things turn out. A quick Google search and I found an amazing recipe to marinate the shrimp—soy sauce, garlic, lime juice, and ginger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I skewered the shrimp and placed them over the hot grill, needing only a few minutes on each side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Prior to that, I'd whipped up a pineapple-jalapeño salsa—also thanks to Google—and had some asparagus on the grill alongside the shrimp.\n\nIt wasn't a lot, but then again, Camille doesn't eat like a horse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I do, so I added a double batch of shrimp for me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's almost six when Camille comes down the staircase, and when she walks into view, I have another moment—they're happening quite frequently—where I look at her as if for the first time, and my breath catches. You'd think that I would get used to her beauty, her grace, and let's face it, the one thing I've noticed more and more, her sexiness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But she's a fucking vision walking down the stairs in a simple white cotton dress that has a tank top and a loose bottom that swirls around her knees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She wears no embellishments or adornments on her body, not even earrings, and her wet hair is piled on top of her head. Her face is scrubbed free of makeup and she's barefoot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She's never looked lovelier." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I know she loved my parents' old farmhouse, but if you ask me, Camille is completely suited to quaint tropical island living where she wears nothing but summer dresses and runs around barefoot all the time without a care in the world.\n\nI hate to admit it, but I could get used to living here and just watching her be that way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And I hate myself for even thinking that. It goes far beyond what I should be thinking about Camille." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It also embarrasses me, because I am all about my career. Never in my life did I think, at the age of twenty-seven, I would contemplate retiring to an island off the Keys to just hang out with my woman." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pretty sure if I ever let any of my single friends in on these feelings, they would call me a fucking pussy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Also pretty sure if I told any of my buds who've married or recently fallen in love, they would tell me I have it bad.\n\nSo I am not about to admit those thoughts to anyone, not even myself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Camille comes into the kitchen where I'm pulling the pineapple salsa out of the refrigerator." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I hope you're hungry,\" I say casually, trying to banish my absurd thoughts running amok.\n\nShe rubs her stomach in response. \"Starved, actually.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I lead her out to the back patio where I have set the poolside table with plates, ice water, and two wineglasses. Chilling next to the place settings is a bottle of pinot grigio." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I walk over to the table and pull out her chair, and I don't miss her startled look over my gallantry. In the time we've spent together so far, including a handful of meals where she didn't have set appointments, I've never pulled out her chair for her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I ignore her look and move to the grill. Opening the hood, I pull the skewers of shrimp and veggies off the cooling racks and place them on a platter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I set the food on the table, Camille looks around and asks, \"Where's Paul?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He went to the mainland to pick up the rental car we'll use to drive back to Miami. He'll eat there. We've moved an extra agent into his place on the perimeter.\"\n\n\"Oh,\" she says, draping her cloth napkin over her lap." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Before I sit, I uncork the wine, pour her a glass, and then settle it back into the ice bucket." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I take my chair, she asks, \"Aren't you going to have a glass?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm on the job,\" I remind her.\n\nShe looks to the wineglass beside my plate and then back to me in question." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I shrug. \"The setting didn't look symmetrical with only one wineglass.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Camille bursts out laughing, and to my surprise, she stands and reaches across the table for the bottle of wine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I really should argue when she leans over and pours me half a glass. I should also ignore the fact that when she leans over, it deepens her cleavage, and all kinds of lewd thoughts run through my brain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She's not even fully seated before I pick up the glass, wanting to gulp the whole thing down, hoping it will chill me the fuck out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Instead, I wait for her to pick up her glass and then I offer a toast. \"Here's to the end of what I hope was a fabulous day for you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "We touch our glasses, and they make a faint clicking sound." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I watch her over the rim of my own glass as we sip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She closes her eyes and savors that first taste. When she opens them, she smiles sheepishly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have to say, today may have been the best of my trip so far.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Camille reaches out to the platter of shrimp and asparagus, and using tongs, places the food on her plate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She then passes the tongs to me. \"I actually feel guilty for taking a day off. Haven't even checked my email today.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I'm loading my plate with food, I ask, \"When's the last time you took a day off?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Camille shrugs as she picks up a skewer of shrimp and uses her fork to slide them off. \"I honestly don't remember. I don't think I've taken a vacation since I got out of college. I finished school and went right to work for the family enterprise.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Camille launches into a long-winded summary of what life has been like for her since she graduated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Much of it I'd already picked up on. First and foremost, she serves as a representative of the mining part of the family business and secondarily as a member of the royal crown." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This makes sense because this monarchy's ruby trade has always taken precedence over the flamboyancy of being a royal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It doesn't mean King Thomas doesn't attend royal duties." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He has a lot of them, which also includes being an advisor to the parliament that rules Bretaria. And now that Camille is in the business, the king tends to concentrate on the royal side of things while Camille works the mining side, under his watch, of course." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But my father is pulling me in more on royal duties now,\" Camille says as she cuts up a shrimp. \"Believe it or not, I actually have to take classes on the history of the Bretarian monarchy since its inception.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I guess your schooling is never done, huh?\" I muse.\n\n\"Always learning something every day, aren't we? Otherwise, how do we develop as people?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good point.\" I pick up my wine for a sip. I'm not usually a wine guy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Give me a beer, and I won't even care if it's craft." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Better yet, some whiskey. But I sip to be social and because it tastes great with our light meal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When I set my wineglass down, I ask, \"Okay … it's clear you're a hard worker and you don't take vacations. I do know that you sneak out of the palace to go cliff diving, but what else do you do for fun?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Camille gives a mirthless laugh. \"I'm not saying this to make you feel sorry for me, but sneaking out of the palace was pretty much the highlight of any given day for me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Parties? TV? Shopping?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She wrinkles her nose. \"Boring.\"\n\nI laugh and settle back in my chair, enjoying the view of her before me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Come on, Princess… give me something. What's the most adventurous thing you've ever wanted to do? We can even make it happen on this trip. Skydiving? I'll arrange it. Drive a race car around a track? I can totally set it up.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Camille settles back in her chair and mimics my actions, clasping her hands over her stomach and resting her elbows on the armrests. She looks upward as if pondering before locking her baby blues tight on me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The look on her face is positively mischievous." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm not much for jumping out of planes. But if I had to do something adventurous, I think at some point on this trip, I'd approach a hot guy and solicit him for a one-night stand. Maybe I'll arrange to have you take me out to a nightclub and let me pick somebody. Of course, it would be completely safe because I would have you, Paul, and probably half a dozen other agents making sure I'm okay. I mean, not the sex part—I'd handle that, and I already have some condoms tucked away for just such an occasion.\"\n\nI can do nothing but stare at her, my eyes practically bugging out of my head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Surely she's joking. Camille gives me a sweet smile and leans forward in her chair, putting her attention back on her meal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She resumes eating as if she didn't just drop the biggest, most explosive bombshell I've ever heard in my life.\n\nPrincess Camille has added to her itinerary random sex with a complete stranger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And the pisser of it is, I can't stop her from doing it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She's an adult. My job is to make sure she's safe. In all actuality, I can watch her from a distance in a nightclub while she picks the man she wants to fuck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I can be discreet and follow her back up to her suite, and I can sit with my ear pressed against the door to make sure he's not hurting her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But past that, I can't do much else.\n\nMy stomach rolls at the thought of listening to her have sex with somebody else, particularly if she's enjoying it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Camille's head pops up and she looks at me brightly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you think we could arrange for a boat ride after dinner? I'd love to be on the open water one more time before we leave tomorrow.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And just like that, she changes the subject.\n\nShe did it so she didn't have to hear my thoughts on the matter, even though I'm nowhere near ready to tell her exactly how I feel about it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm far too disturbed by it." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I think she knows it too.\n\nCamille dropped that bombshell pretty much to say she's moved on, making it clear she's going to do what she wants.\n\nApparently, she's decided she's going to get that kiss one way or another, and I'm not sure how much of this is bothering me that she could so easily forget wanting to kiss me just a few days ago." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I've got a bit of writer's block. I'm gonna send you something then keep it going 6 sentences at a time, also I'm going for a suspense, contemporary, romance, thriller genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tremors rocket through my body. I'm on my hands and knees, in the middle of my bed, turned perpendicular to its length. Jackson is behind me, one hand on my hip, the other one woven through my hair where he's gripping it tight so I'm forced to hold up my head.\n\nIt's forcing me to look into the dressing mirror that sits in the corner of my room that I've never before used to look at myself. It's always just been a piece of decorative furniture since I have a dressing mirror in my actual dressing room.\n\nBut tonight, Jackson thought it would be a good idea—and at this moment, I don't disagree—to take me from behind and make me watch." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At first, I couldn't.\n\nWhen he ordered me to watch us in the mirror, it was too overwhelming to see him driving into me and the emotions washing over his face. The way his arms flexed and his neck muscles strained as he worked me hard. Hearing his sounds and watching as they matched the pleasure on his face, it was just too much.\n\nI dropped my head, squeezed my eyes shut, and threw myself backward onto him to increase the force.\n\n\"No, no, no,\" Jackson chided softly, and that's when he took me by the hair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His demand was simple. \"Watch.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I obeyed, and within just a few seconds of my eyes connecting to our reflection, my orgasm furled inward before pulsing out in torrential waves of pleasure that had me crying out. And now I'm watching with bleary eyes as he continues to drive into me.\n\nJackson laughs darkly. \"I bet everyone in the palace heard that.\"\n\nHe continues to pump his hips hard, and I can tell by the staccato vibration in his voice he's getting close. And I find it fascinating that he doesn't seem to care that I might have been heard.\n\nNot sure I care either." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That orgasm was worth the doors being knocked down by all the agents in the palace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Let's make sure that doesn't happen again,\" Jackson says gruffly as he abruptly pulls out of me and leans over the side of the bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Before I can voice my displeasure at the loss of him inside me, he's back on the bed with his hands on my jaw, forcing my mouth open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I think he means to kiss me, as he often does when his hand works my jaw like that, but instead he shoves in my panties that he pulled off me not long ago, stifling a muffled sound of surprise. He grins and kisses me on the cheek. \"That should keep you quiet.\"\n\nI'm reeling at how unbelievably domineering and sexy that was, as well as downright playful. He moves his big body behind me again, and I watch in the mirror as he lines up and drives back in deeply.\n\nI cry out against the panties, and they do indeed muffle my sound." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jackson picks up his pace again, threading his fingers back through my hair, but he doesn't need to force me to watch. I'm spellbound." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His other hand doesn't go back to my hip, instead going in between my legs.\n\nShit … he's going to make me come again.\n\nI love and hate when he gets determined that way. The orgasm he just gave me was so shattering, I'm convinced there's no way I have anything left inside to give him.\n\nBut the minute his fingers touch my clit, yearning rolls through me, and I know I can't fight it.\n\nPounding, pounding, pounding away inside me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fingers working hard between my legs, me watching Jackson in the mirror as he gets closer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As I get closer.\n\nThe wet glide of him inside me, a new feeling since we disposed of condoms, makes me feel closer to him than ever.\n\nJackson's hand abruptly pulls away to give me a sharp whack on my ass. I scream into the silk and lace, and my orgasm starts firing.\n\nJackson throws himself into me and his fingers are back at my clit where he pinches it lightly, and I am done. The panties in my mouth soak up my scream as my back arches low." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Things go hazy, but I vaguely hear Jackson grunt, \"Fucking beautiful,\" before he shoves in one last time and comes with a long growl." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He milks every bit of himself by rocking and flexing his hips against my ass, forcing every last drop from him to me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jackson's hands slide around my stomach and he lowers us to the mattress, rolling us to our sides so we are spooning. I pull the panties from my mouth and toss them to the floor. Jackson is still lodged deep within me, and I'm blissed out beyond repair. If I could stay like this forever, I would lead a happy and fulfilled life.\n\nCuddling with Jackson is like nothing I've ever experienced. It's always done in the quiet, with his muscular arms wrapped securely around me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His chest rises and falls heavily, and I feel the steady thump of his heartbeat against my spine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'm safe and cherished.\n\nIt's within this quiet, without the need to say any words of affection or affirmation, that I feel deep in my bones the closest to him.\n\nI wonder if it's the same for him.\n\nNormally, the silence is eventually broken by one of us making a silly comment. But this time, it's Jackson who speaks first, and the comment isn't silly at all. \"You haven't said anything about me staying on until after your birthday.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's true. I didn't see Jackson all day after we returned, but I'd promised I would come to his room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He surprised me instead by coming to mine not long after I had dinner with my parents. In fairness, he didn't give me much opportunity to say anything. He closed the door and his mouth was on mine. Hard to talk about my thoughts and feelings when he's kissing the breath out of me.\n\n\"I'm obviously glad you're staying,\" I say carefully. I want to keep my emotions out of this, because they have been swirling all day thinking that Jackson was leaving tomorrow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I know I'm safer when you're going to be protecting me.\"\n\n\"Mmm,\" he says, a hum of affirmation, and then silence once again.\n\nI decide to give him something more. \"On a personal level, I'm glad I get more time with you.\"\n\nThere… I said it. A simple statement, still vague enough to hide the true depth of my feelings for this man, because deep down, it's a gift to be given more time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I settle back into him, accepting quiet if that's all there is left." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I even imagine myself dozing in his arms before he has to leave.\n\nI'm not prepared for him to say, \"I obviously agreed to stay on to protect you, but also because I wanted the extra time too.\"\n\nI smile, happy to know we're on the same wavelength. I've been gearing up the last few days for us to make the break. But when my father told me Jackson would be staying on, no part of me thought, \"Oh no … now I have to harden myself all over again in preparation for his inevitable departure.\"\n\nBecause the hurt is going to compound the more time I spend with him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But no, I never thought it was bad in any way, and I figure it's worth feeling that increased pain to have eleven more days with him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You have big things ahead of you,\" Jackson says conversationally, and I know it's his way of moving away from something that could turn heavy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I chuckle. \"You mean, a ridiculously large birthday party that will be a complete spectacle and most of the people my parents have invited I don't even know? Yeah … I have big things coming.\"\n\nJackson gives me a squeeze, and I feel his responding rumble of laughter. \"I'm talking about the fact that you are turning twenty-five in less than two weeks, will be the heir apparent to the richest monarchy in the world, and you have the burden of naming a secret heir.\"\n\nI can't help the giggle. \"I guess there are some bigger things coming than my birthday party.\"\n\nThere's a long pause before Jackson says, \"The threat to you and your father is real. Your birthday party is going to be when you are the most vulnerable. From this moment forward, you are not to be out of my sight, not ever. Do you understand?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Never?\" I ask." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because twenty-four-seven has a lot of implications.\n\n\"Never,\" he repeats gruffly. \"That means I'm in your room at night.\"\n\nThat's a bold move. Especially since we aren't open about our relationship. We've been operating on the down low." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Won't that raise suspicions?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I twist my neck and look over my shoulder at him. \"Won't people talk?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His eyes bore into mine. \"Dmitri knows.\"\n\nI jolt and scramble around to face him. Eyes wide with concern, I ask, \"Dmitri knows? How? When? Do you think my parents know?\"\n\nJackson cocks an eyebrow, his lips curling into a teasing grin. \"Why? Are you embarrassed if your parents know about us?\"\n\nI shake my head and glare at him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course, I'm not embarrassed. But if word is going to make it to them, I'd rather sit down and tell them myself. I'm an adult. They know I can have adult relationships, and they respect that. I mean, it's not like we're going to get married and you're going to sit on the throne beside me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Something flickers in Jackson's eyes, but I can't tell what it is. However, I instantly regret mentioning the throne. It's a harsh reminder of the different worlds we come from and the exact reason we cannot be together permanently.\n\nI rush to soften what I said. \"Not that you wouldn't make a fabulous prince and then king someday. I just know that's not something you want. It's not something either of us are even ready to consider. I mean… we're absolutely not considering it. We agreed this had an expiration date, and I'm cool with that. If you are, that is.\" A huge sigh gushes out of me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I feel like I'm flubbing this.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jackson tightens his arms around me again and pulls me in close before pressing a kiss to my forehead. \"I know what you mean. I know that you and I are never going to be anything more than what we are right now. We're from two vastly different worlds. It sucks… but I understand, and I know you do too. You have a duty, loyalty, and obligation 99.9 percent of the people in this world will never understand the burden of. I picked the wrong girl to get entangled with.\"\n\nThere is nothing in his words that indicates sadness. No frustration.\n\nNo anger.\n\nJackson just calls it the way he sees it, and he's coping—same as me—with the ultimate fact that we can't be together.\n\nIn fact, he's coping much better than I am." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just thinking about him leaving sometimes makes me want to cry.\n\nBut let's be honest, he said he chose the wrong girl to become entangled with. He didn't say he was falling for me, or that he cared deeply, or that he loved me. No, all we are is an entanglement. And I have to accept that it's going to end.\n\nOur destiny is for us to become untangled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I lower my head to rest on his shoulder, and he pulls me in even closer so our chests are mashed together, our legs entwined." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now is the point I should feel my eyes starting to get heavy with sleep as I just had a brutally long flight home, an exhausting day reuniting with my parents, and two blistering orgasms that wrecked me. Yet, my emotions are so frazzled right now because of Jackson I can't seem to turn off my brain. I start thinking about what-ifs.\n\nWhat if I walked away from the throne?\n\nWhat if he would be willing to give up his career?\n\nWhat if we were really in love but neither of us can admit it because we each think the other wants something different?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "None of those seem feasible to me.\n\nOr I'm too scared to think one might be right.\n\nJackson's breath blows out across the top of my head. \"So what exactly awaits you down the road?\" he asks quietly. \"I know your responsibilities are going to increase from what you've told me, but what other duties will the princess be expected to take on?\"\n\nI give a mirthless laugh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There's only one last great expectation that I have to live up to,\" I say flatly.\n\n\"What's that?\" His tone is mild but interested. He's always interested when I talk.\n\n\"My parents expect me to get married sooner rather than later and produce the next heir.\"\n\nJackson doesn't say anything. In fact, so much time goes by with a heavy silence surrounding us, I think he might have fallen asleep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I need to get up and use the restroom, so I start to tug away from his embrace, but his arms tighten." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're just expected to get married and have a kid?\"\n\n\"Well, not like the day after my twenty-fifth birthday. But yes, carrying on the royal line is an important tradition. My parents expect it. It's why they keep trying to push Marius and me together, even though we have both told them it's never going to happen.\"\n\n\"He's a suitable match for a husband?\" Jackson asks lightly.\n\nI hesitate in answering; this conversation is getting uncomfortable. \"Ideally, tradition calls for our line to mix with another royal line. Historically, that is the first preference. But someone who is suitably accomplished—\"\n\nJackson interrupts. \"And by accomplished, you mean wealthy?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes,\" I state flatly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wealthy enough to run in the same circles as my family.\"\n\nJackson's voice is tight. \"Do you have a certain age by which you are expected or required to marry? Pop out a kid?\"\n\nI laugh, even though I don't feel the humor, but it cuts the tension. \"Silly Americans … popping out kids. You make me sound like a vending machine. No, there is no requirement or age deadline. Merely parental pressure to perform my duty to carry on the bloodline, but also because my parents want the joy of becoming grandparents.\"\n\n\"But you're only just turning twenty-five,\" he points out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Agreed, and I honestly don't see myself having children until I'm at least thirty, maybe even a little older. I've got a lot of responsibilities that make for hectic days. When I become a mom, I'm not going to let nannies raise my child. I want to be actively involved. So that's off in the distance.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But marriage may not be? Your parents would like to see that sooner rather than later.\"\n\n\"That they would,\" I murmur. They would most definitely be happy if I would just find someone to marry.\n\nJackson clears his throat as if he wants to say something but he's not sure he should. I wait him out, and finally, he asks, \"Are you actually allowed to fall in love with someone? Or will your father pick a suitable man for you?\"\n\nI snort with laughter and playfully push on his chest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You read too much People magazine. Of course, I'll be able to marry for love. It's just that the pool of men I have to choose from is a lot smaller than most women's.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jackson laughs in return and squeezes me. \"Hey, I saw how that worked out for Diana and Charles. Not very well.\"\n\n\"Well, the Bretarian monarchy is nothing like the British. My parents are a bit more progressive.\"\n\nJackson loosens his hold and leans back so he can look down at me. His eyes are somber, but I see a deep tenderness within. \"It's my hope for you, Camille, that you find the greatest love of your life when it comes time to make that commitment. You deserve no less.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I feel like it may be the greatest lie ever told in the history of lies, but I manage a glorious smile in return." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you for saying that. It's my greatest hope too.\"\n\nBut I know that hope will never come to fruition, because what has been plaguing me these last several days is that I'm pretty sure the greatest love of my life is lying in bed with me right now, and there is no way we can ever be together." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\n5 sentences\n\nStyle:\nSawyer Bennett" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I moan in my sleep. Something feels very, very good. Warm, insistent… right between my legs.\n\nAt that sweet spot.\n\nThese are the best kind of dreams, and I envision the dark hair on Jackson's head as I glance down my dream body." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His mouth working with so much dedication, as he always does." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Almost every single time we're together, he uses his mouth to get me off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He loves oral sex, and I've found it's one of my favorite things as well.\n\nI want this dream to go on and on and on. I reach down, touch my fingers to his silky hair, and feel a grumbling groan from his mouth against my sensitive flesh. My hips jerk upward and he laughs darkly.\n\nAnd then I'm coming so hard that I cry out and rotate my hips against him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Turning his face, he kisses the inside of my thigh, the lower part of my belly, and then right in the center of my chest as he moves up my body. Jackson's lips travel up my neck, slide over my jaw, and then to my ear. \"It's time to wake up, Camille.\"\n\nI don't want to leave the dream. I want to stay here forever because this is perfect and it's all I'll have after Jackson leaves." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Come on, Princess,\" he murmurs, leaning down and biting my lower lip. \"Wake up.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My eyes fly open and I see Jackson hovering over me with a smile on his face. I lift my head and look down between our bodies to see that I'm naked and he's naked and the area between my legs is still tingling from an orgasm.\n\nMy eyes fly to his, flaring with accusation. \"Did you… Did you just…?\"\n\nHis teeth flash at me as he chuckles." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Didn't think you would sleep through the entire thing. The princess even orgasms while she sleeps. Fucking amazing.\"\n\nI can't believe he did that. I can't believe he put his mouth between my legs while I was dead asleep. Seeing how far he could go, how much he could push my body. Apparently it is so in tune with him, it didn't require consciousness to respond." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jackson's right… fucking amazing.\n\nDuring that brief glance between our bodies, I didn't fail to notice his rock-hard erection. I spread my legs, wrap them around the backs of his thighs, and try to pull him into me. I lean up and nibble along his jaw. \"Now let's see what else you can do.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rather than slide into me, Jackson rolls onto his side. Planting his elbow in the mattress, he props his head in his hand and looks down at me with a satisfied and slightly smug look. \"Not gonna happen. That orgasm I gave you was an early birthday present.\"\n\n\"But it's not my birthday for another six days.\"\n\n\"Well, your party is tonight, so happy birthday party day. I hope you like the present I gave you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My inclination is to laugh, but I stare at him suspiciously." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This is a far cry, an absolute polar shift in attitude, from what I saw yesterday." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yesterday was not a good day between us." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It started out lovely, but then my father stole me away from Marius and summoned me to the throne room where he explained that Colette Winterbourne was behind the assassination plots.\n\nHe told me she was in custody and that she had the ability to call off the hits. But after discussing this with my father and Dmitri, I agreed that we should let the party go forward and try to lure out the assassin. There are a variety of reasons for doing this, but I'm on board because I want the world to know that nobody messes with the Winterbourne monarchy. By shutting down this wretched conspiracy in its entirety and bringing those involved to justice, we will send a very clear message to anyone else who tries." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Essentially… don't fuck with us.\n\nThis discussion was held in the throne room with only me, my father, and Dmitri. It didn't mean that Jackson didn't try to gain entry. He made quite the commotion as he attempted to push past the security agents at the doors. He dropped one of them to the ground and was working on the other when Dmitri threw open the door and demanded he stop." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jackson tried to storm the room; Dmitri tried to hold him back. His eyes went to mine over Dmitri's shoulder, and he promised retribution if I didn't give him a say.\n\nI moved to Jackson and attempted to sound as regal and commanding as possible so that my father wouldn't have any indication that we have a personal connection. \"If you will give me just a few more minutes with my father and Dmitri, I will be happy to hear your concerns, Mr. Gale.\"\n\nHis face flushed with fury, and I was quite confident Jackson was going to spill the beans about our relationship right then and there so that he could stay in the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To my surprise, he merely gave me a curt nod, turned his glare to Dmitri, and then pivoted to leave.\n\nI later found him on the veranda, standing post and staring at Marius, still at the table sipping a beer and surfing his phone. I was hesitant to approach Jackson because I'd never seen him so angry before. He looked just as angry when I walked out, so it was most definitely not the right time to talk.\n\nI said loudly enough for the other two agents to hear, \"Mr. Gale, if you don't mind, I would like to continue my lunch with Marius. I'd appreciate you standing post.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In other words, he'd have to wait until later to talk about this.\n\nJackson couldn't do anything about it. He was not about to make a scene, but I knew I'd made him even angrier. And the longer I sat at that table with Marius, the more lines of fury deepened on his face.\n\nNow, I was starting to dread any confrontation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So naturally, I extended my time with Marius." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jackson was standing far enough away that he couldn't hear our conversation and Marius regaled me with how Jackson had come out onto the veranda to await my return and glared at him the entire time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When we had finished eating and conversed about everything under the sun, when we could not legitimately stay at that table one more minute without it looking like I was purposely avoiding Jackson, I made the suggestion that we go swimming. It was, after all, our original intention to do so.\n\nTurned out, Jackson could get angrier. I tried to ignore him but it wasn't working. Marius and I swam laps, treaded water in the deep end while we talked and I put off the inevitable because every time I glanced over at Jackson, he not only looked furious but he looked let down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There came a time, though, when he was done with my game of avoidance. He strolled up to the edge of the pool down in the deep end where we were. He pulled up his well fit pants slightly so he could squat before me and said, \"It's time to get out of the fucking pool, Camille, so we can talk.\"\n\nMarius knew about my relationship with Jackson. It was the first thing I'd told him when we sat down and Dmitri had taken Jackson off somewhere—which I had later realized it was to talk about Colette Winterbourne's capture—and he was thrilled that I was walking on the wild side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But Marius made a choking sort of noise when Jackson told me to get out of the fucking pool because he had never heard a person talk to me like that before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shocked and offended on my behalf, he sputtered, \"How dare you speak to—\"\n\nJackson's hot gaze snapped to Marius and he said, \"Stay the fuck out of it or I will hurt you.\"\n\n\"Jackson!\" I exclaimed in fury. \"You can't—\"\n\nJackson rose upright and said in a low, dangerous voice as he stared down at me, \"Get out of the pool, Camille. Get your dress back on and follow me to your room so we can talk. This is not a request. You've got until the count of ten before I haul you out of that pool and carry you over my shoulder, which as I'm sure you'll agree, will be quite the spectacle.\"\n\nI wasn't about to test him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I scrambled out of the pool, giving an apologetic look to Marius and then assuring him it was okay. And then, doing exactly as Jackson asked, we made our way to my room.\n\nOnce in there, we went at it like cats and dogs. Like literally… Jackson was barking his dismay at me and I was hissing like a cat seething in anger. The dividing line was the birthday party and he did not want me to attend." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was completely fine if the party went on and if an assassin wanted to take a shot at my dad, so be it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But he did not want me in there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I told him it was impossible to have a birthday party celebrating my coming-of-age to ascend to the throne and not attend." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The fight reached a boiling point when I told him that the party was a long-standing tradition, something he clearly had lack of respect for." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jackson's eyes flashed and then went flat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was clear I was inferring his lack of respect extended back to the fact he chose not to stay in the navy as a career, something his family had a long-standing history of doing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I immediately started mumbling apologies but Jackson turned on his foot and stormed out of my room, slamming the door shut behind him. I knew Jackson well. I knew he hadn't gone anywhere and was merely standing out in the hallway with the other two agents. He took his duties seriously and was not about to leave his protective role no matter how pissed he was or if I had hurt his feelings.\n\nI waited for almost an hour before I swung the door open and demanded he come back inside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Enough time had passed. Surely cooler heads were ready to prevail.\n\nNo such luck.\n\nThe minute he was in my room and the door closed, Jackson was railing at me again over my poor choice to agree to go forward with this part.\n\nBut no amount of arguing was going to change anything." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His mind had been made up but so had mine. As much as he felt he was going to be able to change things, it wasn't going to happen. I was going to attend this party one way or the other.\n\nWith or without him.\n\nThe best thing I could do was to just get him to shut up for a bit, and the best way to get that done was to shock him into silence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So I started taking off my clothes and, as expected, his mouth snapped shut." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His voice was brimming with anger laced with lust." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What are you doing?\"\n\nI gave him a saccharine smile. \"I'm going to climb on top of the bed and I hope you join me. Because I'm done arguing. You can either fuck me or go stand in the hallway while I take care of myself. Either way, I'm done arguing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was the promise of taking care of myself that changed everything." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oh, Jackson was still angry and still set on changing my mind at some point. But I knew the image of me laying on my bed with perhaps my fingers between legs or even a sex toy scrambled his brains.\n\nJust as I intended.\n\nThat was our first argument, thus it was our first makeup sex. And it was beyond amazing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sex had definitely taken the edge off, and when we were done, we were able to talk to each other a little more rationally." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still the same arguments, but we each let the other talk and we each listened." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We ordered dinner be sent up to my room, and we talked some more, but little by little, Jackson realized I was not going to back down.\n\nWe retired early that night, feeling a little awkward as there were still hard feelings, but Jackson ended up making love to me so slowly I almost lost my mind. I fell asleep in his arms but he didn't sleep well that night at all. I woke up a few times because I was cold and found that rather than holding me, he was on his side of the bed staring up at the ceiling, the moonlight from the windows reflecting in his eyes.\n\nOne time I woke up and saw him standing at the balcony doors, looking out quietly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was so beautiful, the outline of his naked body against the moonlight and I got out of bed and moved to him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I tried to hug him from behind but he murmured, \"Go back to bed, Princess. You need your beauty sleep.\"\n\nIt wasn't said in a harsh way, and it wasn't a flat-out rejection. He told me that with tenderness… he wanted me to get my rest. And so I went back to bed and I fell back asleep.\n\nI didn't wake back up the rest of the night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In fact, my eyes only opened after Jackson made me climax in my sleep and then bit my lip, telling me to wake up just a bit ago.\n\nRolling to my side, disappointed he doesn't intend to have sex with me just now, I take him in. Head propped on his hand, he's wearing that smug smile of satisfaction that he made me come.\n\nI cock an eyebrow. \"Are you sure you're not still mad at me?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, I'm still mad at you,\" he says without a lick of anger in his voice. It's very confusing. \"But I also understand what you and your father are trying to accomplish. I get why you want to do this. And if you and I did not have a personal relationship, I wouldn't have a single problem with this harebrained idea to lure the assassin. That being said, I know this is going to happen, so I have to put that aside for now and turn my attention to the best way to protect you.\"\n\nI reach out my fingers and trail them down the middle of his chest. Lifting my gaze to his, I say, \"I trust you to keep me safe. I trust all of you to bring this assassin down. It will be fine, and then it will be over.\"\n\n\"And then it will be over,\" he says softly, and we both know we're not talking about the plot at this point." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We're talking about us." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To keep from crying, I lean into him and press my lips against his. I hold them there, just breathing him in and feeling my heart break because if this goes down tonight the way we all hope it does, he doesn't have to stay until my actual birthday in six days. The threat will be over, and he will go home.\n\nThis could be our last time together.\n\nPerhaps Jackson senses my sentiments because his arm snakes out to gather me closer, and he kisses me hard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "God, I'm going to miss this.\n\nMy bedroom door is thrown open so hard, it hits the table behind it, and a big, booming voice says, \"Good morning, my darling girl. I have a huge surprise for you.\"\n\nThen my father strides into the room, a smile plastered on his face until his eyes lands on me and Jackson.\n\nI shriek at the intrusion, but Jackson reacts on instinct. Before my father even notices us in the bed, Jackson has already rolled out in all his naked, hard-on glory and grabbed a gun from somewhere." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He has it aimed straight at my father's head where he holds it steady for just a moment before lowering it with a sigh.\n\nMy father's eyes bug out as they slide back and forth between me—in bed with the sheets pulled up to my neck—and Jackson who is putting the gun on the side table.\n\n\"What in the hell is going on here?\" my father bellows at the top of his lungs.\n\n\"Father,\" I yell back at him, \"this is my private room. You should have knocked.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I see that my father is holding a large, black velvet box—no doubt with jewelry inside—but it's his other hand that raises and points a shaking finger at Jackson. \"You… you… you… I trusted you to protect my daughter.\"\n\n\"And I have,\" Jackson replies dryly and moves to a chair beside the bed where he draped his clothes last night as we undressed.\n\n\"Father!\" I exclaim again, and his eyes come to me. \"Turn around so I can get dressed.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He honors my request but starts a tirade when his back is to us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I scramble out of bed and nab my robe from a chair, he says, \"This is intolerable. Mr. Gale, you are a dishonorable man, taking advantage of my daughter this way. I invite you into my home and—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Father … stop it,\" I screech in anger, my eyes cutting to Jackson who has his pants on and is now shrugging into a T-shirt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I march around my father as I belt my robe and come toe-to-toe with him. \"This was a mutual attraction we both acted upon, and I am an adult. You have no say.\"\n\n\"This is my home,\" he blusters.\n\n\"It's my home too,\" I snarl back.\n\nThat shuts my dad up, but he whirls on Jackson." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What did you think was going to happen? Think you were going to live happily ever after here in Bretaria? Enjoy our wealth? Maybe become a crowned prince by marrying my daughter and inheriting our ruby mines? Well, let me tell you something, you're not worthy to walk ten paces behind her, so you can get those notions right out of your head.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Father,\" I gasp, appalled he would cut Jackson so low. \"That is unbelievably rude.\"\n\n\"He will never have my blessing to marry you,\" my father snaps at me. \"Never.\"\n\n\"I don't want your fucking blessing,\" Jackson says quietly, but his words pack a punch. I gasp at his own level of rudeness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My father turns to face him, and Jackson stands with his hands casually tucked into his pockets." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And I have no intention now or ever to ask for her hand in marriage, so you can get off your high horse, Your Majesty.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Damn, that hurt. I know it's true and I know the reasons why, and he's not wrong." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But goddamn, that hurt.\n\nHe laid it out succinctly so my father can stop his blustering. I take my father by the arm and lead him toward the door. \"You have nothing to worry about. This is casual, and Jackson and I have agreed to go our separate ways. We agreed to that from the beginning.\"\n\n\"Of course he'd say that,\" my father grouses as I open the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You can't trust anything he says or does. He only wants one thing and—\"\n\n\"Sex, Your Majesty,\" Jackson calls out, and I cringe. \"It's sex. Not the throne.\"\n\nGrimacing, I push my father harder out the door as he curses over Jackson's last words. They were totally unwarranted and only meant to provoke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Father,\" I say sharply, getting his attention." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Leave this alone. I'm begging you. This is something I'm doing for myself, so let me have it. After we take care of this assassin, Jackson will be gone, and I'll start working on finding a husband. I promise.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That mollifies him. He deflates, and the fight goes out of his eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Holding the velvet box for me to see, he says, \"I'll give this to you later.\"\n\n\"Okay,\" I murmur, pinching the bridge of my nose. A headache is brewing.\n\nWhen my father leaves, followed by four agents, I turn back into the room and close the door. Leaning against it, I take in Jackson as he rifles through the suitcase he'd left open and on the floor on his side of the bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He pulls out some clothes and straightens, bringing his eyes to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I manage an awkward smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That was… well, awful.\"\n\nThe laugh that comes out of him isn't one of amusement. It's cold and flat. \"It's fine. I'm glad he reminded me of my place.\"\n\n\"Jackson,\" I chide, refusing to believe he'd take my father seriously." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I step toward him, but he turns away, marching into the bathroom." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've got a ton of stuff to do today to get everything set for the party. Going to take a quick shower and head out.\"\n\n\"But… but… who will watch me?\" I ask.\n\n\"I'll have Paul cover. You'll be fine.\" His words are dismissive as he disappears into the bathroom.\n\nMy heart is heavy as I move back to the bed, sitting on the edge. Because that was the beginning of the very end of us." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Produce six sentences using the user's text as a seed. Stick to the scifi, romance genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nontondondo seethed. There was no sky, only a ceiling of energy shaped into words—demands, enticements, celebrations of every sin and pleasure known to the beings of the Yhelle Equality. The noise hovered on the threshold of pain for Rheba. Her eyes ached, assaulted by colors and shapes that she was barely equipped to receive.\n\nShe should have been blinded and cowed by the city, but she was not. Her hair lifted, rippling like a golden river in freefall, tendrils reaching, seeking the invisible currents of energy that shaped and reshaped the city each instant. Akhenet lines of power burned on her skin, traceries of gold sweeping up from her hands to her face, across her shoulders, down her torso, dividing into a single slim line over each hip." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her gray robe concealed most of the lines, but Kirtn could sense their heat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It disturbed him, awakening a desire for her that should have been dormant for several more years. She was too young to accept him as a lover, too young to be sending out the subtle currents of energy that made him ache, too young to realize the danger of what she was doing. It had driven him into rez once before. Only her desperate skill and Fssa's ability to absorb energy had saved Bre'n and Senyas from burning to ash and gone. He could not expect to be so lucky twice.\n\nResolutely, he turned his thoughts away from the body swaying next to him, the delicate traceries of desire that bloomed innocently on her skin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Too soon. Too young." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A net of energy uniting them, burning them, fire-dancer passion like lightning in his blood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With an angry sound he pushed through the crowd, forcing a puzzled Rheba to run to catch up with him. He could have told her what was wrong, but did not. The passion that eventually bound Bre'n mentor to Senyas dancer was something that each Senyas had to discover. Most made the discovery in time, before a Bre'n went into rez, killed a Senyas protégé and died.\n\nMost, but not all.\n\nKirtn's gold metal eyes searched the streets for the correct place to stage their act." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He needed a corner where people were inclined to loiter, not one where they would be impatient at any delay." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He rejected three possible places before he found one that had the right combination of space and relaxed pedestrians." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The act he and Rheba would perform required no props." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Songs sung in Bre'n whistles had cross-cultural appeal. Rheba's ability to manufacture hot or cold fire out of the air also had an appeal that was not limited to single races or cultures. Together, Bre'n and Senyas made an unusual display. He hoped it would be enough to excite the jaded tastes of Nontondondo's habitués.\n\nThe corner Kirtn finally selected was already occupied by a group of jugglers who were more numerous than competent. Kirtn watched them for a long moment, wondering which of the Equality's thirty-one planets they called home." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The longer he watched, the less he believed they were any part of the Equality at all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They somehow reminded him of the awkward peoples he and Rheba had found on their flight from Deva's death, cultures barely able to chin themselves on their planet's nearest moon. Their worlds hung like soap bubbles against the enormousness of space, iridescent, fragile, quivering with life. And so alone.\n\n\"Kirtn? What's wrong?\"\n\nRheba's voice pulled Kirtn out of his thoughts. Bre'n discipline returned to him, holding him aloof from all emotions . . . like a planet caught in darkness, held in place by invisible lines of force." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We'll use that corner,\" he said, turning to M/dur, the male J/taal who had preempted the single license to kill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fssa's translation was instantaneous, unobtrusive. The J/taal mercenary slid into the crowd, followed by three silver-eyed war dogs. Silence spread behind them. J/taals and their clepts were well known in the Yhelle Equality.\n\nKirtn never found out whether or not the jugglers knew the language of J/taal. M/dur appeared on the corner, pointed at the jugglers and then at the street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The jugglers bunched up as though to contest the eviction. Then the avid silence of the crowd warned them. Quietly, quickly, they vacated the corner.\n\nRheba looked at Kirtn questioningly. He sent the illusionists into the crowd. When the act began to attract attention, they would return veiled in illusion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then they would begin to steal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Daemen also walked into the crowd, his slim body swallowed up almost instantly in the press of people.\n\n\"Ready?\" asked Kirtn.\n\nAs an answer, Rheba began drawing on the currents of energy that laced Nontondondo's sky. Immediately her hair fanned out, swirling and rippling in vivid display. Less obvious, for she was not working hard, were the whorls of akhenet lines beneath her brown skin.\n\nEnergy blossomed at her fingertips, streamers of colored light that flowed into shapes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn's pure whistle slid through the street noise like sun through darkness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He gave the audience a simple song, a child's tale of hidden treasure, Fifth People and friendship in unexpected places.\n\nThe energy pouring from Rheba's fingertips took on the ghostly glimmering associated with the Fifth People, that category of intelligent life which was rarely glimpsed and then only out of the comer of one's eyes. Fifth People seemed to hover soundlessly around her and Kirtn as though waiting for the child hero of the song to appear.\n\nA few people stopped to watch, called by the Bre'n whistle and held by the languid sliding shapes created by a fire dancer. As the tale progressed, more people wandered over and stopped to enjoy. By the time the story ended—replete with monsters, heaped gems and heroism—a small crowd had collected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unfortunately, there were not enough people to safely rob more than one or two." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For really effective stealing to take place, a much bigger crowd was needed.\n\nKirtn's song changed to a lilting work tune that had been popular before Deva's situation became so desperate that its people forgot how to sing. Rheba's Ghost figures solidified into Bre'ns and Senyasi working together, calling storms or sunny days, curing sickness, lifting girders and force fields into place, building and laughing and singing, always singing, for Deva had once been filled with song.\n\nThe compelling rhythms of the work song drew more people to the corner where Rheba and Kirtn performed. The akhenet lines beneath her skin pulsed more brightly now, responding to the increased demands of her performance. New energy forms appeared, cascading from her hands like supple gems, then condensing in recognizable Bre'n and Senyas forms." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was hard work for her, much harder than warming soup or lighting a dark hall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not since she had played Chaos in the Black Whole had she tried to manipulate energy in so many distinct shapes.\n\nKirtn felt her hair stream out and wrap caressingly around his arm. Currents of energy ran deliciously through him, touching every cell. Desire flared—and died instantly, crushed beneath Bre'n will. He looked away from her, knowing that she had noticed neither the caress nor his response. Her face was taut, still, concentrated wholly on creating figures to people his songs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A second whistle joined his. Beneath Rheba's seething hair, Fssa was singing.\n\nSlowly the song shifted, still melodic, still in harmony, but the words were different. The crowd did not notice, for only a handful of living beings understood Bre'n. Kirtn, however, realized that Fssa was trying to communicate without disrupting the act. The Bre'n glanced over and spotted Fssa's opalescent sensors beneath the shifting veil of Rheba's hair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'sNara is in place and f'lTiri is working the crowd. Daemen is out at the fringe,\" continued the snake, whistling in sweet counterpoint to Kirtn's song." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn looked over the crowd, but saw no one familiar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He did not have the Fssireeme's ability to make minute discriminations among solid shapes. The snake \"saw\" with everything but the wavelengths of energy that comprised visible light for nearly all the races of the Fourth People. The Fssireeme was a product of genetic engineering performed many Cycles ago, before the people known as Bre'n and Senyas had even been born. He was a perfect translator and predator, although the latter had not been planned by the men who had reshuffled the genes of Fssa's species.\n\n\"Daemen just brushed past i'sNara. I think he gave her something. Yes! Oh, it's lovely, a great long necklace that's cut into a thousand surfaces!\"\n\nKirtn sang and peered at the spot where the snake's sensors were directed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All the Bre'n saw was the outline of a very rich woman watching the act." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A second look assured him that the woman was indeed i'sNara, changed by f'lTiri's illusion. Nothing in her jewelry matched Fssa's description of what Daemen had handed over. Then Kirtn remembered that Yhelle illusions were limited to visible wavelengths of energy. The Fssireeme's methods of \"seeing\" were not affected by such illusions.\n\nThe song ended. Kirtn and Rheba bowed while she drew the outlines of a crowd throwing money to the two performers. Laughter rippled and coins from various planets rang against the stones at their feet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As Kirtn gathered the money, Fssa resumed his monologue in Bre'n." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The lyric whistle helped to stem the flow of departing people.\n\n\"From what I can overhear, the act is nice but not really exciting,\" whistled the snake. \"Even f'lTiri is having problems getting away unnoticed, and he's in his invisible mode. You need something that will make the crowd overlook a hand in their pants.\"\n\nKirtn laughed shortly. \"About the only thing that would be that interesting would be—how did our dead stage manager put it?—'a single dance of kaza-flatch.'\"\n\nFssa made a flatulent sound. Dapsl's death on Loo had not been mourned by the Fssireeme." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yet— \"He was right,\" whistled the snake on a series of descending, sour notes. \"It worked.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rheba's hand moved protectively on Kirtn's arm. The Loos' casual assumption that all furries were animals had infuriated her. Neither Fssa nor Kirtn needed Rheba's indignant whistle to explain her feelings.\n\n\"Dapsl was right,\" whistled Kirtn softly, resonances of laughter and regret in each note. \"Appealing to Loo prejudices saved our lives.\"\n\n\"Public mating?\" demanded Rheba incredulously." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She whistled a Bre'n phrase describing intricate sex among thirteen cherfs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn laughed. \"I didn't have anything that complicated in mind. A simple love song . . . the Autumn Song?\"\n\n\"I hate to soil its beauty for these swine,\" she muttered in Senyas.\n\n\"What they feel is their problem,\" he responded in the same language. \"Ours is getting enough money to buy a navtrix.\"\n\n\"But they'll think it's sodomy!\"\n\nKirtn tilted her head up until he could see into her eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At their cinnamon depths, gold sparked and turned restlessly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is it sodomy to you, little dancer?\"\n\nThe question, asked in controlled Senyas, sliced into Rheba like a knife. Anger and orange fire swept through her simultaneously. Streamers of flame rushed out from her body, causing the crowd to gasp and step back. She was too furious to speak, able only to burst into flame as she had not done since she was an undisciplined child.\n\nSuddenly her arms wrapped around Kirtn's neck in a hold that even Bre'n strength could not shift." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had an instant to regret goading her, then her mouth was over his in a kiss that made him forget the crowd, the navtrix, and—almost—his Bre'n discipline.\n\nThe fire that had leaped out from her changed into a lacework of gold surrounding her and her Bre'n. Like the lines on her body, the lines surrounding the two of them pulsed with energy. She did not know that she was building a cage of energy around the man who held her; it was a fire-dancer reflex as basic as breathing.\n\nKirtn knew what was happening, however. In a mature dancer the filigree of energy would thicken as dancer passion rose until finally the two lovers would be enclosed in a supple, incandescent world that was deadly to any but the Bre'n and Senyas inside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That much Kirtn knew from his past on Deva. What he did not know was what it felt like to be inside the cage, inside his dancer and the world around him hot and gold. Nor did Rheba know. Only a Bre'n could survive the full passion of a Senyas dancer; only a Bre'n could fully arouse it.\n\nBut Rheba had not been told that. It was something she must discover on her own." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To tell her would negate the Dancer's Choice, the moment when Senyas dancer chose a Bre'n—just as once, in the dancer's infancy, a Bre'n had chosen a dancer. Without that second choosing, the relationship of Bre'n and Senyas was incomplete, and very dangerous to both partners.\n\nAs from a distance, Kirtn heard the bittersweet fall of notes that was the Autumn Song. Melancholy and harvest, chill winds and a lover's warmth, fruition and death sung by the inhumanly perfect voice of an immortal Fssireeme.\n\nKirtn knew he should take Rheba's arms from his neck, lift his mouth from hers, set her warmth at arm's length. No dancer could make an honest choice while held against a sensual Bre'n body, his hands shifting her until she fit perfectly against him, his arms holding her in a grip both gentle and unbreakable." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He knew he should release her . . ." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "but he did not, not until the fact that she was trembling uncontrollably registered on him.\n\nHis body moved subtly, changing the embrace to one of affection rather than passion. He was shocked to see how thick the lacework of energy around them had become. Silently he cursed the Bre'n sensuality that had betrayed her trust, forcing a choice on her that she was not old enough to make.\n\nRheba trembled between his hands, looking at him with eyes that were half aware, half knowing . . . and half frightened." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had neither Senyas mother nor sisters to prepare her for full dancer passion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All she had was brief memories of half-grown Senyas boys, giggling pleasure under triple moons, simple release. It did not prepare her for the feelings that heated her now.\n\nShe tilted her head, sending her hair across his face and shoulder in electric caress. Her smile made him ache.\n\n\"That's how much I care what anyone thinks,\" she whistled softly. Then, wickedly, \"You know, I rather like sharing enzymes with you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn grimaced at her reminder of their slavery on Loo." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the Loos would have separated Bre'n and Senyas, he had lied, telling the Loos that he and Rheba were symbionts who would die unless they could share enzymes by kissing. \"Do you?\" he murmured. \"Some day I'm going to remind you of that,\" he added, brushing her lips with his.\n\n\"It—it isn't wrong, is it?\" she said in a rush, glancing away from him, embarrassed to ask him. But she had no one else to ask, no one else to tell her what was proper and safe behavior between Senyas and Bre'n." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn's hands slid into her seething hair, holding her so that she could not evade his eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nothing you could ever do with your Bre'n is wrong. Nothing.\"\n\nHe felt the tension leave her body. Suddenly, mischief crackled in her eyes. She stood on tiptoe and ran her fingers around the rim of his ear, tickling him unmercifully. It was the only way she had had as a young child to get even with her huge Bre'n mentor. Much to Kirtn's despair, it seemed to be something she would not outgrow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Nothing?\" she asked sweetly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He caught her tormenting hands and said hastily, \"Almost nothing. Tickling my ears is definitely a badnaughtywrong.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The childhood word made Rheba laugh. She leaned against Kirtn, smiling. \"I'm glad you Chose me, Bre'n mentor.\"\n\nSomeday, maybe you'll Choose me, thought Kirtn, then realized by her sudden movement that she had caught his thought. He cursed the inconvenience of being so close to each other that minor mind dancing was possible—and so far apart that he could not tell her about her Dancer's Choice.\n\nThe lacework of fire dimmed to invisibility." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Money rained down on them, startling them into an awareness of their surroundings. Fssa's clear whistle faded into silence.\n\n\"That was wonnnnderful!\" whistled Fssa, bright with enthusiasm and the energy he had absorbed from Rheba's hair. \"You should do it more often. Such energy.\" He expanded to twice his former length and size, luxuriating in the instant of not having to fold in upon himself to conserve warmth and energy. Then, as though noticing the charged silence, he subsided." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, I enjoyed it, even if you two didn't. Humanoids,\" he whistled sourly, \"may have legs but they don't have much sense.\"\n\n\"Shut up, snake,\" said Kirtn.\n\nFssa darkened precipitously, quailing before Kirtn's anger.\n\n\"By the Inmost Fire,\" swore the Bre'n, seeing his friend go from bright to dark. \"You're beautiful, snake,\" he whistled coaxingly. \"You just have too many mouths for your brain to keep up with.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rheba snickered and began collecting the money around their feet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was soon apparent that she would need more than her two hands to hold the coins. Kirtn bent to help her, but even his hands were not large enough. With a gleam in his yellow eyes, he snatched Fssa from Rheba's hair.\n\n\"I just thought of a use for one of your big mouths. Open up.\"\n\nFssa squawked indignantly, but complied. He rearranged his dense molecules until there was an opening beneath the sensors on top of his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His head was a matter of convenience, a conceit to make him more like the Fourth People he was among, for Fssireemes were almost infinitely plastic." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A stream of money poured into Fssa. He sorted the coins according to size and made suitable pockets inside himself. He made an odd, musical sound when he moved. Rheba snickered again. Fssa ignored her.\n\nBy the time they were through picking up money, Fssa was quite heavy. Kirtn saw a few of the less well-dressed city dwellers watching the snake with open greed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The amount of money inside Fssa was not great—probably no more than a few thousand credits—but to some of Nontondondo's inhabitants, a few thousand credits were worth killing for." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn smiled at the men staring at Fssa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The smile revealed slightly serrated teeth and frankly predatory intent. The men looked away quickly and faded back into the crowd.\n\nFssa made another mouth and hissed contempt. \"You should have let them touch me.\"\n\n\"You aren't licensed to kill.\"\n\n\"I'm not a Fourth People, either. Onan's rules don't apply to me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn looked toward Rheba in silent question." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her understanding of Onan's licensing system exceeded his.\n\n\"True,\" conceded Rheba, \"but I'd hate to try to explain your exemption to the Equality Rangers. I don't think it would work. Onan's licensing system is efficient and profitable. When you've got a good game going, you don't let a wise-mouth stranger break the bank.\"\n\nFssa made a flatulent noise. Coins quivered in an unexpected musical echo. Then his head turned suddenly and his sensors brightened as he shifted energy into their use. From the rim of the crowd came an ugly shout." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rheba caught only the word \"furry\" and some random unpleasantries.\n\n\"Trouble,\" whistled Fssa.\n\nThe crowd dissolved away, warned by the uncanny sense of danger that was part of all Fourth People's survival equipment. Where the audience had been stood twelve hooded men. Nine of them were licensed to kill. Three wore circles broken in three places; they were licensed to do everything but kill." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In a blur of speed, M/dur and three snarling clepts came to stand between the hooded men and Rheba." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The J/taal's license to kill shone clearly on his forehead. The hooded men paused, seeing first the full silver circle and second the nature of the man who wore it. They murmured among themselves, then began fanning out to surround Rheba and Kirtn.\n\n\"Snake,\" whistled Rheba urgently, \"tell M/dur I take it all back. He can do whatever he has to however he can—just get us out of here!\"\n\nFssa relayed the J/taaleri's revised instructions in a guttural burst of sound. M/dur heard, but the only sign of that was the clepts padding lithely toward the men who wore closed silver circles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Narrow-eyed, lethal, the war dogs glided closer to their prey." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the fringes, the Equality Rangers closed in. Rheba looked up in momentary hope, then realized that the Rangers were not there to prevent mayhem, but to regulate it. She would not be able to use her dancer skills or Kirtn's deadly strength to help M/dur. They were licensed only to entertain, not to fight.\n\nOne of the hooded men spotted the Rangers. He called out a question." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fssa's translation of Nontondondo's gutter language hissed in Rheba's ear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ranger! Have these animals been licensed?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "called the hooded man, his hand sweeping around to point at the clepts.\n\nBefore the Ranger could answer, Fssa called out, \"The man is J/taal. He is licensed to kill. Those animals are his weapons.\"\n\n\"Clever snake,\" murmured Rheba as his translation whispered to her from a separate orifice he had just created. \"Will it work?\"\n\nThe Rangers muttered among themselves, then shrugged. One of them answered, \"He is J/taal. The clepts are weapons. His license to kill is valid and plainly displayed.\" The Ranger's voice was bored." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The hooded men hesitated, then pulled weapons out of their clothes." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 7 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rheba's nails dug into Kirtn's arm. She began to gather energy despite her lack of license to do anything but entertain. She knew that if she broke Onan law there was nowhere else to go. Her navtrix could only take her back to the slave planet Loo, or to Deva, a dead world orbiting an unstable sun. She could not afford to break the law and help M/dur—but neither could she stand by and watch him killed because his J/taaleri had been too poor to buy weapons for him.\n\nHer hair stirred in sibilant echo of the clepts' graceful stride. Beneath her skin, akhenet lines smoldered, waiting only her release to leap into deadly, illicit fire." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\nseven sentences\n\nGenre:\nscifi, romance" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Central Installation, called Centrins by the natives, was huge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was created from a single multihued material that seemed to sway gracefully, like flowers blooming beneath a clear river. Neither cracks nor stains marred the flowing walls and arched ceilings where colors called to each other in voices undimmed by time.\n\nAnd much time had passed, more time than any man should have to sense, much less to live among its colored shadows. Kirtn felt time like an indefinable weight on his shoulders, a thickness in the very air he breathed.\n\nRheba leaned against his arm, reflexively seeking the comfort he could give her. She, too, sensed time like an immense entity brooding over Centrins. She drew Kirtn's presence around her, warming herself against the distant intimations of eternity pouring by, a chilling concept to entities for whom a handful of centuries spelled the whole of life." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yet Centrins itself looked just born, sleek with newness. It glowed warmly, inviting human presence.\n\nEven on closer inspection, the compound preserved its pristine appearance. The ground around Centrins might look old, the stone walls thrown up by later, more barbaric men might be worn to sand, but Centrins itself was untouched.\n\n\"Stasis?\" asked Rheba, using Senyas because she could not bear to describe Centrins with emotional Bre'n.\n\n\"Did you feel any energy shift when we entered the compound?\"\n\n\"No.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then it's not stasis,\" said Kirtn flatly. \"Even the Zaarain Cycle was stuck with the same physical laws we are. Where energy exists, perfect stasis doesn't.\"\n\n\"Zaarain?\" asked Rheba. Then, \"Of course. It has to be. No other Cycle had the ability to preserve its artifacts so well.\"\n\n\"Too bad they weren't as good with cultures.\"\n\n\"People aren't as amenable as matter/energy equations.\"\n\nHe wondered if she was alluding to him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stroked her arm and was rewarded with a smile that made him ache.\n\n\"At least this is as beautiful as I remembered it,\" said Daemen, drawing Rheba away from Kirtn. The young man pointed to a museum that opened off the great hall they had entered. \"That was where I first learned to recognize the Cycles by their artifacts. Seur Tric\"—he smiled at his uncle—\"was my best teacher.\"\n\nSeur Tric's smile was small and fleeting, showing cracked teeth of several colors. He hurried on down the hall despite Daemen's obvious desire to poke through the Seur museum.\n\nKirtn lingered, staring at the cases and pedestals holding objects that cried out to be seen and understood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rheba, too, looked into the room, curious about Cycles she had heard of only in myths." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then she turned abruptly and hurried after Tric." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn did not need to touch her to know what she was thinking: Deva had no museums, no monuments, no students eager for her past.\n\nWith one last, long look around the room where time was labeled and enclosed, Kirtn followed the retreating figures of Daemen, Rheba and Tric. No one else was around. The men who had followed them from the spaceport had vanished soundlessly into Centrins' multicolored recesses. He looked again, then murmured into the transceiver.\n\n\"Any problems there?\" he asked.\n\n\"None. The outputs showed a flux in energy a few minutes ago.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ilfn's voice was disembodied yet very clear. \"We stopped drawing power through the downside connectors. Then we started up again. Must have been a surge in the downside power core, or whatever this primitive place uses for energy.\"\n\nMalaise prickled like heat over Kirtn's body. \"You're sure we're still drawing power?\"\n\n\"Yes. Five hours to optimum capacity.\"\n\n\"Five? I thought—\"\n\n\"So did I. But the ship cut back on its downside draw after the surge. Shall I override?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No. Not yet. The Devalon knows its needs better than I do. Anything else?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lheket wants Rheba back,\" Ilfn said dryly. \"He's in love with her electric hair.\"\n\nKirtn laughed shortly. Lheket was blind and a child, but apparently not impervious to Rheba's charm. It was just as well. Lheket would be the father of her children as soon as he was old enough.\n\nThat, at least, was one liaison the Bre'n would support. Just as Rheba called Ilfn sister because she carried Kirtn's unborn children, he would call Lheket brother when Rheba was pregnant with a new race of Senyas." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was the way Bre'n and Senyas had survived in the past." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It would be the way they survived in the future." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If they had a future . . . two Bre'ns, two Senyasi. So few. But there must be more who had survived Deva's death. There must be others scattered through the galaxy, seeking more of their own kind just as Rheba and Kirtn were. They had tracked the rumor of Lheket to the slave planet Loo. And then they had freed Lheket and his Bre'n. Where two had been found, there might be others." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not on Loo, but somewhere." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kirtn?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rheba's call startled Kirtn out of his thoughts.\n\n\"Anything wrong?\" she whistled, the sound like pure color floating through the ancient hall.\n\n\"I was just thinking about the . . . others.\" He did not need to elaborate. His whistle carried enough sorrow and speculation for a long Senyas speech.\n\nShe left Daemen and ran back down the hall to her Bre'n. \"We'll find them,\" she said fiercely." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"First we'll take the slaves to their homes and then we'll be free to look again. Who knows? Maybe we'll even find some of our people on the way.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He rubbed his fingers through her crackling hair. \"Maybe we will, little dancer. Maybe we will. But not here,\" he added sourly. \"This place isn't exactly the crossroads of the universe.\"\n\n\"Rheba?\" Daemen's concerned voice preceded him up the hall. \"What's wrong?\"\n\nTersely, she explained her planet's death and their quest for others of their own kind.\n\n\"I didn't know,\" said Daemen softly. \"You must have thought it terrible when I complained of being the only survivor of my family. You've lost an entire world.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I didn't lose everyone,\" she said, rubbing her palm over Kirtn's arm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Daemen and Kirtn exchanged a long look, but Rheba did not notice.\n\nA peculiar tenor bell rang throughout Centrins. From the end of the hall, Seur Tric called in rapid Daemenite.\n\n\"We're coming,\" answered Daemen. \"Uncle's worried,\" he said, turning back to Rheba. \"That's the dinner bell. The dining room serves food only to occupied chairs. If we're not there, we don't eat until the next time the room feels like making a meal.\"\n\nShe blinked, not sure she had heard correctly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she looked at Kirtn, he shrugged. Neither one of them understood, but Tric's impatience was apparent. They hurried down the hall to catch up with him. As they did, a tenor bell again rang sweetly through the building.\n\n\"Uh oh,\" said Daemen, breaking into a run. \"If we don't hurry, I'll miss my first home meal in years.\"\n\nThe four of them raced down the hall, skidding at a final sharp turn." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The location of the dining room was obvious." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Seurs and their families were jammed into a wide doorway, struggling for passage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one noticed the strangers, because everyone wore costumes of wildly varying cut and color. The people were as varied as their costumes. Combinations of skin, fur, height and color were not repeated. The only thing Daemenites seemed to have in common was an almost skeletal thinness.\n\nOnce in the room, everyone raced for a seat. If there was order or precedence, it was not apparent. Hunger was, however.\n\n\"Make sure your chair is lit,\" yelled Daemen over the hubbub." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"'The dark ones don't work.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn made a sound of disgust. He had seen cherfs use better manners at the trough. \"Up!\" he said to Rheba. He swung her into his arms, above the worst of the jostling. When his sheer strength was not enough to clear a path, her discreet jolts of electricity were.\n\nThe tenor bell sang again. Whatever dignity might have remained was trampled in a rush for seating." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn slid Rheba into a chair, sat next to her, and watched the final scramble with blank astonishment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A disheveled Seur Tric popped out of the crowd and threw himself into a chair across from Kirtn." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Daemen was right behind, laughing with delight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was the only Daemenite who seemed amused by the frantic race to food." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But then, he was the only Daemenite who had flesh on his bones.\n\n\"That's what I hated most about Loo,\" said Daemen as he vaulted into a chair next to Rheba. \"The meals were so boring. On Daemen, we know how to get the juices flowing before we sit down to eat.\"\n\nThe tenor bell sang a fourth time. All empty chairs went dark. There were groans and curses from people who had not found a chair. Some threw themselves at chairs even though they knew their reflexes were not capable of outrunning the machine's sensors." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A rude, fruity sound issued from the chairs that had been occupied too late." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What was that?\" said Rheba, peering around." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The cook,\" said Daemen.\n\n\"The cook?\" she repeated.\n\n\"It's laughing at the people who missed dinner.\"\n\n\"It? Is the cook a machine?\"\n\n\"Of course.\" He smiled and touched her chin with the tip of his finger. \"Didn't you have cooks on Deva?\"\n\n\"Machines don't laugh at people,\" she said impatiently." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Maybe they didn't on Deva. They do here.\" He ran his hands over the seamless tabletop. \"What's for dinner, uncle?\"\n\nSeur Tric looked unhappy. \"I don't know. We may not even get any food.\"\n\n\"Oh no!\" groaned Daemen. \"Don't tell me the cook is eccentric too?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sometimes,\" conceded Tric grimly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Last week, it called us to table twice. All it did was—\"\n\nBrrraaaacck! The sound came from Tric's chair.\n\nWith a pained look, Tric shut up.\n\nKirtn whistled softly. \"Can you sense any energy, dancer?\"\n\nRheba's hair stirred and slid strand over strand with a silky whisper. Her eyes changed, currents of gold turning in amber depths. Her answering whistle was vague, almost dreamy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes. Everywhere. The whole room, the building, all of Centrins. Currents flowing . . . but not smoothly, not everywhere. Gaps and darkness, sudden cold.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A cataract of energy slammed into her.\n\nReflexively she threw away the energy before it could burn her to ash. The ceiling flared whitely. Every chair in the room lit like flash strips in a darkened ship.\n\nThe tenor bell screamed.\n\nThe room burst into confused cries as Seurs leaped out of their chairs. Only Kirtn had noticed the akhenet lines coalesce beneath Rheba's skin until she burned more hotly than any natural fire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now her eyes were blank, veined with the same incandescence as her hands. He drained energy out of her with a touch, calling her back from her contemplation of the core's compelling currents.\n\nShe blinked. Slowly her eyes focused on him. \"What happened?\"\n\n\"I was hoping you could tell me. Are you all right?\"\n\nShe sighed and stretched. \"Yes. Just tired, as though you'd been teaching me a particularly hard lesson.\"\n\nKirtn remembered the pouring energies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did that machine—or whoever is running it!—attack you?\"\n\nShe covered a yawn beneath a hand that was slowly fading back to its normal tan color. \"I don't think so. Probably I just tripped a feeder or scrambled some commands.\"\n\n\"It could have killed you,\" said Kirtn flatly.\n\n\"Maybe. It was just a light touch, though. It has a lot more energy in reserve.\" She stilled her lashing hair with a shake of her head. \"It wasn't as bad as the Equality Rangers' lightguns.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The tables in front of them changed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dinner appeared, as colorful as the walls. Unfortunately, it smelled more like fertilizer than food. After a moment, though, the odor changed to something more appetizing.\n\nWith a silent sigh of relief, Rheba picked up a pointed instrument that had appeared with the food. She stabbed a morsel and chewed tentatively. She was not worried about being poisoned. Fourth People might find each other's food unappetizing—even vile—but if it would not kill a Daemenite, it would not kill a Senyas or Bre'n." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn watched her for a moment, then picked up his eating tool with less enthusiasm than she had shown. Bre'ns were notoriously discriminating about flavors. He took a tentative bite. The food was not as bad as he had expected. It was merely bad rather than dreadful.\n\nAround Kirtn rose satisfied murmurs and lip smackings. The Daemenites fell upon their food as though it were the last meal they ever expected to eat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even Seur Tric's sour expression lightened. He ate rapidly, belched immodestly, and continued stabbing bright food as fast as he could manipulate his eating tool.\n\nTric looked up, saw Kirtn watching, and waved his arm expansively. \"Eat! It's not often the cook is in a good mood, especially not lately.\"\n\nKirtn looked toward Daemen. The Luck was eating as fast as he could get food into his mouth. He, too, belched often and loudly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn concealed his distaste. The slave compounds of Loo probably had not taught the boy much about good food.\n\nRheba leaned over and whispered a Senyas phrase in Kirtn's ear. \"Burp.\"\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"Burp,\" she repeated. \"Fssa says that we should burp. Apparently it's some kind of communication.\"\n\nKirtn muttered something clinical in Senyas. Rheba frowned. He swore and gulped air until he gave up a mighty belch." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nearby Daemenites looked over approvingly. Kirtn stabbed more food and chewed unhappily. Among Bre'ns, belching was not only bad manners, it was a sign of bad food. Among Senyasi it was worse. Senyasi only burped as a prelude to vomiting. He hoped no one would notice Rheba's silence.\n\nShe squirmed uncomfortably, muttering to herself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn guessed that she was arguing with Fssa, explaining to him why she could not be polite and burp." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The argument became heated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she offered to throw up to prove her point, Fssa subsided.\n\nThen, apparently from Rheba's mouth, came an epic belch.\n\nAs one, the Daemenites stopped eating. They banged their eating instruments approvingly against the tables. Both Daemen and Tric looked as gratified as parents whose offspring has just done something particularly clever. Kirtn strangled his laughter and hoped that no one had noticed Rheba's hair blowing out with the force of Fssa's gassy cry.\n\nSerenely, as though nothing unusual had happened, Rheba continued eating." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The rest of the meal was a long silence punctuated by burps." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When tabletops and fingertips had been licked clean, the Daemenites relaxed and began congratulating each other on the quality of the meal. A few people called out to Seur Tric, asking him if some traveling Seurs had returned with new knowledge that he had used to reprogram the cook. Tric muttered and made a vague gesture with his hands, consigning questions and cooks to the Last Square.\n\nBut the questioners were not to be so lightly put off. A group of people gathered around Seur Tric. They began to question him, then realized that the people with him were strangers. Oddly, Tric did not mention Daemen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nor did anyone recognize him. All eyes were focused on Kirtn's necklace. Apparently each and every ancient crystal worn by Seurs was known in detail to the rest of the Seurs. Rainbow was not.\n\nThe longer they looked at the magnificent string of crystals, the more certain the Seurs became that Rainbow must have been responsible for the recent feast. Somehow the crystals must have been powerful enough to affect the core even at a distance. There was no other explanation possible.\n\nKirtn's disclaimers were first taken for modesty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When it became obvious that he was adamant, Seur voices shifted into hostility.\n\nAfter a particularly irate exchange between Seur Tric and his fellow Seurs, Daemen stopped translating. Fssa, however, continued to whisper discreetly in Rheba's ear. She, in turn, whistled softly to Kirtn. After a few odd looks from the Seurs, she was ignored in favor of hot argument with Tric.\n\n\"Apparently,\" summarized Rheba, \"the crystals are some kind of keys to the Zaarain machinery. Not all of them work, and the ones that do aren't dependable. None of them has worked lately on the cook. Apparently their skinny state isn't normal for a Daemenite. The cook has been all but starving them. But after I skirted the core currents, something clicked. The Seurs are raving about the dinner.\"\n\n\"Tonight's dinner?\" Kirtn whistled incredulously." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: Story collab\nMe: Opening\nYou: 3 sentences more, Ann Maxwell-style" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"On the left,\" said the snake softly. \"The rockfall is thinner on that side.\"\n\nKirtn strode up to the dark pile of stones that went from ceiling to floor. \"Here?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fssa hissed agreement.\n\nKirtn began digging with his bare hands. The rocks were cold and sharp." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He worked steadily, stacking stones to one side for Rheba and Daemen to haul away.\n\nAlmost immediately he encountered the rock that had defeated earlier Seurs. Jagged, two-thirds his height and half as wide, the boulder lay securely wedged beneath a thin blanket of smaller rocks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn studied the position and mass of the boulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Light followed him, brightening in answer to his needs.\n\n\"You're sure that's the best route?\" asked Rheba dubiously, peering underneath his arm as he pushed against the enormous rock." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The boulder did not budge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Fssa said it was the best,\" grunted Kirtn. \"He didn't say it would be easy.\"\n\nKirtn leaned against the slab of stone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Muscles bunched from neck to heels, bulging beneath the few clothes he wore. Rainbow swung out from his neck and rattled against the slab. A trickle of grit fell down one side of the boulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He grunted and heaved harder. The slab gave fractionally. He sighed. \"Any advice, snake?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The rockfall is more stable on the right side of the tunnel. But if you dig around the left of the boulder, the rocks you encounter will be smaller.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wordlessly, Kirtn put Rainbow around Rheba's neck and began removing stones from the left side of the boulder. He soon discovered that \"smaller\" did not mean small. He rocked, dragged, shifted and lifted stones that weighed as much as he did." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The rocks that were too big for Daemen and Rheba to handle he carried out of the way himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Daemen looked from the barrier to the tireless Bre'n. He was doing the work of ten Daemenites. His unusual suede skin-fur was dark with sweat and his breath came in deep gasps, but his pace never slowed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rheba saw beyond Kirtn's strength. She saw that the rocks he handled were marked by blood. She redoubled her own pace, trying to save him any unnecessary effort." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If she could have lifted the bigger boulders for him she would have, but she could not." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn flexed his back and shoulders, trying to shake off the fatigue that was gathering on him like invisible weights. With a deep breath, he knelt and attacked the slab of rock that he had dug around. The boulder had to be moved if they were to get through the barrier." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His bloody fingers found no purchase on the huge stone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was no way to lever it aside. He swore and wished aloud for a pry bar.\n\n\"How long a bar?\" asked Fssa." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"All lengths,\" snapped Kirtn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If he was going to wish futilely, he might as well wish big.\n\n\"I am all lengths,\" said the Fssireeme simply.\n\nKirtn swore like the Bre'n poet he had once been." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He pulled Fssa off his shoulders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The snake became a bar as long as Kirtn's arm and one third as thick. The Bre'n stared, amazed. \"Are you sure this won't hurt you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Laughter hissed out of the bar. \"I'm Fssireeme.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn used Fssa tentatively at first, then with greater confidence. He pried around the edges of the slab. The slab quivered slightly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Longer,\" he grunted, shifting his grip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The lever became longer but not thinner. Fssa simply increased the space between his densely packed molecules to achieve a greater length with no sacrifice of strength.\n\nThe slab grated against the tunnel floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A shower of small rocks fell over Kirtn." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He ignored them. \"Can you bend around the rock and still give me enough length?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fssa changed again. Kirtn took a deep breath and heaved against the bar with a force that made the slab shudder.\n\n\"Get back!\" he called hoarsely over his shoulder.\n\nDaemen and Rheba backed away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They could not take their eyes off the straining figure of the Bre'n. In the eerie light of the tunnel he looked like a creature out of myth, taking the weight of eternity on his own shoulders so that lesser beings would not be crushed.\n\nKirtn's hands slipped, oiled by sweat and blood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He swore and shifted his grip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fssa changed subtly, roughening his exterior. Kirtn felt the new texture as pain across his bloody palms, but he welcomed it. He strained against the bar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The slab shifted minutely." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He pushed again and again and again.\n\nThe slab tottered but would not fall.\n\n\"Make yourself wider at my end if you can,\" panted Kirtn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The part of the lever he had held changed until it was as broad as both his hands held together.\n\n\"Good,\" grunted Kirtn, wiping his slippery hands on his thighs.\n\nHe reversed his position, turning his back on the bar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With bent knees he braced himself between the bar and the side of the tunnel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He breathed deeply several times . . . and then he straightened his legs.\n\nThe boulder shivered, grated horribly and fell forward into the tunnel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Somehow Kirtn spun out of the way in time to avoid being crushed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Fssa!\" cried Kirtn, looking frantically in the rubble for his friend.\n\nA thin whistle answered. The Fssireeme slithered out from the shadow of the slab." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bre'n blood and pulverized rock coated his body, concealing his normal metallic brightness beneath a grubby patchwork of gray and black.\n\nKirtn snatched Fssa out of the rubble. \"You're beautiful, snake.\"\n\nFssa glowed in shy delight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was the one compliment he could never hear often enough, for he had spent eons believing himself to be repulsive in the eyes of the Fourth People." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you all right?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "asked Rheba, hurrying forward.\n\n\"Yesss.\" The answer was as much a satisfied hiss as a word. \"But Kirtn almost bent me that last time.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Twin sensors changed colors with dizzying speed. \"Your flesh isn't like mine, Bre'n, but you're strong just the same.\"\n\n\"Strong!\" Daemen laughed shortly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's more than strong, he's—\" The Luck made a baffled gesture, finding no words to describe Kirtn's strength." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn flexed muscles that knotted and quivered painfully." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He felt about as strong as a gutted cherf. With a suppressed curse, he turned back to the barrier.\n\n\"Wait,\" said Fssa. \"Put me in the opening.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Before Kirtn could respond, Rheba took the Fssireeme." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She scrambled over the slab until she could place him in the opening created when the huge boulder had toppled into the tunnel. Then she retreated, not wanting to be near while Fssa probed the altered dynamics of the rockfall.\n\nShe created two more balls of light and examined Kirtn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her lines pulsed in protest at what she saw, but she said nothing. The bruises and scrapes she had expected. His hands, however, made her ache." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even as she watched, blood ran silently down his fingers and dripped onto the stone tunnel floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He jerked his hands away from the light, but she was faster. Her fingers closed around his wrists. Energy crackled. Instantly, his hands were numb." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can't work that way,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I know.\"\n\nWithout looking at him, she summoned fire in her fingertip and burned off strips of her green cape. She wrapped his injuries carefully, ignoring Daemen, ignoring Fssa, ignoring everything but her Bre'n's battered hands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When she was finished, only his fingertips were free." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Rheba,\" gently, \"I still can't work. My hands are numb.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"As soon as Fssa's finished,\" she snapped. \"Or are you in a hurry to hurt again?\"\n\nKirtn brought her hand up to his cheek." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She avoided his eyes, but her anger was transmitted in images of fire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He kissed her hand, silently thanking her, unruffled by her anger. He knew that her emotion came from her inability to prevent further pain to him. He did not point out the illogic of her reaction; were their roles reversed, his response would have been even less rational." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's not as safe as it was,\" called Fssa from the tunnel, \"but it's as safe as it will ever be.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn looked at Rheba and waited. Reluctantly, she touched his wrists again, drawing away the energy that had blocked messages of pain. Other than a slight narrowing of his eyes he showed no reaction." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Doesn't he feel pain?\" asked Daemen wonderingly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her hair hissed and seethed. \"Yes!\"\n\nDaemen hesitated, then seemed to decide that even the Luck should not press an angry fire dancer. In silence, he followed her back to the barrier." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Beyond the slab, none of the rocks were much larger than Kirtn's chest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He worked steadily, sending rocks back over his shoulder as fast as Rheba and Daemen could carry them away. Fssa alternated between being a lever and listening for the first hint of shifting stones.\n\nA shower of rocks tumbled from the ceiling of the narrow tunnel Kirtn was digging." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fssa snapped out, becoming a hard sheet stretching across the tunnel above Kirtn's head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After deflecting the worst of the rockfall, the Fssireeme changed into a shape that allowed him to probe the stability of the rocks that surrounded them on three sides." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn waited, staring at the bloody shreds that were all that remained of his bandages.\n\n\"It isn't safe,\" said Fssa finally.\n\n\"Tell me something I don't know,\" snapped Kirtn, his exhaustion showing in his ragged voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"At least it would be a quick way to die,\" he muttered, grabbing a rock and heaving it over his shoulder for Daemen and Rheba to carry away. \"Dehydration isn't.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fssa said nothing from any of his possible mouths. His silence, as much as the languid way he resumed his customary shape, told Kirtn that something was wrong with the Fssireeme.\n\n\"Did you hurt yourself in the rockfall?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "asked Kirtn, picking up the snake.\n\n\"No . . .\" There was a long pause." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then, \"Rocks can't hurt a Fssireeme.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn realized that Fssa was cold in his hands, colder even than the rocks. He remembered that the more Fssa stretched out, the more heat he needed to maintain himself. He had been moving over chill stone, probing for instabilities, listening for the first tremors of a rockfall and finally thinning himself into a sheet to protect Kirtn from falling stones." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fssireemes were tough creatures, but they had their limits—especially where cold was concerned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Take some of my heat,\" Kirtn said, looking at his arms, where sweat and rock dust coated his fine copper fur. \"I've got plenty to spare.\"\n\n\"No.\" The answer was flat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is no time to be coy!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No.\" This time the answer was an anguished Bre'n whistle, carrying with it all of Fssa's shame at his heritage as a parasite who lived off warmer creatures' body heat.\n\nKirtn was too tired to think of an argument to equal Fssa's shame. Rheba was more practical." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She sent minor lightning coursing through the tunnel until incandescence ran like water over the Fssireeme." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn threw a protesting glance toward Rheba." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the cold tunnel, she simply did not have energy to spare. She stared back at him, cinnamon eyes burning. \"Without Fssa, you would have been knocked silly by those rocks. Without you, we'd die.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Next time,\" said the Bre'n to Fssa, \"use me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Daemen simply stared. \"I thought I'd seen every kind of weird creature on Loo,\" he said, looking at the Fssireeme glowing softly in Kirtn's bloody hands, \"but that snake is the other side of incredible. Can't it make its own heat as we do?\"\n\n\"No,\" said Rheba, her voice tired.\n\n\"Then how does it survive?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's work to do,\" cut in Kirtn, knowing that Fssa would be mortified by any discussion of his peculiar physiology." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Save your breath for lifting rocks.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you always make heat for the snake?\" continued Daemen, looking at Rheba. \"If you make heat, why don't you warm the tunnel? It's cold enough in here to make a stone shiver.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She can't make heat from nothing,\" snapped Kirtn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When there's no external source of energy, she has to use her own body. If you're cold, work more and talk less.\"\n\nDaemen was too busy trying to figure out his companions' peculiar biologies to be insulted. He smiled at Rheba, a smile that could warm the coldest of Deva's hells." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you need energy, I'd be delighted to share mine.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn snarled soundlessly and attacked the remaining barrier. Rocks skidded down the tunnel, narrowly missing The Luck. Fssa whistled a protest—not at the barrage, but at Kirtn's reckless disregard for the barrier's stability." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn ignored the snake's warning and continued moving rocks at a dangerous pace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fssa protested again, then realized what any Senyas would have known: An angry Bre'n listens to nothing but his own rage unfolding. The Fssireeme wasted no more time carping. He braced part of himself on the tunnel floor and probed the rockfall with a burst of energy that made Rheba stagger and grab her temples." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She turned in startled protest just as the front part of the tunnel shifted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn whistled shrilly. The Bre'n warning needed no translation. Daemen grabbed Rheba and yanked her out of Kirtn's burrow before she could protest.\n\n\"Kirtn!\" she screamed, looking over her shoulder where rocks shifted and slid coldly over one another." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You can't go back!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "said Daemen, struggling to hold her. \"The rest of the tunnel could go any second!\"\n\nShe looked at him with eyes that were blind with fire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He released her a split second before she would have burned his hands to the bone. She turned and dove into what remained of the tunnel. Her frantic whistle cut through the random sounds of settling rocks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fssa answered with an odd whistle, so thin that it almost could not bear the weight of Bre'n complexity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is Kirtn—are you—?\" Her whistles were ragged, breathless." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn groaned. She heard rocks shifting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fssa whistled again, the sound still flat. She moved rocks frantically. The tunnel had only partially collapsed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Within minutes, she had cleared enough debris to reach Kirtn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Kirtn?\" she whistled, peering through the dust. She coughed and whistled again. Even when she stepped up the power of her light, she could not penetrate the darkness enough to see her Bre'n." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She felt around with her fingers, searching for the warmth and resilience of Kirtn's flesh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What she found was a smooth, cold sheet between herself and whatever lay at the end of the tunnel. \"Fssa?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A strained whistle answered, sound without meaning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She realized that she was touching the Fssireeme . . . and that he was cold. When she tried to give him fire, her lines only flickered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Like her friends, she was near the end of her strength." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She would have taken Daemen's energy if she could, but only a Bre'n could establish the necessary rapport.\n\nDeliberately she slowed her breathing, murmuring akhenet litanies until her heart stopped pounding messages of fear through her body. She built a shell of tranquillity around herself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wrapped in its shelter, wholly focused, she called on her Inmost Fire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The call was an emergency measure taught to all dancers, a state almost like Bre'n rez. It was so dangerous to the dancer that it was rarely used.\n\nFire beat in her veins like another kind of blood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her body turned on itself, consuming reserves of fat and flesh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Energy poured into the Fssireeme. With a soundless cry he soaked up life itself.\n\nBeneath him, shielded by Fssireeme flesh, Kirtn groaned and woke to darkness and pain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For a moment he did not know where he was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he remembered, he groaned again. He felt around himself, expecting to find the dimensions of his tomb. What he found was Fssireeme, a canopy of incredible flesh between himself and the rockfall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And then he sensed energy flowing, fire-dancer energy, Rheba pouring herself into Fssa so that her Bre'n would not be buried alive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Kirtn?\" Fssa's whistle was odd, but understandable.\n\n\"I'm here, snake,\" said Kirtn. \"Which way is out?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Dig in front of your head. It isn't far,\" he added." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn burrowed like a cherf, taking debris from ahead and shoving it back along either side until he could force his body forward. Fssa stretched with him, a protective membrane. Kirtn bunched his shoulders, using his hands as clubs to batter out of the rockfall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Light came in like an explosion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A triumphant whistle carried back into the tunnel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He pulled himself out into Daemen's thin daylight, but it seemed as thick as cream after the tunnel's midnight.\n\n\"Can Rheba—get through?\" he asked, panting.\n\n\"She's very weak,\" whistled Fssa, ashamed that he had caused it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn threw himself back into the burrow. When he found Rheba, he hauled her unceremoniously into the open. He buried his hands in her lifeless hair, forcing rapport as only a Bre'n could." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Skillfully, he gave her some of his own energy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a moment she sighed and awakened.\n\nDaemen emerged from the burrow covered in grit. He laughed and stretched as though to hold the sun in his hands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Seurs were wrong!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he said exultantly. \"I am Good Luck incarnate!\"\n\nThe burrow collapsed with a grinding sound as Fssa slithered into the light. \"I hope so,\" he said sourly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We're too tired to fight.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Fight?\" asked Daemen, confused.\n\nWith a sinking feeling, Kirtn turned and looked over his shoulder.\n\nTen Daemenites stood nearby, watching with predatory intensity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were armed with knives and slingshots powerful enough to smash bone." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn glared at Daemen and wished he had spaced the unlucky cherf when he had the chance." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding two sentences in the scifi, romance genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Daemen turned toward the ten people and spoke rapidly. Fssa translated, but manipulated his voice so that only Kirtn could hear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm The Daemen,\" he said, walking confidently toward the waiting people." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you Square One Seurs?\"\n\nThe people muttered among themselves, but their lowered voices could not elude a Fssireeme's sensitive hearing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rheba scooped up the snake and stood very close to Kirtn. Fssa vanished into her hair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His voice remained behind, seeming to form out of the very air between her and the Bre'n.\n\n\". . . Luck? . . . told me that trouble was coming,\" said a woman with startling red hair and skin as black as the tunnel had been." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You can't trust the Voice. Sometimes it . . .\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "retorted a man with luxuriant silver fur on his arms and face, and eyes of a startling pink." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Have you considered the possibility of . . .\" cut in a woman whose skin alternated between brown and gold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fssa made a frustrated noise. His hearing was too good." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It picked up overlapping sounds, making little sense of the group's muttering." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Their dialect was different from Centrins' speech." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was not different enough to require learning the language all over, but enough to make translating group babble impossible.\n\nKirtn and Rheba listened without appearing to." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Daemen made no attempt to hide his curiosity. He seemed a bit piqued that they had not responded to The Luck's presence with more appreciation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you Seurs?\" he demanded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We're Scavengers,\" said the red-haired woman proudly.\n\n\"That's close enough,\" answered Daemen, smiling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you the leader, First Scavenger, or whatever you call it?\"\n\n\"Super Scavenger,\" said the woman." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No . . . not yet.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked at Kirtn and Rheba possessively. \"But when I return with those two, Ghun will be back on scout.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She squinted at Daemen. \"The Luck, eh? That should be worth a few extra points.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Daemen took a moment to digest the implications of the woman's odd words. \"Is Ghun the Super Scavenger?\" he asked hesitantly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Only until I get back with the three of you,\" the woman said, nodding her head emphatically." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then I'll be Super Scavenger. Unless—\" She leaned forward and looked anxiously along the cliff face where the tunnel had emerged. \"You Seurs have any more of those holes?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No. That's the only mover that still works.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The word \"mover\" was obviously unfamiliar to the woman. She squinted at Daemen, then moved her shoulders as though to shake off doubts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then no other scouts are going to come back with more Treats?\"\n\n\"Treats?\" Daemen's tone was as perplexed as his expression." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Treats,\" agreed the woman." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then she realized that Daemen did not know what she was talking about. \"They must do things different on the other end of that hole. Around here, strange things are called Treats. The Scavenger who brings in the best Treats is the Super Scavenger until the next Hunt. But we haven't seen anything like those two. Ever. So I should be Super Scavenger for a long time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ahh . . . excuse me,\" said Daemen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He turned toward Rheba and Kirtn and switched to Universal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Apparently they play some kind of elaborate game here. Scavenger Hunt. Whoever brings in the strangest thing becomes the Super Scavenger until the next Hunt.\"\n\nKirtn and Rheba made encouraging noises." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We,\" continued Daemen, \"are very strange. Therefore, we'll be the winning Treats.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn did not like the idea of being anyone's Treat. \"What happens to the Treats after the Hunt?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Daemen hesitated. \"Excuse me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turned back to the red-haired woman. \"What do you do with your Treats?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stared at him, unable to believe that even a stranger could be so ignorant. \"We give them to God, of course.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You give them to God. Of course.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A glazed look came to Daemen's eyes. Then, loudly, \"What in the name of other does that mean?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The people around the red-haired woman grabbed their weapons." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She made a cutting gesture with her hand. They let go of their whips and slingshots, but fondled their knives with disturbing intensity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't shout, boy,\" she said calmly. \"Makes them nervous. If they get too nervous, they'll forget that a dead Treat isn't much better than a stone, far as God's concerned.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your God likes Treats alive?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're learning,\" she said, patting his arm. \"An unwilling Treat is fewer points. A lot fewer.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fewer points,\" said Daemen helplessly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn looked at Rheba and shrugged." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If Daemen was going to handle the questioning, they would be a long time learning anything useful. For a graduate of Loo's slave Pit, The Luck was remarkably innocent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fssa, translate without showing yourself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Fssireeme hissed and changed shape within Rheba's hair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As Kirtn spoke, the snake translated so quickly that it was like speaking and understanding the language yourself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fssa even duplicated the voice of whoever was speaking at the time.\n\n\"Can this Treat slide a few words in?\" asked Kirtn." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Daemen stared at the Bre'n who seemed to be speaking flawless Daemenite." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With a hurt look, he turned to Rheba. She smiled reassuringly.\n\nThe red-haired scout leader waited." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Every time she looked at the big Bre'n with the odd copper skin-fur, she smiled possessively." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A very big Treat indeed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What does your God do with Treats?\" asked Kirtn reasonably." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It loves them. All zoolipts love Treats.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn was tempted to ask how a zoolipt—whatever that was—loved its Treats, but he was afraid the woman would have an answer for that, too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Does being . . . loved . . . by a God-zoolipt hurt?\"\n\n\"Not if you're willing.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The same could be said of rape,\" Rheba observed acidly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fssa refrained from translating her comment. He had learned on Loo that a translator had better be a diplomat, too." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What happens after this love feast?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "asked Kirtn, straining to keep his voice down.\n\n\"Good eats for everyone,\" said the woman enthusiastically." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fat times and fancy flavors.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"For everyone? Even the Treats?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Willing Treats,\" corrected the woman.\n\n\"What happens to the willing Treats after the feast?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Same as everyone else. We eat, drink and fall in a shaval pile. We keep doing that until God gets bored. Then we have another Hunt.\"\n\n\"Bored? Your God gets bored?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The woman took on a long-suffering look." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You said a truth, Treat.\"\n\nKirtn looked at Daemen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't know any more about these barbarians than you do,'* said The Luck in Universal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not about their personal habits, anyway. Once we get inside their Installation, I'll find some new technology, then go back to the tunnel and make a mover. Once the Seurs see what I have, they'll be glad to take us back. Then these creatures can eat themselves into a coma for all I care.\"\n\n\"Right,\" said Kirtn in sarcastic Universal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You just stroll into the Installation, technology drops into your hands and we're home free.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Right,\" said Daemen.\n\n\"You're a stupid, arrogant—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kirtn!\" said Rheba, horrified." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Bre'n shrugged. Calling Daemen names would not help." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the other hand, it would feel good.\n\n\"I'm not stupid,\" began Daemen hotly, \"and I'm not arrogant either! I'm The Luck!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Bad luck,\" snapped Kirtn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Daemen stared, too shocked to be angry. \"But we survived! For thousands of years Seurs have tried to reach Square One. We walked over their bones—and we survived. Do you call that bad?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn looked at his exhausted fire dancer and his own bloody hands. He sighed. \"No, that's not bad. And this,\" he continued, staring at the group of Daemenites, \"isn't good. I don't know about here, but where I came from we ate treats.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Daemen's laugh was as beguiling as a Bre'n whistle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't worry. Good Luck is with you. Whatever happens can't be bad.\"\n\n\"What are you yammering about?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "demanded the woman, obviously tired of listening to noises she did not understand. *" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn smiled lopsidedly at her. \"He was just reminding me that he's Good Luck.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good for him,\" she answered, unimpressed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And for his companions—I hope,\" muttered the Bre'n. He drew a breath so deep it made his ribs ache." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sighed again. \"We're willing Treats. Now what?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Daemenites looked at the Bre'n, then at each other. They broke into cheers and mutual congratulations." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Daemen listened to the excited babble." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He smiled triumphantly at Kirtn. \"See? There's nothing to be afraid of. Apparently willing Treats are very rare, and therefore very prized. They'll take good care of us.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Maybe the unwilling Treats knew something we don't,\" retorted Kirtn." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For a moment Daemen looked uncertain, then his faith in his own Luck reasserted itself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We survived,\" he said, as though that answered all questions.\n\nAnd, the Bre'n silently admitted to himself, maybe it did." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Daemenites stopped congratulating themselves long enough to surround the three Treats." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The red-haired woman grinned at them. \"Call me Super Scuvee. Everyone else will in a few days.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rheba's hair fluffed out as Fssa made a flatulent noise. The snake, however, had the good sense to make it seem that the sound issued from a Daemenite." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Scuvee whirled and glared, but had only protestations of innocence from her followers. With a final cold look around, she led the party away from the cliff face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They followed a dim trail through an area of gray-blue rocks and drifts of gold that could have been dust." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rheba and Kirtn looked around, memorizing their route. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a quick dart of movement." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What's that?\" she asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Instantly, every Daemenite was alert. Then Scuvee laughed. \"Just a runner. They're only worth a few points. Not much of a Treat,\" she added." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A flyer, now, is pretty good. Lots of points. A real trick to catch them, too.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The silver-furred man looked at the point where the runner had disappeared. \"You sure we don't need it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"With the Treats we already have?\" she retorted, laughing. \"We'll be three days just adding up their points!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yeah,\" agreed the man slowly, but he still looked at the gold drift that had swallowed up the runner." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Seems a waste. There's been more than one Hunt when we'd have been glad to take even a dead runner back.\"\n\n\"Skinny times are over,\" Scuvee said, smacking the man on his shoulder with her fist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fat times and fancy flavors!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Fat times and fancy flavors!\" roared the rest of the Scavengers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Apparently the phrase was a local shibboleth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Kirtn,\" murmured Rheba in Senyas. \"They have animals here. Centrins only had rocks.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And Seurs.\" Kirtn looked around." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wonder why animals survived here and not there?\"\n\nA gold drift curved across the trail." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As Kirtn walked through it, a haunting fragrance filled his nostrils." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He bent over and grabbed a handful of the dust." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was cool and silky to the touch, clinging to his skin in golden clouds of fragrance. He had an impulse to lie down and wallow in the drift, covering himself with its incredible, sensual fragrance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Smell this,\" he said, holding out a handful of gold dust to her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She inhaled and made a sound of pleasure. Akhenet lines pulsed as she responded to fragrance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was almost aphrodisiac in its intensity. She looked up at Kirtn, eyes lambent with promises." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Scuvee watched, grinning. \"Well, you may be different, but you're still human. The last time we really pleased God, it gave us shaval,\" she said, gesturing toward the golden drifts that curled across low spots in the land. Her grin increased." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can hardly wait to see what we get this time. Should be enough to make a rock shout.\"\n\n\"Your God gave you this?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "asked Rheba, smiling dreamily. \"That would be enough to make me take up religion.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Daemen dipped his finger in the dust, sniffed cautiously, then looked thoughtful. \"How did you make this?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can't you hear?\" snapped Scuvee." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"God gave it to us.\"\n\n\"How did you get your zoolipt—your God or whatever you call it—to make this for you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Scuvee looked at Daemen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Slowly her face settled into the lines of one who is being patient with a particularly backward child. \"As I said, boy. We fed it a really good Treat.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What was it?\" asked Kirtn, curious.\n\nScuvee sighed. \"Wish I knew. It was so long ago even God forgot.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If I could find out how to make this,\" said Daemen in excited Universal, \"the Seurs would have to call me Luck.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turned back to Scuvee and spoke Daemenite. \"Does your God live with you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where else would it live?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, over the mountain, across the sea, in the sky,\" said Daemen, remembering just a few of the religions he had encountered on Loo. \"On another planet, maybe.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What good would it be to have a God that lived somewhere else?\" asked Scuvee, perplexed.\n\n\"Does your God live in the Installation?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Daemen asked hurriedly, not wanting to argue religious niceties with a woman who did not even know the value of Luck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What's the Installation?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The building that's all colors and never needs repairs.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, you mean God's House. Sure, where else would God live?\"\n\nDaemen threw a despairing look in the direction of his friends." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kirtn almost felt sorry for him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Scuvee had a death grip on reality that would not be weakened by nuances of any kind.\n\n\"Are outsiders allowed to . ah . . . worship in God's House?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "asked Kirtn, guessing the point of Daemen's interrogation. Any technology to be found would be found in the Installation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If the Installation was sacred, getting into it could be difficult." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Outsiders? Worship?\" Scuvee looked from Kirtn to Daemen and back. \"You don't make any more sense than he does. What do you mean, worship!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirtn tried to think of words she would understand. Fssa spoke for him, in tones that resonated with contempt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can we get inside God's House?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Scuvee's face cleared. \"Why sure, Treat. Glad to hear you're so eager. You really told a truth when you said you were willing.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She patted Kirtn's chest approvingly. \"Such a big Treat, too. I can't wait for the shaval pile.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rheba's hair stirred, crackling with the beginning of anger. \"Then you won't mind if we go in God's House?\" she snapped." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Mind? Listen, pretty Treat, you can go in God's House anytime you like, anytime at all. In fact\"—she leaned forward, smiling—\"I'll knife anyone who tries to keep you out.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked around her group triumphantly. \"Willing Treats!\" she crowed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fat times and fancy flavors!\" they shouted back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Daemenites turned eagerly back to the trail. Kirtn and Rheba moved with less alacrity." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "The user will write a bit then you need to write around five sentences continuing directly from the user's text. Try to stick to the romance, nsfw, chick lit genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mac held one end of a big sheet of plywood while Luke anchored the other side. Big Mac drove in the nails that would secure the wood over the windows of the marina gift shop. Winterizing the marina took about three weeks after the last boat left on Columbus Day. This year, in addition to the regular routine of boarding up buildings and shutting down the gas tanks, they planned to replace a big portion of the rotting planks on the main dock.\n\nThe work was a good distraction, Mac thought, as he waited to hear from Maddie." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd been counting down to this day for weeks, since their adorable daughter arrived in the midst of Tropical Storm Hailey." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Longer than that, actually. The weeks Maddie had spent on bed rest had also been torturous.\n\nIt'd been so long since he'd had sex—full-on, real-deal sex—with his wife that Mac couldn't remember the last time. Their daughter was absolutely worth the sacrifice, but he was ready, more than ready, to get back to normal. Maddie was ready, too, if the fooling around they'd engaged in recently was any indication." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In fact, if they were any more ready, one of them might implode." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to keep his mind on his work and not on his plans for later.\n\n\"So listen,\" Luke said. \"I've been meaning to talk to you about this winter.\"\n\nGrateful for the diversion, Mac said, \"What about it?\"\n\n\"You know how the International Yacht Restoration School people came over from Newport to look at some of my work this summer?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sure do,\" Big Mac said, tugging the last of the nails from between his teeth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mac kept waiting for him to swallow one of them, but he'd learned to keep his thoughts about such things to himself.\n\n\"They want me to teach a class in January. I'd have to spend the whole month over there, but I could come back on weekends to help out on the hotel project. If I do it, that is. Nothing's been decided.\"\n\nMac tried to hide his surprise from his friend and business partner. Their construction business had a lot on its plate for the off-season, including the renovations to the Sand & Surf, a couple of kitchen upgrades and the possibility of the houses Maddie had suggested for the parcel of land left to the town by one of its most affluent residents. Losing Luke for a month would make it nearly impossible to get it all done before the spring." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know we've got a lot lined up for the winter,\" Luke said, seeming to read Mac's mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So I can take a pass, if need be.\"\n\n\"Don't be crazy,\" Mac said. \"It's an amazing opportunity. You have to do it. We'll get by without you.\" Somehow.\n\n\"I could help out,\" Big Mac said.\n\n\"If you feel up to it, Dad.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Big Mac's scowl answered for him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm back to normal after the accident, so you can quit your mollycoddling.\"\n\n\"Who's mollycoddling?\" Mac asked, glancing at Luke, who shrugged. \"Looks to me like you're pulling your weight just fine.\"\n\n\"Luke, for what it's worth,\" Big Mac said, \"I think you should take this offer from IYRS. It's great to see you recognized for your amazing talent. I, for one, am very proud of you.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" Luke said, seeming embarrassed by Big Mac's effusiveness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mac knew how he felt, having been on the receiving end of his father's effusiveness often enough." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still, it pleased him to know that his father had not only raised five children of his own but had been a huge influence in the lives of Luke and Joe, both of whom had grown up without their fathers.\n\n\"What does Syd have to say about it?\" Mac asked.\n\n\"I haven't told her yet. I heard from them this morning, and I wanted to talk to you guys first. I'll tell her tonight.\"\n\n\"Do you think she'd go with you?\"\n\n\"I suppose it'll depend on whether she'll be able to continue to work on the hotel project with Laura. She's really enjoying that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Whatever you decide,\" Big Mac said, \"we're proud of you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Absolutely,\" Mac agreed.\n\n\"Thanks,\" Luke said. \"That means a lot to me.\"\n\n\"Excuse me,\" a female voice behind them said.\n\nMac turned to find a young woman with light brown hair pulled into a ponytail. The hairstyle made her look younger than she was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He guessed mid-to late-twenties." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She wore faded jeans and a rag wool sweater. \"Hi there. How can we help you?\"\n\n\"I'm looking for Mac McCarthy?\"\n\n\"That'd be me,\" he and his father said in stereo.\n\n\"Junior,\" Mac said, extending a hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Senior,\" Big Mac said, following suit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is our partner, Luke Harris.\"\n\n\"Nice to meet you all. I'm Kara Ballard, from Bar Harbor, Maine.\"\n\n\"Any relation to Ballard's Boat Builders?\" Big Mac asked.\n\nShe grimaced slightly, but Mac saw it. \"My family.\"\n\n\"Ah,\" Big Mac said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I love your picnic boats. Gorgeous.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Seriously,\" Luke said. \"Beautiful lines.\"\n\nKara seemed embarrassed by their praise. \"Thank you. They've done well for us.\" She cleared her throat. \"The reason I'm here is I'd like to discuss a business opportunity with you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sure,\" Big Mac said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let's get in out of this wind.\" He gestured for her to lead the way to the main building that housed the offices as well as the restaurant, which was now closed for the season.\n\nMac and Luke followed, and the four of them settled at one of the tables in the dining area.\n\nShe withdrew a brochure from her bag and opened it on the table. \"You may be aware that Ballard's runs launch services in some of the bigger harbors in New England. We're in Bar Harbor, of course, Newport, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Hyannis. We use a smaller version of the picnic boats to transport passengers from the anchorages into shore.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We sure could use something like that around here,\" Luke said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was hoping you'd say that,\" Kara said, smiling at him. \"My brothers oversee the other harbors. I've been tasked with setting up a launch service here on Gansett.\"\n\nBig Mac was counting on his fingers. \"You have five brothers?\"\n\nMac laughed at his father's question." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was just like him to hone in on a detail like that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kara smiled indulgently. \"Eight, actually, and two sisters.\"\n\n\"Wow,\" Luke said. \"Eleven kids?\"\n\n\"Those Maine winters are long and cold,\" Kara said with a spark of humor in her hazel eyes.\n\nThe comment drew a laugh from all three men.\n\n\"Are you oldest?\" Big Mac asked. \"Youngest?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Right in the middle. Number six. Anyway, we're in need of a landing place on Gansett. McCarthy's was our first choice.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She handed them each another piece of paper that included projections of how many people would come through the marina as a result of the launch service. \"You have the restaurant, laundry facilities, a well-stocked gift shop, showers and easy access to cab service into town.\"\n\n\"With the exception of the restaurant and gift shop, our facilities are for customers of our marina,\" Mac said as he studied the detailed projections. \"We'd need bigger restrooms and more laundry facilities if we'd be serving the full anchorage.\"\n\nHis father nodded in agreement." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We've been talking about making better use of the second-floor space above the restaurant,\" Luke said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Maybe we can build some additional bathrooms and put in some more washers and dryers up there.\"\n\n\"Before next season?\" Mac asked his friend and partner.\n\n\"We could do it,\" Luke said.\n\n\"What about IYRS?\"\n\n\"It'll still be there next year.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Luke—\" Once again, Mac and his dad spoke in stereo." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Luke held up a hand. \"We can talk about it later.\" To Kara, he said, \"Proceed. Please.\"\n\n\"We'd like to rent a forty-foot slip, preferably on the outside row, where we would keep two launches for the season, which would run from May 1 to October 31.\"\n\nMac did some fast math in his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A forty-foot slip, at three bucks a foot is one-twenty a day times a hundred and eighty days is—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Twenty-one thousand, six hundred,\" Kara finished for him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You've done your research,\" Big Mac said, impressed.\n\n\"Like I said, your marina is our first choice. It has everything we're looking for—and then some. We also like that it's a family-owned-and-run business like ours.\"\n\n\"It'd cost us time and money to adapt our facilities to the increased traffic,\" Mac reminded her.\n\n\"Which is why we're willing to pay more than the dockage fees the first year. We'd revisit the fee structure after the initial season.\"\n\n\"How much more?\" Mac asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Forty thousand total?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mac exchanged glances with his father and Luke. \"Forty-five,\" he said.\n\n\"Forty-two-five.\"\n\nHis father and Luke nodded.\n\n\"Done,\" Mac said, reaching out to shake on it.\n\nKara stared at him as she shook his hand. \"That's it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Laughing, Mac sat back in his chair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Were we too easy?\"\n\n\"No, no. I figured it would take a few days to hammer out the details.\"\n\n\"One thing you'll learn pretty quick about my boys and me,\" Big Mac said, \"is we don't dither over details. We know a good deal when we see one.\"\n\n\"He definitely doesn't dither over details,\" Mac said dryly. \"That's my job.\"\n\n\"No shit,\" Luke muttered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I heard that,\" Big Mac said, playfully scowling at Mac and Luke.\n\nMac's phone chimed with a text from Maddie that said, \"Green light.\" He got up so fast his chair fell over backwards. \"I gotta go.\"\n\n\"Where?\" his father asked.\n\n\"Home.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Now? Why? Is everything okay?\"\n\n\"Oh yeah. Everything is just fine. Kara, great to meet you. If you want to come back tomorrow, we can hammer out any additional details.\"\n\n\"Sure. I'm here for a week to get a feel for the island.\"\n\n\"Later,\" Mac said, bolting for the door. No doubt he'd catch flak from his dad and Luke for the way he'd run out of there when his wife summoned him, but so what?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd been waiting months for this moment, and nothing would stop him from going to her. Right now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laura had known this phone call wouldn't be easy, but it had to be done. Never before had the idea of calling her dad filled her with such anxiety. Even telling him what had happened with Justin had been easier than asking for his help in getting rid of her scumbag husband.\n\nIt had always been important that she maintain her independence and not let her prominent father's connections make life easier for her. But this was no time for foolish pride." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She needed to be free of Justin, and her dad could help." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Swallowing the knot of emotion that formed in her throat, Laura pressed send on the first number on her list of favorites.\n\n\"Hi, honey,\" he said. \"I was just thinking about you.\"\n\nLaura smiled, and her nerves melted away. Here was the one man who'd never let her down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had no reason to be nervous about asking him for anything." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd give her the sun and moon if he could. She heard the worry in his voice and hated being the cause of it. \"Is that right?\"\n\n\"I think about you all the time. After what Justin did…\"\n\n\"I know, Daddy. I'm sorry you're worried about me.\"\n\n\"My brother tells me you're working hard and enjoying the hotel project.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I love what I'm doing here. It's the most fun I've ever had.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of course Owen was a big part of why it was so fun, not that she was ready to tell her dad that part.\n\n\"Mac says you've made a new friend, too. The grandson of the hotel owners?\"\n\nLaura laughed. Leave it to her Uncle Mac to zero in on her burgeoning relationship with Owen. \"Yes, his name is Owen Lawry.\"\n\n\"Do you need me to run a check on him? I can get one of my state police friends to—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, Dad!\" she said, laughing again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Uncle Mac and Aunt Linda have known him since he was a kid. He's Evan's best friend.\"\n\n\"Well, I suppose that's as good an endorsement as we could hope to get.\" He paused, cleared his throat. \"So, you like this boy, huh?\" The question was poised in the same awkward fashion he'd used to extract information about her first teenage boyfriend." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes,\" Laura said, amused by him as always." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I like him. He's been a very good friend to me through all of this.\"\n\n\"I'm glad to hear you're making new friends and putting the pieces back together.\"\n\n\"I'm trying.\"\n\n\"I wish I could say the same for your brother. He seems to have totally given up.\"\n\nLaura hated to think of Shane's terrible heartache over his wife's addiction to prescription pain medication. \"What's the latest?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Courtney asked for a divorce.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Laura winced. \"That might be for the best, no?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Try telling him that. He's waited all this time for her to get through rehab, and now she wants out.\"\n\n\"Did she say why?\"\n\n\"He says she's so ashamed of what she put him through that she can barely bring herself to look at him.\"\n\nLaura's heart ached for her poor, sweet brother. He'd fallen so hard and so fast for Courtney, who'd hidden a raging addiction from him for more than a year before it blew up in her face—and his." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What will he do?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Once he finishes the job he's working on now, he's going out there to be with you for the winter. I think it'll be good for him to get some space from everything here and clear his head.\"\n\n\"We'll take good care of him. Don't worry.\"\n\n\"All I do these days is worry about both of you.\"\n\n\"I'm okay, Dad. I promise. But I do need a favor.\"\n\n\"Name it, honey.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have to tell Justin about the baby.\" It hurt to say the words. She was so utterly unprepared to see her philandering ex-husband again, but Owen was right. Justin deserved to know about the baby. \"I expect he's going to give me a hard time. The more I think about everything that happened, it's clear to me that he was far more interested in forming a connection to you than he was in me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Frank gasped. \"That's not true! He was crazy about you. I saw that with my own eyes, which is why this is so hard to believe.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You saw what he wanted you to see. He played us both.\"\n\n\"Why would he do such a thing?\"\n\n\"Why else? To further his career, which is his first love. Being Judge Frank McCarthy's son-in-law furthers his career, which is the only reason he's fighting the divorce.\"\n\n\"That makes me sick. You don't think he'll want the baby?\"\n\n\"I don't know what to expect there.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The uncertainty terrified her, not that she would admit that to her dad and give him one more thing to fret about." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Since her mother died when Laura was nine and Shane was seven, her dad had been both mother and father to them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What can I do, honey?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm coming over this week to speak to Justin. Would you mind terribly if I threw your name around a bit if it comes to that?\"\n\n\"Of course not. Do whatever it takes to get that pond scum out of your life for good.\"\n\n\"He's going to be in my life for as long as we share a child.\" The thought of that was a hundred-pound weight on Laura's chest.\n\n\"I don't want you to see him alone.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Owen will be with me.\" Laura knew without even asking that Owen would go with her.\n\n\"Are you sure that's a good idea? Won't it throw gas on Justin's fire if he sees you with someone else?\"\n\n\"Owen will keep his distance unless I need him.\"\n\n\"If that son of a bitch has the nerve to get physical with you, I'll kill him myself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It won't come to that. I'll meet him in public. He's far too concerned about what people think of him to risk a scene.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Will you come see me while you're here?\"\n\n\"Absolutely.\"\n\n\"I want to meet your Owen, too.\"\n\nLaura's face heated with embarrassment. \"He's hardly my Owen.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll be the judge of that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laura laughed at his pun. \"You'd better behave, do you hear me?\"\n\n\"So I can't ask his intentions?\"\n\n\"Dad!\"\n\nFrank's guffaw brought a smile to Laura's face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll be on my best behavior,\" he said." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Love you, Dad,\" Laura said, her throat squeezing with emotion.\n\n\"Love you, too, sweetheart. Everything will be okay. I promise.\"\n\nSince her dad had never once let her down, Laura chose to believe him." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Hey can you write in the romance, nsfw, chick lit genre and use whatever I write as a jumping off point?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It took a couple of hours to work up the nerve before Laura sent Justin a text, asking if he could meet her at six on Friday at his favorite Providence restaurant. She said only that she needed to talk to him about something. Her hands were clammy by the time she sent the message. Placing the phone on her bedside table, she went into the bathroom to brush her hair and freshen up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The phone chimed to indicate a new text." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her mouth went dry with anxiety when she picked it up to see what he had said. One word: Fine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well,\" she said. \"That's that.\" She rested a hand on the still-small baby bump and was rewarded with a ripple of movement that made her smile. The baby's tiny movements reminded Laura that her brief marriage hadn't been a total loss.\n\nShe went downstairs to see what Owen was up to and found him in the kitchen, standing watch over a pot on the stove." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That smells amazing! What did you make?\"\n\n\"Sauce from scratch,\" he said proudly, lifting the lid for her to take a whiff. \"My grandmother's recipe.\"\n\nThe combined aromas of garlic, basil and oregano had her taste buds standing up to take notice. \"My mouth is watering,\" she said as she slipped onto a stool at the counter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The review earned her a big grin from the chef." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have to boil the pasta, and then we can eat.\"\n\nThey'd fallen into the habit of having dinner together every night. They took turns cooking, and some nights they went out, but it had become a standing date. One of the things she liked best about being with him was that it was easy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Neither of them had ever said the words, let's have dinner every night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It just happened. Everything with him was comfortable, except for one thing—the itchy, restless feeling that came with unfulfilled desire." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If she looked at him, she wanted him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was that simple. But then she remembered what he wanted—a life free of encumbrances, which made her wonder why he'd want to get involved with her and her many encumbrances. She shook off those unpleasant thoughts. It was better not to think about the inevitable day when the freedom of the open road would beckon him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She cleared her throat. \"I didn't know you could cook like that.\"\n\n\"Neither did I. Don't get too excited until you try it. It might taste like crap.\"\n\n\"If it tastes anything like it smells, we've got a winner. Do you like to cook?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I haven't really had much chance, being on the road so much. I used to make a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches and pizza and stuff like that for my siblings, but I haven't done much cooking since then.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Since he so rarely spoke about his family or childhood, Laura was intrigued by the insight he'd shared. \"Why were you cooking for them?\"\n\n\"My parents were busy. They were out a lot, and I was in charge of the troops.\"\n\n\"How old were you then?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't know. Twelve, maybe.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You were twelve years old in charge of six younger siblings?\"\n\n\"Yeah, I guess.\"\n\n\"No wonder why you're so good at taking care of me.\"\n\n\"Am I good at taking care of you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You know you are.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He poured the lemon-flavored sparkling water she favored into a wineglass and put it in front of her.\n\nLaura smiled up at him. \"Exhibit A.\"\n\nShrugging, he said, \"Close your eyes and pretend it's chardonnay.\"\n\nHe was so adorable and so effortlessly charming." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It never failed to touch her that he took such good care of her, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was always one step ahead of her, thinking of what she might need before she knew she needed it. A girl could fall madly, deeply and irrevocably in love with a guy who paid that kind of attention to her.\n\n\"What're you thinking about, Princess?\" He puckered his lips in a mockingly serious expression that was so far out of character for him it made her laugh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Because she couldn't very well scare the hell out of him by telling him she was thinking about falling irrevocably in love with him, she said, \"Nothing much.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did you talk to your dad?\"\n\nShe nodded. \"He said to feel free to toss his name around with Justin. I hope it doesn't come to that.\" She looked up at Owen. \"I'm meeting Justin on Friday at six in Providence.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We'll take the three-thirty boat. I'll make a reservation for the car.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laura was filled with relief. She hadn't even had to ask him. \"You know you don't have to come.\"\n\n\"Yes, I do.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her heart began to do that odd pitter-patter thing that often happened in his presence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When it first started happening, she'd chalked it up to pregnancy. Now she knew it had nothing to do with pregnancy and everything to do with him.\n\nHe put down the spoon he'd been using to stir the pot and wiped his hands on the towel he'd tossed over his shoulder. When he was satisfied that his hands were clean, he used them to frame her face, compelling her to look up at him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know I have absolutely no right to say this, but I don't want you to see him by yourself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You have every right to say anything you want to me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In an attempt at levity, she added, \"I'd say you earned it after scraping me off the bathroom floor every morning for weeks.\"\n\n\"Which was entirely my pleasure.\"\n\n\"You're easy to please.\"\n\n\"You make it easy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He stared into her eyes for a long, breathless moment as a hectic band of color slashed his cheeks, letting her know she wasn't the only one tormented by the attraction zinging between them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he looked at her in that particular way, Laura's mind went blank, taking with it all the reasons this was a bad idea. She reached up to link her fingers on the back of his neck, drawing him down to her.\n\n\"Laura…\"\n\nAs she pressed her lips to his, she realized this was the first time she'd ever reached out and taken what she wanted from a man." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And oh, how she wanted this man." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The kiss was chaste and sweet and even hotter than it had been earlier, which was saying something. When he would've pulled back from her, she tightened her hold on him. Their eyes met and held. He looked as undone as she felt, which was strangely comforting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tipping his head ever so slightly, he kissed her again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This time, he slid an arm around her waist and drew her tight against him.\n\nLaura melted as his nearness set off a riot of reactions that registered in all the most important places.\n\nHe brushed at her bottom lip with his tongue, coaxing his way into her mouth.\n\nThe moment their tongues connected, Laura forgot who she was, where she was and why this could lead to disaster if he suddenly decided he wanted to be somewhere else." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She couldn't get enough, no matter how tightly she held him or how enthusiastically she met the thrusts of his tongue with her own answering strokes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A growl rumbled through him that threw gas on her already out-of-control fire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her fingers burrowed into his hair and held on tight. In the far recesses of her mind where sanity lived, she wondered if she might be hurting him. Even farther off in the distance, she thought she heard someone call her name. Because investigating would mean stepping away from the most incendiary kiss of her life, Laura ignored it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Um, oh, sorry,\" the voice said, closer now.\n\nLaura tore her lips free and turned to find her friend Stephanie standing in the doorway to the kitchen. Her face was bright red with embarrassment.\n\nOwen kept his arms firmly around Laura and buried his face in the curve of her neck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His lips and breath sent a delightful array of shivers skirting over her sensitized skin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I brought the, um, book I told you about,\" Stephanie said as she put the book on the counter, \"but I can see you're busy, so I'll be going now.\" She backed away from the doorway, flashed Laura a big grin along with a thumbs-up and was gone.\n\n\"That was embarrassing,\" Laura said.\n\nAs if she hadn't spoken, Owen raised his head, gazed into her eyes and kissed her again, softer this time but with no less urgency." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reaching behind him, he killed the flames under the pots." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laura waited breathlessly to see what he would do next.\n\nWith his hands on her hips, he lifted her onto the counter, stepped between her legs and pulled her in tight against him.\n\nWhen his erection snuggled into the V of her legs, Laura gasped and pushed against him. And then his hands were cupping her breasts, his thumbs sliding back and forth over her nipples that were feverishly sensitive thanks to the pregnancy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Owen,\" she said.\n\n\"Hmm?\" His lips were busy on her neck, making her mind go blank again.\n\n\"I forgot what I was going to say.\"\n\nHe let out an unsteady laugh and pressed her hand against the hard bulge in his shorts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's what happens every time I lay eyes on you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Punctuating his words with kisses, he added, \"Every. Single. Time.\"\n\nTouched by his gruffly spoken words, Laura took advantage of the opportunity to explore the length and width of him, swallowing as he got bigger and harder under her hand. Since he was so tall and broad-shouldered, she wasn't surprised to discover he was big there, too. When she thought about how he would feel inside her, she shivered in anticipation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she squeezed him gently, his head fell back and his fingers dug into her shoulders." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Until today, you never told me you wanted me like this,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, I did.\"\n\n\"When?\" she asked, continuing to stroke and caress him.\n\n\"When the last ferry left on Monday without me on it. Didn't that say it all?\"\n\n\"I suppose that did make a statement.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stopped the movement of her hand. \"No more of that.\"\n\n\"Why? I quite like it.\"\n\n\"I quite like it, too. Far too much.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He brought her hands to his shoulders. \"Keep them there.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laura's heart pounded as she waited to see what he would do. She noted the slight tremble of his hands as he unbuttoned her shirt and pushed it open. Her enhanced pregnancy breasts overflowed the cups of her white cotton bra, making her face heat with embarrassment. \"I keep meaning to buy bigger bras.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't,\" he said, his voice hoarse as he lowered his head and pressed his face into the valley between her breasts. \"You're so sexy.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laura arched her back, encouraging him.\n\nHe released the front clasp, and her breasts sprang free into his waiting hands. \"Oh God, you're gorgeous.\"\n\nBefore she had time to prepare, his mouth was feasting on her nipple, hot and hungry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She clutched his hair, which was the only thing that kept her from sliding off the counter into a boneless pile on the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How many days until Friday?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he asked, his lips vibrating against her breast.\n\nThe question made her laugh, nervously. He was putting her on notice that the minute Justin knew about the baby, their relationship would shift to the next level. \"Three.\"\n\nHe turned his attention to her other breast." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm not going to make it.\"\n\nLaura's stomach chose that moment to let out a keening growl.\n\n\"Shit,\" he muttered. \"I'm pawing you like a madman, and you're probably starving.\" He dipped lower to press his lips to the tiny baby bump." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Touched by his attention to the baby, Laura combed her fingers into his unruly hair, attempting to smooth and straighten.\n\nHe looked up at her, and the raw emotion she saw shining in his eyes was nearly her undoing. As she watched him pay homage to the child growing inside her, she realized that she no longer had to worry about the possibility of falling in love with him. It had already happened, probably quite some time ago as he was peeling her off the bathroom floor and making her tea and tending to her every need as if he'd been born to do exactly that." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With what seemed to be great reluctance, he stood up straight, tucked her breasts back into her bra and refastened the buttons on her top." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he was done, he rested his hands on her shoulders.\n\nLaura tipped her forehead against his chest, gathering herself. She couldn't let him see that she'd fallen for him. The last thing she wanted was to make him feel trapped." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If he felt trapped, he might run, and she really wanted him to stay." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More importantly, she wanted him to want to stay.\n\n\"Let's get you and the little guy fed,\" he said.\n\nGrant McCarthy was rarely intimidated, but Stephanie's stepfather, Charlie Grandchamp, intimidated the hell out of him. It had taken Grant days to work up the nerve to drive out to the small house Charlie had rented from the island's resident land baron/cab driver, Ned Saunders." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The media attention following Charlie's release from fourteen years of wrongful imprisonment had driven him to the island, seeking peace and quiet—and the chance to be closer to the stepdaughter who'd been so relentless in her efforts to get him released." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Grant parked the motorcycle he'd borrowed from his brother Mac in the yard and took a deep breath for courage before walking up to the open front door and knocking.\n\nNo answer.\n\nGreat. I finally make it out here, and he's not around. Spotting the other man's small pickup truck, Grant walked behind the house to the barn that served as a workshop and garage. \"Hey, Charlie?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"In here.\"\n\nGrant swallowed hard and stepped into the dusty space that smelled of dirt and mildew and other substances he didn't try too hard to identify. Charlie was bent over the workbench, sanding a block of wood. He was tall and muscular with a gray buzz cut and a piercing blue-eyed stare that Grant found unnerving—particularly since it was often directed his way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Um, how's it going?\"\n\n\"Fine.\"\n\nSince his release, Grant had learned his girlfriend's stepfather was a man of few words, especially where Grant was concerned.\n\n\"Something on your mind?\" Charlie asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ah, well, Stephanie, actually.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That got Charlie's attention. He spared Grant a brief glance before he returned his attention to the project on the bench. \"What about her?\"\n\n\"I, um, you know we've been together for a while now.\"\n\n\"Coupla months,\" Charlie said with a harsh chuckle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Does that count as a while these days?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Grant had no idea what to say to that. He decided to go with the truth. \"She has a lot of insecurities because of everything that happened when she was younger. We tend to argue, from time to time, and to me it's part of the fun of being with her. For her, though, it's upsetting. More than it should be. I've been thinking about how I could make her feel more secure. About me. About us.\"\n\n\"And what've you come up with?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'd like to ask her to marry me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Grant met that steely stare, determined not to blink." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He almost succeeded. \"Before you tell me why it's a terrible idea, let me assure you that we wouldn't get married right away. I want her to know I'm in it for keeps so she won't get that haunted look on her face whenever we disagree about something.\"\n\n\"I know that look.\"\n\nIt was the first thing Charlie had ever said to him that didn't make Grant feel like the guy hated him for being alive.\n\n\"What?\" Charlie asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you surprised I know what you're talking about? I looked at that face every week for years when she came to see me in prison, and that line between her brows tore me up as much as it tears you up.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With that one statement, he tripled the number of words he'd said to Grant in their brief acquaintance. Grant cleared his throat. \"I want her to know I'm not going anywhere without her. Not now. Not ever.\"\n\nCharlie ran the sandpaper back and forth over the block of wood while Grant stood twisting in the wind, waiting for the other man to say something." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Anything. Without looking at Grant, he finally said, \"You love her? Really, really love her?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yeah,\" Grant said. \"I really, really do.\"\n\n\"What if she decides she doesn't want to live here on the island? What if she wants to go home to Providence and open the restaurant she's always talked about?\"\n\nShe'd talked about a restaurant? To whom? Not to him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Stunned to hear that, Grant forced himself to focus." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We'll go to Providence, if that's what she wants. I can work anywhere.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His failed relationship with Abby had taught him that much. \"I want her to be happy.\"\n\n\"I want that, too. More than you know. She gave up a big chunk of her life trying to get my sorry ass sprung from jail.\"\n\n\"She'd do it again in a heartbeat. You know that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She's a good kid. She deserves better than what she got from her mother and me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"From her mother, maybe. You saved her life. I don't think she feels you owe her anything.\"\n\n\"I owe her everything,\" Charlie said, his eyes flashing with a rare show of emotion. \"She's the only one who gave a shit about whether I rotted in prison for the rest of my life. She deserves the whole world served up on a silver platter.\"\n\nA knot of emotion lodged in Grant's chest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He couldn't agree more. \"I want to give her that. If she'll let me.\"\n\n\"She'll fight you if you try to do too much for her.\"\n\n\"Believe me,\" Grant said with a shaky laugh, \"I already know that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He forced a deep breath into his lungs. \"Would I have your blessing?\"\n\n\"Does it matter so much to you that an ex-con approves?\"\n\n\"Yes, it matters. Very much so.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Charlie picked up a rag off the bench and wiped the dirt from his hands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll give you my blessing if you promise you'll always be good to her, put her needs before your own and be faithful to her. Can you do all that?\"\n\n\"Yes.\" He cleared his throat again. \"Sir.\"\n\n\"In that case…\" Charlie extended his hand to Grant.\n\nGrant shook his hand. \"Thank you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, Grant,\" Charlie said, calling him by name for the first time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you. I'll never have the words to properly thank you for what you did for me—and for Stephanie.\"\n\nOverwhelmed by Charlie's rare show of emotion, Grant said, \"All I did was make a few calls.\" Charlie's fortunes had changed dramatically when Grant asked his celebrity lawyer friend Dan Torrington to take on the case. A call to Grant's uncle, Superior Court Judge Frank McCarthy, had also helped the cause." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They were the right calls, and they made a huge difference.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Charlie shook his head in disbelief. \"I wake up every morning to the sound of the ocean and seagulls, and I still think I'm dreaming.\"\n\n\"I'm really glad it worked out—for your sake and Stephanie's.\" He paused before he added, \"When you're ready, I'd like to talk to you about the movie.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm not there yet.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Whenever. I'd better get back before Steph starts to wonder where I am.\"\n\n\"When will you propose?\"\n\n\"In the next few days. When the time is right.\"\n\nCharlie nodded. \"Good luck.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thanks. I'll see you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Grant walked back to the motorcycle, he picked over the conversation in amazement. It was, without a doubt, the most substantial conversation he'd ever had with Stephanie's stepfather, who'd seemed wary and suspicious of him from the day they met.\n\nHe was puzzled, however, about why Stephanie had never mentioned her dream to open her own restaurant. He'd have to find a way to bring that up." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "four sentences sentences. romance, nsfw, chick lit stuff." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Joe Cantrell got out of bed and moved carefully so he wouldn't disturb Janey, who had an hour yet before she needed to get up for class. She'd been exhausted lately, so much so that he was becoming concerned about her. In the kitchen, he started the coffee and took his cell phone off the charger, anxious to hear how his mother's date had gone the night before. He opened the back door to let their menagerie of special-needs dogs out, and found his mother's number on his list of favorites." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Carolina Cantrell had been married at nineteen, a mother at twenty and a widow at twenty-seven." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In all the years since Joe's father died in a car accident when he was seven, Joe had never known her to date—until last night. She'd finally given in and let one of her friends fix her up on a blind date. His mother had been ridiculously nervous when he spoke to her yesterday afternoon, and Joe had been anxious all night thinking about her out with some strange guy.\n\nHer long-time friend Karen had done the fixing up, so at least it was with someone trustworthy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Or so he hoped. As the phone rang several times, visions of axe murderers danced in his head.\n\nShe finally answered on the third ring. \"Hi, honey.\"\n\n\"What took so long?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he growled as his heart rate settled down to normal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her delicate laugh soothed and infuriated him. \"Are you imagining axe murders and other horrors?\"\n\nShe'd always known him far too well. \"Don't be ridiculous.\"\n\n\"Moi? Ridiculous?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fine. Whatever. I was worried. Call me crazy.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're very sweet, but you have nothing to worry about. He was a perfectly nice man, and we had a perfectly nice time.\"\n\n\"Sounds boring as hell.\"\n\n\"It was.\"\n\nJoe winced. \"Sorry. Are you disappointed?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hardly. You know me. I couldn't care less about all this foolishness. I had my great love. I'm not silly enough to expect lightning to strike twice.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Mom… Come on. You're only fifty-six. Don't talk like that.\"\n\n\"I know exactly how old I am, Joseph. Plenty old enough to know better than to walk around with girlish dreams. I had that once before. If that's all I ever get, it was more than enough.\"\n\nJoe hated when she talked like her life was already over—or the best part of it, anyway. Losing his father had so devastated her, they'd been forced to leave their home in New York City and move in with her parents on Gansett Island." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His grandparents' love had saved them both.\n\n\"Let's talk about something happier,\" she said. \"How's Janey?\"\n\n\"She's good. Tired, though. School is kicking her ass this semester.\"\n\n\"That doesn't sound like our Janey.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know. I'm kinda worried, actually. She's sleeping every chance she gets.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Carolina let loose with the delicate laugh that always reminded Joe of the sound wind chimes made.\n\n\"Why is that funny?\"\n\n\"Is there any chance she might be pregnant?\"\n\n\"What?\" Joe felt like he'd been hit with an electric cattle prod." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No. There's no chance she's pregnant.\"\n\n\"You say that like the two of you aren't going at it every chance you get.\"\n\n\"Mom!\"\n\n\"Oh, don't be a prude. I remember what it's like to be a newlywed, and I've seen you two together. You can barely keep your hands off her in a room full of people. It doesn't take much imagination to picture what goes on when you're alone.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is a very inappropriate conversation for a grown man to have with his mother.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Since when have we ever been appropriate?\"\n\nJoe laughed at that. She'd taught him every swear word and filthy joke she knew by the time he was ten. Thanks to her, he'd been the first boy in his class to know the ins and outs of sex, information he'd happily shared with his peers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Remember the phone call from the school?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "she asked, the merriment in her tone coming through the phone line.\n\n\"I was just thinking about that!\"\n\nThey shared a laugh, remembering. \"You were everyone's best friend that year.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, I was.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I thought Linda would burst a blood vessel when Mac brought the info home to his younger brothers,\" she said with another laugh. \"So is it possible your lovely wife is pregnant?\"\n\nJoe swallowed hard, imagining what Janey would have to say about being pregnant when she was only in her second year of veterinary school. \"I suppose it's possible. If she is, she's going to kill me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Now, darling, remind her it takes two to tango.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Joe felt a little ill at the thought of raising the topic of pregnancy with his wife, who was stressed out enough with a full course load. But the idea of a baby, their baby… That filled him with the kind of giddy hope he'd only experienced once before, when he and Janey were first together.\n\n\"You might want to think about buying a test,\" his mother said.\n\n\"I'll talk to her.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And, of course, I'll be the first to know if she is.\"\n\n\"Naturally.\"\n\n\"Don't let her kill you. I couldn't live without you.\"\n\n\"Don't worry. I think she loves me enough to let me live.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, she does. You're a lucky man.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Believe me, I know that. I've never been happier in my life. I want the same for you, too.\"\n\n\"That's very sweet of you, but you know I'm happy.\"\n\n\"You're content. That's not the same as happy. Trust me, I know.\"\n\n\"I've decided to spend the winter on the island,\" she said, clearly not interested in pursuing the subject of her happiness any further." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How come?\" She lived in Connecticut but still owned the ramshackle island house her parents had called home." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Other than the summer she'd spent in Tuscany the year he and Janey got together, she'd never missed a summer on Gansett but had given up on the winters after her parents passed away.\n\n\"Ever since I agreed to let Karen fix me up, all our friends want in on the game. I have no desire to be everyone's pet project. I'd rather go out to the island and get some work done.\" She designed jewelry and was happiest when she was hunkered down in her studio for hours on end.\n\n\"I hate to think of you out there all alone in the winter. Besides, there's only the one wood stove. You'll freeze your ass off.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He remembered sleeping near that woodstove on many a cold winter night as a child." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll be fine. I'll hardly be alone. I have plenty of friends still living there.\"\n\n\"I'll send Mac over to check on the stove and make sure the roof isn't leaking.\"\n\n\"You don't have to do that. He's busy with the new baby and his own family.\"\n\n\"I'm texting him the minute we hang up. Do me a favor when you get there and check in with Seamus. Make sure he's not running our business into the ground.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, I'd love to. He's such a sweetheart. You couldn't have hired a better steward to handle the ferries while you're in Ohio with Janey.\"\n\n\"He's been a godsend for sure, but he's full of big ideas on how we can grow the business. He exhausts me.\"\n\nCarolina laughed. \"You know you'll have to keep him on when you get back to the island. You'll break his heart if you let him go.\"\n\n\"I've already thought the same thing. It certainly doesn't suck to have someone competent to lean on so I can have a life, especially now.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You've worked like a madman running that business on your own for your entire adult life. If anyone has earned a break, it's you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thanks for that.\" She'd kept the books for years after his grandfather died, until Joe hired an accountant and freed her up to pursue her own passion. He'd retained her on the company's payroll and health insurance, however, a move that continued to be a point of contention between them. Since his grandfather had left the business to both of them, Joe wasn't budging on either of those things.\n\n\"How's the painting going?\" she asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Great. It's nice to have time to indulge, as you would say.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And your class? How's that working out?\"\n\n\"I love it,\" he said, still amazed that Janey had submitted an application for him to teach a first-year painting class at Ohio State and only told him about it when the school called about an interview.\n\n\"I bet you're a wonderful teacher.\"\n\n\"I don't know about that. It's fun, though.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good. Well, I need to run and start packing. The more I think of spending the winter on the island, the more excited I get. It's been years since I've been out there in the off-season. It used to be my favorite time of year there.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I remember. We thought you were nuts.\"\n\n\"Sticks and stones, darling. Let me know how the pregnancy test works out.\"\n\n\"I will,\" Joe said with a sinking feeling. Janey wouldn't actually kill him, but he doubted she'd be thrilled to be pregnant with so much school still to go before she got her degree." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Owen came awake slowly, the sensual memories from the night before hitting him one after the other, each more exciting than the one before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laura was pressed against him, sleeping soundly in his arms. He hadn't planned to stay, but when she fell asleep, he hadn't wanted to disturb her.\n\nKeep telling yourself that, you opportunistic asshole. In truth, a team of mules and ten men couldn't have dragged him away from her lush softness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He took a quick inventory and realized her hand was tucked into the back of the jeans he'd left on out of sheer self-preservation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her leg was between his, and her baby bump was resting against his belly.\n\nThe baby chose that moment to let him know it was awake, and Owen was breathless as he felt the ripple of movement against his skin. The miracle of it, the miracle of her, of what had been decided between them, was almost too much for him to process. He'd laid himself bare to her in a way he'd never done with any other woman." }, { "from": "human", "value": "While he normally would've been embarrassed recalling the deeply personal thoughts he'd shared with her, he wasn't embarrassed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rather, he was exhilarated and relieved that she finally knew the full depths of his devotion to her.\n\nHe'd stopped short of telling her he loved her. He was saving that for after she resolved things with her estranged husband. There would be plenty of time after that obstacle was cleared for declarations of love." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unable to resist the opportunity to touch her, he ran his hand lightly over her back as he breathed in her sweet scent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he reached the waistband of her yoga pants, he hesitated for a second before letting his fingers venture the slightest bit inside. He stopped abruptly when he reached the top of one cheek, knowing if he went any farther he wouldn't be able to resist taking more.\n\nHe withdrew his hand, and was startled by a mewl of protest from her. Even though her eyes were still closed, she tilted her hips to press her core against him, and he went hard as stone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A hiss of desire and frustration escaped from his clenched teeth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't stop,\" she whispered, rubbing herself against him with increasing urgency." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Laura,\" he gasped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She took his hand and returned it to her lower back. \"Don't stop,\" she said again.\n\nDid she think he was made of stone? That he could be tempted this way and not act?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd tried to do the honorable thing by putting their relationship on hold until Justin knew about the baby, but she wasn't making it easy to remember his resolve." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her hand moved over his chest as she continued to push against him in an increasingly provocative rhythm that was making him crazier by the second." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because she'd asked so nicely—and so insistently—he pushed his hand into the back of her pants again, this time cupping a sweet cheek that fit perfectly into his large hand.\n\n\"Yes,\" she whispered, her breath hot against his neck. She tugged on the button to his jeans, unzipped him and had her hand wrapped around his straining member so quickly he didn't have time to protest—not that he would have.\n\nAs if it had a mind of its own, his hand delved into the cleft between her cheeks until he encountered slick heat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She moaned as he made contact with her clit and stroked him harder when he slid two fingers into her tight channel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she raised her face, seeking his mouth, he kissed her with an urgency he'd never experienced so acutely before, as if he would drown or suffocate or die some other miserable way if she didn't save him. Tongues clashed and battled as the movement of their hands became more desperate.\n\n\"Owen,\" she panted, moving her leg to give him better access. \"Owen…\" She came hard around his fingers, triggering his own almost violent release as weeks of longing poured forth in the most intense orgasm he'd ever experienced." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It left him panting and sweating and spinning as he came back down to find her watching him with bottomless blue eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wow,\" she said, looking rather satisfied with herself.\n\n\"Yeah. Wow.\" As much as it had been, it wasn't nearly enough. He wanted to be inside her so badly he closed his eyes and shuddered when the need grabbed him by the throat, refusing to let go until he'd had all of her. The next few days were going to be hell on earth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She caressed his face with her soft hand. \"Are you okay?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He nodded because he didn't trust himself to speak and having her touch him wasn't doing a thing to lessen the need. It only made it greater, if that was possible.\n\n\"You don't look okay.\"\n\nHe couldn't help but offer a small smile at the concern he heard in her voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Opening his eyes, he met her worried gaze. \"You demolished me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her eyes widened into an adorably innocent expression. \"I did?\"\n\n\"Totally.\"\n\n\"Is that a good thing?\"\n\n\"It was a very good thing. But it's left me wanting so much more.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The hand that had been gently soothing his face stopped all of a sudden." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I want more, too. I've never experienced anything like this. I didn't even know…\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Neither did I.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were sticky and sweaty and the air smelled of sex, but he couldn't bring himself to let her go. Suddenly, he was afraid. What if he had waited his entire life to find this woman and he somehow managed to mess it up? What if Justin refused to give her a divorce and it turned into a big, protracted battle that took years to resolve?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What if he never again got to hold her and touch her this way?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That couldn't happen. He wouldn't let it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One way or the other, he would make this work. He would make sure they both got everything they wanted—and then some. \"We need a shower.\"\n\n\"Mmm.\" Her fingers had moved to his unruly hair, smoothing and combing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That was all it took to fire him up all over again. \"In a minute.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because he was afraid he might forget all about his honorable intentions and give in to overwhelming temptation, he attempted to zip his jeans over his still-hard cock, but the zipper wouldn't cooperate.\n\nLaura laughed at his dilemma. \"I thought we took care of that problem.\"\n\n\"I thought so, too,\" Owen said, grimacing as her laughter made the ache worse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's your influence. He can't get enough of you.\"\n\nShe trailed a finger down his neck to his chest, dragging her nail over his nipple.\n\n\"Is that supposed to be helping?\" he asked, sounding strangled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We don't have to wait, Owen.\"\n\nHe stopped her hand before it could travel any lower. In the state he was in, if she so much as brushed against him, he'd detonate.\n\n\"I've filed for divorce. I'm single in every way that matters.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You have to resolve the situation with the baby first. I don't know why that matters so much to me. It just does.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He bent his head to kiss her, making sure to keep a tight rein on the desire to plunder her sweet mouth. It wouldn't take much to give in to the tremendous temptation. \"We'll have all the time in the world once you get that worked out. We'll spend entire days in bed.\"\n\nLaura laughed at that." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And what will your grandmother say when her hotel isn't ready for opening in the spring?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Owen hovered above her, so close their lips were nearly touching." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She will say it was time very well spent. She's always wanted me to find someone special and settle down.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is that what you're doing with me? Settling down?\"\n\nHe snorted out a laugh. \"I'm hardly 'settled' around you. Agitated, horny, desperate, frustrated, needy, happy…\"\n\nShe rolled her bottom lip between her teeth as she looked up at him. \"Are you happy?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Very much so. Are you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nodding, she said, \"So happy. Who would've thought I'd be in the boat I'm in—pregnant and divorcing my cheating husband—but happier than I've ever been in my life? It's all because of you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll be happier when he knows about the baby and you guys have a plan for how you're going to handle custody.\" Owen rested his forehead against hers. \"You do realize it'll be almost impossible to share joint custody when you're living out here and he's in Providence, don't you?\"\n\n\"I'm almost certain he won't want joint custody. He's too selfish and career-oriented. He won't want to be responsible for the baby on his own.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't even know him, but I already know that if he can find a way to make life difficult for you, he's probably going to do it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And that, Owen realized, was his greatest fear.\n\n\"My father can make life difficult for him, too. I plan to remind him of that on Friday, if I need to.\"\n\nOwen hoped threats against his precious career would be enough to convince Justin to let her go.\n\nSydney stood in front of the mirror and gave her face a careful inspection." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sleepless night was obvious in the smudges below her green eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thoughts of Jenny's story had kept Syd awake, thinking about how she should approach the other woman. What had seemed like such a good idea yesterday now had her wondering if Luke had been right to be concerned.\n\nBut she was determined to at least see Jenny and make her aware of the other women on the island who were anxious to meet her and make her feel welcome.\n\nShe glanced down at the ring Luke had given her the night before, struck again by its unique beauty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That he'd gotten her a ring she would've chosen for herself was further proof he was the one for her—as if she needed further proof." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she'd arrived on the island earlier in the summer after leaving the teaching job she'd once loved, she'd reconnected with Luke, and he'd helped her to put the pieces back together. His patience and tenderness had been a balm on the open wound on her soul. She thought of her late husband and children every day, but the memories were becoming easier to bear with the passage of time.\n\nBeing with Luke filled her with a sense of peace and tranquility she hadn't expected to find again after she lost her family." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her skin heated when memories of the passionate night with Luke played through her mind like an R-rated movie." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, most of it was probably X-rated, she thought with a smile.\n\n\"What are you all smiles about?\" Luke asked as he stepped into the bathroom and handed her a steaming mug of coffee.\n\n\"Oh, thank you.\" She rewarded him with a lingering kiss." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have so much to smile about this morning.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He hugged her from behind and propped his chin on her shoulder. \"It's nice to see you happy.\"\n\nSydney put the mug on the counter and turned to him, resting her hands on his shoulders. \"I don't think I could've gotten to happy again without you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, you would have. You were well on your way before we got back together.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was doing okay. I never would've gotten past 'just okay' without you. Without this.\" She went up on tiptoes to kiss him more intently. \"Without us.\"\n\n\"You saved me, too, you know.\"\n\nSyd raised a skeptical eyebrow. \"How so?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was destined for a life as a cranky loner who coasted along without experiencing the finer points.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And do you feel like you're experiencing the finer points now?\"\n\nHe moved his hands from her hips to her breasts, sliding his thumbs back and forth over nipples that responded to him instantly. \"The finest of fine points.\"\n\nShe tossed her head back and laughed, which gave him permission to leave a trail of kisses on her neck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Didn't you get enough last night?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Never enough,\" he said as he used his hand on her bottom to better align them so she could feel how much he wanted her.\n\n\"You have to go to work, and I've got a lighthouse keeper I need to see.\"\n\n\"You're really going to let me walk around all day in this condition?\" He took her hand and held it against his rigid length." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is that the kind of wife you plan to be?\"\n\nSydney knew she should have some sort of witty comeback to an outrageous statement like that, but as usual, her brain turned to mush when he touched her. The combination of his fingers playing with her nipple and the pressure of his erection against her hand had her wavering. \"What about work?\"\n\n\"The McCarthys are always reminding me that I own the place.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sensing her capitulation, he tugged open her robe and his eyes heated with satisfaction when he found her naked underneath. \"I get there when I get there.\"\n\n\"It can't be healthy to have as much sex as we do.\"\n\nLuke laughed at that as he dropped to his knees before her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's extremely healthy. Keeps the stress level nice and low and does wonders for the blood pressure.\"\n\nShe fisted his hair and tried to stay upright when he squeezed her ass and nuzzled her belly. \"My blood pressure is through the roof at the moment, and it's all gathering in one place.\"\n\n\"Mine, too, baby.\" He hooked her leg over his shoulder and lapped at her core, focusing on all the places that made her come apart, keeping it up until she shattered into a million pieces that only he could put back together." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she floated down from the incredible high, he scooped her up and carried her into the bedroom." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Freeing himself from the jeans he'd put on for work, he came down on top of her.\n\nSydney wrapped her legs around his hips, urging him to take what she wanted as much as he did.\n\n\"Oh God, Syd,\" he whispered as he entered her. \"I love you.\"\n\nRaising her hips to meet his thrusts, she looked up to find him gazing down at her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I love you, too.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Always,\" he said, touching his lips to hers.\n\n\"Yes, Luke. Yes.\"\n\nThey finished together in a burst of light and heat and energy that left her clinging to him, her anchor, her life, her love.\n\n\"What'll you tell Mac and Mr. McCarthy about why you're late?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "she asked after a period of contented silence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll tell them something came up,\" he said with a dirty grin that made her laugh. \"It was well worth the time.\" He kissed her once more, running his tongue over her bottom lip. \"You're really going to marry me?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I really am.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When?\"\n\n\"As soon as we can.\"\n\n\"What do you think about a Christmas wedding?\"\n\n\"Oh,\" she said, \"I like that. I could use some new memories of Christmas. That's a tough time of year since the accident.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing exercise: one sentence sentences, channeling Marie Force, romance, nsfw, chick lit genre. go!" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you think he knows what we've got planned for later?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Laura asked as they left her father's house a short time later." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd offered them a place to stay for the night, but Laura had told him they'd made other plans." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I sure hope not,\" Owen said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I bet he knows.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can't think about that, let alone talk about it, until we get past part one.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her pensiveness had him reaching for her hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll be right across the room, watching every second. No matter what happens, it's going to be okay.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I hope you're right.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Laura wanted to believe it was all going to be fine, but she knew Justin and wasn't convinced he'd let go without a fight, especially once he found out about the baby." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I gotta ask you… I mean, it's none of my business, but…\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You can ask me anything. You know that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What'd you ever see in this guy? He sounds like a world-class dick.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even though she sensed he hadn't meant to be funny, Laura laughed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I suppose he does from what you've heard of him. But no one's all bad or all good.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are. You're pure goodness. You don't have a mean bone in your body.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Touched by his sincerity, she said, \"You haven't seen me when I get mad. Watch out.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Spare me, killer. I'm not afraid of you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You say that now…\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll have to take your word for it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The amusing banter was exactly what she needed to stay calm and focused." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You still haven't told me what you saw in him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He was handsome and charming and ambitious.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Everything I'm not,\" Owen grumbled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How can you say that? You're all of those things—and then some.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll give you the handsome and charming,\" he said to her laughter, \"but how do I rate ambitious when I call an old van home?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're living your life on your own terms and no one else's. You do what you want, when you want, and make a damned good living doing it. Not to mention, you're doing something you love. What's not to respect about that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hmm, I hadn't thought of it that way. Still, I'm not exactly a lawyer.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank God for that. I've been around lawyers my whole life. You're a refreshing change of pace.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him mull that over." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even as he drove the car, taking directions from her, she could see his wheels turning a mile a minute." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can tell you're dying to say something else. Why are you suddenly holding back on me?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He looked over at her, seeming surprised by her insight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What is it?\" she asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I, um, I wonder if the refreshing change of pace can hold your interest long-term.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Owen,\" she said, flabbergasted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can't believe you'd say that! I can't wait for us to be together—truly together without my estranged husband and divorce hanging over us. I think about that all the time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She took his hand and held it between both of hers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You believe me, don't you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I want to. Tell me this—am I the first guy you've ever dated who called a van home?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laura smiled. \"Yes, you are.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I bet every other guy you've been with has an Ivy League education and a Brooks Brothers wardrobe.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Those things don't matter to me. Not anymore.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I knew it!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So I might've had a type in the past. That was then.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She held on tighter to his hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is now. I want you. I want to be with you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I want you, too, Princess. But I'm not looking for a fling. Been there, done that. I'm ready for something more.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am, too. That's what I thought I was getting when I married Justin.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm worried that you haven't given yourself enough time to get over what happened with him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I remember asking Janey about that when she got involved with Joe so soon after she caught David with someone else. She said when you find out the man you love has been unfaithful, all the love you once felt for him disappears as if you never loved him at all. That's what happened to her—and it was the same for me. After my friends told me what he'd done, I couldn't even look at him without feeling sick. All the good feelings were gone, and there's nothing he could say or do to ever bring them back. They're gone. I was over him the minute I knew he still wanted other women. Some women can forgive that kind of transgression. I'm not one of them, and neither was Janey.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Owen was quiet for a long moment as he thought about what she'd said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you believe me?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I want to, but I've been around the block enough to know that it's not always that simple.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sometimes it's exactly that simple.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I hope you're right.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I usually am,\" she said with a cocky grin, hoping to lighten the mood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She wished there was something she could say or do to set his mind at ease and let him know he was exactly what she wanted and needed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one, other than her dear dad, had ever cared more about her than Owen seemed to." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd never been more in tune with anyone, and she couldn't wait to see what the future held for them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The thought strengthened her resolve to get through this encounter with Justin and get on with her life with Owen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thanks for coming with me,\" she said as he pulled into a parking space across the street from the restaurant." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No problem. I'll be watching the whole time. If you need me, tug on your earlobe, and I'll be right there.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You've been watching too many spy movies.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stopped her from getting out of the car with a hand to her arm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Promise me you'll do it if you need me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Because he seemed to need it, she nodded. \"I promise.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Whatever happens, it's nothing you can't handle. Remember that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will. Let's get this over with.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Owen sent her in ahead of him, promising to follow in a minute so they wouldn't be seen together." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The maître d' greeted Laura by name." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd been called \"Mrs. Newsome\" only a couple of times before it all went bad." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fortunately, she hadn't gotten around to legally changing her name." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your husband is already here. Follow me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Here we go,\" Laura whispered to herself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She held her head up as he led her to Justin's usual table in the far corner, where he'd once told her he could see everyone in the place." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Justin was all about seeing and being seen, which was why he stood up to greet her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was counting on the fact that the Justin she knew would never be anything other than gracious and polite in public." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd worn the oversized black sweater intentionally so he wouldn't notice her pregnancy until she was ready to tell him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the sight of the face she'd once planned to wake up to for the rest of her life, her entire body went on alert against imminent danger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her reaction to him was so powerful she nearly took a step backward in self-defense." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because he'd never given her the slightest reason to be afraid of him, she forced herself to take the final steps to the table." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Justin put down the vodka cocktail he'd been nursing and leaned in to kiss her cheek." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had to force herself not to cringe or pull away from him as his lips brushed against her skin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's good to see you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He made sure to keep his voice low so the maître d' wouldn't hear as the older man settled Laura into her chair and handed her a menu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It occurred to her right then that her back would be to Owen, which only added to her growing anxiety." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Justin wore one of the custom-made suits he paid a thousand dollars apiece for, with a crisp white shirt and burgundy tie." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As always, his dark hair was immaculately styled and his brown eyes were shrewd as he took a long, measuring look at her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laura did her best not to wilt under his intense scrutiny even as she tried to remember what she'd ever seen in him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd once been charming and amusing and romantic, with grand gestures she now realized were all for show." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It'd been all about wooing Judge Frank McCarthy's daughter and had nothing at all to do with her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unfortunately, she'd fallen for his game like a lovesick fool." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Being picked up off the bathroom floor after a vicious bout of vomiting was her idea of romance these days." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your server will be right with you,\" the maître d' said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ask him to give us a few minutes,\" Justin said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Of course.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The moment they were alone, Justin's charming smile turned into a satisfied smirk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I knew you'd come around in time. You'll be glad to know I've decided to forgive you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laura was stunned. \"For what?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Like you don't know. Let's start with giving up a primo apartment and having all my stuff sent to my mother. Thanks for that, by the way. I needed to deal with a thousand questions from her like I needed a hole in the head.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I didn't know where you're living.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You could've asked me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I didn't wish to speak to you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Clearly you've changed your mind about that. You're here, aren't you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Only because we have some things we need to discuss.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've already told you there isn't going to be a divorce, so if that's why you're here, you're wasting my time—and yours.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She fought to keep her voice even so he wouldn't know how upsetting and difficult this was for her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's not the only thing we need to talk about.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sat back in his chair and took a sip of the cocktail, looking arrogant and smug, which put her on even higher alert—if that was possible." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There's nothing you can tell me that I don't already know.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Laura sat up a little straighter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What's that supposed to mean?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know you're living on Gansett Island, working at the Sand & Surf Hotel. The owners have charged you—someone with absolutely no experience in such things—with the task of restoring that dump. I know you've taken up with the big dude with the shaggy hair who's over there staring daggers at me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He nodded toward Owen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A homeless guitar player? Really, Laura? Gone slumming, have you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's worth a thousand of you,\" Laura shot back before she could stop herself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Angering him wouldn't accomplish anything." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I get it—you're paying me back for what you think I did to you, which was nothing, by the way. Great, we're even. Now it's time for you to get your ass home and honor your marriage vows.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's not going to happen.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, it is.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know it's hard for you to imagine that someone might say no to you, but I'm not coming home—not now or ever. My home is on Gansett, and that's where I plan to stay.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Even after you have my baby? Were you planning to tell me about that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Laura's mouth fell open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How do you… When did you…\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's nothing a good private investigator can't find out for the right price.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Appalled and horrified to know he'd had her followed, she had to dig deep to recover her composure." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was going to tell you. That's why I'm here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He waved a hand dismissively." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Here's how this is going to go. You're giving up the island, the hotel, the guitar player, the whole thing and coming back where you belong, or I'll make sure you never see that baby. Your rebellion is over. You've made your point.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Anger whipped through Laura like a wildfire." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Who the hell do you think you are? You can't tell me what to do or where to live.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He leaned in closer to her, his dark eyes flashing with fury and what might've been hurt, not that she cared about that." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not anymore. \"I'm your husband, and that's my kid you're carrying. At least I think it is.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once again, Laura acted without thinking as her hand connected with his face in a loud slap that had everyone in the place looking at them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His face flushed with rage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Before he could say a word, she stood and propped her hands on the table, leaning in so he could hear her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Listen to me, and listen good, you miserable son of a bitch. The biggest mistake I ever made was marrying you. You'll sign the divorce papers—immediately—or not only will I make sure you never see this kid you're not sure is yours, I'll also see to it that my dad does everything within his considerable power to ruin your precious career. Do I make myself clear?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she'd known it would, the threat of Frank McCarthy's wrath had the color draining from his face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I said, do I make myself clear?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He took another sip of his drink and eyed her hatefully." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm not surprised you're already shacked up with someone else. You have no idea how to be without a man. Poor little daddy's girl can't be alone for five minutes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even though his words struck a direct hit to one of her deepest insecurities, she refused to show him that." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sign the papers, Justin, or we'll make your life a living hell. I may be a daddy's girl, but there's absolutely nothing he wouldn't do for me. You'd do well to remember that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laura didn't wait to hear whatever he might have to say to that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For the first time in her life, she didn't care that she was making a scene that would be talked about for days to come." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All she cared about was getting out of there—as quickly as possible." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was aware of Owen getting up from the table he'd occupied and chasing after her, but she didn't stop moving until she reached the car." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With nowhere left to go, she leaned against the car, breathing heavily as her hands began to shake." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd had her followed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He knew about Owen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "About the baby. For a brief, horrifying moment, she wondered if she was going to be sick again, right there in the parking lot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Owen caught up to her and reached for her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stopped him by putting her hands up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Every nerve in her body was on fire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If he touched her, if anyone touched her, she'd scream." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Jesus Christ,\" Owen said, his face flushed from running after her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What the hell did he say?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Laura reached for the door handle, fumbling with it, frustrated when it refused to open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wait, honey. Let me unlock it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He held the door for her until she was inside before closing it and going around to the driver's side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you going to talk to me?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Later. Please. Let's go.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where do you want to go?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Anywhere but here.\" She caught a glimpse of Justin emerging from the restaurant in time to watch them drive away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His expression was impassive, but his eyes were sharp as always." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I want to know what he said to you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It doesn't matter. He'll sign the papers.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Laura, honey—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can't talk about it. I just can't.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her mind raced. In addition to having her followed, he'd implied the baby wasn't his." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If it hadn't been so insulting she might've laughed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Except nothing about this was funny." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd married an egotistical, sadistic asshole." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How had she not seen that?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Had she been so desperate to be married that she'd failed to notice he was a heartless bastard?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The wedding had been only six months ago, but it might as well have been years, for she simply couldn't remember for the life of her why she'd ever thought she loved him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The queasiness returned with a sudden fury." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She rolled down the window to let in the cool air, which helped to combat the nausea." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To his credit, Owen didn't say a word as he drove them to the Westin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because it was one of the taller buildings in the city, she didn't have to tell him how to get there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he grabbed their overnight bags from the trunk and checked them into the hotel, Laura tagged along like a docile child." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Justin's ugly words about how she couldn't get by without a man in her life rang through her mind like a refrain from a song that got stuck on replay." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Over and over and over again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They rode the elevator to the sixth floor in the silence that followed them into the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When she thought about the plans they'd made for this night, she again felt sick." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She went over to the window and stared out at the city she'd called home for most of her life, seeing nothing but the look on Justin's face when he'd implied that the baby wasn't his." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If she were being honest with herself, she'd known about Justin's mean streak before she married him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd known he was capable of doing whatever it took to win on behalf of his clients and had cringed on more than one occasion when he'd laid out his trial strategy to her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You can't argue with results,\" he'd said proudly when she questioned his tactics." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But until he'd aimed it at her, she'd truly had no idea how deep the mean ran or how low he would stoop to advance his agenda." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Owen came up behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What can I do?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I…I need some time to myself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her voice wavered, betraying the emotion she was trying so hard to contain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The last thing she wanted was to suck him into the vicious storm of her divorce." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His hands fell away from her shoulders, his disappointment palpable." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sure. Whatever you need.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she heard him moving around the room, she hated herself for dragging him on the emotional roller-coaster ride with her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He deserved so much better." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll be back in a while,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The hotel door clicked shut behind him as he left the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Laura's legs gave out under her, and she slid down to the floor, still leaning against the big window with the panoramic view of the city." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The baby chose that moment to deliver a resounding kick that broke open the floodgates." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tears spilled down her cheeks, and sobs shook her body." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rattled by Laura's withdrawal, Owen took the elevator to the lobby." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He wanted to go find Justin Newsome and beat the shit out of him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But because that wasn't an option, he withdrew the business card Frank McCarthy had slipped him before they left his house earlier and called the cell number Frank had scrawled on the back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What happened?\" Frank asked when he answered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have no idea. All I know is he said something that made her slap his face.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is that right? Well, good for her. She should've done that a long time ago, if you ask me. So what did he say?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's the thing. She won't tell me. It's like she's folded into herself and shut me out. She's right there, but she's a million miles away. It's kind of scary, actually.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh no. Damn it. That's what I was afraid of. She did the same thing when her mother died. Scared the hell out of me. She'd look at me and answer me when I asked her a direct question, but it was almost as if no one was home.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, that's it. Exactly. When I put my hands on her shoulders, I could tell she was trying not to recoil away from me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That, too,\" Frank said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Same thing. She couldn't bear to be touched for weeks after Jo died.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What do we do?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Owen asked with growing desperation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"For one thing, it's time I had a talk with her husband. I'd promised her I'd stay out of it unless she asked me to get involved, but enough is enough.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I agree. If you can get him to sign the divorce papers, I think that would help.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll do what I can. In the meantime, you'll be with her?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Every minute that I can. She wanted some time to herself, so I came down to the lobby.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't leave her alone too long.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I won't.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You love her, don't you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes,\" Owen said, his voice gruff with emotion and fear and confusion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was also relief to admit to someone—even her father—that he was in love with Laura." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sometime soon, he hoped he could tell her, too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good.\" Frank sounded relieved." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't give up on her. She's going through a rough time right now, but we'll get her through this, and then you two can make some plans.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I hope you're right.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Based on what Owen had seen since they left the restaurant, he had good reason to fear that nothing was going to work out the way they'd planned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll do everything I can to make sure she gets what she wants,\" Frank said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Will you head back to the island tomorrow?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, we're on the ten-thirty boat. We're supposed to go to a party tomorrow night. But after this… I don't know if she'll be up for it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The island is good for her. It always has been. After my wife died, I was so out of my element with two grief-stricken kids on summer vacation. I had to get back to work, but I was torn, needing to be in two places at once, you know?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can only imagine.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When my brother and Linda offered to take them for the summer, I jumped at the chance to give them some stability and the distraction of five cousins who were about their same age. But I was frightened by Laura's withdrawal and reluctant to leave her, even for a little while.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What happened?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"With Mac and Linda's support, I gave it two weeks and went out to the island to see them for the weekend. She wasn't quite back to her old self by any means, but she was better than she'd been. By the end of the summer, she'd come back to us almost all the way. Neither of my kids were ever quite the same after we lost their mom, but I never again saw the scary withdrawal that happened right after.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Until now.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When it happened the first time, the psychologist I consulted with told me it was her coping mechanism. By withdrawing into herself, she could keep the bad stuff out and postpone the emotional firestorm for that much longer.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Frank paused for a moment and softened his tone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Linda told me they all went out for ice cream one night toward the end of the summer. God bless Mac and Linda. They had seven kids underfoot, but they made that summer so fun for my kids. Anyway, apparently Laura dropped her cone on the ground outside the ice cream shop and broke down. Linda realized she was finally allowing the grief to come out and sent Mac home with the other kids. She and Laura sat on the seawall for two hours while my poor baby cried her heart out.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Owen ached as he pictured nine-year-old Laura coming to terms with her mother's death." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It was a tough time for all of us, but she was a little better after the summer on the island.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm glad you told me this. It makes me feel better to know that she's doing what she needs to do to get through this. I wish she wasn't shutting me out, though.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Be patient. When she's ready, she'll let you back in.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can do that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Will you call me if you need me? If she needs me?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"In the meantime, I'll do what I can to dispose of him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Owen released an unsteady chuckle. \"Legally, I presume.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Unfortunately, yes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It was really great to meet you, sir. Laura talks about you so fondly.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's nice to hear, but please call me Frank. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of each other.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I sure hope so.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Owen ended the call and forced himself to give her another half hour before he couldn't stay away any longer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He let himself into the room, which was dark and quiet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he saw her curled up on the bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Laura?\" he said in a whisper." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she didn't reply, he hoped it was because she was asleep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He pulled the throw blanket from the foot of the bed and spread it over her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Feeling weary but wired at the same time, he took a shower and shaved." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then he stretched out on the bed next to her, wanting to be nearby if she needed him during the night.\n\nIt took him a long time to fall asleep." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CREATIVE WRITING ASSIST:\n5 sentences sentences\nGenre: fantasy, romance, LGBT" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I sense Ingrid's proximity. Her bright, bubbling soul makes my heart flutter more rapidly the closer she gets to the library, but there's a deep well of sadness within her today. Her anxiety presses upon my chest like a stone.\n\nGripping the bookcase ladder, I turn as the double doors swing open with a bang. Ingrid rushes across the wooden floor of the library with tears streaming down her porcelain cheeks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What's wrong?\" I ask out of politeness, although I know the answer, and turn my working ear toward her.\n\nAs I descend the rungs, every movement sends shocks of pain through my back, but I keep my face soft and serene, just as practiced.\n\n\"LiLi,\" she says with a gasping hiccup.\n\nMy heart aches along with hers as I open my arms. She collapses against my chest while I stroke her silky yellow hair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A sense of rage swells with bright red wisps coursing through my mind, and I desire to inflict bodily harm against whoever made my temptress upset." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I search her mind, even though I'll suffer a headache for it, and discover the idea of marriage is at the forefront of her thoughts. I knew this would happen and was prepared. Emotions battle with tiny explosions inside my aching head as I sort through Ingrid's feelings to get to my own thoughts. I must remember my plan if I want to help her.\n\n\"It's Father…and Oskar.\" She wipes her cheek and sighs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They're inviting suitors for an entire week to celebrate my birthday. I must choose a husband at the ball.\"\n\nLifting her chin with my fingers, I grin and shake my head. Ingrid is going to love her surprise. Unlike her, I believed in my premonitions and prepared.\n\nTo Oskar's annoyance, I've been studying the laws of Norella Isle for weeks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He sighs every time he finds me pouring over law codices and history texts. I can always taste an oily hatred of me dripping down his throat.\n\nOskar and the king despise my presence for both my sorcery and for being with Ingrid. That is, being a woman with Ingrid. Our relationship would be perfectly acceptable on Norella Isle and throughout many kingdoms on the mainland of Osmondia if not for Ingrid's birthright." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I cannot fill her belly with heirs; therefore, they despise me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I have made it my priority to help Ingrid. At times, it feels fruitless, but my adoptive mothers, Viviana and Kariana, twin priestesses of Norella, raised me to be both careful and patient. Viviana also taught me her research skills at the convent library, known for its collection of ancient texts.\n\nI read much about the not-so-perfect history of Norella Isle and halflings. How harpies were the first to discover the island and its sacred waters." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Norella's daughters were young and less dangerous back then, and many peoples—humans, mermaids, centaurs, and satyrs—flocked here from across the Styrmir Sea." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soon, the humans grew greedy. The small populations of halflings were banished or executed. My heart aches with their pain every time I think about it.\n\nFrom there, I studied forbidden texts on sorcery. I was a natural." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I taught myself the ways of sourcing magic from the earth and how to shield myself from others' emotions unless I wanted to know them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That is until I met Ingrid. As my soulmate, her emotions are like my own. One and the same. I must help her.\n\nLuckily, at the convent, I discovered my own form of research." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If I recite a spell and ask the right question, I can listen to what the books have to say. This results in temporary deafness, but I've been able to contain it to my left ear.\n\nI asked the wide palace library with rows upon rows of books multiple questions over the past few weeks. Things like, \"Can a woman rule alone?\" or \"Must Ingrid be married to rule Norella Isle?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "These were the wrong questions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The library only revealed history texts and the same laws over and over again. I was forced to walk around for hours without hearing in my left ear and no real answers. The correct question, the one I asked today, was simple: \"How can I help Ingrid?\"\n\nI listened to the creaks in the floorboards and bookshelves, waiting for the room to reveal its secrets. Pages rubbed and rustled together somewhere within the thousands of books." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I followed the whisper to the same law codex I had taken off the shelf many times before. I almost gave up, but the whisper took me to the amendments in the back. There, in miniature text, nearly buried by hundreds of years of addendums and footnotes, was the answer I had been waiting for.\n\nI rub my left ear, which is still ringing, and tilt my right side forward to make out what Ingrid's saying.\n\n\"Did you not hear me?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ingrid's enchanting blue eyes grow wide." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you not understand?\"\n\n\"Come with me, my love.\" I guide her toward the oak desk covered in books. \"The law states that you, heir to Norella Isle, have the power to insert clauses into your marriage contract. It was a way to protect your Great-Grandmother Sunniva during the War of the Halflings.\"\n\nClutching my locket, I point to lines of legal jargon in the Codex of Norella Isle as I sit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ingrid scans the information and shakes her head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her mind is a tangle of thorny brambles; she's far too distraught to think.\n\n\"This means you have the power to make demands of your future consort.\" I raise my eyebrow and smirk. \"Or make expectations no man could ever meet.\"\n\nIngrid joins me in an evil laugh when she finally understands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her mood grows lighter, lifting the weight of sorrow and anger from my chest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Elation bubbles from her and into me, tingling out toward my limbs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So, my temptress.\" I retrieve an inkwell, pen, and parchment. \"What sort of suitor deserves your hand?\"\n\nWe giggle and grin, happy as clams, while I draft Ingrid's list of demands. This is perfect. No suitor will agree, the king will need a new plan, and Ingrid will be mine for a while longer. I lean back in my chair, squirming to find a comfortable position, and shake out my sore wrist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When Ingrid lowers herself and her voluminous gown onto my lap, pink blooms of comfort fill her mind. Me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I give her comfort.\n\nShe lifts the parchment and scans it while humming a delightful tune. \"Yes, I do think this will ward off suitors nicely. These requirements are impossible,\" she says and taps at the bottom of the document. \"Let's see a man agree to this final clause!\"\n\nI reach for her cheek." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You should know, Ingrid, I would fulfill the final requirement in a heartbeat.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ingrid combs her fingers through my hair, spreading ribbons of desire through my body. \"And I, for you, LiLi.\" She kisses my lips, causing my heart to somersault with delight as our emotions swirl together. \"Thank you for your help today. I cannot wait to tell Father my birthday celebration is on!\"\n\nA wicked grin spreads across my lips, reflected like a mirror in hers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, invite the suitors!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After another divine kiss, Ingrid exits the library with the parchment rolled in her fist. The sun casts harsh shadows along the wood floor of the library and highlights the dust floating in the air. I stretch and rub my upper back, but the ache doesn't wane. It's been unbearable lately.\n\nI leave the library behind, listening to the squeaky steps and smelling saltwater through an open window." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Produce 4 sentences using the user's text as a seed. Stick to the fantasy, romance, LGBT genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ingrid's anger with her father courses through our bodies like scarlet flames." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I suggested we take our own carriage to the convent so she could cool down. We both need to focus on Kariana at the moment.\n\nThe carriage jostles along the bumpy road north, and Ingrid's rage is soon replaced with a heavy sadness on her shoulders. She plays with a large scallop-shell, running her fingers along the ridges." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's a lovely pink melting into orange, like a sunset. Kariana loved sunsets.\n\nI chose a delicate, sun-bleached sand dollar. The flower-like grooves at the center swirl in my tears. This is surreal. I lean my head against Ingrid's shoulder and breathe in her sweet, calming scent until the carriage slows to a halt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When I step out onto the cliffs, an icy breeze filled with petrichor and salt assaults me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Before me is the Styrmir Sea, and behind me is a forest of pines, pocketed with caves. Raising my face to the weak sun, I attempt to steal a bit of its warmth, but it's no use. I am hollow inside, only feeling Ingrid's sadness. I offer my hand to help her from the carriage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's been over a month since Ingrid and I last visited the convent. With death hanging in the air, there's no need to mention our vast amounts of guilt. Ingrid squeezes my hand as we descend the narrow, twisting steps, slippery with sea spray.\n\nAs we approach the convent for the Resting, the cool air streaming from the cave is thick with incense." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Most deceased citizens of Norella Isle are sent to sea in a boat grave, immediately allowing Norella's daughters to drag them to the underworld." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Priestesses, on the other hand, are revered and laid out on an altar for seven days, allowing everyone on the island time to mourn.\n\nThere's a line formed on the pebble beach, but Ceto, a fellow priestess, ushers King Rolf, Queen Tia, Oskar, Ingrid, and me to the front. Ceto's blonde fishtail braid swings as she leads the way. While she and Oskar speak, he squeezes her hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's unlike Oskar to show affection to anyone. I twist my brows at their exchange as we pass many citizens dressed in dark mourning clothes.\n\nThe whispers rise, and anxiety ripples through Ingrid's body and into mine, cinching around my stomach. She's always nervous at public events, worried people are gossiping about her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ingrid is always upfront with me about her self-proclaimed \"wild streak\" and her past lovers. I was a bit jealous at first, but my heart knew what it wanted. I caress Ingrid's hand and clink my seashell against hers.\n\n\"We're here for Kariana,\" I whisper to remind her. \"Relax and focus.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She nods, and an empty sadness returns, carving my insides hollow.\n\nWe follow Ceto through the Grotto, a large opening in the cave that leads to the sea. Depending on the tide, the water can fill the space or be completely empty. Norella's daughters often leave behind shellfish for the priestesses." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inside, the priestesses in teal gowns sit against the stone walls, humming while they meditate. The vibrations of their voices echo around the cave and fill the room with harmonious energy.\n\nKing Rolf and Queen Tia approach the Resting Cave first to show their respects. Viviana greets them at the arched entrance, and I can barely hold back from throwing myself into her arms." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the high priestess, she wears navy-blue robes embroidered with teal waves." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her curly, graying-brown hair is swept into a chignon, and her brown eyes are puffy and ringed in red." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I sense Viviana's heart is torn in two from losing her twin, and a deep depression floods her body." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the king and queen are finished speaking to her, I rush to throw my arms around her in a tight hug. She squeezes me and releases sobs into my shoulder. I shudder as I allow Viviana's emotions to mix with my own.\n\n\"Oh, Lilura.\" Viviana cradles my face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How are you holding up, my darling?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I cannot believe this has happened,\" I say with a sniffle. \"I should have been here for her. I should never have left the convent.\"\n\n\"Now, now, birds must leave the nest at some point. There's no need to play the guilt game. Believe me, I carry enough for the both of us. I should've been the one blessing the Sacred Spring, but I had a headache, and Kariana offered. It's like half my soul has been ripped away,\" she says, wiping her cheeks. \"Trust me, little bird, you were always in her heart. How's your back?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It still gives me trouble,\" I say, thinking of a way to change the topic. I elbow Ingrid. \"This one gives great massages, though.\"\n\nViviana's lips rise into a tiny smile as she embraces Ingrid. \"My princess.\"\n\n\"I am so sorry,\" Ingrid tells her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you,\" Viviana says and releases her. \"Kariana was always happy the two of you found love.\"\n\nWith that, I cannot control my emotions and break down into shrieks. The many sunset conversations I had with Kariana about love and my \"special\" heart's desires flash through my mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ingrid wraps her arms around me and kisses my head, stroking my hair. Ingrid and Viviana's emotions blend with mine, causing a painful dark cloud to grow in my mind. I suck in a few deep breaths to push it down. Carrying the emotional load of others is almost too much to bear at times." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"LiLi?\" Ingrid whispers, her voice laced with concern." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I straighten up. \"I'm fine.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Viviana takes my hand. \"Are you ready, little bird?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\nShe leads us inside the Resting Temple." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Under linens dyed in shades of teal, blue, and aqua folded to resemble waves, Kariana rests on the altar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's unnerving to be in her presence without feeling her presence. The flickering candles highlight her mother-of-pearl death mask, which appears to dance in place. Thousands of seashells, gifts for Norella, are piled around Kariana's body.\n\nIngrid takes my hand as we place our seashells with the others." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I lean my head on Kariana's shoulder and whisper, \"I love you. I'll miss you every single day. Thank you for teaching me how to be myself. I pray Norella blesses your journey into the afterlife and believe I will see you again someday.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I step away to allow Ingrid to say her goodbyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She returns to me, and we stare at the altar as our emotions swirl together. I search Ingrid's mind to find a stream of memories about Kariana. It makes me happy to know how much Ingrid loved her, too.\n\n\"Do you remember when she caught us?\" I ask." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kallan's daughters. How could I forget?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ingrid buries her face into my neck as she tries to expel the rush of embarrassment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kariana found us with Ingrid between my legs. I was so focused on the intense pleasure Ingrid was giving me that I didn't sense Kariana's approach. She opened the curtain to my room at the convent, and I had to tug Ingrid's hair to make her stop. Ingrid was mortified, and a shudder of humiliation consumed her body." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I threw a blanket over us, but when I looked into Kariana's eyes, there was nothing but happiness.\n\nI sniffle and giggle to lighten Ingrid's mood. \"There was no judgment from Kariana, just joy. For so long, I was worried I would never find love and had often voiced my concerns to her growing up.\"\n\nIngrid's brows crinkle. \"Why didn't you think you'd find love, LiLi?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Um, well…\" I revealed too much, so I come up with a way for it to make sense. \"Because I grew up as a priestess. I didn't think I would ever meet anyone interested in me. It may have been an embarrassing moment for you but knowing Kariana accepted us and was happy for us was wonderful.\"\n\n\"I know,\" Ingrid says, stroking my arm. \"She was an amazing person.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We hold on tight to one another until our time is up, and the next guests shuffle into the temple. We spend a few hours inside the Waterfall Cave for a somber reception, but the only two people I can tolerate talking to are Ingrid and Viviana. I feel sorry for Viviana. As the high priestess, she's pressured to speak with every guest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her energy drains more and more with every hug and platitude offered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ingrid is beyond wonderful and remains planted at my side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When someone approaches me, Ingrid does all of the talking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the royal caravan of carriages is ready to leave, I find Viviana one more time for a hug." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I love you,\" we whisper to each other at the same time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On our way to the palace, I gaze out the carriage window as the sun sets over the water, the clouds glowing with pinks and oranges, just as Kariana would have loved." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm quiet during the ride to the palace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even Ingrid's emotions are spent and silent, for which I'm grateful. Ingrid traces my palm with her thumb, soothing me into a near trance. Although I am the one who can read her mind, Ingrid has done everything I've needed today without question. I don't deserve her love." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Despair creeps like thorns into my throat again as I remember the forthcoming events." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As we pass the harbor, I break the silence. \"I suppose the king has called off your birthday celebrations?\"\n\nIngrid shakes her head. \"No, unfortunately. At breakfast, he and Oskar agreed that the kingdom needs a distraction from the tragedy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I narrow my eyes into slits. \"A distraction?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I know, it's horrible. The suitors are still on schedule to arrive Sunday.\"\n\nMy breathing grows erratic as my own fears mix with Ingrid's. I know it's not her fault, but I try to shove down her emotions. At the moment, I don't care how scared or sorry she is." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the carriage stops at the palace drive, I hop out without a word." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I need distance from her.\n\n\"Wait!\" Ingrid shouts as she clings to my arm. \"Please don't be upset; we still have my contract of demands. It will work. Will you stay with me tonight?\"\n\nI don't respond, focusing on the steps as I do my best to ignore Ingrid's emotions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We enter the palace, and the warm coziness from the fireplaces causes me to drop my guard. Ingrid's feelings crash into me with a surge of sadness, desperation, and desire. Her intense need for physical contact forces me to drag her down an empty hallway and press her against the wall for a kiss.\n\nWe both grow hot with lust, and my own thoughts and emotions slip away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ingrid needs me. Ingrid needs to feel pleasure.\n\nNo, Lilura. I need to mourn. I need to be alone.\n\nHer hands slide down my backside as her lips move to my neck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ingrid's presence is like a bubbling elixir to my sorrow, but sometimes I must feel my own pain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I suppose that's a yes to staying the night then?\" Ingrid asks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No.\" Breathing heavily, I touch Ingrid's cheek and force myself to focus. \"I'm sorry, but I need this time alone. There are too many emotions between you and me. It's overwhelming.\"\n\n\"Oh,\" she says, sagging against the wall of plaster sculpted into fish scales. \"I understand.\"\n\nShe does not understand, but I peck her lips anyway." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you, my love.\"\n\nI dash away to put space between us. Guilt seizes me, and dark spots fill my vision as I climb the spiral stairs of the tower. Too many thoughts and feelings for me to handle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Too much back pain." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once inside my room, I crash onto my bed as the depths of darkness consume me." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CREATIVE WRITING ASSIST:\n2 sentences sentences\nGenre: fantasy, romance, LGBT" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lilura's silence is palpable as she styles my hair for the date with Anders. Her mood hangs like static in the air between us." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I thought she'd be pleased I chose a conservative white dress instead of a sheer one she designed. As I dab a little color onto my lips, Lilura tugs my hair hard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ouch!\" I rub my scalp and glare at her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Would you rather me send for my handmaids to help me get ready?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No.\" Lilura continues working her fingers to create an intricate braid. \"That will not be necessary.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"LiLi, I know you're upset about these dates, but it's not my fault! You think I want to be alone with Anders?\" I feign a gag." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"At least some of the suitors failed the language test! Our plan is working!\"\n\nI'm met with nothing but Lilura's pursed lips, concentrated brows, and intense silence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I can't stand her being angry with me. What will raise her spirits?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How was your lesson with Nilson today?\" I ask.\n\nOne side of her lip rises." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wonderful. I'm excited to learn from him. Today he showed me the most incredible…\" She trails off.\n\n\"What was incredible?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, just Nilson's deep well of knowledge.\"\n\nLiLi's holding something back, and I know not to push it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She's already upset with me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But at least I have her here right now.\n\nI caress her hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's wonderful, LiLi. It must be lonely to be the only sorceress around. I'm grateful you have someone to teach you.\"\n\nShe doesn't reply. When she finishes my hair, I sigh and stand to leave." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wait,\" Lilura says. She reaches into her cloak and presents a new vial of pearl dust. \"For protection.\"\n\nThat brings a grin to my lips." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although I don't like what she suffers to enchant the powder, it shows me she still cares." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I let her dust the shimmery powder on my face, cleavage, and hair as I fidget and bounce on the balls of my feet. \"I'm nervous about being in public with him. What will the citizens say?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't worry about the whispers, my love. You're not that person anymore.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lilura grabs me and kisses me hard. I melt into her with ease now that she's showing me some affection." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She always makes me feel so safe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As we pull our lips away, my eyes travel down to the cleavage peeking out from the gap in her cloak." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Heat builds between my legs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She giggles as she pulls her cloak shut and shakes her head.\n\n\"I really don't want to leave you for a silly date,\" I say and bite my lip." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know. Don't have too much fun tonight.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lilura winks and reaches for the bedsheet on the mirror. \"Do you want to see how you look?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No.\" I play with the end of my white braid." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Especially now since I look more like the doppelgänger than ever.\"\n\n\"You look divine,\" she says and hands me my white, crushed-velvet cloak." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I set off to meet Anders, who said he would wait in the grand foyer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The scallop-shaped mirrors in the hallway reflect the flickering candles of the wall sconces." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I sense a set of opaline eyes watching me, so I increase my pace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The doppelgänger appears in every mirror, mouth wide and silently screaming for my attention. Cold air stifles my breathing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My foot catches on an ornate carpet, and I stumble." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dashing down the stairs, I trip on the last tread and fall into Anders' arms.\n\n\"Hello, beautiful.\" He helps me stand and studies my face while his hands linger a little too long on my waist." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is someone nervous for our date?\"\n\n\"No,\" I say, catching my breath." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I got spooked by something upstairs. I'll be fine.\"\n\nHis eyes scan my gown before he helps me slip on my cloak." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You should've worn your dress from this morning. I rather enjoyed that one.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I bet you did.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rolling my eyes, I allow him to escort me outside to the carriage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You should never feel entitled to see my body.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He chuckles. \"When we're married, I'll see it as much as I want.\"\n\nBy Kallan's Daughters. I have to bite my tongue to stay silent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Anders sits a little too close to me in the carriage, wrapping his arm around my shoulder, which feels more possessive than intimate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Marking his territory so soon?\n\nI eye him up: shoulder-length blond hair, square shoulders and jaw, sultry eyes and smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My stomach swirls a bit because he's exactly the type of man I liked prior to meeting Lilura. Overly confident and often terrible in bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where are you taking me?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I ask as we pass the downtown area of Sunniva City, leaving most of the famous eateries in our wake." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's a surprise.\" Anders takes my hand. \"Do you enjoy oysters?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Perfect. I've heard they're quite the aphrodisiac.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Here I go again, nearly biting a hole in my tongue. The road grows rocky and bumpy as we head north, and then I know exactly where he's taking me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There's a fancy restaurant, not too far from the convent, which is likewise built into the caves. The Cavern. From the outside, it appears to be a normal wooden building, but nature takes over once inside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Patrons walk through a tunnel to get to the dining area. In the back, the water perfectly reflects the stalactites on the ceiling, giving the appearance of an enormous, never-ending cave." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The restaurant has been around since before my grandparents forbid disturbing the caves and tunnels." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Places like The Cavern and the Convent of Norella were \"grandfathered\" into keeping their buildings.\n\nWhen the carriage halts, Anders takes my hand and leads me inside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I keep my eyes trained on the floor as we pass the finely dressed staff and enter the dining area." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The candles and chandeliers flicker, making the damp walls of the cave sparkle. Even in my peripheral vision, I can sense the patrons staring at me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Their chatter echoes in the cave as Anders guides me to a candlelit table next to the water.\n\n\"I heard great things about this place. Do you come here often?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he asks, pulling out my chair.\n\n\"Thank you.\" I sit and play with the edge of the white tablecloth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, not often. I was here for my parents' anniversary many years ago.\"\n\n\"Are we near the Convent of Norella?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he asks as he sits across from me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, it's not too—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Princess Ingrid!\" the waiter says, pressing his fingers to his plump brown cheek." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I wish he hadn't said my name so loudly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Welcome back to The Cavern! We're honored to have royalty in our presence. May I offer you a glass of wine?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" Anders says before I can answer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We'll have the Chardonnay.\"\n\n\"Perfect, I will be right back.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My eyes wander after our waiter and meet many patrons staring back at me. One woman points to her skin and giggles while twinkling her fingertips." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Another couple snickers and sneers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I snap my gaze back to Anders, who I catch staring at my cleavage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He slowly returns his eyes to mine but makes no apology." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Princess, may I tell you a story?\"\n\nI shrug." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When I was a young boy, I got lost in the Dark Forest of Jorsti for three days. My parents worried I'd been kidnapped by halflings.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Anders shivers with disgust on his face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thankfully, that's not what happened. But when our knights found me, I was very sick. Pneumonia. It was syrups made from Norella's sacred waters that healed me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sorry you were sick, but I do enjoy hearing tales of how our water helps people.\"\n\n\"Do your people really believe they are Norella's tears or something?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not everyone believes in the gods. Some say the water is the perfect mix of nutrients and minerals,\" I say. \"But the priestesses maintain that when Osmond discovered Norella's betrayal, he had her locked away under the island. She cries for her children, the waves and the rains, and, some say, for Kallan.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And those tears are the sacred waters?\" he ponders, touching his chin. \"Interesting.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The waiter returns and pours our wine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He asks for our order, and again, Anders speaks for me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oysters for an appetizer with fish and asparagus for our main course." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I would love to see the source of the spring. It must be magical,\" he says, handing the menus to our waiter. \"Will you give me a tour of the convent and spring after dinner?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm sorry, Prince Anders, but only priestesses are allowed inside the Sacred Spring.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I sip my wine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good choice, this is delicious.\"\n\n\"Surely the princess can break a few rules?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he asks with a wicked grin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'd love to see where the water comes from.\"\n\nI shake my head and take another drink of wine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Anders deflates and looks off into the cave's reflection, clearly disappointed. We're both quiet for a few long moments as I tap my fingernails against the glass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Surely, someone other than the priestesses has seen the spring?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you really still asking about this?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I raise my eyebrow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Actually, the only non-priestesses to ever see the spring were the high priests, but my father banished the last one and never replaced him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nilson, Prince Soren's advisor?\" he asks, leaning forward." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If that old bag of bones could see the spring, why not me? Come on, just sneak me in. I'll forever be grateful.\" He pouts his full lips and bats his eyelashes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, and please stop asking. There are other things we can talk about.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes.\" Anders looks me straight in the eyes. \"Like how you'll need to learn some obedience before becoming my wife.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My jaw drops in shock, and I take a moment of blinking to recover." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you really think I'm going to marry you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course,\" he says with a smirk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your father wishes to avoid war with the empire, yes? So be a good girl. Take me to the convent, and later, you'll wear the gift I gave you.\" He reaches to brush my shoulder with his hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I, of course, will have you before the wedding night.\"\n\nI slap his hand away, burst from my chair, and pour my glass of wine onto his lap." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This date is over.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The eyes of all the other patrons follow me as I storm out of the cave. The coachman cocks his head and twists his brows when I approach the carriage alone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm not feeling well, so Prince Anders has made separate arrangements. Would you please take me home to the palace?\"\n\nHe nods, helps me into the carriage, and drives away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I can't believe Oskar invited such an arrogant pig to court me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Was I really once attracted to men like that? And what was his obsession with the Sacred Spring?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I can't believe I had to leave Lilura to spend an evening with Anders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thoughts of Lilura give me an idea as the carriage gets closer to town. I ask the coachman to stop at a boutique on our way back so I can buy some gifts for LiLi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I want to cheer her up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once inside the palace, I make my way up the grand staircase. I need to wash this night off my skin with a hot bath with Lilura." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ingrid, is that you?\" Tia asks, cracking the door to the royal chambers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Home so soon? How was your date with Prince Anders?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I shrug and walk toward her, glad she wants to talk to me. \"Horrible. He's an asshole.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ingrid!\" Tia gasps as she tugs me inside and slams the door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't speak like that!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, it's the truth.\"\n\n\"Ingrid.\" She groans, rubbing her temples." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I set my bag of gifts on the floor and plop onto the chaise lounge in the antechamber. I help myself to one of Tia's lemon drop candies, which makes my lips pucker." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tia crosses her arms and tilts her head.\n\n\"What?\" I ask with a laugh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I certainly won't be marrying that pig.\"\n\n\"You should seriously reconsider,\" Tia says in the most serious voice I've ever heard come from her mouth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He's a Jorsti prince. An alliance would be worth its weight in sacred water!\"\n\n\"Well, if you had been with me on the date, you'd understand why I had to do what I did.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tia narrows her green eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What did you do?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I poured wine on his lap and left him at The Cavern,\" I say, making myself laugh as I recall his shocked face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What? How will he get back?\"\n\n\"Oh, come on! Lilura would laugh. Don't worry, I'm sure such a powerful and wealthy man like Anders can easily find a way back to the palace.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've held my tongue because I am not your mother, but enough of your childish pranks! This isn't just your life, Ingrid; it's the people of Norella Isle at stake! Do you want to go to war with Jorsti over a bad date?\" Tia rushes to the door." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll send a carriage to fetch him, but you will apologize to Anders!\"\n\nThat's unlikely. I grab my bag and watch the step-queen descend the grand staircase before I head for the tower to find Lilura. She'll think it's funny." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "The user will write a bit then you need to write around four sentences continuing directly from the user's text. Try to stick to the fantasy, romance, LGBT genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My skin tingles at Ingrid's approach. Yellow wisps of amusement tickle the back of my throat; she's giggling. I scramble to put away my experiment on the snake-leaves. Nilson said until we know all of the snake-leaves' secrets, we must keep them secret." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Knock, knock,\" Ingrid says as she slips into my room with a gift bag. \"What are you working on?\"\n\n\"Finishing up.\" I try to organize the rest of my desk, shuffling notes and crystals and bottles around, but it's no use, Ingrid's accustomed to my clutter. I stop to massage my temples." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've been working all evening. I'm ready for sleep.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Maybe something in here will relax you.\" She kisses my cheek and hands me the bag.\n\nInside is a bottle of scented oil, a box of gourmet chocolates, a bottle of wine, and a lacy nightgown. She's trying to seduce me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How would you like a massage with that oil?\" Ingrid grabs my waist from behind and kisses my neck.\n\nI can only release a moan for an answer. A pink wave of desire washes through her and crashes hard into me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My eyes flutter as I grow warm all over." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I need you, LiLi,\" she whispers, raising goosebumps down my neck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't usually put out on a first date, but I'll make an exception for you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She giggles so deeply it almost sounds like a moan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I arch my back as she caresses my breasts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everything I learned from my experiments and lessons floats from my mind like birds taking to the sky, and I try to catch them. Ingrid is my all-consuming weakness, but this work is important.\n\nI push her hands away and turn around, making orange drips of confusion trickle in her mind. \"What's wrong?\" she asks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm exhausted.\"\n\n\"Oh.\" Ingrid's shoulders drop, but she looks up with her adorable eyes and takes my hand. \"Will you at least hold me? I saw the doppelgänger again, and my date with Anders was awful!\"\n\nSadness, loneliness, and horniness still swirl in her thoughts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I cannot fix Ingrid's problems without losing my hard work." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I know if I just \"hold her,\" we'll end up making love anyway.\n\nI roll my eyes and gesture toward the door. \"Goodnight.\"\n\n\"I'll be quiet and let you sleep, I promise!\" Ingrid pouts and studies me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you still angry with me?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No.\" I lower my gaze to the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But you are! LiLi, please don't be upset about the dates! I can't help that the suitors want to marry me!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They don't want you,\" I nearly spit out the words." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are nothing to them. They want the wealth and power of Norella Isle! You just happen to be the key to it. How do you not see that?\"\n\nIngrid's sea-blue eyes well with tears. I immediately regret what I said as my heart rips in two—mimicking hers. Kallan's Daughters. Her lip trembles." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I reach out as she backs away.\n\n\"Do you still want me?\" she asks so quietly, the wind howling around the tower nearly drowns her out.\n\n\"Of course!\" I take a step closer but hesitate to touch her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You know I love you! It's just, I'm still mourning and going crazy about the thought of you with someone else. I need to focus on my studies.\"\n\nIngrid swallows and nods, exiting the room without a word. Her mind grows silent even before she's down the spiral stairs, cutting me off without knowing it.\n\n\"Ingrid!\" I hang over the railing and shout, but she's already out of sight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I sink to the floor and press my hand against my chest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Painful, rapid heartbeats slam against my palm, making it a struggle to breathe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This is just like what happened when I first soared for her at the convent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This time, though, my heart is angry with me.\n\nHarpies mate for life. When we meet our one true soulmate, our hearts soar. It pounds inside our chest with a horrible pain until we kiss, making the pain ease." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then, once a couple has sex, the bond is permanent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They know each other's thoughts and emotions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They cannot love another, and if one dies, the other dies too." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But that's when a harpy loves another harpy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm in uncharted waters, having fallen for a human." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If I hadn't already studied the convent's very few books about halflings, I would have thought I was dying during Ingrid's priestess initiation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When she locked eyes with me across the Grotto, my heart soared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I truly didn't think it would be possible for me to ever soar for a human, yet there she was, the most beautiful person I had ever laid eyes on with an even more beautiful soul." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At that moment, my heart belonged to her.\n\nI know I'm incapable of ever loving someone else, but it nearly kills me to know Ingrid, as a human, could fall for someone new with ease. She had multiple lovers and flings before me. I know she cares for me now, but for how long?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I sweep away the tears streaming down my face and pick myself up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I need to study." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I need to work." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If Ingrid does drop me from her life, I need to be prepared to take care of myself. I set up some experiments with the portion of leaves Nilson gave me but cannot get Ingrid out of my mind.\n\nI should've comforted her. I know the doppelgänger scares her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maybe I'll ask Viviana about it tomorrow. I owe her a visit, and she might have insight as to what it means since the vision has been taking the form of a mermaid, the halflings of the sea.\n\nEarly morning, I travel to the convent and, through the whispery fog, spot a handful of hirdmenn stationed outside. There's even a naval ship anchored just outside the Grotto, which looks more like a ghost ship floating in a cloud of mist." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It does raise my spirits that the king has taken such measures to protect my sisters.\n\nI approach the steps leading to the convent, but a hirdmann with a long red pony-tail and broad shoulders stops me. \"What's your business here?\" she asks, clearly unaware of who I am." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am Lilura, a Priestess of Norella, here to visit Viviana.\"\n\n\"Visit?\" She tilts her head. \"Shouldn't you live here if you're a priestess?\"\n\n\"I used to, but now I live at the palace as a handmaid to the princess.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ohhh,\" the hirdmann draws out as she nods. \"You're that priestess.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Well, I still have to search you.\"\n\n\"Fine,\" I say, spreading my arms and legs wide.\n\nThe hirdmann pats my clothing, and I nearly scream in pain when she touches my back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gritting my teeth, I allow her to check my shoes and pockets." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She finds a small sachet in my cloak and sniffs it.\n\n\"Tea from the palace,\" I explain.\n\nShe returns it and lets me pass. My boots help me tread carefully down the slick steps, damp with morning mist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I enter an empty Grotto and pass the Resting Cave where Kariana still rests upon the altar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I stop to talk to her for a few moments and whisper prayers to Norella. The convent is quiet this early in the morning, but Viviana is an early bird like me. She'll probably be buried deep in a book with a cup of coffee and surrounded by candlelight.\n\nI stroll into the library and find her just so." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good morning, High Priestess,\" I say and rest two fingers against my cheek." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She snaps her head up with eyes wide." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lilura? I'm so glad you're here, my little bird.\"\n\nWe hug—a squeezing bear hug—and she pours me a cup of coffee.\n\n\"How are you holding up?\" I ask and blow the steaming liquid." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Although I'll continue to weep more tears than Norella herself for Kariana, I think I'm coming to peace with her absence.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She takes a deep breath and sweeps a curly brownish-gray lock of hair from her forehead. \"It's the other women I'm concerned about. They're filled with fear and uncertainty. I can't offer them comfort.\"\n\n\"Still no progress on finding the murderer?\"\n\n\"No. It's like they vanished into the storm. Ceto was stationed at the entrance and didn't see anything.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Viviana shakes her head but looks at me with a pleased smile. \"I'm so happy you checked up on us, though.\"\n\n\"To be honest, that's not the only reason I came by.\" I reach into my cloak and retrieve the sachet of snake-leaves. \"It's these.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What about them?\" She lifts some of the leaves.\n\n\"I trust your judgment and wanted to know your thoughts. These leaves contain an immense amount of magic—more powerful than the healing waters of Norella. Nilson showed me that they can heal mortal wounds in mere moments.\"\n\nViviana stares wide-eyed at me. \"Is this true?\"\n\n\"Yes. I need to perform more experiments to discover their full power, but I've witnessed them stop death with my own eyes.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No.\" She shudders and pushes the leaves back into my hand. \"I don't like the sound of this. It's too much power for people to possess.\"\n\nPart of me wants to agree with her, but part of me is still excited about the leaves. \"Think of the good they could do.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And think of the bad,\" Viviana whispers, leaning close to my face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The healing waters of Norella are a blessing, but these leaves feel like a curse. To have power over death is inhuman and could upset the gods. The circle of life is one of the few truths in this world.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But—\"\n\n\"Lilura,\" she says, tilting her head and boring her deep brown eyes into mine. \"You know I'm proud of your accomplishments…but be careful. You're only tolerated at the palace because of Princess Ingrid. You could be banished should these leaves cause harm to anyone. Plus, if they contain the power you speak of, war and destruction will be the outcome.\"\n\nI ponder over her words and cannot come up with an argument." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Viviana is the wisest woman I know. The leaves, although exciting, do make me a bit uneasy.\n\nViviana touches my hand. \"I just want the best for you. If kingdoms get upset about the price of healing waters, they might go to war for the power you speak of within these leaves. It must be something ancient, something of the gods.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This power isn't meant for us.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I nod in concession and burn the leaves in the flame of the candle one-by-one. I'm a little down, but I trust her wisdom. \"Do you want me to stay and help comfort the priestesses?\"\n\nShe gives me a soft smile, which lifts the crow's-feet around her teary eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, my darling. I understand more than anyone how difficult things must be for you right now with things at the palace. How's your heart?\"\n\n\"I have my moments. Quite self-destructive moments. Ingrid and I fought last night.\" I sigh and shake my head. \"I feel terrible and want to help her with something. She's been haunted by a doppelgänger in watery and reflective surfaces. Do you know anything about them? Or why hers took the form of a mermaid?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hmm. I know doppelgängers can be harbingers of bad luck, but the mermaid form is different from anything I've read. An omen, maybe? It could mean the sea is dangerous.\"\n\n\"That's what I told her.\"\n\n\"Or, somebody brought here by the sea is dangerous—one of her suitors perhaps? I wouldn't worry too much. Princess Ingrid's psyche is just playing tricks on her during this time of stress. She needs you now more than ever, Lilura.\"\n\n\"Thank you. I just hope she forgives me for last night.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, I'm sure she will; I've seen how the princess looks at you,\" Viviana says and sips her coffee. \"Kariana and I were so happy for you to find love but did worry about the princess getting married someday. We had hoped…\" She trails off and lowers her gaze from mine.\n\n\"Hoped what?\"\n\n\"Oh, we had hoped to tell you this together. I suppose now I'll have to do this alone. I can't keep this knowledge any longer.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Viviana takes a deep breath and adjusts her navy-blue robes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kariana and I didn't just find you as a baby like we always said. There were many reasons we hid the truth from you, but the main one was because your mother asked us to.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My heart falls into my stomach, and my head grows light. \"What? My mother?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Years after The War of the Halflings, the Jorsti Empire continued to spread their evil propaganda and declared war on any kingdom who protected halfings. Despite having magical abilities, their small numbers made them vulnerable. Any leftover halfling communities—many hiding underground in the caves—were hunted and killed. Also, halfling sympathizers were targeted.\"\n\n\"Sympathizers?\"\n\n\"Yes, people who may have hidden halflings to protect them or who may have had relationships with them. People like your mother.\"\n\nI stand in shock and stumble backward into a bookshelf." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You mean? My mother was human?\"\n\n\"Yes. She came to us for help after your father was executed.\" Viviana guides me to my seat, where I tremble. \"Kariana and I helped her hide during her pregnancy and were midwives for your birth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My head sways in shock." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What was her name?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I ask in desperation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Viviana pats my arm. \"Lilura.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hot tears pour from my eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She gave me her name? Why didn't she want me?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, darling, she did!\" Viviana wraps me in her embrace. \"I'm sorry, but she passed away. Successful mating between humans and halflings is quite rare to begin with, but when it does happen, it's dangerous. No amount of healing waters would save her. She asked us to protect you and to give you her locket—a gift from your father.\"\n\nI play with my locket and ask, \"But why did she want you to lie to me?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My words barely make it from my mouth before I remembered something I once read about harpies. \"Oh.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes. She wanted us to protect you until you were old enough to understand. When a human and halfling are able to reproduce, their offspring is…well, sterile.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Like a mule. I may have learned I'm half-human, but I feel even less so now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not that I ever wanted children who would suffer a life of pain to hide their wings, but the option was there.\n\nI pull my chin down to my chest and close my eyes. This is too much.\n\n\"Kariana and I were prepared to tell you in the event you fell in love with a man. Then your heart soared for Ingrid, and we didn't know what to do. But that's not the only thing I wanted to tell you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I glare at her from under my brows." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What do you mean? I'm not sure I can handle any more information right now. What else?\"\n\n\"You've studied harpies because I allowed you to, but many materials written about harpies, centaurs, mermaids, and satyrs were forbidden and either hidden or destroyed long ago. I don't want your heart to break over Ingrid.\" She touches my hand and looks at me with tears in her eyes. \"There may be one way you can protect it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In response, my heart crashes against my ribs as if saying no." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I hold my hand over my chest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There is? How?\" I ask in a hoarse, whispery voice.\n\n\"After years of researching the gods and halflings, I found something.\"\n\nViviana strides to the bookshelf and takes down a large book. She returns to her seat and opens it, revealing that it's not a book at all but a place to hide items." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inside the hollowed-out book are small scrolls. They're old, stained, and tattered.\n\nViviana starts counting. \"Hmm, one's missing. I'll have to ask Ceto about this. No one's supposed to touch these besides me.\"\n\n\"What are those?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My not-so-secret collection of forbidden scrolls about the gods, halflings, and curses.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She dumps them out of the hollowed book." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And Lilura, please don't tell anyone about them, or they may get confiscated.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She lifts a single scroll from the book and pushes the rest toward me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I scramble through them in a frenzy, excited to read new information." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Some are about halflings, like a charm for mermaids to walk on land for a day." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Others are more permanent, like a spell which grants a centaur a human body." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The others are difficult summoning spells for the gods.\n\n\"This one,\" Viviana pauses to hold out the scroll she kept, \"could help you if things get bad with Ingrid. It's a ritual you can perform to break your bond without you dying.\"\n\nMy heart sinks at the mere thought, and sadness claws at my throat. I don't want to leave my temptress ever." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I always blame Ingrid for having too many emotions for me to handle, but right now, it's my own emotions that are battling inside and making me want to tear my skin apart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I focus on steady breathing as I grip the wooden table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Viviana rubs my hunched shoulders. \"Just take the scroll as a precaution. I don't want your heart breaking, my little bird.\"\n\nI try to control my emotions, but I cannot fathom life without Ingrid.\n\n\"Now is not the time to make a decision,\" Viviana says." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I only wanted you to have access to it. You know how magic works. Always with a price and never easy. This curse will break your bond, but it may render both of your hearts useless. It could change a person and should only be used if absolutely necessary.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When I finally have a clear head, I furrow my brows at Viviana. \"Why didn't you tell me any of this before? My parents? The curse? Why keep these things secret from me?\"\n\n\"We didn't keep secrets to hurt you. Kariana and I wanted to find the best time—\"\n\n\"There's no best time for something like this! No best time to reveal you've been lying about who I am my whole life! Nilson doesn't lie to me. Look.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I show her my smooth, brown hands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Clean. Unburnt. No crystal splinters. In one day, Nilson has shown me so much. I shouldn't have destroyed those leaves; he trusts me with his life's work.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You barely know him,\" Viviana says in a calm voice. \"We were only trying to protect you. There are just some things in this world we must be careful with. Like your heart.\"\n\nI get up without finishing my coffee.\n\n\"Lilura, wait,\" she says. \"I'm sorry!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She begs me to stay as I leave the library, but her words float around me in a foggy haze." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I've learned too much today. My mother was human, and it is possible to break my bond with Ingrid. What would I do without her?\n\nWhen I leave the convent, the sun cuts through the fog and warms my skin, but inside is nothing but icy numbness. I return to the palace with the roll of parchment clutched in my grip." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Let's engage in a collaborative writing exercise. I'll provide a starting point, and You'll continue with four sentences in the style of Rosalyn Briar." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even the faint morning light annoys me after a night of restless sleep. I toss, turn, and beat at my pillows, trying to forget everything from Viviana's death, to how Lilura rejected me, to the night terrors about my doppelgänger. The haunting creature visited me every hour of the night, thrashing and twisting in the sea with blood blooming from her stab wounds. The weight of fatigue presses against my chest and skull." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kicking off the sheets, I splay myself wide on the mattress. It's too empty. I hate waking up alone. At the convent, I always slept in Lilura's bed except during her time of the month. She said she needed to be alone then." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But once we moved to the palace, things got worse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She needed more and more distance. Now she's nearly cut me off completely when I need her the most. Kariana and Viviana raised her. Isn't she hurting? Doesn't she need me at all?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "There's a triple-knock at my door, and I slump out of bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When I open it, I'm thankful to find my handmaids." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Britta, Cece, and Augustina wear identical navy-blue dresses and white aprons, but the similarities end there. Augustina is tall, pale, and slender, with a face that's all edges. Britta is short, curvy, and dark with lovely black curls. Cece is petite with olive-skin and large hazel eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you need our assistance this morning, my princess?\" Cece asks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tears spill down my cheeks as I nod. They hug me and help me to the bathroom. I can't go anywhere with my hair a tangled bird's nest and my skin slick with nightmare sweat, so I let my handmaids draw a bath.\n\n\"Shall I steam your teal dress, my princess?\" Augustina asks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Please,\" I say as I sink into the tub. \"Thank you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the ledge, the jar of Lilura's bath concoction is running low." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Britta scrubs my skin pink while Cece conditions and combs out my hair. It's surreal that we're Launching Kariana into the sea while beginning a Resting for Viviana. In all of Norella Isle's history, I don't think two priestesses have ever died so close together. I pray the twins' souls can find their way to one another in Dehel's lair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I feel much better. Thank you, ladies,\" I say, wrapping a warm towel around my body." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can get dressed on my own if you want to go get ready yourselves.\"\n\nThey curtsy and scuttle away. I reach into the lukewarm water to drain the tub but jump back when the doppelgänger ripples across the surface.\n\nI rush from the bathroom and freeze when I return to my bedchamber." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lilura stands near my vanity with her head down and fiddles with her fingers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She looks lovely, all dressed in her teal priestess dress and fur cloak." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She even applied a little makeup: a bit of pink eyeshadow and plum lipstick to enhance her brown skin.\n\n\"Ingrid, I'm so sorry about last night.\" She twists her brows together as her lip trembles. \"I love you and––\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I throw myself forward, knocking her onto my bed. \"I don't need to hear anymore,\" I say, placing my finger against her lips. \"I'm glad you're here now.\"\n\nShe takes my hand and smiles through her tears." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Really? That's it? I thought I'd have to make it up to you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, you will.\" I grin and cup her cheek." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But for now, I only want two things: for us to be together and to focus on the difficult day ahead. I know what it's like to lose a mother, and you've lost two. I want to be here for you. I'll do anything you want.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lilura kisses my lips sweetly and slowly, making at least one thing right in this world.\n\n\"I don't deserve you, Ingrid.\"\n\nShe helps me get ready in my teal priestess clothes, styles my hair into a simple braid and applies my makeup. I tell her all about my dreams." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I crushed more pearl dust for you,\" Lilura says as she sweeps it onto my skin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I let her, but not without a scolding. \"You shouldn't suffer for my sake.\"\n\n\"Actually,\" she begins, taking her time to dust my cleavage, \"Nilson has been showing me how to perform some basic enchantments without suffering for them. I successfully made a few muscle-relaxing bath salts and this pearl dust without any pain.\"\n\n\"I'm glad.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your dreams could have just been about your fears. Since you saw the doppelgänger with the same wound as Viviana, but,\" she pauses to place a strand of pearls around my neck, \"we'll still be cautious.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I grab her hand and kiss it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who do you think could be doing this? And why?\"\n\nLilura sits on the vanity bench next to me and sighs. \"I still believe it has to do with the sacred waters. Someone wants the priestesses gone.\"\n\n\"Well, Anders was extremely interested in the waters, but he would've had to sail here undetected before the opening feast. Jorsti's pretty far.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I shake my head as goosebumps prick my neck." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oskar. He even said it was time to eliminate the priestesses. I was angry when I thought he simply meant their positions, but what if he meant the women themselves?\"\n\n\"I'll see if I can get a read on him, though he's always stoic and closed off. Oskar did have mud on his boots the night Kariana was found dead. We'll find the truth.\" Lilura stands, extending her hand. \"Time for you to go to breakfast, my temptress.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're coming too. My seagull-handmaids mentioned that everyone would be dining together this morning for a safety briefing. Hopefully, we'll learn more about what the hirdmenn know. Ready?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "We leave my room, and Lilura cradles my head against her chest, so I don't have to see the mirrors." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her lavender and jasmine perfume soothes me. We enter the grand dining hall as the men and their advisors sit at the table. Soren sits next to Nilson, who gives Lilura and me a sympathetic smile with tears in his eyes. He's probably hurting as much as we are, seeing his former priestesses slaughtered so." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lilura and I find our chairs on the other side and wait for Father." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The feast laid out on the table looks delectable: eggs, sausages, smoked salmon, sweetbreads, fruit, and cheese. Too bad I have no appetite.\n\nFather walks in with Tia, whose eyes are sunken this morning, and helps her sit.\n\n\"Are you alright, Tia?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I lean forward and ask.\n\nShe startles and sits up straight in her chair. \"I'm fine, darling. It's no—\"\n\nFather clears his throat and takes a sip of water as Oskar strides into the room to stand by his side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Though Oskar can be quite harsh, it's hard to imagine him murdering a priestess." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His mind may be cunning and sharp, but his hands always remain clean.\n\n\"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,\" Father says, fidgeting and bouncing more than usual. \"I hope you were able to get at least some rest last night. I wanted everyone together this morning, so Oskar can brief you about the situation and safety protocols. Oskar.\"\n\n\"Thank you, Your Highness. As you all know, to put it bluntly, there is a murderer on the loose. Before you arrived on Norella Isle, a priestess named Kariana was found dead in the sacred spring of the convent. She had been poisoned.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oskar pauses to look down at his feet while there is a bit of chatter around the table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I squeeze Lilura's hand under the table.\n\n\"Our hirdmenn have been investigating the murder and protecting the priestesses ever since. It clearly was not enough. We have yet to find any real answers and have failed the priestesses. Whoever it is has evaded every effort of ours. After we return from the Launching today, everyone will remain here at the palace on lockdown until this is sorted. Of course, you may forfeit your courtship of the princess should you choose to leave the island immediately. But while you are here, we would like to keep everyone contained to the palace.\"\n\nThe room grows silent, and no one has touched their food.\n\n\"For the fishing challenge this morning, we will—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What?\" I ask with heat flaring up my neck. \"There's still a challenge today? We have to say goodbye to Kariana and lay Viviana out to rest. Lilura and I should be at the convent!\"\n\n\"We will have plenty of time since the Launching isn't until noon. The challenge can't wait, Princess Ingrid, for the ball is still planned to be held on your birthday.\"\n\n\"Screw my birthday!\" I say, causing Father's eyes to widen in shock." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Two women have been murdered on this island. Think of their families, think of the other priestesses!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"W-What if…\" Soren pipes up, scanning the table before his blue eyes lock with mine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"W-What if we donate our catches today to the priestesses and their families? You could send a few of the cooks along so they can have a nice reception after such an emotional day.\"\n\nMy temperature cools as I sink back down in my seat and think about Soren's idea. It would be a kind gesture. I look to Lilura, who nods in agreement." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's a fine idea, Prince Soren,\" I say, turning to Father and Oskar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Every single fish from the challenge today will go to the priestesses and their families in mourning.\"\n\nAs Father and Oskar plan out the details, I force down a few bites of food, but even the tea tastes bitter today. I catch Soren staring at me and offer him the only smile I can manage. When breakfast ends, Father stands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's time for the fishing challenge, after which we will go straight to the Convent of Norella with the catch for the Resting and Launching. Everyone, prepare to meet at the harbor in half an hour.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With that, Father and Oskar leave for the study, and chatter rises in the dining hall.\n\nI lean to whisper in Lilura's ear, \"Did you get any read on Oskar?\"\n\n\"Nothing,\" she whispers back. \"At least nothing bad. He's an asshole, but he was genuinely disturbed when he spoke of the murders. He's hiding something, but not that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hmm.\" I shake my head, watching Tia slowly rise and turn from the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Can you get anything from Tia? I don't think she's been feeling well, but she won't ever talk to me.\"\n\nLilura nods and takes my arm. We leave the suitors and their advisors behind to follow Tia into the drawing room. She pours some floral tea and pops a lemon drop into her mouth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ladies,\" she says, puckering her lips against the sour candy. \"Would you like a little more tea before we're forced out into the cold?\"\n\n\"Yes, please.\" I sit on the couch and glance at the grandfather clock. We have a few minutes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How are you, Tia? I'm not saying this in a rude way, as you are always beautiful, but you look rather pale lately. Are you ill?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, I'm perfectly fine. Maybe a slight cold; I still don't do well with Norella weather. This winter that's coming, I can tell it will be fierce.\" She adjusts her dress before pouring us tiny cups of floral tea. \"Do you remember last year? I barely stepped away from the fireplace in my chambers. I do miss D'Estrana's weather. Warm. Bright. Downright balmy. Here, the chill seeps into my bones.\"\n\n\"I suppose I can't understand,\" I say." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've grown up accustomed to it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, you Norella Islanders are quite hardy people! I told Rolf that the salt makes your skin thick.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tia giggles, then looks back and forth between Lilura and me. \"I'm so sorry about the priestesses, dears. It truly breaks my heart that innocent women have been killed. I'm especially sorry for you, Lilura.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" Lilura says. \"I am torn apart inside and fear for our fellow sisters.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I place my arm around Lilura and let her cry on my shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Can you believe this competition for your hand, Ingrid?\" Tia asks rhetorically. \"I'm appalled they are still doing the fishing challenge this morning.\"\n\n\"Thank you!\" I release a sigh. \"Why is Father so determined to keep on schedule?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, well, you know your father and Oskar.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tia's face grows taut as if she realized she said the wrong thing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sure they want to maintain a semblance of peace and order. They don't want to alarm the public.\"\n\n\"But the people should be alarmed!\" Lilura says. \"And Ingrid shouldn't have to choose a husband during a time like this.\"\n\n\"Still with the marriage thing.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tia presses her lips together in an odd smirk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The sooner the two of you accept Ingrid will be married, the better off you'll be. Not Rolf, of course, but many great kings and queens throughout history have kept lovers. Your affair will be nothing new.\"\n\nLilura and I grow silent, sipping our tea and waiting for the minutes to pass. I can't believe Tia just said that. Father and Tia always look the other way with Lilura." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After an eternity of awkwardness, Father and Oskar summon us to leave for the fishing challenge. All the suitors and advisors exit the palace with us. I take LiLi's hand, not caring what anyone thinks.\n\nThe carriages set out for the Sommerhaus." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Along the bumpy road, I watch the pines sway and dance in the breeze. Before I know it, more tears well up inside and scratch at my throat like spindly sea urchins. I take a few breaths to push the pain down and turn to Lilura, who rubs her temples.\n\n\"What's wrong?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, just a mild headache from searching Oskar and Tia's emotions.\" Lilura wraps me in her embrace. \"Tia was truly sorrowful back there. Like Oskar, she's hiding something, but nothing like murder.\"\n\nWe reach our destination and step inside the Sommerhaus where we can stay warm while the suitors fish." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After Oskar briefs the three remaining men on their task, I walk over to them on the patio.\n\n\"Good luck this morning, gentlemen,\" I say, making eye contact with each of them. My teeth chatter in the chilly breeze, and I can't imagine how the suitors will feel out on the sea.\n\n\"Thank you, Princess Ingrid,\" Jensen says and kisses my hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Anders stands close and wraps his arms around me in an awkward hug." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you,\" he says. \"I hate to see you so distraught. I promise to catch many fish to donate.\"\n\n\"Thank you, Anders,\" I say in surprise. \"That is actually kind of you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soren hangs back a little, and I approach him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hi,\" I say, touching his arm. \"Good luck out there. Stay warm and be careful.\"\n\n\"Thank you.\" He shuffles his feet then looks me in the eyes. \"I-I'm s-sorry i-if I made things at breakfast worse. I, um—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, no, no.\" I wrap my arms tightly around him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I love the idea. Thank you.\"\n\nJensen and Anders both stare at our embrace, unable to hide their jealousy.\n\nWhen I let him go, Soren follows the men down the ramp toward the harbor. Nilson waits for me at the door and opens his arms wide." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I accept his hug." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am so sorry, my princess.\"\n\n\"I am too,\" I say, releasing him to grab his hands. \"This is all so terrible.\"\n\n\"I know you have Lilura…and Soren,\" he says, squeezing my hands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But I'm here for you if you need anything.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you.\"\n\nWe step inside the house, and Nilson grins. \"Your great-grandmother certainly had a flair for the dramatic.\"\n\nI giggle because he's right; the Sommerhaus is somehow even more ornate than the palace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The entryway is as golden as a summer's day and decorated with images of seashells." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even the wall sconces are shaped like the arms of an octopus. A gilded nautilus mosaic sits at the center of the marble floor.\n\nNilson escorts me into the sunroom of the Sommerhaus, where my family, the other advisors, and Lilura prepare to watch the fishing challenge. I sit next to Lilura on a white couch embroidered with sea creatures facing the window where we have a lovely view of the harbor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I hold Lilura's hand, squeezing tight as the men set off on the sailboats and begin fishing with nets and rods." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although I'm the one who created the contract, I'm happy today's challenge isn't dangerous, just cold. Servants offer us tea and cookies, but after a while, I lean my head against Lilura's shoulder and let my eyelids flutter until they close completely.\n\nLilura caresses my cheek and whispers, \"It's over, my love. Time to go.\"\n\nI must have fallen asleep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Everyone exits the Sommerhaus and returns to the carriages." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The suitors were advised to sail directly to the convent with the day's catch.\n\nI hold the carriage door for Lilura, and we get inside. The caravan heads north toward the convent. Lilura leans on my shoulder, and I stroke her pink curls." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The jostle of the carriage through the bumpy mountain pass doesn't hide the fact that she's sobbing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm here for you, LiLi.\"\n\n\"I know,\" she says, wiping her cheeks. \"I'm just burdened with guilt. I was upset with Viviana when I saw her last. She apologized and begged me to stay, but I walked away. Now, that's how she last saw me: angry. I wish I could tell her I love her.\"\n\n\"Oh, she knows,\" I say. \"She knows.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the carriage halts, we step out into the sea breeze." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An unsettling sensation of déjà vu sweeps through me. I can't believe both Kariana and Viviana are gone. After descending the steps, Ceto, the very new high priestess, greets us with a group hug.\n\n\"I don't know what to do,\" she says, voice trembling." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you search the entire convent?\" I ask." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I didn't have to; the hirdmenn decided to do a sweep but found nothing.\" Ceto sighs. \"In a way, I'm glad because I didn't want to find out any of our sisters were capable.\"\n\n\"Me too,\" Lilura says, patting her back. \"How are the other women holding up?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Everyone lives in fear that they'll be next. If the hirdmenn can't protect us, who will?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm absolutely lost at her words. Who will?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Anders, Jensen, and Soren arrive from the dock.\n\n\"High Priestess Ceto,\" Soren says and presses his two fingers against his cheek. \"Those three boats are filled with fish. They're yours to use as a feast tonight and distribute to Kariana and Viviana's family.\"\n\n\"Thank you.\" Ceto's eyes tear up again as she looks back-and-forth at the three men." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's very generous of you. They had some elderly aunts and a few cousins with their own families. They'll appreciate the kind gesture.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She motions to the men. \"You three can go in now if the princess doesn't mind. No need to wait in the long line.\"\n\nThe men do as she says as the line forms behind us, including my father and Tia. The line runs along the ledge of the cliff and twists the entire way down the steps." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If Ceto's face could pale anymore, it does then as she stares at the citizens." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I should greet the rest of the visitors.\" Ceto shakes her head and gives us another group hug. \"I don't know how to be the high priestess, especially during something like this.\"\n\nLilura strokes Ceto's cheek. \"You're doing great.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you,\" Ceto says and moves to greet Father and Tia." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After them, Ceto and Oskar greet one another. Instead of moving on right away, Ceto whispers into his ear. I want to watch their exchange longer, but Lilura escorts me through the Grotto and inside the Resting cave.\n\nLilura and I stand side-by-side before Viviana." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The thick incense hanging in the air stings my nostrils and dulls my vision, making the death of our beloved high priestess even more surreal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Neither of us says a word as we place our seashells on the altar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A deep pain of sorrow clenches my chest as an unbelievable number of tears pour down my cheeks.\n\nI whisper a prayer to Norella over Viviana's body and hang back to let Lilura say her goodbyes. My heart breaks for LiLi. I wish I could fix everything for her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am deeply sorry for how I left things,\" she says, resting her hand on Viviana's shoulder. \"I love you and will miss you every day.\"\n\nAs if floating and not by my own volition, I follow Lilura out of the Grotto and down a long tunnel opening up to the beach.\n\nAlready a small crowd forms near the shore, blocking the view I don't wish to see." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The waves crash and ebb against the pebbled beach, but their music isn't peaceful today; it's haunting and somber." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The midday sun fails to burn through the haze of clouds, keeping us in the chilly breeze without relief. The crowd parts for Lilura and me, and we take our place next to the priestesses and hold hands. The wind whips the teal silk of our dresses and the dark mourning clothes of the people. We wait in meditative silence for the rest of the mourners to arrive." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the beach is full of people from the Resting, Ceto, who shifts in her navy-blue robes, shuffles forward with a torch." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Kariana was a kind, humble, and devout worshipper,\" she announces with a shaky voice. \"Noble goddess Norella, call upon your daughters to gently drag our sister to the afterlife.\"\n\n\"Norella's daughters, greet our sister,\" the crowd chants.\n\nFather steps toward the center near Ceto." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"People of Norella Isle, I am deeply saddened by the loss of Kariana and, of course, Viviana. The deaths of two sacred priestesses so close together is unheard of. As your king, I want you to know we are doing everything we can to discover the truth. For now, we are here to Launch Kariana into the sea.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turns to the boat grave to look at her. \"May the noble goddess Norella watch over Kariana's Launching.\"\n\nEveryone places two fingers on their cheeks and chants, \"Norella, bless our fallen sister.\"\n\nCeto lights the teal coverings, which burst into flames." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The whispery tendrils of fire flicker in the wind but remain strong and hot with the oil-soaked silk. The entire beach fills with the scent of myrrh and cassia oil. The usually pleasant smell sends my stomach into a whirl of nausea, and I clench my teeth to keep from vomiting.\n\nWith the help of Lilura and one other priestess, Ceto launches the boat grave into the sea." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kariana gets tossed around by the waves, but soon the wind fills the tiny sail, and she glides into the sea." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The crowd watches until the waves and the wind snuff the fire out completely.\n\nBack at the palace, I follow Lilura toward her tower, but she stops short on the spiral staircase. \"Ingrid, I know you are going to hate this,\" she pauses to swallow, \"but I need to be alone right now.\"\n\n\"What?\" I ask as my heart twists inside my chest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why? You shouldn't be alone right now. I thought I could hold you for a little while before my date with Jensen.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm not sure how to explain.\" She hangs her head.\n\n\"You never want to be around me anymore,\" I say in a weak whisper and turn to leave. \"You're pushing me away.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's not true, Ingrid,\" she calls as I descend the steps." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I still love you.\"\n\nI race the entire way to my bedchambers, holding in every horrible emotion. After bursting through my door, I collapse on my bed and let it all out in shrieks and pillow-punches. Why did this happen to Kariana and Viviana?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why are they gone? Why doesn't Lilura want to be around me? How am I supposed to choose a husband?\n\nWhen my meltdown wanes, I close my eyes and drift away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm in my own boat grave, laid out with silks and seashells and oils, but alive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My doppelgänger drags me under the waves. Thrashing, I can't get away from her frigid hands and swallow a mouthful of saltwater. I fade in and out as she drags me further down. Inside an underwater cave, she places me next to a dagger, a few green leaves, and a teacup." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She shakes me and shouts in my face.\n\nI jerk up in a cold sweat, screaming. Britta, Augustina, and Cece burst through my door and rush to my side.\n\n\"What is it, Princess Ingrid?\" Cece asks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"An awful nightmare. I'll be fine.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lilura sent us to prepare you for your date,\" Britta says. \"Do you want to cancel with Jensen?\"\n\n\"No, I'd rather get the date over with.\"\n\n\"Over with? Really? I think he's quite handsome.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Augustina combs her fingers through my sweat-drenched hair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"First, you need another bath.\"\n\nI let the women bathe me, dress me, and style me like a doll as I remain in a foggy state of agony and fear. They've chosen one of my new dresses which is covered with white lace and pearls—and is very revealing.\n\n\"Jensen will love it,\" Augustina says as she places the strand of pearls from his trunk around my neck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You look absolutely stunning.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you, ladies. I appreciate your help today.\"\n\nI find Jensen waiting for me at the bottom of the grand staircase. His brown eyes grow wide at my appearance. A few hirdmenn are stationed around the palace and some servants here and there, but otherwise, it is quiet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everyone else was told to eat in their chambers tonight or make arrangements elsewhere in the palace. Tonight, it will just be Jensen and me in the dining hall.\n\n\"Good evening, Princess Ingrid,\" Jensen says and sticks out his rigid arm for me to take. \"You look lovely. I didn't get a chance to tell you how very sorry I am about your friends. If you wish to be alone tonight, I would understand if you want to break our date.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you,\" I say, shaking my head. \"But I don't like being alone.\"\n\nInside the dining hall, lit with candles, Jensen pulls out my chair. The curtains are open, allowing the stars to peek in on us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's beautiful; I wish I were sharing this evening with Lilura…or Soren." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I shake my head to pull myself back into the moment.\n\nJensen awkwardly pours us each some wine and moves to grab the first course tray. He barely talks through dinner, piping up with a few questions here and there.\n\n\"Your mother was from my home, D'Estrana, yes?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I nod and politely smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She was. Growing up, she would tell me stories of the beautiful land. I've always wanted to go.\"\n\nHe nods and goes back to eating his fish without continuing the conversation. He's very stiff, stoic, and silent. Not that I mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although I don't want to be alone, I don't want to suffer through forced conversation either." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Like Augustina said, Jensen is very handsome to look at." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He is tall and lean with rich, dark skin and a neatly chiseled face. His flawless features could be cut from stone. I'm sure he'll make his wife very happy someday…but she won't be me. We're both polite and could easily be friends, but he and I just don't connect." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There's no spark or fun like with Soren." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I mean Lilura. Lilura.\n\nI enjoy laughing and teasing and pranks. I like an intense attraction to someone's soul. I like someone easy to talk to." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I like someone who will care for me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soren's blue eyes and curly hair pop into my mind. I shake my head as guilt swells in my chest.\n\nI can't make any decisions until I speak to Lilura. That is, if she'll ever talk to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I've picked at my food like a bird all night, waiting for the most important course—dessert." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I look over at the buffet and sink in disappointment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There are no more trays. Maybe I should eat a bit more of this spinach salad, or I'll be starving tonight.\n\nI gasp with delight when a servant brings us two large, frosty mugs filled with creamy butterscotch froth, ice cream, and drizzled with chocolate. My eyes widen as Jensen sets the delicious treat in front of me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I hope you like floats,\" he says, starting with a spoon to eat his. \"It's my favorite. As a child, these would always cheer me up. I know you are hurting right now, but I hope this treat can lift your spirits, if even for a moment.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" I say sincerely, looking into his eyes. \"That means a lot.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "We both dig into our floats without a word, just grins with messy float-foam on our chins." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, Jensen is someone I could be friends with, but he's not the husband for me. I can't believe my own thoughts. Am I really getting on board with this husband idea?\n\nAfter our date, Jensen bids me goodnight with a cold kiss on my cheek." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I thank him for the lovely dessert." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Climbing the grand staircase, I make it about halfway before I drown in the intense sensation of loneliness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's not late and, having taken a rage-nap, I won't be able to sleep tonight.\n\nI find myself walking toward Soren's room, unsure about what to say. If Lilura doesn't want me right now, the only other person I want to spend time with is him. I don't even care if the hirdmenn stationed around the palace see." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When I arrive at his door, I take a few deep breaths and whisper the alphabet backward." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I knock and wait.\n\nNilson answers the door. \"Princess Ingrid!\" he says, wrapping me in a hug.\n\n\"How are you holding up?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I ask as he lets go." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm fine. I should ask you the same question, dear.\" He shakes his head and pats my cheek. \"I can't imagine your pain.\"\n\n\"It's almost unbearable.\" I sigh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But it's Lilura I worry about. I know she is strong, but she's becoming more distant and—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soren walks from around the corner, shirtless and towel-drying his hair. I wave to him, and his eyes widen in shock. He scrambles to throw on a top before approaching Nilson and me.\n\n\"G-Good e-evening, Princess Ingrid.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He tilts his head to study me. \"How are you? Do you need anything?\"\n\nI take a deep breath as my heart flutters. \"Actually, I was wondering, um…if you weren't busy…would you want to work on the puzzle with me?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soren's jaw hangs open for a moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He would love to.\" Nilson eagerly pushes Soren out the door.\n\n\"Y-Yes,\" Soren says and steps into the hall with me. \"Um, yes.\"\n\nRelief washes over me, as does the scent of Soren's soap and aftershave." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's clean with a hint of oakmoss. Grinning at Soren, Nilson shuts the door to give us privacy.\n\nSoren scans my gown and touches his buttoned pajama top. \"Oh, should I change?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, you look perfect.\"\n\nHe extends his arm, which I take.\n\n\"Thank you,\" I tell him as we follow the hallways toward my chambers. \"I don't want to be alone tonight.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're welcome. Wait, where are we going?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His cheeks flush as I lead him around the corner.\n\n\"My chambers. No one will bother us there.\"\n\nIf possible, his cheeks and chest grow even redder. His mouth begins moving silently, and I know he's doing his anxiety-coping trick." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I begin chanting with him, \"S, R, Q, P, O, N…\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stops and looks at me with wide eyes, and his chest rising and falling dramatically.\n\n\"I'm sorry.\" I touch his chest as we stop in front of my door. \"You don't have to be nervous around me. If you're uncomfortable joining me tonight, I understand. You're welcome to return to your room.\"\n\n\"No, no, no.\" Soren shakes his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I want to spend time with you. I'll try my best not to be nervous.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I open the door and tug him inside. His eyes scan my room side-to-side and floor-to-ceiling, admiring the extravagant décor. He walks to the window overlooking the gardens as I open the trunk he gave me painted with cresting waves.\n\n\"What a gorgeous view,\" he says, turning to my dresser." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He rushes over to look at my seashells." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wow! Look at these! My sister would go crazy. We had a collection we kept in our study.\"\n\n\"My mother and I found these.\" I step next to him and touch a few shells.\n\nSoren grins as he studies me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My eyes wander too over his dark mop of curls, his kind eyes, his freshly shaved skin, his lips… Heat rises in my chest and cheeks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I shouldn't feel this way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I turn back to the trunk of gifts.\n\n\"Here,\" I retrieve the puzzle box and scatter the contents on the floor. \"Ready?\"\n\nSoren nods and sits on the floor. As he begins separating edge pieces from the pile, I sneak away to grab a nightgown from my dresser and change the bathroom." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I need to get out of this itchy, lace gown." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Straining my arms to reach the buttons, I'm finally able to slip the gown from my hips. I throw on my silky nightgown, comfortable at last. On my return to Soren and the puzzle, I grab a bottle of wine from the back of my wardrobe.\n\nAs I approach, Soren looks anywhere but directly at me, avoiding my nightgown." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He focuses on the puzzle and rushes to place pieces together." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I smile to myself and sit close to him, causing his posture to stiffen.\n\n\"There's no harm in looking, Soren. You don't have to be nervous around me.\"\n\nHe gulps as I uncork the bottle and take a swig.\n\n\"Here,\" I say, offering the bottle to Soren. \"Making any progress?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sips from the bottle and nods." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes. I have separated all the edge pieces and snapped a few of the island together.\"\n\nWe first frame the puzzle by working on the edges. Once we get the entire edge, we focus on the outline of the island. Just like real life, the Styrmir Sea is the most difficult part." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This is so relaxing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soren squints at some of the pieces and the design on the box." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You know the shape and locations better than I do,\" he comments and furrows his brows with deep focus. \"Does this one fit here?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" I say as he snaps two large sections together. \"This is really coming along!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He smiles and continues working. \"It's a beautiful kingdom; the more I'm here, the more I love it. Do you have a favorite spot?\"\n\nOur hands brush against one another as we reach for the same piece. Soren's hand lingers a moment as he caresses the back of mine, filling me with tingles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I lift a small section of the puzzle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Right here. This tide pool beach not far from the palace was always a favorite of mine growing up. It's fairly hidden by cliffs and forest. My mother and I would sneak through a little path,\" I pause to trace the map with my finger, \"and spend hours exploring the tiny pools of life.\"\n\n\"It sounds magical,\" he says. \"I'd love to go someday.\"\n\nI grin and continue placing pieces together." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How's Lilura holding up?\" Soren asks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not good, but she wanted to be alone tonight.\" I shrug. \"I'm giving her space but will check on her tomorrow.\"\n\n\"You're a good friend.\"\n\n\"Thanks,\" I say, placing a puzzle piece down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How's Nilson? He puts on a brave face to help everyone else, but is he alright when you two are alone?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Everything's definitely taking a toll on him. I can tell because he buries himself in his work when he is sad or upset.\"\n\n\"I suppose Lilura does that, too.\"\n\n\"I've greatly admired the man ever since I met him,\" Soren says. \"I was at first jealous because I couldn't become a sorcerer. I don't have the touch.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't think I have it either. Lilura was a rebel to study it herself. It's truly miraculous what they can do, though it takes a toll. I'm glad Nilson is showing LiLi how to be more careful.\"\n\n\"LiLi,\" he repeats the nickname. \"I like that.\"\n\nWe drink, talk, and laugh together with ease while finishing the puzzle. Only one piece left, and the bottle of wine is spent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, no!\" Soren says." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sorry, the last piece is in my room.\"\n\nI take his hand in mine. \"Well, we'll just have to do this again, won't we?\"\n\nHis face lights up brighter than a full moon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I would love that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I walk him to my door with slow steps as I truly don't want him to go. I know myself, though, and what might happen if I let him stay. I can't do that to Lilura. I need her on board with my choice of husband…and I'm hoping she approves of Soren." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you so much for spending the evening with me; you have no idea how much it means. You helped take my mind off everything for a while.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No need to thank me, Ingrid,\" he says with a grin. \"I had a wonderful time, and…well, I'm here for you whenever you need me.\"\n\nI rise on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek, breathing in his scent. His cheeks and ears flush." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Goodnight, Soren.\"\n\nHe nods and composes himself. \"G-Goodnight, P-Princess Ingrid.\"\n\nI watch him walk down the hallway, past all the mirrors. When he reaches the corner, he glances back at me. I smile and slowly close the door." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "The user will write a bit then you need to write around three sentences continuing directly from the user's text. Try to stick to the fantasy, romance, LGBT genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I shouldn't have spied on Ingrid's date with Anders, but it was too tempting not to. He's such an ass, and I needed a laugh after this horrible day. I also wanted to infuse his water with the acne concoction, which was no hardship at all since Chef Conrad loves me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Watching Anders gulp down his glass was ever-so-satisfying.\n\nIngrid was polite and fairly quiet during their dinner in the dining hall while Anders went on about why she should choose him. Dark tendrils of Ingrid's disgust swam through my belly, and I felt bad she had to spend time alone with him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had to step away from the doorframe to giggle, though, when Anders asked if she was a virgin…" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'll soon be on her date with Soren, the man I actually worry about her falling for." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although, if she must choose one of them, he's certainly the better option. I remind myself how sweet, kind, and respectful he is. He's certainly darling to look at with his lopsided grin and puppy-dog eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Plus, he gives great massages." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I still can't decide whether I want to like him or destroy him.\n\nI watch Soren wait for Ingrid from my tower. He switches back and forth between pacing the garden to tap his foot on every single paver and re-folding the picnic blanket." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He's a bit strange, but so are Ingrid and I." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ingrid steps out of the palace. Even from way up here, I can tell she's been crying. I curse myself for not going to her after the date with Anders, but I can't handle the emotional load right now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My mind is fragile. Brittle. Broken." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They pour wine and talk. Rage boils inside as Soren holds Ingrid in his arms. I recall how I felt in his embrace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jealousy seeps through every little crack in my emotional armor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I am not sure if it's for Ingrid or Soren.\n\nI hope Ingrid makes an excuse to go inside soon; I don't need her getting too close to Soren yet. But she doesn't. A blue cloud of comfort blooms in Ingrid's mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She lets him hold her, and my breath catches in my throat when Ingrid's skin tingles with desire. No. My heart crashes against my chest in agony.\n\nMy eyes flash wide when Soren kisses her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kisses her! Ingrid is all-consumed with Soren's blue aura as a wave of sexual heat courses through her body." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I look away and attempt to close myself off from Ingrid's emotions as I crash onto my bed.\n\nI grip my aching chest. This is it. My time with Ingrid is over." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But do I even deserve her?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I lie to her. I keep her at a distance. I don't give her the affection she clearly craves." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "lets do a fantasy, romance, LGBT thing. u write four sentences bits" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I place my hand on Soren's warm chest to gently push us apart. Kissing him felt unbelievable but terribly wrong at the same time. The sting of guilt settles into my stomach as dark clouds filter in, blocking the stars and Northern Lights.\n\nAfter catching my breath, I stare into his gorgeous blue eyes and say, \"I'm so sorry, Soren. You are a wonderful man, but I can't—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"N-No, I-I'm sorry.\" His cheeks redden, despite the chill sweeping through the air." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Um, I-I shouldn't have done that. I'm an idiot for thinking you liked me over Anders. It's my fault.\"\n\n\"No, it's not your fault. Of course, I like you more than Anders.\" I caress his arm and shake my head. \"The fault is mine alone. I need to tell you something important. That is, if you're still interested in marrying me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He perks up. \"Very much.\"\n\nI suck in a deep breath. \"Whoever marries me needs to know and accept something.\"\n\nRubbing his neck, Soren tilts his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"More than what's already in your marriage contract?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes,\" I say. \"It's about Lilura.\"\n\n\"What about her? Does she hate me?\"\n\n\"I honestly can't tell, but it's not about that. Lilura's not my handmaid.\" I sit up and hold my shoulders in a confidant posture." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She's my girlfriend. My lover. That's why she might dislike you.\"\n\nSoren's mouth falls wide, and he doesn't even take notice of the thunder booming in the distance.\n\nI clear my throat and continue, \"She and I have been together for almost three years. I love her. If you're interested in marrying me, you must accept Lilura's presence and find a way to get along. I can't live without her.\"\n\nHe nods and gazes out at the garden." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So, this is what the contract was all about? You didn't want to marry any of us.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Correct.\"\n\nSoren hangs his head. \"I care about you, Ingrid, but I don't want to marry someone who doesn't want to marry me, and I don't want to get in the way of you and Lilura.\"\n\nI slide my hand into his, causing Soren to stitch his eyebrows together." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The thing is…I'm starting to think I could be happy with both of you. But I need to get Lilura on board first. I can't lose her.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lightning flashes all around as raindrops pelt our faces. We rush under the gazebo for shelter, giggling. Soren holds me close as my eyes linger on his lips, which I wish to kiss again.\n\n\"I understand,\" he whispers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I think I'd be happy with you as well, even with Lilura around. Our date on the beach with her was some of the most fun I've had in a long time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I grow warm and fuzzy all over. \"Really?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Really.\"\n\nI kiss his cheek. \"Well, I'm going to find her and make her talk to me somehow.\"\n\n\"Do you want me to go with you?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, I should do this alone.\"\n\nSoren takes my hand and kisses it. \"Goodnight, Princess Ingrid.\"\n\n\"Goodnight. I'll see you tomorrow.\" I wink and dash through the rainy gardens toward the palace.\n\nI hope Lilura will talk to me." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "NarrativeBot: Extend text by 6 sentences sentences. Maintain fantasy, romance, LGBT genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tugging Soren's hand, we race up the grand staircase, leaving the celebration behind. Everyone will simply think we're eager to consummate our marriage. But I know the keyword to Lilura's cipher, and I need Soren's help to solve it.\n\nIt's storming, and the hirdmenn are on high alert, so we can't sneak away from the palace right now, but we can figure out what Lilura has been up to these past few days.\n\nWe swing by Soren's room to grab his things, then dart through the shadowy, mirrored halls into my chambers. With a click, I turn the brass lock on the door, though I doubt anyone would try to disturb us tonight…" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soren goes into the bathroom to change into pajamas. I attempt to get out of my wedding gown but can only reach the top button; I'll need Soren's help to unhook the rest. While waiting, I retrieve Lilura's journal along with some quills and parchment for us to scratch out notes. I set up my writing desk and light a few candles, all of which were made by Lilura. They release relaxing lavender and sultry jasmine into the air, just like her perfume. My heart longs for her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Soren exits the bathroom, I offer him a sympathetic smile.\n\n\"What is it? Do you not know the keyword?\"\n\n\"No, I think I do. It's just…\" I trail off and turn my back to him, sweeping my hair to the front of my shoulder.\n\n\"Oh,\" he says. \"D-Do y-you n-need help?\"\n\n\"Do you mind?\"\n\n\"N-Not a-at all.\" Soren steps close to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he works the silk-wrapped buttons, Soren's fingers are warm and tickle my back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he reaches the last one, right above my derriere, he quickly removes his hands and steps back. Holding the top of my dress, I turn to look at him. His gaze is fixed on the floor.\n\nI reach to caress his shoulder. \"I'm sorry, Soren. This probably isn't the wedding night you've always dreamed of.\"\n\n\"No, no, no,\" he says, looking into my eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't be sorry. I get to spend the evening with you, and, honestly, it's probably better this way. I've…never been with anyone before. And there's too much pressure surrounding wedding nights.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you for understanding,\" I say." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soren nods as he stares at the floor and fidgets with his hands.\n\nI slide my hand down his arm and grin. \"So, how many buttons were on my dress? I know you counted them.\"\n\nSoren's mouth gapes open for a moment but slowly turns into a grin. \"Twenty.\"\n\nI rise on my toes to kiss his cheek. \"I'll be right back. Will you draw another tabula recta so we can work on Lilura's cipher?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course,\" Soren says as he sits at the desk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I grab my most conservative nightgown from my dresser so as not to make Soren uncomfortable, though even this one is quite sheer and shows a good amount of skin. I change and return to find him finishing the tabula recta.\n\n\"There.\" He opens Lilura's journal and turns to me. \"What did you think the keyword was?\"\n\n\"Temptress. It's what Lilura calls me because she chose to love me rather than pursue becoming an anointed priestess or eventually the high priestess.\"\n\nSoren reaches for my hand. \"That's very sweet.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I sit next to him on the stool, so close our bodies warm one another." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He scratches out notes with the quill and uses the letters of \"temptress\" to work on the first set of words.\n\n\"This is promising; I think you were right,\" he says after writing the first nine letters of the journal next to a sketch of a plant and Lilura's snakes.\n\nS-N-A-K-E-L-E-A-V\n\nThat must be it. Excitement tingles through me as I help Soren use the tabula recta to write out more letters. We work in blocks of nine letters to find what the first chunk of text says." }, { "from": "human", "value": "S-N-A-K-E-L-E-A-V-E-S-G-R-O-W-I-N-A-C-A-V-E-N-E-A-R-T-H-E-C-O-N-V-E-N-T" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, maybe she went for more of these snake-leaves?\"\n\nI nod. \"We can search for this cave tomorrow.\"\n\nWe flip the pages with images of Lilura's experiments with mice and the leaves. There are words, but now that we have a place to check, we aren't as concerned with deciphering everything. There's far too much.\n\nAnother page has drawings of a jar with a plant—the one now stripped of its leaves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let's do this one,\" I say, pointing at the text. \"It must have been important since the leaves were the only thing she took.\"\n\nI-P-R-O-P-A-G-A-T-E-D-T-W-O-M-A-G-I-C-A-L-L-E-A-V-E-S\n\n\"Magical? The snake-leaves have magic? Is that why they're so important?\" I wonder aloud. It's followed by a yawn, my adrenaline finally crashing. \"What do they do?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Maybe it's in here. We just have to decipher more text.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I tilt my head at the gilded clock on my desk. It's the middle of the night. I try to flip through more pages, but the images and letters swirl in my exhausted vision. Soren yawns, too.\n\n\"Let's get a few hours of sleep, then we'll go search for her in the caves near the convent.\"\n\nSoren blows out the candles. \"And even if it's storming, I don't care how dangerous it is; I'll search with you. I'm not afraid of a little water.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you.\" Taking his hand, I lead Soren to bed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This time, he slides into bed and opens his arms for me. I snuggle into him as the heavy weight of exhaustion drags me into the depths of sleep.\n\nThe doppelgänger visits me through the murky waters of the sea, and I try to wake myself. She swims toward me, extending her nearly-translucent hand. In it is Lilura's necklace. The gold chain twirls and twinkles in the water as the wing-engraved locket gleams." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Get the locket,\" she screeches and disappears.\n\nWhen the dull morning light peeks through the gaps of the curtains, I push myself from Soren's arms to stretch. It's early, but I want to get on the move to find Lilura as soon as possible. I look out the window at the gray, overcast sky. Thank Norella. At least it isn't storming.\n\nTouching Soren's cheek, I whisper, \"Wake up, my husband.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soren stirs with a smile and stretches too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I can't help but peek at the exposed skin between his shirt and waistband. He rubs his thick eyebrows and combs a hand through his messy curls.\n\n\"Time to go?\" he asks.\n\n\"Yes. It's not storming anymore.\"\n\n\"Good.\" He kisses my cheek and rolls out of bed.\n\nWe each get changed and ready to go." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As we head out, a commotion from the lobby of the palace echoes through the hallways." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why's everyone up so early?\n\nAmong the chatter, the words, \"Another priestess,\" echo in my ears.\n\n\"No, no, no.\" Nilson's voice is loud and clear as he says, \"Where's Princess Ingrid?\"\n\nMy insides grow hollow, and I dash down the hall with Soren at my side. When we arrive at the top of the grand staircase, Sir Tomer and a few other hirdmenn are speaking to Father, Tia, Oskar, and Nilson. The hirdmenn's uniforms are all sooty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What's going on?\" I bound down the steps, dragging Soren behind me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everyone turns to me with haunted faces. \"What's wrong?\"\n\n\"It's…Lilura,\" Father mumbles and takes a deep breath, wrapping his arms around me. \"Her body was found near the convent.\"\n\n\"What?\" I push against his chest to look him with disbelief. \"No, it's not true!\"\n\nHe nods. \"She was found very early this morning near a forest fire, which is what gained the hirdmenn's attention.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, no, no, no, no.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I cry against my father's chest for a moment before rage takes over.\n\nIf he had only done more to find her, she'd be here safe with me.\n\nI scramble away from my father's embrace and throw myself at Soren, who wraps me in his arms. A deep sea of grief swells within me and spills out as sobbing breaths, which rattle against my throat as my entire body shakes.\n\n\"Oh, my princess.\" Nilson rubs my back. \"I'm so sorry.\"\n\n\"The priestesses are already preparing her Resting,\" Sir Tomer says in a hushed voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We will escort the royal family and the palace guests to the convent.\"\n\n\"Why would someone harm Lilura?\" I ask as my mind swirls, unable to focus on any one person. \"This shouldn't have happened! Why hasn't anyone been arrested for the murders yet?\"\n\n\"We're searching the island and questioning the citizens day and night,\" Sir Tomer replies. \"But the murderer has done a very good job at staying hidden. We believe they might be using the system of caves and tunnels to their advantage.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soren squeezes me tight and holds me steady as Sir Tomer goes over the plan for the day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Spelunkers exploring the caves. Hirdmenn stationed at the palace and convent. When Sir Tomer is done, Father and Tia turn and embrace me.\n\n\"We're sorry, sweetie,\" Tia says. \"We're here for you.\"\n\nI release them and stare at the nautilus shell in a state of shock." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My skin prickles with ice, and my stomach churns with nausea. My LiLi is gone? It can't be. I feel so empty.\n\n\"Let me help,\" Nilson says, addressing Father. \"My king, I can be of service. I know the island well.\"\n\nFather is silent for a moment before he nods and says, \"Fine. Oskar, I'll meet you two in my study.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oskar and Nilson walk away, and Father kisses my cheek." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My dove, I'm so sorry. Are you able to get dressed?\"\n\n\"I don't know,\" I whisper, still staring at the seashell mosaic, the swirls of which spin in my dizzy mind.\n\n\"I'll help her, Rolfy,\" Tia says with a sniffle.\n\nTia and Soren each take one of my arms and guide me up the stairs to my chambers. I stumble into the bathroom and vomit, but it doesn't reduce the heavy grief constricting my stomach. My LiLi is gone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In a haze, they help me get ready for her Resting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soren moves to my dresser. \"Do you want to take one of your special seashells to leave for Lilura?\" he asks.\n\nI approach the massive collection. Unable to choose just one, I grab a basket and sweep all the shells inside with a jingling rattle.\n\nHirdmenn escort the palace caravan toward the convent. It's all a blur." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Memories of Lilura fly in and out of my mind like seagulls, making it impossible to catch just one to hold onto." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Petrichor and thick humidity fill this post-storm morning.\n\nI gaze out the window at the deep green pines. How was there a forest fire right after a rainstorm? Was it lightning? Lilura's face fills my mind again, and I tremble in Soren's arms.\n\nThe sun peeks through the clouds, taunting me with its warmth. I rest against Soren's shoulder and rub my smooth pebble pendant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soren kisses the top of my head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Was that from Lilura?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" I say, nodding myself further into his embrace. \"She and I met at the convent. I was enamored with her striking beauty the moment I saw her. When things settled down after my initiation, I asked the other priestesses about her. No one else had pink hair.\" I giggle and sob at the same time. \"It was actually Ceto who told me I could find her in the library. When I found her there, I asked Lilura to help me search for history books about the Verskelli family. She did, and I caught her stealing nearly as many glances at me as I was at her. I asked if she wanted to kiss me, and she said yes. So, I pushed her against a bookshelf and kissed her.\"\n\n\"You two moved fast,\" he says, rubbing my shoulder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You have no idea,\" I say with a grin and wipe my tears." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That night, I invited her to the pebble beach with me after dinner. I brought wine, set up a pallet of blankets, and lit candles all around. It was amazing. Drinking wine, talking, listening to the waves against the pebbles, and, of course, making love under the stars.\"\n\nSoren gulps. \"It sounds magical.\"\n\n\"It was. For my birthday that year, LiLi made this necklace with a pebble from the beach. I rub it when I'm anxious.\" A stabbing guilt pains my stomach. \"And now, this year, she was being murdered on my birthday.\"\n\nSoren wraps both arms around me as the tears and emotions bubble out of me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm sorry for crying so much.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, don't be sorry,\" he says, holding me closer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let it all out.\"\n\nWhen the carriage slows to a stop, he wipes my tears and kisses my forehead.\n\n\"Why are you so great and understanding?\" I ask.\n\n\"I'm your husband, remember?\"\n\nAs we exit the carriage, I'm hit with the thick smoke still hanging in the air from the forest fire. Plumes of black and gray rise above the trees in the distance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I crinkle my brows in confusion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Aside from the palace caravan, there's no one here for the Resting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We follow Father and Tia toward the convent and down the stairs. Ceto meets us at the entrance, placing two fingers against her cheek to greet my Father. When she turns to me, her eyes are red and puffy. She's gone through too much for any high priestess, nevertheless a brand new one.\n\n\"Where is everyone?\" I ask, giving her a hug.\n\nShe pats my back and sniffles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We invited the royal family and those from the palace to the Resting first, to give you a little more privacy,\" she says." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I know how important Lilura was to you.\"\n\n\"Thank you.\"\n\n\"You should go in first,\" Father says. \"Take however long you need.\"\n\nI take Soren's hand, which he looks surprised by.\n\n\"I can't do this alone. Please?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We walk through the Grotto and into the Resting Temple, where there are two altars set up: one for Viviana and one for Lilura. Heavy smoke stings my eyes and chokes my lungs. The priestesses have lit double the amount of incense to cover the scent of two bodies.\n\nWith Soren behind me, I approach Lilura's altar. The cavernous air embraces me in its icy grip, and I nearly crumble to the stone floor. Soren catches me in his arms, helping me to Lilura's side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In addition to the teal silks covering her body, Ceto has also placed Lilura's purple cloak over her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She wore it every day I knew her. I always thought she was cold, but she was hiding her wings. Oh, to touch those soft, feathery clouds once more.\n\nI arrange all my seashells around her body in a gorgeous display, fit for my love. I touch her hand and run my fingers through the pink curls peeking from under the death mask.\n\n\"Oh, LiLi,\" I say and nearly vomit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is unbearable. Why did you leave me? Who did this to you? How am I to live without you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I press my forehead to her chest to cry, and Soren rubs my back.\n\n\"She was an amazing woman. Intelligent, fierce, and lovely,\" he says. \"Lilura, we will find out what happened to you.\"\n\nI study her again, not wanting to leave. Her golden locket, engraved with wings, catches my eye, and I'm reminded of my doppelgänger nightmare. Maybe it was telling me something and not trying to startle me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I gently open Lilura's locket and gasp." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Inside are two of the snake-leaves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are those the ones she propagated? The magic leaves?\" Soren asks.\n\n\"I think so.\" In a quick decision, I swap necklaces with Lilura, giving her my pebble pendant. It's difficult to clasp the chain with her skin so terribly cold against my fingertips. \"Take this happy memory with you into eternity, LiLi. I will visit you every day until your Launching, I promise. I love you.\"\n\nI kiss her cold hand and run out of the convent for fresh air. We return to our carriage, and Soren holds me in his arms while we wait for the caravan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I stare blankly at the sea since I've run out of tears and my insides are hollow.\n\n\"I'm so sorry, Ingrid,\" he says. \"Like I said to Lilura, I promise to help you figure out what happened.\"\n\n\"Thank you. I don't know what I'll do when I find out who killed her,\" I say through gritted teeth, \"but it won't be good. We first need to work through more of her journal, though. Figure out what exactly these leaves actually can do. Why were they the only things she took with her?\"\n\n\"Maybe Nilson knows why since they were working together,\" Soren says. \"But we shouldn't tell anyone else. If Lilura went through all that trouble to encrypt her notes, it must be important. It could have to do with why she was murdered.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "While I stare out the window, Oskar speaks to Ceto near the entrance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She shakes her head and cries as he embraces her.\n\n\"Something must be going on with them—the dancing last night and now this,\" Soren says.\n\nThe wind is knocked out of me, and a wave of hot rage fills my chest. \"What if Oskar was just using Ceto to get in and out of the convent?\"\n\n\"Should we say something to Sir Tomer?\" Soren gestures up the stairs on the cliff, where the hirdmenn are on guard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No. It doesn't make sense; Oskar could twist the law to his advantage if he really wanted to dismantle the convent.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I sigh. \"As it's just a suspicion, we should wait until we have more evidence—or risk being murdered ourselves. He's an ass, but I can't imagine Oskar harming anyone. He's too clean-cut for that.\"\n\nThe smoke from the fire still rises in the distance; Soren's eyes follow the plume of gray as it touches the sky. \"How was there a fire right after the rain?\"\n\n\"That's what I was wondering,\" I say, pressing my cheek against his warm chest. \"Maybe it was lightning?\"\n\n\"Maybe,\" he whispers. \"Or…\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Or what?\"\n\n\"Magic? What if Lilura set the fire?\"\n\nA painful ball rises in my throat. \"If only Lilura had confided in me. We could have stopped her. None of this would have happened.\"\n\n\"Don't blame yourself. We'll figure out the truth.\"\n\nWhen we return to the palace, drained and exhausted, my father opens his arms for a hug." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Over my initial anger, I melt into him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am so, so sorry about Lilura. I know you loved her. I'm going to meet with Oskar, Nilson, and Sir Tomer now to work on a plan for moving forward.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He cradles my face and kisses my forehead. \"Get some rest, my dove. You too, Tia.\"\n\n\"Good idea,\" she says, rubbing her barely protruding belly.\n\nFather releases me to hug Tia before she ascends the stairs. Soren and I follow.\n\nI take Soren's hand when we reach the top." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Before we work on Lilura's journal, I think I'd like to take a nap. I need a little alone time for now.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Whatever you need, Ingrid,\" he says." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But you shouldn't be alone for too long. How about I bring you some dinner in a little while? You haven't eaten all day.\"\n\n\"I'd like that, thank you.\"\n\nHe kisses my cheek, and we go our separate ways.\n\nOnce in my chambers, I collapse onto my bed and cry, wail, scream, and cry some more. I didn't really want to nap. I just needed to be alone to truly release the deep sorrow within." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lilura always needing distance from me makes a little sense now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When I've drained myself, I reach under my mattress for her journal. Thumbing through the pages, I imagine her writing notes and sketching pictures. It makes me feel closer to her as I stare at the scratched-out words, smudges, and fingerprints on the crinkled paper. Why did she leave me?\n\nUnable to sleep, I move to my desk and begin deciphering the journal on my own. On a page with images of mice, one dead and one alive, I scribble out what the text says." }, { "from": "human", "value": "T-H-E-S-N-A-K-E-L-E-A-V-E-S-H-O-L-D-L-I-F-E-M-A-G-I-C" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Life magic?\" I whisper to myself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What does that mean, LiLi?\"\n\nAbout an hour goes by while I find out Lilura not only experimented with the leaves on mice, but she saved Nilson's life using them. I suck a sharp breath through my teeth. Could these save her? How does it work? I flip to a page with a sketch of a skull." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "M-A-G-I-C-M-U-C-H-T-O-O-P-O-W-E-R-F-U-LF-O-R-H-U-M-A-N-S-T-O-P-O-S-S-E-S-SS-N-A-K-E-L-E-A-V-E-S-W-I-L-L-O-N-L-YB-R-I-N-G-D-E-A-T-H-A-N-DD-E-S-T-R-U-C-T-I-O-N\n\nLilura thought these were dangerous? Did she set the fire? Maybe, like Soren said, we must keep this a secret until we know more. I should find him. Tucking my deciphered notes inside the journal, I return it to the hidden spot under my mattress." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I peel off my teal priestess dress, sick of wearing this thing to so many awful events lately, and slip into one of the gowns Lilura designed. She would've loved to see this one. The pearls are slightly blush-colored, and the chiffon tulle peeking from a slit in the lace rustles with every movement. I even reapply pearl dust to my cheeks, chest, and wrists before I leave to find Soren.\n\nI knock on his door, but Nilson answers. His wrinkles droop into a puddle of sadness, and I throw my arms around his neck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He squeezes me tight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How are you holding up, Princess Ingrid? You must be devastated.\"\n\nI nod as he leads me inside to sit. \"It's like I'm in a fog or a nightmare. It's surreal that she's gone. I'll cry for a moment, then go completely numb the next.\"\n\n\"You're still in shock,\" he says, pouring me a glass of water. \"You've been through far too much in such a short time. I know you have Soren, but I'm here for you whenever you need to talk. Well, that is, for maybe the next day or two.\"\n\n\"Oh, are you leaving?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm returning to Aegris Isle.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stares at his hands. \"I've done my duty of helping Soren, and I'm not welcome here. I don't want to start any drama, but your father and I got into a disagreement in our meeting, and he asked me to leave.\"\n\nI reach across the table to pat his hand. \"I can speak to him for you. These deaths are nothing short of a crisis, and we need all the help we can get. At the very least, you could stay on as Soren's and my advisor.\"\n\n\"That's very kind of you, Princess Ingrid, but I'm afraid your father will never change his mind about me.\"\n\n\"Well, I hope he does,\" I say." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You were a vital part to Norella Isle for so long. You even knew my grandparents, didn't you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Try great-great-grandparents. Yes, long before I became the high priest and your father's advisor, I was merely one of many sorcerers for the kingdom under King Boden and Queen Greta. But did you know I personally knew your great-grandmother Sunniva?\"\n\n\"You did?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" he says, shifting his gaze out the window. \"In fact…I loved her.\"\n\nMy eyes widen in disbelief. \"Loved?\"\n\n\"Before I had the chance to ask for her hand, the War of the Halflings broke out. They needed as many sorcerers as possible on the front lines, so your family sent me and some other sorcerers to Jorsti. The halflings were difficult to defeat; those barbarians ruined my life,\" he says through gritted teeth and pats his injured leg." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Because when I returned years later, Sunniva was already married to your great-grandfather Gregor.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, you must have been heartbroken.\"\n\n\"I was. But she became a magnificent queen while I focused on my work and eventually became the high priest.\" He smiles. \"Life takes us in many directions.\"\n\n\"It sure does.\" I hold up my wedding ring and crane my neck to glance into the bathroom. \"Where's Soren?\"\n\n\"He went to the kitchen for some food. I can tell him you dropped by.\"\n\n\"Well, maybe you can help me. You and Lilura were working together on an experiment? With leaves?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nilson tilts his head and narrows his clear-blue eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, but I think I've given up on the snake-leaves.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why? What do they do?\"\n\n\"My precious snake, Ophidia, discovered them many years ago. I knew they were magical. I did many experiments on mice and birds. In theory, they can resurrect the dead.\" He stares into my eyes as I sit silent shock. \"But they don't always work.\"\n\nI sigh. \"What do you mean?\"\n\n\"The first human I ever tried them on was your mother.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He hangs his head of white hair, balding at the crown. \"When she was dying during childbirth, I brewed her a tea using the leaves, and she passed.\"\n\nTears well in my eyes as I shake my head. \"Why didn't it work?\"\n\n\"I don't know, but it was the biggest mistake of my career. Lilura was helping me discover why they don't always work.\"\n\nAlthough I find it odd that he used the word mistake and not regret, hope soars through me if these leaves can do what he claims." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Could we try them on Lilura?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My breath rattles in my throat as I hold back a sob." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There are none left.\" Nilson deflates a little. \"All of the plants were destroyed before we could harvest more. Someone must have discovered our source and sabotaged our progress. All Lilura could find were roots.\"\n\nI nod. \"Now it makes sense why she tried to propagate them…\"\n\n\"But it didn't work,\" Nilson says before I can finish my thought.\n\nI sip on the water, only to see my doppelgänger holding Lilura's locket reflected in the glass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I don't correct Nilson about the successful propagation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why didn't Lilura tell him it worked? Is she the one who destroyed the plants? I'm so confused.\n\n\"So, you brewed tea for my mother?\"\n\n\"Yes, because she was far too ill to eat anything.\"\n\nMy eyes flutter to all the experiments around the room. The old grief from my mother's death stirs within me as well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wasn't there for her, but maybe I can still save LiLi. Soren and I should really get to the convent before it's too late.\n\n\"I should be going now.\" I stand to leave, but Nilson grabs my wrist.\n\n\"Before you go, my princess, how about a treat?\" he asks. \"Have you eaten at all today?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I shake my head, and he walks to the cabinet without the aid of his cane." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nilson reveals a box of mint-green macarons. They look absolutely perfect and make my mouth water.\n\n\"Macarons are my weakness,\" he says, returning to his chair. \"Lilura baked these for me. I only knew her for a short time. She was the most promising young sorceress I've ever met—wise beyond her years. You're the only person I would ever share these with.\"\n\n\"Macarons are my weakness, too.\" I grin at the thought of Lilura and sit, reaching for one of her confections." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He raises his and says, \"To Lilura.\"\n\nI bite into the sweet macaron, which melts in my mouth. In just three bites, I've finished the entire thing. \"Mmm, delicious.\"\n\nNilson still holds his intact between his age-spotted fingers.\n\n\"You don't want yours?\" I ask.\n\nMy forehead glosses with cold sweat as nausea courses through my body." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My tongue grows thick, with saliva pooling around it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When did Lilura bake these? Chef Conrad said he hadn't seen her in a while.\n\nBile burns in my throat, and everything spins.\n\n\"I don't feel so good.\" I stand onto my wobbly legs and move toward the door.\n\nNilson blocks the path and grabs my shoulders." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What are you doing?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I ask as dark spots obscure my vision.\n\n\"Like Kariana, Viviana, and Lilura, you knew too much for your own good,\" he says, steering me to fall onto one of the beds. \"I'm sorry, Ingrid. I truly have always admired you; something about you reminded me of Sunniva. But I can't let you live and carry on the Verskelli line. Your family ruined my life—twice.\" He tilts his head. \"Plus, you're a halfling sympathizer.\"\n\nMy vision blurs, and my entire body writhes in pain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shape of Nilson hovers over me." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This man I once loved and trusted like a grandfather has poisoned me?\n\n\"Goodbye, Princess Ingrid.\"\n\nEverything goes dark like the depths of the sea." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes in the contemporary, romance genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'm in trouble.\n\nI've been looking forward to tonight since we made the plans, and now that it's here, I need to make sure I don't mess it up. To not do something stupid like pressing Grace up against her door and kissing her like there's no tomorrow. She looks like an angel. Her jeans showcase her long legs, the swell of her hips. Her sweater skims over her generous breasts, hiding them from view, making me wonder what she's wearing underneath. My mouth goes dry and I swallow hard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Don't screw this up, idiot." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I help her up into my truck, and we make small talk on the way to Willow Creek. I learn she's an only child and her parents are deceased. She grew up in Anderson Heights but left for college, before coming back again after, wanting to remain close to her aging parents. I tell her about growing up as an identical twin, some of the wild things we used to get up to as teens.\n\nThe drive passes quickly, and we're soon parking at the restaurant. Guido's is a traditional Italian restaurant, and we both breathe in deeply as we step through the double doors, the scents of garlic and tomatoes rich in the air. Craig hit the nail on the head recommending this place; with its dark wood-paneled walls, roaring fireplace, checkered tablecloths, and candlelit tables, it has a cozy, romantic atmosphere that lends perfectly to a date you want to impress." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And I definitely want to impress her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The food is delicious, our conversation covering a broad range of topics. We have an unspoken agreement to keep it light; it's only our first date, so I don't mention Melanie, and she doesn't talk about whatever it is that brought that sadness to her eyes. It's never stilted or awkward and I find we have quite a few things in common. We both love eighties movies and music, Mexican and Italian food, and The Walking Dead. I react in mock horror that her favorite season is autumn, and she teases me gently about some of my high school escapades.\n\n\"I remember when you got caught putting super glue on Mr. Westcott's chair,\" Grace says with a soft laugh, licking the last bit of tiramisu off her spoon.\n\nI groan inwardly, my cock hardening at the sight of her tongue roaming over the gleaming metal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Giving myself a metaphorical face slap, I replay what she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I forgot about that! Wait, you knew me in high school?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Setting the spoon down—more's the pity—Grace delicately wipes her mouth with her napkin and nods. \"You were a senior when I was a sophomore, so I'm not surprised you wouldn't have noticed me. Can I tell you a secret?\"\n\n\"Sure.\"\n\nHer cheeks flame and she ducks her head before admitting, \"I had a crush on you back then. Along with just about every girl in school. I don't even like sports, but I went to a couple of the basketball games, just to sit in the stands like a stalker to watch you play.\"\n\nShe peeks up at me, a smile playing at her lips as she watches my reaction. I'm both surprised and a little in awe; if I had noticed her back then I would have made a move. \"I'm sorry I didn't know you back then, although I'll admit that I was a little shit in high school. Not sure how my parents put up with me. Are you sure it wasn't my brother you were crushing on?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I ask with a laugh.\n\nShe shakes her head, eyes crinkled with suppressed laughter. \"Nah, it was definitely you. Besides, Brandon was always glued to—oh, I can't remember her name.\"\n\n\"Emily. He's married to her now, and you met their kids.\"\n\n\"Yes, that's right, I had heard years ago that they were married.\"\n\nWe continue talking, lingering over coffees, and I realize how at ease I am with Grace. After Melanie, I couldn't picture myself with anyone again, and bar a couple of one-night stands that left me feeling cold, I've been on my own." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's different with Grace though." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I can't help but feel like I can breathe in her presence. As if I've been holding my breath the past couple of years, just waiting for her to come along and breathe life back into me again.\n\nAfter we both make a trip to the restrooms, I pay the bill and we make our way outside. The skies are clear, thousands of stars winking down at us. It's chilly, but not overly so, and I hope she'll want to extend our evening to the winter fair. Taking her hand in mine, I lean back against my truck. \"I'm really enjoying our night,\" I say softly, ignoring the urge to see if her lips are as soft as they look." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was hoping to take you to the fair after our meal, are you up for that?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Grace nods, a smile stretching across her face. \"I'd love to! I can't remember the last time I went to one.\"\n\n\"Okay then.\" Warmth spreads through me at the simple happiness of getting to spend more time with her. Opening the door for her, I give her a hand up before rounding the hood and getting in myself. The fairgrounds are only a few minutes away, and I notice when we arrive that they've certainly gone all out this year. Christmas trees decorated with a combination of colored and white lights dot the large parking lot that's been converted for the occasion. Booths line one side for people selling handmade crafts and foods, and there are traditional fair games spread throughout, along with food trucks selling everything from cotton candy to hot chocolate, sushi to Mexican street food, and everything in between." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's a riot of color and noise; children screaming in both fear and delight on the rides, Christmas music playing over speakers, lights flashing on the giant Ferris wheel that stands guard over it all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Taking Grace's small hand in mine, I pull her toward the fair, her laughter bubbling up as she tries to keep up with my eagerness. That's it—that's what I want to hear. The sound of her laughter makes my heart skip a beat, and I make it my mission to hear as much of it as possible over the next couple of hours.\n\nI coax her to do as much as possible. We try out some of the games, and I break out my rusty basketball skills to win her a small dolphin, that she looks at the way some women look at diamonds. I drag her on all the rides, wrapping my arm around her as she screams on the Tilt-O-Whirl. We browse the craft booths, pointing out bottles of homemade preserves and Santas carved from wood sourced from local forests." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I even pick out a couple of ornaments for Emily and my mom." }, { "from": "human", "value": "By the end of the night, we're both exhausted and breathless from laughter, and it's all I can do to keep my hands off her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We quiet down during the drive back to Anderson Heights, but it's a comfortable silence broken only by the oldies station I have turned down low. As I get closer to her house, a wave of nervousness and anticipation has my hands clenching the wheel and my chest tightening.\n\nOnce we arrive, I walk her to the door, and she turns to me, looking up with a soft smile. \"Thank you for tonight,\" she murmurs, a deep blush pinking her cheeks.\n\nMy throat closes, and I nod, my hand coming up to brush a lock of her hair to the side. I gently cup her cheeks, holding her gaze for a moment before lowering my mouth to hers. Her lips are as soft as they look, and as they meet, she leans toward me, a hand resting over my heart." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "The user will write a bit then you need to write around six sentences continuing directly from the user's text. Try to mimic the style of Kayla McKinney in the contemporary, romance genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Exhaustion has my shoulders hunched as I let the hot spray of the shower wash over me. Resting my hands against the grey tiles, I hang my head, letting the water run over my shoulders and back. There'd been another fire tonight, two more lives lost.\n\nMost of the time, I love this job. The thrill of beating back the flames, the satisfaction of saving someone's home and belongings, the joy of rescuing people and returning them safely to their loved ones.\n\nDays like today, though?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's nearly enough to make me want to hang up my helmet. Nearly.\n\nThere's no indication yet whether or not this might have been caused by the arsonist we suspect of the other fires. Arsonist. My lips twist into an ugly grimace as my brows furrow at the word being bandied about. More like murderer. We'll need to wait until the investigators are finished, but I'm willing to bet it will match the M.O.\n\nHands come around my waist as a naked body presses against me. Rearing back, I turn to find Sophia blinking up at me, a seductive look on her face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hey,\" she says with her lips curved into a smile, her eyes hooded as she looks me up and down. \"I thought maybe you could do with a little cheering up.\"\n\nQuickly lowering my hands to cover myself, I scowl down at her, fury rushing over me. I have told her, again and again, that I'm not interested. And she pulls a stunt like this? \"Sophia,\" I growl out, \"what the fuck are you doing?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She steps toward me, reaching a hand out, and I flinch away with a snarl." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her hand drops and her brows lower. \"I saw how upset you were about the fire.\" Her tongue darts out to dampen her lips, eyes roaming over me. \"I just wanted to make you feel better.\" She meets my eyes, then flinches at the hardness in mine.\n\n\"Get out.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But–\"\n\n\"GET OUT!\" I roar at her, and she scrambles backward, tripping over the lip of the shower and falling to the ground outside it. She pushes herself to her feet, eyes wide as her lower lip trembles before she dashes away.\n\nShoulders heaving and teeth clenched tightly, I quickly finish my shower before throwing some clothes on, still partly in shock over the audacity of that woman. How many ways can I say no? How many times do I have to say it?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jesus. If a man had done that to one of the women that work here, he'd be in jail." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm not a snitch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Never been the type of guy to rat on my siblings or friends." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But this? This can't stand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sophia is just going to keep coming at me until she gets what she wants—me. She doesn't seem to care that I don't want her, and now? Now I can't trust her. I can't trust that she won't sneak into my bed when I'm sleeping, or make another move while I'm in the shower. So, while it goes against the grain, I need to inform the captain.\n\nComing to a stop outside her office, I unclench my fists and take a cleansing breath." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I can't storm into her office like this, I need to calm down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When I feel I can keep my temper in check, I knock on the door and push it open when the captain calls out to come in.\n\nCaptain Montgomery, a black woman in her early fifties, sits behind her desk and watches me intently as I come in, closing the door behind me. She gestures for me to take a seat across from her, and I lower myself into it, still clenching my jaw.\n\n\"What can I do for you, Jeremy?\"\n\nGripping the armrests, I start from the beginning, laying out the numerous times Sophia has made suggestive comments or asked me out, refusing to listen to me when I say no. The captain watches me, her brows lowering as my story goes on, deepening into a firm frown as I recount what just happened in the shower." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When I've finished, she writes down a few notes, scribbling furiously, the scratching of the pen the only noise in the stillness of the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It gives me a few minutes to let the adrenaline leave my system, and by the time she's done, my muscles have relaxed and I no longer want to punch a wall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've always been respectful to women,\" I assure her, \"and I'm not one to go running to the higher-ups to report others. But I can't just let this stand, Captain. How can I trust she won't do this again? How can I know she'll have my back? It makes me sick to have that feeling about a fellow firefighter; they're my family, I would do anything for them. But we also need to trust each other in this job, and I can no longer trust Sophia.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Captain Montgomery lets out a breath and nods. \"I understand. Your record is exemplary, Lieutenant, and you have always been supportive of women firefighters. It's something that I have noticed over the years, as well as your willingness to help others. Sophia's actions are reprehensible, and not ones that I will allow to go unpunished in my house. I'll take care of it.\"\n\n\"Thank you, Captain.\" Relief floods through me mixed with a twinge of guilt, but I ignore it. I give her a nod and take my leave, making my way to the day room to make up a plate for lunch.\n\nThirty minutes later, a now fully dressed Sophia storms up to me, hissing out as she passes, \"You'll pay for this, Evans.\" I watch as she stomps out of the station, the glass doors slamming shut behind her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What's that all about?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Travis asks from his perch on one of the many recliners surrounding the television." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A few others glance my way but then focus back on the football game.\n\nRunning a hand through my hair, I shrug, not wanting to discuss it publicly. Shame curdles in my gut, a mixture of both the harassment and the knowledge that I ratted out a fellow firefighter. They're my family, people I've rescued, and who have rescued me in return. We have one another's backs, support each other—we don't sell out members of our team.\n\nSwallowing back the bile that works its way up my throat, I crack my neck, my earlier conviction that I had done the right thing by going to the captain turning to doubt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Maybe I should have just been more forceful, made her see that what she was doing was wrong." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Made her understand that I didn't see her that way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was sexually harassing you, I remind myself, although I want to flinch at the idea. Flirting is one thing, coming into your shower and touching you while naked is another.\n\nPushing down the guilt and shame, I rise, taking my dishes to the kitchen and putting them in the dishwasher. Wiping down the counters, I talk myself out of feeling guilty. After all, I had been putting up with this for months, repeatedly telling her no. It's not my fault she took it too far, and I refuse to beat myself up over someone else's actions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Decision made, I flop down on the couch next to Travis, keeping one eye on the game while sending flirty texts to Grace. The corner of my mouth lifts as she agrees to go out with me next week. That woman has me all twisted up in knots, and at the same time, something about her brings me a measure of peace. A few text messages have me already forgetting the shitty day I've had, and gives me something to look forward to. The downside? Trying to come up with another date idea.\n\nMaybe the universe will shove some more recommendations my way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My baby boy!\" For the second time this week, arms wrap around my waist, but this set is more welcome, although infinitely more embarrassing, especially when the contractor I'm speaking to can barely contain his mirth.\n\n\"Hi, Mom,\" I answer back, grinning down at the miniature woman currently hugging me as if she hasn't seen me in months. Her once blonde hair is now a silvery-white that sparkles like snow on a winter's morning. At just five feet, it's a wonder she managed to birth two babies that grew to be over six feet tall. At least our sister is more her size.\n\nShe squeezes me hard enough to knock the air out of me, then takes a step back, looking me over with a judgemental eye." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Have you been eating enough, Jer? You're looking a little thin. Is your brother not feeding you? I told you that you should have moved back home with me and your dad.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Steve, the contractor, coughs politely and moves away, letting me have a moment to catch up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What are you doing here?\" I ask as we walk over to stand under the porch's awning. I'm on second shift today, so I made a point of stopping by my house to see what improvements have been made, and hopefully to get a date I can move in. I'm so over living at Brandon's.\n\n\"Can't a mother stop by to see her son?\" she asks with a laugh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Plus, I've been stopping by here and there to peek through the windows. I love what you've done to the kitchen.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My shoulders shake with a silent laugh at her exuberance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You'd think it was her house being renovated, she was so excited. But that was my mom; she wanted her children to be happy, and she got immense joy out of things that made us that way. I'll say one thing about me, Brandon, and Lillian—we lucked out in the parent department. We never lacked love and support, our parents allowing us to be who we were, without weighing us down with their own expectations like so many other parents.\n\n\"Yes, Mom, of course, you can stop by. I was just wondering if there was anything more to the visit.\"\n\nShe pats my chest, then grabs one of the hardhats sitting by the front door, plopping it on her head while tossing me a grin that stretches wide across her face, her blue eyes twinkling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good. Now show me your house, I want to see everything.\"\n\nStretching my elbow out for her to take, I reply, \"Yes, ma'am,\" and lead her inside, letting her ooh and ahh over the kitchen and bathroom fittings, the tile and hardwood flooring choices. Steve and his team have done an incredible job on my three-bedroom ranch-style house. It may not be a big one, but it's perfectly suitable for my needs. When my grandparents passed away ten years ago, I invested the inheritance I was left, and it has paid dividends. After my divorce, I spent a year renting until this one came to the market." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With its dated decor, 1950's kitchen, and out-of-date wiring, it needed a complete renovation, which luckily the inheritance was enough to stretch to, with enough left over to keep for a rainy day." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Despite the work it needed, I fell in love with the little house, and have spent the past eight months turning it into something I can be proud of." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'm sure my grandparents would approve.\n\nAfter giving my mother the tour, we step back outside, and I breathe deeply of the bitterly cold air. The sun is shining, but it does nothing to dispel the frigid temperatures.\n\n\"So,\" my mom starts, giving me the side-eye. Raising a brow back at her, I wait. \"Tell me about this Grace I've been hearing about.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shaking my head, I chuckle, putting an arm around her shoulders." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Brandon has a big mouth.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She ducks out from under my arm and whacks my chest, her mouth twisted to the side as she fights a laugh. \"Be nice to your brother. You're nearly forty, Jeremy, I shouldn't have to keep telling you that.\"\n\nRubbing my chest in mock pain, I wink back at her. \"Well, he should learn to keep his big mouth shut.\"\n\n\"You know he's only happy for you,\" she replies softly. \"After everything with Melanie, you deserve some happiness. Now, tell me about her.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She listens raptly as I tell her about Grace. About how beautiful she is, about the sadness lurking in her eyes, about how her laugh makes me feel some kind of way. Her smile just gets wider and wider, and she's practically bouncing on her toes in excitement.\n\n\"You'll have to invite her over for Sunday dinner!\" she exclaims, clapping her hands like an excited schoolgirl.\n\nI shake my head at her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Mom, we've only been on one date. Let's give it some time before I drop the family on her, okay?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She gives me a mock scowl, then nods reluctantly. \"Fine, have it your way. But I'm not getting any younger, you know. I want to meet this girl before I'm withering away in some retirement home.\"\n\nMy brows disappear under my hairline as I gawk at her. \"You're sixty-four, Mom. Hardly time for a retirement home.\"\n\n\"Well, I'm just saying. Anyone who is able to put that look in your eyes is someone I want to meet. That's the way your father has looked at me for the last forty-two years, so I know what I'm talking about.\"\n\nPulling her into a side hug, I give her a squeeze, making her squeak." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, she's agreed to a second date, so if things go well, maybe in a few weeks, okay? I don't want to scare her off.\" Leaning down, I press a kiss to the top of her head, then steer her to her car, opening the door for her.\n\nShe gets inside, then peers up at me. \"I'll be holding you to that, son.\"\n\nChuckling, I back up as she closes the door, intent on having the final word. I raise a hand in farewell, then head back inside to find Steve." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Once we've gone over everything, I'm heartened to find that they'll be done in about a week or so." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 7 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I better get some furniture ordered. If all goes well with Grace, I want to be able to have her over, and I'm not going to only have a floor for her to sit on. The idea warms me from the inside. It's too easy to picture Grace in the kitchen with me, sitting on the island while I make pancakes. Or huddled around the fire pit in the backyard, curled up in blankets, watching the stars.\n\nOr in my bed, her auburn hair spread out over my pillow, the sheets only just covering her bountiful curves as I touch and taste every inch of her luscious body.\n\nFuck." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Literary Collaboration Request:\n- Sentence Count: five sentences\n- Stylistic Inspiration: Kayla McKinney\n- Genre Adherence: contemporary, romance" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The soft glow of embers from the dying fire gives off the barest of light in the darkened room. The Christmas tree stands as a sentinel in the corner, the gems of the snowflake winking at me.\n\nJeremy sleeps soundly on the couch, none the wiser that I am standing over him, a tsunami of feelings pouring through me. My fists clench at the knowledge of him being here, in her home.\n\nAs if he could protect her from me." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\nthree sentences\n\nGenre:\ncontemporary, romance" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's been two weeks since the night I spent at Grace's. After our cuddle under the tree, I could tell that Grace was still shaken, so I offered to sleep on the couch. I'm not sure where the time has gone since that night, but Christmas is fast approaching and there are a million and one things to do." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Last week, I roped my sister, Lillian, and sister-in-law, Emily, into going shopping with me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My house is finally completed, and while I might be good at picking out kitchens and flooring, I know I lack the ability to turn it from a house into a home. Send me into a burning building and I'll be fine; just don't ask me to pick out art and throw blankets. Don't get me wrong—I appreciate these things, especially the throw blankets during a winter storm—but putting it all together is a little beyond my abilities." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'll admit that they did an amazing job; the house looks comfortable and everything is coordinated, down to my dinner plates." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'm not sure why my plates had to match the color on the walls, but I'll grudgingly admit that it was possibly worth the several hours of torturous shopping they put me through.\n\nLuckily, I only have a few boxes to move. I left everything behind when Melanie and I divorced, and the rental came furnished." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Brandon wouldn't have had space to store my things anyway, so moving in today is easier than it has any right to be." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Barkley has his head out the window, tongue lolling and a wide doggy smile on his face as we drive toward our new home. My eyes flick to the side as we pass Grace's street, my lips curling up as we do. I'm a goner for that woman." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Both of us have been busy; me with the house and work, Grace with her writing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My smile turns into a full-blown grin as I think about when I discovered she writes romance novels. Spicy romance novels. She laughed at my reaction, refusing to tell me her pen name. I'll get it out of her one of these days—I want to read all the naughty books, just to see what her imagination comes up with." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We've been on two more dates, and we don't go a day without catching up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'm falling hard for her. It would be impossible not to—not just because she's beautiful, but her quiet sense of humor, her intelligence, and innate goodness that just seems to shine from her. Being with her feels right, she makes me happy, and for the first time in a long time, I'm looking forward to things again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then there's the issue of a potential stalker." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My hands tighten on the steering wheel as I turn onto my street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I might put it down to an overactive imagination—which Grace admits she's wondered about as well—if it wasn't for the ornament. The thought of someone watching her makes every protective bone in my body want to smash something. It makes me sick that someone has been in her house when she was sleeping, maybe more than once." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If I could get away with stealing her and locking her up with me to keep her safe, I would." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Society tends to frown on that sort of thing, unfortunately.\n\nOf course, I didn't let Grace in on that monumentally stupid thought, but after some convincing, I got her to agree to have an alarm system put in. One of the guys at the station runs a secondary business specializing in home security and offered her a discount, which she gladly accepted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I think it lets us both sleep a little better at night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pulling into my driveway, Barkley barks once and wags his tail excitedly as we jump down. Hauling the boxes up to the door, I let us in, Barkley immediately going off to explore while I kick the door closed behind me. Going into the laundry room, I throw open the door that leads to the backyard, Barkley racing past me to mark his territory while I put my meager possessions away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A sense of pride fills me as I look around my home, remembering the wreck it was when I moved in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now it has a gleaming modern kitchen with bifold doors leading out to the deck and quarter-acre fenced back yard, perfect for barbecues and socializing, and plenty of room for Barkley to play.\n\nOpening the fridge, I find a bottle of champagne, the gift tag attached proclaiming it from my parents. I can't help the smile that spreads across my face as I text them a quick thank you." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'll save that for tomorrow night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Grace arrives right at seven, and I rush to the door when the bell rings. Throwing it open, I usher her inside, not wanting her to be in the bitter cold longer than necessary. Taking her jacket and scarf, I hang them in the hallway closet as Barkley races around the corner, eager as always to meet someone new." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, hello!\" she exclaims, dropping to her knees to pet him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And what's your name?\" Barkley snuffles into her hair and sneezes, then licks her cheek in apology. Grace laughs, rubbing behind his ears." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Barkley,\" I reply belatedly, my heart warming at the sight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Barkley is an excellent judge of character, and he likes her already.\n\n\"Well, it's nice to meet you, Barkley. Did your dad steal your name from Sesame Street, by any chance?\" she croons to him, his tail thumping madly on the floor in excitement." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My shoulders shake as I bark a laugh. \"Would you think less of me if I said yes?\" I asked sheepishly. \"He was a barker as a puppy, and it just seemed to fit him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course, I don't think less of your daddy, no I don't,\" she says to Barkley in that voice women use to talk to animals and babies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pulling herself to her feet, she comes over to me, wrapping her arms around my waist. \"Hi,\" she says softly, tilting her face up for a kiss.\n\nPressing my lips to hers, I lose myself in her and desperately try to keep myself from grinding against her like a horny teenager." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She breaks the kiss, tongue darting out to dampen her lips, and I feel dizzy for a moment as all the blood in my body rushes south. \"Hi,\" I answer back, reaching for her.\n\nShe skips away, laughing, and I swear I can hear the theme song from Sesame Street trailing behind her as she heads into the kitchen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I find her perched on the island, just as I had imagined her previously, her legs swinging as she casts an eye over the pots bubbling on the stove." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It smells divine. What are we having?\"\n\n\"Chicken Kiev with buttered pasta and roasted vegetables.\"\n\n\"Can I help?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I glance at the timer on my phone and check the Kiev and vegetables in the oven." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I think I'm good, thanks. Just sit there and look beautiful while I finish up.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A blush blooms across Grace's face at my words and I chuckle, reaching around her to grab the colander so I can drain the pasta.\n\nEarlier today I grabbed one of the few remaining trees from Nick's tree farm, along with a couple of packs of discounted ornaments and lights from one of the stores in town. The combined kitchen, dining, and living room is all aglow, the tree sparkling in the corner, the white lights set to 'twinkle'." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A fire roars away merrily in the fireplace, while candles decorate the dining table, mantel, and coffee table." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I've got the lights on dim, and instrumental jazz music playing over the speakers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The table is set for two, candles flickering in their holders, while a vase filled with roses and pine branches decorates the middle.\n\nPulling a chair out for Grace, I get her seated, then serve up the food and wine. We talk about everything and nothing, and after the dishes are in the dishwasher and the kitchen is cleaned, I pull Grace into a slow dance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Our hips move together as we sway to the music, our gazes locked on each other. Halfway through the second song, I brush my lips behind her ear and whisper, \"Stay with me tonight.\"\n\nWhen she nods in assent, I twine my fingers with hers and lead her to the bedroom." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She looks stunning tonight in a little black dress, her hair tumbling down her back in beach waves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Grace bites her lip, her hands smoothing over invisible wrinkles as her head ducks. Reaching out, I lift her head and kiss her again; this time, more urgently. My tongue tangles with hers as my fingers twine in her hair and she lets out a low moan that I swallow eagerly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Stepping forward, I move her until her back hits the wall, my lips never leaving hers as my hands skim over her body." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I need her, badly. Tearing myself away from her, my chest heaves as I breathe in desperate breaths of air. Grace slumps against the wall, her eyes glassy, desire written clearly in her features." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I turn her toward the wall, and slowly, tortuously slowly, lower the zipper of her dress, pressing kisses down her spine as it reveals each inch of bare flesh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Grace gasps as I push up against her, grinding my erection into her ass before slipping the shoulders of the dress down her arms, my fingertips following in their wake. The dress catches on her hips, and I give it a little tug. As it collapses to the floor in a heap, I take a step back, admiring the lines of her back, the curves of her ass encased in black lace panties." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Turn around,\" I order, my voice husky with desire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She obeys, but shyly, peeking over her shoulder before turning to face me. Wrapping her arms around her middle, she tries to cover herself—but I'm not having that. \"Don't hide from me, Grace,\" I demand, moving her arms out of the way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My heart misses a beat as I take in the woman before me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She is glorious. Her generous breasts are pushed up high in the black lace push-up bra she's wearing. The gentle swell of her rounded belly leads down to the V of her core, her long legs encased in black stockings attached to a garter belt. I'm speechless, and Grace flushes again, once again bringing her arms to cover herself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't,\" I growl in warning, my brows lowering." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She swallows harshly, a flush spreading down her neck and over her chest. She looks uncertain, ashamed even, and that kills me. Dropping to my knees in front of her, I run my hands up her legs, unclipping the stockings from the garter belt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rolling the stockings down her legs, I kiss every inch of skin that unveils itself, Grace's hands coming down to rest on my head as her breathing quickens.\n\nRising slightly, I run my tongue over her belly, tracing over the stretch marks. Tilting my head back, I look up at her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You are a goddess, Grace. The most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Don't ever hide yourself from me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She nods, then presses against the wall with a moan as I cover her lace-covered mound with my mouth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once she's writhing against me, I unhook the belt and drop it to the floor, her panties swiftly following. Bringing myself to my feet, I dip my head to kiss her again, reaching around to unclip her bra. \"Go lay on the bed,\" I murmur to her, watching as she moves, her hips and breasts swaying with her movements. Jesus." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she climbs onto the bed, I quickly rid myself of my button-down shirt and slacks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Socks and boxers follow, then I prowl toward the bed, Grace watching me with hungry eyes. Climbing onto the bed, I part her legs, my mouth going dry at the sight of her. Swollen, pink, and wet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Placing one of her legs over my shoulder, I give her a wink before lowering my mouth to her, exploring every inch, her taste exploding on my tongue." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I groan, pressing my erection into the bed as I lap her up, delighting in the little noises of pleasure she's making." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her back arches as she digs her fingers into my hair, breathy pants and gasps spilling from her lips. She watches me under hooded eyes, tongue wetting her lips before letting out a low moan when I suck her clit into my mouth, thrumming it with my tongue.\n\n\"Oh, God,\" she groans, her back arching high." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I press down on her stomach, keeping her still as I push a finger into her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fuck, she tastes so good, like salted caramel. Stiffening my tongue, I push it inside her along with my finger, using my other hand to rub slow circles on her clit. She writhes beneath me, her leg kicking out as she tries to push me off her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's too much, Jer,\" she cries out when I flip my hand and make the come-hither motion, lighting up the little bundle of nerves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her channel clamps down on my fingers as her body stiffens, her orgasm rushing through her. I don't let up, using my mouth and hands to keep the momentum going. I can feel a second orgasm coming, and just as she's about to crest, I back off, leaving her gasping for air as she glares at me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Placing a kiss on her knee, I scoot off the bed, getting a condom from the bedside table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't worry,\" I assure her, a wide grin stretching across my face as I roll the condom on. \"I'm going to make you come again. And again. But this time, I want to be inside you when it happens. I want to feel you come all over my cock, Grace. Think you can do that for me?\" She nods. \"Good girl. Now open those gorgeous legs for me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And like the obedient woman she is, she obeys, opening up for me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Fuck, Grace, you are so beautiful.\" Climbing over her, I settle between her thighs and bring my lips down on hers. She sighs against my lips, her hands wrapping around my neck as I slowly push inside her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her hips rise up to meet mine as I bottom out, her pussy nearly strangling me. \"Jesus, you feel so good,\" I grind out against her lips, slowly pulling out before slamming back in. Grace wraps her legs around my waist as my thrusts get harder, meeting each of mine with ones of her own." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Our kiss grows wilder, more fervent, our tongues dueling as our bodies writhe against each other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not wanting to come too soon, I pull out, rolling us over so that Grace is on top. \"Ride my dick, baby,\" I say, my chest heaving. She grabs my cock, lines it up, then sinks down on me, both of us groaning at the pleasure." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reaching up, I hold her hands to keep her steady, and she starts rocking slowly, our gazes locked on each other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's a whole new sensual experience for me, and for the first time, I understand the term making love. We get lost in each other's eyes as our bodies speak the words we can't yet say. But I know it's true." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I don't care if it's too fast." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My parents always told me that when it's right, you'll know. Once, I thought it was Melanie. But she never evoked these feelings in me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Joy, protectiveness, the craving to do all things and be all things for her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The depth of the emotion that wells within me is both foreign and familiar; unknown before now, but as if I've been waiting for it all my life, just for her.\n\nGrace throws her head back, her hair sweeping her ass as she picks up speed, her hips circling as the pleasure begins to mount. I feel its call rising in me, and I want us to come together." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pulling one hand free from hers, I reach down to circle her clit, causing Grace to suck in a deep breath of air before her pussy clenches around me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I thrust up into her three more times before the pleasure erupts through me hard enough to see stars, my cum flooding the condom.\n\nGrace slides off me, landing in a heap by my side, her chest heaving as she comes down from her high. Damp hairs are glued to her forehead and cheeks, and a delicate flush stains her neck and chest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her eyes are at half-mast, and she tucks herself into my side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pressing a kiss to her forehead, I murmur, \"I'll be back in a minute.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I stride into my en suite, removing the condom and turning the sink on to warm up before grabbing a washcloth to wipe myself down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Getting a clean one for Grace, I make my way over to her and gently wipe down her forehead, running it over her breasts and stomach, then gently cleanse between her legs.\n\nShe watches me quietly, a soft smile playing at her lips. Switching the lights off, I climb back into bed, pulling her into my arms as I drape the blankets over us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I lie awake, long after she succumbs to sleep, allowing the peacefulness to seep into my soul." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Letting the wall I built up years ago to come crumbling down, exposing my heart which she already holds in her hands." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing buddy needed! gimme 7 sentences more in Kayla McKinney's voice. stick to contemporary, romance pls" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The meeting finishes quicker than I was expecting, leaving me with about twenty minutes to spare before Grace is due to meet me downstairs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Following the captain and a couple of other lieutenants from a neighboring station down the stone steps, I nod along with the talk flowing around me, my mind already done with the topic of arson, and instead focuses firmly on the goddess with hair like living flames, a heart bigger than an ocean, and a body made for sin.\n\nCalling out goodbyes, the captain and I head out the east entrance. \"I can't believe they're no further forward in the investigation,\" I tell her as we go down the steps. \"I was hoping they would have caught the bastard by now.\"\n\nCaptain Montgomery nods. \"Me too, Evans. This town is heading toward a panic if he's not caught soon.\"\n\nWe trade small talk until I hear my name being called by someone I hoped never to see again. I freeze, the captain stopping when she sees my discomfiture." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Spotting Melanie, her gaze hardens, then gives me a disappointed look. Putting my hands up in a placating manner, I say, \"Haven't seen her in years.\"\n\nShe harrumphs. \"I hope not. That woman is a snake. I saw what she left of you, Jeremy, don't let her back in your life.\"\n\n\"No, ma'am. I'm seeing a wonderful woman now and I wouldn't trade her for all the Melanies in the world.\"\n\n\"Glad to hear it.\" She sends a glare Melanie's way, then gives me a pointed look. \"See you at the station tomorrow.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"See you tomorrow, Cap.\"\n\nAfter she's gone, I heave a sigh, then turn toward Melanie. Her daughter, who must be close to two now, is sitting in her stroller, bundled up in a thick coat. \"What can I do for you, Melanie?\" I ask harshly, folding my arms across my chest.\n\nShe titters up at me, batting her eyelashes, making me wonder if she has something stuck in it. Placing her hand on my arm, she runs it up and down, sidling up to me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, if it isn't my ex-husband,\" she coos. \"Fancy seeing you here.\"\n\nWhat did I ever see in her? I wonder as I stare down at her. Bleached blonde hair and lip fillers, fake eyelashes and makeup thick enough to repel bullets—she's a far cry from the natural beauty Grace is. And Grace isn't a lying, conniving, cheating bitch.\n\nKneeling down to get her hands off me, I say hello to the kid." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Poor thing, she doesn't stand a chance in hell with Melanie as her mother. Straightening up, I demand, \"What do you want?\"\n\n\"I've missed you, baby,\" she purrs with a sickening falsetto. As she steps toward me, my gaze latches on auburn hair fleeing around the corner of a building. My brows lowering, I glance at my phone. 11:56.\n\nMelanie grasps onto my jacket, her grip strong as she tries to get my attention back on her. \"Jeremy, I want us to try again. We had a good thing once. I made a mistake, I shouldn't–\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Peeling her hand off me, I toss it away, then lean into her face. Her eyes widen, a touch of fear showing in their depths. \"You come here two years later, after cheating on me and having another man's child, and what? Expect me to drop to my knees and propose?\"\n\nMelanie takes a step back, then straightens her shoulders. She opens her mouth to speak, but I cut her off.\n\n\"I feel sorry for you, Melanie. You're a user, just taking and taking, without ever giving anything in return. You'll never know real love, and that's a tragedy. Don't contact me again. You don't stand a chance in hell.\" Turning my back on her, I jog away, desperate to find Grace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I can only imagine what that must have looked like to her, and I don't want her to get the wrong idea." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I call out her name, but there's no answer.\n\nRounding the side of the building, the scent of vomit is strong, and I look around wildly, not seeing her anywhere. \"Grace!\" I shout, but again, no answer. Racing past stores and restaurants, I look for her everywhere before giving up, my shoulders hunched in defeat. Leaning my back against the wall of Cups and Saucers, I let my ragged breathing settle before pulling out my phone and calling her. It rings out before going to voicemail, but I don't let up, calling over and over, leaving messages that go from urgent to desperate.\n\nShe has someone stalking her, someone willing to smash cars and windows." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There's an arsonist in town killing people." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How can I keep her safe if I don't know where she is?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Panic rides me hard as I race back to my truck, ripping out of the parking lot as if demons are chasing me. I make it to her house in record time, pounding on her door. There's no movement at the windows, and the house is silent. Cursing under my breath, I storm around to the backyard, and using the keycode she gave me in case of emergencies, I let myself in, shouting her name as I pound up the stairs, looking in every room.\n\nWhen I determine the house is empty, I lock up, then hurry to mine, hoping against hope she's there waiting for me.\n\nOf course, I'm not so lucky. I pace through my house, hands clenched in my hair as worry, anger, and fear battle for dominance inside me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What if the stalker has her? Prowling over to the pantry, I pull out a bottle of whiskey, pouring myself two fingers, then adding two more. Downing it quickly, I relish the burn that races down my throat, the fire that ignites in my stomach. Once my hands stop clenching and I can think rationally, I remember Craig telling me once that his brother is a private detective. A former cop, he has contacts that can trace credit card transactions. I don't like invading her privacy, but I made her a promise, and I meant it. If you run, I'll be right on your heels." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She's mine now, and I'll protect her any way I can, even if it means finding her when she doesn't want to be found. I'll give her whatever space she wants—I'll sit outside in the truck, watching over her to make sure she's safe. I won't pressure her if she wants or needs time alone. But I will be nearby if she needs me.\n\nDecision made, I call Craig, telling him what I need. He's reluctant at first, but when I fill him in on everything that's been happening, he reluctantly agrees to ask his brother to track her down. We're both on shift tomorrow, hopefully, he'll have some news by then." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's the not knowing if she's okay that's killing me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I arrived at work nearly thirty minutes early, desperate to find out if Craig has any news. Pacing the hallways, my head pricks up when I catch sight of him coming toward me, his face set in a serious look. \"What is it?\" I demand, the panic rising.\n\n\"Come with me to your office,\" he replies, grabbing my upper arm and pulling me along with him.\n\n\"Just tell me she's okay,\" I grind out, mind racing with all my worst fears.\n\n\"She's fine, calm down.\" He pushes me into my office and sits down on one of the chairs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I follow suit, my legs nearly giving way at the relief of knowing she hasn't been kidnapped or harmed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where is she, Craig?\"\n\nHe eyes me speculatively. \"You need to know I'm only doing this because I know you so well. In any other circumstance, if a woman ran from a man, there is no way I would give him her information.\"\n\nI look at him in confusion. \"Of course, you wouldn't.\"\n\nHe inclines his head, his eyes softening as he sees my worry. \"Remember when you first told me about Grace, and I said I thought her name seemed familiar?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My brows knit as I cock my head. \"Yeah,\" I draw out.\n\nLetting out a deep breath, he says softly, \"You know about her former husband?\" When I nod, he continues. \"I was on duty that day and was called out to the accident. It was one of those scenes you don't forget, know what I mean?\"\n\n\"Yeah.\" We all have those. There are always one or two that stay with you, haunting you over the years." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It was fucking bad,\" he whispers, eyes unseeing as he revisits the past." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A woman,\" he pauses here, swallowing thickly, \"a woman was texting, wasn't paying attention. She wandered into the other lane, along Heaven's Pass.\"\n\nI close my eyes, picturing the road. Heaven's Pass was so named due to it being the most dangerous road in Anderson Heights. Numerous hills and what we like to claim as small mountains surround one side of the town, and are popular with hikers. The road is narrow and curves around the side of the mountain, a steep cliff on one side. You can regularly see flowers tied to the metal railings edging the cliff, and sections of it need to be replaced regularly. A railing that isn't as tall or as sturdy as it should be." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Our best guess was that he tried to steer out of the way, but she hit him head-on. His car hit the rail and flipped over it, plunging down the edge of the cliff.\" He glances at me, then away, rubbing his hands down his slacks. \"The kid, Jesus. He died on impact, with a broken neck. The husband wasn't as lucky. He was just barely alive when we got to them, the steering column–\"\n\n\"Don't,\" I command, raising a hand, my eyes misty. \"I don't need to know.\"\n\nCraig nods. \"He just kept whispering the same thing over and over again. 'Tell Grace to remember me when snowflakes fall.' By the time we cut the door off the car, he was gone. The thing is? He shouldn't have been on that road. No one could ever work out why he was on it.\"\n\nJesus. I wipe my hands over my face, trying to remove the visual from my mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Grace had only said they died in an accident; she didn't tell me the details." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was at the hospital when the cops brought Grace in to ID the bodies. She was hysterical. Her screams, Jeremy, they haunt my dreams. I didn't get to tell her what her husband had said. Doctors ended up having to sedate her. I heard she ended up on a psych hold, as they feared she might hurt herself.\"\n\nPicturing her in the hospital like that crushes me, and my eyes grow misty with empathy. I can't imagine the pain and heartbreak that caused, the devastation her life must have been in. That she's still standing is a testament to her strength, and makes me admire her even more.\n\n\"I heard gossip later that his parents, well, not blamed her, but couldn't look at her anymore, and moved to another state. Florida, I think, or maybe Louisiana. Her own parents had passed away a few years or so prior.\"\n\nFuck. She must have been so lonely. She lost everything. As devastating as it is to hear this, I understand her a little more now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Craig glances away, and I narrow my eyes at him. I can tell when he's hiding something. \"I can read you like a book, Dawes. Spit it out.\"\n\n\"The woman who caused the accident?\"\n\nI make a go on motion with my hands, raising a brow.\n\n\"She got away with it, only having to do community service.\"\n\nMy blood runs cold, a whisper of a long-ago conversation running through my mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had to do some community service for texting while driving, Melanie had told me years ago, one night when she had been drinking heavily." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I shake my head in denial, but the truth shines clearly in his eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Melanie killed Grace's family?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I whisper, dread running down my spine. No wonder she ran. Coming face to face with the person responsible for their deaths, and seeing us together? I can't even imagine what she's thinking right now.\n\nCraig nods. \"You didn't know?\"\n\n\"No, she never told me about the deaths, just that she got caught texting. Fuck!\" Standing, I punch the wall, needing to release the emotions boiling in my gut." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Melanie ambushed me yesterday, and Grace saw us together, which must be why she ran off. Did your brother find anything?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He reaches into his pocket, pulling out a slip of paper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "An address for a hotel in Creekwood is written on it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thanks, man, I owe you one,\" I say, clapping him on the shoulder before running out of the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Racing into the captain's office, I tell her I have a family emergency, and at her nod, I take my leave, jumping into my truck and driving toward Creekwood.\n\nI'm coming, Grace.\n\nStanding outside her hotel door, I hesitate, shoulders drooping. I can understand if she never wants to see me again. Turning away, I take a few steps, then heave a deep breath and turn back, knocking softly on the door.\n\nAfter a moment, the door opens a crack, big brown eyes peering up at me through the space made by the chain lock.\n\n\"Hi,\" I whisper, my heart settling at the sight of her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hi,\" she replies softly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I didn't know. I promise you, Grace, I didn't know. I just found out forty-five minutes ago.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She slides down the wall until she's sitting on the floor. I mimic her so we're sitting side-by-side, the wall separating us. It seems fitting somehow. \"Who is she to you?\"\n\nMy eyes close as I flinch. I realize now that although I told her about Melanie in the beginning, I never told Grace her name. I'm not sure if I had at the time that our relationship would have made it this far. \"My ex-wife.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her head bounces back against the wall with a thud as her eyes flutter closed, a soft sigh escaping her lips. \"You were married to her, Jeremy. How could you not know?\"\n\n\"We met about two years after the accident. Everything was fast with us. She pretended so well, Grace. She had everyone fooled, me included. I was an idiot and fell for her lies and manipulations. She admitted one night when she was drunk that she had been made to do community service for driving while texting. She said nothing about an accident or about the deaths. I didn't have any reason at the time to not believe her, so I didn't look into it more, and she never mentioned it again.\"\n\nGrace goes silent for so long, I begin to worry she's going to end us before we can truly get started. Then I feel a tap on my leg, and looking down, I see her hand sticking through the gap. Hope shoots through me as I take it, and we sit there, holding hands, both of us lost in our thoughts.\n\nSome time later Grace pulls away and stands, unlatching the chain and pulling the door open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I stay seated, looking up at her with hope in my eyes.\n\n\"Okay,\" she says, stepping back in invitation.\n\n\"Okay?\" I repeat, wanting to make absolutely sure she is certain. At her nod, I stand, walking past her into the room.\n\nIt's a mess. Clothes are strewn around, pizza boxes and candy wrappers littering the floor and table. Bedding is awry, and wet towels lay on the floor in the bathroom. Moving some clothes onto a chair, I take a seat on the bed and open my arms." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hesitating for only a moment, she steps into them, and I sit her on my lap, cuddling her into me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You came after me,\" she murmurs so softly I barely hear her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I promised you I would,\" I reply into her hair, which currently resembles a bird's nest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I love you, Grace, I'm not going anywhere. If you run, I'll follow.\"\n\nShe nods against my chest, and my heart warms. She's back where she belongs, in my arms. I know everything will be all right in the world when she's there. \"Later, much later, we might have to have a talk about you running away instead of talking to me.\" She sits back, eyeing me warily. \"Later,\" I repeat, the corner of my mouth lifting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You have no idea how terrified I was. I didn't know if you were safe, if maybe your stalker had gotten to you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She gasps. \"I never even thought about it,\" she admits. \"I wasn't thinking clearly, I was hurt and confused, and I couldn't take knowing if you had known all this time and not told me. I was afraid of the truth, so I ran.\"\n\nI hold her tighter, needing her to understand this. \"I will never lie to you,\" I vow. \"Relationships need trust and communication to work. And I want this to work, Grace. You're my future. When I think of what my life will look like ten years from now, twenty years—however long I have on this earth—I can't picture it without you by my side.\"\n\nGrace is very still, listening. A tremor runs through her as I continue." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I mean every word I said. I will never lie to you,\" I repeat, to make sure she heard me the first time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you need some space, tell me, and I'll give it to you. If you need anything, tell me, and I'll do my best to obtain it. You are my heart, my very life, and I will protect you with everything in me. Please don't ever run from me again.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I promise.\"\n\n\"Good. Now how about we pack up your things, and I'll take you out for that meal I promised you.\"\n\nShe slides off my lap, hands going to her hair and she grimaces. \"I look disgusting,\" she complains, and I laugh.\n\n\"You're gorgeous,\" I refute, planting a kiss on her lips to prove it. She sticks her tongue out and squints, showing me what she thinks of my statement. \"Go have a shower while I clean up in here. Do you want to come back to my house after dinner, or stay here?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yours,\" she answers as she switches the shower on, closing the door behind her." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's my girl." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Add eight sentences to continue story" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write 4 sentences sentences spawning from what the user wrote. Blend in these genres: science fiction. Incorporate these themes: robots, Robot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley's grip tightened convulsively on his fork." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you sure?\" he asked automatically, and as he said it, he realized the uselessness of the question. You don't ask a computer if it is sure of the answer it disgorges; not even a computer with arms and legs.\n\nR. Daneel said, \"Quite!\"\n\n\"Are they close to us?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not very. They are scattered.\"\n\n\"All right, then.\" Baley returned to his meal, his fork moving mechanically. Behind the frown on his long face, his mind worked furiously.\n\nSuppose the incident last night had been organized by a group of anti-robot fanatics, that it had not been the spontaneous trouble it had seemed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Such a group of agitators could easily include men who had studied robots with the intensity born of deep opposition." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One of them might have recognized R. Daneel for what he was. (The Commissioner had suggested that, in a way. Damn it, there were surprising depths to that man.)\n\nIt worked itself out logically." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Granting they had been unable to act in an organized manner on the spur of last evening's moment, they would still have been able to plan for the future." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If they could recognize a robot such as R. Daneel, they could certainly realize that Baley himself was a police officer. A police officer in the unusual company of a humanoid robot would very likely be a responsible man in the organization. (With the wisdom of hindsight, Baley followed the line of reasoning with no trouble at all.)\n\nIt followed then that observers at City Hall (or perhaps agents within City Hall) would be bound to spot Baley, R. Daneel, or both before too long a time had passed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That they had done so within twenty-four hours was not surprising. They might have done so in less time if so much of Baley's day had not been spent in Spacetown and along the motorway.\n\nR. Daneel had finished his meal. He sat quietly waiting, his perfect hands resting lightly on the end of the table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Had we not better do something?\" he asked.\n\n\"We're safe here in the kitchen,\" said Baley. \"Now leave this to me. Please.\"\n\nBaley looked about him cautiously and it was as though he saw a kitchen for the first time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "People! Thousands of them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What was the capacity of an average kitchen? He had once seen the figure. Two thousand two hundred, he thought. This one was larger than average." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Suppose the cry, \"Robot,\" were sent out into the air. Suppose it were tossed among the thousands like a ...\n\nHe was at a loss for a comparison, but it didn't matter. It wouldn't happen.\n\nA spontaneous riot could flare anywhere, in the kitchens as easily as in the corridors or in the elevators." }, { "from": "human", "value": "More easily, perhaps. There was a lack of inhibition at mealtimes, a sense of horseplay that could degenerate into something more serious at a trifle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But a planned riot would be different. Here in the kitchen, the planners would themselves be trapped in a large and mob-filled room. Once the dishes went flying and the tables cracking there would be no easy way to escape. Hundreds would certainly die and they themselves might easily be among them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No, a safe riot would have to be planned in the avenues of the City, in some relatively narrow passageway. Panic and hysteria would travel slowly along the constriction and there would be time for the quick, prepared fadeaway along the side passage or the unobtrusive step onto an escalating localway that would move them to a higher level and disappearance.\n\nBaley felt trapped. There were probably others waiting outside. Baley and R. Daneel were to be followed to a proper point and the fuse would be set off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "R. Daneel said, \"Why not arrest them?\"\n\n\"That would only start the trouble sooner. You know their faces, don't you? You won't forget?\"\n\n\"I am not capable of forgetting.\"\n\n\"Then we'll nab them another time. For now, we'll break their net. Follow me. Do exactly as I do.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He rose, turned his dish carefully upside down, centering it on the movable disc from below which it had risen. He put his fork back in its recess. R. Daneel, watching, matched his action. The dishes and utensils dropped out of sight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "R. Daneel said, \"They are getting up, too.\"\n\n\"All right. It's my feeling they won't get too close. Not here.\"\n\nThe two moved into line now, drifting toward an exit where the click-click-click of the tags sounded ritualistically, each click recording the expenditure of a ration unit.\n\nBaley looked back through the steamy haze and the noise and, with incongruous sharpness, thought of a visit to the City Zoo with Ben six or seven years ago." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No, eight, because Ben had just passed his eighth birthday then. (Jehoshaphat! Where did the time go?)\n\nIt had been Ben's first visit and he had been excited. After all, he had never actually seen a cat or a dog before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, on top of that, there was the bird cage! Even Baley himself, who had seen it a dozen times before, was not immune to its fascination.\n\nThere is something about the first sight of living objects hurtling through air that is incomparably startling. It was feeding time in the sparrow cage and an attendant was dumping cracked oats into a long trough (human beings had grown used to yeast substitutes, but animals, more conservative in their way, insisted on real grain)." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sparrows flocked down in what seemed like hundreds. Wing to wing, with an ear-splitting twitter, they lined the trough ...\n\nThat was it; that was the picture that came to Baley's mind as he looked back at the kitchen he was leaving. Sparrows at the trough." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The thought repelled him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He thought: Jehoshaphat, there must be a better way.\n\nBut what better way? What was wrong with this way? It had never bothered him before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He said abruptly to R. Daneel, \"Ready, Daneel?\"\n\n\"I am ready, Elijah.\"\n\nThey left the kitchen and escape was now clearly and flatly up to Baley.\n\nThere is a game that youngsters know called \"running the strips.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Its rules vary in trivial fashion from City to City, but its essentials are eternal. A boy from San Francisco can join the game in Cairo with no trouble.\n\nIts object is to get from point A to point B via the City's rapid transit system in such a way that the \"leader\" manages to lose as many of his followers as possible. A leader who arrives at the destination alone is skillful indeed, as is a follower who refuses to be shaken." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The game is usually conducted during the evening rush hour when the increased density of the commuters makes it at once more hazardous and more complicated. The leader sets off, running up and down the accelerating strips. He does his best to do the unexpected, remaining standing on a given strip as long as possible, then leaping off suddenly in either direction. He will run quickly through several strips, then remain waiting once more." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pity the follower who incautiously careens forward one strip too far." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Before he has caught his mistake, unless he is extraordinarily nimble, he has driven past the leader or fallen behind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The clever leader will compound the error by moving quickly in the appropriate direction.\n\nA move designed to increase the complexity of the task tenfold involves boarding the localways or the expressways themselves, and hurtling off the other side. It is bad form to avoid them completely and also bad form to linger on them.\n\nThe attraction of the game is not easy for an adult to understand, particularly for an adult who has never himself been a teenage striprunner." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The players are roughly treated by legitimate travelers into whose path they find themselves inevitably flying." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They are persecuted bitterly by the police and punished by their parents." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They are denounced in the schools and on the subetherics." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No year passes without its four or five teenagers killed at the game, its dozens hurt, its cases of innocent bystanders meeting tragedy of varying degree.\n\nYet nothing can be done to wipe out the striprunning gangs. The greater the danger, the more the striprunners have that most valuable of all prizes, honor in the eyes of their fellows. A successful one may well swagger; a well-known leader is cock-of-the-walk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Elijah Baley, for instance, remembered with satisfaction even now that he had been a striprunner once." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had led a gang of twenty from the Concourse Sector to the borders of Queens, crossing three expressways. In two tireless and relentless hours, he had shaken off some of the most agile followers of the Bronx, and arrived at the destination point alone. They talked about that run for months.\n\nBaley was in his forties now, of course." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He hadn't run the strips for over twenty years, but he remembered some of the tricks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What he had lost in agility, he made up in another respect." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was a policeman." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one but another policeman as experienced as himself could possibly know the City as well, know where almost every metal-bordered alley began and ended.\n\nHe walked away from the kitchen briskly, but not too rapidly. Each moment he expected the cry of \"Robot, robot\" to ring out behind him. That initial set of moments was the riskiest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He counted the steps until he felt the first accelerating strip moving under him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stopped for a moment, while R. Daneel moved smoothly up beside him.\n\n\"Are they still behind us, Daneel?\" asked Baley in a whisper.\n\n\"Yes. They're moving closer.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That won't last,\" said Baley confidently. He looked at the strips stretching to either side, with their human cargo whipping to his left more and more rapidly as their distance from him increased. He had felt the strips beneath his feet many times a day almost all the days of his life, but he had not bent his knees in anticipation of running them in seven thousand days and more. He felt the old familiar thrill and his breath grew more rapid." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He quite forgot the one time he had caught Ben at the game." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had lectured him interminably and threatened to have him put under police surveillance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lightly, quickly, at double the \"safe\" rate, he went up the strips. He leaned forward sharply against the acceleration. The localway was humming past. For a moment, it looked as though he would mount, but suddenly he was fading backward, backward, dodging through the crowd to left and right as it thickened on the slower strips." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stopped, and let himself be carried along at a mere fifteen miles an hour.\n\n\"How many are with us, Daneel?\"\n\n\"Only one, Elijah.\" The robot was at his side, unruffled, unbreathing.\n\n\"He must have been a good one in his day, too, but he won't last either.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Full of self-confidence, he felt a half-remembered sensation of his younger days." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It consisted partly of the feeling of immersion in a mystic rite to which others did not belong, partly of the purely physical sensation of wind against hair and face, partly of a tenuous sense of danger.\n\n\"They call this the side shuffle,\" he said to R. Daneel in a low voice.\n\nHis long stride ate distance, but he moved along a single strip, dodging the legitimate crowd with a minimum of effort. He kept it up, moving always closer to the strip's edge, until the steady movement of his head through the crowd must have been hypnotic in its constant velocity--as it was intended to be." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And then, without a break in his step, he shifted two inches sideways and was on the adjoining strip. He felt an aching in his thigh muscles as he kept his balance.\n\nHe whipped through a cluster of commuters and was on the forty-five-mile strip.\n\n\"How is it now, Daneel?\" he asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He is still with us,\" was the calm answer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley's lips tightened. There was nothing for it but to use the moving platforms themselves, and that really required co-ordination; more, perhaps, than he still retained.\n\nHe looked about quickly. Exactly where were they now? [B-zzd] Street flashed by." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He made rapid calculations and was off. Up the remaining strips, smoothly and steadily, a swing onto the localway platform.\n\nThe impersonal faces of men and women, calloused with the ennui of way-riding, were jolted into something like indignation as Baley and R. Daneel clambered aboard and squeezed through the railings.\n\n\"Hey, now,\" called a woman shrilly, clutching at her hat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sorry,\" said Baley, breathlessly.\n\nHe forced his way through the standees and with a wriggle was off on the other side. At the last moment, a jostled passenger thumped his back in anger. He went staggering.\n\nDesperately he tried to regain his footing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He lurched across a strip boundary and the sudden change in velocity forced him to his knees and then over on his side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had the sudden, panicky vision of men colliding with him and bowling over, of a spreading confusion on the strips, one of the dreaded \"man-jams\" that would not fail to put dozens in the hospital with broken limbs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But R. Daneel's arm was under his back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He felt himself lifted with more than a man's strength.\n\n\"Thanks,\" gasped Baley, and there was no time for more.\n\nOff he went and down the decelerating strips in a complicated pattern so designed that his feet met the V-joint strips of an expressway at the exact point of crossover. Without the loss of rhythm, he was accelerating again, then up and over an expressway." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is he with us, Daneel?\"\n\n\"Not one in sight, Elijah.\"\n\n\"Good. But what a striprunner you would have been, Daneel! --Oops, now, now!\"\n\nOff onto another localway in a whirl and down the strips with a clatter to a doorway, large and official in appearance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A guard rose to his feet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley flashed his identification. \"Official business.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were inside.\n\n\"Power plant,\" said Baley, curtly. \"This breaks our tracks completely.\"\n\nHe had been in power plants before, including this one." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Familiarity did not lessen his feeling of uncomfortable awe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The feeling was heightened by the haunting thought that once his father had been high in the hierarchy of a plant such as this. That is, before ...\n\nThere was the surrounding hum of the tremendous generators hidden in the central well of the plant, the faint sharpness of ozone in the air, the grim and silent threat of the red lines that marked the limits beyond which no one could pass without protective clothing.\n\nSomewhere in the plant (Baley had no idea exactly where) a pound of fissionable material was consumed each day." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Every so often, the radioactive fission products, the so-called \"hot ash,\" were forced by air pressure through leaden pipes to distant caverns ten miles out in the ocean and a half mile below the ocean floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley sometimes wondered what would happen when the caverns were filled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He said to R. Daneel with sudden gruffness, \"Stay away from the red lines.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then, he bethought himself and added sheepishly, \"But I suppose it doesn't matter to you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is it a question of radioactivity?\" asked Daneel.\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Then it does matter to me. Gamma radiation destroys the delicate balance of a positronic brain. It would affect me much sooner than it would affect you.\"\n\n\"You mean it would kill you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I would require a new positronic brain. Since no two can be alike, I would be a new individual. The Daneel you now speak to would be, in a manner of speaking, dead.\"\n\nBaley looked at the other doubtfully. \"I never knew that. --Up these ramps.\"\n\n\"The point isn't stressed. Spacetown wishes to convince Earthmen of the usefulness of such as myself, not of our weaknesses.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then why tell me?\"\n\nR. Daneel turned his eyes full on his human companion. \"You are my partner, Elijah. It is well that you know my weaknesses and shortcomings.\"\n\nBaley cleared his throat and had nothing more to say on the subject." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Out in this direction,\" he said a moment later, \"and we're a quarter of a mile from our apartment.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a grim, lower-class apartment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One small room and two beds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Two fold-in chairs and a closet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A built-in subetheric screen that allowed no manual adjustment, and would be working only at stated hours, but would be working then." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No washbasin, not even an Unactivated one, and no facilities for cooking or even boiling water." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A small trash-disposal pipe was in one corner of the room, an ugly, unadorned, unpleasantly functional object.\n\nBaley shrugged. \"This is it. I guess we can stand it.\"\n\nR. Daneel walked to the trash-disposal pipe. His shirt unseamed at a touch, revealing a smooth and, to all appearances, well-muscled chest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What are you doing?\" asked Baley.\n\n\"Getting rid of the food I ingested. If I were to leave it, it would putrefy and I would become an object of distaste.\"\n\nR. Daneel placed two fingers carefully under one nipple and pushed in a definite pattern of pressure. His chest opened longitudinally." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "R. Daneel reached in and from a welter of gleaming metal withdrew a thin, translucent sac, partly distended. He opened it while Baley watched with a kind of horror.\n\nR. Daneel hesitated. He said, \"The food is perfectly clean. I do not salivate or chew. It was drawn in through the gullet by suction, you know. It is edible.\"\n\n\"That's all right,\" said Baley, gently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm not hungry. You just get rid of it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "R. Daneel's food sac was of fluorocarbon plastic, Baley decided." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At least the food did not cling to it. It came out smoothly and was placed little by little into the pipe. A waste of good food at that, he thought.\n\nHe sat down on one bed and removed his shirt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He said, \"I suggest an early start tomorrow.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"For a specific reason?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The location of this apartment isn't known to our friends yet. Or at least I hope not. If we leave early, we are that much safer. Once in City Hall, we will have to decide whether our partnership is any longer practical.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You think it is perhaps not?\"\n\nBaley shrugged and said dourly, \"We can't go through this sort of thing every day.\"\n\n\"But it seems to me--\"\n\nR. Daneel was interrupted by the sharp scarlet sliver of the door signal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley rose silently to his feet and unlimbered his blaster. The door signal flashed once more.\n\nHe moved silently to the door, put his thumb on the blaster contact while he threw the switch that activated the one-way transparency patch. It wasn't a good view-patch; it was small and had a distorting effect, but it was quite good enough to show Baley's youngster, Ben, outside the door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley acted quickly. He flung the door open, snatched brutally at Ben's wrist as the boy raised his hand to signal a third time, and pulled him in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The look of fright and bewilderment faded only slowly from Ben's eyes as he leaned breathlessly against the wall toward which he had been hurled. He rubbed his wrist.\n\n\"Dad!\" he said in grieved tones. \"You didn't have to grab me like that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley was staring through the view-patch of the once-again-closed door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As nearly as he could tell, the corridor was empty.\n\n\"Did you see anyone out there, Ben?\"\n\n\"No. Gee, Dad, I just came to see if you were all right.\"\n\n\"Why shouldn't I be all right?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't know. It was Mom. She was crying and all like that. She said I had to find you. If I didn't go, she said she would go herself, and then she didn't know what would happen. She made me go, Dad.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley said, \"How did you find me? Did your mother know where I was?\"\n\n\"No, she didn't. I called up your office.\"\n\n\"And they told you?\"\n\nBen looked startled at his father's vehemence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He said, in a low voice, \"Sure. Weren't they supposed to?\"\n\nBaley and Daneel looked at one another.\n\nBaley rose heavily to his feet. He said, \"Where's your mother now, Ben? At the apartment?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, we went to Grandma's for dinner and stayed there. I'm supposed to go back there now. I mean, as long as you're all right, Dad.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You'll stay here. Daneel, did you notice the exact location of the floor communo?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The robot said, \"Yes. Do you intend leaving the room to use it?\"\n\n\"I've got to. I've got to get in touch with Jessie.\"\n\n\"Might I suggest that it would be more logical to let Bentley do that. It is a form of risk and he is less valuable.\"\n\nBaley stared. \"Why, you--\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He thought: Jehoshaphat, what am I getting angry about?\n\nHe went on more calmly, \"You don't understand, Daneel. Among us, it is not customary for a man to send his young son into possible danger, even if it is logical to do so.\"\n\n\"Danger!\" squeaked Ben in a sort of horrified pleasure. \"What's going on, Dad? Huh, Dad?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nothing, Ben. Now, this isn't any of your business. Understand? Get ready for bed. I want you in bed when I get back. You hear me?\"\n\n\"Aw, gosh. You could tell a fellow. I won't say anything.\"\n\n\"In bed!\"\n\n\"Gosh!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley hitched his jacket back as he stood at the floor communo, so that his blaster butt was ready for snatching." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He spoke his personal number into the mouthpiece and waited while a computer fifteen miles away checked it to make sure the call was permissible. It was a very short wait that was involved, since a plain-clothes man had no limit on the number of his business calls. He spoke the code number of his mother-in-law's apartment.\n\nThe small screen at the base of the instrument lit up, and her face looked out at him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He said, in a low voice, \"Mother, put on Jessie.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jessie must have been waiting for him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was on at once." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley looked at her face and then darkened the screen deliberately.\n\n\"All right, Jessie. Ben's here. Now, what's the matter?\" His eyes roved from side to side continuously, watching.\n\n\"Are you all right? You aren't in trouble?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm obviously all right, Jessie. Now stop it.\"\n\n\"Oh, Lije, I've been so worried.\"\n\n\"What about?\" he asked tightly. \"You know. Your friend.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What about him?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I told you last night. There'll be trouble.\"\n\n\"Now, that's nonsense. I'm keeping Ben with me for tonight and you go to bed. Good-by, dear.\"\n\nHe broke connections and waited for two breaths before starting back. His face was gray with apprehension and fear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ben was standing in the middle of the room when Baley returned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One of his contact lenses was neatly pocketed in a little suction cup." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The other was still in his eye.\n\nBen said, \"Gosh, Dad, isn't there any water in the place? Mr. Olivaw says I can't go to the Personal.\"\n\n\"He's right. You can't. Put that thing back in your eye, Ben. It won't hurt you to sleep with them for one night.\"\n\n\"All right.\" Ben put it back, put away his suction cup and climbed into bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Boy, what a mattress!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley said to R. Daneel. \"I suppose you won't mind sitting up.\"\n\n\"Of course not. I was interested, by the way, in the queer glass Bentley wears close to his eyes. Do all Earthmen wear them?\"\n\n\"No. Just some,\" said Baley, absently." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't, for instance.\"\n\n\"For what reason is it worn?\"\n\nBaley was too absorbed with his own thoughts to answer. His own uneasy thoughts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The lights were out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley remained wakeful. He was dimly aware of Ben's breathing as it turned deep and regular and became a bit rough. When he turned his head, he grew somehow conscious of R. Daneel, sitting in a chair with grave immobility, face turned toward the door.\n\nThen he fell asleep, and when he slept, he dreamed.\n\nHe dreamed Jessie was falling into the fission chamber of a nuclear power plant, falling and falling." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She held out her arms to him, shrieking, but he could only stand frozenly just outside a scarlet line and watch her distorted figure turn as it fell, growing smaller until it was only a dot." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He could only watch her, in the dream, knowing that it was he, himself, who had pushed her." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "yo hit me with seven sentences more. science fiction genre k?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Commissioner Enderby's eyes narrowed and he glared at Baley. \"What are you going to do? You tried something like this in Fastolfe's dome yesterday morning. Not again. Please.\"\n\nBaley nodded. \"I know. I was wrong the first time.\"\n\nHe thought, fiercely: Also the second time. But not now, not this time, not ...\"\n\nThe thought faded out, spluttering like a micropile under a positronic damper.\n\nHe said, \"Judge for yourself, Commissioner. Grant that the evidence against me has been planted. Go that far with me and see where it takes you. Ask yourself who could have planted that evidence. Obviously only someone who'd known I was in the Williamsburg plant yesterday evening.\"\n\n\"All right. Who would that be?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley said, \"I was followed out of the kitchen by a Medievalist group. I lost them, or I thought I did, but obviously at least one of them saw me pass through the plant. My only purpose in doing so, you understand, was to help me lose them.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Commissioner considered. \"Clousarr? Was he with them?\"\n\nBaley nodded.\n\nEnderby said, \"All right, we'll question him. If he's got anything in him, we'll have it out of him. What more can I do, Lije?\"\n\n\"Wait, now. Don't quit on me. Do you see my point?\"\n\n\"Well, let's see if I do?\" The Commissioner clasped his hands. \"Clousarr saw you go into the Williamsburg power plant, or else someone in his group did and passed the information along to him. He decided to utilize that fact to get you into trouble and off the investigation. Is that what you're saying?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's close to it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good.\" The Commissioner seemed to warm to the task. \"He knew your wife was a member of his organization, naturally, and so he knew you wouldn't face a really close probe into your private life. He thought you would resign rather than fight circumstantial evidence. By the way, Lije, what about a resignation? I mean, if things looked really bad. We could keep things quiet--\"\n\n\"Not in a million years, Commissioner.\"\n\nEnderby shrugged. \"Well, where was I? Oh, yes, so he got an alpha-sprayer, presumably through a confederate in the plant, and had another confederate arrange the destruction of R. Sammy.\" His fingers drummed lightly on the desk. \"No good, Lije.\"\n\n\"Why not?\"\n\n\"Too farfetched. Too many confederates. And he has a cast-iron alibi for the night and morning of the Spacetown murder, by the way. We checked that almost right away, though I was the only one who knew the reason for checking that particular time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley said, \"I never said it was Clousarr, Commissioner. You did. It could be anyone in the Medievalist organization. Clousarr is just the owner of a face that Daneel happened to recognize. I don't even think he's particularly important in the organization. Though there is one queer thing about him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What?\" asked Enderby, suspiciously." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He did know Jessie was a member. Does he know every member in the organization, do you suppose?\"\n\n\"I don't know. He knew about Jessie, anyway. Maybe she was important because she was the wife of a policeman. Maybe he remembered her for that reason.\"\n\n\"You say he came right out and said that Jezebel Baley was a member. Just like that? Jezebel Baley?\"\n\nEnderby nodded. \"I keep telling you I heard him.\"\n\n\"That's the funny thing, Commissioner. Jessie hasn't used her full first name since before Bentley was born. Not once. I know that for certain. She joined the Medievalists after she dropped her full name. I know that for sure, too. How would Clousarr come to know her as Jezebel, then?\"\n\nThe Commissioner flushed and said, hastily, \"Oh well, if it comes to that, he probably said Jessie. I just filled it in automatically and gave her full name. In fact, I'm sure of that. He said Jessie.\"\n\n\"Until now you were quite sure he said Jezebel. I asked several times.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Commissioner's voice rose." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're not saying I'm a liar, are you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm just wondering if Clousarr, perhaps, said nothing at all. I'm wondering if you made that up. You've known Jessie for twenty years, and you knew her name was Jezebel.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're off your head, man.\"\n\n\"Am I? Where were you after lunch today? You were out of your office for two hours at least.\"\n\n\"Are you questioning me?\"\n\n\"I'll answer for you, too. You were in the Williamsburg power plant.\"\n\nThe Commissioner rose from his seat. His forehead glistened and there were dry, white flecks at the corners of his lips. \"What the hell are you trying to say?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Weren't you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Baley, you're suspended. Hand me your credentials.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not yet. Hear me out.\"\n\n\"I don't intend to. You're guilty. You're guilty as the devil, and what gets me is your cheap attempt to make me, me, look as though I were conspiring against you.\" He lost his voice momentarily in a squeak of indignation. He managed to gasp out, \"In fact, you're under arrest.\"\n\n\"No,\" said Baley, tightly, \"not yet. Commissioner, I've got a blaster on you. It's pointed straight and it's cocked. Don't fool with me, please, because I'm desperate and I will have my say. Afterward, you can do what you please.\"\n\nWith widening eyes, Julius Enderby stared at the wicked muzzle in Baley's hands.\n\nHe stammered, \"Twenty years for this, Baley, in the deepest prison level in the City.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "R. Daneel moved suddenly. His hand clamped down on Baley's wrist. He said, quietly, \"I cannot permit this, partner Elijah. You must do no harm to the Commissioner.\"\n\nFor the first time since R. Daneel had entered the City, the Commissioner spoke directly to him. \"Hold him, you. First Law!\"\n\nBaley said quickly, \"I have no intention of hurting him, Daneel, if you will keep him from arresting me. You said you would help me clear this up. I have forty-five minutes.\"\n\nR. Daneel, without releasing Baley's wrist, said, \"Commissioner, I believe Elijah should be allowed to speak. I am in communication with Dr. Fastolfe at this moment--\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How? How?\" demanded the Commissioner, wildly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I possess a self-contained subethenic unit,\" said R. Daneel. The Commissioner stared.\n\n\"I am in communication with Dr. Fastolfe,\" the robot went on inexorably, \"and it would make a bad impression, Commissioner, if you were to refuse to listen to Elijah. Damaging inferences might be drawn.\"\n\nThe Commissioner fell back in his chair, quite speechless. Baley said, \"I say you were in the Williamsburg power plant today, Commissioner, and you got the alpha-sprayer and gave it to R. Sammy. You deliberately chose the Williamsburg power plant in order to incriminate me. You even seized Dr. Gerrigel's reappearance to invite him down to the Department and give him a deliberately maladjusted guide rod to lead him to the photographic supply room and allow him to find R. Sammy's remains. You counted on him to make a correct diagnosis.\"\n\nBaley put away his blaster. \"If you want to have me arrested now, go ahead, but Spacetown won't take that for an answer.\"\n\n\"Motive,\" spluttered Enderby breathlessly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His glasses were fogged and he removed them, looking once again curiously vague and helpless in their absence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What motive could I have for this?\"\n\n\"You got me into trouble, didn't you? It will put a spoke in the Sarton investigation, won't it? And all that aside, R. Sammy knew too much.\"\n\n\"About what, in Heaven's name?\"\n\n\"About the way in which a Spacer was murdered five and a half days ago. You see, Commissioner, you murdered Dr. Sarton of Spacetown.\"\n\nIt was R. Daneel who spoke. Enderby could only clutch feverishly at his hair and shake his head.\n\nThe robot said, \"Partner Elijah, I am afraid that this theory is quite untenable. As you know, it is impossible for Commissioner Enderby to have murdered Dr. Sarton.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Listen, then. Listen to me. Enderby begged me to take the case, not any of the men who over-ranked me. He did that for several reasons. In the first place, we were college friends and he thought he could count on its never occurring to me that an old buddy and respected superior could be a criminal. He counted on my well-known loyalty, you see. Secondly, he knew Jessie was a member of an underground organization and expected to be able to maneuver me out of the investigation or blackmail me into silence if I got too close to the truth. And he wasn't really worried about that. At the very beginning he did his best to arouse my distrust of you, Daneel, and make certain that the two of us worked at cross-purposes. He knew about my father's declassification. He could guess how I would react. You see, it is an advantage for the murderer to be in charge of the murder investigation.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Commissioner found his voice. He said, weakly, \"How could I know about Jessie?\" He turned to the robot. \"You! If you're transmitting this to Spacetown, tell them it's a lie! It's all a lie!\"\n\nBaley broke in, raising his voice for a moment and then lowering it into a queer sort of tense calm. \"Certainly you would know about Jessie. You're a Medievalist, and part of the organization. Your old-fashioned spectacles! Your windows!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's obvious your temperament is turned that way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But there's better evidence than that.\n\n\"How did Jessie find out Daneel was a robot? It puzzled me at the time. Of course we know now that she found out through her Medievalist organization, but that just shoves the problem one step backward. How did they know? You, Commissioner, dismissed it with a theory that Daneel was recognized as a robot during the incident at the shoe counter. I didn't quite believe that." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I couldn't. I took him for human when I first saw him, and there's nothing wrong with my eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yesterday, I asked Dr. Gerrigel to come in from Washington. Later I decided I needed him for several reasons, but, at the time I first called him, my only purpose was to see if he would recognize Daneel for what he was with no prompting on my part.\n\n\"Commissioner, he didn't! I introduced him to Daneel, he shook hands with him, we all talked together, and it was only after the subject got around to humanoid robots that he suddenly caught on. Now, that was Dr. Gerrigel, Earth's greatest expert on robots. Do you mean to say a few Medievalist rioters could do better than he under conditions of confusion and tension, and be so certain about it that they would throw their entire organization into activity based on the feeling that Daneel was a robot?\n\n\"It's obvious now that the Medievalists must have known Daneel to be a robot to begin with. The incident at the shoe counter was deliberately designed to show Daneel and, through him, Spacetown, the extent of anti-robot feeling in the City." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was meant to confuse the issue, to turn suspicion away from individuals and toward the population as a whole." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Now, if they knew the truth about Daneel to begin with, who told them? I didn't. I once thought it was Daneel himself, but that's out. The only other Earthman who knew about it was you, Commissioner.\"\n\nEnderby said, with surprising energy, \"There could be spies in the Department, too. The Medievalists could have us riddled with them. Your wife was one, and if you don't find it impossible that I should be one, why not others in the Department?\"\n\nThe corners of Baley's lips pulled back a savage trifle. \"Let's not bring up mysterious spies until we see where the straightforward solution leads us. I say you're the obvious informer and the real one.\n\n\"It's interesting now that I look back on it, Commissioner, to see how your spirits rose and fell accordingly as I seemed to be far from a solution or possibly close to it. You were nervous to begin with. When I wanted to visit Spacetown yesterday morning and wouldn't tell you the reason, you were practically in a state of collapse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Did you think I had you pinned, Commissioner?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That it was a trap to get you into their hands?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "You hated them, you told me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You were virtually in tears. For a time, I thought that to be caused by the memory of humiliation in Spacetown when you yourself were a suspect, but then Daneel told me that your sensibilities had been carefully regarded. You had never known you were a suspect. Your panic was due to fear, not humiliation.\n\n\"Then when I came out with my completely wrong solution, while you listened over trimensional circuit, and you saw how far, how immensely far, from the truth I was, you were confident again. You even argued with me, defended the Spacers. After that, you were quite master of yourself for a while, quite confident." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It surprised me at the time that you so easily forgave my false accusations against the Spacers when earlier you had so lectured me on their sensitivity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You enjoyed my mistake.\n\n\"Then I put in my call for Dr. Gerrigel and you wanted to know why and I wouldn't tell you. That plunged you into the abyss again because you feared--\"\n\nR. Daneel suddenly raised his hand. \"Partner Elijah!\"\n\nBaley looked at his watch. 23:42! He said, \"What is it?\"\n\nR. Daneel said, \"He might have been disturbed at thinking you would find out his Medievalist connections, if we grant their existence. There is nothing, though, to connect him with the murder. He cannot have had anything to do with that.\"\n\nBaley said, \"You're quite wrong, Daneel. He didn't know what I wanted Dr. Gerrigel for, but it was quite safe to assume that it was in connection with information about robots. This frightened the Commissioner, because a robot had an intimate connection with his greater crime. Isn't that so, Commissioner?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Enderby shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When this is over--\" he began, but choked into inarticulacy.\n\n\"How was the murder committed?\" demanded Baley with a suppressed fury. \"C/Fe, damn it! C/Fe! I use your own term, Daneel. You're so full of the benefits of a C/Fe culture, yet you don't see where an Earthman might have used it for at least a temporary advantage. Let me sketch it in for you.\n\n\"There is no difficulty in the notion of a robot crossing open country. Even at night. Even alone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Commissioner put a blaster into R. Sammy's hand, told him where to go and when." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He himself entered Spacetown through the Personal and was relieved of his own blaster. He received the other from R. Sammy's hands, killed Dr. Sarton, returned the blaster to R. Sammy, who took it back across the fields to New York City. And today he destroyed R. Sammy, whose knowledge had become dangerous.\n\n\"That explains everything. The presence of the Commissioner, the absence of a weapon. And it makes it unnecessary to suppose any human New Yorker had crawled a mile under the open sky at night.\"\n\nBut at the end of Baley's recitation, R. Daneel said, \"I am sorry, partner Elijah, though happy for the Commissioner, that your story explains nothing. I have told you that the cerebroanalytic properties of the Commissioner are such that it is impossible for him to have committed deliberate murder. I don't know what English word would be applied to the psychological fact: cowardice, conscience, or compassion. I know the dictionary meanings of all these, but I cannot judge. At any rate, the Commissioner did not murder.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" muttered Enderby. His voice gained strength and confidence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't know what your motives are, Baley, or why you should try to ruin me this way, but I'll get to the bottom--\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wait,\" said Baley. \"I'm not through. I've got this.\"\n\nHe slammed the aluminum cube on Enderby's desk, and tried to feel the confidence he hoped he was radiating. For half an hour now, he had been hiding from himself one little fact: that he did not know what the picture showed. He was gambling, but it was all that was left to do.\n\nEnderby shrank away from the small object. \"What is it?\"\n\n\"It isn't a bomb,\" said Baley, sardonically. \"Just an ordinary microprojector.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well? What will that prove?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Suppose we see.\" His fingernail probed at one of the slits in the cube, and a corner of the Commissioner's office blanked out, then lit up in an alien scene in three dimensions.\n\nIt reached from floor to ceiling and extended out past the walls of the room. It was awash with a gray light of a sort the City's utilities never provided.\n\nBaley thought, with a pang of mingled distaste and perverse attraction: It must be the dawn they talk about.\n\nThe pictured scene was of Dr. Sarton's dome. Dr. Sarton's dead body, a horrible, broken remnant, filled its center.\n\nEnderby's eyes bulged as he stared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley said, \"I know the Commissioner isn't a killer. I don't need you to tell me that, Daneel. If I could have gotten around that one fact earlier, I would have had the solution earlier. Actually, I didn't see a way out of it until an hour ago when I carelessly said to you that you had once been curious about Bentley's contact lenses.--That was it, Commissioner. It occurred to me then that your nearsightedness and your glasses were the key. They don't have nearsightedness on the Outer Worlds, I suppose, or they might have reached the true solution of the murder almost at once. Commissioner, when did you break your glasses?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Commissioner said, \"What do you mean?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley said, \"When I first saw you about this case, you told me you had broken your glasses in Spacetown. I assumed that you broke them in your agitation on hearing the news of the murder, but you never said so, and I had no reason for making that assumption. Actually, if you were entering Spacetown with crime on your mind, you were already sufficiently agitated to drop and break your glasses before the murder. Isn't that so, and didn't that, in fact, happen?\"\n\nR. Daneel said, \"I do not see the point, partner Elijah.\"\n\nBaley thought: I'm partner Elijah for ten minutes more. Fast! Talk fast! And think fast!\n\nHe was manipulating Sarton's dome image as he spoke. Clumsily, he expanded it, his fingernails unsure in the tension that was overwhelming him. Slowly, in jerks, the corpse widened, broadened, heightened, came closer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley could almost smell the stench of its scorched flesh. Its head, shoulders, and one upper arm lolled crazily, connected to hips and legs by a blackened remnant of spine from which charred rib stumps jutted.\n\nBaley cast a side glance at the Commissioner. Enderby had closed his eyes. He looked sick. Baley felt sick, too, but he had to look. Slowly he circled the trimensional image by means of the transmitter controls, rotating it, bringing the ground about the corpse to view in successive quadrants. His fingernail slipped and the imaged floor tilted suddenly and expanded till floor and corpse alike were a hazy mass, beyond the resolving power of the transmitter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He brought the expansion down, let the corpse slide away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was still talking. He had to. He couldn't stop till he found what he was looking for. And if he didn't, all his talk might be useless. Worse than useless. His heart was throbbing, and so was his head.\n\nHe said, \"The Commissioner can't commit deliberate murder. True! Deliberate. But any man can kill by accident. The Commissioner didn't enter Spacetown to kill Dr. Sarton." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He came in to kill you, Daneel, you!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Is there anything in his cerebroanalysis that says he is incapable of wrecking a machine? That's not murder, merely sabotage.\n\n\"He is a Medievalist, an earnest one. He worked with Dr. Sarton and knew the purpose for which you were designed, Daneel. He feared that purpose might be achieved, that Earthmen would eventually be weaned away from Earth. So he decided to destroy you, Daneel. You were the only one of your type manufactured as yet and he had good reason to think that by demonstrating the extent and determination of Medievalism on Earth, he would discourage the Spacers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He knew how strong popular opinion was on the Outer Worlds to end the Spacetown project altogether." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dr. Sarton must have discussed that with him. This, he thought, would be the last nudge in the proper direction.\n\n\"I don't say even the thought of killing you, Daneel, was a pleasant one. He would have had R. Sammy do it, I imagine, if you didn't look so human that a primitive robot such as Sammy could not have told the difference, or understood it. First Law would stop him. Or the Commissioner would have had another human do it if he, himself, were not the only one who had ready access to Spacetown at all times.\n\n\"Let me reconstruct what the Commissioner's plan might have been. I'm guessing, I admit, but I think I'm close. He made the appointment with Dr. Sarton, but deliberately came early, at dawn, in fact. Dr. Sarton would be sleeping, I imagine, but you, Daneel, would be awake. I assume, by the way, you were living with Dr. Sarton, Daneel.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The robot nodded. \"You are quite right, partner Elijah.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley said, \"Then let me go on. You would come to the dome door, Daneel, receive a blaster charge in the chest or head, and be done with. The Commissioner would leave quickly, through the deserted streets of Spacetown's dawn, and back to where R. Sammy waited. He would give him back the blaster, then slowly walk again to Dr. Sarton's dome. If necessary, he would 'discover' the body himself, though he would prefer to have someone else do that. If questioned concerning his early arrival, he could say, I suppose, that he had come to tell Dr. Sarton of rumors of a Medievalist attack on Spacetown, urge him to take secret precautions to avoid open trouble between Spacers and Earthmen. The dead robot would lend point to his words." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If they asked about the long interval between your entering Spacetown, Commissioner, and your arrival at Dr. Sarton's dome, you could say--let's see--that you saw someone lurking through the streets and heading for open country. You pursued for a while. That would also encourage them along a false path. As for R. Sammy, no one would notice him. A robot among the truck farms outside the City is just another robot.\n\n\"How close am I, Commissioner?\"\n\nEnderby writhed, \"I didn't--\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" said Baley, \"you didn't kill Daneel. He's here, and in all the time he's been in the City, you haven't been able to look him in the face or address him by name. Look at him now, Commissioner.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Enderby couldn't. He covered his face with shaking hands.\n\nBaley's shaking hands almost dropped his transmitter. He had found it.\n\nThe image was now centered upon the main door to Dr. Sarton's dome. The door was open; it had been slid into its wall receptacle along its shining metal runner grooves. Down within them. There! There!\n\nThe sparkle was unmistakable." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll tell you what happened,\" said Baley. \"You were at the dome when you dropped your glasses." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You must have been nervous and I've seen you when you're nervous. You take them off; you wipe them. You did that then. But your hands were shaking and you dropped them; maybe you stepped on them. Anyway, they were broken, and just then, the door opened and a figure that looked like Daneel faced you.\n\n\"You blasted him, scrabbled up the remains of your glasses, and ran. They found the body, not you, and when they came to find you, you discovered that it was not Daneel, but the early-rising Dr. Sarton, that you had killed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dr. Sarton had designed Daneel in his own image, to his great misfortune, and without your glasses in that moment of tension, you could not tell them apart." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And if you want the tangible proof, it's there!\" The image of Sarton's dome quivered and Baley put the transmitter carefully upon the desk, his hand tightly upon it.\n\nCommissioner Enderby's face was distorted with terror and Baley's with tension. R. Daneel seemed indifferent.\n\nBaley's finger was pointing. \"That glitter in the grooves of the door. What was it, Daneel?\"\n\n\"Two small slivers of glass,\" said the robot, coolly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It meant nothing to us.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It will now. They're portions of concave lenses. Measure their optical properties and compare them with those of the glasses Enderby is wearing now. Don't smash them, Commissioner!\"\n\nHe lunged at the Commissioner and wrenched the spectacles from the other's hand. He held them out to R. Daneel, panting, \"That's proof enough, I think, that he was at the dome earlier than he was thought to be.\"\n\nR. Daneel said, \"I am quite convinced. I can see now that I was thrown completely off the scent by the Commissioner's cerebroanalysis. I congratulate you, partner Elijah.\"\n\nBaley's watch said 24:00. A new day was beginning.\n\nSlowly, the Commissioner's head went down on his arms." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His words were muffled wails." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It was a mistake. A mistake. I never meant to kill him?\" Without warning, he slipped from the chair and lay crumpled on the floor.\n\nR. Daneel sprang to him, saying, \"You have hurt him, Elijah. That is too bad.\"\n\n\"He isn't dead, is he?\"\n\n\"No. But unconscious.\"\n\n\"He'll come to. It was too much for him, I suppose. I had to do it, Daneel, I had to. I had no evidence that would stand up in court, only inferences. I had to badger him and badger him and let it out little by little, hoping he would break down. He did, Daneel. You heard him confess, didn't you?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Now, then, I promised this would be to the benefit of Spacetown's project, so--Wait, he's coming to.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Commissioner groaned. His eyes fluttered and opened. He stared speechlessly at the two.\n\nBaley said, \"Commissioner, do you hear me?\"\n\nThe Commissioner nodded listlessly.\n\n\"All right, then. Now, the Spacers have more on their minds than your prosecution. If you co-operate with them--\"\n\n\"What? What?\" There was a dawning flicker of hope in the Commissioner's eyes.\n\n\"You must be a big wheel in New York's Medievalist organization, maybe even in the planetary setup. Maneuver them in the direction of the colonization of space. You can see the propaganda line, can't you? We can go back to the soil all right--but on other planets.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't understand,\" mumbled the Commissioner." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's what the Spacers are after. And God help me, it's what I'm after now, too, since a small conversation I had with Dr. Fastolfe. It's what they want more than anything. They risk death continually by coming to Earth and staying here for that purpose. If Dr. Sarton's murder will make it possible for you to swing Medievalism into line for the resumption of Galactic colonization, they'll probably consider it a worthwhile sacrifice. Do you understand now?\"\n\nR. Daneel said, \"Elijah is quite correct. Help us, Commissioner, and we will forget the past. I am speaking for Dr. Fastolfe and our people generally in this. Of course, if you should agree to help and later betray us, we would always have the fact of your guilt to hold over your head. I hope you understand that, too. It pains me to have to mention that.\"\n\n\"I won't be prosecuted?\" asked the Commissioner.\n\n\"Not if you help us.\"\n\nTears filled his eyes. \"I'll do it. It was an accident. Explain that. An accident. I did what I thought right.\"\n\nBaley said, \"If you help us, you will be doing right. The colonization of space is the only possible salvation of Earth. You'll realize that if you think about it without prejudice. If you find you cannot, have a short talk with Dr. Fastolfe. And now, you can begin helping by quashing the R. Sammy business. Call it an accident or something. End it!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley got to his feet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And remember, I'm not the only one who knows the truth, Commissioner. Getting rid of me will ruin you. All Spacetown knows. You see that, don't you?\"\n\nR. Daneel said, \"It is unnecessary to say more, Elijah. He is sincere and he will help. So much is obvious from his cerebroanalysis.\"\n\n\"All right. Then I'll go home. I want to see Jessie and Bentley and take up a natural existence again. And I want to sleep. --Daneel, will you stay on Earth after the Spacers go?\"\n\nR. Daneel said, \"I have not been informed. Why do you ask?\"\n\nBaley bit his lip, then said, \"I didn't think I would ever say anything like this to anyone like you, Daneel, but I trust you. I even--admire you. I'm too old ever to leave Earth myself, but when schools for emigrants are finally established, there's Bentley. If someday, perhaps, Bentley and you, together ...\"\n\n\"Perhaps.\" R. Daneel's face was emotionless.\n\nThe robot turned to Julius Enderby, who was watching them with a flaccid face into which a certain vitality was only now beginning to return." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The robot said, \"I have been trying, friend Julius, to understand some remarks Elijah made to me earlier. Perhaps I am beginning to, for it suddenly seems to me that the destruction of what should not be, that is, the destruction of what you people call evil, is less just and desirable than the conversion of this evil into what you call good.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He hesitated, then, almost as though he were surprised at his own words, he said, \"Go, and sin no more!\"\n\nBaley, suddenly smiling, took R. Daneel's elbow, and they walked out the door, arm in arm." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes in the scifi, science fiction fantasy, dying Earth genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The instant was frozen as though we two, and all those about us, stood in a painting. Agia's uptilted face, my own wide eyes; so we remained amid the cloud of country folk with their bright clothes and bundles. Then I moved, and she was gone. I would have run to her if I could; but I could only push my way through the onlookers, taking perhaps a hundred poundings of my heart to reach the spot where she had stood.\n\nBy then she had vanished utterly, and the crowd was swirling and changing like the water under the bow of a boat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Barnoch had been led forth, screaming at the sun." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I took a miner by the shoulder and shouted a question to him, but he had paid no attention to the young woman beside him and had no notion of where she might have gone. I followed the throng who followed the prisoner until I was sure she was not among them, then, knowing nothing better to do, began to search the fair, peering into tents and booths, and making inquiries of the farmwives who had come to sell their fragrant cardamom-bread, and of the hot-meat vendors. All this, as I write it, slowly convoluting a thread of the vermilion ink of the House Absolute, sounds calm and even methodical. Nothing could be further from the truth. I was gasping and sweating as I did these things, shouting questions to which I hardly stayed for an answer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Like a face seen in dream, Agia's floated before my imagination: wide, flat cheeks and softly rounded chin, freckled, sun-browned skin and long, laughing, mocking eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why she had come, I could not imagine; I only knew she had, and that my glimpse of her had reawakened the anguish of my memory of her scream.\n\n\"Have you seen a woman so tall, with chestnut hair?\" I repeated it again and again, like the duelist who had called out \"Cadroe of Seventeen Stones,\" until the phrase was as meaningless as the song of the cicada.\n\n\"Yes. Every country maid who comes here.\"\n\n\"Do you know her name?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A woman? Certainly I can get you a woman.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where did you lose her?\"\n\n\"Don't worry, you'll soon find her again. The fair's not big enough for anybody to stay lost long.\n\nDidn't the two of you arrange a place to meet? Have some of my tea—you look so tired.\"\n\nI fumbled for a coin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You don't have to pay, I sell enough as it is. Well, if you insist. It's only an aes. Here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The old woman rummaged in her apron pocket and produced a flood of little coins, then splashed the tea, hissing-hot, from her kettle into an earthenware cup and offered me a straw of some dimly silver metal. I waved it away.\n\n\"It's clean. I rinse everything after each customer.\"\n\n\"I'm not used to them.\"\n\n\"Watch the rim then—it'll be hot. Have you looked by the judging? There'll be a lot of people there.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where the cattle are? Yes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The tea was maté, spicy and a trifle bitter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Does she know you're looking for her?\"\n\n\"I don't think so. Even if she saw me, she wouldn't have recognized me. I... am not dressed as I usually am.\"\n\nThe old woman snorted and pushed a straggling lock of gray hair back under her kerchief. \"At Saltus Fair? Of course not! Everybody wears his best to a fair, and any girl with sense would know that.\n\nHow about down by the water where they've got the prisoner chained?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I shook my head. \"She seems to have disappeared.\"\n\n\"But you haven't given up. I can tell from the way you look at the people going past instead of me.\n\nWell, good for you. You'll find her yet, though they do say all manner of strange things have been happening round and about of late. They caught a green man, do you know that? Got him right over there where you see the tent. Green men know everything, people say, if you can but make them talk. Then there's the cathedral. I suppose you've heard about that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The cathedral?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've heard tell it wasn't what city folk call a real one—I know you're from the city by the way you drink your tea—but it's the only cathedral most of us around Saltus ever saw, and pretty too, with all the hanging lamps and the windows in the sides made of colored silk. Myself, I don't believe—or rather, I think that if the Pancreator don't care nothing for me, I won't care nothing for him, and why should I?\n\nStill, it's a shame what they did, if they did what's told against them. Set fire to it, you know.\"\n\n\"Are you talking about the Cathedral of the Pelerines?\"\n\nThe old woman nodded sagely." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There, you said it yourself. You're making the same mistake they did. It wasn't the Cathedral of the Pelerines, it was the Cathedral of the Claw. Which is to say, it wasn't theirs to burn.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To myself I muttered, \"They rekindled the fire.\"\n\n\"I beg pardon.\" The old woman cocked an ear. \"I didn't hear that.\"\n\n\"I said they burned it. They must have set fire to the straw floor.\"\n\n\"That's what I heard too. They just stood back and watched it burn. It went up to the Infinite Meadows of the New Sun, you know.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A man on the opposite side of the alleyway began to pound a drum." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When he paused I said, \"I know that certain persons have claimed to have seen it rise into the air.\"\n\n\"Oh, it rose all right. When my grandson-in-law heard about it, he was fairly struck flat for half a day. Then he pasted up a kind of hat out of paper and held it over my stove, and it went up, and then he thought it was nothing that the cathedral rose, no miracle at all. That shows what it is to be a fool—it never came to him that the reason things were made so was so the cathedral would rise just like it did." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He can't see the Hand in nature.\"\n\n\"He didn't see it himself?\" I asked. \"The cathedral, I mean.\"\n\nShe failed to understand. \"Oh, he's seen it when they've been through here, at least a dozen times.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The chant of the man with the drum, similar to that I had once heard Dr. Talos use, but more hoarsely delivered and bereft of the doctor's malicious intelligence, cut through our talk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Knows everything! Knows everybody! Green as a gooseberry! See for yourself!\"\n\n(The insistent voice of the drum: BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!)\n\n\"Do you think the green man would know where Agia is?\"\n\nThe old woman smiled. \"So that's her name, is it? Now I'll know, if anybody should mention her. He might. You've money, why not try him?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why not indeed, I thought." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Brought from the jun-gles of the North! Never eats! A-kin to the bush-es and the grass-es!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "BOOM! BOOM! \"The fu-ture and the re-mote past are one to him!\" When he saw me approaching the door of his tent, the drummer stopped his clamor. \"Only an aes to see him. Two to speak with him. Three to be alone with him.\"\n\n\"Alone for how long?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I asked as I selected three copper aes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A wry grin crossed the drummer's face. \"For as long as you wish.\" I handed him his money and stepped inside.\n\nIt had been plain he had not thought I would want to stay long, and I expected a stench or something equally unpleasant. There was nothing beyond a slight odor as of hay curing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the center of the tent, in a dust-spangled shaft of sunlight admitted by a vent in the canvas roof, was chained a man the color of pale jade." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He wore a kilt of leaves, now fading; beside him stood a clay pot filled to the brim with clear water.\n\nFor a moment we were silent. I stood looking at him. He sat looking at the ground. \"That's not paint,\" I said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Nor do I think it dye. And you have no more hair than the man I saw dragged from the sealed house.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He looked up at me, then down again. Even the whites of his eyes held a greenish tint.\n\nI tried to bait him. \"If you are truly vegetable, I would think your hair should be grass.\"\n\n\"No.\" He had a soft voice, saved from womanishness only by its depth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You are vegetable then? A speaking plant?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are no countryman.\"\n\n\"I left Nessus a few days ago.\"\n\n\"With some education.\"\n\nI thought of Master Palaemon, then of Master Malrubius and my poor Thecla, and I shrugged. \"I can read and write.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yet you know nothing about me. I am not a talking vegetable, as you should be able to see. Even if a plant were to follow the one evolutionary way, out of some many millions, that leads to intelligence, it is impossible that it should duplicate in wood and leaf the form of a human being.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The same thing might be said of stones, yet there are statues.\" For all his aspect of despair (and his was a sadder face by far than my friend Jonas's), something tugged at the corners of his lips.\n\n\"That is well put. You have no scientific training, but you are better taught than you realize.\"\n\n\"On the contrary, all my training has been scientific—although it had nothing to do with these fantastic speculations. What are you?\"\n\n\"A great seer. A great liar, like every man whose foot is in a trap.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you'll tell me what you are, I'll endeavor to help you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He looked at me, and it was as if some tall herb had opened eyes and shown a human face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I believe you,\" he said. \"Why is it that you, of all the hundreds who come to this tent, know pity?\"\n\n\"I know nothing of pity, but I have been imbued with a respect for justice, and I am well acquainted with the alcalde of this village. A green man is still a man; and if he is a slave, his master must show how he came to that state, and how he himself came into possession of him.\"\n\nThe green man said, \"I'm a fool, I suppose, to put any confidence in you. And yet I do. I am a free man, come from your own future to explore your age.\"\n\n\"That is impossible.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The green color that puzzles your people so much is only what you call pond scum. We have altered it until it can live in our blood, and by its intervention have at last made our peace in humankind's long struggle with the sun. In us, the tiny plants live and die, and our bodies feed from them and their dead and require no other nourishment. All the famines, and all the labor of growing food, are ended.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But you must have sun.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" the green man said. \"And I have not enough here. Day is brighter in my age.\"\n\nThat simple remark thrilled me in a way that nothing had since I had first glimpsed the unroofed chapel in the Broken Court of our Citadel. \"Then the New Sun comes as prophesied,\" I said, \"and there is indeed a second life for Urth—if what you say is the truth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The green man threw back his head and laughed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Much later I was to hear the sound the alzabo makes as it ranges the snow-swept tablelands of the high country; its laughter is horrible, but the green man's was more terrible, and I drew away from him. \"You're not a human being,\" I said. \"Not now, if you ever were.\"\n\nHe laughed again. \"And to think I hoped in you. What a poor creature I am. I thought I had resigned myself to dying here among a people who are no more than walking dust; but at the tiniest gleam, all my resignation fell from me. I am a true man, friend. You are not, and in a few months I will be dead.\"\n\nI remembered his kin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How often I had seen the frozen stalks of summer flowers dashed by the wind against the sides of the mausoleums in our necropolis." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I understand you. The warm days of sun are coming, but when they are gone, you will go with them. Grow seed while you can.\"\n\nHe sobered. \"You do not believe me or even understand that I am a man like yourself, yet you still pity me. Perhaps you are right, and for us a new sun has come, and because it has come we have forgotten it. If I am ever able to return to my own time, I will tell them there of you.\"\n\n\"If you are indeed of the future, why cannot you go forward to your home, and so escape?\"\n\n\"Because I am chained, as you see.\" He held out his leg so that I could examine the shackle about his ankle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His beryline flesh was swollen about it, as I have seen the bark of a tree swollen that had grown through an iron ring." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tent flap opened, and the drummer thrust his head through. \"Are you still here? I have others outside.\" He looked significantly at the green man and withdrew.\n\n\"He means that I must drive you off, or he will close the vent through which my sunlight falls. I drive away those who pay to see me by foretelling their futures, and I will foretell yours. You are young now, and strong. But before this world has wound itself ten times more about the sun you shall be less strong, and you shall never regain the strength that is yours now. If you breed sons, you will engender enemies against yourself. If—\"\n\n\"Enough!\" I said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What you are telling me is only the fortune of all men. Answer one question truthfully for me, and I will go. I am looking for a woman called Agia. Where will I find her?\"\n\nFor a moment his eyes rolled upward until only a narrow crescent of pale green showed beneath their lids. A faint tremor seized him; he stood and extended his arms, his fingers splayed like twigs.\n\nSlowly he said, \"Above ground.\"\n\nThe tremor ceased, and he sat again, older-looking and paler than before." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You are only a fraud then,\" I told him as I turned away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And I was a simpleton to believe in you even by so little.\"\n\n\"No,\" the green man whispered. \"Listen. In coming here, I have passed through all your future.\n\nSome parts of it remain with me, no matter how clouded. I told you only the truth—and if you are indeed a friend of the alcalde of this place, I will tell you something further that you may tell him, something I have learned from the questions of those who have come to question me. Armed men are seeking to free a man called Barnoch.\"\n\nI took my whetstone from the sabretache at my belt, broke it on the top of the chain-stake, and gave half to him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For a moment he did not comprehend what it was he held." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then I saw the knowledge growing in him, so that he seemed to unfold in his great joy, as though he were already basking in the brighter light of his own day." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I've got a bit of writer's block. I'm gonna send you something then keep it going one sentence at a time, also I'm going for a Gene Wolfe sorta thing in the scifi, science fiction fantasy, dying Earth genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As I left the showman's tent, I glanced up at the sun." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The western horizon had already climbed more than half up the sky; in a watch or less it would be time for me to make my appearance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Agia was gone, and any hope of overtaking her had been lost in the frantic time I had spent dashing from one end of the fair to the other; yet I took comfort from the green man's prophecy, which I took to mean that Agia and I should meet again before either of us died, and from the thought that since she had come to watch Barnoch drawn into the light, so, equally, might she come to observe the executions of Morwenna and the cattle thief." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "These speculations occupied me at first as I made my way back to the inn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But before I reached the room I shared with Jonas, they had been displaced by recollections of Thecla and my elevation to journeyman, both occasioned by the need to change from my new lay clothes into the fuligin of the guild." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So strong is the power of association that it could be exercised by that habit while it was still out of sight on the pegs in the room, and by Terminus Est while she remained concealed beneath the mattress." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It used to entertain me, while I was still attendant upon Thecla, to find that I could anticipate much of her conversation, and particularly the first of it, from the nature of the gift I carried when I entered her cell." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If it were some favorite food thieved from the kitchen, for example, it would elicit a description of a meal at the House Absolute, and the kind of food I brought even governed the nature of the repast described: flesh, a sporting dinner with the shrieking and trumpeting of game caught alive drifting up from the abattoir below and much talk of brachets, hawks, and hunting leopards; sweets, a private repast given by one of the great Chatelaines for a few friends, deliciously intimate, and soaked in gossip; fruit, a twilit garden party in the vast park of the House Absolute, lit by a thousand torches and enlivened by jugglers, actors, dancers, and pyrotechnic displays." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She ate standing as often as sitting, walking the three strides that took her from one end of her cell to the other, holding the dish in her left hand while she gestured with her right." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Like this, Severian, they all spring into the ringing sky, showering green and magenta sparks, while the maroons boom like thunder!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But her poor hand could hardly show the rockets rising higher than her towering head, for the ceiling was not much taller than she." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But I'm boring you. A moment ago, when you brought me these peaches, you looked so happy, and now you won't smile. It's just that it does me good, here, to remember those things. How I'll enjoy them when I see them again.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was not bored, of course." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was only that it saddened me to see her, a woman still young and endowed with a terrible beauty, so confined..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jonas was uncovering Terminus Est for me when I came into our room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I poured myself a cup of wine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How do you feel?\" he asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What of you? It's your first time, after all.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He shrugged. \"I only have to fetch and carry. You've done it before? I wondered, because you look so young.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, I've done it before. Never to a woman.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You think she's innocent?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was taking off my shirt; when I had my arms freed I mopped my face with it and shook my head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm sure she's not. I went down and talked to her last night—they have her chained at the edge of the water, where the midges are bad. I told you about it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jonas reached for the wine himself, his metal hand clinking when it met the cup." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You told me that she was beautiful, and that she had black hair like—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thecla. But Morwenna's is straight. Thecla's curled.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Like Thecla, whom you seem to have loved as I love your friend Jolenta. I confess you had a great deal more time to fall in love than I did. And you told me she said her husband and child had died of some sickness, probably from bad water. The husband had been quite a bit older than she.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I said, \"About your age, I think.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And there was an older woman there who had wanted him too, and now she was tormenting the prisoner.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Only with words.\" Among the guild, apprentices alone wear shirts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I drew on my trousers and put my cloak (which was of fuligin, the color darker than black) around my bare shoulders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Clients who have been exposed by the authorities like that have usually been stoned. When we see them they're bruised, and often they've lost a few teeth. Sometimes they have broken bones. The women have been raped.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You say she's beautiful. Perhaps people think she's innocent. Perhaps they took pity on her.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I picked up Terminus Est, drew her, and let the soft sheath fall away. \"The innocent have enemies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They are afraid of her.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "We went out together." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When I had entered the inn, I had to push my way through the mob of drinkers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now it opened before me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I wore my mask and carried Terminus Est unsheathed across my shoulder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Outside, the sounds of the fair stilled as we went forward until nothing remained but a whispering, as though we strode through a wilderness of leaves." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The executions were to take place at the very center of the festivities, and a dense crowd had already gathered there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A caloyer in red stood beside the scaffold clutching his little formulary; he was an old man, as most of them are." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The two prisoners waited beside him, surrounded by the men who had taken forth Barnoch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The alcalde wore his yellow gown of office and his gold chain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "By ancient custom, we must not use the steps (although I have seen Master Gurloes assist his vault to the scaffold with his sword, in the court before the Bell Tower)." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was, very possibly, the only person present who knew of the tradition; but I did not break it, and a great roar, like the voice of some beast, escaped the crowd as I leaped up with my cloak billowing about me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Increate,\" read the caloyer, \"it is known to us that those who will perish here are no more evil in your sight than we. Their hands run with blood. Ours also.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I examined the block." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Those used outside the immediate supervision of the guild are notoriously bad:" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wide as a stool, dense as a fool, and dished, as a rule.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This one fulfilled the first two specifications in the proverbial description only too well, but by the mercy of Holy Katharine it was actually slightly convex, and though the idiotically hard wood would be sure to dull the male side of my blade, I was in the fortunate position of having before me one subject of either sex, so that I could use a fresh edge on each." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"...by thy will they may, in that hour, have so purified their spirits as to gain thy favor. We who must confront them then, though we spill their blood today...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I posed, legs wide as I leaned upon my sword as if I were in complete control of the ceremony, though the truth was that I did not know which of them had drawn the short ribbon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You, the hero who will destroy the black worm that devours the sun; you for whom the sky parts as a curtain; you whose breath shall wither vast Erebus, Abaia, and Scylla who wallow beneath the wave; you that equally live in the shell of the smallest seed in the farthest forest, the seed that hath rolled into the dark where no man sees.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The woman Morwenna was coming up the steps, preceded by the alcalde and followed by a man with an iron spit who used it to prod her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Someone in the crowd shouted an obscene suggestion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"...have mercy on those who had no mercy. Have mercy on us, who shall have none now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The caloyer was finished, and the alcalde began." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Most hatefully and unnaturally...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His voice was high, quite different both from his normal speaking voice and the rhetorical tone he had adopted for the speech outside Barnoch's house." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After listening absently for a few moments (I was looking for Agia in the crowd), it struck me that he was frightened." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He would have to witness everything that was done to both prisoners at close range." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I smiled, though my mask concealed it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"...of respect for your sex. But you shall be branded on the right cheek and the left, your legs broken, and your head struck from your body.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "(I hoped they had had sense enough to remember that a brazier of coals would be required.)" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Through the power of the high justice laid upon my unworthy arm by the condescension of the Autarch—whose thoughts are the music of his subjects—I do now declare... I do now declare...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had forgotten it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I whispered the words: \"That your moment has come upon you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I do now declare that your moment has come on you, Morwenna.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you have pleas for the Conciliator, speak them in your heart.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you have pleas for the Conciliator, speak them.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you have counsels for the children of women, there will be no voice for them after this.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The alcalde's self-possession was returning, and he got it all: \"If you have counsels for the children of women, there will be no voice for them after this.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Clearly but not loudly, Morwenna said, \"I know that most of you think me guilty. I am innocent. I would never do the horrible things you have accused me of.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The crowd drew closer to hear her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Many of you are my witnesses that I loved Stachys. I loved the child Stachys gave me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A patch of color caught my eye, purple-black in the strong spring sunshine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was such a bouquet of threnodic roses as a mute might carry at a funeral." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The woman who held them was Eusebia, whom I had met when she tormented Morwenna at the riverside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I watched her, she inhaled their perfume rapturously, then employed their thorny stems to open a path for herself through the crowd, so that she stood just at the base of the scaffold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"These are for you, Morwenna. Die before they fade.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I hammered the planks with the blunt tip of my blade for silence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Morwenna said, \"The good man who read the prayers for me, and who has talked to me before I was brought here, prayed that I would forgive you if I achieved bliss before you. I have never until now had it in my power to grant a prayer, but I grant his. I forgive you now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Eusebia was about to speak again, but I silenced her with a look." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The gap-toothed, grinning man beside her waved, and with something of a start I recognized Hethor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you ready?\" Morwenna asked me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jonas had just set a bucket of glowing charcoal on the scaffold." }, { "from": "human", "value": "From it thrust what was presumably the handle of a suitable inscribed iron; but there was no chair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I gave the alcalde a glance I intended to be significant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I might have been looking at a post." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At last I said, \"Have we a chair, Your Worship?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I sent two men to fetch one. And some rope.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When?\" (The crowd was beginning to stir and murmur.)" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A few moments ago.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The evening before he had assured me that everything would be in readiness, but there was no point in reminding him of that now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There is no one, as I have since found, so liable to fluster on the scaffold as the average rural official." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He is torn between an ardent desire to be the center of attention (a position closed to him at an execution) and the quite justified fear that he lacks the ability and training that might enable him to comport himself well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The most cowardly client, mounting the steps in the full knowledge that his eyes are to be plucked out, will in nineteen cases from a score conduct himself better." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even a shy cenobite, unused to the sounds of men and diffident to the point of tears, can be better relied on." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Someone called, \"Get it over with!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I looked at Morwenna." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With her famished face and clear complexion, her pensive smile and large, dark eyes, she was a prisoner likely to arouse quite undesirable feelings of sympathy in the crowd." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We could seat her on the block,\" I told the alcalde." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I could not resist adding, \"It's more suited to that anyway.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There's nothing to tie her with.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had permitted myself a remark too many already, so I forbore giving my opinion of those who require their prisoners bound." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Instead, I laid Terminus Est flat behind the block, made Morwenna sit down, lifted my arms in the ancient salute, took the iron in my right hand, and, gripping her wrists with my left, administered the brand to either cheek, then held up the iron still glowing almost white." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The scream had silenced the crowd for an instant; now they roared." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The alcalde straightened himself and seemed to become a new man." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let them see her,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had been hoping to avoid that, but I helped Morwenna to rise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With her right hand in mine, as though we were taking part in a country dance, we made a slow, formal circuit of the platform." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hethor was beside himself with delight, and though I tried to shut out the sound of his voice, I could hear him boasting of his acquaintance with me to the people around him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Eusebia held up her bouquet to Morwenna, calling, \"Here, you'll need these soon enough.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "When we had gone once around, I looked at the alcalde, and after the pause necessitated by his wondering at the occasion for the delay, received the signal to proceed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Morwenna whispered, \"Will it be over soon?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is almost over now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had seated her on the block again, and was picking up my sword." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Close your eyes. Try to remember that almost everyone who has ever lived has died, even the Conciliator, who will rise as the New Sun.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her pale, long-lashed eyelids fell, and she did not see the upraised sword." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The flash of steel silenced the crowd again, and when the full hush had come, I brought the flat of the blade down upon her thighs; over the smack of it on flesh, the sound of the femurs breaking came as clear as the crack, crack of a winning boxer's left-hand, right-hand blows." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For an instant Morwenna remained poised on the block, fainted but not fallen; in that instant I took a backward step and severed her neck with the smooth, horizontal stroke that is so much more difficult to master than the downward." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To be candid, it was not until I saw the up-jetting fountain of blood and heard the thud of the head striking the platform that I knew I had carried it off." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Without realizing it, I had been as nervous as the alcalde." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That is the moment when, again by ancient tradition, the customary dignity of the guild is relaxed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I wanted to laugh and caper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The alcalde was shaking my shoulder and babbling as I wished to myself; I could not hear what he said—some happy nonsense." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I held up my sword, and taking the head by the hair held it up too, and paraded the scaffold." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not a single circuit this time, but again and again, three times, four times." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A breeze had sprung up; it dotted my mask and arm and bare chest with scarlet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The crowd was shouting the inevitable jests: \"Will you cut my wife's (husband's) hair too?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Half a measure of sausage when you're done with that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Can I have her hat?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I laughed at them all and was feigning to toss the head to them when someone plucked at my ankle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was Eusebia, and I knew before her first word that she was under that compulsion to speak I had often observed among the clients in our tower." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her eyes were sparkling with excitement, and her face was twisted by her attempt to get my attention, so that she looked simultaneously older and younger than she had appeared before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I could not make out what she was shouting and bent to listen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Innocent! She was innocent!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was no time to explain that I had not been Morwenna's judge. I only nodded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She took Stachys—from me! Now she's dead. Do you understand? She was innocent after all, but I am so glad!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I nodded again and made another circuit of the scaffold, holding up the head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I killed her!\" Eusebia screamed. \"Not you—!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I called down to her: \"If you like!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Innocent! I knew her—so careful. She would have kept something back—poison for herself! She would have died before you got her.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hethor grasped her arm and pointed to me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My master! Mine! My own!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So it was somebody else. Or sickness after all—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I shouted: \"To the Demiurge alone belongs all justice!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The crowd was still noisy, though it had quieted a trifle by this time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But she stole my Stachys, and now she's gone.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Louder than ever: \"Oh, wonderful! She's gone!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With that, Eusebia plunged her face into the bouquet as though to fill her lungs to bursting with the roses'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "cloying perfume. I dropped Morwenna's head into the basket that awaited it and wiped my sword blade with the piece of scarlet flannel Jonas handed me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When I noticed Eusebia again she was lifeless, sprawled among a circle of onlookers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the time I thought little of it, only supposing that her heart had failed in her excess of joy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Later that afternoon the alcalde had her bouquet examined by an apothecary, who found among the petals a strong but subtle poison he could not identify." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Morwenna must, I suppose, have had it in her hand when she mounted the steps, and must have cast it into the blossoms when I led her around the scaffold after the branding." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Allow me to pause here and speak to you as one mind to another, though we are separated, perhaps, by the abyss of eons." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Though what I have already written—from the locked gate to the fair at Saltus—embraces most of my adult life, and what remains to be recorded concerns a few months only, I feel I am less than half concluded with my narrative." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In order that it shall not fill a library as great as old Ultan's, I will (I tell you now plainly) pass over many things." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I have recounted the execution of Agia's twin brother Agilus because of its importance to my story, and that of Morwenna because of the unusual circumstances surrounding it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I will not recount others unless they hold some special interest." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If you delight in another's pain and death, you will gain little satisfaction from me. Let it be sufficient to say that I performed the prescribed operations on the cattle thief, which terminated in his execution; in the future, when I describe my travels, you are to understand that I practiced the mystery of our guild where it was profitable to do so, though I do not mention the specific occasions." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CREATIVE WRITING ASSIST:\n1 sentence sentences\nGenre: scifi, science fiction fantasy, dying Earth" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That evening, Jonas and I dined alone in our room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It is a very pleasant thing, I found, to be popular with the mob and known to everyone; but it is tiring too, and after a time one grows weary of answering the same simpleminded questions again and again, and of politely refusing invitations to drink." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There had been a slight disagreement with the alcalde concerning the compensation I was to receive for my work, my understanding having been that in addition to the quarter-payment made when I was engaged, I would receive full payment for each client upon death, while the alcalde had intended, so he said, that full payment should be made only after all three were attended to." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I would never have agreed to that, and liked it less than ever in the light of the green man's warning (which out of loyalty to Vodalus I had kept to myself)." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But after I had threatened not to appear on the following afternoon I was paid, and everything peaceably resolved." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now Jonas and I were settled over a smoking platter and a bottle of wine, the door was shut and bolted, and the innkeeper had been instructed to deny that I was in his establishment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I would have been completely at ease if the wine in my cup had not recalled to me so vividly the much better wine Jonas had discovered in our ewer the night before, after I had examined the Claw in secret." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jonas, observing me, I think, as I stared at the pale red fluid, poured a cup of his own and said," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You must remember that you are not responsible for the sentences. If you had not come here, they would have been punished eventually anyway, and probably would have suffered worse in less skilled hands.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I asked him what he thought he was talking about." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can see it troubles you... what happened today.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I thought it went well,\" I said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You know what the octopus remarked when he got out of the mermaid's kelp bed: 'I'm not impugning your skill—quite the opposite. But you look as if you could use a little cheering up.'\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We're always a little despondent afterward. That's what Master Palaemon always said, and I've found it true in my own case. He called it a purely mechanical psychological function, and at the time that seemed to me an oxymoron, but now I'm not sure he wasn't right. Could you see what happened, or did they keep you too busy?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was standing on the steps behind you most of the time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You had a good view then, so you must have seen how it was—everything proceeded smoothly after we decided not to wait for the chair. I exercised my skills to applause, and I was the focus of admiration. There's a feeling of lassitude afterward. Master Palaemon used to talk of crowd melancholy and court melancholy, and said that some of us have both, some have neither, and some have one but not the other. Well, I have crowd melancholy; I don't suppose I'll ever have the chance, in Thrax, of discovering whether I also have court melancholy or not.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And what is that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jonas was looking down into his wine cup." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A torturer, let's say a master at the Citadel, is occasionally brought into contact with exultants of the highest degree." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Suppose there's some exceedingly sensitive prisoner who's thought to possess important information." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An official of lofty standing is likely to be delegated to attend such a prisoner's examination." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Very often he will have had little experience with the more delicate operations, so he will ask the master questions and perhaps confide in him certain fears he has concerning the subject's temperament or health." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A torturer under those circumstances feels himself to be at the center of things—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then feels let down when it's over with. Yes, I suppose I can see that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Have you ever seen one of these affairs when it was badly botched?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No. Aren't you going to eat any of this meat?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Neither have I, but I've heard about them, and that's why I was tense. Times when the client has broken away and fled into the crowd. Times when several strokes were needed to part the neck. Times when a torturer lost all confidence and was unable to proceed. When I vaulted onto that scaffold, I had no way of knowing that none of those things was going to happen to me. If they had, I might have been finished for life.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"'Still, it's a terrible way to earn a living.' That's what the thorn-bush said to the shrike, you know.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I really don't—\" I broke off because I had seen something move on the farther side of the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At first I thought it was a rat, and I have a pronounced dislike of them; I have seen too many clients bitten in the oubliette under our tower." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What is it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Something white.\" I walked around the table to see." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A sheet of paper. Someone has slipped a note under our door.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Another woman wanting to sleep with you,\" Jonas said, but by that time I had already picked it up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was indeed a woman's delicate script, written in grayish ink upon parchment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I held it close to the candle to read." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dearest Severian:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "From one of the kind men who are assisting me, I have learned you are in the village of Saltus, not far away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It seems too good to be true, but now I must discover whether you can forgive me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I swear to you that any suffering you have endured for my sake was not by my choice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "From the first, I wanted to tell you everything, but the others would not hear of it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They judged that no one should know but those who had to know (which meant no one but themselves), and at last told me outright that if I did not obey them in everything they would forgo the plan and leave me to die." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I knew you would die for me, and so I dared to hope that you would have chosen, if you could choose, to suffer for me too. Forgive me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But now I am away and almost free—my own mistress so long as I obey the simple and humane instructions of good Father Inire." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And so I will tell you everything, in the hope that when you have heard it all you will indeed forgive me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You know of my arrest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You will remember too how anxious your Master Gurloes was for my comfort, and how frequently he visited my cell to talk to me, or had me brought to him so that he and the other masters might question me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That was because my patron, the good Father Inire, had charged him to be strictly attentive to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At length, when it became clear that the Autarch would not free me, Father Inire arranged to do so himself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I do not know what threats were made to Master Gurloes, or what bribes were offered him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But they were sufficient, and a few days before my death—as you thought, dearest Severian—he explained to me how the matter was to be arranged." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was not enough, of course, that I be freed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I must be freed in such a way that no search should be made for me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That meant it needs appear that I was dead; yet the instructions Master Gurloes had received had charged him strictly not to let me die." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You will now be able to fathom for yourself how we cut through this tangle of obstructions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was arranged that I should be subjected to a device whose action was internal only, and Master Gurloes first so disarmed it that I should suffer no real harm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When you thought me in agony, I was to ask you for means of terminating my wretched life." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All went as planned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You provided the knife, and I made a shallow cut on my arm, crouched near the door so some blood would run beneath it, then smeared my throat and fell across the bed for you to see when you looked into my prison." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Did you look? I lay as still as death." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My eyes were closed, but I seemed to feel your pain when you saw me there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I nearly wept, and I recall how frightened I was that you might see the tears welling up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At last I heard your footsteps, and I bandaged my arm and washed my face and neck." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a time Master Gurloes came and took me away. Forgive me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now I would see you again, and if Father Inire wins a pardon for me as he has solemnly pledged himself to do, there is no reason why we need ever part again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But come to me at once—I am awaiting his messenger, and if he arrives I must fly to the House Absolute to cast myself at the feet of the Autarch, whose name be thrice-blessed balm upon the scorched brows of his slaves." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Speak to no one of this, but go northeast from Saltus until you encounter a brook that winds its way to Gyoll." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Trace it against the current, and you will find it to issue from the mouth of a mine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Here I must impart to you a grave secret, which you must by no means reveal to others." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This mine is a treasure house of the Autarch's, and in it he has stored great sums of coined money, bullion, and gems against a day in which he may be forced from the Phoenix Throne." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is guarded by certain servitors of Father Inire's, but you need have no fear of them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They have been instructed to obey me, and I have told them of you, and ordered them to permit you to pass without challenge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Entering the mine, then, follow the watercourse until you reach the end, where it issues from a stone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Here I wait, and here I write, in the hope that you will forgive your Thecla." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I cannot describe the surge of joy I felt as I read and reread this letter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jonas, who saw my face, at first leaped from his chair—I think he supposed I was on the point of fainting—then drew away as he might have from a lunatic." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When at last I folded the letter and thrust it in my sabretache, he asked no questions (for Jonas was indeed a friend) but showed by his look that he stood ready to help me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I need your animal,\" I said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"May I take her?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Gladly. But—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was already unbolting the door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You cannot come. If all goes well, I'll see that she is returned to you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As I raced down the stair and into the inn yard, the letter spoke in my mind in Thecla's very voice; and by the time I entered the stable I was a lunatic indeed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I looked for Jonas's merychip, but instead saw before me a great destrier, his back higher than my eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had no notion who might have ridden him into this peaceful village, and I gave it no thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Without hesitating an instant I sprang onto his back, drew Terminus Est, and with a stroke severed the reins that tethered him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I have never seen a better mount." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was out of the stable in one bound, and in two, lunging into the village street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For the space of a breath I feared he would trip on some tent rope, but he was sure-footed as a dancer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The street ran east toward the river; as soon as we were clear of the houses, I urged him to the left." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He leaped a wall as a boy might skip across a stick, and I found myself galloping full-tilt over a meadow where bulls lifted their horns in the green moonlight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I am no great rider now, and was still less one then." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Despite the high saddle, I think I would have tumbled from the back of an inferior animal before we had covered half a league; but my stolen destrier moved, for all his speed, as smoothly as a shadow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A shadow indeed we must have appeared, he with his black hide, I in my fuligin cloak." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had not slacked his pace before we splashed across the brook mentioned in the letter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I checked him there—partly by grasping his halter, more by speech, to which he harkened as a brother might." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was no path on either side of the water, and we had not traced it far before trees rimmed the banks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I guided him into the brook then (though he was loath to go) where we made our way up foaming races as a man climbs steps, and swam deep pools." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For more than a watch, we waded this brook through a forest much like the one through which Jonas and I had passed after being separated from Dorcas, Dr. Talos, and the rest at the Piteous Gate." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then the banks grew higher and more rugged, the trees smaller, and twisted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were boulders in the stream; from their squared edges I knew they were the work of hands, and that we were in the region of the mines, with the wreck of some great city below us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Our way was steeper, and for all his mettle he faltered sometimes on sliding stones, so that I was forced to dismount and lead him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In this way we passed through a series of little, dreaming hollows, each dark in the shadows of its high sides, but each flecked in places with green moonlight, each ringing with the sound of water—but with that sound only, and otherwise wrapped in silence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At last we entered a vale smaller and narrower than any of the others; and at the end of it, a chain or so off where the moonlight spilled upon a sheer elevation, I saw a dark opening." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The brook had its origin there, flooding out like saliva from the lips of a petrified titan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I found a patch of ground beside the water sufficiently level for my mount to stand and contrived to tie him there, knotting what remained of his reins around a dwarfish tree." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Once, no doubt, a timber trestle had provided access to the mine, but it had rotted away long ago." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though the climb looked impossible in the moonlight, I was able to find a few footholds in the ancient wall and scaled it to one side of the descending jet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had my hands inside the opening when I heard, or thought I heard, some sound from the vale behind me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I paused, and turned my head to look back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The rush of the water would have drowned any noise less commanding than a bugle call or an explosion, and it had drowned this, yet still I had sensed something—the note of stone falling upon stone, perhaps, or the splash of something plunging into the water." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The vale seemed peaceful and silent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then I saw my destrier shift his stance, his proud head and forward-cocked ears coming for an instant into the light." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I decided that what I had heard was nothing more than the striking of his steel-shod feet against the rock as he stamped in discontent at being so closely tethered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I drew my body into the mine entrance, and by doing so, as I later learned, saved my life." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A man of any wit, setting out as I had and knowing he must enter such a place, would have brought a lantern and a plentiful supply of candles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had been so wild at the thought that Thecla still lived that I had none." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Thus I crept forward in the dark, and had not taken a dozen steps before the moonlight of the vale had vanished behind me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My boots were in the stream, so I walked as I had when I had led the destrier up it." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Terminus Est was slung over my left shoulder, and I had no fear that the tip of her sheath might be wet by the stream, for the ceiling of the tunnel was so low that I walked bent double. So I proceeded for a long time, fearing always that I had come wrong, and that Thecla waited for me elsewhere, and would wait in vain." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "3 sentences sentences in Gene Wolfe style, continuing user's bit" }, { "from": "human", "value": "With a dozen or so others we left the glade on foot, and half a league away found a table set among the trees." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was placed at Vodalus's left hand, and while the others ate, I feigned to and feasted my eyes on him and his lady, whom I had so often recalled as I lay on my cot among the apprentices in our tower." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When I had saved him, mentally at least I had still been a boy, and to a boy all grown men appear lofty unless they are of very low stature indeed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I saw now that Vodalus was as tall as Thecla or taller, and that Thecla's half-sister Thea was as tall as she. Then I knew them to be truly of the exalted blood, and not armigers merely, such as Sieur Racho had been.\n\nIt was with Thea that I had first fallen in love, worshipping her because she belonged to the man I had saved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thecla I had loved, in the beginning, because she recalled Thea. Now (as autumn dies, and winter and spring, and summer comes again, the end of the year as it is its beginning) I loved Thea once more—because she recalled Thecla.\n\nVodalus said, \"You are an admirer of women,\" and I lowered my eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have been little in polite company, sieur. Please forgive me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I share your admiration, so there is nothing to forgive. But you were not, I hope, studying that slender throat with the thought of parting it?\"\n\n\"Never, sieur.\"\n\n\"I am delighted to hear it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He picked up a platter of thrushes, selected one, and put it upon my plate. It was a sign of special favor. \"Still, I own I am a trifle surprised. I would have thought that a man in your profession would look on us poor human beings much as a butcher does on cattle.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Of that I cannot inform you, sieur. I have not been bred a butcher.\"\n\nVodalus laughed. \"A touch! I am almost sorry now that you have consented to serve me. If you had only elected to remain my prisoner, we would have had many delightful conversations while I used you—as I had intended to—to cheap for the unfortunate Barnoch's life. As it is, you will be away by morning. Yet I think I have an errand for you that will consort well with your own inclinations.\"\n\n\"If it is your errand, sieur, it must.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are wasted on the scaffold.\" He smiled. \"We will find better work for you before long. But if you are to serve me well, you must understand something of the position of the pieces on the board, and the goal of the game we play. Call the sides white and black, and in honor of your garments—so that you shall know where your interests lie—we shall be black. No doubt you have been told that we blacks are mere bandits and traitors, but have you any notion of what it is we strive to do?\"\n\n\"To checkmate the Autarch, sieur?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That would be well enough, but it is only a step and not our final goal. You have come from the Citadel—I know, you see, something of your journeyings and history—that great fortress of bygone days, so you must possess some feeling for the past. Has it never struck you that mankind was richer by far, and happier too, a chiliad gone than it is now?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Everyone knows,\" I said, \"that we have fallen far from the brave days of the past.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"As it was then, so shall it be again. Men of Urth, sailing between the stars, leaping from galaxy to galaxy, the masters of the daughters of the sun.\"\n\nThe Chatelaine Thea, who must have been listening to Vodalus though she had showed no sign of it, looked across him to me and said in a sweet, cooing voice, \"Do you know how our world was renamed, torturer? The dawnmen went to red Verthandi, who was then named War. And because they thought that had an ungracious sound that would keep others from following them, they renamed it, calling it Present. That was a jest in their tongue, for the same word meant Now and The Gift. Or so one of our tutors once explained the matter to my sister and me, though I do not see how any language could endure such confusion.\"\n\nVodalus listened to her as though he were impatient to speak himself, yet was too well mannered to interrupt her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then others—who would have drawn a people to the innermost habitable world for their own reasons—took up the game as well, and called that world Skuld, the World of the Future. Thus our own became Urth, the World of the Past.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are wrong in that, I fear,\" Vodalus told her. \"I have it on good authority that this world of ours has been called by that name from the utmost reaches of antiquity. Still, your error is so charming that I would rather have it that you are correct and I mistaken.\"\n\nThea smiled at that, and Vodalus turned again toward me. \"Though it does not explain why Urth is called as she is, my dear Chatelaine's tale makes the vital point well, which is that in those times mankind traveled by his own ships from world to world, and mastered each, and built on them the cities of Man." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Those were the great days of our race, when our fathers' fathers' fathers strove for the mastery of the universe.\"\n\nHe paused, and because he seemed to expect some comment from me, I said, \"Sieur, we are much diminished in wisdom from that age.\"\n\n\"Ah, now you strike to the heart. Yet with all your perspicacity, you mistake it. No, we are not diminished in wisdom. We are diminished in power. Study has advanced without letup, but even as men have learned all that is needful for mastery, the strength of the world has been exhausted. We exist now, and precariously, upon the ruin of those who preceded us. While some skim the air in their fliers, ten thousand leagues in a day, we others creep upon the skin of Urth, unable to go from one horizon to the next before the westernmost has lifted itself to veil the sun. You spoke a moment ago of checkmating that mewling fool the Autarch. I want you to conceive now of two autarchs—two great powers striving for mastery. The white seeks to maintain things as they are, the black to set Man's foot on the road to domination again. I called it the black by chance, but it would be well to remember that it is by night that we see the stars strongly; they are remote and all but invisible in the red light of day. Now, of those two powers, which would you serve?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The wind was stirring in the trees, and it seemed to me that everyone at the table had fallen silent, listening to Vodalus and waiting for my reply." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I said, \"The black, surely.\"\n\n\"Good! But as a man of sense you must understand that the way to reconquest cannot be easy.\n\nThose who wish no change may sit hugging their scruples forever. We must do everything. We must dare everything!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The others had begun to talk and eat again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I lowered my voice until only Vodalus could hear me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sieur, there is something I have not told you. I dare not conceal it longer for fear you should think me faithless.\"\n\nHe was a better intriguer than I, and turned away before he answered, pretending to eat. \"What is it? Out with it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sieur,\" I said, \"I have a relic, the thing they say is the Claw of the Conciliator.\"\n\nHe was biting the roasted thigh of a fowl as I spoke. I saw him pause; his eyes turned to look at me, though he did not move his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you wish to see it, sieur? It is very beautiful, and I have it in the top of my boot.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No,\" he whispered. \"Yes, perhaps, but not here... No, better not at all.\"\n\n\"To whom should I give it, then?\"\n\nVodalus chewed and swallowed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I had heard from friends I have in Nessus that it was gone. So you have it. You must keep it until you can dispose of it. Do not try to sell it—it would be identified at once. Hide it somewhere. If you must, throw it into a pit.\"\n\n\"But surely, sieur, it is very valuable.\"\n\n\"It is beyond value, which means it is worthless. You and I are men of sense.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Despite his words, there was a tinge of fear in his voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But the rabble believe it to be sacred, a performer of all manner of wonders. If I were to possess it, they would think me a desecrator and an enemy of the Theologoumenon. Our masters would think me turned traitor. You must tell me—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Just at that moment, a man I had not seen previously came running up to the table with a look that indicated he bore urgent news." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Vodalus rose and walked a few paces away with him, looking very much, I thought, like a handsome schoolmaster with a boy, for the messenger's head was no higher than his shoulder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I ate, thinking he would soon return; but after a long questioning of the messenger he walked away with him, disappearing among the broad trunks of the trees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One by one the others rose too, until no one remained but the beautiful Thea, Jonas and me, and one other man.\n\n\"You are to join us,\" Thea said at last in her cooing voice. \"Yet you do not know our ways. Have you need of money?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I hesitated, but Jonas said, \"That's something that's always welcome, Chatelaine, like the misfortunes of an older brother.\"\n\n\"Shares will be set aside for you, from this day, of all we take. When you return to us, they will be given to you. Meanwhile I have a purse for each of you to speed you on your way.\"\n\n\"We are going, then?\" I asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Were you not told so? Vodalus will instruct you at the supper.\"\n\nI had supposed the meal we were eating would be the final one of the day, and the thought must have been reflected in my face.\n\n\"There will be a supper tonight, when the moon is bright,\" Thea said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Someone will be sent to fetch you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then she quoted a scrap of verse:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Dine at dawn to open your eyes," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dine at noon that you be strong.\n\nDine at eve, and then talk long,\n\nDine by night, if you'd be wise...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But now my servant Chuniald will take you to a place where you can rest for your journey.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man, who had been silent until now, stood and said, \"Come with me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I told Thea, \"I would speak with you, Chatelaine, when we have more leisure. I know something that concerns your schoolmate.\"\n\nShe saw that I was serious in what I said, and I saw that she had seen. Then we followed Chuniald through the trees for a distance, I suppose, of a league or more, and at length reached a grassy bank beside a stream." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Wait here,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sleep if you can. No one will come until after dark.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I asked, \"What if we were to leave?\"\n\n\"There are those all through this wood who know our liege's will concerning you,\" he said, and turning on his heel, walked away.\n\nThen I told Jonas what I had seen beside the opened grave, just as I have written it here." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I see,\" he remarked when I was finished, \"why you will join this Vodalus. But you must realize that I am your friend, not his. What I desire is to find the woman you call Jolenta. You want to serve Vodalus, and to go to Thrax and begin a new life in exile, and to wipe out the stain you say you have made on the honor of your guild—though I confess I don't understand how such a thing can be stained—and to find the woman called Dorcas, and to make peace with the woman called Agia while returning something we both know of to the women called Pelerines.\"\n\nHe was smiling by the time he finished this list, and I was laughing. \"And though you remind me of the old man's kestrel, that sat on a perch for twenty years and then flew off in all directions, I hope you achieve these things. But I trust you realize that it is possible—just barely possible, perhaps, but possible—that one or two of them may get in the way of four or five of the others.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What you're saying is very true,\" I admitted. \"I'm striving to do all those things, and although you won't credit it, I am giving all my strength and as much of my attention as can be of any benefit to all of them. Yet I have to admit things aren't going as well as they might. My divided ambitions have landed me in no better place than the shade of this tree, where I am a homeless wanderer. While you, with your single-minded pursuit of one all-powerful objective... look where you are.\"\n\nIn such talk we passed the watches of late afternoon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Birds twittered overhead, and it was very pleasant to have such a friend as Jonas, loyal, reasonable, tactful, and filled with wisdom, humor, and prudence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At that time I had no hint of his history, but I sensed that he was being less than candid about his background, and I sought, without venturing direct questions, to draw him out. I learned (or rather, I thought I did) that his father had been a craftsman; that he had been raised by both parents in what he called the usual way, though it is, in fact, rather rare; and that his home had been a seacoast town in the south, but that when he had last visited it he had found it so much changed that he had no desire to remain.\n\nFrom his appearance, when I had first encountered him beside the Wall, I had supposed him to be about ten years my elder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "From what he said now (and to a lesser extent from some earlier talks we had had) I decided he must be somewhat older; he seemed to have read a good deal of the chronicles of the past, and I was still too naive and unlettered myself, despite the attention Master Palaemon and Thecla had given my mind, to think that anyone much below middle age could have done so." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had a slightly cynical detachment from mankind that suggested he had seen a great deal of the world." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We were still talking when I glimpsed the graceful figure of the Chatelaine Thea moving among the trees some distance away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I nudged Jonas, and we fell silent to watch her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was coming toward us without having seen us, so that she moved in the blind way people do who are merely following directions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At times a shaft of sunlight fell upon her face, which, if it chanced to be in profile, suggested Thecla's so strongly that the sight of it seemed to tear at my chest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had Thecla's walk as well, the proud phororhacos stalk that should never have been caged." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It must be a truly ancient family,\" I whispered to Jonas. \"Look at her! Like a dryad. It might be a willow walking.\"\n\n\"Those ancient families are the newest of all,\" he answered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In ancient times there was nothing like them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I do not believe she was near enough to make out our words, but she seemed to hear his voice, and looked toward us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We waved and she quickened her pace, not running yet coming very rapidly because of the length of her stride." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We stood, then sat again when she had reached us and seated herself upon her scarf with her face toward the brook.\n\n\"You said you had something to tell me about my sister?\" Her voice made her seem less formidable, and seated she was hardly taller than we." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was her last friend,\" I said. \"She told me they would try to make you persuade Vodalus to give himself up to save her. Did you know she was imprisoned?\"\n\n\"Were you her servant?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Thea seemed to weigh me with her eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, I heard they took her to that horrible place in the slums of Nessus, where I understand she died very quickly.\"\n\nI thought of the time I had spent waiting outside Thecla's door before the scarlet thread of blood came trickling from under it, but I nodded. \"How was she arrested—do you know?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Thecla had told me the details, and I recounted them just as I had got them from her, omitting nothing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I see,\" Thea said, and was silent for a moment, staring at the moving water. \"I have missed the court, of course. Hearing about those people and that business of muffling her with a tapestry—that's so very characteristic—calls up the reasons I left it.\"\n\n\"I think she missed it sometimes too,\" I said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"At least, she talked of it a great deal. But she told me that if she were ever freed she would not go back. She spoke about the country house from which she took her title, and told me how she would refurnish it and give dinners there for the leading persons of the region, and hunt.\"\n\nThea's face twisted in a bitter smile. \"I have had enough of hunting now for ten lifetimes. But when Vodalus is Autarch, I will be his consort. Then I shall walk beside the Well of Orchids again, this time with the daughters of fifty exultants in my train to amuse me with their singing. Enough of that; it is some months off at least. For the present I have—what I have.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She looked somberly at Jonas and me, and rose very gracefully, indicating by a gesture that we were to remain where we were." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was happy to hear something now of my half-sister. That house you spoke of is mine now, you know, though I can't claim it. To recompense you, I warn you of the supper we will soon share. You didn't seem receptive of the hints Vodalus flung you. Did you understand them?\"\n\nWhen Jonas said nothing, I shook my head.\n\n\"If we, and our allies and masters who wait in the countries beneath the tides, are to triumph, we must absorb all that can be learned of the past. Do you know of the analeptic alzabo?\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "AI writing task: user input -> 3 sentences sentences. genre: scifi, science fiction fantasy, dying Earth." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Day after day he labored. When the first light came at the window, his pen had been a drudge already many hours; and when the moon tangled her crooked back among the pale towers, his lamp shone bright. At first it seemed to him that all the skill his master had taught him of old had deserted him, for from the first light to the moonlight he was alone in his chambers save for the moth that fluttered sometimes to show the insignia of Death at his undaunted candle flame." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then there crept into his dreams, when sometimes he nodded over the table, another; and he, knowing who that other was, welcomed him, though the dreams were fleeting and soon forgotten." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He labored on, and that which he strove to create gathered about him as smoke collects about the new fuel thrown upon a fire almost dead. At times (and particularly when he worked early or late, and when having at long last laid aside all the implements of his art, he stretched himself at length upon the narrow bed provided for those who had not yet earned the many-colored hood) he heard the step, always in another room, of the man he hoped to call into life. In time these manifestations, originally rare, and, indeed, at first limited almost entirely to those nights when thunder rumbled among the pale towers, became common, and there were unmistakable signs of the other's presence: a book he had not unshelved in decades lying beside a chair; windows and doors that unlocked, as it seemed, of themselves; an ancient alfange, for years past an ornament hardly more deadly than a trompe l'oeil picture, found cleansed of its patina, gleaming and newly sharp." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One golden afternoon, when the wind played the innocent games of childhood with the fresh-fledged sycamores, there came a knock at the door of his study." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not daring to turn or express even the smallest part of what he felt by his voice, or even to desist from his work, he called: \"Enter.\"\n\nAs doors open at midnight though no living thing stirs, the door began, a thread's width at a time, to swing back. Yet as it moved it seemed to gather strength, so that when it was open (as he judged by the sound) enough that a hand might have been thrust into the room, it seemed that the playful breeze had come in by the window to push life into its wooden heart." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And when it was open, as he judged again, wider still, so much so that a diffident helot might have entered with a tray, it seemed a very sea storm seized it and flung it back against the wall. Then he heard strides behind him—quick and resolute—and a voice respectful and youthful, yet deep with a cleanly manhood, addressed him, saying: \"Father, I little like to vex you when you are deep in your art. But my heart is sorely troubled and has been so these several days, and I beg you by the love you have for me to suffer my intrusion and counsel me in my difficulties.\"\n\nThen the student dared turn himself where he sat, and he saw standing before him a youth haughty of port, wide of shoulder, and mighty of thew." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Command was in his firm mouth, knowing wit in his bright eyes, and courage in all his face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Upon his brow sat that crown that is invisible to every eye, but can be seen even by the blind; the crown beyond price that draws brave men to a paladin, and makes weak men brave. Then the student said: \"My son, have no fear of disturbing me, now or ever, for there is nothing under Heaven that I should rather see than your face. What is it that troubles you?\"\n\n\"Father,\" the young man said, \"every night for many nights my sleep has been rent with the screams of women, and often I have seen, like a green serpent called by the notes of a pipe, a column of green slip down the cliff below our city to the quay. And sometimes it is vouchsafed me in my dream to go near, and then I see that all who walk in that column are fair women, and that they weep and scream and stagger as they walk, so that I might think them a field of young grain beaten by a moaning wind. What is the meaning of this dream?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My son,\" said the student, \"the time has come when I must tell you what I have concealed from you until now, fearing that in the rashness of your youth you might dare too much before the time was ripe.\n\nKnow that this city is oppressed by an ogre, who each year demands of it its fairest daughters, even as you have seen in your dream.\"\n\nAt this the young man's eyes flashed, and he demanded: \"Who is this ogre, and what form has he, and where does he dwell?\"\n\n\"His name no man knows, for no man can approach near enough. His form is that of a naviscaput, which is to say that to men he appears a ship having upon its deck—which is in truth his shoulders—a single castle, which is his head, and in the castle a single eye. But his body swims in the deep waters with the skate and the shark, with arms longer than the most lofty masts and legs like pilings that reach even to the floor of the sea. His harbor is an isle to the west, where a channel with many a twist and bend, dividing and redividing, reaches far inland. It is on this isle, so my lore teaches me, that the Corn Maidens are made to dwell; and there he rides at anchor in the midst of them, turning his eye ever to left and right to watch them in their despair.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "same energy as Gene Wolfe, keep writing" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Through the wide, dripping arch of the Gate of Trees I ran, and out onto a broad expanse of grass, now spangled with tents. Somewhere a megathere roared and shook its chain. There seemed to be no other sound. I halted and listened, and the megathere, no longer disturbed by my footfalls, settled back into the deathlike sleep of its kind. I could hear the dew running from the leaves, and the faint, interrupted twitter of birds.\n\nSomething else there was as well." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A faint whick, whick, quick and irregular, that grew louder as I listened for it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I began to thread a path among the silent tents, following the sound. I must have misjudged it, however, for Dr. Talos saw me before I saw him.\n\n\"My friend! My partner! They are all asleep—your Dorcas and the rest. All but you and I. Over here!\"\n\nHe flourished his cane as he spoke; the whick, whick had been his chopping at the heads of flowers.\n\n\"You have rejoined us just in time. Just in time! We perform tonight, and I would have been forced to hire one of these fellows to take your part. I'm delighted to see you! I owe you some money—do you recall? Not much, and between you and I, I think it false. But it is owed just the same, and I always pay.\"\n\n\"I'm afraid I don't recall,\" I said, \"so it can't be a great sum. If Dorcas is all right I'm quite willing to forget it, provided you'll give me something to eat and show me where I can sleep for a couple of watches.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The doctor's sharp nose dipped for an instant to express regret." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sleep you may have in plenty until the others wake you. But I'm afraid we've no food. Baldanders, you know, eats like a fire. The Thiasus Marshal has promised to bring something today for all of us.\" He waved his stick vaguely at the irregular city of tents. \"But I'm afraid that won't be before midmorning at the earliest.\"\n\n\"It's probably just as well. I'm really too tired to eat, but if you'll show me where I can lie down—\"\n\n\"What got your head? Never mind—we'll mask it with greasepaint. This way!\" He was already trotting before me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I followed him through a maze of tent ropes to a heliotrope dome." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baldanders's barrow stood at the door, and at last I felt certain I had found Dorcas again.\n\nWhen I woke, it was as though we had never been separated. Dorcas's delicate loveliness was unchanged; Jolenta's radiance threw it into shadow as always, yet made me wish, when the three of us were together, that she would leave so that I might rest my eyes on Dorcas. I took Baldanders to one side, an hour or so after we were all awake, and asked him why he had left me in the forest beyond the Piteous Gate.\n\n\"I was not with you,\" he said slowly. \"I was with my Dr. Talos.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And so was I. We might have sought him together and been of help to each other.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a long hesitation; I seemed to feel the weight of those dull eyes on my face, and thought in my ignorance what a terrible thing it would be if Baldanders possessed energy and the will to anger. At last he said, \"Were you with us when we left the city?\"\n\n\"Of course. Dorcas and Jolenta and I were all with you.\"\n\nAnother hesitation. \"We found you there, then.\"\n\n\"Yes, don't you remember?\"\n\nHe shook his head slowly, and I noticed that his thatch of coarse black hair was touched with gray." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I woke one morning and there you were. I was thinking. You left me soon.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The circumstances were different then—we had arranged to meet again.\" (I felt a pang of guilt when I recalled that I had never intended to honor that promise.)\n\n\"We have met again,\" Baldanders said dully; and then, seeing that the answer failed to satisfy me, added, \"There is nothing here real to me but Dr. Talos.\"\n\n\"Your loyalty is very commendable, but you might have remembered that he wanted me with him as well as yourself.\" I found it impossible to be angry with this dim, gentle giant.\n\n\"We will collect money here in the south, and then we will build again, as we have built before, when they have forgotten.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is the north. But that's right, your house was destroyed, wasn't it?\"\n\n\"Burned,\" Baldanders said. I could almost see the flames reflected in his eyes.\n\n\"I am sorry if you came to harm. For so long I have thought only of the castle and my work.\"\n\nI left him sitting there and went to inspect the properties of our theater—not that they seemed in need of it, or that I could have detected any but the most obvious lacks. A number of showmen were gathered around Jolenta, and Dr. Talos drove them away and ordered her to go into the tent. A moment later, I heard the smack of his cane on flesh; he came out grinning but still angry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It isn't her fault,\" I said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You know how she looks.\"\n\n\"Too gaudy. Too gaudy by far. Do you know what I like about you, Sieur Severian? You prefer Dorcas. Where is she, by the way? Have you seen her since you came back?\"\n\n\"I warn you, Doctor. Don't strike her.\"\n\n\"I wouldn't think of it. I'm only afraid she may be lost.\"\n\nHis surprised expression convinced me that he was telling the truth. I told him, \"We only got to talk for a moment. She's gone to fetch water.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's courageous of her,\" he said, and when I looked puzzled he added, \"She's afraid of it. Surely you've noticed. She's clean, but even when she washes, the water is only thumb-deep; when we cross bridges, she holds onto Jolenta and trembles.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dorcas returned then, and if the doctor said anything more I did not hear it. When she and I had met that morning, neither of us had been able to do much more than smile, and touch with incredulous hands.\n\nNow she came to me, putting down the pails she carried, and seemed to devour me with her eyes. \"I have missed you so,\" she said. \"I've been so lonely without you.\"\n\nI laughed to think of anyone missing me, and held up the edge of my fuligin cloak. \"You missed this?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Death, you mean. Did I miss death? No, I missed you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She took the cloak from my hand and used it to draw me toward the line of poplars that formed one wall of the Green Room. \"There is a bench I found where there are beds of herbs. Come and sit with me. They can spare us for a while after so many days, and eventually Jolenta will come out and find the water, which was for her anyway.\"\n\nAs soon as we were away from the bustle of the tents, where jugglers tossed their knives and acrobats their children, we were wrapped in the stillness of the gardens. They are perhaps the largest tract of land anywhere planned and planted for beauty, save for those wildernesses that are the gardens of the Increate and whose cultivators are invisible to us. Overlapping hedges formed a narrow door. We passed into a grove of trees with white, perfumed boughs that reminded me sadly of the flowering plums through which the praetorians had dragged Jonas and me, though those had seemed planted for ornament, and these, I thought, for the sake of their fruit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dorcas had broken a twig bearing half a dozen of the blossoms and thrust it into her pale golden hair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Beyond the orchard was a garden so old that I felt sure it had been forgotten by everyone save the servants who tended it. The stone seat there had been carved with heads, but they had worn away until they were almost featureless. A few beds of simple flowers remained, and with them fragrant rows of kitchen herbs—rosemary, angelica, mint, basil, and rue, all growing in a soil black as chocolate from the labor of countless years.\n\nThere was a little stream too, where Dorcas had no doubt drawn her water. Its source may once have been a fountain—now it was only a species of spring, rising in a shallow stone bowl to splash over the lip and eventually wind its way through little canals lined with rough masonry to water the fruit trees.\n\nWe sat in the stone seat, I leaned my sword against its arm, and she took my hands in hers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am afraid, Severian,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have such terrible dreams.\"\n\n\"Since I've been gone?\"\n\n\"All the time.\"\n\n\"When we slept side by side in the field, you told me you had awakened from a good dream. You said it was very detailed and seemed real.\"\n\n\"If it was good, I have forgotten it now.\"\n\nI had already noticed that she was careful to keep her eyes away from the water spilling from the ruined fountain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Every night, I dream I am walking through streets of shops. I am happy, or at least content. I have money to spend, and there is a long list of things I wish to buy. Again and again I recite the list to myself, and I try to decide in what parts of the quarter I can get each in the best quality for the lowest price.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But gradually, as I go from shop to shop, I grow aware that everyone who sees me hates me and holds me in contempt, and I am aware that it is because they believe me to be an unclean spirit who has wrapped itself in the woman's body they see. At last I enter a tiny shop conducted by an old man and an old woman. She sits making lace while he spreads their wares on the counter for me. I hear the sound her thread makes behind me as it is pulled through the work.\"\n\nI asked, \"What is it you have come to buy?\"\n\n\"Tiny clothes.\" Dorcas held her small, white hands half a span apart. \"Doll's clothing, perhaps. I particularly remember little shirts of fine wool. At last I choose one and hand the old man money. But it is not money at all—only a lump of filth.\"\n\nHer shoulders were shaking, and I put my arm about her to comfort her. \"I want to scream then that they are wrong, that I am not the foul specter they take me for. Yet I know that if I do, whatever I may say will be taken as the final proof that they are right, and the words choke me. The worst part is that just then the hissing of the thread stops.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had taken my free hand again, and now she gripped it as though to drive her meaning into me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I know that no one could understand who has not had the same dream, but it is terrible. Terrible.\"\n\n\"Perhaps now that I am here with you again, these dreams will end.\"\n\n\"And then I sleep, or at least fall into blackness. If I do not wake then, there is a second dream. I am in a boat poled across a spectral lake—\"\n\n\"There is no mystery in that, at least,\" I said. \"You rode in such a boat with Agia and me. It belonged to a man named Hildegrin. Surely you must remember that trip.\"\n\nDorcas shook her head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is not that boat but a much smaller one. An old man poles it, and I lie at his feet. I am awake, but I cannot move. My arm trails in the black water. Just as we are about to touch shore, I fall from the boat, but the old man does not see me, and as I sink through the water I know that he has never known I was there at all. Soon the light is gone, and I am very cold. Far above me, I hear a voice I love calling my name, but I cannot remember whose voice it is.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's my voice, calling to wake you.\"\n\n\"Perhaps.\" The whip mark Dorcas had carried from the Piteous Gate burned on her cheek like a brand.\n\nFor a while we sat without speaking. The nightingales were silent now, but linnets were singing in all the trees, and I saw a parrot, clad in scarlet and green like a little messenger in livery, flash among the branches.\n\nAt last Dorcas said, \"What a frightful thing water is. I should not have brought you here, but it was the only place nearby where I could think to go. I wish we had sat on the grass under those trees.\"\n\n\"Why do you hate it? It seems beautiful to me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Because it is here in the sunshine, but by its own nature it runs down and down forever, away from the light.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But it rises again,\" I said. \"The rain we see in spring is the same water we saw running the gutters the year before. Or so Master Malrubius taught us.\"\n\nDorcas's smile flashed like a star. \"That is good to believe, whether it's true or not. Severian, it's silly for me to say you're the best person I know, because you're the only good person I know. But I think if I met a thousand others, you would still be the best. That was what I wanted to talk to you about.\"\n\n\"If you need my protection, you have it. You know that.\"\n\n\"It isn't that at all,\" Dorcas said. \"In a way I want to give you mine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now that sounds silly, doesn't it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I have no family, I have no one except you, and yet I think I can protect you.\"\n\n\"You know Jolenta, and Dr. Talos and Baldanders.\"\n\n\"They are no one. Don't you feel that, Severian? Even I am no one, but they are less than I. The five of us were in the tent last night, and yet you were alone. You told me once that you don't have much imagination, but you must have sensed that.\"\n\n\"Is that what you want to protect me from—loneliness? I would welcome such protection.\"\n\n\"Then I will give you all I can, for as long as I can. But most of all, I want to protect you from the opinion of the world. Severian, do you remember what I told you of my dream? How all the people in the shops, and on the street, believed that I was only some hideous ghost? They may be right.\" She was shaking, and I held her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That is part of the reason the dream is so painful. The other part comes from knowing that in some other way they are wrong. The foul specter is in me. It is me. But there are other things in me too, and they are what I am as much as it is.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You could never be a foul specter, or anything foul.\"\n\n\"Oh, yes,\" she said seriously, and looked up at me. Her small, tilted face was never more beautiful than it was then in the sunlight, or more pure. \"Oh, yes I could, Severian. Just as you can be what they call you. What you sometimes are. Do you remember how we saw the cathedral leap into the sky and burn away in an instant? And how we went walking down a road between trees until we saw a light ahead, and it was Dr. Talos and Baldanders, ready to put on their show with Jolenta?\"\n\n\"You held my hand,\" I said. \"And we talked about philosophy. How could I forget?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When we came to the light and Dr. Talos saw us—do you remember what he said?\"\n\nI cast my mind back to that evening, the end of the day on which I had executed Agilus. In memory I heard the roar of the crowd, Agia's scream, and then the roll of Baldanders's drum. \"He said that everyone had come now, and that you were Innocence, and I was Death.\"\n\nDorcas nodded solemnly. \"That's right. But you're not really Death, you know, no matter how often he calls you that. You're no more Death than a butcher is because he cuts the throats of steers all day. To me you're Life, and you're a young man named Severian, and if you wanted to put on different clothes and become a carpenter or a fisherman, no one could stop you.\"\n\n\"I have no desire to leave my guild.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But you could. Today." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's the thing to remember. People don't want other people to be people.\n\nThey throw names over them and lock them in, but I don't want you to let them lock you in. Dr. Talos is worse than most. In his own way, he's a liar...\"\n\nShe left the accusation unfinished, and I ventured, \"I once heard Baldanders say he seldom lied.\"\n\n\"In his own way, I said. Baldanders is right, Dr. Talos doesn't lie the way other people understand lying. Calling you Death wasn't a lie, it was a... a...\"\n\n\"Metaphor,\" I suggested." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But it was a dangerous, bad metaphor and it was aimed at you like a lie.\"\n\n\"Do you think Dr. Talos hates me, then? I would have said he was one of the few people who've showed me real kindness since I left the Citadel. You, Jonas—who's gone now—an old woman I met while I was imprisoned, a man in a yellow robe—who also called me Death, by the way—and Dr. Talos.\n\nIt's a short list, actually.\"\n\n\"I don't think he hates in the way we understand it,\" Dorcas replied softly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Or for that matter, that he loves. He wants to manipulate everything he comes upon, to change it with his will. And since tearing down is easier than building, that's what he does most often.\"\n\n\"Baldanders seems to love him, though,\" I said. \"I used to have a crippled dog, and I've seen Baldanders look at the doctor the way Triskele used to look at me.\"\n\n\"I understand you, but it doesn't strike me that way. Have you ever thought of how you must have looked, when you looked at your dog? Do you know anything about their past?\"\n\n\"Only that they lived together near Lake Diuturna. The people there appear to have set fire to their house to drive them away.\"\n\n\"Do you think Dr. Talos could be Baldanders's son?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The idea was so absurd that I laughed, happy to have the release from tension. \"Just the same,\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dorcas said, \"that's how they act. Like a slow-thinking, hardworking father with a brilliant, erratic son. At least so it seems to me.\" It was not until we had left the bench and were walking back to the Green Room (which no more resembled the picture Rudesind had shown me than any other garden would have) that it occurred to me to wonder whether Dr. Talos's calling Dorcas \"Innocence\" had not been a metaphor of the same kind." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes as Gene Wolfe in the scifi, science fiction fantasy, dying Earth genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Despite what the herdsman had told me, I hoped for some place like Saltus, where we might find pure water and a few aes would buy us food and rest. What we found instead was scarcely the remnant of a town. Coarse grass grew between the enduring stones that had been its pavements, so that from a distance it seemed hardly different from the surrounding pampa. Fallen columns lay among this grass like the trunks of trees in a forest devastated by some frenzied storm; a few others still stood, broken and achingly white beneath the sun. Lizards with bright, black eyes and serrated backs lay frozen in the light.\n\nThe buildings were mere hillocks from which more grass sprouted in soil caught from the wind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was no reason I could see to turn from our course, and so we continued northwest, urging our destriers forward." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For the first time I became conscious of the mountains ahead. Framed in a ruined arch, they were no more than a faint line of blue on the horizon; yet they were a presence, as the mad clients on the third level of our oubliette were a presence though they were never taken up a single step, or even out of their cells. Lake Diuturna lay somewhere in those mountains. So did Thrax; the Pelerines, so far as I had been able to discover, wandered somewhere among their peaks and chasms, nursing the wounded of the endless war against the Ascians. That too lay in the mountains. There hundreds of thousands perished for the sake of a pass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But now we had come to a town where no voice sounded but the raven's." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although we had carried water in skin bags from the herdsman's house, it was nearly gone. Jolenta was weaker, and Dorcas and I agreed that if we did not find more by nightfall, it was likely she would die. Just as Urth began to roll across the sun, we came upon a broken sacrificial table whose basin still caught rain. The water was stagnant and stinking, but in our desperation we allowed Jolenta to drink a few swallows, which she immediately vomited. Urth's turning revealed the moon, now well past the full, so that we gained her weak greenish gleam as we lost the sunlight.\n\nTo have come upon a simple campfire would have seemed a miracle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What we actually saw was stranger but less startling." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dorcas pointed to the left." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I looked, and a moment later beheld, as I thought, a meteor. \"It's a falling star,\" I said. \"Did you see one before? They come in showers sometimes.\"\n\n\"No! That's a building—can't you see it? Look for the dark place against the sky. It must have a flat roof, and someone's up there with flint and steel.\"\n\nI was about to tell her that she imagined too much, when a dull red glow no bigger, it seemed, than the head of a pin, appeared where the sparks had fallen. Two breaths more, and there was a tiny tongue of flame." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was not far, but the dark and the broken stones we rode over made it seem so, and by the time we reached the building the fire was bright enough for us to see that three figures crouched about it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We need your help,\" I called. \"This woman is dying.\"\n\nAll three raised their heads, and a crone's screech asked, \"Who speaks? I hear a man's voice, but I see no man. Who are you?\"\n\n\"Here,\" I called, and threw back my fuligin cloak and hood. \"On your left. I've dark clothes, that's all.\"\n\n\"So you do... so you do. Who's dying? Not little pale hair... big red-gold. We've wine here and a fire, but no other physic. Go around, that's where the stair is.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I led our animals around the corner of the building as she had indicated. The stone walls cut off the low moon and left us in blind darkness, but I stumbled on rough steps that must have been made by piling stones from fallen structures against the side of the building. After hobbling the two destriers, I carried Jolenta up, Dorcas going before us to feel the way and warn me of danger.\n\nThe roof, when we reached it, was not flat; and the pitch was great enough for me to fear falling at every step. Its hard, uneven surface seemed to be of tiles—once one loosened, and I heard it grating and clattering against the others until it fell over the edge and smashed on the uneven slabs below.\n\nWhen I was an apprentice and too young to be entrusted with any but the most elementary tasks, I was given a letter to take to the witches' tower, across the Old Court from our own." }, { "from": "human", "value": "(I learned much later that there was a good reason for selecting only boys well below the age of puberty to carry the messages our proximity to the witches required.)" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now, when I know of the horror our own tower inspired not only in the people of the quarter but to an equal or greater degree in the other residents of the Citadel itself, I find a flavor of quaint naiveté in the recollection of my own fear; yet to the small and unattractive boy I was, it was very real. I had heard terrible stories from the older apprentices, and I had seen that boys unquestionably braver than I were afraid. In that most gaunt of all the Citadel's myriad towers, strangely colored lights burned by night. The screams we heard through the ports of our dormitory came not from some underground examination room like our own, but from the highest levels; and we knew that it was the witches themselves who screamed thus and not their clients, for in the sense we used that word, they had none. Nor were those screams the howlings of lunacy and the shrieks of agony, as ours were.\n\nI had been made to wash my hands so they would not soil the envelope, and I was very conscious of their dampness and their redness as I picked my way among the puddles of freezing water that dotted the courtyard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My mind conjured up a witch who should be immensely dignified and humiliating, who would not shrink from punishing me in some particularly repulsive way for daring to carry a letter to her in red hands and would send me back with a scornful report to Master Malrubius as well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I must have been very small indeed: I had to jump to reach the knocker. The smack of the witches'\n\ndeeply worn doorstep against the thin soles of my shoes remains with me still.\n\n\"Yes?\" The face that looked into mine was hardly higher than my own. It was one of those—outstanding of its kind among all the hundreds of thousands of faces I have seen—that are at once suggestive of beauty and disease. The witch to whom it belonged seemed old to me and must actually have been about twenty or a little less; but she was not tall, and she carried herself in the bent-backed posture of extreme age." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her face was so lovely and so bloodless that it might have been a mask carved in ivory by some master sculptor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mutely, I held up my letter.\n\n\"Come with me,\" she said. Those were the words I had feared, and now that they had actually been given voice, they seemed as inevitable as the procession of the seasons.\n\nI entered a tower very different from our own. Ours was oppressively solid, of plates of metal so closely fitted that they had, ages ago, diffused into one another to become one mass, and the lower floors of our tower were warm and dripping. Nothing seemed solid in the witches' tower, and few things were." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Much later, Master Palaemon explained to me that it was far older than most other parts of the Citadel, and had been built when the design of towers was still little more than the imitation in inanimate materials of human physiology, so that skeletons of steel were used to support a fabric of flimsier substances." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With the passing of the centuries, that skeleton had largely corroded away—until at last the structure it had once stiffened was held up only by the piecemeal repairs of past generations. Oversized rooms were separated by walls not much thicker than draperies; no floor was level, and no stair straight; each banister and railing I touched seemed ready to come off in my hand. Gnostic designs in white, green, and purple had been chalked on the walls, but there was little furniture, and the air seemed colder than that outside.\n\nAfter climbing several stairs and a ladder lashed together from the unpeeled saplings of some fragrant tree, I was ushered into the presence of an old woman who sat in the only chair I had yet seen there, staring through a glass tabletop at what appeared to be an artificial landscape inhabited by hairless, crippled animals. I gave her my letter and was led away; but for a moment she had glanced at me, and her face, like the face of the young-old woman who had brought me to her, has of course remained graven in my mind.\n\nI mention all this now because it seemed to me, as I laid Jolenta on the tiles beside the fire, that the women who crouched over it were the same." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was impossible; the old woman to whom I had handed my letter was almost certainly dead, and the young one (if she were still living) would be changed beyond recognition, as I was myself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yet the faces that turned toward me were the faces I recalled. Perhaps there are but two witches in the world, who are born into it again and again.\n\n\"What is the matter with her?\" the younger woman asked, and Dorcas and I explained as well as we could.\n\nLong before we finished, the older one had Jolenta's head in her lap and was forcing wine from a clay bottle into her throat. \"It would harm her if it were strong to harm,\" she said. \"But this is three parts pure water. Since you do not wish to see her die, you are fortunate, possibly, to have come across us so." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Whether she is also fortunate, I cannot say.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I thanked her, and inquired where the third person who had been at their fire had gone.\n\nThe old woman sighed, and stared at me for a moment before returning her attention to Jolenta.\n\n\"There were only the two of us,\" the younger woman said. \"You saw three?\"\n\n\"Very clearly, in the firelight. Your grandmother—if that is who she is—looked up and spoke to me.\n\nYou and whoever was with you lifted your heads, then bowed them again.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She is the Cumaean.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had heard the word before, but for a moment I could not remember where, and the younger woman's face, immobile as an oread's in a picture, gave me no clue.\n\n\"The seeress,\" Dorcas supplied. \"And who are you?\"\n\n\"Her acolyte, My name is Merryn. It is significant, possibly, that you, who are three, saw three of us at the fire, while we who are two at first saw but two of you.\" She looked to the Cumaean as if for confirmation, and then, as if she had received it, back to us, though I saw no glance pass between them.\n\n\"I'm quite sure I saw a third person who was larger than either of you,\" I said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is a strange evening, and there are those who ride the night air who sometimes choose to borrow a human seeming. The question is why such a power would wish to show itself to you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The effect of her dark eyes and serene face was so great that I think I might have believed her if it had not been for Dorcas, who suggested with an almost imperceptible movement of her head that the third member of the group about the fire might have escaped our observation by crossing the roof and hiding on the farther side of the ridge.\n\n\"She may live,\" the Cumaean said without lifting her gaze from Jolenta's face. \"Though she does not wish it.\"\n\n\"It's a good thing for her that the two of you had so much wine,\" I said.\n\nThe old woman did not rise to the bait, saying only, \"Yes, it is. For you and possibly even for her.\"\n\nMerryn picked up a stick and stirred the fire." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There is no death.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I laughed a little, mostly, I think, because I was no longer quite so worried about Jolenta. \"Those of my trade think otherwise.\"\n\n\"Those of your trade are mistaken.\"\n\nJolenta murmured, \"Doctor?\" It was the first time she had spoken since morning.\n\n\"You do not need a physician now,\" Merryn said. \"Someone better is here.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Cumaean muttered, \"She seeks her lover.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who is not this man in fuligin then, Mother? I thought he seemed too common for her.\"\n\n\"He is but a torturer. She seeks a worse man.\"\n\nMerryn nodded to herself, then said to us, \"You will not wish to move her farther tonight, but we must ask that you do. You will find a hundred better camping places on the other side of the ruins, and it would be dangerous for you to stay here.\"\n\n\"A danger of death?\" I asked. \"But you tell me there is none—so if I believe you, why should I fear?\n\nAnd if I cannot believe you, why should I believe you now?\" Nevertheless, I rose to go." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Cumaean looked up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She's right,\" she croaked. \"Though she does not know it, and only speaks by rote like a starling in a cage. Death is nothing, and for that reason you must fear it. What is more to be feared?\"\n\nI laughed again. \"I can't argue with someone as wise as you. And because you gave us what help you could, we will go now because you wish it.\"\n\nThe Cumaean permitted me to take Jolenta from her, but said, \"I do not wish it. My acolyte still believes the universe hers to command, a board where she can move counters to form whatever patterns suit her. The Magi see fit to number me among themselves when they write their short roll, and I should lose my place on it if I did not know that people like ourselves are only little fish, who must swim with unseen tides if we are not to exhaust ourselves without finding sustenance. Now you must wrap this poor creature in your cloak and lay her by my fire. When this place passes out of the shadow of Urth, I will look to her wound again.\"\n\nI remained standing, holding Jolenta, uncertain whether we should go or stay. The Cumaean's intentions seemed friendly enough, but her metaphor had carried an unpleasant reminder of the undine; and as I studied her face I had come to doubt that she was an old woman at all, and to recall only too clearly the hideous faces of the cacogens who had removed their masks when Baldanders had rushed among them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You shame me, Mother,\" Merryn said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Shall I call to him?\"\n\n\"He has heard us. He will come without your call.\"\n\nShe was right. I already detected the scrape of boots on the tiles of the other side of the roof.\n\n\"You are alarmed. Would it not be better to put down the woman as I instructed you, so you might take up your sword to defend your paramour? But there will be no need.\"\n\nBy the time she had finished speaking, I could see a tall hat and a big head and broad shoulders silhouetted against the night sky. I laid Jolenta near Dorcas and drew Terminus Est." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No need of that,\" a deep voice said." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No need at all, young fellow. I'd have come out sooner to renew our acquaintance, but I didn't know the Chatelaine here wanted it. My master—and yours—sends his greetings.\" It was Hildegrin." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "lets write together. ill start, u do 7 sentences. add: robots, Robot" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She laughed.\n\nThe laughter grew and fed on itself till she was gasping for breath and her plump face had reddened almost to purple. She leaned against the wall and gasped for breath.\n\n\"No, don't come—closer,\" she begged. \"I'm all right.\"\n\nBaley said gravely, \"Is the possibility that humorous?\"\n\nShe tried to answer and laughed again. Then, in a whisper, she said, \"Oh, you are an Earthman! How could it ever be me?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You knew him well,\" said Baley." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You knew his habits. You could have planned it.\"\n\n\"And you think I would see him? That I would get close enough to bash him over the head with something? You just don't know anything at all about it, Baley.\"\n\nBaley felt himself redden. \"Why couldn't you get close enough to him, ma'am? You've had practice—uh—mingling.\"\n\n\"With the children.\"\n\n\"One thing leads to another. You seem to be able to stand my presence.\"\n\n\"At twenty feet,\" she said contemptuously." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've just visited a man who nearly collapsed because he had to endure my presence for a while.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Klorissa sobered and said, \"A difference in degree.\"\n\n\"I suggest that a difference in degree is all that is necessary. The habit of seeing children makes it possible to endure seeing Delmarre just long enough.\"\n\n\"I would like to point out, Mr. Baley,\" said Klorissa, no longer appearing the least amused, \"that it doesn't matter a speck what I can endure. Dr. Delmarre was the finicky one. He was almost as bad as Leebig himself. Almost. Even if I could endure seeing him, he would never endure seeing me. Mrs. Delmarre is the only one he could possibly have allowed within seeing distance.\"\n\nBaley said, \"Who's this Leebig you mentioned?\"\n\nKlorissa shrugged. \"One of these odd-genius types, if you know what I mean. He'd done work with the boss on robots.\"\n\nBaley checked that off mentally and returned to the matter at hand. He said, \"It could also be said you had a motive.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What motive?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"His death put you in charge of this establishment, gave you position.\"\n\n\"You call that a motive? Skies above, who could want this position? Who on Solaria? This is a motive for keeping him alive. It's a motive for hovering over him and protecting him. You'll have to do better than that, Earthman.\"\n\nBaley scratched his neck uncertainly with one finger. He saw the justice of that.\n\nKlorissa said, \"Did you notice my ring, Mr. Baley?\"\n\nFor a moment it seemed she was about to strip the glove from her right hand, but she refrained.\n\n\"I noticed it,\" said Baley." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You don't know its significance, I suppose?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't.\" (He would never have done with ignorance, he thought bitterly.)\n\n\"Do you mind a small lecture, then?\"\n\n\"If it will help me make sense of this damned world,\" blurted out Baley, \"by all means.\"\n\n\"Skies above!\" Klorissa smiled. \"I suppose we seem to you as Earth would seem to us. Imagine. Say, here's an empty chamber. Come in here and we'll sit down—no, the room's not big enough. Tell you what, though. You take a seat in there and I'll stand out here.\"\n\nShe stepped farther down the corridor, giving him space to enter the room, then returned, taking up her stand against the opposite wall at a point where she could see him.\n\nBaley took his seat with only the slightest quiver of chivalry countering it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He thought rebelliously: Why not?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Let the Spacer woman stand.\n\nKlorissa folded her muscular arms across her chest and said, \"Gene analysis is the key to our society. We don't analyze for genes directly, of course. Each gene, however, governs one enzyme, and we can analyze for enzymes. Know the enzymes, know the body chemistry. Know the body chemistry, know the human being. You see all that?\"\n\n\"I understand the theory,\" said Baley. \"I don't know how it's applied.\"\n\n\"That part's done here. Blood samples are taken while the infant is still in the late fetal stage. That gives us our rough first approximation. Ideally, we should catch all mutations at that point and judge whether birth can be risked. In actual fact, we still don't quite know enough to eliminate all possibility of mistake. Someday, maybe. Anyway, we continue testing after birth; biopsies as well as body fluids. In any case, long before adulthood, we know exactly what our little boys and girls are made of.\"\n\n(Sugar and spice … A nonsense phrase went unbidden through Baley's mind.)\n\n\"We wear coded rings to indicate our gene constitution,\" said Klorissa." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's an old custom, a bit of the primitive left behind from the days when Solarians had not yet been weeded eugenically. Nowadays, we're all healthy.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley said, \"But you still wear yours. Why?\"\n\n\"Because I'm exceptional,\" she said with an unembarrassed, unblunted pride. \"Dr. Delmarre spent a long time searching for an assistant. He needed someone exceptional. Brains, ingenuity, industry, stability. Most of all, stability. Someone who could learn to mingle with children and not break down.\"\n\n\"He couldn't, could he? Was that a measure of his instability?\"\n\nKlorissa said, \"In a way, it was, but at least it was a desirable type of instability under most circumstances. You wash your hands, don't you?\"\n\nBaley's eyes dropped to his hands. They were as clean as need be. \"Yes,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"All right. I suppose it's a measure of instability to feel such revulsion at dirty hands as to be unable to clean an oily mechanism by hand even in an emergency. Still, in the ordinary course of living, the revulsion keeps you clean, which is good.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I see. Go ahead.\"\n\n\"There's nothing more. My genic health is the third-highest ever recorded on Solaria, so I wear my ring. It's a record I enjoy carrying with me.\"\n\n\"I congratulate you.\"\n\n\"You needn't sneer. It may not be my doing. It may be the blind permutation of parental genes, but it's a proud thing to own, anyway. And no one would believe me capable of so seriously psychotic an act as murder. Not with my gene makeup. So don't waste accusations on me.\"\n\nBaley shrugged and said nothing. The woman seemed to confuse gene makeup and evidence and presumably the rest of Solaria would do the same.\n\nKlorissa said, \"Do you want to see the youngsters now?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you. Yes.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The corridors seemed to go on forever. The building was obviously a tremendous one. Nothing like the huge banks of apartments in the Cities of Earth, of course, but for a single building clinging to the outside skin of a planet it must be a mountainous structure.\n\nThere were hundreds of cribs, with pink babies squalling, or sleeping, or feeding. Then there were playrooms for the crawlers.\n\n\"They're not too bad even at this age,\" said Klorissa grudgingly, \"though they take up a tremendous sum of robots. It's practically a robot per baby till walking age.\"\n\n\"Why is that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They sicken if they don't get individual attention.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley nodded. \"Yes, I suppose the requirement for affection is something that can't be done away with.\"\n\nKlorissa frowned and said brusquely, \"Babies require attention.\"\n\nBaley said, \"I am a little surprised that robots can fulfill the need for affection.\"\n\nShe whirled toward him, the distance between them not sufficing to hide her displeasure. \"See here, Baley, if you're trying to shock me by using unpleasant terms, you won't succeed. Skies above, don't be childish.\"\n\n\"Shock you?\"\n\n\"I can use the word too. Affection! Do you want a short word, a good four-letter word? I can say that, too. Love! Love! Now if it's out of your system, behave yourself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley did not trouble to dispute the matter of obscenity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He said, \"Can robots really give the necessary attention, then?\"\n\n\"Obviously, or this farm would not be the success it is. They fool with the child. They nuzzle it and snuggle it. The child doesn't care that it's only a robot. But then, things grow more difficult between three and ten.\"\n\n\"Oh?\"\n\n\"During that interval, the children insist on playing with one another. Quite indiscriminately.\"\n\n\"I take it you let them.\"\n\n\"We have to, but we never forget our obligation to teach them the requirements of adulthood. Each has a separate room that can be closed off. Even from the first, they must sleep alone. We insist on that. And then we have an isolation time every day and that increases with the years. By the time a child reaches ten, he is able to restrict himself to viewing for a week at a time. Of course, the viewing arrangements are elaborate. They can view outdoors, under mobile conditions, and can keep it up all day.\"\n\nBaley said, \"I'm surprised you can counter an instinct so thoroughly. You do counter it; I see that. Still, it surprises me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What instinct?\" demanded Klorissa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The instinct of gregariousness. There is one. You say yourself that as children they insist on playing with each other.\"\n\nKlorissa shrugged. \"Do you call that instinct? But then, what if it is? Skies above, a child has an instinctive fear of falling, but adults can be trained to work in high places even where there is constant danger of falling. Haven't you ever seen gymnastic exhibitions on high wires? There are some worlds where people live in tall buildings. And children have instinctive fear of loud noises, too, but are you afraid of them?\"\n\n\"Not within reason,\" said Baley.\n\n\"I'm willing to bet that Earth people couldn't sleep if things were really quiet. Skies above, there isn't an instinct around that can't give way to a good, persistent education. Not in human beings, where instincts are weak anyway. In fact, if you go about it right, education gets easier with each generation. It's a matter of evolution.\"\n\nBaley said, \"How is that?\"\n\n\"Don't you see? Each individual repeats his own evolutionary history as he develops. Those fetuses back there have gills and a tail for a time. Can't skip those steps. The youngster has to go through the social-animal stage in the same way. But just as a fetus can get through in one month a stage that evolution took a hundred million years to get through, so our children can hurry through the social-animal stage. Dr. Delmarre was of the opinion that with the generations, we'd get through that stage faster and faster.\"\n\n\"Is that so?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In three thousand years, he estimated, at the present rate of progress, we'd have children who'd take to viewing at once. The boss had other notions, too. He was interested in improving robots to the point of making them capable of disciplining children without becoming mentally unstable. Why not? Discipline today for a better life tomorrow is a true expression of First Law if robots could only be made to see it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Have such robots been developed yet?\"\n\nKlorissa shook her head. \"I'm afraid not. Dr. Delmarre and Leebig had been working hard on some experimental models.\"\n\n\"Did Dr. Delmarre have some of the models sent out to his estate? Was he a good enough roboticist to conduct tests himself?\"\n\n\"Oh yes. He tested robots frequently.\"\n\n\"Do you know that he had a robot with him when he was murdered?\"\n\n\"I've been told so.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you know what kind of a model it was?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You'll have to ask Leebig. As I told you, he's the roboticist who worked with Dr. Delmarre.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You know nothing about it?\"\n\n\"Not a thing.\"\n\n\"If you think of anything, let me know.\"\n\n\"I will. And don't think new robot models are all that Dr. Delmarre was interested in. Dr. Delmarre used to say the time would come when unfertilized ova would be stored in banks at liquid-air temperatures and utilized for artificial insemination. In that way, eugenic principles could be truly applied and we could get rid of the last vestige of any need for seeing. I'm not sure that I quite go along with him so far, but he was a man of advanced notions; a very good Solarian.\"\n\nShe added quickly, \"Do you want to go outside? The five-through-eight group are encouraged to take part in outdoor play and you could see them in action.\"\n\nBaley said cautiously, \"I'll try that. I may have to come back inside on rather short notice.\"\n\n\"Oh yes, I forgot. Maybe you'd rather not go out at all?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No.\" Baley forced a smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm trying to grow accustomed to the outdoors.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The wind was hard to bear. It made breathing difficult. It wasn't cold, in a direct physical sense, but the feel of it, the feel of his clothes moving against his body, gave Baley a kind of chill.\n\nHis teeth chattered when he tried to talk and he had to force his words out in little bits. It hurt his eyes to look so far at a horizon so hazy green and blue and there was only limited relief when he looked at the pathway immediately before his toes. Above all, he avoided looking up at the empty blue, empty, that is, but for the piled-up white of occasional clouds and the glare of the naked sun.\n\nAnd yet he could fight off the urge to run, to return to enclosure." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He passed a tree, following Klorissa by some ten paces, and he reached out a cautious hand to touch it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was rough and hard to the touch. Frondy leaves moved and rustled overhead, but he did not raise his eyes to look at them. A living tree!\n\nKlorissa called out. \"How do you feel?\"\n\n\"All right.\"\n\n\"You can see a group of youngsters from here,\" she said. \"They're involved in some kind of game. The robots organize the games and see to it that the little animals don't kick each other's eyes out. With personal presence you can do just that, you know.\"\n\nBaley raised his eyes slowly, running his glance along the cement of the pathway out to the grass and down the slope, farther and farther out—very carefully—ready to snap back to his toes if he grew frightened—feeling with his eyes …" }, { "from": "human", "value": "There were the small figures of boys and girls racing madly about, uncaring that they raced at the very outer rim of a world with nothing but air and space above them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The glitter of an occasional robot moved nimbly among them. The noise of the children was a far-off incoherent squeaking in the air.\n\n\"They love it,\" said Klorissa. \"Pushing and pulling and squabbling and falling down and getting up and just generally contacting. Skies above! How do children ever manage to grow up?\"\n\n\"What are those older children doing?\" asked Baley. He pointed at a group of isolated youngsters standing to one side.\n\n\"They're viewing. They're not in a state of personal presence. By viewing, they can walk together, talk together, race together, play together. Anything except physical contact.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where do children go when they leave here?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"To estates of their own. The number of deaths is, on the average, equal to the number of graduations.\"\n\n\"To their parents' estates?\"\n\n\"Skies above, no! It would be an amazing coincidence, wouldn't it, to have a parent die just as a child is of age. No, the children take any one that falls vacant. I don't know that any of them would be particularly happy, anyway, living in a mansion that once belonged to their parents, supposing, of course, they knew who their parents were.\"\n\n\"Don't they?\"\n\nShe raised her eyebrows. \"Why should they?\"\n\n\"Don't parents visit their children here?\"\n\n\"What a mind you have. Why should they want to?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley said, \"Do you mind if I clear up a point for myself? Is it bad manners to ask a person if they have had children?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's an intimate question, wouldn't you say?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"In a way.\"\n\n\"I'm hardened. Children are my business. Other people aren't.\"\n\nBaley said, \"Have you any children?\"\n\nKlorissa's Adam's apple made a soft but clearly visible motion in her throat as she swallowed. \"I deserve that, I suppose. And you deserve an answer. I haven't.\"\n\n\"Are you married?\"\n\n\"Yes, and I have an estate of my own and I would be there but for the emergency here. I'm just not confident of being able to control all the robots if I'm not here in person.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She turned away unhappily, and then pointed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Now there's one of them gone tumbling and of course he's crying.\"\n\nA robot was running with great space-devouring strides.\n\nKlorissa said, \"He'll be picked up and cuddled and if there's any real damage, I'll be called in.\" She added nervously, \"I hope I don't have to be.\"\n\nBaley took a deep breath. He noted three trees forming a small triangle fifty feet to the left. He walked in that direction, the grass soft and loathsome under his shoes, disgusting in its softness (like walking through corrupting flesh, and he nearly retched at the thought)." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was among them, his back against one trunk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was almost like being surrounded by imperfect walls. The sun was only a wavering series of flitters through the leaves, so disconnected as almost to be robbed of horror.\n\nKlorissa faced him from the path, then slowly shortened the distance by half.\n\n\"Mind if I stay here awhile?\" asked Baley.\n\n\"Go ahead,\" said Klorissa.\n\nBaley said, \"Once the youngsters graduate out of the farm, how do you get them to court one another?\"\n\n\"Court?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Get to know one another,\" said Baley, vaguely wondering how the thought could be expressed safely, \"so they can marry.\"\n\n\"That's not their problem,\" said Klorissa. \"They're matched by gene analysis, usually when they are quite young. That's the sensible way, isn't it?\"\n\n\"Are they always willing?\"\n\n\"To be married? They never are! It's a very traumatic process. At first they have to grow accustomed to one another, and a little bit of seeing each day, once the initial queasiness is gone, can do wonders.\"\n\n\"What if they don't like their partner?\"\n\n\"What? If the gene analysis indicates a partnership what difference does it—-\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I understand,\" said Baley hastily." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He thought of Earth and sighed.\n\nKlorissa said, \"Is there anything else you would like to know?\"\n\nBaley wondered if there were anything to be gained from a longer stay. He would not be sorry to be done with Klorissa and fetal engineering so that he might pass on to the next stage.\n\nHe had opened his mouth to say as much, when Klorissa called out at some object far off, \"You, child, you there! What are you doing?\" Then, over her shoulder: \"Earthman! Baley! Watch out! Watch out!\"\n\nBaley scarcely heard her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He responded to the note of urgency in her voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The nervous effort that held his emotions taut snapped wide and he flamed into panic. All the terror of the open air and the endless vault of heaven broke in upon him.\n\nBaley gibbered. He heard himself mouth meaningless sounds and felt himself fall to his knees and slowly roll over to his side as though he were watching the process from a distance.\n\nAlso from a distance he heard the sighing hum piercing the air above him and ending with a sharp thwack.\n\nBaley closed his eyes and his fingers clutched a thin tree root that skimmed the surface of the ground and his nails burrowed into dirt.\n\nHe opened his eyes (it must only have been moments after). Klorissa was scolding sharply at a youngster who remained at a distance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A robot, silent, stood closer to Klorissa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley had only time to notice the youngster held a stringed object in his hand before his eyes sheered away.\n\nBreathing heavily, Baley struggled to his feet. He stared at the shaft of glistening metal that remained in the trunk of the tree against which he had been standing. He pulled at it and it came out readily. It had not penetrated far. He looked at the point but did not touch it. It was blunted, but it would have sufficed to tear his skin had he not dropped when he did." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It took him two tries to get his legs moving." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He took a step toward Klorissa and called. \"You. Youngster.\"\n\nKlorissa turned, her face flushed. She said, \"It was an accident. Are you hurt?\"\n\n\"No! What is this thing?\"\n\n\"It's an arrow. It is fired by a bow, which makes a taut string do the work.\"\n\n\"Like this,\" called the youngster impudently, and he shot another arrow into the air, then burst out laughing. He had light hair and a lithe body." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Klorissa said, \"You will be disciplined. Now leave!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wait, wait,\" cried Baley. He rubbed his knee where a rock had caught and bruised him as he had fallen. \"I have some questions. What is your name?\"\n\n\"Bik,\" he said carelessly.\n\n\"Did you shoot that arrow at me, Bik?\"\n\n\"That's right,\" said the boy.\n\n\"Do you realize you would have hit me if I hadn't been warned in time to duck?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bik shrugged. \"I was aiming to hit.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Klorissa spoke hurriedly. \"You must let me explain. Archery is an encouraged sport. It is competitive without requiring contact. We have contests among the boys using viewing only. Now I'm afraid some of the boys will aim at robots. It amuses them and it doesn't hurt the robots. I'm the only adult human on the estate and when the boy saw you, he must have assumed you were a robot.\"\n\nBaley listened. His mind was clearing, and the natural dourness of his long face intensified. He said, \"Bik, did you think I was a robot?\"\n\n\"No,\" said the youngster. \"You're an Earthman.\"\n\n\"All right. Go now.\"\n\nBik turned and raced off whistling. Baley turned to the robot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You! How did the youngster know I was an Earthman, or weren't you with him when he shot?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was with him, master. I told him you were an Earthman.\"\n\n\"Did you tell him what an Earthman was?\"\n\n\"Yes, master.\"\n\n\"What is an Earthman?\"\n\n\"An inferior sort of human that ought not to be allowed on Solaria because he breeds disease, master.\"\n\n\"And who told you that, boy?\"\n\nThe robot maintained silence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley said, \"Do you know who told you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I do not, master. It is in my memory store.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So you told the boy I was a disease-breeding inferior and he immediately shot at me. Why didn't you stop him?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I would have, master. I would not have allowed harm to come to a human, even an Earthman. He moved too quickly and I was not fast enough.\"\n\n\"Perhaps you thought I was just an Earthman, not completely a human, and hesitated a bit.\"\n\n\"No, master.\"\n\nIt was said with quiet calm, but Baley's lips quirked grimly. The robot might deny it in all faith, but Baley felt that was exactly the factor involved.\n\nBaley said, \"What were you doing with the boy?\"\n\n\"I was carrying his arrows, master.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"May I see them?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He held out his hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The robot approached and delivered a dozen of them. Baley put the original arrow, the one that had hit the tree, carefully at his feet, and looked the others over one by one. He handed them back and lifted the original arrow again.\n\nHe said, \"Why did you give this particular arrow to the boy?\"\n\n\"No reason, master. He had asked for an arrow some time earlier and this was the one my hand touched first. He looked about for a target, then noticed you and asked who the strange human was. I explained——\"\n\n\"I know what you explained. This arrow you handed him is the only one with gray vanes at the rear. The others have black vanes.\"\n\nThe robot simply stared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley said, \"Did you guide the youngster here?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 8 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We walked randomly, master.\"\n\nThe Earthman looked through the gap between two trees through which the arrow had hurled itself toward its mark. He said, \"Would it happen, by any chance, that this youngster, Bik, was the best archer you have here?\"\n\nThe robot bent his head. \"He is the best, master.\"\n\nKlorissa gaped. \"How did you ever come to guess that?\"\n\n\"It follows,\" said Baley dryly. \"Now please observe this gray-vaned arrow and the others. The gray-vaned arrow is the only one that seems oily at the point. I'll risk melodrama, ma'am, by saying that your warning saved my life. This arrow that missed me is poisoned.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write 7 sentences sentences in the style of Isaac Asimov spawning from what the user wrote." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Leebig's mouth widened slowly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley took it for a snarl at first and then, with considerable surprise, decided that it was the most unsuccessful attempt at a smile that he had ever seen.\n\nLeebig said, \"Don't say that. Don't ever say that.\"\n\n\"Why not?\"\n\n\"Because anything, however small, that encourages distrust of robots is harmful. Distrusting robots is a human disease!\"\n\nIt was as though he were lecturing a small child. It was as though he were saying something gently that he wanted to yell. It was as though he were trying to persuade when what he really wanted was to enforce on penalty of death." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Leebig said, \"Do you know the history of robotics?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A little.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"On Earth, you should. Yes. Do you know robots started with a Frankenstein complex against them? They were suspect. Men distrusted and feared robots. Robotics was almost an undercover science as a result. The Three Laws were first built into robots in an effort to overcome distrust and even so, Earth would never allow a robotic society to develop. One of the reasons the first pioneers left Earth to colonize the rest of the Galaxy was so that they might establish societies in which robots would be allowed to free men of poverty and toil. Even then, there remained a latent suspicion not far below, ready to pop up at any excuse.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Have you yourself had to counter distrust of robots?\" asked Baley." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Many times,\" said Leebig grimly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is that why you and other roboticists are willing to distort the facts just a little in order to avoid suspicion as much as possible?\"\n\n\"There is no distortion!\"\n\n\"For instance, aren't the Three Laws misquoted?\"\n\n\"No!\"\n\n\"I can demonstrate that they are, and unless you convince me otherwise, I will demonstrate it to the whole Galaxy, if I can.\"\n\n\"You're mad. Whatever argument you may think you have is fallacious, I assure you.\"\n\n\"Shall we discuss it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If it does not take too long.\"\n\n\"Face to face? Seeing?\"\n\nLeebig's thin face twisted. \"No!\"\n\n\"Good-bye, Dr. Leebig. Others will listen to me.\"\n\n\"Wait. Great Galaxy, man, wait!\"\n\n\"Seeing?\"\n\nThe roboticist's hands wandered upward, hovered about his chin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Slowly a thumb crept into his mouth and remained there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stared, blankly, at Baley.\n\nBaley thought: Is he regressing to the prefive-year-old stage so that it will be legitimate for him to see me?\n\n\"Seeing?\" he said.\n\nBut Leebig shook his head slowly. \"I can't. I can't,\" he moaned, the words all but stifled by the blocking thumb. \"Do whatever you want.\"\n\nBaley stared at the other and watched him turn away and face the wall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He watched the Solarian's straight back bend and the Solarian's face hide in shaking hands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley said, \"Very well, then, I'll agree to view.\"\n\nLeebig said, back still turned, \"Excuse me a moment. I'll be back.\"\n\nBaley tended to his own needs during the interval and stared at his fresh-washed face in the bathroom mirror. Was he getting the feel of Solaria and Solarians? He wasn't sure.\n\nHe sighed and pushed a contact and a robot appeared. He didn't turn to look at it. He said, \"Is there another viewer at the farm, besides the one I'm using?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There are three other outlets, master.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then tell Klorissa Cantoro—tell your mistress that I will be using this one till further notice and that I am not to be disturbed.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, master.\"\n\nBaley returned to his position where the viewer remained focused on the empty patch of room in which Leebig had stood. It was still empty and he settled himself to wait.\n\nIt wasn't long. Leebig entered and the room once more jiggled as the man walked. Evidently focus shifted from room center to man center without delay. Baley remembered the complexity of viewing controls and began to feel a kind of appreciation of what was involved.\n\nLeebig was quite master of himself now, apparently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His hair was slicked back and his costume had been changed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His clothes fitted loosely and were of a material that glistened and caught highlights. He sat down in a slim chair that folded out of the wall.\n\nHe said soberly, \"Now what is this notion of yours concerning First Law?\"\n\n\"Will we be overheard?\"\n\n\"No. I've taken care.\"\n\nBaley nodded. He said, \"Let me quote the First Law.\"\n\n\"I scarcely need that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know, but let me quote it, anyway: A robot may not harm a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well?\"\n\n\"Now when I first landed on Solaria, I was driven to the estate assigned for my use in a ground-car. The ground-car was a specially enclosed job designed to protect me from exposure to open space. As an Earthman——\"\n\n\"I know about that,\" said Leebig impatiently. \"What has this to do with the matter?\"\n\n\"The robots who drove the car did not know about it. I asked that the car be opened and was at once obeyed. Second Law. They had to follow orders. I was uncomfortable, of course, and nearly collapsed before the car was enclosed again. Didn't the robots harm me?\"\n\n\"At your order,\" snapped Leebig.\n\n\"I'll quote the Second Law: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. So you see, my order should have been ignored.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is nonsense. The robot lacked knowledge——\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley leaned forward in his chair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah! We have it. Now let's recite the First Law as it should be stated: A robot may do nothing that, to its knowledge, will harm a human being; nor, through inaction, knowingly allow a human being to come to harm.\"\n\n\"This is all understood.\"\n\n\"I think not by ordinary men. Otherwise, ordinary men would realize robots could commit murder.\"\n\nLeebig was white. \"Mad! Lunacy!\"\n\nBaley stared at his finger ends. \"A robot may perform an innocent task, I suppose; one that has no damaging effect on a human being?\"\n\n\"If ordered to do so,\" said Leebig." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, of course. If ordered to do so. And a second robot may perform an innocent task, also, I suppose; one that also can have no damaging effect on a human being? If ordered to do so?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And what if the two innocent tasks, each completely innocent, amount to murder when added together?\"\n\n\"What?\" Leebig's face puckered into a scowl.\n\n\"I want your expert opinion on the matter,\" said Baley. \"I'll set you a hypothetical case. Suppose a man says to a robot, 'Place a small quantity of this liquid into a glass of milk that you will find in such and such a place. The liquid is harmless. I wish only to know its effect on milk. Once I know the effect, the mixture will be poured out. After you have performed this action, forget you have done so.'\"\n\nLeebig, still scowling, said nothing.\n\nBaley said, \"If I had told the robot to add a mysterious liquid to milk and then offer it to a man, First Law would force it to ask, 'What is the nature of the liquid? Will it harm a man?' And if it were assured the liquid was harmless, First Law might still make the robot hesitate and refuse to offer the milk. Instead, however, it is told the milk will be poured out. First Law is not involved. Won't the robot do as it is told?\"\n\nLeebig glared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley said, \"Now a second robot has poured out the milk in the first place and is unaware that the milk has been tampered with. In all innocence, it offers the milk to a man and the man dies.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Leebig cried out, \"No!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why not? Both actions are innocent in themselves. Only together are they murder. Do you deny that that sort of thing can happen?\"\n\n\"The murderer would be the man who gave the order,\" cried Leebig.\n\n\"If you want to be philosophical, yes. The robots would have been the immediate murderers, though, the instruments of murder.\"\n\n\"No man would give such orders.\"\n\n\"A man would. A man has. It was exactly in this way that the murder attempt on Dr. Gruer must have been carried through. You've heard about that, I suppose.\"\n\n\"On Solaria,\" muttered Leebig, \"one hears about everything.\"\n\n\"Then you know Gruer was poisoned at his dinner table before the eyes of myself and my partner, Mr. Olivaw of Aurora. Can you suggest any other way in which the poison might have reached him? There was no other human on the estate. As a Solarian, you must appreciate that point.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm not a detective. I have no theories.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've presented you with one. I want to know if it is a possible one. I want to know if two robots might not perform two separate actions, each one innocent in itself, the two together resulting in murder. You're the expert, Dr. Leebig. Is it possible?\"\n\nAnd Leebig, haunted and harried, said, \"Yes,\" in a voice so low that Baley scarcely heard him.\n\nBaley said, \"Very well, then. So much for the First Law.\"\n\nLeebig stared at Baley and his drooping eyelid winked once or twice in a slow tic. His hands, which had been clasped, drew apart, though the fingers maintained their clawed shape as though each hand still entwined a phantom hand of air. Palms turned downward and rested on knees and only then did the fingers relax.\n\nBaley watched it all in abstraction." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Leebig said, \"Theoretically, yes. Theoretically! But don't dismiss the First Law that easily, Earthman. Robots would have to be ordered very cleverly in order to circumvent the First Law.\"\n\n\"Granted,\" said Baley. \"I am only an Earthman. I know next to nothing about robots and my phrasing of the orders was only by way of example. A Solarian would be much more subtle and do much better. I'm sure of that.\"\n\nLeebig might not have been listening. He said loudly, \"If a robot can be manipulated into doing harm to a man, it means only that we must extend the powers of the positronic brain. One might say we ought to make the human better. That is impossible, so we will make the robot more foolproof.\n\n\"We advance continuously. Our robots are more varied, more specialized, more capable, and more unharming than those of a century ago. A century hence, we will have still greater advances. Why have a robot manipulate controls when a positronic brain can be built into the controls itself? That's specialization, but we can generalize, also. Why not a robot with replaceable and interchangeable limbs. Eh? Why not? If we——\"\n\nBaley interrupted. \"Are you the only roboticist on Solaria?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't be a fool.\"\n\n\"I only wondered. Dr. Delmarre was the only—uh—fetal engineer, except for an assistant.\"\n\n\"Solaria has over twenty roboticists.\"\n\n\"Are you the best?\"\n\n\"I am,\" Leebig said without self-consciousness.\n\n\"Delmarre worked with you.\"\n\n\"He did.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley said, \"I understand that he was planning to break the partnership toward the end.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No sign of it. What gave you the idea?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I understand he disapproved of your bachelorhood.\"\n\n\"He may have. He was a thorough Solarian. However, it did not affect our business relationship.\"\n\n\"To change the subject. In addition to developing new model robots, do you also manufacture and repair existing types?\"\n\nLeebig said, \"Manufacture and repair are largely robot-conducted. There is a large factory and maintenance shop on my estate.\"\n\n\"Do robots require much in the way of repair, by the way?\"\n\n\"Very little.\"\n\n\"Does that mean that robot repair is an undeveloped science?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not at all.\" Leebig said that stiffly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What about the robot that was at the scene of Dr. Delmarre's murder?\"\n\nLeebig looked away, and his eyebrows drew together as though a painful thought were being barred entrance to his mind. \"It was a complete loss.\"\n\n\"Really complete? Could it answer any questions at all?\"\n\n\"None at all. It was absolutely useless. Its positronic brain was completely short-circuited. Not one pathway was left intact. Consider! It had witnessed a murder it had been unable to halt——\"\n\n\"Why was it unable to halt the murder, by the way?\"\n\n\"Who can tell? Dr. Delmarre was experimenting with that robot. I do not know in what mental condition he had left it. He might have ordered it, for instance, to suspend all operations while he checked one particular circuit element. If someone whom neither Dr. Delmarre nor the robot suspected of harm were suddenly to launch a homicidal attack, there might be a perceptible interval before the robot could use First Law potential to overcome Dr. Delmarre's freezing order. The length of the interval would depend on the nature of the attack and the nature of Dr. Delmarre's freezing order. I could invent a dozen other ways of explaining why the robot was unable to prevent the murder. Being unable to do so was a First Law violation, however, and that was sufficient to blast every positronic pathway in the robot's mind.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But if the robot was physically unable to prevent the murder, was it responsible? Does the First Law ask impossibilities?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Leebig shrugged. \"The First Law, despite your attempts to make little of it, protects humanity with every atom of possible force. It allows no excuses. If the First Law is broken, the robot is ruined.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That is a universal rule, sir?\"\n\n\"As universal as robots.\"\n\nBaley said, \"Then I've learned something.\"\n\n\"Then learn something else. Your theory of murder by a series of robotic actions, each innocent in itself, will not help you in the case of Dr. Delmarre's death.\"\n\n\"Why not?\"\n\n\"The death was not by poisoning, but by bludgeoning. Something had to hold the bludgeon, and that had to be a human arm. No robot could swing a club and smash a skull.\"\n\n\"Suppose,\" said Baley, \"a robot were to push an innocent button which dropped a booby-trap weight on Delmarre's head.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Leebig smiled sourly. \"Earthman, I've viewed the scene of the crime. I've heard all the news. The murder was a big thing here on Solaria, you know. So I know there was no sign of any machinery at the scene of the crime, or of any fallen weight.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley said, \"Or of any blunt instrument, either.\"\n\nLeebig said scornfully, \"You're a detective. Find it.\"\n\n\"Granting that a robot was not responsible for Dr. Delmarre's death, who was, then?\"\n\n\"Everyone knows who was,\" shouted Leebig. \"His wife! Gladia!\"\n\nBaley thought: At least there's a unanimity of opinion.\n\nAloud he said, \"And who was the mastermind behind the robots who poisoned Gruer?\"\n\n\"I suppose …\" Leebig trailed off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You don't think there are two murderers, do you? If Gladia was responsible for one crime, she must be responsible for the second attempt, also.\"\n\n\"Yes. You must be right.\" His voice gained assurance. \"No doubt of it.\"\n\n\"No doubt?\"\n\n\"Nobody else could get close enough to Dr. Delmarre to kill him. He allowed personal presence no more than I did, except that he made an exception in favor of his wife, and I make no exceptions. The wiser I.\" The roboticist laughed harshly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I believe you knew her,\" said Baley abruptly.\n\n\"Whom?\"\n\n\"Her. We are discussing only one 'her.' Gladia!\"\n\n\"Who told you I knew her any more than I know anyone else?\" demanded Leebig. He put his hand to his throat. His fingers moved slightly and opened the neckseam of his garment for an inch downward, leaving more freedom to breathe.\n\n\"Gladia herself did. You two went for walks.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So? We were neighbors. It is a common thing to do. She seemed a pleasant person.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You approved of her, then?\"\n\nLeebig shrugged. \"Talking to her was relaxing.\"\n\n\"What did you talk about?\"\n\n\"Robotics.\" There was a flavor of surprise about the word as though there were wonder that the question could be asked.\n\n\"And she talked robotics too?\"\n\n\"She knew nothing about robotics. Ignorant! But she listened. She has some sort of field-force rigmarole she plays with; field coloring, she calls it. I have no patience with that, but I listened.\"\n\n\"All this without personal presence?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Leebig looked revolted and did not answer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley tried again, \"Were you attracted to her?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What?\"\n\n\"Did you find her attractive? Physically?\"\n\nEven Leebig's bad eyelid lifted and his lips quivered. \"Filthy animal,\" he muttered.\n\n\"Let me put it this way, then. When did you cease finding Gladia pleasant? You used that word yourself, if you remember.\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\"\n\n\"You said you found her pleasant. Now you believe she murdered her husband. That isn't the mark of a pleasant person.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was mistaken about her.\"\n\n\"But you decided you were mistaken before she killed her husband, if she did so. You stopped walking with her some time before the murder. Why?\"\n\nLeebig said, \"Is that important?\"\n\n\"Everything is important till proven otherwise.\"\n\n\"Look, if you want information from me as a roboticist, ask it. I won't answer personal questions.\"\n\nBaley said, \"You were closely associated with both the murdered man and the chief suspect. Don't you see that personal questions are unavoidable? Why did you stop walking with Gladia?\"\n\nLeebig snapped, \"There came a time when I ran out of things to say; when I was too busy; when I found no reason to continue the walks.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When you no longer found her pleasant, in other words.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"All right. Put it so.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why was she no longer pleasant?\"\n\nLeebig shouted, \"I have no reason.\"\n\nBaley ignored the other's excitement. \"You are still someone who has known Gladia well. What could her motive be?\"\n\n\"Her motive?\"\n\n\"No one has suggested any motive for the murder. Surely Gladia wouldn't commit murder without a motive.\"\n\n\"Great Galaxy!\" Leebig leaned his head back as though to laugh, but didn't." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No one told you? Well, perhaps no one knew. I knew, though. She told me. She told me frequently.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Told you what, Dr. Leebig?\"\n\n\"Why, that she quarreled with her husband. Quarreled bitterly and frequently. She hated him, Earthman. Didn't anyone tell you that? Didn't she tell you?\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\nthree sentences\nGenres:\nscience fiction\nTags:\nrobots, Robot" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Daneel would allow no immediate action.\n\n\"Tomorrow!\" he had said with respectful firmness. \"That is my suggestion, Partner Elijah. It is late and you are in need of rest.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baley had to admit the truth of it, and besides, there was the need of preparation; a considerable quantity of it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had the solution of the murder, he felt sure of that, but it rested on deduction, as much as had Daneel's theory, and it was worth as little as evidence. Solarians would have to help him.\n\nAnd if he were to face them, one Earthman against half a dozen Spacers, he would have to be in full control." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That meant rest and preparation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yet he would not sleep. He was certain he would not sleep. Not all the softness of the special bed set up for him by smoothly functioning robots nor all the soft perfume and softer music in the special room of Gladia's mansion would help." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was sure of it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Daneel sat unobtrusively in one darkened corner." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Baley said, \"Are you still afraid of Gladia?\"\n\nThe robot said, \"I do not think it wise to allow you to sleep alone and unprotected.\"\n\n\"Well, have your way. Are you clear as to what I want you to do, Daneel?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am, Partner Elijah.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You have no reservations under the First Law, I hope.\"\n\n\"I have some with respect to the conference you wish arranged. Will you be armed and careful of your own safety?\"\n\n\"I assure you, I will.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Daneel delivered himself of a sigh that was somehow so human that for a moment Baley found himself trying to penetrate the darkness that he might study the machine-perfect face of the other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Daneel said, \"I have not always found human behavior logical.\"\n\n\"We need Three Laws of our own,\" said Baley, \"but I'm glad we don't have them.\"\n\nHe stared at the ceiling." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A great deal depended on Daneel and yet he could tell him very little of the whole truth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Robots were too involved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The planet, Aurora, had its reasons for sending a robot as representative of their interests, but it was a mistake. Robots had their limitations.\n\nStill, if all went right, this could all be over in twelve hours." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He could be heading back to Earth in twenty-four, bearing hope." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A strange kind of hope." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A kind he could scarcely believe himself, yet it was Earth's way out. It must be Earth's way out.\n\nEarth! New York! Jessie and Ben!" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The comfort and familiarity and dearness of home!\n\nHe dwelt on it, half asleep, and the thought of Earth failed to conjure the comfort he expected. There was an estrangement between himself and the Cities.\n\nAnd at some unknown point in time it all faded and he slept." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Ive got a bit of writers block, im gonna send you something then keep it going four sentences at a time, also im going for a L.E. Modesitt Jr sorta thing." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Raven: Vallura, 458 N.E.\n\nI sat in my study, before the holo scene that cloaked the east end of the room. Then I pulled on the headset, and put my fingers on the small oblong keyboard that controlled the vyrtor, my wrists on the flat table.\n\nFor a moment, I watched the net scene—a golden eagle swooping down on a raven as both crossed a canyon—green junipers clinging to steep walls of red Navaho sandstone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Usually, I just watched the East Mountains, but it had been raining all day, and so, before I got back to work, I called up a scene of sunshine, except, of course, just like on the net itself, the holo sunshine was without warmth—largely because of the energy costs for most people, especially norms." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I suppose I could have programmed in directional heating units, but what was the point of adding one simulation on top of another?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some methodizers direct their vyrtors verbally, some with visualization, but I found I was more precise with the keyboard or the pointer. When he wanted to needle me, my brother Gerrat claimed that was because I was a throwback. Compared to him, I probably was.\n\nThe sorting and re-sorting of lists, and the additional searches, had yielded little beyond the first rough cut of the week before, and no real pointers as to which or if any of the multis might have actually been involved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The name search hadn't done much better, since the permutations of names based on the two lines of the Arabic physician's name had turned up more than ten thousand possibilities. At some point, I'd have to rethink that—in my copious spare time.\n\nAll that wasn't progress, but at least my lungs didn't burn with every breath. Every really deep breath, there was a touch of a stinging sensation, but even those had gotten milder, and my sense of smell and taste had returned, and I could again access the nanite monitors of my health." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After looking blankly at the eagle's pass at the raven, and the single black feather that remained, slowly twisting downward toward the Virge River that lay below the bottom of the image that seemed to hang before me, I banished the holo scene." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some day, if I ever had time, I wanted to reprogram the scene so that the raven won. Ravens were smarter than eagles, but everyone except me, it seemed, found ravens unattractive. I'd always preferred the intelligence and the way of the raven.\n\nLions roamed in prides; geese clustered in gaggles; but ravens?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ravens together merited the term \"unkindness of ravens.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While I liked the intelligence of ravens, most cultures in human history had identified with eagles. Because of the eagle's raw power? Because intelligence unchecked is always suspect? Or because humans were still hardwired from a million years of hardscrabble existence to respect strength?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I took off the headset to readjust it, then looked to my right, out through the window into the late rainy afternoon, and the featureless gray clouds that hung barely above the lower hill on which perched my modest villa. The clouds had brought mostly a light drizzle, and swirling winds, but little real moisture to either the lower Hill, or to the valley below.\n\nKlevyl should have zapped me the revised environmental specs package to go with the first cut that I'd already received, but when I touched the comm plate, the only message that tingled in my head was: You have no new messages. I'd already left fullface messages everywhere Klevyl might access, and there wasn't much else I could do on his project without the latest parameters." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I wasn't about to guess and then have to redo everything, especially since I'd taken on his work freelance, and in addition to the OneCys contract." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My lips quirked into a smile as I eased on the headset and my fingers called up the latest edart piece, the unfinished one I'd started after the Holst piece. I hadn't posted the Holst piece, either. I'd made more revisions, but it still didn't feel right.\n\nSo I listened to my newest set of words as they scrolled down one side of the projected holo, with the images of hungry and wide-eyed children burning their way across the foreground of the display area." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the ancients developed the entire basis of nanotechnology, few if any of them envisioned the world they created." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were too preoccupied with eliminating the evils of the world that surrounded them.\n\nI nodded at the recreated image of the hollow-eyed children scrabbling toward the smiling woman extending some form of ration packs—a woman flanked by uniformed soldiers in the antiquated mottled green and brown camouflage fatigues with rifles leveled. Then came the scenes of the bombed out cities, and the broken bridges, and then the smoldering ruins of Hylanta.\n\nTo us, those days seem all too raw—barbaric, if you will." }, { "from": "human", "value": "People being shot on the streets with projectile weapons... others starving because there was no way to transport food or convert the raw organic material into foodstocks..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I froze the image, and the words. How could I make the transition? After a moment of indecision, I moved ahead to the next section, letting those words roll past me as the holo image depicted an aerial view of a pleasant town, not Vallura or Cedacy, although it could almost have been either.\n\n... today... we think of starvation, of wars that pitted nation against nation, or sometimes family against family within the same nation, as something from the remote past, as something before the millennium of chaos, as almost inconceivable..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yet... has our mindset changed all that much from that terrible past?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Or have we merely adopted a different and less obvious set of distinctions which still pit individual against individual?\n\nThe next image set depicted a tall and lithe couple, intelligence radiating from their eyes, poise from their movements as they walked down a set of steps outside the municipal building at Porlan. Then that image shrank into the left half of the projected viewing area, and a second couple appeared, set against the same backdrop. While they were also well-dressed, they were nearly a head shorter, and their movements appeared hesitant by comparison, their eyes duller, their carriage subdued." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This is Daryn Alwyn... offering observations from the hill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I frowned. The idea was good, but it wasn't even close to being ready, and I wasn't sure I had the insights yet to finish it. Then, I hadn't finished the Holst piece, either. Was it because I worried about Elysa... or what she represented? Or the fact that I couldn't figure out why someone wanted me dead?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was also the cost aspect." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Commercial posting cost creds, and posting something incomplete or not up to my standards would be costly in more ways than one.\n\nSo I called up the VR that showed Elysa. What Kharl had sent showed her walking in his front entry, talking to him and waiting. She looked like a natural redhead, just like the silver and jade combs in her hair appeared natural, and the deep muted green gown accentuated her color." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The image swirled on transitions, but nothing seemed to have been edited as the system marked my entry. When we had walked into the great room, the view switched to a panorama of the entire room. I switched the focus to Elysa and to me, and the resolution got fuzzier, but what happened was exactly as I recalled it—except that the VR switched once more when we had stepped onto the terrace. I watched that closely again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I couldn't see Elysa do anything except talk to me, no hidden hands, no tube, no nothing. I staggered, and tottered toward the door. Elysa watched. Once I collapsed in the great room, she turned and walked quickly away from the house, into the darkness, her image fading away as she left the scanning field.\n\nWhat was surprising to me was that there was essentially nothing that I had not already remembered—nothing at all." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I turned off the VR and let my eyes rest on the East Mountains as I thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I suppose Kharl and I could have gone to the Civil Authorities, but what good would that have done? We couldn't even prove anything for the CAs, not from what I knew. I'd had a supra-allergenic reaction after stepping onto a terrace with a strange and beautiful woman who claimed to be a distant relative. There was no physical or visual evidence that showed she had done anything." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That was attempted murder?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kharl had only been able to find a few strange nanites, and they didn't even cause harm to norms.\n\nI shook my head.\n\nFor a short time I sat, then called up the accounting on the edart pieces—for some sort of inspiration. The most popular one had been a fluff piece on the struggle between the established Snoma vineyards for credit as the oldest... with my own sardonic outtakes about why no one seemed to be able to prove who was the oldest or the best." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then there was the one on the terraforming of Venus—the three hundred year project that was already entering its seven hundredth year." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My favorite of the older pieces had been the one I had done on the forerunner Gate, only about two years before. I'd hesitated to touch on that until the newsies and other commentators had, although I'd known about it as soon as anyone had, and that had been years earlier, back when I'd been in Federal Service.\n\nCalling up the forerunner piece, I watched and listened, hoping I could capture the feel of what had made it so popular.\n\nThe first image was that of darkness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then points of light appeared—stars—bright, but with just hints of color, the way they really looked in deep space, not with the false color enhancement that remained so popular." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The music was from Jetecayst's Deep Space Suite, low and lonely, with a single oboe just slightly louder than the rest of the orchestra, not quite plaintive, nor complaining... but suggesting a separateness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "... deep space... lonely space... Even millennia before the development of the Gates that are opening the Galaxy to us, men and women looked into the night skies and wondered if we were alone... statisticians and astronomers cited numbers and the size of the universe as proof that we could not be alone...\n\nThe image shifted to show a Gate—a human Gate—and a ship passing through it at the moment of incandescence that preceded translation.\n\n... We traveled our system, and then found a way to reach others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Finally... we discovered another kind of proof—an ancient artifact similar to our own Gates in shape and size.\n\nThe stars jumped, and another star-field appeared, and in the foreground loomed a dull octagonal shape, recreated as well as I could recall.\n\nIs it a Gate? Was it once? We do not know. Who made it?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "We do not know that, either, nor from what star they came." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We have an object, a few scattered suggestions from that artifact that whoever built it was not much larger nor much smaller than are we, and that they required an atmosphere, probably similar to what we breathe...\n\nNext came a close-up of an exterior black octagonal airlock door, and with the octagon-within-octagon lock control panel.\n\n... the only clear and convincing conclusion that leaps from this artifact is that its builders based everything on octagons. While this ancient Gate-like artifact looks like ours from a distance, it is not a torus, but an octagon, with an octagonal cross-section... even the octagonal doors are operated by octagonal panels... octagons everywhere." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We build with arcs, rectangles, circles, cubes... but seldom if ever with octagons..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Every forerunner entry and every exit is guarded and controlled through octagons... One might almost imagine that these forerunners had octagonal shapes, or octagonal cells... but imagine is all we can do... for now... We can ask, we do ask, \"Who were these forerunners with their octagons?\"\n\nThe image shifted back to the star-field.\n\nWe can ask. We continue to ask, but neither stars nor ancient Gates provide answers to our questions...\n\nI flicked off the image, my thoughts back on the present and incomplete edart composition about differences, trying to focus on what it was about differences that seemed to draw humans into conflict." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What about some phrases on skin color... or background tests?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I cleared my throat and began to speak.\n\nOnce, human beings categorized the worth of others, selling them as chattels if their skin colors were not of an accepted shade. Other cultures defined superiority in the ability to master arcane symbolic languages. Later, still others tried using written symbolic tests as a measure of superiority... Scientific studies later suggested that virtually all of these were being used as mere pretexts... and when there was a scientific basis, actual usage and education tended to emphasize the cultural background of those in power and disparage sheer ability in favor of artificial credentials..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Today, it is said that we have come far from those bad old times." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Have we? Or is genetic pre-selection merely the current test of superiority being adopted by a race that seems to need magical means to ascertain who is fitted to control society?\n\nI paused. The transitions weren't right, and some logic was missing. But I saved what I had and released the VR images before my eyes went back to the window again. The clouds had darkened and dropped lower over the valley." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I still didn't have a finished edart piece or the specs I needed from Klevyl—or the feedback from Myrto." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Either way, my income would suffer if I didn't finish one or the other soon... and the time I'd lost to Elysa's nanites had scarcely helped.\n\nIt wasn't so much the creds, but the pride. I'd been able to survive, even prosper, without touching the funds from my inherited interests in UniComm. Part of that was from my early retirement from Federal Service, but the pension was far from enough to cover my expenses." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I didn't want to touch the UniComm assets, but unless I got the specs soon, or could put another edart piece on the nets, I was going to be severely tempted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although the number of viewers and the royalties from their viewing were growing, I needed the continuing methodizer contracts. The royalties from sysnet subscribers from all my past presentations still amounted to less than a third of my annual income, and they tended to sag if I didn't keep producing.\n\nI looked from the valley to just outside the study window. There, below the shimmering tube that was the bird feeder, a handful of juncos scrabbled across the stone looking for the few seeds that the feeder dispersed nearly randomly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The old verse that had once crystallized a part of who I was came to mind as I watched." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When ravens reigned, eagles dipped their wings," } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding 5 sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Raven: Kewood, 458 N.E.\n\nI eased the glider off the automated guide-road and onto the dark way winding between the massive redwoods that towered nearly a hundred meters above the mulched dark bark of the path, a twisting access lane barely wide enough for two gliders if they had to pass side-by-side, and irregular enough in width that it would have been hard for a casual passerby to realize a private guideway lay beneath.\n\nWhile I could have accessed the private control guides, I preferred to take the glider through the trees on manual. Once I was well under the trees I flicked off the ground limiters, with one of the manual switches I'd installed, bypassing about a half-dozen manufacturer's safety systems, and eased the glider upward until we were running a good twenty meters above the hidden guideway.\n\nAfter about two klicks, I eased back down and restored the limiters, wondering about the inductors' response and whether I'd have to rebuild them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But then, I'd practically rebuilt the entire glider at one time or another, and that included the installation of full orbital maglifter gyros." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All that wasn't bad for a methodizer and edartist, or even for a former pilot who hadn't been trained as an engineer.\n\nThe UniComm headquarters complex lay another three klicks through the forest and over one ridge. I hadn't wanted to seek help there, but all my net searches had come up blank, and, besides, intrigue had never been my sport. So, much as I disliked the idea, I had called my brother Gerrat, and made an appointment.\n\nHe'd been most gracious, as always." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Any time for you... any time.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His smile was as warm and friendly as ever, tinged with concern, as it should have been.\n\nMy mind dropped back to the effort of navigating the bark throughway, and I slipped the glider around a Gate-like grove, maintaining speed and concentrating on the physical challenge involved. Neither Gerrat nor Father, nor my grandfather, had wanted the direct physical surface access to UniComm easy. I could have taken the induction tube, with its private station for the UniComm area, but there were guards and scanners everywhere that way, and I always tried to avoid the tubes on the few times I visited Father and Gerrat at UniComm. There were scanners hidden among the darkness and the cool of the redwoods, as well, but far less obtrusive, and I could enjoy the illusion—and the scents of the redwoods and the forest—except when my internal system informed me of yet another scan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still, the glider had an access chip, which meant I'd only have to pass one personal scan—when I entered the building on the upper garden level." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although the glider's surface shimmered when observed closely, even in the deep shade beneath the redwoods, it looked dull from any distance, a green-tinted silver dullness, created by the thousands of flexible solar panels coated with the polarized polymer. If I had eased it into the underbrush between some of the redwoods, it would have almost vanished in the shadows.\n\nIn time, the glider slipped out from the trees, then over the last ridge, where the lane ended in a tree-shaded glider park. The park held all of eight gliders under the shade of the redwoods and the lower firs that filled the lower part of the hill into which the UniComm spaces were built. There were three magscooters locked to loop-poles—transportation for young norms who lived west where the tube line did not extend, in all probability." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The glider resealed itself after I exited and headed toward the northeast side of the hill, the net repeater at my belt routing the signal to my internal systems, confirming the glider's security. I walked through a light breeze a good five degrees warmer than the air had been among the trees. At the end of the stone way from the glider park, polished gray granite steps led up to the three meter high stone archway, an arch of glistening black marble. Beyond the archway was a formal garden, sunken into the hillside, but open to the sky, and the polished gray stone led to a second smaller archway, without doors. Through the second arch was an entry foyer and black stone podium desk, behind which sat a guard who wore the green-trimmed gray singlesuit of UniComm security." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I smiled and announced, \"Daryn Alwyn... to see Gerrat.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, ser. Is your profile on the system?\" Her voice bore the slight dullness often heard from the brain-damped. Some of the lower-level security types were—but they were totally honest.\n\n\"I do hope so.\" I grinned.\n\n\"Yes, ser.\" She nodded to the scanner before the inner door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you would step through, ser? The door will open if you are cleared. Would you like me to call Director Alwyn's office?\"\n\n\"Only if the door doesn't open.\"\n\nShe nodded seriously, and I stepped through the scanner. The door did open, and I took the right-hand corridor, and then the inclined ramp past the orchid gardens, up to Gerrat's office, second in size only to Father's.\n\nI'd read some of the old literature which had insisted that larger organizations would do without people gathered together, that virtual offices would be the rage, and, for a time, many had tried them, and gone back to putting people together, if in smaller numbers than before the collapse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Part of the reason had been social. People are still herd or clan animals. Part had been economic. Energy transmission costs rose with the volume of data, as did the costs of external infrastructure. And part had been security." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even in UniComm there were systems totally isolated physically from the worldnets." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a complete scanning unit set before the door to Gerrat's office. It hadn't been there the last time I'd visited my dear sibling, but, then, that had been several years before. There was also a muscular young man standing by the scanner unit. He was probably a pre-select himself, except he'd been pre-selected for physical attributes and reactions. While Gerrat and I might have bested him on a good day, the day and week before had been far less than optimal for me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Daryn Alwyn. I'm here to see Gerrat.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, ser. He is expecting you, ser. If you would, ser...\" He gestured to the scanner.\n\nI stepped through, sensing from my own nanite feedback a far more than casual scanning, one that seemed to last several minutes before the guard opened the door to Gerrat's sanctum sanctorum.\n\nUnlike Father, whose desk was handmade of real cherry, Gerrat affected a desk fabricated as an expanse of transparent armaglass, polarized just enough that it neither reflected nor totally absorbed light. It looked like an ephemeral object made out of mist, even though it would have taken all my strength to move it.\n\n\"Still sitting amid the mist,\" I offered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I didn't mention that mist didn't smell as sterile and lifeless as Gerrat's office. The only scent was the cologne that he liked. I couldn't remember the name, probably because it reminded me vaguely of the interior of an interstellar ship.\n\n\"Of course.\" Gerrat stood and beamed, then glanced down almost apologetically. \"The effect is relaxing, and that's useful.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He gestured to the loveseat to the left of the mist-desk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I eased into, or onto, the green leather, turning slightly on the firm cushion to face him directly.\n\n\"Father said you might want to talk.\" Gerrat had reseated himself and leaned back in the swivel that molded to his large but muscular figure. His blond hair picked up the light from somewhere. He might have had nanite-guided low-intensity lensors directed on him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The effect would be heightened if he were in a VR conference, and would give him an appearance that the ancient sun gods—Re, Aton, Apollo, Helios, all of them—would have been pressed to create." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He told you?\"\n\n\"What affects one of us affects all of UniComm.\"\n\n\"I doubt that I affect UniComm much.\" I paused. \"Assuming that the attack wasn't specifically personal, who would have gained by it... in your opinion?\"\n\n\"No one.\" He smiled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who thinks they would have gained is something else entirely. I can see the Dynae deluding themselves along that line, and certainly the NeoLudds. Even possibly some mid-level types at OneCys or AsyaNet, although they're not that big. NEN wouldn't stoop to that. Elora would destroy anyone who did.\"\n\nI grinned at his reference to our older sister, who'd rejected Father in her own special way. \"The mid-level types probably wouldn't have access to the specialization required, not without leaving a track.\"\n\n\"You're right, and there wasn't any track,\" Gerrat confirmed.\n\n\"And somehow... can't see the NeoLudds embracing all that they decry to use specialized nanites.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fanatics have been known to do stranger things,\" he pointed out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They might find the irony delightful.\"\n\n\"I'm sure they would. But they probably wouldn't know a bacterium from a nanite.\"\n\n\"Not that there's much difference.\"\n\nI ignored Gerrat's quip. \"What do you know about the Dynae?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gerrat smiled and gestured idly toward the fist-sized black case on the corner of the mistingly transparent armaglass table that served as his desk. \"I'd already thought about that. Everything that can be put in data form is there.\"\n\n\"What about the information that can't?\"\n\n\"There isn't much. Not even from our sources. They're either more successfully secretive than we are, or they have no secrets.\" He shrugged. \"I doubt that you're their preferred target. If anyone is.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It seems unlikely someone would go to the trouble of tailoring nanites for a prank or a blind target.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No... they wouldn't. But... what if you weren't the target? You know, I had Kharl check you most carefully.\"\n\n\"Meaning you are? Or the more important members of the family?\"\n\n\"Kharl says that they were self-replicating. That's why you were scanned before you came in today and why I had Kharl check you over thoroughly.\"\n\n\"You think they wanted me to convey all those odd nanites to you?\"\n\nHe frowned. \"I wouldn't have done it that way, but I can't see any other rationale. You're not important enough to spend that much effort on killing.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I do so appreciate your judgments, Gerrat.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He smiled. \"Surely, you're not going to object to my objective analysis. You're a good methodizer. According to some people, you're one of the best, if not one of the top five. You're also a watched edartist, and one with a growing following. But you don't control or influence anything directly. You haven't upset any women—or men—and everyone likes you personally. Because of that, you can and do go everywhere. Kharl's of the opinion, and I tend to agree, that someone miscalculated. This mysterious woman overdosed you.\"\n\n\"Why didn't they just go for you? Or Father?\"\n\n\"How?\"\n\nGerrat had a point—in a way. Getting through UniComm's security and his and Father's personal systems would have been difficult—but not impossible." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I could have, and I wasn't an expert in it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Plus,\" he added, \"if we were attacked directly, the CAs would have to show an interest. If you had died from an anaphylactic reaction... there would have been sorrow... a little mystery perhaps... and it would all have been forgotten by now. You have neither spouse nor partner, nor position in UniComm.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He grinned ironically. \"You can imagine the CA reaction. 'So sorry your brother died, Director Alwyn. He showed real promise as an edartist.'\"\n\nWith that, he had a better point. Much better, unfortunately. \"And you can't think of anyone else who might want me dead?\"\n\n\"Neither Father nor I can, and that worries us both.\"\n\nI nodded slowly as I stood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There wasn't much point in staying." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I reached forward and took the small black case. \"You'll let me know?\"\n\n\"Just as you will.\"\n\nI was afraid of that, but I smiled. \"As soon as I find something... if I do.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Add three sentences to continue story" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fledgling: Kuritim, 422 N.E.\n\nMy strokes were long and clean as I swam out toward the channel edge of the reef, an edge marked with the black coral that the HMudd bioneers had created over five hundred years earlier. I swam at about eighty percent of my capability, according to my internals." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That was the best trade-off between speed and the energy I'd have left after the swim back for the long run to the west end of the liftway.\n\nStroke, stroke, breathe... stroke, stroke, breathe... easy strokes, long strokes... I kept the rhythm constant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When I'd finished the first klick, with another three hundred meters to the black coral, no one was within a hundred meters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The closest was Wyendra, and she was pushing harder than I was—but for the same reasons. We both would need all the lead we could get for running through the fine sand.\n\nStroke, stroke, breathe... I touched the monitor plate on the extension from the reef and turned, careful not to push off from the coral." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Most of it was worn, but there were patches that were newer, and knife sharp, and running through the salty sand with a cut foot would be about the last thing I needed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While I could damp the pain, it would still affect my whole body... and my overall performance and time.\n\nStroke, stroke, breathe... the rhythm was so automatic that my fingers almost brushed the sands of the shallows beneath before I realized it was time to stand and start running.\n\nThe only rule about the running was that you couldn't hinder anyone else, and you had to run on dry sand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Each step on the wet sand after the first three steps out of the water added a second to your time.\n\nIt was hard to stick to my plans, but running was faster than swimming, and that meant I needed as much speed as I could spare in the first half-klick, then to settle into an even pace for the remaining two and a half klicks.\n\nFor the first two klicks along the soft white sand, I was well ahead... but I could sense the gap narrowing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Another three hundred meters, and there was the sound of footsteps and even breathing on the threshold of audibility." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With the course end less than two hundred meters away, I could hear clear steps in the sand behind me, not immediately behind me, but closing. I knew the steps—I'd heard them all too often in previous runs. They were those of Cyerla Arisel, and she'd always managed to catch me just at the end." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My preselection profile hadn't been for long-distance running." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had the wind, but not the right kind of legs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Few among the other candidates were faster in sprints, but three klicks was a long, long way for a sprinter/swimmer.\n\nBut I'd managed to grind out another ten seconds or more in the swimming leg, and if... if... somehow I pushed it...\n\nCyerla's steps were louder, but I eased out my stride, listening to my internal monitors, trying to balance the anaerobics with the need for speed, trying not to tighten up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But those steps kept getting closer and closer.\n\nWith a little less than a hundred meters to go to the finish monitor, I ignored my internal monitors and pulled out everything. I knew I'd pay later, but I was tired of getting nipped at the finish." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It seemed insane, but I decided to try to sprint." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cyerla didn't catch me, not this time, but only barely did I break the light beam before her, and my legs gave out a step or so past the monitors, and the two officers who watched impassively.\n\nI had to sit on the hot sand for what seemed several minutes before I could stand, but it was really only about twenty seconds.\n\nWyendra had panted up third, right after I'd dropped onto the sand, and just ahead of four others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Glancing back eastward along the expanse of sugary white sand, sand that had also resulted from the efforts of the long-ago bioneers, I watched the last ten runners struggling toward the finish.\n\n\"Daryn...\" Cyerla was both panting and laughing as she eased her slight runner's frame toward me. \"You sneak... all week... you held... back... on the swimming...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"... You're too fast on the sand...\" I gasped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Stop congratulating each other,\" Wyendra said. She spoiled the growling effect with a smile.\n\nMajor Ngara broke up the conversation by motioning to me. \"Alwyn.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I forced my legs to carry me the few meters to where he stood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes... ser?\" The gasps I couldn't help.\n\nNgara's clean latte features were impassive as he studied me, probably gauging everything from respiratory rate to lactate overload. After a minute, he spoke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Candidate Alwyn... you had that paced all the way from the first stroke, didn't you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ser... as much as I could, ser.\"\n\n\"You're the closest thing to a professional distance swimmer that exists, aren't you?\"\n\n\"I've always liked distance swimming, ser. I've practiced a lot.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You sprinted the last hundred meters on the sand.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I tried to, ser.\"\n\n\"Good.\" He paused. \"Try to remember that your body is not just a machine regulated by your mind and your nanites.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, ser.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He nodded brusquely and turned. \"Candidate Garcya?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What was that all about?\" asked Wyendra quietly.\n\n\"I think I got the modified lecture about not being too mechanical,\" I had to take another series of deep breaths.\n\n\"You didn't look that mechanical to me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She grinned. \"You just couldn't stand the thought of her beating you again.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I nodded, managing a wry grin. Even after standing there for several minutes, I was still heaving deep breaths.\n\n\"Candidates!\" Ngara's voice overrode all the murmured conversations." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You've got forty minutes to get back to quarters, clean up, and cool down before you're due in class. Dismissed!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ser!\" came the chorused response.\n\nI turned slowly to the walkway that was hard on aching legs, but easier than lifting feet through the sugary and clinging sand.\n\n\"See you two in a bit.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cyerla smiled politely as she jogged past us back toward the quarters building.\n\nAaslyn strode by us right after Cyerla.\n\nWyendra took a deep breath." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You aren't even breathing that hard.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Now...\" I admitted. \"My legs hurt. I'm not a runner, not really.\"\n\n\"You could have fooled me—or Cyerla.\"\n\n\"I'm not a long distance runner, then.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You could sprint by them now. You've recovered.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She grinned. \"Do it one of these days.\"\n\n\"Too much work,\" I replied, smiling back at her. \"Besides, I'd rather walk and talk to you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't you think that the observers will see through your façade?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She brushed her short dark hair off her forehead as we walked—quickly, but not at a jog, onto the second walkway, the one that led toward the quarters building.\n\nIn the distance, above the rustling of the palms, from somewhere out over the Pacific, came the dull boom of the mid-morning orbital lifter climbing through the atmosphere to Orbit one.\n\n\"I'm sure they do,\" I admitted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That was what Major Ngara was hinting at. They can monitor my physiological reactions and get an idea of what I feel. They do that all the time. I could behave like the modern equivalent of a male gorilla beating my chest the loudest. But what would be the point? Except to prove that I can? And dissout most of the class. Also, that sort of behavior isn't exactly useful in the confines of a spacecraft. The machismo military hero went out before the Collapse.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're more machismo than you'll ever admit.\" She laughed. That was a sound I enjoyed.\n\nAll I could do was grin sheepishly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All too soon, that walk ended, and we were both in separate quarters, scrambling into the pale gray summer singlesuit uniforms, and then on our way to class—the second day of classes, since we'd had nearly a month of physical conditioning before we started learning the knowledge basics." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This class was held in one of the rooms off the hall where we had first gathered. Wyendra and I sat in the second row. Everyone stood when the FS major walked into the classroom." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"At ease. Take your seats.\" The dark-haired man in the black and silver singlesuit of the Federal Service nodded brusquely. He surveyed the class \"I am Major Cheng, and I will be your instructor for engineering... Before we get into the engineering basics, Commander Almyra has requested that I address one of the practical aspects of your training.\" Cheng paused. \"Why don't we put you in space with a ship and keep you there until you learn? Because piloting doesn't work that way. Neither do your bodies, and that's another kind of engineering." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"First, we don't have antigravity, and it takes gravity to keep people in top shape." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Acceleration or deceleration at one gee is a fair substitute, but that's only good for insystem travel. Once you reach orbit, you're dealing with weightlessness again. Trying to spin ships or stations doesn't work either." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It plays havoc with designs and maintenance, especially with the mass requirements." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is extraordinarily expensive. Since the interstellar space program is a net resource drain, we design to optimize energy and resource usage.\n\n\"So the simplest solution is to train you under the same circumstances you'll pilot and travel under. That means time on Earth getting in top shape, followed by a short period in weightlessness, followed by constant gee acceleration to a destination and then weightless. Then, in some form or another, you repeat the pattern.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He smiled. \"Now that we've covered that for the major, we'll get down to the engineering basics of why you're here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He looked out over the class. \"Why do we have a basic engineering class at all? The guts of an LDD are very simple in theory, and impossibly complex in practice. That's just the drive, and that doesn't take into account the magscoops and fusactor conversion system that creates the reverse spin fields. Except for the three of you who are physicists and engineers... we'd have to take every hour of every day of your training period, and it still wouldn't be enough. So... why?\"\n\nI had a good idea, and a better idea that it wouldn't be the best thing to attempt an answer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Apparently, everyone else thought the same way, because the classroom was silent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cheng grinned, not exactly pleasantly. \"I expect answers. This isn't status game-playing where withheld information gets you points and where enthusiasm is considered gauche.\"\n\nSeveral people nodded and offered hands, not raised enthusiastically." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mine was one of them, unfortunately." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Candidate Alwyn, your answer?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Because we need a working knowledge of the power we control, ser?\"\n\n\"Not just a working knowledge, but a practical and emotional understanding of exactly what an interstellar ship and Gate system are. You are expected to learn all that, and you'll be tested on it, and not in just the conventional spit-back-the-knowledge ways, either. I don't mind telling you why because those of you who won't appreciate it never will, and those who do can pat yourselves on the back for the next three seconds.\" Cheng paused theatrically. \"The reason pilot training is so tough has nothing to do with mechanics. Mechanically, mentally, and physically, every single one of you has already been qualified as having the talent to be a pilot. That's just the beginning. As I noted before, a space vehicle represents an enormous resource commitment that we cannot afford to lose except under the most dire of circumstances. Second, a space vehicle capable of going to the stars is potentially the most destructive weapon ever developed in human history. We don't want just any brilliant young officer sitting at those controls. We want someone who fully understands that, and yet who can still make nanosecond decisions—the right decisions...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As Cheng continued, I began to understand." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At least I thought I did, but that was also something I decided to keep to myself." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "same energy as L.E. Modesitt Jr, keep writing" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fledgling: Yunvil, 425 N.E.\n\nWearing a uniform as dress for dinner wasn't forbidden, merely in bad taste. So, when I arrived home on pre-departure leave, I wore my uniform down to dinner—the silversheen and black dress version, and the double bars of a full lieutenant and the silver wings with the star and ship.\n\nAs always, I was the first one to arrive in the upper hallway, and I nodded to the star-surfing young woman, murmuring, \"We do have a few things in common, young lady.\"\n\nI had seen, of course, that the star clusters and the darkness looked nothing like the way that Meraal had sculpted them, but that only gave me yet another rational reason to prefer the traditional Hui-Lui painting of the woman and the open sunlit gate.\n\n\"Daryn!\"\n\nI turned to see Gerrat coming from the front of the upper level, accompanied by two attractive women, one black-haired, one red-haired, the first redhead I'd seen in years." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Daryn... this is Rhedya.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gerrat nodded to the dark-haired woman.\n\n\"Enchanted to meet you.\" I bowed my head to the beauty who was about to become Gerrat's spouse.\n\nIn his tailored deep blue singlesuit, Gerrat offered his winning smile before turning to the younger woman to his left. \"And this is Emelle. My younger brother Daryn. He's just finished deep space pilot training and is on leave before his first assignment.\"\n\n\"I see you younger folk have already beaten us.\" My father's voice filled the corridor, and his eyes went to my FS uniform." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His lips formed a pleasant smile, the smile reserved for the times when he was less than perfectly pleased with me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'd grown up learning that smile. \"You look most official, Daryn.\"\n\n\"I'm certain I do, sir.\" I bowed, knowing that refusing to explain, and merely agreeing with him, would be far more useful.\n\n\"He looks good in it, dear,\" added my mother slipping up beside Father. \"And he's certainly earned it... and the wings. So he ought to be able to show them off.\" She smiled brightly. There had been just the faintest emphasis on the words \"show them off.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are most effective, Mother.\" I grinned.\n\n\"Thank you, dear. One learns.\"\n\nAt least there was a smile in her eyes.\n\n\"Shall we?\" asked Father, although it wasn't a question.\n\nWe all followed him into the dining room and seated ourselves, with Emelle to my left, next to Father on our side, across from Rhedya.\n\nThe spring greens and alerca melon strips on the plates set before us were crisp, perfect, but, then, even salads had to be perfect.\n\nThe young redhead offered me a warm smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How was the training? People say it's difficult.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Very difficult,\" Father answered for me, \"even with all Daryn's background and advantages.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Very hard,\" I said with a smile. \"Long... and I'm glad to be done.\"\n\nEmelle nodded.\n\n\"It's quite an accomplishment even to be selected,\" my father said. \"They select the very best, and the attrition is between seventy and eighty percent.\"\n\n\"I'm glad to be here.\" I smiled politely, and waited for Emelle to take a spoonful of the alerca melon before I followed her example." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What do you do now?\" she asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have two months home leave. After that, I'm posted to the DeGaul.\"\n\nEmelle frowned, and I could sense that she was accessing the net to see what there was on the ship or anything related. She had to have an implanted link, and I wondered at that. I hadn't gotten one that sophisticated until the FS had given me one as part of the mods for the last stage of pilot training, and I tried not to use it in company, perhaps because my parents had suggested that doing so was impolite.\n\nI took another bite of the melon and smiled at Rhedya, knowing that we'd be exchanging smiles for a long time. Her smile was vaguely sympathetic, but there was a cool mind shielded behind the trained smile.\n\n\"He was a pre-Collapse leader, wasn't he? The one they named the ship after?\" asked Emelle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I didn't look it up,\" I replied." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I probably will before I report. What else did you find out?\"\n\n\"Gaul was the name of a part of East Euro in ancient times, and a Roman politician once wrote a book about how he conquered it.\" Emelle offered the smallest of shrugs.\n\n\"Nothing new there,\" commented Gerrat. \"Every piece of the globe has been conquered at least a handful of times.\"\n\n\"And the conquerors promptly forgot that they stole it from someone else so that they could claim some sort of moral right to the land when someone else tried to take it away from them,\" I suggested.\n\n\"But... of course.\" Gerrat beamed his utterly charming smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And you are going to become one of those conquerors in a few weeks, I dare say.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I hadn't thought about Federal Service in quite those terms. While FS ships carried nothing that was expressly a weapon, the magscoop fields were shields, and the ship certainly had capabilities for wreaking destruction on hostile objects. But the only thing that had seemed to menace humanity since the collapse had been humanity itself—and one or two rogue asteroids that had been redirected.\n\n\"That's rather unlikely,\" I pointed out mildly. \"You have to have some form of intelligent life to be a conqueror, and we certainly haven't found that—a few planets with primitive ecologies that we can colonize, a few others that might once have held life... and not a single sign of another intelligent species.\"\n\n\"They're out there... somewhere. With trillions upon trillions of stars...\" Gerrat grinned. \"I'd just rather not waste a finite life traveling and searching the infinite.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even Emelle winced." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can see that. I'd rather not waste my life figuring out yet another way to get people to pay me to provide gossip and information most people already know or don't need and never will.\"\n\nMother's glance—first at me, and then at Gerrat—was almost a match for a laser in intensity.\n\nI grinned. \"But difference is what makes life interesting, isn't it?\"\n\n\"How did you find the melon, Daryn?\" asked Mother sweetly. \"Interesting?\"\n\n\"Very tasty.\" I turned to Emelle. \"Did you enjoy it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It was quite good.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her voice was almost as syrupy as Mother's.\n\nTwo months might be a very long time, I decided." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write 6 sentences sentences in the style of L.E. Modesitt Jr spawning from what the user wrote." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Raven: Kewood, 459 N.E.\n\nIn the end, it took Kharl and the medcenter nearly another two months to put me back together enough so that I was ready to leave under my own strength—or rather under my own newly-regrown legs. The last month or so, I'd been able to do some work, and I'd actually finished up two edart pieces, including the one on Holst and the Warsha Symphony, but I was ready to get back to my own place and start working up to full capacity.\n\nI'd tried to reach Mertyn, but he was either still hiking through some wilderness or not answering his gatekeeper—probably the former, since I'd left messages and gotten no response. It seemed odd, but he'd been known to spend months out of touch, and there wasn't too much I could do immediately, anyway.\n\nAs I was packing my gear for the short trip back to Vallura, waiting for Kharl to appear and give me his final words or whatever before I left, I was still thinking, wondering why I'd remembered some incidents more clearly than others while I'd been half-dreaming, half-remembering in the medcradle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were so many incidents that I had passed over. Because my subconscious said they weren't that important? Or not related to why someone was trying to murder me?\n\nAs I reached for one of the small pen scanners, the belt net gatekeeper chimed. I tabbed it, looking up as the small image appeared right beside the medcenter bed I hoped I wouldn't be needing again, or at least not for a very long time. The VR image was that of a man not quite two meters tall, with short black hair, deep blue eyes, and a winning smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Myrto, the head compositor, and Compositor Director of OneCys, glanced at me. \"Daryn. I see you're finally out of confinement.\"\n\n\"Almost.\"\n\n\"That's good.\" Myrto cleared his throat. \"There's something we need to discuss.\"\n\n\"You should have everything you need for the last project.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I do, and it was good work. You always do good work, Daryn.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He flashed another professionally warm smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're one of the very best.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even if I didn't know why, I could sense what was coming, but I decided to make Myrto work for it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You and OneCys have gotten my best work.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We've certainly had no problem with the quality of your work, Daryn,\" Myrto offered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I refused to bite." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You shouldn't. You'd be hard-pressed to find better.\"\n\n\"The senior directors are worried about the timing. They think that could be a problem.\"\n\n\"A problem? I was late once, when I was in the medcenter, and that doesn't happen to anyone very often.\"\n\n\"But you were close with two other projects, and that's three times this year.\" Myrto shrugged apologetically. \"It's not my decision. I can't give you anything that's time-sensitive.\"\n\nIn short, he couldn't give me anything, because I'd never gotten anything from OneCys that hadn't been time-critical." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If it weren't, someone in his organization would have been tasked with it.\n\n\"Who made this decision? Can you tell me that?\"\n\n\"I made it.\"\n\n\"Myrto... please don't lie to me. If you had a problem, you would have let me know before this. So... someone ordered you to drop me. Who... and why?\"\n\n\"I'm sorry, Daryn. But that's the way it is. I didn't tell you earlier, because I wanted to make sure you were in good shape.\" Myrto offered a last smile before his image vanished." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After almost ten years of perfect methodizing for OneCys, I'd been dropped. For no real reason, and by a very nervous compositor director who didn't want me to know why or who had ordered it. And like the attempts on my life, I still didn't know the reason why, except I was getting the feeling that they were connected. I just wished I knew what everyone thought I did that made me so dangerous.\n\nThe thing was that no one else seemed to know anything. There was no record, even in the skytors' monitoring banks, of the two men and the glider-van or of anyone installing a laseflash on the wall beyond my house." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even Gerrat and Father couldn't find out anything, and with them I knew they were telling the truth—and that might have been the most disturbing bit of all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All I could do was think and keep packing, and I had finished checking the two small bags that held the remote relay equipment that had let me work from the medcenter when Kharl walked in.\n\n\"Already hard at work,\" Kharl said as he stepped into my room.\n\n\"I've been hard at work for weeks, mentally, anyway. I'll need to get back into shape physically.\"\n\n\"Do it gradually,\" my cousin the doctor suggested. \"Solid exercise, but don't overdo it, and listen to your systemic nanites.\" He paused, then added, \"You don't want to undo a miracle.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My eyebrows lifted.\n\n\"By all rights, you shouldn't have lived,\" Kharl said slowly.\n\n\"With a modern medcenter?\"\n\n\"Oh... once we had you here, that wasn't the question. It might have taken a lot longer, but we could have put you back together.\"\n\n\"The accident was set up to make sure I was crushed and died on the spot?\"\n\n\"I'd have to say so... now.\" Kharl nodded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why didn't I? And why do you think so?\"\n\n\"Apparently, those strange nanites have other functions. I couldn't get rid of all of them, and they must have multiplied in your system. You had a very high concentration. They protected your brain... mostly... I'm not quite sure how.\"\n\n\"You left them... this time?\" I asked.\n\n\"I wasn't successful in getting rid of them last time, and your system is adjusted to them, and they saved you. I'm not about to damage something that works and cause you more harm in the process. We'll want to watch them, though. And you should let me know if your internal systemics show anything strange.\"\n\n\"So I'm a lab animal now?\" My voice was dry." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're a very live lab animal,\" he pointed out equally dryly.\n\nWe both laughed.\n\n\"Why did you change your mind?\"\n\n\"The same reason you did,\" he pointed out. \"Once might be an allergenic reaction... but two more times isn't coincidence or allergies or accidents.\"\n\nWhat he said was true, but I had the feeling there was more. \"What else?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've told you all that I know.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Again, that was mostly true, but he wasn't about to say more, and I'd have felt strange really pushing my only really close friend who'd saved my life twice.\n\n\"I want to see you in a week, immediately if you feel the slightest bit strange or out of sorts,\" Kharl said.\n\n\"I will.\"\n\n\"Promise?\"\n\n\"I promise. After all this, I'd be stupid not to,\" I admitted.\n\n\"You would.\" He smiled again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Have to see to a few others. Take care, Daryn, and don't climb any more old rock walls.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll promise that, too.\"\n\nHe was gone, and I bent down to finish packing the two small bags. It would be good to get home, although I was beginning to get worried about having to roust up more business from other clients." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Team writing exercise. I start, you do five sentences in L.E. Modesitt Jr style." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Raven: Tyanjin, 459 N.E.\n\nThe light rain that had been falling earlier had become more mist-like, and despite the cool air, with the combination of the swift pace Elysa set, the nanite body shield, and the humidity, I could feel myself heating up after we had walked the first hundred meters past the untended gatehouse—strangely occidental in Sinese Tyanjin.\n\n\"Where are we going?\" I asked, drawing up beside Elysa.\n\n\"To show you your answers and then send you to make a choice.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you always this obscure?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When the future is at stake, it's necessary.\" She didn't look at me, but kept walking. \"Look around. Look at the people—those that are out.\"\n\nDespite the gloomy weather, handfuls of people walked the street, and almost all looked to be norms, fairly well attired, healthy-looking people. Unlike in Noram, there were far more wearing multipiece outfits, with trousers and collarless jackets, or even flowing robes in several cases." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I didn't see any smiles, but that didn't seem surprising in the rain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I certainly wasn't smiling.\n\nA younger man who was approaching, talking to a dark-haired woman, glanced up, and his eyes met mine, if momentarily, and he abruptly eased his companion into what appeared to be a confectionery shop.\n\nAn older woman wearing an elaborate ankle-length robe-gown of some sort, but carrying a rain-parasol, stood by another door, her eyes meeting mine, gray eyes as cold and impassive as the clouds above. Her gaze did not flinch as we passed her and turned the corner onto a fractionally wider street, one with the same low permastone buildings that seemed to dominate Tyanjin, or what of the city that I had seen.\n\nWe walked less than eight hundred meters more before Elysa led me down a ramp and onto an induction tube platform, except it wasn't an induction tube, but an older-style subsurface magfield transit system." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I hadn't realized that there were any left." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It shouldn't be long,\" she said in a low voice.\n\nI nodded, and slowly surveyed the platform. It was filled with people, and we towered above almost all of them... standing alone with a circle of space around us. I strained to catch the strange words, but even with the nanites and the translation protocols, my understanding was limited, to say the least, since all I heard was a standard word, often meaningless, in place of whatever the locals were speaking.\n\n\"... outsider... his whore...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"... barbarian boars... rut...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I glanced at Elysa and could see the flush beneath her skin, but she said nothing.\n\n\"... time will come...\"\n\n\"... none too soon...\"\n\nThe train that appeared at one end of the platform rumbled, rather than glided, and it lurched to a halt, a sign of equipment not in the best of repair. Elysa gestured, and we made for the front compartment, stepping inside only moments before the doors hissed shut." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even in the close confines of the compartment, a compartment where I had to slouch to avoid banging my skull on the overhead, there was a zone of space around us, and the odors were remarkably like an aged space vessel, and totally unlike the scented sanitary air of an induction tube." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although I felt like a curiosity, the remarkable thing was that no one looked at us—more as though we were an embarrassment to be suffered or endured without being acknowledged." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I leaned toward Elysa and whispered, \"Does everyone avoid looking at me because I'm a Noraman? Or because I'm a pre-select?\"\n\n\"What do you think?\"\n\nAnother question. \"Both.\"\n\n\"You're right.\"\n\nI stood, hanging onto a polished tubular steel pole, as the old magtrain hissed and lurched through three more stops." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At each stop people disembarked, but fewer got on, and those that did tended to be taller, better dressed, although I didn't see any that could have been overtly identified as pre-selects.\n\nAs the train slowed for the fourth stop, Elysa glanced at me. \"We'll get off here.\"\n\nI followed her out and onto a platform that was nearly empty, then up another ramp, and back into the open. Elysa took a deep breath, as if of relief, then promptly turned left and began to walk swiftly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Caught off guard, I had to take two quick steps to catch up with her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The open air felt good—less confining—although the misty rain brought out a pervasive odor of age as we headed along the damp permacrete of the walk that flanked a gentle inclined street. Each step took us past buildings with signs I could not read, and I had to wonder if standard was as universal as I had thought... or as the net systems of the world would have had me and others believe.\n\nOnly a handful of gliders—mainly taxis—slipped down the street, deftly avoiding the ubiquitous composite magscooters that seemed to comprise most of the vehicular traffic, as well as the silent but awkwardly blocky electrobuses. In Noram, scooters were used seldom, and then by youths, or norms, while in the Sinoplex it seemed as though everyone used them—except for pre-selects.\n\nElysa caught one of my glances at another unreadable sign." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How does it feel?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What? To be illiterate in a culture?\" I smiled ruefully. \"If I lived here, I'd spend the time and effort to make sure I wouldn't be.\"\n\n\"Most pre-selects wouldn't.\"\n\nI had never been one of \"most\" pre-selects, but there wasn't any point in saying that, especially since that wasn't her point. She was trying to tell me that the pre-selects had created a culture foreign to norms, as if most elites in history hadn't." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But then, most elites in history had eventually failed. \"Where are we headed?\"\n\n\"To the base of the hill there.\" She pointed slightly to the left, over a low two-story structure. Over the top of the faded blue stone tiles rose several trees overlooking a red tile roof." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A hundred meters ahead the street ended by running into a larger avenue, running perpendicular to the one we walked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A black wall rose on the far side of the cross street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The buildings we passed were now newer, with wider display windows, and we passed the first true uniquery I had seen in Tyanjin, with a chrome-trimmed door and mauve window hangings, and a tasteful inscription I could not read within a blue green oval. Under the oval was a smaller standard translation inscribed in silver letters: DINING WITH THE ARTFUL MANDARIN.\n\nAs we came to the intersection, I realized just how impressive the wall on the far side of the avenue was, towering as it did over the flow of glider-taxis, electrobuses, and the ubiquitous magscooters. The wall was of black stones, set so closely that I could not discern a joint, stones polished as smooth as glass. It rose a good ten meters straight up from the narrow walk on the far side of the avenue, a structure so even and featureless that it might have been created by a VR artist, rather than being an actual physical construct less than twenty meters from me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To our right, perhaps fifty meters away, was a gate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although the composite double gates were recessed into the wall, if closed, they would meld with the rest of the wall, and offer a barrier impassible to anything short of heavy military equipment.\n\nMy personal scanners also sensed the nanite and electronic fields buried within and designed to protect the wall.\n\nI looked upward, beyond the deep black composite. Immediately beyond the wall were trees, and farther beyond were houses—some more like small ancient palaces with delicate minaret-like steeples, others with red tile roofs that shimmered damply in the gray day.\n\n\"This is where most of the pre-selects of Tyanjin live,\" Elysa said quietly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She did not move." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Standing in the mist that was slowly turning into a steady light rain, I studied the wall, noting that, if the curvature were as gentle and as uniform as it seemed, it probably enclosed a space almost ten klicks across. The area above and beyond the wall appeared park-like, meticulously maintained in the open spaces between structures. A long black glider slid away from the dwelling with minaret-like steeples, then vanished behind an ancient fir of some sort. The scene beyond the wall was serene, peaceful—different from the scooters and electrobuses and crowds that sifted around and past us.\n\nI could sense the indirect attention from more than a few of the passersby when I finally looked down and at Elysa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Without a word, she turned and crossed the street we had been following. We walked along the avenue paralleling the black wall—past three other streets, before she turned back eastward once more.\n\nAfter another two blocks, Elysa stopped and opened a door under a faded marquee of some sort—one in Sinese and without a translation. Behind the door was a small restaurant—something I would have expected to have vanished centuries before, since anyone could get any kind of cuisine by simply lifting replicator parameters off one of the netsys libraries and programming them into a home replicator. At least in Noram, the replicator had greatly reduced the number of traditional restaurants, another factor, the historical economists had claimed, in contributing to the economic disruption that had preceded the chaos." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had never been that sure—restaurants as a major economic factor?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The gray-haired woman standing beside a polished wood table on which rested a blue and white porcelain vase nodded at Elysa and murmured something in Sinese or a local dialect. Elysa replied, but I didn't catch it, and probably wasn't meant to.\n\n\"This way...\" Elysa said quietly.\n\nI bowed to the older woman as I passed. She actually acknowledged my presence with a minute head bow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Elysa led the way through the main room and past a curtained archway." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I tried not to stiffen, but forced myself into greater awareness and alertness. But there was nothing in the second room, more like an overlarge closet containing a circular booth surrounding a table. She slipped to one side, I to the other.\n\n\"What did you think about the wall?\" Elysa asked.\n\n\"It's physically impressive. There are also electronic and nanitic defense systems built into it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The defense systems have been upgraded every few years,\" she replied." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're suggesting that we have the same kinds of barriers in Noram...\" I paused. \"Or barriers, in any case.\"\n\n\"The Sinese lands have been heavily populated for more than six millennia. Land is not inexpensive, and the experiments of holding it as a public trust failed miserably, several times.\"\n\n\"Market economies are the worse form of economic structure, except for any other kind ever tried.\" I knew I was misquoting a statement about political structures, but it fit, even if I didn't remember the original author." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You can change a market economy to make it reflect social as well as economic diseconomies...\" Elysa broke off as the curtain in the archway to her right was pushed back and the gray-haired Sinese woman appeared with a tray." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The older woman quickly set down two platters, two small cups, and a teapot. She filled both cups, bowed to Elysa, and slipped back past the curtain.\n\n\"I need to eat,\" Elysa said.\n\nAs she served herself, I took a sip from the small handleless cup—green tea, and like brewed Grey tea, better than anything from a replicator. Then I followed her example." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had no idea exactly what the food was, except that it had vegetables I did recognize—such as snow peas and water chestnuts and bamboo slices, with some I didn't, with small chunks of chicken and a totally unfamiliar sauce." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I took a bite. It wasn't great, but it was hand-cooked and original, and I was hungry. Then, while it was barely midday for Elysa, it was past dinner for me.\n\nAfter several bites, I looked up. \"What does all of this have to do with me—and with Elora? Except to show me that I haven't looked into the lives and comparative isolation of the pre-selects? That isn't a very good reason for you and others to attack me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is a very good reason,\" said Elysa after a bite of the spicy mixture she had spread over the rice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You only know of the attacks against you and your sister. There have been others. Can you deny that someone has a reason?\"\n\n\"No. But a power grab by other pre-selects doesn't seem to have much to do with the isolation between—\"\n\n\"You've created a hereditary elite. You deceive yourselves that it's based on ability, and claim that anyone with ability can join you, and with the resources of the nets, and the socialization of UniComm and OneCys... and all the others... you've conditioned the world to believe it.\"\n\n\"And you're not a part of this?\" My eyebrows rose.\n\n\"No. I never was.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Elysa took a small sip of tea.\n\nThe calm certainty and lack of physiological agitation chilled me more than her words.\n\n\"You don't want to understand. You look, and still you don't see.\" She spread her hands, as if helplessly.\n\nI watched, wondering if I could say anything, anything at all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had to try. \"You had me see the barriers here, and you want me to come to the conclusion that pre-selection is just another form of human elite, and... pretty clearly, that it's a tyrannical or halfway despotical elite. It may be both tyrannical and despotical in certain ways, but genetics doesn't make that much of a difference in people. There's less than a tenth of a percent difference in DNA between a pre-select and the norm that individual would have been. And even if it did, rebellions don't start with attacks against people who aren't in control of things, unless it's a random uprising, and planned attacks against me don't exactly qualify as random.\"\n\n\"Most honored edartist, I must beg to differ. You don't know what you're talking about. You give numbers. You express reasons. What do you really know about social structures and how they work? How many norms do you work with? How many live where you live?\"\n\n\"You know the answer,\" I pointed out. \"Almost none.\"\n\n\"What percentage of the population uses pre-selection?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Five to seven percent.\" My answer was wary.\n\n\"And how much of the world's wealth and power is controlled by those five to seven percent?\" Elysa was acting like a barrister.\n\n\"Almost all of the power, by definition, obviously. Sixty or seventy percent of the wealth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How does the present situation differ from that in pre-Collapse days?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Statistically, it doesn't,\" I conceded, \"but as you were pointing out a minute ago in a different context, numbers aren't everything.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're right,\" she said dryly. \"They usually understate problems and overstate happiness and contentment, and they only show what exists now.\"\n\n\"What problem do you see that the numbers don't show?\" I asked.\n\n\"The same one that's brought down most societies in history—the growing dissatisfaction of most people with the cultural and governmental structure. It hasn't been this bad since pre-Collapse times.\"\n\nI wanted to ask her how she knew... but then, if RennZee were right, she'd seen more than I had, and she was clearly closer to the norms in Tyanjin—or anywhere—than I was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's getting worse.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why?\" I asked. \"Maybe most people aren't pre-selects, but most of the medical and gross hereditary deficiencies are gone. Except for those who choose to be poor—\"\n\n\"Do the faithies and the netless choose to be poor?\" parried Elysa. \"Or does their refusal to have the interconnected world intruding into every aspect of their lives doom them to lack of power and comparative poverty?\"\n\n\"... everyone is healthy. The average norm tests higher than all but the most gifted of the population would have a millennia ago, and he or she lives better, much better,\" I pointed out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you trying to be dense?\" she snapped.\n\nI closed my mouth.\n\n\"People don't operate on absolute status, but relative status. Even before the Collapse, something like ninety-nine percent of the people in Noram lived better than all but the richest individuals had as little as two centuries before. Yet the sociologists kept classifying the twenty percent of the population with the least control of resources as poor—even when they would have been considered well-off on other continents. And these people truly believed themselves poor and deprived, and they acted that way.\"\n\nI shook my head.\n\n\"It's no different today. Human beings are status animals. We haven't taken that out of the genes, not with all the pre-selection. No matter how much people have, they consider themselves poor if others have a great deal more.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That got a shrug of acceptance from me. \"Of course.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'd be happier if your calm were based on understanding rather than ignorant complacency.\" Her voice could have sliced through the empty platters before us.\n\nI refilled my small teacup and waited.\n\n\"Go on...\" I finally suggested. Even if her observations were correct, and I was beginning to believe that they were, which was disturbing enough, those observations didn't offer much insight into why people were trying to kill me, as opposed to Father and Gerrat, but Elysa had also made it quite clear that she wasn't answering my questions. Not yet, anyway." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"As you pointed out, there's virtually no difference on a genetic level, that is, between the genetic material of a pre-select—before genetic manipulation—and that of a norm.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And?\" I asked the question, even though I had a disturbingly clear picture of where her logic was leading.\n\n\"You know what I'm going to say. You just won't admit it.\"\n\n\"You're suggesting that great differences in wealth and control of resources are the result of minute differentiations between human beings, and that the majority of those differentiations are created by pre-selection, because it obviates regression to the mean genetically.\"\n\nHer eyes were deep and almost sad. \"And that means nothing to you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well...\" I suggested. \"Since any parent can finance pre-selection, it would also seem that those who don't are those who refuse to sacrifice for their offspring, and you're blaming those who are willing to pay for a better chance for their children for the failures of those who won't.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's not that simple. You come from a family where the cost of pre-selection is a minute fraction of family wealth. You sacrifice nothing, except perhaps a new glider for a year or two or... whatever luxury is de trop at the moment. A less wealthy family gives up all but spartan comfort for close to twenty years for each child that they wish to gift with pre-selection. Don't talk to me about sacrifice. You don't even know what it is. You live more modestly than all your family—and less than five percent of the planet could afford what you call an austere life style.\"\n\nExcept... I didn't think it was austere, and never would have said that.\n\n\"So... you're suggesting that the world is about to come apart and that there is a pre-select conspiracy which wants to consolidate its power over the communications nets in order to sway public opinion enough to allow it—or the pre-selects—to maintain power?\"\n\nElysa smiled. \"You see. It wasn't that hard to figure out.\"\n\n\"That still doesn't say why people are after me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh? It doesn't?\" She slid out of the booth.\n\nI scrambled after her.\n\n\"Where are you going?\" I asked.\n\n\"I answered your questions, didn't I?\" She turned and drew aside the curtain enough to pass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She ignored me and kept moving." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I didn't say anything until we were back outside, where the misting rain had stopped, and the clouds were beginning to lift. She had turned back in the general direction of the magtrain station.\n\n\"You still haven't told me why you used the spray on me.\"\n\n\"You should be able to figure that out. To warn you. I was the one who set up the laser. Do you remember the old lady who was lost?\"\n\n\"You?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She nodded. \"That way, it made it difficult for people to attack you directly. The wall was clumsy, and you had been prepared.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Prepared?\"\n\n\"You had the special nanites in your system. You still do.\" She turned down a side street that was more than an alley.\n\nOutside of a young man in black trousers and a black shirt, lounging against the wall a good hundred meters further on, near where the street dead-ended in a loading dock, the street-like alley was empty.\n\n\"But why?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"To prepare you for what you need to do.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She extended a card. \"You asked about Eldyn. He has the other answers.\"\n\nI took the card, and opened my mouth, then jumped sideways as I saw her pull something shiny from her overcoat pocket.\n\nLight flared around me, and I reacted automatically, using scanners and senses to move. The nanites that protected my eyes helped as well." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When I could see, I was fifty meters away... shaking my head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Elysa was gone, as if she'd never been there.\n\n\"Got to be careful with that type... man... blind you and take what she can.\" The language wasn't quite standard, but the nanites came up with a rough translation. The young man looked at me, as if suddenly seeing my height. Then he backed away, and a filament knife came out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Stay away from me...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was only too happy to avoid the filament knife... and I stepped back, my eyes still on the hard-faced youth, but he didn't move as I eased away, checking the buildings and the muted shadows that suddenly seemed everywhere." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were still crowds on the street that ran between the pre-select wall and who knew where.\n\nI just stood on the corner for a moment, the oblong card in my hand.\n\nThere wouldn't be any point in waiting around her dwelling—if it even happened to be her real dwelling. She could avoid me forever, since she knew Tyanjin and I didn't.\n\nI looked at the address on the card, and it made no sense to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Just like everything else hadn't." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the surface, none of it made sense. She'd waited around for me to show up—promised me answers, given me a tour of Tyanjin, some philosophy, and an address—and vanished. It all reminded me of the kinds of tests Mertyn used to give, a good thirty years past—bits and pieces, and we were supposed to put them together.\n\nI was a methodizer... and having trouble... with conflagrations, tours of areas filled with resentful norms...\n\nI swallowed—hard, wondering how I could have been so slow. It was like the falling cemetery wall, all over again." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Today you will be acting as a writing assistant, your partner will send something and you will write the next one sentence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE" }, { "from": "human", "value": "THE FORMATION OF" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "OCTAGONAL SOLUTIONS," }, { "from": "human", "value": "A NEW APPROACH" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "FOR A NEW FUTURE." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was an address and a call code below." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I studied the card for a moment, noting several other sets of fingerprints on the surface of the card." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then, the reason for the stickiness hit me, and I swallowed, forcing myself to set the card on the polished wood, as if I had lost interest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Majora's eyes flicked to the card, then to me, then away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She understood what I was doing—or was refraining from doing—and said nothing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Drejcha just stood there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Brin... why don't you get someone to take care of the details of access and security, and all that, and then rejoin us here. While I know the technical side fairly well, I don't know all the people, and I'm sure you know all the key people well enough to brief us on them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I offered a smile at least as false as all those he'd been giving us." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can do that, Director Alwyn.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We'll be waiting for you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once Drejcha had left, I walked back to the desk where I noted the codes on Eldyn's traitorous card and tapped them out, using the bypass and my own personal codes and charges, since I was certain it would be a while before Drejcha got around to getting all the authorizations set up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Instead of a sim appearing on the holo image that appeared in midair before the cherry bookcase nearest the desk, there was merely a notice, set in red against a beige background." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As a result of recent developments, the programs and assets of Octagonal Solutions have been transferred to the EDA Trust." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I swallowed. While I'd known from the EDA portfolio that Eldyn had operated Octagonal Solutions, I certainly hadn't anticipated inheriting the operation, even indirectly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My eyes went to Majora. \"I didn't know.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's obvious from the stunned look.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She touched my hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're going to be very busy.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'd never followed up on the EDA Trust as much as I should have, either, except to ensure I controlled the Trust, but it appeared, from what little I'd researched about Eldyn, that the trust was going to play a far bigger role than I had ever thought.\n\nThen... everything was looking bigger than I'd ever thought." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\n6 sentences\n\nStyle:\nL.E. Modesitt Jr" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kewood\n\nThe most interesting thing about the attack was that by the morning two days afterwards, there was nothing in the nets about it, even from InstaNews, and I thought I knew why. OneCys or the PST group had taken a shot, and both my response and the evidence put them in a bad light. Since UniComm had more market share, if they continued to emphasize it, so could UniComm. If they stopped, and UniComm continued, then it would look as though we had trumped up the issue. And I was again particularly grateful to the CA whose name I didn't know for erasing a ten-second record." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even so, it didn't mean I was anywhere near out of the redwoods.\n\nThat was emphasized by a call arriving at almost precisely ten o'clock on fourday morning. The image was that of a perfectly groomed black-haired pre-select, wearing a gray singlesuit with a maroon-trimmed, black short jacket. I began to record as soon as the image appeared.\n\n\"Director Alwyn, this is Darius Fynbek. As you may know, I am the regional advocate general. My staff has brought to my attention a statement you made... several days ago.\" He smiled warmly, the same sort of smile that Gerrat had used—the one that I detested." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You mean, the one I made after three thugs tried to kill me and my solicitor?\" My tone was pleasant, not quite humorous. \"I think that's the only public statement I've made recently.\"\n\n\"Director Alwyn, much as I understand your frustration, according to the Civil Authorities, there is no physical evidence, nor any financial evidence, to link the attempts on your life to any person or organization. Or to any class of individuals.\"\n\n\"Such as pre-selects?\"\n\n\"Precisely. I am so glad you understand the situation. I would hate to suggest that a restraining order might be necessary.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What about my suggesting that an investigation by your office might be in order? Just a suggestion, you understand?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"As I said, I can certainly appreciate your concerns, Director Alwyn. The Office of the Advocate General cannot dig into the private affairs of individuals willy-nilly, just because another citizen believes they have an interest in something. We cannot question people merely because they might have a motive for such an action. In the interest of the civil rights of all people, we must have hard evidence.\"\n\n\"You do,\" I pointed out. \"You have hard evidence of an exploded glider, disabled scanners, thugs who have no record of existence on the Federal Union's database. You also have DNA evidence of an exploded monoclone in Helnya, which is a class-one Federal Union offense, and a documented case of a Federal Service laser being used to attack me. None of those are subject to doubt. They constitute very hard evidence.\"\n\n\"Ah... that they do. As you point out, very hard evidence. But there is one substantial difficulty with that evidence.\"\n\nI waited.\n\n\"There is absolutely no evidentiary link between that evidence and any individual or multilateral. It is most regrettable, but we cannot question people, not under the law, if there is nothing to point in their direction. That, as you may recall, is one of the key principles underlying our justiciary system, for very good reasons, given the abuses of the Chaos Years and numerous pre-Collapse legal systems.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I understand, and I do appreciate your making matters clear to me. I can assure you that I will work to make certain that UniComm will netcast nothing in this matter which is not absolutely factually accurate, and I will make sure that all UniComm managers know this.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I thought that an informal approach might yield a less... confrontational result, and I thank you for your understanding.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I appreciate your guidance, Advocate. I do indeed.\"\n\nWe were both smiling when he broke the connection, and my smile was doubtless as false as his.\n\nMy next step was to summon the UniComm general counsel.\n\nWhile I waited for him to arrive, I linked with Majora. \"How's my very special assistant?\"\n\n\"Hard at work on researching those delightful souls fingered by our departed acquaintance.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How's it going?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"About the way we thought. Lots of hints, not much else.\"\n\n\"I just got a warning from the regional advocate general. He didn't like my words of the other night. Apparently, my suggestion that UniComm and I are targets of nasty pre-selects violates some law or another. Tomas will tell me which one. So we need lots of facts that are absolutely accurate, but the kind that will let people draw the right conclusion.\"\n\n\"You have a devious mind...\" I got the sense of that impish smile.\n\n\"That's the beginning.\" Just the beginning. \"What about the CA medtech and the privacy waiver thing?\"\n\n\"They've never heard of it being done. I gave them Nasaki's legal opinion, and they're studying it. I think the local advocate general will agree if she can find a reason to; she'd love to set a precedent, any precedent, that hints that waiving privacy is not an absolute right. Are you sure you want to do this?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If I hadn't been through it before, I wouldn't be, but I have to have everyone who will be on the project convinced that I'm absolutely honest about this, and I think all of them are norms. I'm on their side, but they have to believe that it's all up front.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What if it leaks out?\"\n\nI laughed. \"Do you think that InstaNews would dare to netcast that the director general of UniComm allowed his news staff to question him under truth nanites? And if they did, how would they react to my charge that they offer the same opportunity to their staff?\"\n\nMajora laughed softly. \"For someone so direct, you do come up with devious slants.\"\n\nI looked up to see Tomas Gallo standing in my open door. \"Talk to you later. Tomas is here.\"\n\n\"Take care, dear man.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You, too.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At my gesture, Gallo entered the office, and closed the door.\n\n\"You sounded like you needed something fairly quickly. Not that speed is unusual in UniComm.\" He smiled, ironically, but his expression was far more honest than that of Advocate Fynbek.\n\n\"I do. Here's the recording of a communication I just received.\" After Gallo sat in one of the green leather armchairs, I called up the record and projected it just before the bookcases, where we both could watch Fynbek.\n\nI liked Fynbek even less the second time through, but I just nodded to Tomas after the images faded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's going by the law, Director. He could be more accommodating, but he certainly doesn't have to be. No media outlet, nor any employee or owner, can make or suggest a judgment that would preempt a finding by a regulatory or judicial organ. A private citizen can, but you don't qualify as one. Nor does any member of your family.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All right.\" I nodded. \"Take this and try to get something from his superior... the secretary advocate general of the Federal Union.\"\n\n\"He'll say the same thing. If he says anything at all.\"\n\n\"Record it. Or get it in writing. Get some documentation. Even if it says nothing. Particularly if it says nothing.\"\n\n\"What good will that do?\" Gallo's expression was somewhere between interest and disapproval." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It'll save us when the time comes. Especially if you can get them to expound on the part about not acting to investigate even when a motive is obvious.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stood. \"I'll see what I can do.\"\n\n\"That's all I ask.\"\n\nAfter he left, I just sat there for a time. My choices were limited, and getting more so every day. What else could I do? Then I nodded and placed another call." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was lucky. Rynold Tondrol was in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was the director general of TD Reclamation, and he had been at Kharl's party where everything had begun.\n\n\"Rynold, this is Daryn Alwyn...\" Which was a stupid thing to say because his gatekeeper and system knew who it was already.\n\n\"Daryn... I was so sorry to hear about your family.\" His round face was somber.\n\n\"Thank you, Rynold. I appreciate it.\" I did, since he was the first pre-select who'd even mentioned them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did you hear that Kharl's going to be fine?\"\n\n\"I did. I was glad that Grete and the children will be fine, too.\" He smiled for a moment. \"What can I do for you? I assume this isn't just a catch-up call.\"\n\n\"Unfortunately not. Your business depends pretty heavily on monoclones, I understand. Or its profitability does, I suspect.\"\n\n\"It does play a part, Daryn. Everyone knows that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He shrugged. \"I wish we could do without them, but the Collapse cultures left such a mess...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I nodded before continuing. \"You know that popular opinion is, shall we say, ambivalent about monoclones. And that benign ambivalence is supported by lack of publicity on their uses?\"\n\n\"That's also a given.\" He paused. \"You must have a point, Daryn, but it's too subtle for me.\"\n\n\"Lately... someone has been using monoclones as walking bombs, targeted at various individuals. It's taken me a little while to come up with documentation, but it appears as though they all come from BGP, and if I'm not mistaken, that's the outfit that supplies you.\"\n\nTondrol looked honestly appalled, and although I was watching through a scanned screen, I had the feeling he wasn't acting, or not much." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It wouldn't take much of an outcry to require far greater restrictions—or perhaps a ban...\" I said gently." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're not suggesting that UniComm...\"\n\n\"Right now, I'm not planning anything. I don't like things being banned, because then they go underground and no one has any control. I am suggesting that if this misuse of monoclones continues, life will get a lot harder for both BGP and you, and probably more than a few others. This will lead to more restrictions and more rules and won't solve any problems. Or it won't, and more people will get the idea that the only solution to their problems is to ignore the system and take the law into their own hands. Either way, it's not good.\"\n\n\"And you'd like me to contact Emyl at BGP and see what we can do?\" Tondrol's eyebrows lifted.\n\n\"Well... if something isn't done quickly, I'm not sure you'll have any real options,\" I pointed out.\n\nThe round-faced Tondrol fingered his chin. \"I won't promise anything, except that I'll look into it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You remember the induction tube explosion in Mancha several weeks ago?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh... that was the one... your sister... I'm so sorry.\"\n\n\"That was the first public use of explosive monoclones. If BGP doesn't put a stop to it... well... can you imagine how the secretary director might feel if someone pointed out that a monoclone could be used against anyone, including him, and that body-shields don't provide adequate protection?\" I paused. \"Or how it might come out that BGP was creating people, not to do dirty jobs, but to blow up other people?\"\n\n\"Daryn, you do have a way of making a point. I will look into it, and, if matters appear as you say, then I'll talk to Emyl.\"\n\n\"I appreciate it, Rynold. But you'll benefit as much as anyone, if not more.\"\n\n\"I'm afraid you're right.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He offered a twisted smile, that faded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And I am sorry about your family.\"\n\n\"Thank you.\"\n\nAgain, I just looked at the cherry bookcase for a few moments.\n\nTondrol understood my point, but he was vulnerable. I had my doubts as to whether Deng, Escher, Dymke, St. Cyril, and TanUy had any interest in self-restraint... or the public interest.\n\nI was fighting people who had skill and resources and patience and experience." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If I tried to retaliate in kind, I'd either be dead or incarcerated, and then released as a brain-damped imbecile." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sitting behind the cherry wood desk from which my father had enjoyed exercising power so much, I couldn't help but wonder if the average norms felt the way I did at the moment—except I had the feeling that some had felt that way all their lives." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding seven sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kewood\n\nI didn't bother with the glider park at UniComm headquarters. I dropped the glider practically on the stone steps leading up into the buried building. I half-wondered if Grandfather had envisioned a siege when he and Father had moved everything to the headquarters a generation earlier. Once the glider settled, Majora grabbed the cases and the scanner, and I hoisted the inert commando type over my shoulder, and we struggled up the steps.\n\n\"Director Alwyn.\" The gray-clad security type behind the podium actually smiled. \"We're glad to see you and the lady are all right.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her smile was broader as she looked at Majora. \"They've been beaming your reports out on all the spurs.\" Her eyes settled on the unconscious man in the black camouflage uniform slung across my shoulder.\n\n\"Oh... he's one of those who was in the party doing the attacking. You might want to inform the CAs that he's here,\" I suggested. \"We'll keep him in my office.\"\n\n\"They like hard evidence,\" Majora added wryly.\n\nI paused. \"Can you find another security officer to watch over our friend until the CAs arrive?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll let them know, if I can get through,\" the guard said. She pressed a stud, and two others in the gray of security appeared and hoisted the limp figure of the commando.\n\n\"Thank you.\"\n\n\"Our pleasure, ser.\" The first security guard smiled. \"I'll see about the CAs.\"\n\nWe walked up the ramp toward my office. There I had the two security guards—both women—prop the unconscious commando on the couch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Stun him if he looks like he's going to move anywhere.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We'd be most happy to, ser,\" replied the taller woman.\n\nThe man in black groaned, as if he were about to regain consciousness.\n\nThen Devit Tal hurried through the door. He looked at Majora. \"Good reports. Adds a real sense of urgency to all this.\" His eyes went to me. \"They firebombed your house, too.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can't say I'm surprised.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Devit looked at the man in black who was moaning softly. \"Where did he come from?\"\n\n\"He was with the crew that attacked Majora's place.\"\n\n\"How did you capture him?\"\n\n\"I stunned him. Majora captured him and tied him up.\"\n\nDevit looked at me, at Majora, at the security types, and then at the commando. \"I'll be right back.\" He hurried out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do we have any gloves?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I gestured at the three black cases on the conference table.\n\n\"I have a pair in my office,\" Majora said. \"I'll get them.\"\n\nI watched the captive while Majora hurried out and back, scanning the cases. I couldn't detect anything in them, and the office security system didn't either.\n\nMajora was back in less than a handful of minutes, gloves on, looking at the cases.\n\n\"They seem clean. No energy. No emissions,\" I said.\n\nShe flipped open the end case gingerly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What's there?\" I asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Printed maps, a timetable, photos of you and me and of the cottage. Some credit chips, probably large and untraceable... that's it.\"\n\n\"Leave it on the table. Put the other two under my desk.\"\n\nMajora nodded and did so, barely straightening as Devit Tal hurried back into the office with a large portascanner.\n\n\"You want us in it?\" I inquired.\n\nDevit shook his head. \"Not for this.\" He leveled the scanner at the figure in the camouflage suit. \"We're standing in the office of UniComm Director General Alwyn. You may recall that Alwyn has been attacked a number of times over the last few weeks, and tonight there was another attempt by a force of gliders. Those in the gliders were dressed in Federal Services commando-style uniforms...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tal panned the scanner across the groggy prisoner." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This man was captured by the director and his assistant after two of the attacking gliders collided and crashed following the attack.\"\n\nThe eyes of the dark-haired man in the camouflage suit popped open. He'd been pretending to be unconscious. \"Bastard crashed us...\" he mumbled.\n\n\"So you admit you attacked the director?\" asked Tal smoothly.\n\n\"Damned right...\" Abruptly, the captive shook his head as his eyes took in the scanner and he recognized fully what it was. He shut his mouth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There you have it, from the mouth of one of the men hired to attack and kill Director Alwyn.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tal smiled as he cut off the scanner. \"You don't mind if we run that, do you, Director?\"\n\n\"Be my guest.\"\n\nThe captive squirmed as if to lunge at one of us, even with arms, hands, and feet bound.\n\n\"I wouldn't try it,\" suggested Majora. \"The last time someone tried to assault the director, they ended up dead, and there were three of them.\"\n\n\"... bastards...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Rather unimaginative,\" I commented." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The gatekeeper clinged. \"Security, ser. There are two Civil Authority officers here to speak with you.\"\n\n\"Tell them they can come on up. Tell them that my door is open.\"\n\n\"Yes, ser.\"\n\nI looked at Majora. She shrugged. We waited.\n\nThe two CAs appeared outside the door in less than two minutes. One of them—the taller, hard-faced one—seemed familiar, but I couldn't recall if he had been one of those brought in when Anna and I had been attacked, or if I were just imagining that I'd seen him before." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shorter red-haired woman I knew I'd never seen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Director Alwyn?\" asked the hard-faced and brown-haired CA. \"Officers Krag and Shannd.\"\n\n\"That's me. This is Majora Hyriss, my special assistant.\" I gestured toward the bound figure on the couch. \"This gentleman is a survivor of the team that attacked Majora's house. We were having dinner. I think they killed the security guards, and flamed the house, then fled. The security guards gave us enough warning to get out.\"\n\n\"How did you... find this man?\" asked the woman.\n\n\"There was some sort of explosion or crash, and it looked like one of their glider-flitters had crashed into another one, and this man was the only one left alive. At least, we thought so. We picked him up and came here.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The bound man glared at me, but said nothing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"At the very least, I think you can find a certain amount of hard evidence, officer. The burned ruins of this lady's dwelling, the evidence of off-guideway travel, a crash site, and possibly even a wrecked vehicle—or the burned remains...\"\n\n\"Burned remains. Self-destruct charges. We've already looped into the skytors,\" the taller one said in a strained and clipped tone. \"We're stretched too thin... wouldn't be here, except...\"\n\n\"You were detailed by the regional advocate general to deal with me?\" I suggested.\n\n\"Ah... not quite that clearly, ser. We thought it might be best to ensure that we could verify some hard evidence. If you wouldn't mind allowing us to take this man...?\"\n\n\"Be our guest.\" I gestured to the case on the table. \"He was carrying that. You probably ought to keep it as well. It might have something interesting in it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The taller CA slipped out a transparent film bag and slipped it around the case, then tucked it under his arm. \"Would you consider waiving privacy on this, Director?\"\n\n\"I would, but not at this moment. In this case, I'm clearly the victim. My house has been firebombed. So has my assistant's. Oh, she's also my fiancee. Our families know, but it isn't public yet.\" I smiled politely. \"With all the unrest going on around the world, it would be inopportune to go through another truth nanite test. I have a netsystem to run, but once matters settle down, I'll be happy to discuss it.\"\n\nThe two CAs exchanged glances. Then the older and taller one nodded. \"Given that you've waived privacy twice, I think your assurance of future cooperation will suffice.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He looked at the commando type." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We do like witnesses and hard evidence.\" He pulled something from the kit on his belt, and slapped it on the back of the prisoner's neck. Then he looked at the dark-haired man. \"That's an immobilizer. You move one centimeter out of line, and you'll find yourself falling forward and unable to move a muscle.\"\n\nThe CA nodded to the redhead, who loosened the belt strap around the man's ankles, then stepped back. He glanced at me. \"Same sort of belt as he's wearing. Where did you get it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There were two others who were killed,\" Majora answered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I took their belts to tie him up. After what they did to my house, I wasn't feeling charitable.\"\n\n\"I wouldn't have been either.\" The older CA nodded to us. \"We'll be in touch.\"\n\nThe redheaded CA looked at the survivor. \"On your feet.\"\n\nThe chill in the prisoner's eyes was enough to drop the temperature in the office a good five degrees.\n\nNeither of us said a word until the CAs were out of sight and until the two UniComm security guards had also left my office." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you think they'll discover anything?\" asked Majora." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well... they do have a crash site, two burned-out houses, and a commando type in custody.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And no evidence to link any of it to the PST group,\" she pointed out. \"I'll bet that there's not one item in the other cases that can be traced.\" She moved toward the desk, then bent and retrieved the cases.\n\nOne of the other cases was identical to the first. The second contained six prepacked Federal Service meals. That bothered me a lot.\n\n\"Even if we do a commentary or a factual update on that,\" Majora pointed out, \"it doesn't prove anything.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "No... it was only highly suggestive of the fact that someone, or a number of someones, in the Federal Service had been corrupted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the very least, someone was using ex-FS commandos, and equipment most similar. That was chilling in its own way. But like everything else... more suggestions, but not hard evidence, and greater pressure on the secretary director or the regional advocate general to shut us down.\n\nI paged Devit Tal through the gatekeeper.\n\nIt was several minutes before his image appeared. \"I've only got a few minutes, Director.\"\n\n\"I understand, Devit. The way things are going, we may have to seal the structure at any time. Is there anyone or anything that's vital?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, ser. We've got secure landlinks it would take days to get to.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Fine. Just thought you should know.\" I paused. \"Can we send delay links to the smaller nets... the stuff we've already run?\"\n\nTal smiled. \"We started doing that this afternoon, ser.\"\n\n\"Good... and thank you.\"\n\nHe nodded and was gone.\n\nThen came the calls to the security stations. \"Security, this is Director Alwyn. Prepare to seal the structure. Report when ready to seal. You will have one minute when notified. Notification could come at any time in the next twenty-four hours.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Again, I was glad for Father's prescience." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Had he foreseen this? Or just worried about a Federal Union takeover?\n\nThe security stations began to report back in.\n\nI made a general announcement. \"This is the director general. Because of the unsettled nature of the area, as evidenced by attacks on UniComm personnel and their homes, we have prepared to seal the structure at any time. We will remain on system power for now.\"\n\nI flicked on InstaNews... all that was running was a follow-up on the Hylo eruption, and a quick cut on the world korfball championships.\n\nAllNews was better." }, { "from": "human", "value": "... the firebombing of Alwyn's home was accomplished with Federal Service type incendiary rockets and fine-focus lasers... transportation was by heavy-duty rough terrain flitter-gliders, available only by permit or to Federal Service agencies... all this indicates a high degree of sophistication..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "... rioting has broken out here in Quecity... and the Sante retail distribution outlets are among those ravaged...\n\n... Secretary Director Alfonso has mobilized Federal Service troops in Noram and in Ankorplex... consideration is being given to additional mobilizations...\n\n\"And you didn't think much would happen?\" asked Majora.\n\n\"It hasn't yet,\" I pointed out. \"We have no evidence. We have no links. All we have is violence and riots that we've generated, and I could be looking at a long incarceration and maybe even brain-damping.\" I took a long and deep breath. \"Why don't you lie down on the couch? It's going to be a long night.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why don't you?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Because I'm wound up like an overstressed gyro.\" The metaphor wasn't correct. My mind was spinning like an overstressed gyro, and even my words didn't follow.\n\n\"So am I.\"\n\nSo we sat behind the conference table, next to each other, and watched the disaster slowly spread—still without any evidence appearing that would link the PST group to the attacks or the subtle coup I knew was being implemented." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: Cooperative storytelling\nMy role: Provide a brief opening\nYour role: Expand upon my opening with 6 sentences, emulating the writing style of Gene Wolfe in the scifi, science fiction fantasy, dying Earth, post-apocalyptic genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Severian's brief record of his career in Thrax is the best (though not the only) evidence we have concerning the business of government in the age of the Commonwealth, as it is carried out beyond the shining corridors of the House Absolute and the teeming streets of Nessus. Clearly, our own distinctions between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches do not apply—no doubt administrators like Abdiesus would laugh at our notion that laws should be made by one set of people, put into effect by a second, and judged by a third. They would consider such a system unworkable, as indeed it is proving to be.\n\nAt the period of the manuscripts, archons and tetrarchs are appointed by the Autarch, who as the representative of the people has all power in his hands. (See, however, Famulimus's remark on this topic to Severian.) These officials are expected to enforce the commands of the Autarch and to administer justice in accordance with the received usages of the populations they govern." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They are also empowered to make local laws—valid only over the area governed by the lawmaker and only during his term of office—and to enforce them with the threat of death. In Thrax, as well as in the House Absolute and the Citadel, imprisonment for a fixed term—our own most common punishment—seems unknown. Prisoners in the Vincula are held awaiting torture or execution, or as hostages for the good behavior of their friends and relatives. As the manuscript clearly shows, the supervision of the Vincula (\"the house of chains\") is only one of the duties of the lictor (\"he who binds\"). This officer is the chief subordinate of the archon involved with the administration of criminal justice. On certain ceremonial occasions he walks before his master bearing a naked sword, a potent reminder of the archon's authority." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "During sessions of the archon's court (as Severian complains) he is required to stand at the left of the bench. Executions and other major acts of judicial punishment are personally performed by him, and he supervises the activities of the clavigers (\"those with keys\"). These clavigers are not only the guards of the Vincula; they act also as a detective police, a function made easier by their opportunities for extorting information from their prisoners. The keys they bear seem sufficiently large to be used as bludgeons, and are thus their weapons as well as their tools and their emblems of authority. The dimarchi (\"those who fight in two ways\") are the archon's uniformed police as well as his troops. However, their title does not appear to refer to this dual function, but to equipment and training that permits them to act as cavalry or infantry as the need arises." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Their ranks appear to be filled by professional soldiers, veterans of the campaigns in the north and nonnatives of the area. Thrax itself is clearly a fortress city. Such a place could scarcely be expected to stand for more than a day at most against the Ascian enemy—rather, it seems designed to fend off raids by brigands and rebellions by the local exultants and armigers. (Cyriaca's husband, who would have been a person almost beneath notice in the House Absolute, is clearly of some importance, and even some danger, in the neighborhood of Thrax.) Although the exultants and armigers seem to be forbidden private armies, there appears little doubt that many of their followers, though called huntsmen, stewards, and the like, are fundamentally fighting men. They are presumably essential to protect the villas from marauders and to collect rents, but in the event of civil unrest they would be a potent source of danger to such as Abdiesus." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 7 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The fortified city straddling the headwaters of the river would give him an almost irresistible advantage in any such conflict. The route chosen by Severian for his escape indicates how closely egress from the city could be controlled. The archon's own fortress, Acies Castle (\"the armed camp of the point\"), guards the northern end of the valley. It appears to be entirely separate from his palace in the city proper. The southern end is closed by the Capulus (\"the sword haft\"), apparently an elaborate fortified wall, a scaled-down imitation of the Wall of Nessus. Even the cliff tops are protected by forts linked by walls. Possessing, as it does, an inexhaustible supply of fresh water, the city appears capable of withstanding a protracted siege by any force not provided with heavy armament. G.W." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll be your writing partner today. I will set the scene, and you will continue the story with six sentences, channeling the voice and techniques of Gene Wolfe in the scifi, science fiction fantasy, dying Earth, post-apocalyptic genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The summerhouse had boasted a solid roof, but the sides were mere latticework, closed more by the tall forest ferns planted against them than by their slender laths. Moonbeams leaked through. More came in at the doorway, reflected from the rushing water outside. I could see the fear in Cyriaca's face, and the knowledge that her only hope was that I retained some love for her; and I knew that she was thus without hope, for I felt nothing.\n\n\"At the Autarch's camp,\" she repeated. \"That was what Einhildis wrote. In Orithyia, near the springs of Gyoll. But you must be careful if you go there to return the book—she said too that cacogens had landed somewhere in the north.\" I stared at her, trying to determine whether she were lying." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's what Einhildis told me. I suppose they must have wished to avoid the mirrors at theJHouse Absolute so they, could escape the eyes of the Autarch. He's supposed to be their servitor, but sometimes he acts as if they were his.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I shook her. \"Are you joking with me? The Autarch serves them?\"\n\n\"Please! Oh, please…\"\n\nI dropped her.\n\n\"Everyone… Erebus! Pardon me.\" She sobbed, and though she lay in shadow I sensed that she was wiping her eyes and nose with the hem of her scarlet habit. \"Everyone knows it except the peons, and the goodmen and the good women. All the armigers and even most of the optimates, and of course the exultants have always known. I've never seen the Autarch, but I'm told that he, the Viceroy of the New Sun, is scarcely taller than I am. Do you think our proud exultants would permit someone like that to rule if there weren't a thousand cannon behind him?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've seen him,\" I said, \"and I wondered about that.\" I sought among Thecla's memories for confirmation of what Cyriaca said, but I found only rumor.\n\n\"Would you tell me about him? Please, Severian, before—\"\n\n\"No, not now. But why should the cacogens be a danger to me?\"\n\n\"Because the Autarch will surely send scouts to locate them, and I suppose the archon here will too. Anyone found near them will be assumed to have been spying for them, or what's worse, seeking them out in the hope of enlisting them in some plot against the Phoenix Throne.\"\n\n\"I understand.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Severian, don't kill me. I beg you. I'm not a good woman—I've never been a good woman, never since I left the Pelerines, and I can't face dying now.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I asked her, \"What have you done, anyway? Why does Abdiesus want you killed? Do you know?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is simplicity itself to strangle an individual whose neck muscles are not strong, and I was already flexing my hands for the task; yet at the same time I wished it had been permissible for me to use Terminus Est instead.\n\n\"Only loved too many men, men other than my husband.\" As if moved by the memory of those embraces, she rose and came toward me. Again the moonlight fell upon her face; her eyes were bright with unshed tears.\n\n\"He was cruel to me, so cruel, after our marriage… and so I took a lover, to spite him, and afterwards, another…\" (Her voice dropped until I could hardly hear the words.)\n\n\"And at last taking a new lover becomes a habit, a way of pushing back the days and showing yourself that all your life has not run between your fingers already, showing yourself that you are still young enough for men to bring gifts, young enough that men still want to stroke your hair. That was what I had left the Pelerines for, after all.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She paused and seemed to gather her strength." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you know how old I am? Did I tell you?\"\n\n\"No,\" I said.\n\n\"I won't, then. But I might almost be your mother. If I had conceived within a year or two of the time it became possible for me. We were far in the south, where the great ice, all blue and white, sails on black seas. There was a little hill where I used to stand and watch, and I dreamed of putting on warm clothes and paddling out to the ice with food and a trained bird I never really had but only wanted to have, and so riding my own ice island north to an isle of palms, where I would discover the ruins of a castle built in the morning of the world. You would have been born then, perhaps, while I was alone on the ice. Why shouldn't an imaginary child be born on an imaginary trip? You would have grown up fishing and swimming in water wanner than milk.\"\n\n\"No woman is killed for being unfaithful, except by her husband,\" I said.\n\nCyriaca sighed, and her dream fell from her. \"Among the landed armigers hereabout, he is one of the few who support the archon. The others hope that by disobeying him as much as they dare and fomenting trouble among the eclectics they can persuade the Autarch to replace him. I have made my husband a laughing stock—and by extension his friends and the archon.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Because Thecla was within me, I saw the country villa—half manor and half fort, full of rooms that had scarcely changed in two hundred years." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I heard the tittering ladies and the stamping hunters, and the sound of the horn outside the windows, and the deep barking of the boarhounds. It was the world to which Thecla had hoped to retreat; and I felt pity for this woman, who had been forced into that retreat when she had never known any wider sphere. Just as the room of the Inquisitor in Dr. Talos's play, with its high judicial bench, lurked somewhere at the lowest level of the House Absolute, so we have each of us in the dustiest cellars of our minds a counter at which we strive to repay the debts of the past with the debased currency of the present. At that counter I tendered Cyriaca's life in payment for Thecla's. When I led her from the summerhouse, she supposed, I know, that I intended to kill her at the edge of the water. Instead, I pointed to the river." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This flows swiftly south until it meets the flood of Gyoll, which then runs more slowly to Nessus, and at last to the southern sea. No fugitive can be found in the maze of Nessus who does not wish it, for there are streets and courts and tenements there without number, and all the faces of all lands are seen a hundred times over. If you could go there, dressed as you are now, without friends or money, would you do so?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She nodded, one pale hand at her throat.\n\n\"There is no barrier to boats yet at the Capulus; Abdiesus knows he need not fear any attack made against the current there until midsummer. But you will have to shoot the arches, and you may drown. Even if you reach Nessus, you will have to work for your bread—wash for others, perhaps, or cook.\"\n\n\"I can dress hair and sew. Severian, I have heard that sometimes, as the last and most terrible torture, you tell your prisoner she will be freed. If that is what you're doing to me now, I beg you to stop. You've gone far enough.\"\n\n\"A caloyer does that, or some other religious functionary. No client would believe us. But I want to be certain there will be no foolishness of returning to your home or seeking a pardon from the archon.\"\n\n\"I am a fool,\" Cyriaca said. \"But no. Not even such a fool as I am would do that, I swear.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We skirted the water's edge until we came to the stairs where the sentries stood to admit the archon's guests, and the little, brightly hued pleasure boats were moored. I told one of the soldiers we were going to try the river, and asked if we would have any difficulty hiring rowers to take us back upstream. He said we might leave the boat at the Capulus if we wished, and return in a fiacre. When he turned away to resume his conversation with his comrade, I pretended to inspect the boats, and slipped the painter of the one farthest from the torches of the guard post.\n\nDorcas said, \"And so now you are going north as a fugitive, and I have taken your money.\"\n\n\"I won't need much, and I will get more.\" I stood up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Take back half at least.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When I shook my head, she said, \"Then take back two chrisos. I can whore, if worst comes to worst, or steal.\"\n\n\"If you steal, your hand will be struck off. And it is better that I strike off hands for my dinner than that you give your hands for yours.\"\n\nI started to go, but she sprang out of bed and held my cloak. \"Be careful, Severian. There is something—Hethor called it a salamander—loose in the city. Whatever it is, it burns its victims.\" I told her I had much more to fear from the archon's soldiers than from the salamander, and left before she could say more. But as I toiled up a narrow street on the western bank that my boatmen had assured me would lead to the cliff top, I wondered if I would not have more to fear from the cold of the mountains, and their wild beasts, than from either." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wondered too about Hethor, and how he had followed me so far into the north, and why. But more than I thought on any of those things, I thought about Dorcas, and what she had been to me, and I to her. It was to be a long time before I would so much as glimpse her again, and I believe that in some way I sensed that. Just as when I had first left the Citadel I had pulled up my hood so that the passersby might not observe my smiles, so now I hid my face to conceal the tears running down my cheeks. I had seen the reservoir that supplied the Vincula twice before by day, but never by night. It had appeared small then, a rectangular pond no larger than the foundation of a house and no deeper than a grave." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Under the waning moon it seemed almost a lake, and might have been as deep as the cistern below the Bell Tower." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It lay no more than a hundred paces from the wall that defended the western margin of Thrax. There were towers on that wall—one quite near the reservoir—and no doubt the garrisons had by that time been ordered to apprehend me if I tried to escape from the city. At intervals, as I had walked along the cliff, I had glimpsed the sentries who patrolled the wall; their lances were unkindled, but their crested helms showed against the stars, and sometimes faintly caught the light.\n\nNow I crouched, looking out over the city and relying on my fuligin cloak and hood to deceive their eyes. The barred iron portcullises of the arches of the Capulus had been lowered—I could detect the roiling of the Acis where it battered against them. That removed all doubt: Cyriaca had been stopped—or more probably, simply seen and reported." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Abdiesus might or might not make strenuous efforts to capture her; it seemed most probable to me that he would allow her to vanish, and so avoid drawing attention to her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But he would surely apprehend me if he could, and execute me as the traitor to his rule that I was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From the water I looked to water again, from the rushing Acis to the still reservoir. I had the word for the sluice gate, and I used it. The ancient mechanism ground up as though moved by phantom slaves, and then the still waters rushed too, rushed faster than the raging Acis at the Capulus. Far below, the prisoners would hear their roar, and those nearest the entrance would see the white foam of the flood. In a moment those who stood would be up to their ankles in water, and those who had slept would be scrambling to their feet. In another moment, all would be waist deep; but they were chained in their places, and the weaker would be supported by the stronger—none, I hoped, would drown." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The clavigers at the entrance would leave their posts and hurry up the steep trail to the cliff top to see who had tampered with the reservoir there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And as the last water drained away, I heard the stones dislodged by their feet rattling down the slope. I closed the sluice gate again and lowered myself into the slimy and nearly vertical passage that the water had just traversed. Here my progress would have been far easier if I had not been carrying Terminus Est. To brace my back against one side of that crooked, chimneylike pipe, I had to unsling her; yet I could not spare a hand to hold her. I put her baldric around my neck, let her blade and sheath hang down, and managed her weight as well as I could. Twice I slipped, but each time I was saved by a turn of the narrowing sluice; and at last, after so long a time that I was certain the clavigers would have returned, I saw the gleam of red torchlight and drew forth the Claw." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was never to see it flame so bright again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was blinding, and I carrying it upraised down the long tunnel of the Vincula, could only wonder that my hand was not reduced to ashes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No prisoner, I think, saw me. The Claw fascinated them as a lantern by night does the deer of the forest; they stood motionless, their mouths open, their raddled, bearded faces uplifted, their shadows behind them as sharp as silhouettes cut in metal and dark as fuligin.\n\nAt the very end of the tunnel, where the water ran out into the long, sloping sewer that carried it below the Capulus, were the weakest and most diseased prisoners; and it was there that I saw most clearly the strength the Claw lent them all. Men and women who had not stood straight in the memory of the oldest claviger now seemed tall and strong. I waved in salute to them, though I am sure none of them observed it. Then I put the Claw of the Conciliator back into its little pouch, and we were plunged into a night beside which the night of the surface of Urth would be day." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The rush of water had swept the sewer clean, and it was easier to descend than the sluice had been, for though it was narrower, it was less steep, and I could crawl rapidly down headforemost." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a grill at the bottom; but as I had noted on one of my inspection tours, it was nearly rusted through." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\nseven sentences\n\nStyle:\nGene Wolfe" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "[ Early Summer and Her Son ]\n\nOn a mountaintop beyond the shores of Urth there once lived a lovely woman named Early Summer. She was the queen of that land, but her king was a strong, unforgiving man, and because she was jealous of him he was jealous of her in turn, and killed any man he believed to be her lover.\n\nOne day Early Summer was walking in her garden when she saw a most beautiful blossom of a kind wholly new to her. It was redder than any rose and more sweetly perfumed, but its strong stalk was thornless and smooth as ivory. She plucked it and carried it to a secluded spot, and as she reclined there contemplating it, it grew to seem to her no blossom at all but such a lover as she had longed for, powerful and yet as tender as a kiss. Certain of the juices of the plant entered her and she conceived." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She told the king, however, that the child was his, and since she was well guarded, he believed her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was a boy, and by his mother's wish he was called Spring Wind. At his birth all those who study the stars were gathered to cast his horoscope, not only those who lived upon the mountaintop, but many of the greatest of Urth's magi. Long they labored over their charts, and nine times met in solemn conclave; and at last they announced that in battle Spring Wind would be irresistible, and that no child of his would die before it had reached full growth. These prophecies pleased the king much.\n\nAs Spring Wind grew, his mother saw with secret pleasure that he delighted most in field and flower and fruit. Every green thing thrived under his hand, and it was the pruning knife he desired to hold, and not the sword. But when he was grown a young man, war came, and he took up his spear and his shield." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Because he was quiet in demeanor and obedient to the king (whom he believed to be his father, and who believed himself to be the father), many supposed the prophecy would prove false." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was not so." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the heat of battle he fought coolly, his daring well judged and his caution sober; no general was more fertile of stratagems and sleights than he was, and no officer more attentive to every duty. The soldiers he led against the king's enemies were drilled until they seemed men of bronze quickened with fire, and their loyalty to him was such that they would have followed him to the World of Shadows, the realm farthest from the sun. Then men said it was the spring wind that threw down towers, and the spring wind that capsized ships, though that was not what Early Summer had intended.\n\nNow it happened that the chances of war often brought Spring Wind to Urth, and there he came to know of two brothers who were kings. Of these, the elder had several sons, but the younger only a single daughter, a girl named Bird of the Wood. When this girl became a woman, her father was slain; and her uncle, in order that she might never breed sons who would claim their grandfather's kingdom, entered her name on the roll of the virgin priestesses. This displeased Spring Wind, because the princess was beautiful and her father had been his friend." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One day it happened that he had gone alone into the world of Urth, and there he saw Bird of the Wood sleeping beside a stream, and woke her with his kisses." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of their coupling were engendered twin sons, but though the priestesses of her order had aided Bird of the Wood in concealing their growth in her womb from the king, her uncle, they could not hide the babes. Before Bird of the Wood ever saw them, the priestesses placed them in a winnowing basket lined with blankets of featherwork and carried them to the bank of that same stream where Spring Wind had surprised her, and launching the basket in the water went away." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing exercise: 5 sentences sentences, scifi, science fiction fantasy, dying Earth, post-apocalyptic genre. go!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The chamber beyond the one in which I had been imprisoned seemed much like it, though its floor was higher." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was, of course, utterly dark; but now that I was confident I was no longer being observed, I took the Claw from its sack and looked about me by its light which was, though not bright, sufficient." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was no ladder, but a narrow door gave access to what I assumed was a third subterranean room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Concealing the Claw again, I stepped through it, but found myself instead in a tunnel no wider than the doorway, which turned and turned again before I had taken half a dozen strides." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At first I supposed it was simply a baffled passage to prevent light from betraying the opening in the wall of the room where I had been confined. But no more than three turns should have been necessary. The walls seemed to bend and divide; yet I remained in impenetrable darkness. I took out the Claw once more.\n\nPerhaps because of the confined space in which I stood, it seemed somewhat brighter; but there was nothing to see beyond what my hands had already told me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was alone. I stood in a maze with earthen walls and a ceiling (now just above my head) of rough poles; its narrow turnings quickly defeated the light. I was about to thrust the Claw away again when I detected an odor at once pungent and alien. My nose is by no means the sensitive one of the he-wolf in the tale—if anything, I have rather a poorer sense of smell than most people. I thought I recognized the scent, but it was several moments before I placed it as the one I had experienced in the antechamber on the morning of our escape, when I returned for Jonas after talking to the little girl. She had said that something, some nameless seeker, had been snuffling among the prisoners there; and I had found a viscous substance on the floor and wall where Jonas lay." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I did not put the Claw back in its sack after that; but though I crossed a fetid trail several times as I wandered in the maze. I never glimpsed the creature that left it. After what must have been a watch or more of wandering, I reached a ladder that led up a short, open shaft. The square of daylight at its top was at once blinding and delightful. For a time I basked in it without even setting foot on the ladder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If I were to climb it, it seemed almost certain I would be recaptured at once; and yet I was so hungry and thirsty by then that I could hardly keep myself from doing so, and the thought of the foul thing that sought for me—it was surely one of Hethor's pets—made me want to bolt up it at once." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At last I climbed cautiously up and thrust my head above the level of the ground. I was not (as I had supposed) in the village I had seen; the windings of the maze had carried me beyond it to some secret exit. The great, silent trees stood closer here, and the light that had appeared so brilliant to me was the filtered green shade of their leaves. I emerged and found that I had left a hole between two roots, a place so obscure that I might have walked within a pace of it and yet not seen it. If I could, I would have blocked it with some weight to prevent or at least delay the escape of the creature that hunted me; but there was no stone or other object to hand that would serve such a purpose." }, { "from": "human", "value": "By the old trick of observing the slope of the ground and in so far as possible always walking downhill, I soon discovered a small stream." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was a little open sky above it, and as nearly as I could judge, the day appeared eight or nine watches over." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Guessing that the village would not lie far from the source of the good water I had found, I soon found that as well." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wrapped in my fuligin cloak and standing in the deepest shade, I observed it for some time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once a man—not painted like the two who had stopped us on the path—crossed the clearing. Once another left the suspended hut, went to the spring and drank, then returned to the hut.\n\nIt grew darker, and the strange village woke. A dozen men left the suspended hut and began to pile wood in the center of the clearing. Three more, robed and bearing forked staffs, emerged from the house of the tree." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still others, who must have been watching the jungle paths, slipped out of the shadows soon after the fire was kindled and spread a cloth before it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One of the robed men stood with his back to the fire while the other two crouched at his feet; there was something extraordinary about them all, but I was reminded of the bearing of exultants, rather than of the Hierodules I had seen in the gardens of the House Absolute—it was the carriage that the consciousness of leadership confers, even as it severs the leader from common humanity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Painted and unpainted men sat cross-legged on the ground, facing the three." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I heard the murmur of voices and the strong speech of the standing man, but I was too far to understand what was said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a time the crouching men rose. One opened his robe like a tent, and Becan's son, whom I had made my own, stepped forth. The other produced Terminus Est in the same manner and drew her, displaying her bright blade and the black opal in her hilt to the crowd. Then one of the painted men rose, came some distance toward me (so that I feared he was about to see me, though I had covered my face with my mask) and lifted a door set into the ground. Soon afterward he emerged from another nearer the fire, and moving somewhat more rapidly went to the robed men to report." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There could be little doubt of what he was saying. I squared my shoulders and walked into the firelight. \"I am not there,\" I said. \"I am here.\"\n\nThere was an inrush of many breaths, and though I knew I might soon die, it was good to hear.\n\nThe midmost of the robed men said, \"As you see, you cannot escape us. You were free, yet we drew you back.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was the voice that had interrogated me in my underground cell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I said, \"If you have walked far in The Way, you know you have less authority over me than the ignorant may believe.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "(It is not difficult to ape the way such people talk, for it is itself an aping of the speech of ascetics, and such priestesses as the Pelerines.) \"You stole my son, who is also son to The Beast Who Speaks, as you must know by this time if you have much questioned him. To gain his return, I surrendered my sword to your slaves, and for a time submitted myself to you. I will take it up again now.\" There is a place in the shoulder that, when pressed firmly with the thumb, paralyzes the entire arm. I laid my hand on the shoulder of the robed man who held Terminus Est, and he dropped it at my feet. With more presence of mind than I would have credited in a child, the boy Severian picked it up and handed it to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The midmost robed man lifted his staff and shouted, \"Arms!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "and his followers rose as one man. Many had the talons I have described, and many of the others drew knives.\n\nI fastened Terminus Est over my shoulder in her accustomed place and said, \"You surely do not suppose that I require this ancient sword as a weapon? She has higher properties, as you of all people should know.\"\n\nThe robed man who had produced little Severian said hurriedly, \"So Abundantius has just told us.\" The other man was still rubbing his arm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I looked at the midmost robed man, who was clearly the one referred to. His eyes were clever, and as hard as stones.\n\n\"Abundantius is wise,\" I said. I was trying to think of some way in which I could kill him without drawing the others down on us. \"He knows too, I think, of the curse that afflicts those who harm the person of a magus.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You are a magus then,\" Abundantius said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I, who took the archon's prey from out of his hands and passed invisible through the midst of his army? Yes, I have been called so.\"\n\n\"Prove then that you are a magus and we will hail you as a brother. But if you fail the test or refuse it—we are many, and you have but one sword.\"\n\n\"I will fail no fair assay,\" I said. \"Though neither you nor your followers have authority to make one.\"\n\nHe was too clever to be drawn into such a debate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The test is known to all here except yourself, and known, too, to be just. Everyone you see about you has succeeded in it, or hopes to.\" They took me to a hall I had not seen before, a place substantially built of logs, and hidden among the trees. It had no windows, and only a single entrance. When torches were carried inside, I saw that its one chamber was unfurnished but for a carpet of woven grass, and so long in proportion to its width that it seemed almost a corridor.\n\nAbundantius said, \"Here you will have your combat with Decuman.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He indicated the man whose arm I had numbed, who was, perhaps, a trifle surprised at being thus singled out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You bested him by the fire. Now he must best you, if he can. You may sit here, nearest the door, so that you may be assured we cannot enter to give him aid. He will sit at the farther end. You shall not approach one another, or touch one another as you touched him by the fire. You must weave your spells, and in the morning we shall come to see who has mastered.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Taking little Severian by the hand, I led him to the blind end of that dark place." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll sit here,\" I said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have every confidence that you will not come to Decuman's aid, but you have no way of knowing whether I have confederates in the jungle outside. You have offered to trust me, and so I shall trust you.\"\n\n\"It would be better,\" Abundantius said, \"if you were to leave the child in our keeping.\"\n\nI shook my head. \"I must have him with me. He is mine, and when you robbed me of him on the path, you robbed me too of half my power. I will not be separated from him again.\" After a moment, Abundantius nodded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"As you wish. We but desired that he might come to no harm.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No harm will come to him,\" I said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were iron brackets on the walls, and four of the naked men thrust their torches into them before they left. Decuman seated himself cross-legged near the door, his staff upon his lap. I sat too, and drew the boy to me. \"I'm scared,\" he said; he buried his little face in my cloak.\n\n\"You have every right to be. The past three days have been bad ones for you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Decuman had begun a slow, rhythmic chant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Little Severian, I want you to tell me what happened to you on the path. I looked around and you were gone.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It took some comforting and coaxing, but at last his sobs ceased.\n\n\"They came out—the three-colored men with claws, and I was afraid and ran away.\"\n\n\"Is that all?\"\n\n\"And then more three-colored men came out and caught me, and they made me go into a hole in the ground, where it was dark. And then they woke me and lifted me up, and I was inside a man's coat, and then you came and got me.\"\n\n\"Didn't anyone ask you questions?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A man in the dark.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I see. Little Severian, you mustn't ever run away again, the way you did on the path—do you understand? Only run if I run too. If you hadn't run away when we met the three-colored men, we wouldn't be here.\"\n\nThe boy nodded.\n\n\"Decuman,\" I called. \"Decuman, can we talk?\" He ignored me, save perhaps that his murmured chant grew a trifle louder. His face was lifted so that he appeared to be staring at the roof poles, but his eyes were closed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What is he doing?\" the boy asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He is weaving an enchantment.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Will it hurt us?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No,\" I said. \"Such magic is mostly fakery—like lifting you up through a hole so it would look as if the other one had made you appear under his robe.\"\n\nYet even as I spoke, I was conscious there was something more. Decuman was concentrating his mind on me as few minds can be concentrated, and I felt I was naked in some brightly lit place where a thousand eyes watched. One of the torches flickered, guttered, and went out. As the light in the hall dimmed, the light I could not see seemed to grow brighter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I rose. There are ways of killing that leave no mark, and I reviewed them mentally as I stepped forward.\n\nAt once, pikes sprang from the walls, an ell on either side. They were not such spears as soldiers have, energy weapons whose heads strike bolts of fire, but simple poles of wood tipped with iron, like the pilets the villagers of Saltus had used. Nevertheless, they could kill at close range, and I sat down again. The boy said, \"I think they're outside watching us through the cracks between the logs.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, I know that now too.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What can we do?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he asked. And then when I did not reply, \"Who are these people, Father?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was the first time he had called me that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I drew him closer, and it seemed to weaken the net Decuman was knotting about my mind. I said, \"I'm only guessing, but I would say this is an academy of magicians—of those cultists who practice what they believe are secret arts. They are supposed to have followers everywhere—though I choose to doubt that—and they are very cruel. Have you heard of the New Sun, little Severian? He is the man who prophets say will come and drive back the ice and set the world right.\"\n\n\"He will kill Abaia,\" the boy answered, surprising me.\n\n\"Yes, he is supposed to do that as well, and many other things. He is said to have come once before, long ago. Did you know that?\" He shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then his task was to forge a peace between humanity and the Increate, and he was called the Conciliator. He left behind a famous relic, a gem called the Claw.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My hand went to it as I spoke, and though I did not loosen the drawstrings of the little sack of human skin that held it, I could feel it through the soft leather. As soon as I touched it, the invisible glare Decuman had created in my mind fell almost to nothing. I cannot say now just why I had presumed for so long that it was necessary for the Claw to be taken from its place of concealment for it to be effective. I learned that night that it was not so, and I laughed.\n\nFor a moment Decuman halted his chant, and his eyes opened." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Little Severian clutched me more tightly." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Aren't you afraid anymore?\"\n\n\"No,\" I said. \"Could you see that I was frightened?\" He nodded solemnly.\n\n\"What I was going to tell you was that the existence of that relic seems to have given some people the idea that the Conciliator used claws as weapons. I have sometimes doubted that he existed; but if such a person ever lived, I'm sure that he used his weapons largely against himself. Do you understand what I am saying?\" I doubt that he did, but he nodded.\n\n\"When we were on the path, we found a charm against the coming of the New Sun. The three-colored men, who I think are the ones who have passed this test, use claws of steel. I think they must want to hold back the coming of the New Sun so they can take his place and perhaps usurp his powers. If—\"\n\nOutside, someone screamed." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "yo can u write like Gene Wolfe using my stuff as a starting point?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Once not very long ago and not very far from the place where I was born, there was a fine farm. It was especially noted for its poultry: flocks of ducks white as snow, geese nearly as large as swans and so fat they could scarcely walk, and chickens that were as colorful as parrots. The farmer who had built up this place had a great many strange ideas about farming, but he had succeeded so much better with his strange ideas than any of his neighbors with their sensible ones, that few had the courage to tell him what a fool he was.\n\n\"One of his queer notions concerned the management of his chickens. Everyone knows that when chicks are observed to be little cocks they must be caponized. Only one cock is required in the barnyard, and two will fight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But this farmer saved himself all that trouble." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Let them grow up,' he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Let them fight, and let me tell you something, neighbor. The best and cockiest cock will win, and he is the one who will sire many more chicks to swell my flock. What's more, his chicks will be the hardiest, and the best suited to throwing off every disease—when your chickens are wiped out, you can come to me and I'll sell you some breeding stock at my own price. As for the beaten cocks, my family and I can eat them. There's no capon so tender as a cock that has been fought to death, just as the best beef comes from a bull that has died in the bull ring and the best venison from a stag the hounds have run all day. Besides, eating capons saps a man's virility." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This odd farmer also believed that it was his duty to select the worst bird from his flock whenever he wanted one for dinner." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'It is impious,' he said, 'for anyone to take the best. They should be left to prosper under the eye of the Pancreator, who made cocks and hens as well as men and women.' Perhaps because he felt as he did, his flock was so good that it seemed sometimes there was no worst among it.\n\n\"From all I have said, it will be clear that the cock of this flock was a very fine one. He was young, strong, and brave. His tail was as fine as the tails of many sorts of pheasants, and no doubt his comb would have been fine too, save that it had been torn to ribbons in the many desperate combats that had won him his place." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His breast was of glowing scarlet—like the Pelerines' robes here—but the geese said it had been white before it was dyed in his own blood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His wings were so strong that he was a better flier than any of the white ducks, his spurs were longer than a man's middle finger, and his bill was as sharp as my sword." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This fine cock had a thousand wives, but the darling of his heart was a hen as fine as he, the daughter of a noble race and the acknowledged queen of all the chickens for leagues around. How proudly they walked between the corner of the barn and the water of the duck pond! You could not hope to see anything finer, no, not if you saw the Autarch himself showing off his favorite at the Well of Orchids—the more so since the Autarch is a capon, as I hear it.\n\n\"Everything was bugs for breakfast for this happy pair until one night the cock was wakened by a terrible row. A great, eared owl had broken into the barn where the chickens roosted and was making his way among them as he sought for his dinner. Of course he seized upon the hen who was the particular favorite of the cock; and with her in his claws, he spread his wide, silent wings to sail away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Owls can see mar-velously well in the dark, and so he must have seen the cock flying at him like a feathered fury." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Who has ever seen an amazed expression on the face of an owl? Yet surely there was one on that owl in the barn that night. The cock's spurs shuffled faster than the feet of any dancer, and his bill struck for those round and shining eyes as the bill of a woodpecker hammers the trunk of a tree. The owl dropped the hen, flew from the barn, and was never seen again.\n\n\"No doubt the cock had a right to be proud, but he became too proud. Having defeated an owl in the dark, he felt he could defeat any bird, anywhere." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He began to talk of rescuing the prey of hawks and bullying the teratornis, the largest and most terrible bird that flies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If he had surrounded himself with wise counselors, particularly the llama and the pig, those whom most princes choose to help guide their affairs, I feel sure his extravagances would soon have been effectively though courteously checked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Alas, he did not do so. He listened only to the hens, who were all infatuated with him, and to the geese and ducks, who felt that as his fellow barnyard fowl they shared to some extent in whatever glory he won. At last the day came, as it always does for those who show too much pride, when he went too far.\n\n\"It was sunrise, ever the most dangerous time for those who do not do well. The cock flew up and up and up, until he seemed about to pierce the sky, and at last, at the very apogee of his flight, perched himself atop the weathervane on the loftiest gable of the barn—the highest point in the entire farmyard. There as the sun drove out the shadows with lashes of crimson and gold, he screamed again and again that he was lord of all feathered things." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Seven times he crowed so, and he might have got away with it, for seven is a lucky number." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But he could not be content with that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An eighth time he made the same boast, and then flew down.\n\n\"He had not yet landed among his flock when there began a most marvelous phenomenon high in the air, directly above the barn. A hundred rays of sunlight seemed to tangle themselves as a kitten snarls a ball of wool, and to roll themselves together as a woman rolls up dough in a kneading pan. This collection of glorious light then put out legs, arms, a head, and at last wings, and swooped down upon the barnyard. It was an angel with wings of red and blue and green and gold, and though it seemed no bigger than the cock, he knew as soon as he had looked into its eyes that it was far larger on the inside than he.\n\n\"'Now,' said the angel, 'hear justice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You claim that no feathered thing can stand against you. Here am I, plainly a feathered thing. All the mighty weapons of the armies of light I have left behind, and we will wrestle, we two.'\n\n\"At that the cock spread his wings and bowed so low that his tattered comb scraped the dust. 'I shall be honored to the end of my days to have been thought worthy of such a challenge,' he said,\n\n'which no other bird has ever received before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is with the most profound regret that I must tell you I cannot accept, and that for three reasons, the first of which is that though you have feathers on your wings, as you say, it is not against your wings that I would fight but against your head and breast. Thus you are not a feathered creature for the purposes of combat.'\n\n\"The angel closed his eyes and touched his hands to his own body, and when he drew them away the hair of his head had become feathers brighter than the feathers of the finest canary, and the linen of his robe had become feathers whiter than the feathers of the most brilliant dove.\n\n\"'The second of which,' continued the cock, nothing daunted, 'is that you, having, as you so clearly do, the power to transform yourself, might choose during the course of our combat to change yourself into some creature that does not possess feathers—for example, a large snake. Thus if I were to fight you, I should have no guarantee of fair play.'\n\n\"At that, the angel tore open his breast, and displaying all the qualities therein to the assembled poultry, took out his ability to alter his shape." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He handed it to the fattest goose to hold for the duration of the match, and the goose at once transformed himself, becoming a gray salt goose, such as stream from pole to pole." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But he did not fly off, and he kept the angel's ability safe.\n\n\"'The third of which,' continued the cock in desperation, 'is that you are clearly an officer in the Pancreator's service, and in prosecuting the cause of justice, as you do, are doing your duty. If I were to fight you as you ask, I should be committing a grave crime against the only ruler brave chickens acknowledge.'\n\n\"'Very well,' said the angel. 'It is a strong legal position, and I suppose you think you've won your way free. The truth is that you have argued your way to your own death." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was only going to twist your wings back a bit and pull out your tail feathers.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then he lifted his head and gave a strange, wild cry. Immediately an eagle dove from the sky and dropped like a thunderbolt into the barnyard.\n\n\"All around the barn they fought, and beside the duck pond, and across the pasture and back, for the eagle was very strong, but the cock was quick and brave. There was an old cart with a broken wheel leaning against one wall of the barn, and under it, where the eagle could not fly at him from above and he could cool himself somewhat in the shadow, the cock sought to make his final stand. He was bleeding so much, however, that before the eagle, who was almost as bloodied as he, could come at him there, he tottered, fell, tried to rise, and fell again.\n\n\"'Now,' said the angel, addressing all the assembled birds, 'you have seen justice done." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Be not proud! Be not boastful, for surely retribution will be visited upon you." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You thought your champion invincible. There he lies, the victim not of this eagle but of pride, beaten and destroyed.'\n\n\"Then the cock, whom they had all thought dead, lifted his head.\n\n'You are doubtless very wise, Angel,' he said. 'But you know nothing of the ways of cocks. A cock is not beaten until he turns tail and shows the white feather that lies beneath his tail feathers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My strength, which I made myself by flying and running, and in many battles, has failed me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My spirit, which I received from the hand of your master the Pancreator, has not failed me. Eagle, I ask no quarter from you. Come here and kill me now. But as you value your honor, never say that you have beaten me.'\n\n\"The eagle looked at the angel when he heard what the cock said, and the angel looked at the eagle. 'The Pancreator is infinitely far from us,' the angel said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'And thus infinitely far from me, though I fly so much higher than you." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I guess at his desires—no one can do otherwise.'\n\nHe opened his chest once more and replaced the ability he had for a time surrendered. Then he and the eagle flew away, and for a time the salt goose followed them. That is the end of the story.\" Melito had lain upon his back as he spoke, looking up at the canvas stretched overhead. I had the feeling he was too weak even to raise himself on one elbow. The rest of the wounded had been as quiet for his story as for Hallvard's.\n\nAt last I said, \"That is a fine tale. It will be very hard for me to judge between the two, and if it is agreeable to you and Hallvard, and to Foila, I would like to give myself time to think about them both.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Foila, who was sitting up with her knees drawn under her chin, called, \"Don't judge at all. The contest isn't over yet.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everyone looked at her.\n\n\"I'll explain tomorrow,\" she said. \"Just don't judge, Severian. But what did you think of that story?\"\n\nHallvard rumbled, \"I will tell you what I think. I think Melito is clever the way he claimed I was. He is not so well as I am, not so strong, and in this way he has drawn a woman's sympathy to himself. It was cunningly done, little cock.\" Melito's voice seemed weaker than it had while he was recounting the battle of the birds. \"It is the worst story I know.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The worst?\" I asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We were all surprised.\n\n\"Yes, the worst. It is a foolish tale we tell our little children, who know nothing but the dust and the farm animals and the sky they see above them. Surely every word of it must make that clear.\" Hallvard asked, \"Don't you want to win, Melito?\"\n\n\"Certainly I do. You don't love Foila as I love her. I would die to possess her, but I would sooner die than disappoint her. If the story I have just told can win, then I shall never disappoint her, at least with my stories. I have a thousand that are better than that.\" Hallvard got up and came to sit on rny cot as he had the day before, and I swung my legs over the edge to sit beside him. To me he said," }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What Melito says is very clever. Everything he says is very clever. Still, you must judge us by the tales we told, and not by the ones we say we know but did not tell. I, too, know many other stories. Our winter nights are the longest in the Commonwealth.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I answered that according to Foila, who had originally thought of the contest and who was herself the prize, I was not yet to judge at all.\n\nThe Ascian said, \"All who speak Correct Thought speak well. Where then is the superiority of some students to others? It is in the speaking. Intelligent students speak Correct Thought intelligently. The hearer knows by the intonation of their voices that they understand. By this superior speaking of intelligent students, Correct Thought is passed, like fire, from one to another.\" I think that none of us had realized he was listening. We were all a trifle startled to hear him speak now. After a moment, Foila said,\n\n\"He means you should not judge by the content of the stories, but by how well each was told. I'm not sure I agree with that—still, there may be something in it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I do not agree,\" Hallvard grumbled." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Those who listen soon tire of storyteller tricks. The best telling is the plainest.\" Others joined in the argument, and we talked about it and about the little cock for a long time." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "expand on the story like Gene Wolfe would" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Before the battle there were other patrols and days of idleness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Often enough we saw no Ascians, or saw only their dead." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We were supposed to arrest deserters and drive from our area such peddlers and vagabonds as fatten on an army; but if they seemed to us such people as had surrounded the steel coach, we killed them, not executing them in any formal style but cutting them down from the saddle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The moon waxed again nearly to the full, hanging like a green apple in the sky." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Experienced troopers told me the worst fights always came at or near the full of the moon, which is said to breed madness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I suppose this is actually because its refulgence permits generals to bring up reinforcements by night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the day of the battle, the graisle's bray summoned us from our blankets at dawn. We formed a ragged double column in the mist, with Guasacht at our head and Erblon following him with our flag. I had supposed that the women would stay behind—as most had when we had gone on patrol—but more than half drew conti and came with us. Those who had helmets, I noticed, thrust their hair up into the bowl, and many wore corslets that flattened and concealed their breasts. I mentioned it to Mesrop, who rode opposite me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There might be trouble about the pay,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Somebody with sharp eyes will be counting us, and the contracts usually call for men.\"\n\n\"Guasacht said there'd be more money today,\" I reminded him. He cleared his throat and spat, the white phlegm vanishing into the clammy air as though Urth herself had swallowed it. \"They won't pay until it's over. They never do.\"\n\nGuasacht shouted and waved an arm; Erblon gestured with our flag, and we were off, the hoofbeats sounding like the thudding of a hundred muffled drums." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I said, \"I suppose that way they don't have to pay for those who are killed.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They pay triple—once because he fought, once for blood money, and once for discharge money.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Or she fought, I suppose.\"\n\nMesrop spat again.\n\nWe rode for some time, then halted at a spot that seemed no different from any other. As the column fell silent, I heard a humming or murmuring in the hills all around us. A scattered army, dispersed no doubt for sanitary reasons and to deprive the Ascian enemy of a concentrated target, was assembling now just as particles of dust in the stone town had come together in the bodies of its resuscitated dancers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not unnoticed. Even as birds of prey had once followed us before we reached that town, now five-armed shapes that spun like wheels pursued us above the scattered clouds that dimmed and melted in the level red light of dawn. At first, when they were highest, they seemed merely gray; but as we watched they dropped toward us, and I saw they were of a hue for which I can find no name but that stands to achroma as gold to yellow, or silver to white. The air groaned with their turning.\n\nAnother that we had not seen came leaping across our path, hardly higher than the treetops. Each spoke was the length of a tower, pierced with casements and ports." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though it lay flat upon the air, it seemed to stride along. Its wind whistled down upon us as if to blow away the trees. My piebald screamed and bolted, and so did many other destriers, often falling in that strange wind. In the space of a heartbeat it was over. The leaves that had swirled about us like snow fell to earth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Guasacht shouted and Erblon sounded the graisle and brandished our flag. I got the piebald under control and cantered from one destrier to another, taking them by the nostrils until their riders could manage them again. I rescued Daria, who I had not known was in the column, in this way. She looked very pretty and boyish dressed as a trooper, with a contus, and a slender sabre at either side of her saddle horn. I could not help thinking when I saw her of how other women I had known would appear in the same situation: Thea a theatrical warrior maid, beautiful and dramatic but essentially the figure of a figurehead; Thecla—now part of myself—a vengeful mimalone brandishing poisoned weapons; Agia astride a slender-legged sorrel, wearing a cuirass molded to her figure, while her hair, plaited with bowstrings, flew wild in the wind; Jolenta a floriate queen in armor spikey with thorns, her big breasts and fleshy thighs absurd at any gait faster than a walk, smiling dreamily at each halt and attempting to recline in the saddle; Dorcas a naiad riding, lifted momentarily like a fountain flashing with sunshine; Valeria, perhaps, an aristocratic Daria." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had supposed, when I saw our people scatter, that it would be impossible to reassemble the column; but within a few moments of the time the pentadactyl air-strider had passed over us, we were together again. We galloped for a league or more—mostly, I suspect, to dissipate some of the nervous energy of our destriers—then halted by a brook and gave them just as much water as would wet their mouths without making them sluggish. When I had fought the piebald back from the bank, I rode to a clearing from which I could watch the sky. Soon Guasacht trotted over and asked me jocularly, \"You looking for another one?\" I nodded and told him I had never seen such craft before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You wouldn't have, unless you've been close to the front. They'd never come back if they tried to go down south.\"\n\n\"Soldiers like us wouldn't stop them.\" He grew suddenly serious, his tiny eyes mere slits in the sun-browned flesh. \"No. But plucky lads can stop their raiding parties. The guns and air-galleys can't do that.\" The piebald stirred and stamped with impatience." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I said, \"I come from a part of the city you've probably never heard of, the Citadel. There are guns there that look out over the whole quarter, but I've never known them to be fired except ceremonially.\" Still staring at the sky, I thought of the wheeling pentadactyls over Nessus, and a thousand blasts, issuing not just from the Barbican and the Great Keep, but from all the towers; and I wondered with what weapons the pentadactyls would reply.\n\n\"Come along,\" Guasacht said. \"I know it's a temptation to keep a lookout for them, but it doesn't do any good.\" I followed him back to the brook, where Erblon was lining up the column." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They didn't even fire at us. They must surely have guns in those fliers.\"\n\n\"We're pretty small fish.\" I could see that Guasacht wanted me to rejoin the column, though he hesitated to order me to do so directly. For my part, I could feel fear grip me like a specter, strongest about my legs, but lifting cold tentacles into my bowels, touching my heart. I wanted to be silent, but I could not stop talking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When we go onto the field of battle—\" (I think I imagined this field like the shaven lawn of the Sanguinary Field, where I had fought Agilus.)" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Guasacht laughed. \"When we go into the fight, our gunners would be delighted to see them out after us.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Before I understood what he was about to do, he struck the piebald with the flat of his blade and sent me cantering off." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fear is like those diseases that disfigure the face with running sores." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One becomes almost more afraid of their being seen than of their source, and comes to feel not only disgraced but defiled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the piebald began to slow, I dug my heels into him and fell into line at the very end of the column." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Only a short time before I had been on the point of replacing Erblon; now I was demoted, not by Guasacht but by myself, to the lowest position." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And yet when I had helped reassemble the scattered troopers, the thing I feared had already passed; so that the entire drama of my elevation had been played out after it had ended in debasement." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was as though one were to see a young man idling in a public garden stabbed—then watch him, all unknowing, strike up an acquaintance with the voluptuous wife of his murderer, and at last, having ascertained, as he thought, that her husband was in another part of the city, clasp her to him until she cried out from the pain of the dagger's hilt protruding from his chest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the column lurched forward, Daria detached herself from it and waited until she could fall in beside me. \"You're afraid,\" she said. It was not a question but a statement, and not a reproach but almost a password, like the ridiculous phrases I had learned at Vodalus's banquet.\n\n\"Yes. You're about to remind me of the boast I made to you in the forest. I can only say that I did not know it to be an empty one when I made it. A certain wise man once tried to teach me that even after a client has mastered one excruciation, so that he can put it from his mind even while he screams and writhes, another quite different excruciation may be as effectual in breaking his will as in breaking a child's. I learned to explain all this when he asked me but never until now to apply it, as I should, to my own life. But if I am the client here, who is the torturer?\"\n\n\"We're all more or less afraid,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That was why—yes, I saw it—Guasacht sent you away. It was to keep you from making his own feeling worse. If it were worse, he wouldn't be able to lead. When the time comes, you'll do what you have to, and that's all any of them do.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hadn't we better go?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I asked. The end of the column was moving off in that surging way the tail of a long line always does.\n\n\"If we go now, a lot of them will know we're at the rear because we're afraid. If we wait just a little while longer, many of those who saw you talking with Guasacht will think he sent you back here to speed up stragglers, and that I came back to be with you.\"\n\n\"All right,\" I said.\n\nHer hand, damp with sweat and as thin as Dorcas's, came sliding into mine.\n\nUntil that moment, I had been certain she had fought before." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now I asked her, \"Is this your first time too?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can fight better than most of them,\" she declared, \"and I'm sick of being called a whore.\"\n\nTogether, we trotted after the column." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\neight sentences\n\nStyle:\nGene Wolfe" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Today, this being the last before I am to leave the House Absolute, I participated in a solemn religious ceremony. Such rituals are divided into seven orders according to their importance, or as the heptarchs say, their \"transcendence\"—something I was quite ignorant of at the time of which I was writing a moment ago. At the lowest level, that of Aspiration, are the private pieties, including prayers pronounced privately, the casting of a stone upon a cairn, and so forth. The gatherings and public petitionings that I, as a boy, thought constituted the whole of organized religion, are actually at the second level, which is that of Integration. What we did today belonged to the seventh and highest, the level of Assimilation. In accordance with the principle of circularity, most of the accretions gathered in the progression through the first six were now dispensed with. There was no music, and the rich vestments of Assurance were replaced by starched robes whose sculptural folds gave all of us something of the air of icons. It is no longer possible for us to carry out the ceremony, as once we did, wrapped in the shining belt of the galaxy; but to achieve the effect as nearly as possible, Urth's attractive field was excluded from the basilica It was a novel sensation for me, and though I was unafraid, I was reminded again of that night I spent among the mountains when I felt myself on the point of falling off the world-something I will undergo in sober earnest tomorrow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At times the ceiling seemed a floor, or (what was to me far more disturbing) a wall became the ceiling, so that one looked upward through its open windows to see a mountainside of grass that lifted itself forever into the sky." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Startling as it was, this vision was no less true than that we commonly see.\n\nEach of us became a sun; the circling, ivory skulls were our planets. I said we had dispensed with music, yet that was not entirely true, for as they swung about us there came a faint, sweet humming and whistling, caused by the flow of air through their eye sockets and teeth; those in nearly circular orbits maintained an almost steady note, varying only slightly as they rotated on their axes; the songs of those in elliptical orbits waxed and waned, rising as they approached me, sinking to a moan as they receded. How foolish we are to see in those hollow eyes and marble calottes only death. How many friends are among them! The brown book, which I carried so far, the only one of the possessions I took from the Matachin Tower that still remains with me, was sewn and printed and composed by men and women with those bony faces; and we, engulfed by their voices, now on behalf of those who are the past, offered ourselves and the present to the fulgurant light of the New Sun. Yet at that moment, surrounded by the most meaningful and magnificent symbolism, I could not but think how different the actuality had been when we had left the ziggurat on the day after my interview with Vodalus and had marched (I under the guard of six women, who were sometimes forced to carry me) for what must have been a week or more through pestilential jungle. I did not know-and still do not know-whether we were fleeing the armies of the Commonwealth or the Ascians who had been Vodalus's allies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Perhaps we were merely seeking to rejoin the major part of the insurgent force." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My guards complained of the moisture that dripped from the trees to eat at their weapons and armor like acid, and of suffocating heat; I felt nothing of either. I remember looking down once at my thigh and noticing with surprise that the flesh had fallen away so that the muscles there stood out like cords and I could see the sliding parts of my knee as one sees the wheels and shafts of a mill.\n\nThe old leech was with us, and now visited me two or three times each day. At first he tried to keep dry bandages on my face; when he saw the effort was futile, he removed them all and contented himself with plastering the wounds there with his salve. After that, some of my women guards refused to look at me, and if they had reason to speak to me did so with downcast eyes. Others seemed to take pride in their ability to confront my torn face, standing straddlelegged (a pose they appeared to consider warlike) and resting their left hands upon the hilts of their weapons with studied casualness. I talked with them as often as I could. Not because I desired them—the illness that had come with my wounds had taken all such desire from me—but because in the midst of the straggling column I was lonely in a way I had never been when I was alone in the war-torn north or even when I had been locked in my ancient, mold-streaked cell in the ziggurat, and because in some absurd corner of my mind I still hoped to escape." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I questioned them about every subject of which they might conceivably have knowledge, and I was endlessly amazed to find how few were the points on which our minds coincided." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not one of the six had joined Vodalus because of an appreciation of the difference between the restoration of progress he sought to represent and the stagnation of the Commonwealth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Three had merely followed some man into the ranks; two had come in the hope of gaining revenge for some personal injustice, and one because she had been fleeing from a detested stepfather. All but the last now wished they had not joined. None knew with any precision where we had been or had the slightest idea where we were going. For guides our column had three savages: a pair of young men who might have been brothers or even twins, and a much older one, twisted, I thought, by deformities as well as age, who perpetually wore a grotesque mask. Though the first two were younger and the third much older, all three of them recalled to me the naked man I had once seen in the Jungle Garden. They were as naked as he and had the same dark, metallic-looking skin and straight hair. The younger two carried cerbotanas longer than their outstretched arms and dart bags hand-knotted of wild cotton and dyed a burnt umber, doubtless with the juice of some plant. The old man had a staff as crooked as himself, topped with the dried head of a monkey." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A covered palanquin whose place in the column was considerably more advanced than my own bore the Autarch, whom my leech gave me to understand was still alive; and one night when my guards were chattering among themselves and I sat crouched over our little fire, I saw the old guide (his bent figure and the impression of an immense head conferred by his mask were unmistakable) approach this palanquin and slip beneath it. Some time passed before he scuttled away. This old man was said to be an uturuncu, a shaman capable of assuming the form of a tiger.\n\nWithin a few days of our leaving the ziggurat, without encountering anything that might be called a road or even a path, we struck a trail of corpses. They were Ascians, and they had been stripped of their clothing and equipment, so that their starved bodies seemed to have dropped from the air to the places where they lay. To me, they appeared to be about a week dead; but no doubt decay had been accelerated by the dampness and heat, and the actual time was much less. The cause of death was seldom apparent.\n\nUntil then we had seen few animals larger than the grotesque beetles that buzzed about our fires by night." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Such birds as called from the treetops remained largely invisible, and if the blood-bats visited us, their inky wings were lost in the smothering dark. Now we moved, as it seemed, through an army of beasts drawn to the corpse trail as flies are to a dead sumpter. Hardly a watch passed without our hearing the sound of bones crushed by great jaws, and by night green and scarlet eyes, some of them two spans apart, shone outside our little circles of firelight. Though it was preposterous to suppose these carrion-gorged predators would molest us, my guards doubled their sentries; those who slept did so in their corslets, with curtelaxes in their hands. With each new day the bodies were fresher, until at last not all were dead. A madwoman with cropped hair and staring eyes stumbled into the column just ahead of our party, shouted words no one could understand, and fled among the trees. We heard cries for help, screams, and ravings, but Vodalus permitted no one to turn aside, and on the afternoon of that day we plunged—much in the same sense we might earlier have been said to have plunged into the jungle—into the Ascian horde.\n\nOur column consisted of the women and supplies, Vodalus himself and his household, and a few of his aides with their retinues." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In all it surely amounted to no more than a fifth of his force; but if every insurgent he could have called to his banner had been there, and every fighter become a hundred, they would still have been among that multitude as a cupful of water in Gyoll." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 9 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Those we encountered first were infantry. I recalled that the Autarch had told me their weapons were kept from them until the time of battle; but if it were so, their officers must have thought that time to be at hand, or nearly. I saw thousands armed with the ransieur, so that at length I came to believe that all their infantry was equipped in that way; then, as night was falling, we overtook thousands more carrying demilunes.\n\nBecause we marched faster than they, we moved more deeply into their force; but we camped sooner than they (if they camped at all) and all that night, until at last I fell asleep, I heard their hoarse cries and the shuffling of their feet. In the morning we were again among their dead and dying, and it was a watch or more before we overtook the stumbling ranks.\n\nThese Ascian soldiers had a rigidity, a will-less attachment to order, that I have never seen elsewhere, and that appeared to me to have no roots in either spirit or discipline as I understand them. They seemed to obey because they could not conceive of any other course of action. Our soldiers nearly always carry several arms—at the very least an energy weapon and a long knife (among the schiavoni I was exceptional in not possessing such a knife in addition to my falchion). But I never saw an Ascian with more than one, and most of their officers bore no weapon at all, as if they regarded actual fighting with contempt." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\nfour sentences\n\nStyle:\nSabaa Tahir\nGenre:\nfantasy, romance, high fantasy, magic, dystopia" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Meherya.\"\n\nMy name drags me out of the past to a rain-swept hilltop in the Mariner countryside. My old home is the Waiting Place—known to humans as the Forest of Dusk. I will make my new home upon the bones of my foes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Meherya.\" Umber's sun-bright eyes are the vermillion of ancient anger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We await your orders.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She grips a glaive in her left hand, its blade white with heat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Have the ghuls reported in yet?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Umber's lip curls. \"They scoured Delphinium. Antium. Even the Waiting Place,\" she says. \"They could not find the girl. Neither she nor the Blood Shrike has been seen for weeks.\"\n\n\"Have the ghuls seek out Darin of Serra in Marinn,\" I say. \"He forges weapons in the port city of Adisa. Eventually, they will reunite.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Umber inclines her head and we regard the village below us, a hodgepodge of stone homes that can withstand fire, adorned with wooden shingles that cannot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Though it is mostly identical to other hamlets we've destroyed, it has one distinction." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It is the last settlement in our campaign." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Our parting volley in Marinn before I send the Martials south to join the rest of Keris Veturia's army.\n\n\"The humans are ready to attack, Meherya.\" Umber's glow reddens, her disgust of our Martial allies palpable.\n\n\"Give the order,\" I tell her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Behind me, one by one, my kin transform from shadow to flame, lighting the cold sky." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A warning bell tolls in the village." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The watchman has seen us, and bellows in panic." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The front gates—hastily erected after attacks on neighboring communities—swing closed as lamps flare and shouts tinge the night air with terror." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Seal the exits,\" I tell Umber." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Leave the children to carry the tale. Maro.\" I turn to a wisp of a jinn, his narrow shoulders belying the power within. \"Are you strong enough for what you must do?\"\n\nMaro nods. He and the others pour past me, five rivers of fire, like those that spew from young mountains in the south." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The jinn blast through the gates, leaving them smoking.\n\nA half legion of Martials follow, and when the village is well aflame and my kin withdraw, the soldiers begin their butchery. The screams of the living fade quickly. Those of the dead echo for longer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After the village is naught but ashes, Umber finds me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Like the other jinn, she now glows with only the barest flicker." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The winds are fair,\" I tell her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You will reach home swiftly.\"\n\n\"We wish to remain with you, Meherya,\" she says. \"We are strong.\"\n\nFor a millennium, I believed that vengeance and wrath were my lot. Never would I witness the beauty of my kind moving through the world." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Never would I feel the warmth of their flame.\n\nBut time and tenacity allowed me to reconstitute the Star—the weapon the Augurs used to imprison my people. The same weapon I used to set them free. Now the strongest of my kin gather near." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And though it has been months since I destroyed the trees imprisoning them, my skin still trills at their presence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Go,\" I order them gently." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"For I will need you in the coming days.\"\n\nAfter they leave, I walk the cobbled streets of the village, sniffing for signs of life. Umber lost her children, her parents, and her lover in our long-ago war with the humans. Her rage has made her thorough." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A gust of wind carries me to the south wall of the village." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The air tells of the violence wrought here. But there is another scent too.\n\nA hiss escapes me. The smell is human, but layered with a fey sheen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The girl's face rises in my mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Laia of Serra. Her essence feels like this." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But why would she lurk in a Mariner village?\n\nI consider donning my human skin, but decide against it. It is an arduous task, not undertaken without good reason. Instead I draw my cloak close against the rain and trace the scent to a hut tucked beside a tottering wall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ghuls trailing my ankles yip in excitement. They feed off pain, and the village is rife with it. I nudge them away and enter the hut alone.\n\nThe inside is lit by a tribal lamp and a merry fire, over which a pan of charred skillet bread smokes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pink winter roses sit atop the dresser and a cup of well water sweats on the table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Whoever was here left only moments ago.\n\nOr rather, she wants it to look that way.\n\nI steel myself, for a jinn's love is no fickle thing. Laia of Serra has hooks in my heart yet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The pile of blankets at the foot of the bed disintegrates to ashes at my touch. Hidden beneath and shaking with terror is a child who is very obviously not Laia of Serra.\n\nAnd yet he feels like her.\n\nNot in his mien, for where Laia of Serra has sorrow coiled about her heart, this boy is gripped by fear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Where Laia's soul is hardened by suffering, this boy is soft, his joy untrammeled until now. He's a Mariner child, no more than twelve.\n\nBut it is what's deep within that harkens to Laia. An unknowable darkness in his mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His black eyes meet mine, and he holds up his hands.\n\n\"B-begone!\" Perhaps he meant for it to be a shout. But his voice rasps, nails digging into wood. When I go to snap his neck, he holds his hands out again, and an unseen force nudges me back a few inches." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His power is wild and unsettlingly familiar. I wonder if it is jinn magic, but while jinn-human pairings occurred, no children can come of them.\n\n\"Begone, foul creature!\" Emboldened by my retreat, the boy throws something at me. It has all the sting of rose petals. Salt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My curiosity fades. Whatever lives within the child feels fey, so I reach for the scythe slung across my back. Before he understands what is happening, I draw the weapon across his throat and turn away, my mind already moving on.\n\nThe boy speaks, stopping me dead. His voice booms with the finality of a jinn spewing prophecy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But the words are garbled, a story told through water and rock.\n\n\"The seed that slumbered wakes, the fruit of its flowering consecrated within the body of man. And thus is thy doom begotten, Beloved, and with it the breaking—the—breaking—\"\n\nA jinn would have completed the prophecy, but the boy is only human, his body a frail vessel. Blood pours from the wound in his neck and he collapses, dead." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What in the skies are you?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I speak to the darkness within the child, but it has fled, and taken the answer to my question with it." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: The user will write a bit then you need to write around three sentences continuing directly from the user's text.\n\nAuthor style: Sabaa Tahir\nGenre: fantasy, romance, high fantasy, magic, dystopia" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The intruders are so far south that when I drop out of my windwalk, the gale that raged around my cottage is little more than a rumor. The Duskan Sea mists my skin with salt, and through the crashing surf, I hear the interlopers. Two men and a woman holding a child, drenched and clambering up the glistening coastal rocks toward the Waiting Place." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They all have the same gold-brown skin and loose curls—a family, perhaps." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The remnants of a ship float in the shallows beyond them and they stumble as they run, desperate to escape a band of sea efrits hurling detritus at them.\n\nThough I remain hidden, the efrits look to the forest when they sense me, carping in disappointment. As they retreat, the humans continue toward the trees." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shaeva broke bones and bodies and left them at the borders for others to find." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I could not bring myself to do as she did—and this is what I get. To humans, the Waiting Place is simply the Forest of Dusk. They have forgotten what lives here." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The few ghosts I have not yet passed gather behind me, crying out at the presence of the living, which pains them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The men exchange glances. But the woman carrying the child grits her teeth and continues toward the shelter of the tree line.\n\nWhen she steps beneath the canopy, the ghosts surround her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She cannot see them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But her face goes pale at their moans of displeasure." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The child in her arms stirs fitfully." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are not welcome here, travelers.\" I emerge from the trees and the men halt.\n\n\"I need to feed her.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The woman's anger swirls around her, tinged with despair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I need a fire to keep her warm.\"\n\nThe ghosts hiss as the forest ripples. The trees reflect Mauth's moods, and he doesn't like the intruders any more than the spirits do." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The last time I took a life with Mauth's magic was months ago." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I killed a group of Karkaun warlords with barely a thought. I use that power again now, finding the thread of the woman's life and pulling. At first, she grips her child more tightly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then she gasps, reaching for her throat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fozya!\" one of the men cries out. \"Get back—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I won't!\" Fozya spits, even as I squeeze the air from her lungs. \"His people are murderers. How many has he killed, lurking here like a spider? How—\"\n\nFozya's words stick in my head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "<How many has he killed—>" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "<How many—>\n\nScreams erupt in my mind: the cries of thousands of men, women, and children who died after I let the walls of the Waiting Place fall last summer. The people I killed as a soldier, friends who died at my hand—they all march through my brain, judging me with dead eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It is too much." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I cannot bear it—\n\nAs suddenly as the feeling is upon me, it fades. Magic floods me: Mauth, soothing my mind, offering me peace. Distance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fozya and her kin must go." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I drain the woman's life away again. She nearly drops the child. With each step I take toward her, she stumbles back, finally collapsing on the beach." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All right, we'll go,\" she gasps. \"I'm sorry—\"\n\nI release her and she flees north, her companions hurrying behind her. They keep to the coastline, casting frightened glances at the trees until they are out of sight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hail, Soul Catcher.\" The scent of salt overwhelms me as the waves foam at my feet and coalesce into a vaguely man-like form." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your power has grown.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why so far inland, efrit?\" I ask the creature. \"Does tormenting humans hold such allure?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Nightbringer requested destruction,\" the efrit says." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We are... eager to please him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You mean you fear displeasing him.\"\n\n\"He has killed many of my kind,\" the efrit says. \"I would not see any more suffer.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Leave them in peace.\" I nod in the direction of the departing humans. \"They are in your domain no longer, and they have done nothing to you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why do you care what happens to them? You are no longer one of them.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The fewer the ghosts I deal with,\" I say, \"the better.\"\n\nThe efrit surges toward me, wrapping itself around my legs and yanking as if to drag me underwater. But Mauth's power shields me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the efrit lets go, I get the distinct feeling that it was testing me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A time will come,\" the efrit says, \"when you will wish you hadn't spoken those words. When Mauth can no longer magic away the screams in your head. On that day, seek out Siladh, lord of the sea efrits.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is that you?\"\n\nThe creature doesn't answer, instead collapsing to the sand, leaving me soaked to the knees.\n\nOnce back in the forest, I pass on a dozen ghosts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Doing so means understanding and unraveling their hurt and wrath so they can release it and move on from this dimension." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mauth's magic suffuses me, allowing me swift, deep insight into the spirits' suffering.\n\nMost take only a few moments to pass. After I finish, I check for weakness in the border wall, which is invisible to human eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The trees open for me as I walk, the path beneath my feet smooth as an Empire road." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It has been like this since I surrendered myself to Mauth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When I built the cabin, wood appeared at regular intervals, hewn and sanded as if by a craftsman. I've never been bitten nor suffered illness, nor struggled to find game. This forest is a physical manifestation of Mauth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Though to an outsider, it appears as any other forest would, he alters it to fit my needs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "<Only so long as you're useful to him.>" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Screams and faces rise in my head again, and this time they do not fade." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I windwalk back into the storm to the heart of the Waiting Place: the jinn grove, or what is left of it.\n\nBefore I joined with Mauth, I avoided the grove assiduously. But now it is a place where I can forget my troubles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It is a vast plain on a bluff high above the City of the Jinn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Beyond the dark sprawl of that eerily silent place, the River Dusk winds, a serpentine glimmer.\n\nI survey the blackened husks of the grove's few remaining trees, which stand like sentinels, lonely between drenching sheets of rain. In the five months since the Nightbringer freed the jinn, I have not seen signs of a single one." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not even here, in the place that was once their prison." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"...guide me to Kauf Prison... help me break my brother out of there.\"\n\nThe words trigger a memory of the gold-eyed girl. I grit my teeth and head to the largest of the trees, a dead yew whose branches are blackened by fire." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Its trunk is deeply scored on either side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Beside it sits an iron chain with links half the size of my hand, burgled from a Martial village." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I heft the chain and bring it down on one side of the tree trunk, and then the other, deepening the score marks. After only a few minutes, my arms begin to ache.\n\n<When your mind does not hear you, train your body." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Your mind will follow.> Skies know who said those words to me, but I have clung to them these past few months, returning to the jinn grove again and again when my thoughts grow unruly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After half an hour, I am soaked in sweat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I peel off my shirt, my body screaming, but I have just begun. For as I heave stones and whip the tree and run the escarpment that leads down to the jinn city, the faces and sounds that haunt me fade away.\n\nMy body is the only part of me that is still human." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is solid and real and suffers hunger and exhaustion just as it always did. Flogging it means I must breathe a certain way, balance a certain way. Doing so takes all of my focus, leaving nothing for my demons." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Once I've exhausted the possibilities of the jinn grove, I trudge to its eastern edge, which slopes down to the River Dusk, swift and treacherous from the storm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I dive in, gasping at the frigid water, and swim the quarter mile across, emptying my mind of everything but the cold and the current." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I return to shore soaked and exhausted, but clearheaded. I am ready to face the ghosts that will be waiting in the trees. For even as I swam, I felt a great sundering of life far to the north." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I will be busy this night.\n\nI make for the old yew to collect my clothes. But someone stands beside it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mauth put an awareness of the Waiting Place into my mind that is much like a map." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I reach for that awareness now, seeking the pulsing glow that indicates the presence of an outsider.\n\nThe map is empty.\n\nI squint through the rain—a jinn, perhaps?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But no—even the fey creatures leave a mark, their magic trailing them like a comet's tail.\n\n\"You have entered the Waiting Place,\" I call out. \"These lands are forbidden to the living.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I hear nothing but the rain and wind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The figure is still, but the air crackles. <Magic.>" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That face flashes in my mind. Black hair. Gold eyes. Sorcery in her bones." }, { "from": "human", "value": "<But what was her name? Who was she?>" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I won't hurt you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I speak as I would to the ghosts—with care.\n\n\"Won't you, Elias Veturius?\" the figure says. \"Even now? Even after everything?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "<Elias Veturius.> The name conjures many images." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A school of stark gray rock and thundering drums." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tiny woman with glacial eyes. Within me, a voice cries out, <Yes. Elias Veturius. That is who you are.>" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That is not my name,\" I say to the figure." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It is, and you must remember it.\" The figure's voice is pitched so low, I cannot tell if it is a man or woman. Adult or child.\n\nIt's her! My heart beats too swiftly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Thoughts I shouldn't have crowd my head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Will she tell me her name? Will she forgive me for forgetting it?\n\nThen two withered hands appear in the darkness and shove back the hood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man's skin is pale as bleached linen and the whites of his eyes are livid and bloody." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though I have forgotten much of who I was, this face is burned into my mind.\n\n\"You,\" I whisper.\n\n\"Indeed, Elias Veturius,\" Cain, the Augur, says. \"Here to torment you, one last time.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write 5 sentences like Sabaa Tahir would, using user's text as beginning" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I reach Aish the next night, well after sunset." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I haven't been here in years—not long ago it was nothing but a seasonal trading post built around an oasis. But since I came here as a Blackcliff Fiver, Aish has burgeoned into a permanent settlement.\n\nLike most Tribal cities, its population is fluid. But the Commandant's assault on Sadh has swelled the city with refugees. The whitewashed buildings, built three and four stories high, are lined with archers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The many gates are flung open, each more crowded than the last with some people seeking shelter and others fleeing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "North of the walls, the Nasur encampment is in disarray." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A steady stream of wounded trickles in—mostly women and children—all speaking of the fall of the city of Sadh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Martials take no slaves, nor prisoners,\" a white-haired woman tells the Nasur Kehanni. \"They just kill.\"\n\nBriefly, I wonder if Laia ever arrived here. She was headed for Aish. <You're here for Aubarit, Soul Catcher. Not Laia.>\n\nTribe Nasur is not the only one taking refuge north of the city gates." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I recognize the green and gold wagons of Tribe Nur, and the green and silver of Tribe Saif. As I survey the vast encampment, searching for the Fakira's wagon, a familiar, dark-haired figure hurries past.\n\nShe holds two injured children, and at the sight of her, I nearly call out. I should know her from my own memories, but instead it is the memories Cain gave me of Laia and Helene and Keris that tell me who she is.\n\nMamie Rila. My adoptive mother." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She hands the children over to a Tribal healer and hurries back the way she came." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then, quite suddenly, she stops short." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tentatively, she searches the darkness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"E-Elias?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Banu al-Mauth now, Mamie Rila.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I emerge into the light." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stiffens and bows her head. \"Of course.\" Her voice is low, but it cannot hide her bitterness. \"Why are you here, Banu al-Mauth?\"\n\n\"I must speak with Aubarit Ara-Nasur.\"\n\nShe considers for a moment, then nods." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If any here see you...\" She sighs. \"They will think you are here to help. Come.\"\n\nMamie avoids the chaotic center of the camp and heads to the outer circle of wagons. The warriors of Tribe Nasur stand guard in the empty spaces, glaring out at the dark, waiting perhaps for the shine of a Martial blade, or worse, the swift-moving flames that herald approaching jinn.\n\n\"There.\" Mamie nods past the guards, to a wagon nestled in the shadows of Aish's wall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you.\" I leave her, slipping past Tribe Nasur guards and toward Aubarit's wagon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Multicolored lamps twinkle brightly within, and when I rap on the door, it opens almost immediately." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Banu al-Mauth!\"\n\nAubarit holds a shroud in her hands, upon which she has sewn the geometric patterns of her tribe, traditional for a burial. She drops into a curtsy, flustered at my sudden arrival, and moves aside to let me in. \"Forgive me, I did not know—\"\n\n\"Sit, Fakira. \" I take salt from the bowl beside her door and put it to my lips. \"Be at ease.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She sits at the edge of her bench, fingers twisted deeply within the shroud, the exact opposite of \"at ease.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Would you like some—\" She gestures to the hot tea on a table beside her bench, pulling another cup from the cupboard above, but I shake my head.\n\n\"Aubarit, I need to know if you—\"\n\n\"Before you begin, Banu al-Mauth,\" the girl says, \"you must forgive us. There have been so many dead—but there are not enough Fakirs. You must be inundated, but the war—\"\n\n\"How many dead since yesterday?\"\n\n\"We've buried two dozen,\" she whispers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was only able to do rites for half. The rest—their souls were already gone. I—I did not want to send you so many—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The import of her words turns my blood to ice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Waiting Place doesn't have too many ghosts, Fakira, \" I say." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It has too few. I passed only a dozen ghosts in the last week. I thought you and the other Fakirs had passed on those killed in Keris Veturia's assault. But if you only did the rites for half, and if the other Fakirs are similarly inundated, then there should be hundreds of ghosts pouring into the Waiting Place.\"\n\nThe Fakira nearly drops the shroud, her fear palpable. \"The wall—\"\n\n\"It holds. The ghosts are not escaping into the human world. If what you say is true, they are not arriving at all. Those who do enter don't wish to move on. Not because of the suffering they endured in life, but because they fear what lies on the other side.\"\n\nA brief terror shines in Aubarit's eyes, but I don't have time for her fear. \"They speak of a great maelstrom,\" I say." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A hunger that wishes to devour them. What do the Mysteries say of this maelstrom? This hunger?\"\n\nAubarit's dark skin pales, her sprinkling of freckles standing out starkly. \"I have heard of no maelstrom in the Mysteries. There is the Sumandar a Dhuka, the Sea of Suffering—\"\n\n\"What is that?\"\n\n\"I—I—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "At Blackcliff, our Centurions would slap us when we were too gripped by fear to carry out an order." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now I understand why.\n\n\"Speak, Fakira !\"\n\n\"And though the Sea of Suffering churns, ever restless, verily does Mauth preside, a bulwark against its hunger.\"\n\nLaia's voice whispers in my mind. <I saw something, Soul Catcher." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An ocean filled with—skies, I do not know.>\n\n\"What else do you know about this sea?\"\n\n\"It is the repository of human suffering,\" Aubarit says. \"All the sorrow and pain you take from the spirits and give to Mauth—it goes into the Sea. As you stand guardian between the ghosts and the world of the living, Mauth is the sentinel between the Sea of Suffering and our world.\"\n\nAubarit puts down her tea, more agitated with every word." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But the Mysteries are vast, Banu al-Mauth. We have no magic to aid us in their learning, only words passed down through the centuries. We do not even know their source. Your answer might be in a part of the Mysteries called the Signs—but I never learned them. My grandfather died before he could teach me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Him and a dozen other Fakirs. The Nightbringer's handiwork." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are there any Fakirs who know the Signs in their entirety, Aubarit?\"\n\n\"Fakir An-Zia,\" she says. \"I do not know if he escaped Sadh.\"\n\n\"There must be some way—\" I stop at the sound of a hurried knock at the wagon door.\n\n\"Fakira.\" I recognize Mamie's voice from outside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Banu al-Mauth, come quickly.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I pull open the door." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Return later,\" I bark, but she blocks the door before I can shut it.\n\n\"Fire on the horizon,\" she says. \"We must flee, or else take shelter in Aish.\"\n\nAubarit clutches the shroud close. \"Fire—\"\n\n\"Jinn, Fakira. \" Mamie grabs the girl's arm and pulls her from the wagon. \"The jinn are coming.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CONTINUE STORY. PARAMETERS: eight sentences sentences, fantasy, romance, high fantasy, magic, dystopia genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As we enter the city, a horn wails. A Karkaun warning call, rousing them from sleep and drink and less savory entertainments. In minutes, the sound echoes across the city.\n\n\"Teluman.\" At my summons, the smith looms out of the night, a group of twenty men behind him.\n\n\"After you secure the drum towers,\" I tell him, \"get to the southeast barracks, in the Mercator Quarter. A good part of their army is there. Burn it down.\"\n\n\"Consider it done, Shrike.\" Teluman moves off, and I turn to Mettias.\n\nI'm heartened to see that though the thud of Karkaun boots closes in on us, the young Pater is unfazed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd have made a good Mask." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Make sure those weapons get to every Martial and Scholar willing to fight,\" I say. \"Get the word out to hold the attack until Teluman sounds the drums. Musa, send a wight to Quin. When he gets through, he needs to bring his forces to Cardium Rock.\"\n\n\"Shrike,\" Harper protests, for this is not part of the plan. \"Grímarr is too well-protected. He'll have the bulk of his men up there. He's luring you to him.\"\n\n\"You are a man of few words, Harper.\" I signal to my men, and we move away from the walls. \"So don't waste the ones you do utter on things I already know. He needs to die. And I'm the one who is going to kill him.\"\n\nHarper looks taken aback, and then laughs. \"Sorry, Shrike.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Musa, Harper, and my last thirty men are behind me as we weave through streets we know better than any Karkaun." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We leave weapons throughout the city, passing through a prearranged system of alleys and courtyards and homes. Everywhere, the Martials and Scholars of Antium thump their fists to their hearts in salute.\n\nEleventh bell tolls. We approach the Hall of Records, a building as massive as Blackcliff's amphitheater. The hall's roof, carved with sculptures of Taius's victories, is held up by stone columns as wide around as trees in the Waiting Place.\n\nWe enter, making our way across a thick layer of ash from the fire that burned here when the hall was hit by a Karkaun projectile. A stone statue of Taius lies on its side, the head broken off and half-buried beneath scattered scrolls and shattered masonry.\n\nThe Hall of Records takes up one entire side of Cartus Square. Palace outbuildings line another side, and shops and businesses the third." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The last side is taken up by a jumble of rock that leads to a vast bone pit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A scarred granite cliff stretches above the pit and at its top—Cardium Rock, where a dozen massive bonfires light up the sky." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As I send men out into the square to kill off any guards, Musa comes to squat beside me.\n\n\"Spiro ran into trouble. He's battling a Karkaun force at one of the drum towers.\" Musa pauses. \"Three hundred men.\"\n\n<Bleeding, burning hells.> At that moment, Harper, who slipped ahead to scout, returns.\n\n\"The palace entrance to the Rock is blocked by thousands of Karkauns,\" he says. \"They're bringing prisoners out from the dungeons and—\" Disgust ripples across Harper's silver face. I move forward to get a better view of the Rock, only to see prisoners being shoved off the top and into the bone pit a hundred feet below.\n\n\"How fast can you get our men changed into the stinking furs the barbarians wear?\" I ask Harper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Before you get up that cliff, Shrike.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Get to the top of the Rock, hide among the Karkauns, and wait for my signal. When the time is right, raise the hells. And—\"\n\nHe meets my eyes, his own burning with battle rage. I want to tell him to be careful. To take no foolish risks. To survive. But such sentiment has no place in war.\n\n\"Don't fail me,\" I tell him, and turn away.\n\nIt is the work of a few moments to flit across the square. Once I reach the pit, I mutter a curse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I thought I could swing a grappling hook up from the furthermost edge of it, but it is too broad.\n\nWhich means I must cross it. I must make my way over the skulls and bones and bodies of the dead.\n\n<You are all that holds back the darkness.> My father spoke so to me, more than a year ago now. I do not think any longer. I simply move, dropping down into the pit.\n\nBones crunch as I land, and soft flesh bursts. I retch from the stench, and the darkness is something out of a nightmare." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It lasts so long." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The pit is a hundred yards wide, but it might as well be a continent. For as I make my way over the dead, I hear things.\n\nMoans.\n\n<Ghosts!> my mind screams. But it is not ghosts. It is something far worse. It is those men who survived the fall. I want to find them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To grant them mercy in this hellish place. But there are too many and I have no time. Teluman has not yet sounded the drums. For all I know, he and his men could be dead, our attack over before it even started.\n\n<Defeat in your mind is defeat on the battlefield!>\n\nA lifetime passes as I walk across the pit, over the rotting flesh of the dead. I know I will never speak of these moments to anyone. For they have changed something inside irrevocably." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If I do not kill Grímarr at the end of this, this will be where I die too, and I will deserve it, because I did not avenge the injustice done to all those whom I tread upon now.\n\nFinally, I reach the cliff. It is rugged and will be difficult to traverse. My eyes adjust to the darkness as much as they can, and I can just make out crags and pits in the rock face that I can use to pull myself up.\n\nI unsheathe my knives, dig them into the rock, and climb. The world below falls away. I still bear the scar of Grímarr's bite. A half-moon-shaped reminder that he sunk his jaws into my city, my people, and sucked them dry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I quench the idea of death and think of how it will feel to hold that bastard's neck in my hands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of how it will feel to break it.\n\nFoot by agonizing foot, I climb. By the time I approach the top, I am covered in sweat and panting, every muscle screaming. I drag myself the final few inches, taking in deep draughts of air as I peer over the edge.\n\nCardium Rock is shaped like a wedge with a flat tip. The narrowest point, where I am, is thirty feet wide, and the broadest is a hundred. At its far edge are three terraced levels for viewers to watch the executions that usually take place here.\n\nRight now, the terraces are filled with Karkauns." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Grímarr, meanwhile, is just steps away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He is naked but for a loincloth, his pale body drenched in blood. He gibbers maniacally—<Ik tachk mort fid iniqant fi!>—as the air around him quivers. The skin where I severed his left arm is pink and scarred, as if he's had months to heal instead of a fortnight.\n\nWhich means that even if he hasn't been able to raise ghosts, he has other magic at his disposal.\n\nA bonfire burns behind him, ringed with guards. As I calculate whether there are enough to be a real threat, the drums thunder out with such force that I nearly lose my grip on the knives holding me in place.\n\n<North tower for the rightful emperor. Attack.>\n\n<East tower for the rightful emperor. Attack.>" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "<West tower for the rightful emperor. Attack.>\n\nA cry rises up, one voice joined by a dozen, then a hundred, then thousands. It is not a cry of sadness or defeat, but of fury and vengeance. Across Antium, the women and children and wounded and elderly who have been at the mercy of the Karkauns take up arms. It is a blood-stirring sound. The sound of impending victory.\n\nI close my eyes and remember Antium falling. Remember my men, possessed by ghosts, killing their own people." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I think of Madam Heera, and the weeping from the brothels." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "<Loyal to the end.>\n\nI vault upward and tear off my hood.\n\n\"Grímarr!\" I bellow his name, flinging three throwing knives at him. But he moves with unnatural swiftness to evade them. Without turning to face me, he laughs, an uncanny cackle.\n\n\"Blood Shrike,\" he says. \"At last.\"\n\nHis men approach, but I spit at his feet, cut my hand, and let the blood drip to the stones of Cardium Rock.\n\n\"I challenge thee, Grímarr.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My voice carries over the bonfires and up the terraces." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"To battle with no steel and no stone, no blades and no bows. Until one of us lies dead.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I cast my scim to the ground, along with the knife belt at my waist.\n\n\"To the death.\" Grímarr turns, grinning, his eyes the pure white of a man possessed. <Ten hells.> Somehow, the Karkaun warlock has managed to harness a ghost.\n\n\"Come then, girl.\" His voice sounds like one overlaid against another, an eerie echo. \"Come to your doom, for with your soul I shall open a door into the hells.\"\n\nThe Karkauns holler in excitement. Grímarr's guards keep their hands on their weapons but step back. The challenge has been accepted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I ignore the warlock's blathering and focus on how I'm going to beat him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ghosts lend humans impossible strength. If Grímarr gets his hands on me, I'm dead.\n\nHe drops into a sort of half crouch, preparing to leap. He is taller than me—wider and heavier too. But the ghost possessing him makes him preternaturally quick. I dart forward, landing two hard jabs on his chest and a kick to his windpipe.\n\nA normal man would stagger. He shrugs off the blows and snatches at my leg when it's still flying through the air." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I whip it out of the way with only inches to spare.\n\nI dart around the bonfire, and he dives for me, hitting me in the stomach so hard that I nearly retch. I elbow him in the eyeball, grimacing as it squelches. When he howls in pain, I escape his grasp yet again. This time, I edge toward the cliff, watching it carefully, allowing myself to get closer to it. Grímarr narrows his eyes and backs away, understanding my intent.\n\nIt appears as if he is retreating from me. Beyond the bonfire, his men jeer at him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "An angry snarl forms on his milk-white face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He speeds forward, impossibly fast. I have only a moment to crouch and barrel into his legs as fast as I can in the hopes that he'll roll over me and into the pit.\n\nHe simply leaps over me. In seconds, he will tackle me and break my neck or spine or both. I spin out of my crouch and swipe up my knife belt, still lying near the bonfire. When I turn, he is there, foam flecking his mouth, eyes that uncanny white.\n\nHe is too strong. I will never beat him in hand-to-hand combat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And as a Martial, I don't bleeding care." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "War has rules—this monster followed none of them. Saving the people of Antium means I must choose between honor and victory. Without hesitation, I choose victory.\n\nHe sees the blade too late. I plunge it into his heart, rip it out, and plunge it in again, and again and again.\n\nHe should not be able to speak. But the ghost in him rages. \"Karkaun—challenge—\" he rasps. \"No—steel—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm not a Karkaun.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I kick up my scim from where it rests near my feet and swing it at his neck." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He blocks the attack, the ghost in him lending him strength when he should be bleeding out, and I dance away from him.\n\n\"You think—you will win,\" he whispers, and now he weaves, having lost too much blood.\n\n\"This is my city. And as long as I have breath left in my body, I will fight for it.\"\n\n\"Cities.\" He drops to his knees. \"Cities are nothing. I am nothing. You are nothing. Ik tachk mort fid iniqant fi. \"\n\nHis shoulders sag, and when I whip my scim across to take off his head, he cannot stop me. Blood geysers over me as I kick his twitching body off the cliff, dig my fingers into his hair, and hold up his severed head.\n\n\"This is your leader?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I turn to his men." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is the man you called king?\"\n\nFor a seemingly unending moment, the Karkauns are silent. The city is filled with the sounds of battle, and in the distance, the lockstep thud of boots echoes. <Quin!>\n\n<Come on, Harper,> I think. <If ever there was a clearer signal than this>...\n\nA cry of victory goes up from the Martial prisoners still being marched through the Karkaun crowd, and all the hells break loose. It begins at the back of the Karkaun throng, but my men move quickly. Fights break out, and the Karkauns shout, grasping for their weapons, realizing that the enemy is among them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I tear another knife from my belt and plunge into the fray." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All of my hate, all of my frustration, every sleepless night during which I raged against my own inaction pours out of me.\n\nWhen the Martial prisoners realize what is happening, they fight too, chains and all. Without Grímarr to lead them and without the ghosts to lend them strength, the Karkauns panic, stabbing and slashing indiscriminately. As they die at the edge of my blades, I hear the phrase Grímarr uttered. <Ik tachk mort fid iniqant fi.>\n\nWithin the crowd of Karkauns, a squad of my men fight their way toward me, Musa among them. I try to join them, but the Karkauns surround us. Musa disappears, his scims flying, and I remind myself to ask him who the hells trained him before I am inundated by the enemy again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soon enough, the sheer number of Karkauns grows overwhelming. Even with the prisoners fighting, we are heavily outnumbered.\n\nI spot raven-black hair and brown skin. Harper appears beside me, blood-spattered and snarling, tearing into the Karkauns with a savagery that matches my own. Kill by kill, we press the barbarians back.\n\nUntil a knot of them comes between us. One of Harper's scims goes flying. I hear the crunch of fist against bone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A Karkaun dagger flashes high and blood geysers in the air." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One second, Harper is there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The next he is not. As I fight, I wait to see him, wait for him to stand up. But he doesn't.\n\nMy mind goes horribly blank. I scream and battle through the Karkauns closest to me, heart thundering in terror. It wasn't his blood. He'd have blocked that attack easily. No. No. No. I should have ordered him to stay in Delphinium." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I should have had him accompany Quin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I shouldn't have tried to take back Antium, not if this was the cost.\n\nAnd now—now—\n\n<Dead.> This cannot be. Harper cannot be dead. For I did not say any of what I should have. I did not touch him or kiss him or tell him that without him, I never would have survived this long. <Dead like Father and Mother and Hannah and Faris and all those who you love—>\n\nSuddenly, he is charging through the Karkauns and beside me once more, limping but alive." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I grab his arm, ensuring that he's real, and he glances up in surprise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You—\" Bleeding hells, I think I am crying. No. It's sweat. It must be. \"You're—\"\n\nHis eyes shift to whatever is behind me. He shoves me aside and impales a Karkaun on the end of his scim. From the south, the drums thunder again.\n\n<Enemy retreat, southern quadrant.> The news gives my fighters and the prisoners new heart. A group of Karkauns, those closest to the palace, breaks away, running for their lives." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Harper grins and turns to me as more and more flee from Cardium Rock. \"They're running!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I nod, but I can hardly muster a smile back. My chest is still tight from seeing him go under, from the fear that grabbed hold of me like a mailed fist, when I thought he was gone.\n\nThe rhythmic march of Martial soldiers grows louder, and even as we follow the fleeing Karkauns, I spot white hair and the sigil of Gens Veturia. I move toward Quin quickly—anything to get away from the thoughts in my head.\n\n\"Ten hells, old man.\" I clap him on the back. \"It took you long enough.\"\n\nHe surveys the Karkauns." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Seems like you have it well in hand. Shall we send them crawling back to their holes?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The night is bloody, but the Karkauns are nothing without their alpha. Those who fight are quickly destroyed. The rest simply run, escaping the city like rats from a ship on fire.\n\n\"Get a message to the southern Paters,\" I tell Harper. \"Tell them those loyal to Emperor Zacharias liberated Antium this day.\"\n\nDawn brightens the eastern horizon, and my men gather on a staircase in Cartus Square. Quin hoists Zacharias's hawk-and-hammer flag atop the palace.\n\nAs he does, Antium's survivors emerge into the streets." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Emaciated Martial and Scholar men, chained but unbroken." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Women clutching weapons in one hand and children in the other. Fighters all.\n\nThe square fills up, and then the streets. I spot Neera in the crowd, and a chant starts up, one that is spoken and whispered at first. Then shouted by all of those who fought for Antium, by all who survived.\n\n\"Imperator Invictus! Imperator Invictus!\"\n\nMy blood surges when I hear it. First in pride. Then in dawning unease.\n\nFor they are not chanting for Zacharias." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They are chanting for me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They should be chanting the Emperor's name,\" I hiss at Quin, who has descended and stands beside me on the stairs. \"Not—this.\"\n\n\"The Emperor is a child, Shrike. A symbol. You are the general who fought for them. You understood the strength of their spirit. And you were fearless. Let them call you whatever they please.\"\n\nMy mind snags on one word: Fearless. For I am not fearless. To be fearless means to have a heart of steel. But my heart betrayed itself. It is soft and hopeful.\n\nAnd I know now that it belongs entirely to Avitas Harper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No matter how I wish to deny it, my reaction when I thought him dead tells me I am fully, foolishly in love with him." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He is the weak spot in my armor, the flaw in my defense.\n\nDamn my traitorous heart to the hells." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Let's engage in a collaborative writing exercise. I'll provide a starting point, and You'll continue with seven sentences in the style of Sabaa Tahir." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "[ The Nightbringer ]\n\nOne evening on my way home from visiting the Ankanese, I stopped to rest and eat south of the Waiting Place, along the shores of the Duskan Sea. As I let the stars and waves lull me to sleep, a flicker caught my eye. A fire burning bright and solitary, the lamp of a wanderer on a great, dark plain.\n\nIt drew closer, and I flowed into my flame form, for this jinn carried weapons in either hand, and though I did not enjoy battle, I was more than prepared for it.\n\n\"Hail, kindred.\" She brought with her the scent of citrus and juniper, her voice husky and accented strangely. \"Will you share your meal? For I have traveled long, with nary a bite. For your kindness, I will offer you a tale. This, I vow.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I confess my bewilderment, for I knew all of the jinn in the Waiting Place, and yet I had never met her.\n\n\"I am called Rehmat and am a creature of flame, like you, my king,\" she said. \"But born elsewhere, that I might live among the humans for a time and understand them. I have bled with them and battled with them, but Mauth bid me join you, for my destiny lies now with our people.\"\n\nRehmat. A strange name. One with a meaning that unsettled me.\n\nShe told her tale, as she promised, and then traveled to the Sher Jinnaat with me. But ever after, she was never content to remain in the wood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A strange mood would overcome her, she would strap her blades across her back and wander, a warrior-poet who found a home wherever she laid her head.\n\nThe first time she disappeared from the Waiting Place, I searched and searched until I found her draped in the branches of a Gandifur tree in the far west, trading poetry with the Jadna tribe—the forebears of the Jaduna.\n\nShe drifted thousands of miles south, to the Ankanese, and taught them the language of the stars. Then she sang stories with the first Kehannis of the Tribes, teaching them to draw magic from words. She found those Tribespeople who saw the dead and instructed them on the Mysteries they would later use to pass ghosts.\n\n\"Why,\" I asked her, exasperated, \"do you always wander so far? Why can you not remain in the Sher Jinnaat?\"\n\nHer smile pulled at my heart, for there was a deep sadness to it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You have found your purpose, my king. You have much magic in you. I still seek mine. When I find my power, I will return. This, I vow.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It had not occurred to me that she lacked magic, for to me, she burned with life and wit, humor and beauty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One day, weeks after she'd disappeared again, I woke from sleep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her anguished voice called to me across hundreds of miles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I made for an island empty of human life, but teeming with every other kind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ocean was peaceful, a brilliant azure, the winds sweet as summer cherries." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I found Rehmat along the northern coast of the island." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She wore her human form, brown-skinned and brown-eyed, with black hair woven into a plait. She rocked back and forth, her arms clasped tight about her legs.\n\n\"Rehmat?\" I cradled her to me, and she dropped her head against my heart.\n\n\"This is an island of death, Meherya,\" she whispered. \"Many ghosts will pass from here. It will not be you who passes them, but another who has not yet come. And you will call her traitor, though she meant no harm.\"\n\nShe screamed, her dark eyes burning into mine. \"The Ember will walk these sands, and here the seeds of his defiance will flower, but for naught, for the forest will call him and suffering will sunder him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thus did we learn Rehmat's power, one far more treacherous than anything we had yet encountered. She foresaw the future. My own ability to scry was limited to impressions, brief images. Rehmat saw possibility after possibility.\n\nShe returned to the Sher Jinnaat, as she promised. But the price was high. She locked herself away in her home and spoke to no one but me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I begged Mauth to free her from the torment of her magic." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But he spoke less and less. We were created to pass the ghosts. Our powers had their uses—and though we might not like it, hers had a purpose too.\n\n\"If only I could master it,\" she whispered to me once after a particularly difficult episode. \"I would teach others. This, I vow.\"\n\nI cared for her during those difficult months, and something kindled between us, a soul-deep fire that others had found but that had, until then, eluded me. My heart was hers, and I knew that if she did not wish to become my queen, I would never have one." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In time, she learned to understand and control her magic. As she promised, when other flames kindled and discovered they were haunted by the curse of foresight, it was Rehmat who taught them to see it as a gift.\n\nAfter she made peace with her visions, she found her poetry again. But now she shared it with me alone, whispering it into the deepest chambers of my heart.\n\nWhen she consented to be my queen, the Sher Jinnaat celebrated for a month. And when we brought our own little flames to the world, the entire city turned out to sing the song of welcome. All was well.\n\nUntil the Scholars came." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After they murdered our children, Rehmat donned her blades once more. She spoke strength into the jinn who yet lived. She used centuries of experience to outwit the Scholars in battle.\n\nBut it was not enough. Even as Cain's accursed coven plotted to chain the jinn, Rehmat fell in combat near the Duskan Sea, where I first beheld her. I pulled her to me as her flame flickered into darkness, and she fixed her liquid-fire eyes on my face.\n\n\"You are strong,\" I said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You will survive this.\"\n\n\"Remember your name.\" There was such urgency to her whisper. \"You are the Beloved. Remember, or you will be lost.\"\n\n\"Do not leave this world,\" I begged her. \"Do not leave me alone, my love.\"\n\n\"I will see you again.\" She squeezed my hands. \"This, I vow.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then her flame faded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But I left her ashen body, for far to the north, a great evil was unfolding." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The imprisoning of my kind.\n\nI tried to stop it. But just like with Rehmat, I was too late.\n\n\"I forsake thee.\" I forced my way to Mauth's domain, to that vast, wretched sea into which I had cast so much human suffering. \"I forsake thee, and I am thy creature no longer.\"\n\n\"Thou wilt always be mine. For thou art the Meherya.\"\n\n\"No,\" I said to him. \"Never again.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I returned to a desolate world. For my Rehmat was gone. My kin were gone, all but Shaeva.\n\nShe died slowly—I made sure of it before bringing her back to be Soul Catcher, before chaining her to the Waiting Place to pass ghosts.\n\nAnd I wept over Rehmat's final words to me, for she took such pride in keeping her vows, and this was one she had broken.\n\nWhat a fool I was. All those years I knew her, she never once broke an oath." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not even the smallest, simplest promise." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why would her last and greatest vow be any different?" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes as Sabaa Tahir" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Night falls reluctantly, as if she does not wish to witness the horrors it will bring. When the stars finally rule the sky, the horizon brightens, glowing orange, then white.\n\nThe jinn approach.\n\n\"We'll need more than magic to survive that, Laia.\" Afya enters the courtyard. Her gaze is trained on the eerie glow of the sky, visible even through the trellises. \"Are you ready?\"\n\n\"Doesn't matter if I'm ready.\" As I dip the last of my arrows in salt, I remember the words I said to my mother long ago, just before I broke Elias out of Blackcliff. \"It's time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Be careful.\" Afya glances over her shoulder at Elias, who sends the last of the Tribespeople into the desert." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't trust him to defend you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I do not need defending, Afya.\"\n\nAfya nods at the flames drawing nearer. \"With that on our tails, we all need defending.\" She clasps my hands and leaves, heading to the edge of the courtyard, where Aubarit and Gibran hitch up the last wagon leaving the city. The air flickers around them—wind efrits who will speed them through the desert. The young Tribesman says something to the Fakira that makes her cheeks rosy. They have spent many hours together, those two, and it makes me smile.\n\n\"Not much time, Laia.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Elias speaks from beside me, though I did not see him approach. \"Shall we?\"\n\n\"Do not windwalk.\" Rehmat's gentle glow flares between us. \"He will sense you.\"\n\nI nod, but say nothing else. My anger toward her has cooled, but she has made herself scarce these past few weeks. Whenever she has appeared, there has been a fractured aura about her, as if her focus is fixed elsewhere.\n\nIt seems to take ages to wind through the city to the abandoned Martial garrison in its center. By the time we reach the building, the jinn have reached Nur, and the screaming has begun." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I smile at the sound. For if one were to listen carefully to those screams, one might notice that there is something off about them.\n\n\"The barbarous keen yokes us to the low beasts, to the unutterable violence of the earth,\" Elias mutters, and when I look at him askance, he shrugs. \"Something the Warden of Kauf Prison said. For once, that evil old bastard was right.\"\n\nIndeed, a human scream is unique because of its rawness. A fey cry, however, is round and clean, without edges. A stone instead of a saw.\n\nIt is the fey who scream now, the sand efrits who are immune to fire, and who agreed to provide a distraction to cover the evacuation of the Tribespeople." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We make our way to the rooftop of the garrison. It is a broad space, scattered with patchy armor, sandbags, and a few piles of pale brick—whatever the Martials failed to take when the Tribes drove them out.\n\n\"Does this remind you of anything?\"\n\nElias looks around, nonplussed. \"Should it?\"\n\n\"Last year,\" I say. \"When we were breaking out Scholars from Martial ghost wagons. Only difference is that now I can do this—\" I raise my hand to his dark hair, pushing it back. \"And Mauth won't give you a splitting headache.\"\n\nHe catches my hand, gripping it for a moment before the Soul Catcher takes hold again and he releases me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I wish you luck, Laia,\" he says." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But I have my own mission. If you're in trouble, I can't help.\"\n\n\"I am not expecting you to,\" I say. \"But if something happens to me—\"\n\n\"Defeat in the mind is defeat on the—\"\n\n\"You Blackcliff types and all your sayings.\" I kick his boot. \"Listen, for skies' sake. If something happens, be a brother to Darin for me. Swear you will.\"\n\n\"I don't—\" He takes in my scowl and nods." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I promise,\" he says." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you, Soul Catcher.\"\n\n\"Elias,\" he says after a moment, the slightest bit of warmth entering those cold gray eyes. \"From you I prefer Elias.\"\n\nNow it is my turn to be stunned. If we were not about to confront the Nightbringer, I would kiss him. Instead, all I can do is stare as he disappears over the side of the building.\n\n<Mission, Laia. Focus on the mission.>\n\nAs I scurry across the rooftop, wind howls out of the south, a spine-chilling preface to the approach of the jinn and their human army." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I look up to find the entire southern horizon obscured by a towering wall of sand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The storm is ten times larger than the one the Nightbringer conjured up in this very same desert the first time Elias and I came through." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And it moves fast—too fast." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When I am only halfway across the roof, it hits, propelling me backward with its force." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though I bend my head against it, the sand is so thick and the wind so strong that I can barely see. I am forced back—finding shelter between a pile of sandbags and the wall—which is no shelter at all. I crouch, coughing the sand out of my lungs, frantically pulling a kerchief over my eyes so I do not go sand blind.\n\nMy plan was to hide in a weapons shed on the other side of the wall. But I cannot possibly make it now. Not before the Nightbringer arrives.\n\n\"I can help.\" Rehmat's glow flickers as thick clouds of sand float through her. \"If you let me in.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Will he not sense you?\"\n\nShe hesitates. \"Yes. But I am ready for him. And this storm, it is hurting you.\" Her form shifts, as if she's fidgeting, and her voice is so soft I almost can't hear it. \"I would not see you harmed, Laia. Whether you believe it or not, I am bonded to you, the way a fine blade is bonded to its maker.\"\n\nLike with Mamie, I feel a sudden flush of warmth at her words. But it is tempered with wariness. Rehmat is so fey. So unknowable. How can I trust her again?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm not ready for you to join with me,\" I say, and she recoils in frustration." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I do not wish to hurt her. But I will not be betrayed again. She has not met the Nightbringer since the flood. This is an opportunity to see if she truly is my ally instead of his. \"Let's stick to the plan.\"\n\nSomething thuds atop the tower. A voice speaks, and I clench the hilt of my dagger, fighting back the urge to disappear, and trying desperately not to give myself away by coughing.\n\n\"Whip up the winds to spread the fire.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Nightbringer's thunderstorm voice rolls across the roof." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And take the storm north. Slow the rats who flee until the Martials can slaughter them.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, Meherya,\" a voice responds. From what Elias told us, it must be Azul, the jinn who can control the weather.\n\nAzul leaves, and the sandstorm howls past, the thick grit billowing toward where the Tribes evacuate the city. Behind me, the screaming intensifies as the Nightbringer's kin set houses alight. The sand efrits, it turns out, are excellent actors.\n\nI tense, hoping to the skies that the Nightbringer does not pay close attention to those screams. But he hardly seems to notice them.\n\nInstead, he stares out at Nur." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In Aish, Sadh, and most of the villages in Marinn, he always found the tallest building in the city from which to witness the carnage. As despicable as it is, at least it's predictable. He bows his head, and something flickers behind him.\n\n<Maro,> Rehmat told me when Elias and I first conjured up this plan. <The jinn who steals the souls for him. The two of them will be distracted by the exertion required to perpetrate such a vile theft. And confused when the souls do not appear. When they are deep in their work, I will tell you.>" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That is all she is supposed to do." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Elias will neutralize Maro." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And I will take the scythe.\n\nThe screams from the city rise in pitch, but the Nightbringer remains immobile. I try not to fidget, waiting for Rehmat to appear. But she does not. Soon, he will realize that we have tricked him. That the screams are not human. What in the skies is taking her so long?\n\nSuddenly, his back goes stiff." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turns toward the sandbags. Toward me.\n\n<Oh skies.>\n\n\"Laia!\" Rehmat whispers in my ear. \"Let me in—\"\n\nI ignore her and stand, dagger high. The last time I saw him, he was not exactly reasonable, but not murderous either. \"Hail, Meherya,\" I say. \"You have something I want.\"\n\nDistantly, a building crumbles, and the jinn fire roars closer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Smoke curls through the air, stinging my eyes, my throat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Come to watch a city burn, Laia?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he says. \"I did not think you had such a taste for blood. Or punishment.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though his presence has always twisted the air around him, the Nightbringer's shadow seems to drag with some new weight. The hatred in his flame eyes is bottomless. He unsheathes the scythe with a flick of his smoky hand and holds it to my throat.\n\nRehmat manifests beside him.\n\n\"Meherya,\" she says. \"Stop this. This is not who you are—\"\n\n\"You.\" He turns his wrath upon her, but the malice drains out of him, and there is only pain. \"Traitor to your own—\"\n\n\"No—never—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you remember nothing?\" he cries. \"Who we were, what we lost, what we suffered—\"\n\n<Laia.> She speaks in my mind. <Let me in. Please. He is lost. He will kill you.>\n\nBut he does not kill me. Instead he lowers the scythe, and I back away, astonished. Waiting for some new cruelty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But he ignores me completely." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Come back to me,\" he says to Rehmat, sheathing the weapon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Help me remake this world for our kin. You were a warrior, Rehmat. You fought and burned and died for our people. For our—our children—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You dare invoke our children?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rehmat's voice is raw and terrible." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she speaks, I shift toward the scythe, readying my dagger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When you murder other children at will? I will never join you, Meherya. I am not who I was. As you are not who you were.\"\n\n\"Do you not understand why?\" he pleads with her. \"I do this because I love. Because I—\"\n\nI lunge for his back, slicing through the straps of the scythe. As he turns, as his fiery hands rise up to snatch it back, I call out, but not to Rehmat.\n\n\"Elias!\"\n\nAlmost instantly, a voice screams out from behind the Nightbringer." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Produce 1 sentence using the prose and structure of Sabaa Tahir every time its your turn using what the user wrote as a seed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Perhaps the shrieking wind from the north is a portent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Spring is not far, six weeks away at most." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And yet the storm out of the Nevennes puts a foot of snow on the ground and howls down the palace chimneys until it sounds as if the place is possessed by ghosts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's not a bleeding portent,\" I tell myself as I lurk near the kitchens." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It was one night. It never has to happen again.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Pardon me, Blood Shrike?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A passing Martial servant glances at me, alarmed, but I wave him off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I've been here for nearly a half hour, contemplating how to ask for the herbs I need without engendering gossip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If there's one thing I know, it's that I do not want children." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ever. Watching Livia give birth taught me that much." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was looking for you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Harper's voice makes me jump and my cheeks burn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's going to be difficult to act like nothing's happened if you blush every time you see me, Shrike.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He holds a cup in his hand, and the smell is familiar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mamie Rila taught me to brew it when I needed to slow my moon cycle at Blackcliff." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Training while suffering cramps was a special sort of hell." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The brew also prevents pregnancy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This might be what you're looking for.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How did you—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You've mentioned you don't want children,\" he says." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Once. Or ten times. And I've brewed this concoction before.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I nod and keep my expression bland." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He's had lovers—of course he has." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Many, I imagine. Though imagining isn't the wisest idea." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The last Blood Shrike didn't want unexpected heirs,\" Avitas says, and the fact that he offers this information with a straight face despite my obvious jealousy makes me want to kiss him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Instead, I nod emphatically." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Right. Thank you.\" I take the cup from him and make a face, remembering how awful it tastes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Harper's eyes drift over my shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you'll excuse me, Shrike.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He disappears quickly, and a moment later I understand why." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good morning, sister.\" Livia comes down the hallway, her guards behind her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And there's nowhere to throw the damned tea." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The only thing to do is drink it as fast as possible, but of course, it's bleeding hot, and I nearly scald my face trying to get it down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Careful there,\" she says. \"You'll burn—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She takes a deep sniff." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her eyes follow Harper leaving." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You—\" she says, a slow smile spreading on her face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It doesn't mean anything.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Two servers emerge from the kitchen holding trays, a Scholar and a Martial." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They giggle together, going silent when they see us, curtsying to Livia before hurrying away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I drag Livia away from her guards. \"Shut it—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your eyes are glowing,\" She hooks my arm in hers and starts marching breakneck toward her apartments." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your skin is glowing. Tell me everything. \"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's nothing to tell!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lies!\" my sister hisses." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You dare deceive the Empress Regent? Tell me, tell me, I need some joy in my life, sister—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We just won back the capital. For your son!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not joy then, romance.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She digs her fingers into my arm, and I yelp as we step out into the storm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I scald my throat as I drink down the rest of the tea, lest someone else smell it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not that it's anyone's bleeding business." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But Paters are more judgmental than a luncheon full of Illustrian grandmothers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Fine,\" I say. \"I'll tell you a little, but get your claws out of my arm, this is untoward behavior for a—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Blood Shrike,\" Pater Mettias calls out from across the snowy courtyard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Empress Regent.\" His gaze lingers on my sister." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Captain Dex bid me find you. Another food shipment just arrived from Pater Lenidas's northern estate, along with a messenger. And there are emissaries from Gens Candela and Gens Visselia. They await you in the throne room.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you, Pater Mettias.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Livia glances at me, one eyebrow arched. <We'll talk later.>" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she departs, I notice how Mettias's eyes follow her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His normally grim face is softer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He shakes himself and looks back at me quickly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Interesting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gens Mettia is powerful." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Having its Pater on our side has been invaluable." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But having him bonded to us more tightly would give Gens Aquilla unquestionable legitimacy with all of the northern Gens." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"—another messenger.\" I realize too late that Pater Mettias has been speaking for a few seconds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She's in your quarters, under guard.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Under guard?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Mariner, Shrike.\" Pater Mettias gives me an odd look, likely because he's already said this." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She said her message is urgent.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I leave him and return to my quarters inside the palace, I am unsurprised to see Musa approaching." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dex follows him, looking irritated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You didn't need to lock her up,\" the tall Scholar says to me without preamble." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know her. She's not dangerous.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's just protocol,\" I tell him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We caught another assassin at the gates three days ago. I have to question her. Alone. Don't go far. If I need you, I'll call you in.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dex and I enter my quarters, where two legionnaires wait with a third person." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She is taller than me and wears the blue-and-silver cloak of the Mariner army." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her dark skin is dirt-smudged, and she has a dozen wounds that are fresh-dressed and seeping blood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her hair is straight and clipped short against her head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After a moment of staring, I recognize her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Eleiba,\" I say. \"Guard to Nikla. Did your queen send you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Blood Shrike.\" She bows her head in brief acknowledgment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you for meeting with me. I am formerly of Princess Nikla's guard, but have since been disgraced in her eyes. I was released from service for arguing against an alliance with Empress Keris Veturia.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To my surprise, the woman drops to one knee." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I come to you now not as a formal ambassador or emissary, but as a Mariner who fears for the survival of our kingdom. We are in desperate need of your aid, Blood Shrike.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My stomach sinks, and I think of our spies, gone silent in Marinn, and the storms that have kept the kingdom isolated." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sit down.\" I pull out a seat for her. \"And tell me everything.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "AI writing task: user input -> 2 sentences sentences. genre: fantasy, romance, high fantasy, magic, dystopia." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The moon is high and fat when Elias finds Darin and me sitting atop a boulder on the rim of the canyon. I sense the Soul Catcher before I see him, the way you feel the air quiver when a falcon stoops for prey." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What is it?\" As I jerk my head up, Darin draws his scim, for we are on guard duty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What do you see?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My heart thuds against my chest like a penned bull as Elias approaches. Darin spots him and groans." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can I kick him?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "my brother asks. \"I'm going to kick him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He saved your life, Darin.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A small kick,\" he argues. \"It wouldn't even hurt him. Look at him, skies. It would probably break my foot.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No.\"\n\n\"Fine.\" Darin grabs his pack, ignoring the Soul Catcher's nod of greeting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can tell when I'm not wanted.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Once past Elias, my brother turns around and mimes a kick, grinning." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Skies. Brothers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Any progress with the Tribes?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I ask Elias, for when I came up here, the Zaldars were still arguing over whether to leave for Adisa or try to fight for Aish.\n\nElias shakes his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Most wish to fight for Aish,\" he says. \"Few wish to go to Marinn.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My fingers tighten around the staff of the scythe. The blade is folded into a slot in the wood, and it appears for all the world like nothing more than a fine walking stick." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Which is essentially what it will be if I cannot get to the Nightbringer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And if Mamie cannot find his story.\n\nNone of us have slept for the past few nights, knowing now what the jinn king intends to do with all his soul thieving." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I shiver, dread crawling over me like a carpet of spiders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Elias clears his throat and nods to the rock. \"Do you mind?\"\n\nI shift over quickly, surprised." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He always seems like he struggles to even be near me. But I do not ask questions, instead letting myself enjoy the warmth of his body so close to mine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's a two-month journey to Adisa from here.\" He stretches his long legs in front of him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If we can get ships to take us across the Duskan Sea. If we survive the Commandant's blockade. And if the weather holds.\"\n\n\"You could order the Tribespeople to follow you,\" I say." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Banu al-Mauth's word carries great weight. And they have trusted you thus far.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Only to see their cities destroyed—\"\n\n\"Only to survive,\" I say." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you had not mobilized them, Nur and its people would be ash.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You said something to me a few weeks ago,\" Elias says. His hands are upturned and he runs a thumb across a callous, worrying at it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You cannot lead them if you do not understand them. Now I understand the Tribes. I understand their fear. They do not wish to die. And if we go to Adisa to fight, we take them to their deaths. Besides which, I wonder if we won't be playing right into the Nightbringer's hands by going to Marinn.\"\n\n\"You think he's trying to lure us there?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I think we shouldn't be reactionary,\" Elias says. \"We need to consider.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We can't consider for much longer,\" I say. \"Spring is only a few weeks away. In flowerfall, the orphan will bow to the scythe. I think—\" I shudder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I think that prophecy speaks of me—\"\n\nI cannot finish the thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Are there people in the world who still experience happiness? Enjoy it, I want to tell those people." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "<Enjoy it, because soon it might all be gone.>\n\nElias shifts closer, and his arm comes around me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He might as well have transformed into a talking rabbit, I am so surprised.\n\n\"You did say to be more human—\" He quickly lets go." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You looked sad, so...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No.\" I return his wrist to my shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's fine. Though if you're going to comfort me, your embrace should be less like a tree branch and more like a—a shawl.\"\n\n\"A shawl?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of course, I had to pick a singularly unromantic word." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Like this.\" I let my own arm rest naturally about his waist. \"We're not drunken schoolfellows singing chanties about wanton fishwives. We are—you and I—we—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I do not know what we are." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I search his face, wondering if I'll ever see the answer there. But he tilts it up to the glittering sweep of the sky, so that I cannot see his expression." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still, after a half dozen too-swift thuds of my heart, his arm relaxes, muscle by muscle, until it is draped comfortably across my back. His big hand encircles my hip, and when he pulls me closer, it feels as though all the heat in my body has pooled beneath his fingers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For all that he is the Banu al-Mauth, he still smells of spice and rain. I forget the cold and breathe him in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is not all that I wanted. But it is not nothing either." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wait for him to pull away, but he does not. Slowly, the tension eases out of me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With him beside me, I feel more myself. Strong. And less alone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you think the jinn know?\" I ask him. \"What will happen if the Nightbringer releases the Sea?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They must at least suspect.\" The rumble of Elias's baritone hums through my body." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They are not fools.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then why support him?\" I say. \"To be imprisoned for a thousand years and then released only to wreak havoc and die—it seems like a terrible waste.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Perhaps imprisonment drove them mad.\"\n\nBut that doesn't feel right." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's not madness that grips the Nightbringer,\" I say. \"It is intent. He wants to destroy everything. I think he's hiding that fact from his kin.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I shiver. \"Yet he claims to love them. He does love them.\"\n\nFootsteps crunch behind us, and we jump away from each other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Banu al-Mauth!\" Gibran and Aubarit approach, and the latter bows her head in respect and then smacks Gibran, who quickly does the same.\n\n\"Dinner's ready, Laia,\" Gibran says." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Afya sent us up to take over.\"\n\nWhen Elias and I reach the canyon floor, he disappears, his eyes far away in that manner that tells me he's working through a problem." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Most of the Tribespeople have bedded down for the night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Those few remaining sit around the fire quietly, any arguing drowned out by the lonely wind wailing down the canyon, trying its best to put out our flames." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Bleeding cold.\" Afya's teeth chatter around her spoon. \"And there's little enough wood. We won't be able to stay here much longer.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you change any minds?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My Tribe will stay, as will Mamie's and Aubarit's,\" Afya says." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The rest plan to leave at first light. They hope to take back Aish.\"\n\n\"Aish won't matter,\" Darin says from where he hunches by the fire, \"if the Nightbringer sets that maelstrom free and kills everyone.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I leave Afya and Darin and turn to Mamie, just a few yards away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Though it is cold enough that the stream has iced over, she sits on the earth of the canyon, staring up at the stars." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can't sleep?\" I ask her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not when I know that the story is out there, waiting for me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mamie turns to me, her dark gaze piercing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I feel it on you, Laia. Near you. Part of you, almost. Think again on all you know. There must be something you've forgotten. Some bit of the story locked away in your mind. When the Augur died—what did he tell Elias again?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He said to go back to the beginning— \"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What about the book?\" Darin comes to sit beside us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't suppose there's anything in there?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I look at him askance. \"What book?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The book I gave you.\" He looks offended. \"Back in the Empire. Just before you headed south.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At my blank stare, he shoves my shoulder. \"Well, hells, Laia, it's nice to know my sister appreciates my thoughtfulness. When we parted ways, I gave you a gift, remember? I found it in Adisa.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I run for my rucksack in Mamie's wagon and bring back an oilcloth-wrapped package. The string is stiff from the floodwaters when I lost my pack, and I have to cut it open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wrapped tight within is a worn book bound in soft leather.\n\n<Gather in the Dark,> it says." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why does this look familiar?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You were reading it,\" Darin says." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Before the raid. Before the Mask came—before Nan and Pop—\" He stops and clears his throat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Anyway. You were reading it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I think of the Augur's prophecy, and despite the fire and my cloak, I am suddenly shivering." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Go back to the beginning.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I turn to Mamie. \"Could this—\"\n\nShe has already taken the book from me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes,\" she breathes. \"This is what I needed. What I've been waiting for.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I open my hand, hoping she'll return it." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She ignores me and stands, her frustration replaced by single-minded determination.\n\n\"Shouldn't I read it—\" I call after her. But she waves me off, the book tucked under her arm as she seeks a story in a place I cannot follow." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding eight sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Zaldars do not take kindly to being woken up in the middle of the night. Especially when most were planning on leaving at dawn.\n\nSo I make them an enormous pot of hot, sweetened tea, as Mamie Rila used to do in the deep winter.\n\n\"More honey,\" Laia whispers after tasting it, surreptitiously raiding Mamie's rapidly shrinking stash.\n\nWhen the tea has been passed around, and the Zaldars—along with Fakirs and Kehannis—are settled around a large fire, I make my case.\n\n\"We must fight the Nightbringer, for the survival of the world depends on us defeating him.\" A low grumble starts up, and I speak over it. \"But we cannot go to Adisa. It is a two-month journey, at least, over Martial-infested lands and treacherous seas. And we do not know if the Mariners will still be fighting by then, or if Keris and the jinn will have defeated them.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Get to the point.\" The Zaldar of Tribe Shezaad speaks so insolently that his Fakira, a woman Mamie's age and dressed in black, slaps him on the back of the head. He ducks, gaze as surly as an alley cat's.\n\n\"We take a shorter journey, to the Sher Jinnaat, the City of the Jinn, deep within the Waiting Place.\" I consider my words carefully, for I'll have this one chance to convince them. \"Everything the Nightbringer has ever done has been for his people. He will not allow them to be killed. We can draw him and his army away from Marinn and to a place where we have an advantage.\"\n\n\"How do we have an advantage if it's their city?\" another Zaldar asks. \"They will tear through our army with their fire.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Most of the jinn in the city are still weak.\" Laia speaks up. \"They have not recovered from their imprisonment.\"\n\n\"An army of four thousand Tribespeople and a thousand efrits is no small thing,\" Afya says. \"The Nightbringer will know we are coming.\"\n\n\"Not if Elias and I are hidden,\" Laia cuts in. \"Darin too. We can disguise our fighters and supplies. From a distance, the army will just look like a band of refugees.\"\n\n\"We like this not, Soul Catcher.\" Rowan Goldgale sweeps forward, his fellow efrit lords following." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We will not stand for a massacre. We have witnessed too many.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The goal is not to kill the jinn,\" I say. \"It's to draw the Nightbringer away from the Free Lands so that he no longer reaps souls. So the Mariner armies can regroup. The Mariners are our allies. They offered sanctuary to the Scholars when the Tribes could not. It is wrong to abandon them when our foe is the same.\"\n\n\"You say our,\" the Nasur Kehanni points out. \"But you are a Martial.\"\n\n\"He is the Banu al-Mauth, Kehanni.\" Aubarit's voice is ice, and she is no longer the scared girl I met one winter ago. \"The Chosen of Death. Have a care in how you speak to him, lest I leave your soul to wander.\"\n\nThe Kehanni bites back whatever retort she had prepared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Mariners did not aid us,\" she points out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sadh and Aish and Nur burned, and we heard nothing from them.\"\n\nAn old emotion rises in me. One of the first I felt, when Cain awoke my memories. Anger—at the stubbornness of nearly everyone here, at their cussed refusal to see.\n\nBut I catch myself. The Zaldars fear they'll lead those they love to a swift death. They are afraid we'll fail. The Kehanni of Tribe Nasur fears the same." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is a risk,\" I say." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But this way, we force the Nightbringer to act. To come to us. We prepare for his attack, and when he comes, we hold off the army as long as possible so—\"\n\nI look to Laia, standing in the shadows, hand gripped tight around her scythe.\n\n\"So that I can kill him,\" she says.\n\nI say nothing of my plan to speak to the jinn in the Sher Jinnaat, to try to persuade them to serve as Soul Catchers once more. Doing so will only complicate matters.\n\n\"What other choice do we have?\" Afya speaks out. \"We arrive in Marinn in time to be massacred? We wait here, until either this maelstrom destroys us or the Commandant does? Our suffering begins and ends with the Nightbringer. Let us finish him.\"\n\n\"If she can finish him,\" the Zaldar of Tribe Shezaad says." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Give the scythe to someone who can wield it. Why not you, Soul Catcher?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My ire rises, and I find my fists are clenched, but I keep silent, for Laia steps forward, dark eyes reflecting the flames as she regards the Zaldar.\n\n\"How many times have you faced the Nightbringer and survived, Zaldar ?\"\n\nThe man fidgets from foot to foot.\n\n\"I have defied him and survived him again and again. He has tried to hurt me. But I will not allow myself to be hurt. He has tried to break me. But I will not allow myself to be broken. And I will not be dictated to by a man so afraid to fight the jinn that he must criticize a woman to make himself feel bigger.\"\n\n\"If we bring the fight to the Sher Jinnaat,\" I say, \"we choose our own destiny, instead of letting the jinn and Keris Veturia choose for us.\"\n\n\"I want vengeance on those herrisada for what they did to our cities,\" Afya says. \"To our people. Tribe Nur is with you, Banu al-Mauth.\" Her fighters are arrayed behind her, and as one, they raise their fists and shout one word." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"NUR!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You are our Banu al-Mauth.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shan, sitting beside Mamie Rila, looks back at the Saif fighters. \"But you are also our brother.\" He takes Mamie's hand. \"Tribe Saif is with you.\"\n\nThis time, Tribe Saif's fighters call out. \"SAIF!\"\n\n\"The Martials are with you.\" Jans Aquillus, leader of the Martial legion, steps forward. Seconds later, Rowan Goldgale joins him." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "AI Prompt: Generate 4 sentences sentences. Adhere to fantasy, romance, high fantasy, magic, dystopia genre conventions." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The palace hallways feel strangely empty without Livia. Before, her ladies-in-waiting were out and about, running errands for her, and she was only ever in her room to sleep.\n\nNow soldiers are everywhere, auxes and legionnaires in their dark fatigues. Masks in their bloody red capes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I pass Quin Veturius near the training yard, Pater Mettias at his side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They salute, breath clouding in the frigid air, but both have a question in their eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "<Why are we still here, Blood Shrike?>\n\nAntium's army is outfitted, armed, and ready to move south. A hundred barges wait along the River Rei to bear my men to Silas. And onward to Serra, Navium, and victory." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The scouts have already sent back their reports: the way is clear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Paters of the advisory council, Quin and Mettias included, grow impatient with me. We finally have the forces to seize Keris's territory. And though she's left thousands of soldiers to guard her cities, she herself is away, fighting the Nightbringer's war in Marinn.\n\nI should order my troops south." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I should take back the Empire for my nephew." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But I don't give the command." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because it's too easy.\n\nKeris's plans are always more layered than they first appear. The Commandant wouldn't just leave the south open to me. She's up to something." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I walk through the freezing palace, I search for a flash of color amid the drear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Musa can always be counted on to wear at least one loud item of clothing—and I need his information now.\n\nSomething flickers near my ear. \"Thank the skies,\" I say. \"Tell your master to stop spying on me and to come see me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I turn toward my quarters." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I need his—ow!\" I hiss at the sight of a welt blooming on my hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did you bite me?\"\n\nIt bites me again, but this time flickers into view, iridescent wings fluttering. Its body is vaguely human, but green and covered in soft yellow down.\n\nBut it is the wight's face that catches my eye before it disappears again. Frantic. Sad." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What's happening?\" I reach for my scim." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is Musa all right?\"\n\nThe wight flickers ahead of me, and I hurry after it as it guides me to Musa's quarters. But once there, no one answers at my knock.\n\n\"Musa,\" I call out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you in there?\" The wight buzzes around me frantically, and I curse, looking left and right. Of course, the moment I need soldiers, there are none around.\n\n\"Scholar!\" I shout. \"I'm coming in.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I take a few steps back and then kick the door in, scims out, expecting..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I don't know. The Commandant again. A jinn.\n\nMusa's sitting room is empty, and it's not until I enter the bedroom that I see his crumpled form slumped against the bedframe.\n\n\"Musa—\" I'm at his side in two steps. His eyes are red, his face wet and haggard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What the hells happened? Poison? What did you ea—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then I see a parchment in his hands. I take it from him gently. The missive is from Eleiba, and it is not long.\n\nAyo has fallen. Adisa has fallen. Thousands dead." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Princess Nikla killed defending King Irmand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Both murdered by Keris Veturia. Request immediate aid.\n\n\"Oh bleeding hells.\" I sit down next to him. \"Skies, Musa. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.\"\n\nThe paper falls. He sinks his face into his knees and weeps." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I have no idea what to say. His grief is raw and unabashed and so very different from my own. After a moment, I take his hand, because it seems like something Laia might do. He grips it tight as he sobs, and my eyes grow hot as I watch him grapple with the horror of losing the love of his life as well as his king." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Shrike?\" a voice calls from the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Harper scans the room, scims in hand. \"The wights called me.\"\n\n\"It's clear,\" I say. He sheathes his blades as I hand him the note." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Our eyes meet over Musa's head, and I know he is thinking what I am: Keris Veturia needs to bleeding die." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a moment, Harper kneels down, and I scramble back, thankful that someone else has come. Someone who will know how to deal with Musa's pain. But the Scholar does not release my hand.\n\n\"I shouldn't mourn her.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He wipes his face, and I almost don't hear him. \"She jailed my father. Took my lands. My title. The Scholars suffered under her rule.\"\n\n\"She sounds...\" Horrible, I think. \"Complicated.\" I wince as soon as I say it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But Musa chuckles unexpectedly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We got married a decade ago. I was eighteen. She was nineteen. Her brother was crown prince, but he died of an illness and the palace healer—my father—couldn't save him. She—\" He shakes his head. \"Grief took her. The ghuls found ripe prey with her, and they nibbled at her mind for years. And when I spoke of them to her, she called me insane. King Irmand was so grief-stricken after his son's death that he did not see what was happening to his daughter.\"\n\n\"My father died in prison. My mother soon after. And yet—\" He looks between Harper and me. \"I still loved her. I shouldn't have, but I did.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "His hands curl into fists." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Keris slaughtered Nikla's guards. Stabbed her through the—the chest and pinioned her to the walls of her palace. Then—killed her father in front of her. The ghuls finished her off.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Skies above. The details unsettle me because they are so barbarous. So vile.\n\nBut also because of the timing. First Livia. Now Nikla. These murders are targeted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Keris knows how essential Musa and his wights are." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She is trying to weaken us.\n\n\"I have to go to Marinn,\" Musa says. \"Find Keris. Kill her. Nikla's heir is a first cousin. Skies know if he's still alive, but he's young. He'll need help.\"\n\nI look at Harper helplessly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How do I tell Musa the Commandant is manipulating him when his heart is broken?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I wish Laia were here. Or Livia.\n\nBut it must be me. And in that moment, it hits me that with Livia gone, and until Zacharias comes of age, it will always be me. For a thousand things I don't wish to do." }, { "from": "human", "value": "<Damn you, Keris.>" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Musa, this is a great blow,\" I venture, and as he searches my face, I am thankful for the first time that I do not have my mask. \"I have been a victim of Keris's cruelty also. And it is never without intent.\"\n\n\"You want me to stay,\" he says. \"But the Mariners were my people first. They need me. And you owe me a favor, Shrike.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I know that,\" I say. \"If you still want to go tomorrow, then I will offer you my best horse, and an escort. All I ask is that before you leave, consider all you know of Keris Veturia. She is manipulative. Ruthless. She kills who she must to weaken her foes.\"\n\nMusa is silent. But at least he's listening.\n\n\"She wants you angry. Alone. On your way to the Free Lands instead of working against her. Your people are here, Musa. Thousands of Scholars that Nikla drove out. They look to you too.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I will wait until tomorrow,\" Musa says." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But if I wish to leave, you cannot keep me here.\"\n\n\"I won't. I swear it.\"\n\nWe leave him then, and though I wish to put guards outside his door to protect him, I do not want him to think I'm locking him in. His wights, I hope, will keep him safe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All the way to Avitas's quarters, where we can speak without interruption, I think of Musa's cries. The way he sounded as if his soul had been dug out of his body.\n\n\"We cannot let him go,\" Avitas says as soon as we enter his room. \"He is too important. What if we—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Emifal Firdaant,\" I interrupt Harper. <May death claim me first.>\n\n\"What does that mean?\"\n\nI do not answer, instead drawing him toward me with the strap of his scim." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I kiss him, trying to put all that I cannot say into that kiss. His hands land on my hips, pulling me closer, and then he is unbuckling my armor.\n\nNow is not the time for this, I know. I should speak to our spies again and try to figure out what Keris is up to." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I should find Quin and ask him if he really thinks we should head south." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I should break away. Because every time I touch Harper, I fall deeper into a place I know I will not be able to emerge from, should I lose him.\n\nMy soul aches with all that I should do. It weighs on me like a mountain, and I cannot bear it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So I lead him to his bed, to do what I wish, not what I should." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And hope that I will not pay for it." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "AI writing task: user input -> one sentence sentences. style: Sabaa Tahir. genre: fantasy, romance, high fantasy, magic, dystopia." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Elias's tent sits at the northern end of the camp, closer to the trees than to the rest of the soldiers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But I know just by looking at it, and by listening to some voice inside me that connects me to him, that he is not there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I follow that voice south, to the edge of the jinn grove, where he stands alone, soaked to the skin, looking over the Sher Jinnaat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I step toward him, only to hear the hiss of a blade." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cold steel meets my throat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He makes out my face and drops his scim instantly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sorry.\" He turns back to the city. \"Jumpy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Me too.\" I ask him, \"Is it always like this before a battle?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You've fought in a fair few yourself now,\" he says." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not one where everything depends on me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're not alone. You have Darin. Afya, Mamie, and the Tribes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Elias's gaze flashes to me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Blood Shrike and the Martials. Musa and the Scholars. Those who love you. Those—those who you love.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You forgot yourself, then,\" I say." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You most of all.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He shakes his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm here because I must be,\" he says." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is my duty. My burden to make up for my wrongs. I do not deserve your love, Laia—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Haven't you learned?\" I say." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You don't get to decide if you deserve my love or not. I decide that. You are worthy of my love. You are worthy of the love Mamie has for you, and the love the Blood Shrike feels. You've done terrible things? So have I. We were born into war, Elias. It is all we've known. Your mistakes only define the rest of your life if you let them. Don't let them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He regards me thoughtfully and reaches for my hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A spark jumps between us and he hesitates, but then laces his fingers through mine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's a question I have been meaning to ask you,\" I blurt out, for if I do not ask now, I never will." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But it is from before you took your vow to Mauth. I don't know if you will remember—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When it comes to you, I remember everything,\" he says, and my pulse quickens." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"After we escaped Nur with Afya, you left,\" I say." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You said something to me before you did. I was sleeping, but—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How do you know I said something to you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He turns to me, but his face is in shadow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What did you say?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I said—\" But he stops short." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The drizzle thickens and threatens to transform into a downpour." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Never mind.\" He raises his voice as the rain intensifies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We should get back to camp, Laia. You need dry clothes—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But camp is full of people and weapons and reminders that tomorrow is coming." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I shake my head, and when he tugs me, I dig my heels in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Take me somewhere else,\" I say." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You can windwalk. There must be a place we could go.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He steps toward me slowly, deliberately." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His eyes burn, sweeping across my skin with as much heat as a caress." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We could windwalk with just our hands connected, but he wraps his arms around my waist, and I bury my face in the hard expanse of his chest as we fly through the dark." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I do not dwell on tomorrow or on the war or the Nightbringer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I immerse myself in the feeling of Elias's touch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I breathe him in, that spice and rain scent that weaves itself through my dreams." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We stop abruptly, stumbling forward a few steps before he steadies us." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is the only other place in the forest the jinn won't go,\" he says. His cabin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The door is not locked—for no human would come so far into the Waiting Place." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once we are inside, Elias scrapes tinder against flint, and the barest glow bursts from the fireplace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the flame is higher, he lights four or five lamps before turning to me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You need dry clothes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He opens a chest near his bed and rifles through it until he finds a soft black shirt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I set my scythe down beside Elias's weapons and change in the washroom, stripping my sodden clothing and toweling off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I am thankful there is no looking glass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His shirt is far too big on me, and my hair is a disaster, the dozens of pins I used to tame it this morning tangled in one big mass." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It will take me ages to pull them out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I sigh, reach for Elias's lone wooden comb, and step out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Soul Catcher has changed into dry fatigues and kicked off his shoes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sits on a deerskin rug before the fire, warming his hands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You can sleep there.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He nods to his bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll take the floor. At least you'll get a good night of rest before tomorrow.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sleep isn't what I had in mind, but I shrug and sit near him cross-legged." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ever so carefully, I begin to pull out my pins." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The first few make me wince, so tangled that I'm worried I'll pull out half my hair with them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Elias looks over at me and I catch my breath." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The fire tinges his brown skin a deep, beguiling gold, and his hair, dark and unruly, falls into his eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The cabin is chilly, but beneath his gaze, I am not." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His regard does not feel like the regard of the Soul Catcher." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He shifts his attention to the pin in my hand and my ineffectual efforts to remove it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Let me.\" He comes around and sits behind me atop a fat cushion, long legs stretched on either side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I feel his hands in my hair, removing the pin with deft gentleness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I shiver, and he shifts closer, his chest against my back now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The scrape of his stubble on my neck is maddening, and I find myself knotting my shirt in my hands, then unknotting it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I am suddenly without words, my thoughts a jumble of desire and confusion and anger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "<Why are you so cruel?> I want to shout at him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "<Why offer warmth and gentleness and your touch if you are so determined to be the Soul Catcher instead of the man I love?>" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But I banish those thoughts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I will not feel anger tonight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nor fear. Only hope." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My body melts against his, and I tip my head back so it's easier for him to reach the pins." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He pulls out a particularly stubborn one, and I marvel that hands so big, hands calloused from holding scims and daggers, could so cleverly work the pins from my hair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Does that magic of yours extend to hair knots?\" I murmur." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His deep, quiet laugh echoes through my chest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Apparently. They seem very agreeable.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They must like you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He shifts back again, and though I want to protest the fact that I cannot feel him anymore, his legs press against mine in a way that leaves no doubt that I am not the only one whose heart now beats faster." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That night in the desert, when I was leaving,\" he says, his lips so close to my ear that I tremble, a thrill running down my body." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I did say something to you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He removes another pin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My shirt slides off one shoulder, and the hard muscles of his arm brush against it slowly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I said: You are my temple.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "His voice is low and hoarse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I lean my body into his, unable to stop, desiring him with a soul-deep wanting that aches." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His scent intoxicates me, and I inhale so that I might remember it always." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even as he carefully removes another pin, his hard thighs tighten against my hips." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I feel him, all of him, enough to know that Soul Catcher or not, he wants me as badly as I want him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You are my priest,\" he says." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His lips brush my neck, and I'm not dreaming it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He pulls out the last pin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He threads his fingers through my hair, loose now, with great care." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His touch on my waist is less patient—he pulls my body around until my legs are slung to the side, my chest pressed against his." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My hands fall to his hips, and I gasp and dig my fingers into them as he tilts my head back, as he skims his lips along the hollow of my throat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I want him. Skies above, I want him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "More so because I can feel him holding himself back, feel his entire body thrumming with need." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are my prayer,\" he says, and now his eyes meet mine, and I see the war in him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "See him teetering between the Soul Catcher and Elias." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Between duty and hope." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Between the task thrust upon him and the freedom he so craves." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I know what he is going to say next." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I have heard him whisper his mantra many times, though never like this." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But as he teeters between who he's become and who he wants to be, I say nothing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "<You're in there,> I think." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "<Come back to me.>" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You are my release,\" he whispers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A breath then, a slice of time that will mark the before and the after of this moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A heartbeat during which I do not know who will win the battle inside him or if our love is enough." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then his eyes clear, and he is Elias Veturius, warm and beautiful and mine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I pull him to me, reveling in the feel of his lush mouth as I steal the words from his lips." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I run my hands over the hard planes of his shoulders, his arms—it isn't enough." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I want more of him, all of him.\n\nHe yanks me closer, as hungry as I am, kissing me with the same dark heat, as if he knows that this night, our last night, our only night, will never come again." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writers block help pls. ill send something, u do five sentences. going for Ursula K. Le Guin vibe" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Late in the morning Sparrowhawk took the magewind from the sail and let his boat go by the world's wind, which blew softly to the south and west. Far off to the right, the hills of southern Wathort slipped away and fell behind, growing blue and small, like misty waves above the waves.\n\nArren woke. The sea basked in the hot, gold noon, endless water under endless light. In the stern of the boat Sparrowhawk sat naked except for a loincloth and a kind of turban made from sailcloth. He was singing softly, striking his palms on the thwart as if it were a drum, in a light, monotonous rhythm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The song he sang was no spell of wizardry, no chant or Deed of heroes or kings, but a lilting drone of non-sense words, such as a boy might sing as he herded goats through the long, long afternoons of summer, in the high hills of Gont, alone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From the sea's surface a fish leapt up and glided through the air for many yards on stiff, shimmering vanes like the wings of dragonflies.\n\n\"We're in the South Reach,\" Sparrowhawk said when his song was done. \"A strange part of the world, where the fish fly and the dolphins sing, they say. But the water's mild for swimming, and I have an understanding with the sharks. Wash the touch of the slave-taker from you.\"\n\nArren was sore in every muscle and loath to move at first. Also he was an unpracticed swimmer, for the seas of Enlad are bitter, so that one must fight with them rather than swim in them and is soon exhausted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This bluer sea was cold at first plunge, then delightful. Aches dropped away from him. He thrashed by Lookfar's side like a young sea-serpent. Spray flew up in fountains. Sparrowhawk joined him, swimming with a firmer stroke." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Docile and protective, Lookfar waited for them, white-winged on the shining water. A fish leapt from sea to air; Arren pursued it; it dived, leapt up again, swimming in air, flying in the sea, pursuing him.\n\nGolden and supple, the boy played and basked in the water and the light until the sun touched the sea. And dark and spare, with. the economy of gesture and the terse strength of age, the man swam, and kept the boat on course, and rigged up an awning of sailcloth, and watched the swimming boy and the flying fish with an impartial tenderness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where are we heading?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Arren asked in the late dusk, after eating largely of salt meat and hard bread, and already sleepy again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lorbanery,\" Sparrowhawk replied, and the soft syllables formed the last word Arren heard that night, so that his dreams of the early night wove themselves about it. He dreamt he was walking in drifts of soft, pale-colored stuff, shreds and threads of pink and gold and azure, and felt a foolish pleasure; someone told him, \"These are the silk-fields of Lorbanery, where it never gets dark.\" But later, in the fag-end of night, when the stars of autumn shone in the sky of spring, he dreamt that he was in a ruined house. It was dry there. Everything was dusty, and festooned with ragged, dusty webs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Arren's legs were tangled in the webs, and they drifted across his mouth and nostrils, stopping his breath." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And the worst horror of it was that he knew the high, ruined room was that hall where he had breakfasted with the Masters, in the Great House on Roke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He woke all in dismay, his heart pounding, his legs cramped against a thwart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sat up, trying to get away from the evil dream." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the east there was not yet light, but a dilution of darkness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The mast creaked; the sail, still taut to the northeast breeze, glimmered high and faint above him. In the stern his companion slept sound and silent. Arren lay down again and dozed till clear day woke him.\n\nThis day the sea was bluer and quieter than he had ever imagined it could be, the water so mild and clear that swimming in it was half like gliding or floating upon air; strange it was and dreamlike.\n\nIn the noontime he asked, \"Do wizards make much account of dreams?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sparrowhawk was fishing. He watched his line attentively." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a long time he said, \"Why?\"\n\n\"I wondered if there's ever truth in them.\"\n\n\"Surely.\"\n\n\"Do they foretell truly?\"\n\nBut the mage had a bite, and ten minutes later, when he had landed their lunch, a splendid silverblue sea bass, the question was clean forgotten." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the afternoon as they lazed under the awning rigged to give shelter from the imperious sun, Arren asked, \"What do we seek in Lorbanery?\"\n\n\"That which we seek,\" said Sparrowhawk.\n\n\"In Enlad,\" said Arren after a while, \"we have a story about the boy whose schoolmaster was a stone.\"\n\n\"Aye?... What did he learn?\"\n\n\"Not to ask questions.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sparrowhawk snorted, as if suppressing a laugh, and sat up. \"Very well!\" he said. \"Though I prefer to save talking till I know what I'm talking about. Why is there no more magic done in Hort Town and in Narveduen and maybe throughout all the Reaches? That's what we seek to learn, is it not?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Do you know the old saying, Rules change in the Reaches?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Seamen use it, but it is a wizards' saying, and it means that wizardry itself depends on place." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A true spell on Roke may be mere words on Iffish. The language of the Making is not everywhere remembered; here one word, there another. And the weaving of spells is itself interwoven with the earth and the water, the winds and the fall of light of the place where it is cast. I once sailed far into the East, so far that neither wind nor water heeded my command, being ignorant of their true names; or more likely it was I who was ignorant.\n\n\"The world is very large, the Open Sea going on past all knowledge; and there are worlds beyond the world." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Over these abysses of space and in the long extent of time, I doubt whether any word that can be spoken would bear, everywhere and forever, its weight of meaning and its power; unless it were that First Word which Segoy spoke, making all, or the Final Word, which has not been nor will be spoken until all things are unmade... So, even within this world of our Earthsea, the little islands that we know, there are differences and mysteries and changes. And the place least known and fullest of mysteries is the South Reach. Few wizards of the Inner Lands have come among these people. They do not welcome wizards, having -so it is believed– their own kinds of magic." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But the rumors of these are vague, and it may be that the art magic was never well known there, nor fully understood. If so, it would be easily undone by one who set himself to the undoing of it, and sooner weakened than our wizardry of the Inner Lands. And then we might hear tales of the failure of magic in the South.\n\n\"For discipline is the channel in which our acts run strong and deep; where there is no direction, the deeds of men run shallow and wander and are wasted. So that fat woman of the mirrors has lost her art and thinks she never had it. And so Hare takes his hazia and thinks he has gone farther than the greatest mages go, when he has barely entered the fields of dream and is already lost... But where is it that he thinks he goes? What is it he looks for? What is it that has swallowed up his wizardry? We have had enough of Hort Town, I think, so we go farther south, to Lorbanery, to see what the wizards do there, to find out what it is that we must find out... Does that answer you?\"\n\n\"Yes, but-\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then let the stone be still a while!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "said the mage. And he sat by the mast in the yellowish, glowing shade of the awning and looked out to sea, to the west, as the boat sailed softly southward through the afternoon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He sat erect and still. The hours passed. Arren swam a couple of times, slipping quietly into the water from the stern of the boat, for he did not like to cross the line of that dark gaze which, looking west over the sea, seemed to see far beyond the bright horizon-line, beyond the blue of air, beyond the boundaries of light.\n\nSparrowhawk came back from his silence at last and spoke, though not more than a word at a time. Arren's upbringing had made him quick to sense mood disguised by courtesy or by reserve; he knew his companion's heart was heavy. He asked no more questions and in the evening he said, \"If I sing, will it disturb your thoughts?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sparrowhawk replied with an effort at joking, \"That depends upon the singing.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Arren sat with his back against the mast and sang." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His voice was no longer high and sweet as when the music master of the Hall of Berila had trained it years ago, striking the harmonies on his tall harp; nowadays the higher tones of it were husky, and the deep tones had the resonance of a viol, dark and clear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He sang the Lament for the White Enchanter, that song which Elfarran made when she knew of Morred's death and waited for her own. Not often is that song sung, nor lightly. Sparrowhawk listened to the young voice, strong, sure, and sad between the red sky and the sea, and the tears came into his eyes, blinding.\n\nArren was silent for a while after that song; then he began to sing lesser, lighter tunes, softly, beguiling the great monotony of windless air and heaving sea and failing light, as night came on.\n\nWhen he ceased to sing everything was still, the wind down, the waves small, wood and rope barely creaking." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sea lay hushed, and over it the stars came out one by one. Piercing bright to the south a yellow light appeared and sent a shower and splintering of gold across the water.\n\n\"Look! A beacon!\" Then after a minute, \"Can it be a star?\"\n\nSparrowhawk gazed at it a while and finally said, \"I think it must be the star Gobardon. It can be seen only in the South Reach. Gobardon means Crown. Kurremkarmerruk taught us that, sailing still farther south would bring, one by one, eight more stars clear of the horizon under Gobardon, making a great constellation, some say of a running man, others say of the Rune Agnen. The Rune of Ending.\"\n\nThey watched it clear the restless sea-horizon and shine forth steadily." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You sang Elfarran's song,\" Sparrowhawk said, \"as if you knew her grief, and you'd made me know it too... Of all the histories of Earthsea, that one has always held me most. The great courage of Morred against despair; and Serriadh who was born beyond despair, the gentle king. And her, Elfarran. When I did the greatest evil I have ever done, it was to her beauty that I thought I turned; and I saw her for a moment I saw Elfarran.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A cold thrill went up Arren's back. He swallowed and sat silent, looking at the splendid, baleful, topaz-yellow star.\n\n\"Which of the heroes is yours?\" the mage asked, and Arren answered with a little hesitancy, \"Erreth-Akbe.\"\n\n\"Because he was the greatest?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Because he might have ruled all Earthsea, but chose not to, and went on alone and died alone, fighting the dragon Orm on the shore of Selidor.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "They sat a while, each following his own thoughts, and then Arren asked, still watching yellow Gobardon, \"Is it true, then, that the dead can be brought back into life and made to speak to living souls, by magery?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"By the spells of Summoning. It is in our power. But it is seldom done, and I doubt that it is ever wisely done. In this the Master Summoner agrees with me; he does not use or teach the Lore of Paln, in which such spells are contained. The greatest of them were made by one called the Grey Mage of Paln, a thousand years ago. He summoned up the spirits of the heroes and mages, even Erreth-Akbe, to give counsel to the Lords of Paln in their wars and government. But the counsel of the dead is not profitable to the living. Paln came on evil times, and the Grey Mage was driven forth; he died nameless.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is it a wicked thing, then?\"\n\n\"I should call it a misunderstanding, rather. A misunderstanding of life. Death and life are the same thing – like the two sides of my hand, the palm and the back. And still the palm and the back are not the same... They can be neither separated, nor mixed.\"\n\n\"Then no one uses those spells now?\"\n\n\"I have known only one man who used them freely, not reckoning their risk. For they are risky, dangerous, beyond any other magery. Death and life are like the two sides of my hand, I said, but the truth is we do not know what life is or what death is. To claim power over what you do not understand is not wise, nor is the end of it likely to be good.\"\n\n\"Who was the man who used them?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Arren asked. He had not found Sparrowhawk so willing to answer questions before, in this quiet, thoughtful mood; both of them were consoled by their talk, dark though the subject of it was.\n\n\"He lived in Havnor. They accounted him a mere sorcerer, but in native power he was a great mage. He made money from his art, showing any who paid him whatever spirit they asked to see, dead wife or husband or child, filling his house with unquiet shadows of old centuries, the fair women of the days of the Kings. I saw him summon from the Dry Land my own old master who was Archmage in my youth, Nemmerle, for a mere trick to entertain the idle. And that great soul came at his call, like a dog to heel. I was angry and challenged him -I was not Archmage then– saying, 'You compel the dead to come into your house: will you come with me to theirs?' And I made him go with me into the Dry Land, though he fought me with all his will and changed his shape and wept aloud when nothing else would do.\"\n\n\"So you killed him?\" Arren whispered, enthralled.\n\n\"No! I made him follow me into the land of the dead, and return with me from it. He was afraid. He who summoned the dead to him so easily was more afraid of death -of his own death– than any man I ever knew. At the wall of stones... But I tell you more than a novice ought to know. And you're not even a novice.\" Through the dusk the keen eyes returned Arren's gaze for a moment, abashing him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No matter,\" said the Archmage. \"There is a wall of stones, then, at a certain place on the bourne. Across it the spirit goes at death, and across it a living man may go and return again, if he is a mage.... By the wall of stones this man crouched down, on the side of the living, and tried to withstand my will, and could not. He clung to the stones with his hands and cursed and screamed. I have never seen a fear like that; it sickened me with its own sickness. I should have known by that that I did wrong. I was possessed by anger and by vanity. For he was very strong, and I was eager to prove that I was stronger.\"\n\n\"What did he do afterward-when you came back?\"\n\n\"Grovelled, and swore never to use the Pelnish Lore again; kissed my hand and would have killed me if he dared. He went from Havnor into the West, to Paln perhaps; I heard years later that he had died. He was white-haired when I knew him, though long-armed and quick like a wrestler. What made me fall to talking of him? I cannot even bring to mind his name.\"\n\n\"His true name?\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "StoryBot: Ready to continue your text. Will write 8 sentences sentences. Focusing on genres: science fiction. Will attempt to include: AIs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "While we were waiting for the necessary arrangements to be made, Doctor Meninx stole over to my console and bent down to whisper in my ear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His voice was a rustle of ghost-stirred leaves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I cannot impress on you strongly enough the mistake you will be making if you let that thing aboard. You must reason with Campion.'\n\n'Reason with him yourself.'\n\n'He will not listen to me. He knows what I am - a Disavower. I am expected not to approve of the robot. But you are different. If you raise an objection, he will give it due consideration.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'And if I don't have an objection?'\n\n'You must!' the avatar hiss-rustled. 'Let that thing aboard and no good will come of it!'\n\n'He's not a thing. He's an envoy of the Machine People, lost and a long way from home.'\n\n'It may well be a trick of Ateshga's - just some robot weapon he's trying to smuggle aboard your ship so he can hijack it and claim it back.'\n\n'Do make your mind up, Doctor: are you against Hesperus because of your Disavower principles, or because you think he's not really a Machine Person at all?'\n\n'I am against it on as many counts as I can think of.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'The Machine People are more civilised than most human societies. Hesperus will just be another guest.'\n\n'A wind-up toy that walks and talks.' The avatar's harlequin face creased into an expression of abject disgust. 'Haunted clockwork!'\n\n'You won't have to associate with him if you don't want to. And if it really bothers you, you can always go into abeyance until the voyage is over.'\n\n'The automatic assumption being that I should be the one to go into abeyance, and not the robot? Nice to know where I stand in the pecking order, at last!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Relegated by a box full of mindless algorithms!'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Doctor Meninx,' I said, as forcibly as I could manage, 'Hesperus is coming aboard. That's final. As shatterlings of Gentian Line, we could not possibly refuse to assist him.'\n\n'It will not see me. You will tell it nothing of my origins, nothing of my physical existence, nothing of my beliefs.'\n\n'Then I suggest you keep a very low profile,' I said. 'If Hesperus catches one of your avatars wandering around, he's likely to wonder who's operating it, isn't he?'\n\n'You will tell it only that I am a scholar. It does not need to know any more than that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And I will not have it anywhere near my tank.'\n\n'Why would he have the slightest interest in your tank?'\n\n'Because,' the avatar said, 'when it learns who I am - as I am sure it will - it will make every effort to kill me.'\n\nI pushed my hand into the open slot of the maker and closed my fingers around the sculpted handle of the energy-pistol. The newly minted weapon had the peculiar heft of something crammed with intricate machinery at abnormal densities. Levators allowed me to hold it, but it still had the mass of a small boulder. The adepts who made use of these weapons normally donned power-armour to overcome that residual inertia, but I did not wish to greet my guest looking like another robot.\n\nI kept telling myself not to be so nervous, but as soon as I chased one fear away, another circled into place." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No Machine Person had ever harmed a human being, so the weapon might have been regarded as both superfluous and insulting. But I was about to release a prisoner who not only possessed superhuman speed and strength, but who might have been rendered half-deranged by the time he had spent in Ateshga's care.\n\nI just hoped that the weapon would leave more than a dent on that golden armour, if it came to that.\n\n'We're sure about this?' Campion asked.\n\n'No,' I said. 'Not remotely. But I think we've still got to do it.'\n\nI palmed the control then stepped back briskly from the upright chassis of his cage.\n\nThe restraining field loosened its hold on him gradually, so that Hesperus lowered to the ground in dreamlike slow motion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His feet contacted the decking and his arms descended to his sides." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He remained standing, but for several moments there was no indication that he was actually alive, rather than just balancing in that position." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then his golden face, averted until that moment, lifted to look me in the eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hesperus was a gorgeous machine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He resembled a man in a suit of close-fitting armour, though he was too slender for a man to have fitted inside that skin. His skull was all elegant planes and gleaming curves. The Machine Person was both coldly robotic and searingly human, like an exaggerated and stylised caricature of some stunningly handsome man from the fables of antiquity, rendered in gold and chrome. His eyes were densely faceted mechanisms, shifting from opal to turquoise depending on the precise elevation of his gaze. He had a broad cleft chin. His cheekbones were parallel flanges of chrome, pushing through his skin as if to serve as cooling elements. He had a nose, which appeared to serve no other function than to complement the proportions of his face. His mouth was thick-lipped, the golden lips parted to a narrow slot, with the chromed complexities of his speech-generating systems lurking behind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His skull was gold save for two coloured-glass panels on either side, just above the streamlined representations of his ears." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The panels were fretted with a fine webwork of chrome. Behind the facets whirled traceries of pastel light.\n\nThe rest of him was no less beautiful; there was almost no part of him that was not aesthetically balanced with the whole. He had a sculpted chest-plate, a lean chrome abdomen, thin hips and long, muscular limbs. The only oddity about him, the only thing that did not look quite in balance, was his left arm: it was thicker below the elbow than his right, and his left hand was heavier, as if he wore a metal gauntlet over the gauntlet of his own hand.\n\nIt was the only part of him that jarred; everything else was harmonious. Machine People manifest as men and women, sometimes as children and occasionally as sexless, luminously metallic beings. Hesperus's face and build left me in no doubt that he had chosen to manifest as a man." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He even had a suggestion of genitals, moulded in tasteful gold relief. But there was nothing crass or threatening about his appearance. Hesperus was exquisite, a thing to be admired and coveted.\n\nBut he was also alive. Also powerful and quick and - potentially - the most lethal and clever thing that had ever walked on Dalliance.\n\n'Who are you?' he asked, his lips moving even though his face had appeared to be a stiff golden mask until that moment. His voice was a trilling, liquid susurration of birdsong, orchestrated into human speech sounds. It was the loveliest thing I had ever heard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I am Purslane, a shatterling of Gentian Line, part of the Commonality.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I indicated my companion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'This is Campion, a co-shatterling of the same Line. You're aboard his ship now. You were being kept prisoner by an entity calling itself Ateshga. I have just negotiated your release.'\n\n'Do you fear me, shatterlings?'\n\n'Perhaps,' I said.\n\n'You have no cause to. I would put that weapon away, if I were you." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My intelligence is distributed throughout my body, so it would take more than one shot to kill me. You could hurt me eventually, but not before redirected energies had done a considerable amount of damage to your surroundings.' He looked around slowly, his neck pivoting with the eerie smoothness of a gun-turret. Shifting effortlessly to Trans, he said, 'Would it help matters if I spoke the language of the Commonality? I do not think it will pose me any insurmountable difficulties.'\n\nWe Gentians liked to think that no one else understood Trans quite as well as we did. Yet with one sentence Hesperus had demolished all my certainties.\n\n'He's good,' Campion whispered. 'He's very good.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'You speak Trans very well,' I said.\n\n'For a machine.'\n\n'For anyone not born to it. Please - no offence was intended.'\n\nHe regarded me with those glinting opal eyes. He tilted his head microscopically and they flared turquoise light. 'Nor was any taken, shatterling. Would you be so kind as to explain my predicament?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "You have mentioned someone called Ateshga, and the name means something to me, but I am still at a loss to understand how I came here.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Then you don't remember being caught?'\n\n'I remember details, but not the whole. I recall that I was travelling.' He turned a palm to his chest, fingers stiffened. 'Unfortunately, something happened to my ship - a technical fault.'\n\n'I can probably guess the rest. You dug into your vessel's trove and learned of the existence of a dealer in ships located in this system. Ateshga lured you in and then decided he could make more credits by stealing your ship than by taking your money.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Is that what happened to you?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Ateshga didn't realise he'd netted a pair of Gentians." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We explained to him that if he didn't let us go, he could expect retaliation from the rest of the Line.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'A formidable threat,' Hesperus said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'How did you persuade him to let me go?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'He had no choice once we were free: he'd have been in even hotter water if it became known that he was imprisoning a Machine Person.'\n\n'In which case I owe you my gratitude. I am still sorry that you felt the need to bring a weapon.'\n\n'I was worried that you might be disorientated.'\n\n'Then your concern was understandable. My memory is damaged. Might I enquire as to the present date?'\n\n'Six zero three three, four eighty-five, Crab standard time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You're in the Scutum-Crux Arm, in the Nelumbium System.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I was Ateshga's prisoner for a considerable number of years. The last clear date I recall - in the human system - began with a five.'\n\nI glanced at the cage. He was still standing inside it, albeit free to walk out. 'Did Ateshga do something to your memory?'\n\n'The errors I am experiencing are symptomatic of crude electromagnetic interference. He must have been trying to force amnesia on me, so that he could let me go without fear of the consequences.' He looked down at his arm, the one that was larger than the other, and then back at me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I am sorry, shatterlings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It must be quite unsettling to find me like this. Might I ask what you intend to do with me, now that I am in your care?'\n\n'Our next stop - once we've left Ateshga - will be our reunion system. If it's anything like the last couple of get-togethers, there'll be other Machine People along as guests. If you wish, we'll take you to them. Otherwise, you can stay aboard our ships as long as you like.' I paused, mindful of the delicate matter I was about to broach. 'Of course, if you were to consent to visit the reunion, it would not hurt my standing in the Line.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Something can probably be arranged. Have we already left Ateshga behind?'\n\n'There's still a little business we have to conclude before we leave.' I offered a hand, inviting him to step forward. 'You don't have to stay in that thing if you don't want to.'\n\nHe formed a smile. There was something stiffly theatrical about it, the mask too perfectly symmetrical to show human emotions with complete authenticity. But it was still a smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Thank you, shatterling.'\n\n'Call me Purslane.'\n\n'Very well, Purslane.' He took a cautious step out of the cage, as if expecting the containment field to snap on again. He stretched his arms, turning to the left and the right as if to admire them. I thought of two things: the hunting cat I had once owned in Palatial, and the replica of Michelangelo's David which stood in one of the great hallways of the old household. 'It is good to move again, Purslane. I cannot express how unpleasant it has been to be Ateshga's prisoner. If I were inclined to revenge ...' He trailed off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Are you, Hesperus?' Campion asked.\n\n'No,' he answered. 'Revenge is for biologicals. We do things differently.'\n\nDoctor Meninx said nothing when he was introduced to Hesperus, but there was a world of calculating suspicion in his paper face.\n\n'Ateshga and I were just discussing the other ships,' I said. 'Weren't we, Ateshga?'\n\n'But you have seen all my ships,' the imago answered.\n\nHesperus moved into the imago's line of sight and said, 'I know what you did to my memory, Ateshga. You were sensible to wipe what you did.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I could have killed you,' Ateshga said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'That will be taken into consideration when I return to my people and explain where I have been. In the meantime, in the interests of ameliorating your situation, I suggest that you do everything in your power to comply with the shatterling's requests. If she wishes to see more ships, show them to her.'\n\nAteshga said nothing. His ship slammed out of the atmosphere, carving a pillar of vacuum in its wake.\n\n'Where's he gone?' Campion asked.\n\n'Orbit,' I said.\n\n'There were no ships in orbit,' Doctor Meninx said. 'We should have seen them even if they had the benefit of camouflaging screens." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nothing is that invisible.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'We did see them,' I said. 'We just didn't see them.'\n\nCampion settled into his couch and tugged his hovering console down until it was within easy reach. He punched commands and took Dalliance up and out. By the time we had cleared the atmosphere, Silver Wings was racing to meet us. We were above the equatorial plane of the Jovian, looking down on a sunlit face.\n\n'I do not understand,' Doctor Meninx said.\n\n'Me neither,' said Campion, staring at the planet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'All I'm seeing is--'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'The ring system,' I finished for him. 'Show them, Ateshga. Campion and the Doctor are having one of their slow days.'\n\n'Show us what?' Campion asked.\n\nThat was when the wave of change began spreading through the rings. Something awesome was happening down there. The very texture and brightness of the rings was transmuting, beginning in a perfectly straight line that then swept slowly around, moving with the eerie steadiness of a clock hand. Where the line had passed, the rings were darker and somehow more tenuous in appearance. Where before they had cut through the face of the planet like swathes of silver-white ribbon, now they resembled ribbons of smoke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'That's where he hid them,' I said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Most of the particles are still chips of water ice, but the ships are much bigger. He tuned their impassors so that the bubbles had the same reflectivity as the rest of the particles. Now he's turning them off, so there's not so much light being thrown back at us.'\n\nI had seen larger constructs; we all had. But beyond a certain scale, vast was simply vast, whether it was the hovering majesty of the jade cathedral on Lutetium, a Second Imperium moonship or the awesome bones of the Prior machinery near Sagittarius A.\n\nThere was room in those rings for a lot of ships.\n\n'How many?' I asked, hardly daring to.\n\n'Sixty thousand, give or take,' Ateshga said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I've been collecting for a very long time.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Take your pick,' I told Campion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'If you can't find the ship you're looking for here, you may as well give up. I bet he's got at least one of everything.'\n\n'I'm not sure now,' Campion said, with an abashed smile.\n\n'Not sure about what?'\n\n'That I actually want to get rid of Dalliance. So what if she's made me late for a few appointments? It's not as if she didn't get me there in the end, in one piece.'\n\n'You have an excellent point, honoured shatterling,' said Ateshga." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Why dispose of something when it has served you well?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of course, once you have specified your requirements, it will still take a little while to complete the refurbishment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The components must be sourced, and integrated into your ship ... I believe we are looking at months, if not years, of work. Do you wish to enter abeyance until matters are completed?'\n\n'Nice try,' I said. 'I have a nagging feeling we'd never wake up if we put ourselves asleep.'\n\n'We'll just have to take turns,' Campion said.\n\n'That may not be necessary,' said Hesperus in his beautiful trill of a voice. 'I have no need of abeyance as you understand it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I am willing to supervise matters while the two of you sleep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I believe I can hold Ateshga to his guarantees.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Campion and I looked at each other." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I suppose we were both thinking the same thing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We had no evidence that Hesperus was an authentic envoy of the Machine People. Given Ateshga's demonstrated treachery, Hesperus might very well be a plant, a last-ditch stratagem for regaining control of us.\n\n'You can trust me,' he said, as if reading our thoughts. 'Now and for ever.'\n\n'We can't be certain of this creature's intentions,' Doctor Meninx said.\n\nAngrily I turned on the paper harlequin. 'Are you volunteering to stay awake, in that case?'\n\n'That is not what I meant--'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I do not blame any of you for harbouring suspicions,' Hesperus said. 'I also have suspicions. Do you really intend to return me to my people, or are you simply lying to gain my compliance? Were you complicit in my imprisonment?'\n\n'We weren't,' I said.\n\nHesperus raised a calming hand. 'The point is, these doubts cannot be settled instantly. It will take time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For now, let me prove my trustworthiness by guarding you while Ateshga honours his obligations.'" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Could you take care of my ship as well, and make sure Ateshga doesn't cut any corners?' Campion asked.\n\nHis eyes gleamed turquoise as he turned to face the imago. 'Corner-cutting will not be an option, I assure you.'" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode: Collab writing\nAmount: eight sentences\nVoice: Alastair Reynolds" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Campion was doing a bad job of masking his fear. It was in the tightness of the muscles around his mouth, in the set of his jaw, leaking through his eyes and pores.\n\n'What's wrong?' I said, slurred as a drunkard. 'I was going to whisk over to you, not the other way round...'\n\nBut before he had a chance to answer, Silver Wings told me herself, whispering information into my head: our two ships had run into the Gentian emergency signal, an event sufficiently ominous that both vehicles had taken the decision to awaken their occupants. We were still travelling at maximum speed, still more than a dozen years from our destination.\n\n'I came out first,' Campion said. 'The advantage of just being in stasis.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I don't like stasis,' I said testily, although of course he knew this." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He helped me out of the upright box of my cryophagus casket and gathered me in his strong, warm arms. I felt cold and fragile, like a flower that had been dipped in liquid nitrogen: something that might shatter into colourful brittle pieces at the least provocation.\n\n'How are you feeling?' Campion whispered into my ear, nuzzling his face against mine.\n\n'As if I want to go back to sleep again. As if I'd really prefer it if this was just a bad dream.'\n\n'Silver Wings pulled you out fast because of the emergency. You're going to be a bit groggy.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I pulled myself tighter against him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He felt fixed and solid, an anchor I could tie myself to.\n\nHesperus, who was standing behind Campion, said, 'You have been apart for some time. If you wish to copulate, I can retire to another part of the ship or simply disable my attentive faculties for an agreed interval.'\n\nI did not want to copulate; I just wanted to hold Campion tightly and let life seep back into my bones and muscles and nerve fibres.\n\nBut Silver Wings was still speaking into my skull. 'The embedded content,' I asked. 'What did it say?'\n\nCampion pulled back a twitch. 'What embedded content?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'You didn't look?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'It's a distress code, that's all. There isn't meant to be any embedded content.'\n\n'Silver Wings says there is. Maybe Dalliance didn't pick up on that, but it's there.'\n\n'That's not protocol. We're supposed to connect to the private network, find out what the storm's all about.'\n\n'Something's obviously changed.' More exasperated than cross, I said, 'I can't believe you missed the content, Campion: what would have happened if I hadn't been around?' Then I grimaced. 'Ignore me - it's just brain chemistry.'\n\n'Shall I retire while you examine the message?' Hesperus asked tactfully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I shook my head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Whatever this is, we're all in it now - including our guests. You'd better brace yourself for some bad news. Whatever this is about, it could mean a delay in reuniting you with your friends.'\n\n'Thank you for thinking of my welfare when you must have so much else on your minds. With your permission, I would consider it a privilege to be privy to the embedded content. May we examine it here?'\n\n'I think I need a drink first,' Campion said, eyeing me guardedly. I felt the same, torn between wanting to know the news, however bad it might be, and at the same time wanting to do anything to delay the moment of revelation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'We'll take it on the bridge,' I said, closing the door of my casket." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'There's something else you need to know,' Campion said to me quietly, while we were on our way to the nearest whisking point.\n\nI squeezed his hand and asked, 'What?'\n\n'We're down a passenger.'\n\nMy brain was still mush. 'One of the sleepers we picked up from Ateshga?'\n\n'No--it's Doctor Meninx. We won't be having the pleasure of his company again.'\n\n'What?' I asked again, aware of Hesperus only a few paces behind.\n\n'He died. His casket broke down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hesperus says he tried to fix it when he saw something was going wrong, but Doctor Meninx had put in too many safeguards.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Campion had put emphasis on that 'says', letting me know he only had our guest's word concerning what had really happened.\n\n'My God.'\n\n'Any other time, it would be the only thing on my mind. But now that this has happened as well...' Campion trailed off.\n\n'I can't say I'm going to miss the old bigot, but--'\n\n'You'd still rather he hadn't died. Yes, that's sort of how I feel. They're going to lap this up, aren't they?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Give them half a chance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But if it wasn't really your fault...' Some impulse caused me to glance back at Hesperus, though I was doing all in my power not to act awkwardly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'He says he didn't do it,' Campion said under his breath. 'For now I've decided to take him at his word.'\n\nAs we whisked through-ship to Silver Wings ' bridge, my thoughts veered between anxious anticipation of the embedded content and dark speculation as to Hesperus's innocence. I was still prickly and tense when the bridge lit up in welcome as we entered. Anticipating our arrival, the ship had arranged three seats around the plinthed glass hemisphere that was the main displayer. Although Silver Wings could have swallowed Campion's little ship fifty times over, what passed for a bridge on my own ship was about a twentieth the size of his, with configurable walls that were always set to a dull pewter, a low, dimpled ceiling gridded with lights and only the very minimum in terms of visible instrumentation and control interfaces.\n\n'I presume you were serious about that drink,' I said, pausing at the bridge's maker while it fashioned and filled two glasses. Campion's was alcoholic; mine a cocktail of neural restoratives, to assist my recovery from the cryophagus." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Campion took the glass. 'Thank you.'\n\nI indicated to Hesperus that he should take the sturdiest seat, while Campion and I lowered ourselves into the other two. 'No point in delaying this any longer, is there?' I asked, with a nervous catch in my voice. 'State the nature of the embedded content, Silver -- for everyone's benefit.'\n\nThe ship spoke aloud. 'The embedded content is a non-interactive audio-visual recording with a playback time of one hundred and thirty-five seconds. If there are deeper content layers, I cannot detect them.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Can we assume it's safe?'\n\n'I have scrutinised the message to the limit of my abilities and found no dangerous patterns.'\n\nI ran my tongue along the dry edge of my lip. 'You'd better run it then. Ready, everyone?'\n\n'As I'll ever be,' Campion said. He chose that moment to reach around for my hand, our fingertips only just touching.\n\nThe upper half of a man appeared in the hemisphere, rendered life-size. It only took me a moment to recognise him as a fellow shatterling of Gentian Line and to put a name to the face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Fescue,' I said softly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'What would he want--?' Campion began, before Fescue spoke over his words.\n\n'If you are in receipt of this message, then I'm assuming that you are latecomers for the reunion. Ordinarily you would deserve the sternest censure... but these are not ordinary times. Now you deserve our blessing, our thanks, and above all our heartfelt wishes for your own continued survival. You may be all that is left of Gentian Line.' The imaged figure nodded gravely, leaving us in no doubt that we had understood his words.\n\nIt was definitely Fescue, but not as we usually knew him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The haughty, supercilious demeanour was only visible as a ghost of itself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His face was drawn, his hair dishevelled, clinging to his forehead in damp curls, his eyes weary, frightened slits." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was even something on his cheek that looked like a burn or bruise or a smudge of oily dirt.\n\n'We were ambushed,' he continued, prolonging the syllables of the word with lingering distaste. 'The Thousand Nights were yet to begin - a dozen or so ships were still to arrive, even though we had already been waiting more than fifteen years. Hundreds had already come, of course - more than eight hundred in orbit. Most of us were already on the world, awake in the carnival cities or waiting in abeyance for the celebrations to commence. When the weapons opened fire, we had no practical defence: the world's impassors were too feeble to counter the assault, and our ships were annihilated before they could aggregate into an effective counter-force. They used Homunculus weapons against us: horrors we hardly dare speak of, exhumed from the deepest, most pathological vaults of history. After they had reduced our ships to clouds of ionised gas, even the largest and strongest of them, they turned on the reunion world and pumped energy into it for a hundred hours." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a business of minutes, a mere preamble, to boil away the atmosphere and oceans and render that world as sterile as it had been before our arrival." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But the attackers didn't stop there. They continued to pour energy into the planet, melting first the crust and then the mantle... turning the entire world into a molten ball that glowed first orange and then furious gold, until it began to break up, its own gravity insufficient to hold it together. Over four and a half days, the energy output of those weapons exceeded even that of the sun the world orbited. And when they were done, nothing remained. That was eight years ago, by my reckoning - still more time will have passed when you intercept this signal. Concentrate your sensors on the target system and you will soon see not a sun and its family of worlds, but a new nebula, a roiling dark cloud of rubble and dust and tortured gas, now bound only by the gravity well of the star itself. It will endure for centuries, thousands of years, significant fractions of a circuit. Planets and moons plough through that cloud, but not the world we hoped to make our temporary home." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's gone, and so has most of the Line.'\n\nFescue paused and stroked a finger against a puffiness under one of his slitted eyes. It occurred to me then, as it had not before, that he might very well be blind: at no point had I sensed his attention focused in any particular direction.\n\n'Some got out,' he said. 'Those with the fastest ships, the best camouflage or countermeasures ... but few were so fortunate. It will come as no surprise to hear that I have initiated the Belladonna protocol. You must deviate immediately from your present heading. Under no circumstances attempt to enter or approach the reunion system, for even now - eight years after the ambush - the aggressive elements are still loitering, waiting to pick off latecomers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even once you have obeyed the Belladonna protocol, you must be watchful for pursuers: complete your turn stealthily, and use misdirection as appropriate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If you sense you are being followed, you must sacrifice yourselves rather than lead the attackers to the Belladonna fallback.'\n\nAgain Fescue fell silent, looking to one side as if he had seen - or perhaps heard - something that merited his attention. When he resumed speaking, it was with a renewed haste.\n\n'I chose to embed this message because it was too risky to convey this information via the private network: the nature of the ambush implies that our security is not as tight as we had imagined, and any attempt to tap into the network may be detected and acted upon by those who would seek to exterminate our Line. Concerning the nature of our attackers, and their reasons for doing this ... I regret to tell you that I have no information.' Fescue shook his head forcefully. 'Nothing: not even the tiniest flicker of intelligence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But I know this." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unless one has arisen in the last circuit, no galactic civilisation--not even the Rebirthers or the Machine People - is known to possess the sophistry in vacuum manipulation necessary to duplicate Homunculus-level technology. Those weapons must therefore be the original instruments, despite the fact that Marcellin Line was charged with their disposal four and a half million years ago. The question therefore begs itself: did Marcellin Line betray their promise to the Commonality and conceal those weapons when they should have decommissioned them? I cannot believe they would have done so ... but then neither can I believe that Gentian Line has enemies who would wish this upon us. Therefore tread carefully, for if the Marcellins cannot necessarily be trusted, then neither can any other Line in the Commonality. After thirty-two circuits and six million years, we may finally have run out of friends.'\n\nFescue halted, and for a moment it appeared that he was done. Then he raised his chin, striking a defiant pose, and said, 'I wish I knew how many of you were out there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I would like to think that there are still latecomers on their way home, but for all I know attrition may already have taken every last one of you." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I will say this, though, in the vain hope that it reaches some remnants of the Line. Now you and a handful of survivors carry the candle that Abigail set aflame. That is a singular responsibility: a greater burden than you have ever been required to shoulder. You must not let the rest of us down.'\n\nFescue bowed his head. The image froze and then flicked back to its starting position, ready for the speech to be replayed.\n\nWe watched it again, in case there was some nuance that had escaped us the first time.\n\nWhen our messenger was done, Campion said, 'This can't be real." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Someone's faked it. Someone's figured out how to send an emergency signal, impersonating Fescue.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Why would anyone do that?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I asked. There was a coldness growing inside me, a realisation that our future had just become stranger and more frightening than it had appeared only a few minutes ago, but for now I was still capable of reasoned thought.\n\n'To get at us, of course! To give us a reason to skip the reunion completely. God knows we've got enough enemies, enough people who'd love to see us miss the boat.'\n\n'They wouldn't dare use Fescue's name unless they had his authority. He sent this message, or delegated it to someone he trusted.'\n\n'Fescue hates us! He's got every reason in the world to trick us with something like this.'\n\n'And risk excommunication? If he sent this signal via omni-directional broadcast, then it'll have been intercepted by every shatterling who hadn't yet made it to the reunion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fescue might have an axe to grind against us, but he's not vindictive, and he definitely isn't stupid.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I cleared my throat. 'I've been thinking all this through as well, you know. I'd love to believe this is a hoax, aimed solely at us. But that's not how it looks to me. I think this is real. I think something horrible has happened and we're being warned to get as far away from the reunion as we can.'\n\n'That would also be my conclusion,' Hesperus said.\n\n'Did anyone ask you?' Campion snapped." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'My apologies. I should not have spoken.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'No,' I said, 'you should have, because you're right. This is real, and we have to take it seriously. Listen to Hesperus, Campion. He has every reason to want to make it to that reunion: it's where we've promised him he'll find other Machine People. And now that message is saying the party's off, and Hesperus still believes it. Doesn't that tell you something?'\n\nCampion spread his hands before his face, as if he wished to bury it in them.\n\n'I can't deal with this." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's got to be some kind of mistake, something blown out of all proportion.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Or it's exactly what Fescue said it was: an actual ambush, with huge losses. We'll know soon enough, in any case. Now that we've a reason to, we can concentrate our sensors on the system ahead. With two ships, we can establish an observational baseline wide enough to resolve the nebula - if it's really there.'\n\n'It may be easier than that,' Hesperus said. 'If the system is now dust-cloaked, the spectral properties of the star will be modified. It will appear redder, and contain the absorption lines characteristic of the elements making up the planet.'\n\n'Silver,' I said hesitantly, because I knew I was on the verge of having a harrowing possibility confirmed, 'tell me if there's anything unusual about the target star, compared against the trove.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It did not take long." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silver Wings informed us that the star was indeed redder than expected, and that its atmosphere contained unusually strong spectral signatures of nickel and iron, proving that the sun was shrouded in the rubble that had once been our reunion world. Furthermore, even at our present distance of thirteen lights, there was clear evidence of the nebula: a warm, glowing ellipse like a thumbprint pressed over the hard point of the star.\n\nThat was when we knew for sure that we were not being hoaxed, and that everything was going to be different from now on. The first six million years had been all fun and games.\n\nNow we were growing up.\n\n'What if there are survivors still hiding out in the cloud?' Campion asked. 'Don't we owe it to them to have a closer look?'\n\n'Fescue said it was already eight years since the attack when he made the transmission." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Add another thirteen years for the signal to reach us: that's twenty-one years." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Add another thirteen before we arrive - that's thirty-four years.'\n\n'Fescue survived for eight years or he wouldn't have been able to send that signal.'\n\n'He didn't say he was still there. The message's apparent point of origin tells us nothing. It could have been relayed from a ship on its way to the fallback.'\n\n'Read between the lines. He was hurt. If he was anywhere else other than inside the system, he'd have been able to get himself fixed. His ship must have been damaged, and chances are it was still inside the cloud." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fescue must have been hiding there ever since the attack." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That means we have to consider the possibility of other survivors.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "His voice notched higher." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'If we were down in that system, crippled but still alive, we'd be counting on outside help as well.'\n\n'The survival of the Line outweighs the survival of individual shatterlings.'\n\n'Ask yourself what Fescue would have done,' Campion said quietly.\n\n'What?'\n\n'Put yourself in Fescue's shoes - as if he was the one running into this transmission, not us. As if we sent it, and he was the one who had to decide how to act. Fescue was right to warn us, but he knew damned well we wouldn't listen. I may not care for that arrogant, hypocritical arsehole, but do you think he'd have been very likely to listen?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I don't even know if I'm proposing the right thing, or something worse than stupid, but I know we can't just dismiss it out of hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "These are our brothers and sisters, our fellow shatterlings. They're pieces of us, pieces of what we are, pieces of what make us human. If we abandon them, we may as well forget about the Line. We won't have any right to call ourselves Gentian any more.'\n\nWe went to see the doctor.\n\nThe tank was as dark as ever, but now there was something bulging against the glass from within, revealed in flattened pale islands interrupted by rivers and inlets of random shadow. I looked at it for a few numb moments, trying to work out how that pale, doughy mass could have been introduced into the tank without Doctor Meninx becoming aware of it. Then I made out the flattened, ruptured oval of something that had once been an eye, and it dawned on me, slowly and then with increasing conviction, that the pale mass was Doctor Meninx, and that he had bloated to at least twice his previous volume, until he could expand no more." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I scrambled up the ladder to the top of the tank. I folded back the hinged section of walkway and began to twist the circular hatchway. I spun it free and began to lever it back, but I had only opened it a crack when I was assaulted by a noxious, vinegary stench.\n\nI slammed the hatch back down.\n\n'Tell me what happened.'\n\n'I cannot say,' Hesperus replied.\n\nMy hands trembling, I lowered myself down the side of the tank, back onto the safety of the floor. I had never really liked Doctor Meninx, and I had liked him less and less as his true prejudices bubbled to the surface." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But he had been a fellow starfarer, a being who had travelled far, swum in oceans of memory and experience, and now all that memory and experience were gone.\n\nThe anger hit me with the cold force of a supernova shockwave.\n\n'What do you mean, you cannot say? You were fucking awake, Hesperus. You were the only one he had anything to fear from. The only one he thought might want to kill him. And now he's dead.'\n\nHesperus stood at the entrance to the chamber, his arms at his sides, his head lowered slightly, like a schoolboy summoned for punishment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I understand your reaction, Purslane, but as I have already explained to Campion, this was not my doing.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Why didn't you try to help him?' Campion asked.\n\n'I did, despite your request that I keep away from him. When I detected signs that Doctor Meninx's tank chemistry was amiss - signs that I stress were by no means compellingly obvious - I attempted to adjust the equipment in such a way as to remedy the perceived imbalance. I soon discovered that the equipment was not amenable to outside interference.'\n\nI was still not ready to let go of my suspicion, but I wanted to hear the rest of his defence. 'And?'\n\n'I discovered that by merely tampering with the equipment I had raised Doctor Meninx from his drug-induced slumber. Upon his return to partial consciousness, I attempted to explain the nature of his predicament. Unfortunately, Doctor Meninx refused to believe that my intentions were anything other than improper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He urged me to desist tampering with his tank at the earliest opportunity.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Did you?'\n\n'Of course not: I persisted, despite Doctor Meninx's far from lucid protestations. Yet as I attempted assist him, the doctor succeeded in activating certain devices built into his tank, the purpose of which was deter outside interference. These countermeasures, though posing no serious threat to my own existence, nonetheless made it prohibitively difficult for me to access the very mechanisms I sought to examine and adjust. With regret, I was forced to abandon my efforts. I could not save the doctor, but merely witness his inevitable decline. It was at this point that I attempted to raise you from abeyance, without success.'\n\n'And then?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I made a number of subsequent attempts both to reason with the doctor and to repair the chemical imbalance, but on all such occasions I was forced to retreat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Eventually there came a day when the doctor appeared insensate, and shortly afterwards I concluded that he was dead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Other than monitoring the integrity of the tank, in case it should rupture and spill the contents into your ship, I have had nothing more to do with the personage.'\n\n'Open and shut, in other words,' Campion said.\n\n'I can only speak the truth,' Hesperus replied.\n\nHe was with us when we ran the Belladonna algorithm. We were looking at a portion of the Milky Way, writ large on Campion's displayer. The view had already zoomed in on Dalliance's position, with only a thousand lights or so visible in any direction - about the thickness of the disc itself. The red line that marked Dalliance's future course was arrowing out towards the extremities of the galaxy. A cone projected ahead of the ship, indicating the algorithm's search volume." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'It requires us to search in the direction of the galactic anti-centre,' I said. 'We look along a radial line extending away from the core that passes through the position of the reunion system. As it happens, that's pretty close to our present heading.'\n\n'The volume will encompass the system you were already approaching,' said Hesperus. 'Will that not lead to an ambiguity?'\n\n'Belladonna explicitly instructs us to ignore the reunion system, and any suitable systems lying closer to the galactic centre,' I said. 'It obliges us to look beyond, until we find a star of the right spectral type and with the right formation of planets. It must lie at least fifty years from the designated reunion world to give us a chance of getting there without being tracked - any closer and we could be followed too easily." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There has to be a rocky world in a circular orbit at a suitable distance from the star.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'The world must be life-supporting?'\n\n'Not necessarily, but it shouldn't be so inhospitable that it could never be scaped. We could easily spend several thousand years in the vicinity of the fallback. That's long enough to modify a climate, even to shift a borderline case to true habitability.'\n\n'And if the world is already occupied?'\n\n'Then we'll be guests of whoever owns the place. Most civilisations know enough about the Lines not to turn them down in their hour of need.'\n\n'And if they should turn you down?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'It's not something you do twice.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a moment Campion said, 'Looks like we have a candidate.'\n\nThe image zoomed in again, dizzyingly, on a solitary yellow star. It was ninety lights beyond the reunion system - practically on its doorstep in galactic terms, but safely beyond the proscribed margin of fifty lights. Provided we did not head there directly, but went off in a false direction before steering back towards it once we were out of detection range, we would be able to reach the system without being followed.\n\nI digested the trove data scrolling down next to the star. The summary was in all likelihood no more than the last layer of virgin ice on a mountain of data known to Gentian Line. Given the perceptual bottlenecks of the human central nervous system, there might be more 'known' about this world than could ever be absorbed in a normal lifetime.\n\n'Neume,' said Campion, stroking his chin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Rings a bell - although I suppose there are thousands of Neumes out there.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'No--I'm getting it as well, and I think the memory's specific to this sector. One of us must have been there. Not you or I, or it would come through stronger. It must have been quite a few circuits ago - enough for the place to have changed a bit.'\n\nAccording to the trove, the planet had seen many native civilisations. No one was listed as living there now, but that was no guarantee that we would find the world unoccupied. The trove's last update on the matter was twelve kilo-years stale.\n\n'The world touches a chord of familiarity with me as well,' Hesperus said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'You've been to Neume?' I asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Not been, I think. Nothing in my bones tells me I have walked that soil. But I may have intended to go there, as part of my wider explorations.'\n\n'There's something on Neume called the Spirit of the Air,' Campion said, reading a few lines further down the summary. 'Some kind of posthuman machine intelligence, I think, although it's all a bit vague. Any chance you were interested in that?'\n\n'You mean as one machine to another?'\n\n'You tell me.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Campion was still suspicious of Hesperus, even though we had agreed to give him the benefit of the doubt where Doctor Meninx was concerned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'It is certainly possible. It is also possible that I am quite mistaken about Neume. As you say, there may be other worlds with that name.'\n\n'I guess you'll know when we get there,' I said.\n\n'One can but hope,' Hesperus said. 'Of course, there is the small matter of the ambush to deal with first. I wonder if I might be of assistance in that regard?'\n\n'We can't trust him,' Campion said, lying against me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Even if we wanted to trust him, it'd be the wrong thing to do.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'He's offered to help us. I've told him I'll let him pick a ship from my cargo bay, something he can use.'\n\n'Could be a ruse.'\n\n'You mean, he's going to take the ship and never come back?'\n\n'It's a distinct possibility.'\n\n'Yes, and so is the possibility that he's telling us the truth.' I propped myself up on one elbow. 'So what if he does leave us?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "We'll have lost a guest and a ship I probably don't even remember acquiring." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hardly the worst thing we're going to have to deal with.'\n\n'I'll remind you of that when he turns his guns on us.'\n\n'He's a rational sentient, Campion - not a vengeance-crazed psychopath.' I ran a finger though the fine hair of his chest, across his belly and down to his sleeping penis. We had been lying together in a warm post-coital haze, until I made the mistake of starting a conversation. 'The mad one was Doctor Meninx. Hesperus just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.'\n\n'So he says.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Do you actually believe he murdered Meninx?'\n\nCampion struggled with his reply. 'No,' he said eventually. 'I think the doctor just took one short cut too many with his equipment. But I have to act as if I'm taking the matter seriously. I can't appear negligent where the death of a guest is concerned.'\n\n'Even when the other guest has volunteered to put his life on the line to help us?'\n\n'Don't make this any harder than it already is." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm just saying, Hesperus has some ground to make up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He has to earn my trust again. Earn our trust.'\n\nI caressed him until he began to show faint signs of life. 'He's earned mine already. You're the one who needs to catch up, Campion.'\n\nHesperus ran a golden hand along the golden flank of the little spacecraft he had found tucked in one corner of the enormous room. It was scarcely larger than a whale, more a trinket than a ship.\n\n'It's called Vespertine, ' I said. 'That's about all I remember." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I think someone may have given it to me as a gift." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I can't recall the last time I had to use a shuttle to move between vessels, rather than just whisking over. Been a while since I dealt with an entry-level civilisation.'\n\n'This is more than a shuttle,' Hesperus said, still stroking the little ship's skin.\n\n'What are we dealing with, then?'\n\n'A true interstellar vehicle, Purslane. I believe that the lateral bulge conceals part of a small parametric engine, or something employing similar principles.'\n\nI shrugged. 'Doesn't change much. There are other interstellar ships in here." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I keep them for trade.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We were in Silver Wings ' main storage/cargo bay, in the aft third of my ship. The bay was a rectangular pressurised space eight kilometres long, three across and nearly two in height. We had entered through the cliff-like edifice of the forward wall and followed a series of suspended walkways through the chamber, winding between the many ships and ship-sized artefacts that formed my private collection. They loomed huge, most of them cloaked in shadow or darkness except for the odd clean or ragged edge, a smooth or imbricated surface, limned by the cold blue radiance of the distant ceiling-mounted spotlights.\n\nLately I spent as little time as possible in the main bay. The clutter of the place, the disordered collection of ships and artefacts, was an uncomfortable reminder of the disorder in my head. My skull was a pressure cooker, crammed with too much history. They both needed sorting out, but the longer I put off either task, the less enthusiasm I had." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Campion had always been less sentimental than me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He could ditch ancient treasure, or submit to memory consolidation, without a moment's hesitation. He moved through life with less baggage, less to weigh him down, less to anchor him to his own history. I had always admired him for that willingness to discard his own past, while knowing it was one of the things that made us distinct, a bridge I could never cross if I wished to remain Purslane.\n\nAnd I did, of course.\n\nSometimes I thought of Abigail making clay dolls of us, the way a girl might pass a rainy afternoon, with no thought for what would become of those dolls when she sent them into the world. How trivial it must have been for her to adjust the parameters of her personality before pouring a measure of it into each of her shatterlings. Did it cross her mind, even for an instant, that there might be less than joyous consequences? That on some unthinkably distant day one of her shatterlings would be standing in a vast room halfway across the galaxy, weighed down with the melancholic sense of being an unwilling curator in some dusty, little-visited museum of her own existence?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hesperus was looking at me, waiting for me to continue." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Shatterlings tend to be hoarders, as you may have noticed. I've never had much use for half the stuff in here, but I can't bring myself to get rid of it. I'd be too worried about throwing away something really vital, without realising it.'\n\n'I quite understand. But this ship may yet have possibilities. I should like permission to go aboard, if it will not inconvenience you.'\n\nVespertine floated in a weightless cradle just beyond the gravity bubble encompassing the walkway. Hesperus had to lean over the railing to reach its skin. It was ridged with a Byzantine design, mazes and chevrons and interlocked flower-like forms, vanishing down to a fractal haze of microscopic detail that made the edges appear out of focus." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I presumed the design served some arcane field-modifying effect, much as the roughened skin of a shark assisted it in swimming." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Is there something in particular about this ship that interests you?'\n\n'I should like to see if it is functional, and whether it will accept me as a pilot.'\n\n'I don't blame you for wanting to leave us, Hesperus.'\n\n'Not my intention. I am considering how I may be of practical assistance during the forthcoming encounter.'\n\n'But this is just a tiny little minnow.'\n\n'Size may well be the issue here, but not in the sense you are implying. A ship as small as this one would be limited in its agility not by the power output of its engine, but by the strength of its dampening field. But I am not human." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unbalanced forces that would reduce you to red jelly - I am sorry to be so graphic, but it is necessary to make my point - would register with me only as a mild impediment to free movement.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Being able to move fast isn't going to protect you from everything that might be hiding in that cloud.'\n\n'My mission must have been evaluated as a high-risk enterprise from the moment I left Machine Space. I would have gone into it knowing that there would be moments of crisis and uncertainty. In that respect, nothing has changed.'\n\n'Did Campion show you the structures?'\n\n'Yes, he did.'\n\nAs she had refined her observations of the reunion system, Silver Wings had detected bright objects embedded in the cloud. They were huge glowing structures of irregular shape, branching into jagged fingers like frozen lightning bolts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were shrouded in dust now, difficult to examine, but we would see them up close when we slammed through the cloud." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We had no idea what they were - deep trove searches were continuing - but their presence did nothing to lighten our mood.\n\n'They don't worry you?'\n\n'They are certainly puzzling. I may even know what they are, on a level of memory I cannot presently access. I also have every confidence that I can steer around them without coming to harm.'\n\nDespite everything that had happened, the weight of knowledge bearing down on me, his bravery stirred me. 'What I said earlier still applies. If you want to leave, you can take any of these ships." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I won't hold it against you, and neither will Campion.'\n\n'I am still in your debt. I have no intention of leaving until that is settled. Now, may I be permitted to examine the ship? If I am to make the best use of it, I may wish to modify some of her control systems. I know there is still time, but the sooner I start the better.'\n\n'Campion and I will be going into abeyance shortly. We'll come out when we're closer, about to begin slowdown.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I told Silver Wings to release the security binding on the golden ship, allowing Hesperus to board it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Part of the handrail vanished and a portion of the flooring bulged outwards to connect with a baroque doorway that had just formed in the side of the ship. Soft blue light emanated from the interior, highlighting the chromed flanges on the sides of Hesperus's face. He stepped through the blue-lit doorway, one gold machine entering another. After a moment the doorway rendered itself impassable - it was as if a pane had frosted over with gold leaf - and then vanished back into the baroque patterning of the hull, leaving no trace of its former existence. The railing remade itself. A breeze, caused by a shift in the miniature weather system that inhabited this bay, flicked a hair across my brow. I had not been there for so long that my entrance had disturbed the equilibrium of the captured atmosphere.\n\nThere are times when you go into abeyance with the weight of the world on your shoulders, and come out with all your problems suddenly diminished - still there, still meriting your attention, but no longer having the looming stature that they did before." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was not one of those times." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I came out of the casket with the same dread feeling that I had had going in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We braked hard and braked sudden, pushing our engines to the limit. Until the moment when we began slowdown and dug claws into spacetime like cats sliding down a wall, there would have been little or no warning of our imminent arrival.\n\nTwo per cent of the speed of light was almost not moving at all by the standards of Gentian Line - a speed so imperceptibly slow that it was best measured in kilometres per second, a unit more usually associated with travel in a planetary atmosphere. But it was still much faster than the orbital motion of any of the bodies making up the system, whether they were the remaining planets and moons or the dust, grit and tumbling boulders of the shattered planet. Campion had already pulled away to a distance of two minutes--thirty-six million kilometres - beginning his separation many hours ago. Now our two ships were moving along parallel trajectories, like bullets shot from a double-barrelled rifle, and would remain so as we slipped through the cloud, piercing it more or less at its widest point, and passing either side of the sun. Both ships would be peering into the surrounding volume, looking for indications of technological activity. Allowing for the effectiveness of our sensors, we should be able to sweep twenty per cent of the cloud with a sensitivity high enough to detect typical ship signatures." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There were places to hide: warm knots and eddies in the cloud caused by the to-and-fro influence of the remaining worlds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A ship could hide itself, masked to eyes that worked on gravity and heat.\n\nAll the while we would be doing our best not to be seen. That meant no communications unless absolutely necessary: by the time we were deep inside the cloud there would be too great a chance of a tight-beam being scattered in all directions by intervening debris, rendering our private communications at least detectable by foreign parties, if not decipherable. It also meant using our engines as infrequently as possible, and not raising our impassors to full effectiveness until a collision was imminent. Running dark, in other words: coasting without screens, and relying solely on passive sensor methods.\n\nI watched Hesperus leave. Before he entered Vespertine we touched hands. His was very cold, very metallic, but somehow pliant in the way it yielded to my touch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He slipped out of my grasp and retreated through the blue-lit doorway of the golden ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The doorway formed over and vanished back into the blurred surface of the hull. A humming note rose and stabilised. A few seconds later, the hull blurring intensified, as if I was seeing the golden craft through a veil of tears. Vespertine moved away from the catwalk, slipping free of its force cradle. The railing reformed. I clutched it, watching Hesperus navigate between the much larger and darker vessels filling my hold. Gradually it dwindled to a tiny, fuzzy mote of self-illuminated gold. The bay door had opened wide. Hesperus penetrated the atmosphere curtain and entered open space." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He hovered outside for a few seconds before engaging the engine, appearing to blink out of existence as the massive acceleration snatched him away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I watched the door close and then whisked back to the bridge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Vespertine is loose,' I told Campion.\n\nHis reply came back four minutes later. 'I didn't see a thing, and I was watching very closely. I hope that bodes well, if and when we run into trouble.'\n\nHis image was based on Silver Wings ' own memories of Campion, not any visual information arriving over the talk-beam. It would have been pointless and dangerous to send more data than was strictly necessary, so our exchange consisted only of the words we spoke, accompanied by a few cues for gesture, emphasis and inflection, rendered back into a convincing simulacrum of speech.\n\nAn hour passed, and then my ship had something to tell me.\n\n'My trove's turned something up,' I reported to Campion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'The bright structures in the cloud - I think they may confirm another part of Fescue's story." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The trove thinks they may be lesions - a kind of residue left over from the use of Homunculus weapons. That's not good news, obviously. Not only would it mean we are dealing with H-guns - after all this time - but it also means someone's used them more recently than thirty-four years ago. Lesions have a decay half-life, even in hard vacuum. They wouldn't last long in this kind of environment.'\n\nCampion came back, 'Agreed--it's not good news. But at least it means someone had a reason to fire those weapons relatively recently. Unless they were just firing them for the hell of it, it could mean they were trying to eliminate survivors still hiding out in the cloud.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Or shoot down latecomers who had the chrome-plated balls to come through anyway, despite Fescue's warning.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Campion smiled grimly. 'There's that as well.' Then he glanced aside at a read-out. 'Dust is starting to thicken, for me at least. I'm going to have to notch up my impassor effectiveness before it gets any worse. Suggest you do likewise.'\n\nI sent the necessary command to Silver Wings. 'Raised. Can you still hear me?'\n\nThe image flickered, criss-crossed with pink and white static lines." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Yes,' Campion said, his voice throaty. 'You're coming through. I can see your bubble, though - you're beginning to scintillate. It helps that I know exactly where to look, but you're more visible than you were a minute ago.'\n\nHe meant a minute by his reckoning - it was still taking two minutes for light to creep between us.\n\nI could see Dalliance's impasse flickering on and off as it interdicted incoming matter, though the effort taxed my sensors to the limit. I had sometimes chastised him for using such a small ship, but now his size gave him a clear edge over me. The surface area of his bubble was a hundred and twenty times less than that enveloping Silver Wings, making it much less likely that he would run into any given piece of debris.\n\nTwo hours in, and I could feel the effect of those collisions as well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As the ambient dust thickened - as we pushed deeper and deeper into the cloud of planetary ashes - so Silver Wings registered each impact with a tangible jolt as the impassor soaked up the momentum of the incoming particle and then transferred that impulse to the ship via the generators. The dampeners were doing their best to cancel out any shifts in the local gravity, but because they had little warning they had to cut in sharply, with a perceptible lag between effect and response.\n\nI felt like the captain of an ocean-going ship grinding against an iceberg, each jolt the twang of a hull plate being ripped away.\n\n'It's rougher than I expected,' Campion told me, the scratchiness of his image and the metallic timbre of his voice Silver Wings ' way of telling me that the data transfer was becoming problematic. 'It'll smooth out, though, once the impacts start coming in close together enough.'\n\nThat took another hour. Silver Wings was now driving hard into a sleet of debris and the momentum transfer had become first a drum roll and then a rumble, and now little more than a faint, ever-present vibration. The downside was that the collisions were sapping my speed: I had to engage the engine just to maintain two per cent of light, and I could only run the engine in the instants when the impassor was down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Occasionally there was still a large, barely dampened jolt as we ran into something an order of magnitude bigger than the usual particles, but my nerves had already been shredded about as thoroughly as they could be." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Three and half hours in, we got our first close view of the nearest lesion. It emerged from its cloak of dust like a sliver of bright landscape seen through breaking fog. It was irregular in shape, flattened and straight at one end, curving in the middle, splaying into vast curved fingers at the other. It was aglow with a soft, milky luminescence.\n\nIt scared the hell out of me.\n\nI tightened my grip on the metal of the bridge banister, half-expecting that my ship would be forced to swerve violently at any moment.\n\nThe lesion was orbiting with the general motion of the cloud, obeying the gravitational influence of the star, but there were countless specks of dust moving on their own courses, with their own velocities. Sooner or later one of those impacts was going to liberate enough energy to send a wave of transformation slamming through the lesion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was anyone's guess as to what would happen then. The lesion might just vanish, all the energy embodied in it being sucked harmlessly back into the marrow of spacetime from whence it had come - or it might explode, liberating in an instant enough destructive force to rip the crust off a planet.\n\nThe safest thing was not to be anywhere near a lesion.\n\n'We should go dark from now on,' Campion said. 'Too much chance of scatter. I'll signal you when we've passed the sun and the local cloud density has dropped to a safe level again.'\n\nAnother five or six hours - it felt like half my lifetime stretching ahead of me. I was a shatterling, mentally programmed to tolerate immense stretches of solitude." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But that mental programming had begun to run amok a long time ago." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now I needed another human being close to me just to feel human myself.\n\nI could not see Hesperus, but I knew his intended trajectory. He had not been in contact since leaving Silver Wings, but that was no cause for concern. He would pass the lesion before either of us, but his small, fleet ship seemed unlikely to trigger any undesirable changes in the abnormal structure. I was more concerned about my own passage: I would give the lesion a wider berth, but my field effects would reach further than Vespertine 's. Was hundreds of thousands of kilometres of clear space enough to insulate the lesion from the influence of my impassor and engine?\n\nThe trove offered no reassurance.\n\nI do not think I breathed until I was clear, and the last of those curling fingers was falling behind my ship." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had survived, but there were still other lesions ahead of me, lurking deeper in the cloud." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I remained tense, still conscious that my survival depended entirely on the safe functioning of my bubble; were it to fail, Silver Wings would be ripped apart in a blinding moment, and I would probably know nothing of it. Every now and then a larger impact served as a reminder that I was running into pebbles and boulders, not merely grains of dust.\n\nThe second lesion was larger than the first, but further away, and none of our intended trajectories came within six hundred thousand kilometres of it. It was similar to the first, but with a bifurcation halfway along its curving, spavined length. Its grasping fingers were knobby and broken-nailed. The more familiar I became with the lesions, the more they began to remind me of antlers, broken off in some titanic contest between animals large enough to bestride a solar system.\n\nSix hours in, I reached my closest approach to the dust-shrouded sun. On the other side, Silver Wings began to register a slow and gradual decline in the density of the cloud." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It would be some time yet before I could risk signalling Campion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had just resigned myself to a long wait when he reappeared." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I'm getting something,' he said, sounding unsure of himself. 'It's a very weak signal, but it's moving independently of the rest of this junk. Could be a ship, I think.'\n\n'Is it Gentian?'\n\n'Doesn't look like it so far. The protocols are pretty old.'\n\n'Then we don't go after it. We're looking for Line survivors, not anyone else stupid enough to blunder into this.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Agreed,' Campion said. 'But for all we know there are Gentian survivors who don't have the means to send the right kind of signal. If their ship's damaged, or they had to hide out aboard another one--'\n\n'I wish you weren't so good at coming up with get-out clauses, Campion.'\n\nSilver Wings was still seeing nothing, but then Dalliance might have been close enough to sniff out a signal just below my detection threshold. As his ship exchanged data with mine, I confirmed that this was the case. The object - whatever it was - would pass just within Campion's effective sensor envelope, but slip past mine completely.\n\n'All right - I agree that this is worth looking at, but please be careful. We ignored one warning from Fescue; now we're taking a risk we would have considered unacceptable a few hours ago.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'We're flexible,' Campion said. 'It's the price we pay for being sentient. I'm veering; see you in a while.'\n\nHesperus was the next to get in touch. 'I see Campion moving now, Purslane. He is strobing his bubble to effect a course change. Has something happened?'\n\nIt bothered me that Campion's actions were so visible, but nothing could be done about that. 'He's picked up something - he thinks it could be a signal, maybe from survivors.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'It could also be something a great deal less welcome.'\n\n'Yes,' I said tersely. 'He's aware of that. He still feels obliged to investigate.'\n\n'If you have no objections, I shall strive to follow Campion and locate the same signal. It will mean sacrificing a degree of stealth, but anyone monitoring this system is surely aware of our arrival by now.'\n\n'Take care, please.'\n\n'I shall. If you are able, would you be so kind as to inform Campion of my intentions?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I would not wish to startle him.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I'll do that, Hesperus. And thank you. I didn't mean to snap just now.'\n\n'Under the circumstances, I think you may be forgiven.'\n\nHe closed the link and left me alone. I called Campion, telling him that Hesperus was on his way but that he should not acknowledge my transmission. The last thing I wanted was to feel alone, but the less we talked the better.\n\nI had been scared before - too many times to remember. But there had always been a mitigating factor to take the edge off my fears." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had always been able to console myself with the thought that if I survived, I would have an astonishing adventure to braid into my strand, something that would guarantee a day or two of dreamy celebrity even if I had no interest whatsoever in winning the Thousand Nights." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And even if I should die in such a way that my strand never reached the Line, I would still be commemorated. When the fact of my death was certain, plans would be laid for a commemoration of my life, something to weigh against six million years of existence. They might etch my face across the surface of a planet, or blow an image of me into the gas of a nebula, or even shape a supernova remnant into my likeness. It had all been done before. And at the next reunion, and the one after that - all the way down the line until attrition wore us down to the last living shatterling, the last pale memory of Abigail Gentian, there would be an evening during the Thousand Nights when I would be honoured as if I still walked amongst the living. I would be dreamed into life again, if only until morning.\n\nBut now there would be no more Thousand Nights, never another reunion. Some of us might have survived, those of us who had arrived late, but we would never feel safe enough to stage another gathering." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The best that we could do, to safeguard the memories we already carried, would be to go off in different directions and find somewhere to hide, living like hermits until time wore our enemies to dust." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The fact was, in this hour when I most had need of that consolation, it offered me nothing." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing buddy needed! gimme 2 sentences more. stick to science fiction pls" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The robots came to see me in the early afternoon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had left Campion watching Mezereon's continued interrogation of Grilse and had returned to the private room where we had left Hesperus, exactly where he had been before we had taken him to the Spirit. There had been no change in his condition since morning, but I felt obliged to keep vigil in case there was a flicker of life, a momentary attempt at communication that ould otherwise be missed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'It was a very good effort,' Cadence said, making me start by appearing at the door without warning. 'You should not blame yourself for the lack of success.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'It isn't a total failure,' I said, noticing Cascade lurking just behind the female robot." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'He's not attached to that mass any more. He's been put back the way he used to be. Even his arm.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'His arm?' the male robot quizzed.\n\n'There was human flesh beneath the metal skin of his left arm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was trying to disguise himself as one of us, so that he could enter the Vigilance.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'We had no idea,' Cadence said.\n\n'It doesn't matter now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the point is, the Spirit did something - it didn't just put him back on the platform exactly as he arrived." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It saw what was wrong with him, what was damaged, or not to be expected.'\n\n'Superficial matters,' Cascade said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Maybe. But what's to say it didn't look deep into him and fix what was wrong with him there as well? His broken memory, the damage he sustained in the attack by the H-gun.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'The evidence would suggest otherwise,' said Cadence. 'Although it pains us to admit it, he does not appear any more cognitively functional than when we last observed him.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'There are still lights in his head.'\n\n'But faint, and hardly moving." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You would be unwise to put too much stock in them.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Do you think he's dead?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had the impression that the robots were exchanging thoughts - the air grew momentarily tense, as if accumulating charge before an electrical storm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'He is not beyond hope,' Cadence said, sounding more doubtful than certain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'But with every day that passes, patterns may be lost. The sooner he is on his way to Machine Space, the better.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'We did not want to press you after the death of Cyphel,' Cascade said, managing to sound kind and firm at the same time, 'but if it is not too painful, perhaps we might discuss the matter of transportation again?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I think we agreed everything that needed to be agreed,' I said. 'We've said goodbye to Cyphel and I've got Hesperus back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If you want my ship, you can have her today.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Are you certain?' Cadence asked.\n\n'Totally. Take her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Get her out of my sight.'\n\n'That would be most satisfactory from our standpoint,' Cascade said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'If it helps Hesperus, if it helps the Line, if it helps the Machine People, I'm happy with it.' Which was halfway to the truth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Before Cyphel's death, before the return of Hesperus, I had been indignant about losing Silver Wings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now all I felt was emptiness, a sense that I had been betrayed and let down not just by elements of my Line, but by the universe itself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Getting my ship back would make no difference to that; it would be like throwing a single stone into a canyon and hoping to fill it to the brim." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'There were things you wished to retrieve from the ship,' Cadence said.\n\nI nodded, although the task filled me with nothing resembling enthusiasm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'It won't take long - most of those old ships should still be able to fly out by themselves.'\n\n'As discussed, we will begin the process of familiarisation with your vehicle's systems while you evacuate the hold.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cascade nodded his white mask at the golden form before us." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'We may as well convey Hesperus into orbit now. That way we can also begin preparing him for the journey, as best as we are able.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I won't see him again, will I?'\n\n'If he can be healed, and if you live long enough, anything is possible,' Cadence answered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Maybe he won't even remember us." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You can't be sure of that, can you?'\n\nCascade said, 'We will ensure that his debt to you is made clear.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'It isn't about a debt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's about friendship. We liked him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I think he iked us back.'\n\n'He is in safe hands now,' Cadence said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'You need have no fear about that.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Will you take care of moving him?' I asked. 'I can have my shuttle ready at the main landing stage within the hour." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Betony will need to authorise a visit to orbit, but there shouldn't be any objection." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This was his idea to begin with.'\n\n'This does not inconvenience you?' Cascade asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'It's not as if I had anything else planned today.'\n\n'Then your offer is most acceptable to us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We shall make the necessary arrangements for Hesperus.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Take good care of him,' I said.\n\nI left the robots with him and went back to the open auditorium where I had last seen Campion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was still sitting with Betony and the others, keeping a careful eye on Mezereon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I approached he stood from his seat and moved to an empty position out of earshot of the others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I went up to him and said, 'I'm going up to Silver Wings, so that I can assign control to Cadence and Cascade. They're going to take Hesperus with them.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Will you be long?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I only need to empty the hold and authorise the change of ownership." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I should be back on Neume by midnight. At worst, breakfast.'\n\nHe made to move from his seat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I'll come with you.'\n\n'You don't have to." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In all honesty, I'd rather you didn't come. It's going to be difficult enough handing that ship over, but having you up there as a witness will make it even worse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You know what she means to me.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I understand,' Campion said. 'This is something you'd rather do on your own.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I'll be all right once I'm back down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I just wanted you to know where I was going." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I promise I'll be fine.'\n\n'Don't let those machines take anything that isn't part of the deal.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I won't, trust me.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He got up and kissed me, holding me tight until I forced myself free. 'They'll regret this, one day,' he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'They'll see that they did the wrong thing. Betony probably knows it already - Cyphel's death has put everything else into perspective." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But he can't back down, not now the offer's already been made to the robots.'\n\n'If they bring her back with a scratch on her, there'll be hell to pay.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He smiled. 'That's the spirit. Now go up there and get it over and done with.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I kissed him again; our hands linked and then parted. I turned to Betony, whom I sensed had been watching us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I'm going up to my ship, to sign her over to the robots." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I presume you have no objections?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Of course not,' he said, then looked back at Mezereon, as if he could not quite meet my eyes. Feeling a flicker of triumph, I walked away from the auditorium, my back straight, my head held high, to the landing stage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My shuttle was there by the time I arrived, and I did not have long to wait for the robots, or their golden cargo.\n\nWe lifted from Ymir without incident." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I watched the spires fall away, curving the shuttle around so that I caught a fleeting view of the auditorium. Mezereon's array of panes glittered in the sun, spangles of light flashing from the two hundred and fifty-six facets that had once been a single human being." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I caught a glimpse of a tiny black-clad figure stalking between the panes, and then the ruby discharge of an energy-pistol, and then another tower swung into place to block my line of sight. I pushed the shuttle higher and was soon knifing into the high, thin layers of atmosphere where we had played out Cyphel's life." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Behind me, the robots stood on either side of their fallen kinsman, who was resting horizontally between them. Their hands were pressing into him, one on each shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As I had noticed when they had attempted to commune with him previously on Silver Wings of Morning, it was as if the gold armour of his skin had become as malleable as clay.\n\nI instructed the shuttle to match position and speed with my ship's polar orbit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silver came quickly into view, enlarging with frightening rapidity until the shuttle braked viciously to avoid the collision that until the absolute last moment had appeared inevitable. Inside, we felt nothing of that brutal slowdown." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shuttle sent a command for the cargo bay to open and we slipped inside the lovely chrome swan that had been my ship for so long." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Selecting manual controls, I guided the shuttle through the maze of parked vehicles until I found the vacant docking berth I had used on my last visit. Field clamps locked it home; I set the drive to idle and we disembarked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cadence and Cascade carried Hesperus; I strode ahead of them, walking through a good half-kilometre of bay until we reached the nearest whisking chamber." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Welcome, Purslane,' said Silver Wings, speaking directly into my head. 'I see you are accompanied." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Are they guests, or are you being coerced?'\n\nI am being coerced, I thought sourly, but by the Line, not these innocent machines." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'They're friends of mine,' I said aloud. 'Please make them welcome." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cadence is the silver one, Cascade the white one.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Welcome, Cadence and Cascade.'\n\n'Hesperus you know,' I said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'He's still unwell, but the robots are going to take him somewhere where he can be healed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In a little while I'll be assigning command authority to the robots, so you'll have a good chance to get to know them better.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Are you disposing of me, Purslane?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silver Wings asked, still in my head.\n\n'Not by choice. We'll talk about it on the bridge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If all goes well, we'll see each other again, in half a million years or so.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The whisking chamber was large enough to receive cargo, and therefore easily spacious enough for me and the three robots. I began to tap our destination into the hovering go-board, then looked back at my guests and hesitated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Hesperus whisked, so I'm assuming you can do it as well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That was before he was injured, though. Will he be all right?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We can walk if you like, but the bridge is a good fifteen kilometres away.'\n\n'We can whisk,' Cadence said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Hesperus will come to no harm.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'If you're sure.'\n\nA grid of lights in the chamber's walls flashed red to signify that the whisking field was about to activate, and that we should confine ourselves to the area indicated on the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was a moment's bright rush - a subliminal sense of being syringed down swerving, chicaning tubes - and then, less than an eyeblink later, we were standing in the counterpart to the first chamber, fifteen kilometres up-ship." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Has there been a mistake?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cascade asked, looking into the echoing, gloomy concourse onto which the whisking chamber had opened. 'This does not resemble the bridge I had imagined.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'The bridge is still a little way from here,' I said. 'There used to be a direct link between the cargo bay and the bridge, but that wasn't a very good idea - it made the ship too vulnerable to attack by infiltrating parties." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was like putting an express elevator between the city gates and the mayor's office - asking for trouble.'\n\n'Do we have far to go now?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Just a stroll.' The concourse was ringed by whisking chambers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I pointed to the one opposite us and set off at a brisk pace, leading the robots across a bridge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Above and below, rising and plunging to similarly dizzying vanishing points, stretched a shaft filled with slowly moving anvil-shaped mechanisms. Local gravity here was aligned with Silver Wings ' long axis, so the shaft ran most of her length, until it butted against the mountainous bulkhead of the cargo bay." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The machines were engaged in a never-ending process of repair and overhaul.\n\nEvery sixth whisking chamber was designed for cargo as well as people." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The rest were only large enough to take one or two people at once, but there were enough of those to accommodate hundreds of simultaneous journeys. Although her origins were buried almost beyond recall, it was evident from the capacity of her whisking system - which pre-dated the redesign to prevent boarders - that she had once been intended to carry millions of passengers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I sometimes wondered if my ship pined for those days when her halls and atria, her vast concourses and plazas, teemed with human life. Now all she ever had was me, and a handful of guests if she was lucky." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We rattled around like ghosts in an empty mansion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We reached the other whisking chamber." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I tapped the go-board, knowing that in a few moments we would be on the bridge and that there would be no further reason to delay handing over the ship. I had been steeling myself for it ever since we had left Neume, to the point where I had begun to think I could sail through it without an emotional hiccup." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But now that the time was almost upon me I felt a tightening in my throat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was not going to be as easy as I had thought." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The room's wall flashed red." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The whisk would be a short one this time - it would feel like an instantaneous translation between the two chambers.\n\nSomething happened." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I think I must have blacked out for a moment, because there was a stall in my thoughts that had nothing to do with the process of whisking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In that stall I appeared to have been pushed violently out of the region of influence of the field, so violently that I had hit the floor and was now lying in a shocked heap, not so much in pain as waiting for the pain to arrive, which I knew with certainty it was about to do." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I coughed for breath and groaned. I still had no idea what had happened, but as my blurred eyes resumed some focus I made out a golden form looming over me, a form that was unmistakably Hesperus, who was unmistakably alive." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cadence and Cascade had vanished." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'We must leave,' Hesperus said, leaning down to pick me up off the floor. 'We must leave and leave quickly.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bruised as I was, I did not have the impression that anything was actually broken - the pain was too diffuse for that. 'Hesperus,' I said, relieved and bewildered in equal measure. 'What--'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'There isn't time to discuss it here." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I pushed you out of the transit field just as it reached operating strength." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cadence and Cascade went on as intended." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They've arrived at the far end.'\n\n'The bridge,' I said, my voice hoarse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was standing, though not without Hesperus's assistance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Can we return to the cargo bay from this chamber?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My eyes were still blurry, my thoughts still addled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'No ... got to get to the other side, over the bridge.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Very well. May I carry you?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It will be faster.'\n\nI do not recall if he waited for my answer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His golden arms swept me up and held me securely. Hesperus started walking, then the walk became a pounding, superhumanly fast run." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We crossed the shaft where the anvil-shaped machines rose and fell according to their own unfathomable agendas, and then we were in the whisking chamber. Hesperus touched the go-board." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ship accepted the command, still recognising him as a valid guest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We slammed to the other end of the ship, to the chamber at the entrance to the cargo bay." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'What's happening?' I asked, as some of the fog began to lift." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I tricked Cadence and Cascade,' Hesperus said as we entered the cargo bay." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'They were lying about their intentions.'\n\n'They wanted my ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was about to give her to them. What's to lie about?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I don't know yet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All I know is that they've no intention of returning me to the Monoceros Ring. When they interfaced with me just now they were doing their best to kill me.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hesperus had ... loosened, somehow - his voice was the same, but the speech had become more colloquial, less rigid and precise than before.\n\n'Why would they want to kill you?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'When they interfaced with me aboard your ship, their intention was to suck information out of me and leave me dead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then they would lie and say I had died from my earlier injuries. They failed then - I was stronger than they expected, and they couldn't be too obvious about what they were doing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unfortunately, they left me too weakened to communicate my fears to you. Later, they were overjoyed that you wanted to convey me to the Spirit of the Air.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Because they thought you'd die there instead.'\n\n'Which I didn't. When I returned from the Spirit there was still a spark of life in me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As we lifted from Neume, they tried once more to kill me. They were doing their best to track down that spark of life and extinguish it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It took all of my resources and cunning to fend them off without looking as if I was fending them off." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I succeeded, obviously, or I would never have surprised them the way I did.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My golden conveyor paused. 'Are you having problems with your eyes, Purslane?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Everything's a bit foggy.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I had to shove you very hard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's likely that you burst some capillaries in your eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You may even have suffered a detached retina. I'm sorry I couldn't warn you, or prepare you for the shock." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Speed was unfortunately of the essence.'\n\n'I still don't understand ... why are they lying?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'When they interfaced with me, I saw a little way into their minds as well. They were glad that you complied with their request, Purslane, but if you had obstructed them, or given them cause for delay, I do not think they would have hesitated to kill you." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Your only consolation is that it would have been spectacularly, mercifully fast.'\n\nI had too many questions to know where to begin, but all I could do was ask them one at a time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'What's happened to them now?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I intervened before you had assigned control to them. Unless I'm mistaken, they are currently marooned at the other end of the whisking tube, in the bridge.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'You're right. They won't be able to whisk, not without my say-so.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Will the ship assign authority to them without your permission, even if it's only to use the whisks, or open sealed doors?'\n\n'No - we should be all right." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They're effectively prisoners in the bridge. If they start to damage it, to try and force their way out, she should detect what they're doing and treat them as harmful elements.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'She'll eject them?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Not unless I tell her to. But she'll definitely lock them down with restraining fields.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'That may not hold them for very long - they are a lot stronger, a lot more resourceful, than you probably realise.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hesperus's voice took on a graver tone. 'You must ask Silver Wings to eject them now, Purslane." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If she can't eject them, she must destroy them.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'It isn't that easy.'\n\n'You can issue the command from here, can't you?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'That's not the point." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I can't just kill the robots, or throw them into space - that's not how it works.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'They are not what they claim to be.'\n\n'But I only have your word for that.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I groaned, as much in frustration as discomfort. 'I don't mean it like that, but a couple of minutes ago you were dead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How do I know you aren't suffering the after-effects of whatever happened to you on Neume? Those robots are guests of the Line." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How do you think it'll look if I go back down to Neume and say I tossed them into space?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I wouldn't lie,' he said.\n\n'Hesperus, see it from my side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You're asking me to take a vast amount on faith.'\n\n'You trusted me before.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'It's not that I don't trust you now, just that I need a little time to think things over." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You're different - you even sound different, more like a human." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How do I know something else hasn't changed?'\n\n'More has changed than you can possibly imagine - I am still Hesperus, but I am also much more than he ever was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And I am telling you that you must act against Cadence and Cascade.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'They can't do anything from the bridge. I can consult with the Line, see what action needs to be taken.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'There isn't time. Those robots didn't need you to assign them control of this ship - it was just a step that saved them a certain amount of difficulty. It has been several minutes since they arrived - centuries, in machine terms." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By now, they are likely to be well advanced in their efforts to achieve direct control. They have probably already explored and discarded thousands of stratagems for gaining command." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They will have thousands more to try. Sooner or later, one of them will succeed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There is always a back door.'\n\n'They won't get control of her.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'They will, given time - time that may now be measured in minutes, or even seconds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She is big, she is old, but they are clever and resourceful. If I was there, I could do it as well, and there are two of them.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'If you're wrong, and I'm shown to have acted against Machine People--'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'The blame will be all mine - and I can be very, very persuasive." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Do it, Purslane. Time is not on your side. I am.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Put me down,' I said. 'I can't do this while you're carrying me around.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hesperus slowed and placed me on the deck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The unlit ships and obscure machines of the cargo bay loomed around us, heavy with the past." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Silver,' I said, 'can you hear me?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The voice in my head answered, 'I can hear you, Purslane.'\n\n'Cadence and Cascade - the two guests I introduced to you before.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Yes, Purslane?'\n\n'Are they on the bridge now?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Yes, Purslane.'\n\n'Show them to me.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A picture appeared before me, hanging in the darkness. The robots were on the bridge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were standing quite still, side by side with their hands at their sides.\n\n'They don't look as if they're doing anything,' I said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'They wouldn't,' said Hesperus." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The words came to me with difficulty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Silver, I want you to immobilise them.'\n\n'Do they pose a threat, Purslane?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Yes,' Hesperus said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Just immobilise them for now. Use impassors to hold them where they are.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'It is done, Purslane.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The robots looked just the same. Nothing about them gave the slightest clue that they were now pinned in place, bracketed by a sheath of constraining forces." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'They can't do anything now,' I said to Hesperus.\n\n'They can do everything they could do before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They are reaching out with their minds, trying to find a crack in your ship's defences. She won't even know they're doing it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They're that clever. When they succeed, Purslane, their very first act will be to disarm those immobilisers. Nothing you can say or do will bring them back up again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cadence and Cascade will have free run of your ship - or more precisely their ship, since they will own her - and there will be nothing you can do to stop them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Within seconds they will have entered the whisking system, and seconds after that they will be in this room.' Hesperus turned his head towards the door through which we had entered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'There is one of me, and two of them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I will do what I can to protect you, but the odds are not in my favour. Even now.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Even now?' I asked, sensing an oddness in his tone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Never mind. Please take me at my word, Purslane." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We have been through a lot together. It would be a shame to end it all now, wouldn't it?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Especially when we have so much to talk about.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I felt as if there was a boulder lodged in my throat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I should consult ..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I can be in touch with Campion, or Betony, in a few seconds--'\n\n'They will tell you to ignore me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From their perspective, it's a perfectly rational standpoint. But you do not have that luxury." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You are in this situation and I am telling you that those robots are seconds away from gaining control of your ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They must be destroyed now, or ejected.'\n\n'This is a hard one, Hesperus.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was speaking faster now, as if he sensed that he had only moments to make his case." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'How did they come to Neume, Purslane? Did you ever investigate that?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Of course. Sainfoin brought them. They were her guests.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hesperus must have read that crack of doubt opening in my face. 'Sainfoin didn't bring them,' he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'She may have thought she did, but that's not how it would have happened." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They would have sought her out. They wanted to come here - I sensed that very clearly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They have business with Gentian Line, but their arrival had to look serendipitous. She was their puppet, not the other way around.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'She said she met them at a reunion of Dorcus Line.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'They would have been counting on a Gentian dropping by." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If no one had, they would have found a more circuitous route to reach you." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But their ultimate goal was to attend your reunion.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'What are they?'\n\n'Purslane! No more questions!'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I nodded once. He had not persuaded me completely - far from it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But my natural inclination was to trust Hesperus and he was right about Sainfoin. There was something else as well - a kind of commanding gravitas about him that had not been there before, for all that his mannerisms of speech were less formal than before he had fallen ill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Silver,' I said, my voice shaky, 'take the immobilised guests and eject them into space.'\n\n'Are you certain, Purslane?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This is a very unusual order.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By which the ship meant it was not something she ever recalled me asking of her, in all the circuits I had been master.\n\n'Yes. Certain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Give them enough of a shove to keep them from falling into the atmosphere for at least a hundred orbits. They'll come to no immediate harm.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Executing the order, Purslane.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I waited for Silver Wings to tell me that the robots had been ejected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And waited." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'This is not a good sign,' Hesperus said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He picked me up again and started running. Beneath me his legs became a blur of pistoning gold. '" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silver,' I said, raising my voice above the roar of the wind as Hesperus raced through the bay. 'Confirm execution of last order.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No answer came.\n\n'You've lost the ship,' Hesperus said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'No,' I said, refusing to accept it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All around, Silver Wings looked exactly the way she always had." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'You mustn't blame yourself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You gave the order eventually." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's quite probable that the machines had already taken over your ship when you asked for them to be immobilised. They may just have been curious as to your intentions.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'And now?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I think they will try to kill you, and to destroy me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is my hope that we can reach the shuttle first.'\n\n'And then what?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Leave, and hope that we are not fired upon by Silver Wings ' defences before we have a chance to get away.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was not far to the shuttle from that point, but it might as well have been kilometres as far as I was concerned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We passed many other ships that might have been equally useful, had they been powered-up and tested for flight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The temptation was to get inside one of them and bring it to life." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silver's jurisdiction reached into the cargo bay, but not into the ships inside it. With armour between us and the robots, we might last long enough to escape." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the shuttle was working, and I had left it idling, ready to be flown at a moment's notice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When we reached it, Hesperus lowered me to the decking and I told the shuttle to open and admit us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the hull sealed behind us, I allowed my anxiety to drop down a notch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Inside, despite my bruises and the fogginess that still afflicted my vision, I raced to the front and took the manual piloting position, thrusting out my hands like a knight waiting to be gauntleted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shuttle formed its controls and pushed them obligingly into my hands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I disengaged the docking clamps and increased the drive from idle to taxiing power, sufficient to get us out of the cargo bay. I swung the shuttle's wedge-shaped nose around until we were facing the rectangular aperture of the open space door, visible in the gaps between a thicket of ships stretching nearly seven kilometres into the distance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had kept the door open after our arrival, knowing that I would soon be moving ships through the atmosphere curtain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I think we can get out,' I said, easing the shuttle forward. If I had had a clear line to the door I could have applied more power, but as it was I had to pick my way through the forest of ships and their docking cradles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Too fast, and I would risk colliding with something bigger and stronger than the shuttle, something fixed so firmly into place that it would be like ramming a cliff." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'They know what we're trying to do,' Hesperus said.\n\n'How do you know?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'The door is closing.'\n\nI looked, but I could not be certain that the aperture was any narrower than when we had started." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was difficult to tell, with the angle changing all the time as I steered the shuttle around obstacle after obstacle. 'Are you sure, Hesperus?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Absolutely. Would you like me to pilot?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I'm doing fine, thank you.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I will be faster." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I am not disadvantaged by a peripheral nervous system. There is as much processing power in my thumb as in your entire skull.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Thanks.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'It's a simple statement of fact. I can get us to the door sooner, provided you assign piloting authority to me.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now it was clear even to me that the door was narrowing after all. The rectangle of space framed by the aperture was still three kilometres wide, but it looked much less than two kilometres in height." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One and a half, maybe less." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I snatched my hands from the instruments and said, 'Assign temporary control authority to my passenger, to be rescinded at my command.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then I flounced back from the console and said, 'There. It's yours. Make this count, because I was getting us there.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hesperus stepped into place, his broad back between me and the console." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Thank you, Purslane. I shall do my utmost.'\n\nWe got faster. We got much faster, swerving around obstacles, diving through the gaps between docking supports, skimming past obstructions with what looked like only millimetres of clearance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hesperus was making such rapid course adjustments that the nullifiers were struggling to catch up. I felt the push and pull of inertia: phantom fingers eager to turn me into a pulp, if only they could get a good enough grip." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'The door is closing more quickly,' Hesperus said, sounding outrageously calm even though his hands were a manic blur, like a conjuror speeded up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'They must have sensed our escape intentions and activated some emergency override.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Can you go faster?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'By accepting an element of risk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I don't think we have a lot of choice at this point, do we?'\n\n'Do what you have to do." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm just going to stand back here and close my eyes.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Next time, it might be a good idea to park closer to the door.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I was thinking of you. I thought it would be a good thing if Cadence and Cascade didn't have so far to carry you to the whisking point, in case you were still vulnerable to damage.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Then I bow to your thoughtfulness, and apologise for my uncalled for criticism.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hesperus cut a few more corners, literally and metaphorically." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shuttle bumped and jarred as it shaved past some of the obstacles, just clipping them. I do not know if that was accidental on his part, or a trade-off he had factored into his calculations." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All I knew was that we were going faster, but that the door was closing even more determinedly, squeezing down until there was now only a dark slot of space through which we were hoping to pass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At last, Hesperus cleared the main forest of obstructions, leaving us with only a two-kilometre sprint to the aperture." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The door was still narrowing, but he could accelerate harder now. The walls of the cargo bay slid by on either side at a quickening rate, and I dared to hope that we were going to make it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was wrong. All of a sudden, the shuttle bucked and swayed, as if it had run into a screen of invisible netting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The walls moved by less quickly. Hesperus applied more power, but the shuttle was getting slower, not faster." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Scarlet warnings flashed across the console, and a chime began to sound with monotonous regularity.\n\n'What's wrong?' I asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Drive-field intermesh,' Hesperus said, rotating his head to look back over his shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'It's what I feared the most. Silver Wings of Morning must have engaged her parametric engine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The field effects are interfering with each other, and I'm afraid the shuttle is losing the battle.'\n\n'Can't you do anything?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'You know better than that, Purslane." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If I push the engine harder, it will either deactivate because of safety overrides, or rip itself to pieces. I'm not sure I'd care to bet on which outcome would be the more likely.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hesperus worked the controls again, more slowly this time. 'I'm sorry, Purslane, but I think they have us.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'The door's nearly closed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even if you got the engine working again, it wouldn't help us.'\n\nSilver Wings must have been changing her course." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the door narrowed further, the dayside of Neume came into view." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The planet was growing visibly smaller." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One minute of acceleration at a thousand gees was sufficient to put eighteen thousand kilometres between us and our point of departure. After the second minute, we would have travelled seventy-two thousand kilometres - twice the circumference of Neume." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Everyone I knew, everyone I cared for, everyone who cared for me, was on that dwindling planet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had to resist the urge to reach out for it, to try to hold on as our acceleration ripped it away.\n\nThe door closed. Hesperus dropped the engine to idle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'We're in a lot of trouble, I'm afraid.'\n\nThe air resistance of the pressurised chamber had brought us to a halt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'We can't just float here,' I said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'There's a vacant berth to our right." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'll risk a little power to bring us in.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The console flashed its warning and sounded the accompanying alarm, but Hesperus managed to guide us in, letting the shuttle thud into its restraints. The field clamp locked us home." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'We must be leaving the Neume system,' he said. 'This is one of the fastest ships in your Line, isn't it?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Especially now that there are only fifty-one of us left." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's why Cadence and Cascade wanted her so badly.'\n\n'That's what I feared." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It will be difficult for any of your fellow shatterlings to catch up with us, especially given the element of surprise.'\n\n'We can't just give up, go along for the ride." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We don't even know where we're being taken.'\n\n'I doubt very much that the robots have any intention of taking us along for the ride." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Once they have cleared the system, and dealt with any would-be pursuers, I think it very likely that they will turn their minds to us.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'And?'\n\n'They'll find a way to eliminate us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'll do my best to protect you, but there is only one of me.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'What do they want?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'To go somewhere.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'They didn't have to come all the way to Neume just to find a ship. If what you're saying is right, then they'd been planning all this long before the ambush took place.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'So it would appear.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had turned from the console. His golden mask was as neutrally handsome as ever, his expression one of kindness, but beyond that there was nothing for me to read." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'You know more than you're telling me, Hesperus. I got that impression from the moment you woke up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What happened back there, on Neume?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'We should review our situation,' he said, ignoring my question." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Does this shuttle have abeyance devices?'\n\n'No. You'd never need them.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'That's what I thought. It will serve for now, but we may be better off moving to a larger, more readily defended craft." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If you have something with weapons and real-thrust motors, we may be able to force our way out of the cargo bay. Is there such a ship?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Let me think. Those are pretty thick doors - it's going to take more than a laser or two to get through them.'\n\n'See what you come up with.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'All right,' I said, flustered, my mind still having trouble catching up with recent events." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had been dreading the handing over of Silver Wings, but now I would have gone through with that gladly, rather than find myself a prisoner on my own ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'This is all a bit sudden, Hesperus. You're going to have to make allowances." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I have a peripheral nervous system and it takes me a while to adjust to radical paradigm shifts.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I can forgive you anything, Purslane.' He turned to the console and made a few more adjustments." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I'll keep the drive on idle, just in case an opportunity presents itself. I don't think we should count on it, though.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I'm not. Do you think the others will have noticed our departure by now?'\n\n'Almost certainly.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'And?'\n\n'They'll be struggling to make sense of it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It may cross their minds that you are the one stealing the ship, not the robots.'\n\n'They wouldn't think that.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But even as I said it, I knew he was right." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I should have called down to Campion.'\n\n'They'd have assumed you were fabricating details, making out that the robots were up to no good.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'They were.'\n\n'No one on Neume would have known that.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Except Campion. He'd have trusted me. He'd have believed me, no matter how outlandish it sounded.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Then I am sorry you were not able to contact Campion. But in the long run it would have made very little difference.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hesperus put a golden hand on my shoulder, his fingers cold and hard, but also gentle. 'It would probably have been futile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If the robots had already seized control of the ship before you attempted to eject them - as I am increasingly convinced they had - then they would have had no qualms about blocking your efforts to contact Neume.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I closed my blurred, tired eyes, wanting the whole universe to fold itself into a bundle and go and hide in the corner." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But when I opened them again, Hesperus and the universe were still waiting to say something.\n\n'I'm scared,' I said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'There's never been a time when I wasn't in control." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even when we went to the Spirit, that was our choice.'\n\n'It happens to us all eventually.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He moved his hand from my shoulder and as quick as lightning touched his thumb and forefinger to my eyelids. I would have flinched had he been slower, but all I felt was a touch of metal, a spike of intense cold too brief to be called pain, and then his hand was lowering." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I have repaired your eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You had a partially detached retina in the right eye." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was capillary damage in both. I trust your vision will be clearer now.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Miraculously, it was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'What did you just do?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He held up his left hand, letting me see the forefinger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Between the gold nail and the quick, a tiny, harpoon-like structure emerged. It was a many-barbed thing of fractal complexity, its details vanishing down to a purple-gold haze as if the thing was simultaneously shifting in and out of focus, or indeed reality." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I fixed you,' Hesperus said simply. 'It wasn't difficult.'\n\n'Could you always do that?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'From the moment I met you.'\n\n'But there's more, isn't there?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You're different, since you came back.'\n\n'I can't do anything I couldn't do before, but I see things in a new light." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And I know much, much more.'\n\n'Because the Spirit restored your memory?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'That too.'\n\n'But not only that.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I learned a great many things, Purslane." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I am still coming to terms with some of them.'\n\n'But now isn't the time to talk about all that.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Not until you've decided whether we stay here, or try to reach one of the other ships.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'That has to be my decision, doesn't it?'" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I know many things, but only you know the contents of this bay. Think carefully, Purslane, because a lot may hinge on your decision.'\n\n'So,' I said, 'no pressure, then.'" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "make story longer like Alastair Reynolds would" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The last place I remember visiting as Abigail, although it was not the last thing that happened to me, was the room where we grew the shatterlings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a huge domed chamber laced with gleaming white balconies and ladders, the vats arranged in stacked rings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Aside from the hum of the machinery feeding the vats and the occasional chirp or beep from the monitoring devices, the room was crypt-silent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everything in the room was sterile and cold. It felt more like a place of death than the beginning of something emblematic of life and lust. Ludmilla Marcellin had made a thousand clones for herself, but this room contained only nine hundred and ninety-nine Gentian shatterlings. There was a thousandth vat, but it was presently empty.\n\nWhen she cast her ships into the void, Ludmilla had opted to remain behind. The ultimate paradox of her adventure was that she had to stay in the Golden Hour if she wished to bask in the admiration of the society that had made her. It was consolation enough to know that her cloned facets, with all the memories she had acquired up to the moment of her final scan, were riding out to the stars." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If all went well - and I do not believe there was the least shadow of doubt in Ludmilla's mind concerning that eventuality - they would carry her essence into the unimaginably remote future." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One distant day they might reassemble into a single human being, a person who believed herself to be Ludmilla Marcellin, but by then the original version of that individual would be long dead, and perhaps long forgotten.\n\nI could see the attractions of being admired. But because I was not the first, because the idea had not been mine, the acclaim measured out to me could never equal that which Ludmilla was presently enjoying. That was why I had chosen to fly with the clones, rather than stay behind.\n\nIn a little while, when my memories had been scanned for the last time, I would be surgically prepared for insertion into the final vat. My growth state would be synchronised with the other shatterlings. My end-state gender would be determined on a random basis." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one, not even the technicians who had designed and supervised the cloning programme, would be able to tell the essential difference between me and any of the other occupants. Via a process of double-blind screening, my true identity would even be concealed from the monitoring machines. They would treat me exactly the same way they treated all the shatterlings. No documents would exist to identify which shatterling was in fact the real Abigail. When I awakened, I would take a new name.\n\nThe beautiful part was that even I would not know who I had been. Since my scanned memories would be drip-fed into all the other heads, all the shatterlings would recall visiting this chamber and seeing the empty vat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They would all have the luxury of thinking they might have been Abigail." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They would all carry my memories, as far back as they went: the mansion, the little boy, our treacherous games in Palatial." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The process of insertion into the vat would render my own memories no sharper, no more obviously authentic, than their own." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had entered the cloning room alone, but now I became aware of a softly breathing presence behind me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I turned with a shiver, but my new companion was only Madame Kleinfelter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was very old now, and made use of a mobility exoskeleton. It was silent, enabling her to haunt the mansion like one of mother's ghosts. Because she still had the authority to visit any room at will, she had been able to enter the chamber unannounced.\n\n'You think it's time,' Madame Kleinfelter said, in a disapproving tone. She was looking at the empty vat, the one I was standing next to. 'Don't you, Abigail?'\n\n'The ships are ready and tested. The clones are close to maturity - they can be released from the vats and brought to full consciousness whenever we want.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'And you? Are you ready to become the thousandth?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Now's as good a time as any.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'The house psychosurgeons wouldn't necessarily agree.'\n\n'They're paid not to agree to anything. Or so it seems to me.' I stared into her deeply lined face, allowing no dissent. 'Why? What have they been saying to you?'\n\n'Only that you haven't had sufficient time to recover from the trauma of Palatial.'\n\n'It's been more than a year." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How much more time do they think I need?'\n\n'They won't make any rash predictions. Maybe six months, maybe another year.'\n\n'Or two, or three. Has it occurred to you that they only have employment while I'm still around?'\n\n'There's still your mother.'\n\nI sneered at the comment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'They gave up on her ages ago.'\n\nSomething creased her ancient face - acknowledgement, however unintended, that I was correct. 'Nonetheless, we'd be unwise not to listen to them. When the last scan is made, you set your personality in stone. Everything that's right and wrong with you at that moment will become part of the shatterlings. They'll carry your flaws and blemishes to the end of time. Don't you owe them something better than a damaged, half-healed mind?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I owe them nothing. They're me.'\n\n'No, Abigail. They're not you, no matter how much you might wish them to be. They're your children. The more you try to force them to be like you, the more they're going to flare off in different directions like wild fireworks, the more they're going to surprise and disappoint you. For the sake of six months, or a year, or however long it takes for you to recover fully from your experience ... wouldn't the kind thing be to wait, before you pour your personality into their heads? If your plans work as you'd like them to, you have all eternity stretching ahead of you. Nothing has to be rushed now.'\n\n'Every extra second I spend in this house is a second too long.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'This house made you what you are.'\n\n'Then maybe I should have it destroyed, when I've left. Oh, don't worry, Madame Kleinfelter - I'll see that you're adequately taken care of.'\n\n'After all this time, you think I care more about myself than you?'\n\nWhatever answer I had planned faltered in my throat before I could speak it. The machines hummed, chirped and beeped. In the vats the clones drew long, slow breaths of liquid air." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Eyes quivered under eyelids as data percolated through the still-forming neural circuits of their brains.\n\n'You're right,' I said eventually. 'I am ready. I thank you for your concern, Madame Kleinfelter. You've been good to me, and I don't dismiss your advice lightly. But Ludmilla has already left, and I know she has inspired others to make similar plans. I won't let someone take second place from me. I'll submit to the final memory scan this afternoon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then I will allow myself to be placed in the empty vat.'\n\n'And nothing I say or do will persuade you to delay this?'\n\n'Nothing,' I said. 'My mind's settled.'\n\n'Then I wish you the very best of luck with this endeavour.'\n\n'Even though you think I'm making a terrible mistake.'\n\n'Even though.'\n\nThe cold of the chamber was beginning to reach through my clothes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'When they--when we - come out of the vats, will you see us?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I don't think so, Abigail." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The shatterlings will remember me, but that doesn't mean we'll have much to say to each other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'll be busy elsewhere in the mansion in any case. There's still much to be done.'\n\n'Then this may be the last time we ever speak,' I said.\n\n'It may well be.' Madame Kleinfelter paused, becoming quite still, and for a cruel moment I thought that she had either died or that her exoskeleton had become paralysed. But then animation returned to her features and she spoke again. 'I've known you for the better part of four decades." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I used to like the little girl you once were very much. The day we had to remove the growth inhibitor caused me incalculable sadness. But I'm not sure I feel quite the same way about the woman you've become.'\n\n'Thank you,' I said acidly.\n\n'But everyone can change again. You won't be Abigail when you come out of your vat - whichever one you turn out to be. I don't suppose it even matters which one is you--they'll all have the same claim on your identity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But if you remember even part of this conversation, do one thing for me, Abigail, in all the centuries of your bright new life.'" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'What would that be?'\n\n'Try to be a good girl again, just once.'" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "expand on the story like Alastair Reynolds would" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His smashed and bloodied ship fell towards us. With no pseudo-thrust, and nothing but the ghost-thin friction of interstellar space to slow her down, Midnight Queen could only coast, not accelerate. One part in a thousand less than the speed of light was mercurially swift by the standards of almost any other physical object in the universe. But Dalliance and the other ships of the pursuit squadron were now travelling slightly faster." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Galingale's wounded craft had no choice but to tumble back along the opposite vector, and soon she would fall within attack range of our ships.\n\n'We kill him,' Sorrel said. 'No ifs, no buts. We don't even let the bastard explain his actions. Just open fire.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I'm first in line,' Charlock said, still bruised from the loss of Steel Breeze." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Galingale, as far as he was concerned, was just as much to blame for the demise of his ship as the robots. He wanted something to punch.\n\nI understood how he felt. But I kept thinking how good it would feel to get Galingale's throat between my hands and keep squeezing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I would make it nice and slow, ebbing the breath from his lungs across the same stretch of time it had taken Cyphel to fall from her room. She had known she was going to die; that no agency in the universe could prevent it. Let Galingale taste something of the same furnace-dry certainty. A long-range strike from a gamma-cannon was never going to give the same satisfaction." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But Betony said quietly, 'We could use his ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maybe we can use Galingale, too, if he still has something useful to tell us. But we can definitely use the ship.'\n\n'It's damaged,' I said.\n\n'But fixable. Everything's fixable, especially given the resources we still have aboard our own ships." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Midnight Queen was always the fastest, out of all those that survived the ambush - excepting Silver Wings, of course." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Midnight's out of the race now, obviously-but that doesn't mean her engine's useless. If we can pull her in, fix her or recover the drive components, it may make a difference. None of our ships will be able to close the gap if Silver Wings pulls ahead again. Midnight Queen could still be able.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I hated it, but I knew he was right." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Betony's got a point.'\n\n'How about we spear him with a gamma-cannon and then pick through the remains?' Agrimony asked, as if that was a reasonable proposal.\n\nBetony acted as if he had not heard him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I'll intercept Midnight Queen with Adonis Blue - I'll only need to make a small course correction to meet her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'm the only one aboard my ship, so there's no need to put anyone else's life in danger.'\n\n'Adonis Blue isn't big enough to carry Midnight Queen, ' I said. 'Matter of fact, Dalliance is about the only remaining ship with a hold large enough.'\n\n'I have lampreys. They'll match velocity with Galingale's wreck and drag it back home." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We'll worry about the hold afterwards.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I'm coming with you,' I said.\n\n'You don't have to, Campion. Let the risk be mine.'\n\n'No, I'm coming.' Before he could raise another objection, I said, 'Do you have an intercept course worked out already?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Yes,' he said, equivocally." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'But I'm still not happy with your choice.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Get over it. You know it makes more sense to take Dalliance. Frankly, I don't even need you at all.'\n\n'Then I suppose this is stalemate.' Betony held my gaze, daring me to blink, then shook his head in disgust or defeat or some weary combination of the two." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Follow me. Shock Diamond, Snowstorm and Chromatic Aberration, hold the pursuit course." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We'll rejoin you as soon as we have the wreck.'\n\nAdonis Blue veered away sharply, not so much breaking acceleration safeguards as forgetting about them completely. The old Dalliance could never have kept up with her, but she was more agile since Ateshga's upgrading. From my position in the bridge I watched the other three ships fall into the distance, timelag stretching until they were a third of a second away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Adonis Blue swerved again and then resumed her original course, except that she was now moving along a parallel vector." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As near as could be judged, she was now on a precise collision course with the out-of-control Midnight Queen.\n\n'Did you have your suspicions?' Betony asked me as we waited for the wreck to tumble within intercept reach of the lampreys. 'About Galingale, I mean.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was something comradely and confiding in his tone, as if I had finally absolved myself in his eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Not an inkling,' I told the imago.\n\n'Me neither. I can't help but think of that as a failing, you know. I thought I had my finger on the pulse of the Line. I thought I knew all of us, even before the ambush." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After it happened, and the Line was whittled down to so few of us, I felt I knew every surviving shatterling as well as I knew myself.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'We always suspected there was a snake. After Cyphel died, there wasn't much doubt. But if it's any consolation, I'd never have fingered Galingale as the culprit. Even after that business with Ugarit-Panth.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I thought that was your mess, not his.'\n\n'Well, maybe I started it, but it gave Galingale the perfect excuse to push the ambassador over the edge. He showed him the entry for the Consentiency in the UA - established beyond all doubt that the ambassador's civilisation was extinct.'\n\n'Could have been an innocent mistake...' Betony started." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'On second thoughts, probably not.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Nothing innocent about it. Galingale wasn't the first shatterling Ugarit-Panth spoke to, fishing for information after my indiscretion. But Galingale was the only one who came up with the idea of letting him see the UA, rather than the troves. The ambassador told me he'd been interested in seeing inside the UA before he went to Galingale, but I can't help wondering if there wasn't a degree of manipulation going on there.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Galingale just happening to mention the UA, or making sure someone else mentioned it within earshot of the ambassador?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'It served his purpose. He was able to disclose the real facts about the ambassador's home civilisation without implicating himself - at best, he would get away with it without anyone knowing he'd suggested it, at worst it would just look like another indiscretion. Ugarit-Panth came to me, Betony - told me what had happened. I could have acted then, but instead I agreed to protect Galingale." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I felt sorry for the bastard - I kept seeing myself in his shoes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Whereas all along what he was hoping for - counting on - was the ambassador taking it so badly that he triggered the suicide mechanism inside his own body while still inside Ymir." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That would have taken care of the rest of Gentian Line pretty effectively.'\n\n'And Galingale as well,' Betony said.\n\n'Not necessarily - he could easily have contrived a reason to leave the planet in a hurry if he suspected the ambassador was going to blow. In fact, that's exactly what he did do." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The day after Cyphel's funeral, Galingale very conveniently managed to get himself assigned to patrol duty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He must have been hoping the ambassador would kill most of us." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Afterwards, he would have been able to pick off any survivors from space.'\n\n'But he didn't know about Cadence and Cascade's plans.'\n\n'No - they took us all by surprise. Of course, he would have been hoping they would die along with the rest of us." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But at least he was already in space, in a fast ship and in a good position to embark on the chase.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'We should have seen all this.'\n\n'But we didn't, so there's no point burdening ourselves with recriminations. Maybe if I'd picked up on Cyphel's clue sooner than I did--'\n\n'Don't you start. It's bad enough that one of us feels he could have done more." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We're human, Campion - that's all it boils down to." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Human and not nearly as clever as we thought we were when it counted. End of story." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When they put up the gravestone for our species, that'll be the epitaph.'\n\n'You think anyone will be around to care?'\n\nBetony opened his mouth to reply when something caught his attention. I heard the chime of an alert." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Here it comes, Campion. I'm releasing lampreys.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I watched the bright sparks erupt from the fat green hull of Adonis Blue and streak away in hyphens of light, decelerating massively to reach the rest frame of Galingale's wreck. I dropped twenty lampreys of my own and sent them to assist. Dalliance had had plenty of time to replace those lost in the passage through the reunion system, when I had been attacked by the ambushers.\n\nThe lampreys needed no direct supervision from us; they were fully capable of grasping the nature and specifics of their task, which was to fasten onto the wreck, stabilise her as well as they could and then haul her back into the accelerated frame of Dalliance and Adonis Blue." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All Betony and I were required to do was watch the proceedings with nervous impatience, aware that we were falling slowly behind the rest of the pursuit squadron and would have to sacrifice even more of the already tattered safety margin to make up the distance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'We keep him at arm's length,' I said. 'Until we know he's dead, and hasn't set his ship to self-destruct on us.'\n\n'I got the impression you'd have quite liked to get your hands on him.'\n\n'Was it that obvious?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A few minutes later, a chime signalled that the lampreys had made contact with Midnight Queen, approached and locked on to her hull without encountering resistance. Betony and I surveyed the damaged ship, both of us doubting that Galingale could have survived the attack unless he was in abeyance. Acres of her hull had been peeled away, revealing knotted, vulnerable innards.\n\n'Maybe we should abandon her now,' Betony said, as images of the mangled craft played before our eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'There can't be much left to salvage from that.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'The drive kernel might be tiny and well shielded,' I said, as if he did not know that already. 'We've come this far--I'm not going back empty-handed.' The lampreys began to haul the wreck towards our ships. I drummed my fingers, my heart in my throat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'We should send a probe aboard her.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'No time, dear boy. There are a million places Galingale might have hidden himself away - it would take us weeks to search every nook and cranny of his ship.'\n\nHe was right. I just did not want to be reminded of the alternative, if a physical search was out of the question.\n\n'This could be a ruse.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Which is why it would have been a much better idea for you to remain with the other ships.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But there was no rancour in his voice - if anything he appeared grateful for my company." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I'm going to bring Adonis Blue in close. I'll be ready for an attack, but I won't raise impasse until the last moment. That way at least we'll know one way or the other.'\n\n'I don't like this.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'No one's asking you to like it. What matters is that you mustn't stay around if things turn unpleasant. If I can't handle myself, you aren't going to make much difference. Race back to the other three ships and see what you can do en masse - maybe then you can help me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But one ship must survive to continue the pursuit. That's imperative.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'We're agreed on that. There's been no word from Purslane since Galingale attacked Silver Wings, but--'\n\n'She's alive. Don't ever doubt that.'\n\nBetony allowed the lampreys to drag their dead prize closer to Adonis Blue." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I held Dalliance's position, keeping a clear ten thousand kilometres between our two vessels." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Betony's toad-shaped ship was larger than Midnight Queen, but not by such a margin that he could have swallowed her inside his hold. He remained on pseudo-thrust and brought his weapons to attack readiness, but kept his impasse lowered. Ten more lampreys sprang from his hull to provide skein-thrust, should he need to raise the shield. There was a hundred kilometres between the two ships, then ten." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At one kilometre, squashed together by my angle of view, they already appeared hopelessly fused, as if they had rammed together.\n\nI saw it a moment before I saw Betony's reaction. Either he was slow, or his impassor was not as effective as he had let us believe, taking valuable fractions of a second to reach operating strength. The ruined hull of Midnight Queen, the hull I had already observed to be peeling away in damaged plaques, exposing delicate insides, splintered apart in an explosion of curved and jagged shards." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The instant it happened, I diagnosed it as a catastrophic, terminal failure of the ship's integrity - Midnight Queen finally breaking up, stresses picking apart her ruined corpse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The next instant, I saw the truth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The vulnerable innards were merely another layer of camouflage that peeled away in the same eruption. There was another hull under all that deception - dark, sleek, intact. A dagger within a dagger.\n\nI screamed a warning to Betony." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was too late; the damage was already done." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His impasse raised, but not swiftly enough to prevent chunks of that deceitful armour from raining onto Adonis Blue, gouging vicious wounds into her own hull. Then a long row of weapons emplacements sprang open along the vicious edge of Galingale's dark new ship, turning it into a savagely barbed instrument, and at least a dozen gamma-cannon muzzles rammed forth and concentrated their fire on Betony's vessel. The impasse deflected some of that energy, flickering like an electric-blue bubble as the photons downshifted into the optical, curdling with thick, squirming lightning as field asymmetries washed over its volume, but the attack was sustained and at devastatingly close range, and Adonis Blue had already been wounded by the hull shards. Despite all this, Betony's lampreys started returning fire - whiplashing around the other ship, etching coils of light as their skein-drives gashed space to its fierce marrow, stabbing at the strobing impasse Galingale had raised around his own ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Occasionally, when their discharges coincided with a lull in the strobing field, they found their mark. But the impacts did less damage to that dark hull than I would have anticipated, picking it away in dark scabs but never reaching through to anything vital.\n\nDenied the ability to use pseudo-thrust at full efficiency, both ships began to fall out of my accelerated reference frame. Their impasses were merging, forming a dumb-bell shape as they tried to establish a minimum-surface-area solution." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was reminded of ancient sailing ships engaged in close-quarters combat, their rigging tangling up, locking the two adversaries together unto the death." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A scratchy voice, not even an imago, said, 'Get out of here, Campion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Get out of here now.'\n\n'Betony ...' I began.\n\n'Just go,' he said. 'Follow Purslane. Bring her home." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tell her I made a terrible mistake, and that I'm sorry.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I spun Dalliance around and boosted away from the two embattled ships, the console shrill with warnings of my imminent doom." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had crossed less than half the distance back to the other shatterlings when one or other of the two battling ships became a scalding point of light, swelling until it had filled the entire misshapen double-lobed impassor bubble with stained white radiance. The radiance tore against the limit of the bubble and then punched through with the fury of a miniature supernova. It was axiomatic that no ship, no part of a ship, could have survived such energies. Betony had sacrificed himself, done one last deed for the Line he loved so much." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had made errors and enemies, he had miscalculated and misjudged, but - in my eyes at least - in the last instant of his existence, he had redeemed himself utterly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But he had not killed Galingale.\n\nWe did not see it at first; it was camouflaged to the point of invisibility and small enough to register as just another piece of fused debris spinning away from that fireball. It was Henbane who grew suspicious and turned Shock Diamond away to investigate - vowing to rejoin the chase when he had satisfied his curiosity.\n\nWhat he found was a black egg, wrapped in a shell of impasse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was no more than ten metres across, and appeared to lack any means of moving or steering itself.\n\nWe knew exactly what it was. Galingale had hoped to escape, to fall through space until he felt it was safe to signal his presence. A thousand years from now, ten thousand, fifty thousand - he would be hurtling through the airspace of another part of the meta-civilisation, separated by time and space from the knowledge of his crimes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He would alert the locals to rescue him, and they would gladly oblige - even if it meant pushing their science to the limits of ingenuity, even if it took them centuries or thousands of years to accomplish their task." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "None of that would matter to Galingale, as long as someone found him before he sailed beyond the edge of the galaxy.\n\nHenbane signalled him. Some dull mechanism brought Galingale out of abeyance.\n\nHis imago appeared on all our ships, beaming with delight at his own survival. In Tongue he said, 'Greetings, co-sentients of the human meta-civilisation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I am ...' There was the briefest of pauses as he searched his mind for a new name, something other than Galingale." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'... Campion, a shatterling of Gentian Line, a survivor of the ambush against our Line." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I have been travelling for a very long time, ever since my ship was destroyed at near-light-speed. Humbly I beseech your assistance in decelerating me to planetary speeds, so that I may recontact any other survivors of this most heinous of crimes. My survival pod carries a trove rich in the science and culture of a million societies - the contents of which I would be glad to share with anyone in a position to assist me.' He folded his hands across his lap and beamed again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I await your response with interest.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Hello, Galingale,' Henbane said. 'Sorry to spoil things, but you haven't been asleep quite as long as you planned. A little under an hour, if you want the brutal truth.'\n\nIt must only have been then that Galingale paid proper attention to the chronometer in the cramped little space of his survival pod." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He let out a sound that was almost a laugh, as if acknowledging the cosmic joke that had just been played on him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Quite,' he said.\n\n'I don't think Campion's going to be too thrilled about that little white lie you just told.'\n\n'I'm certain he won't.' Galingale scratched the border of his metal eye." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Sorry Campion, if you're listening in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Had to do it. It's not as if I could go around calling myself Galingale any more, is it?'\n\n'I'd have found you eventually,' I said.\n\n'Given your evident determination, that wouldn't have surprised me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But do you know what?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was all for nothing. I didn't stop the robots, and I don't think you're going to stop them either.'\n\n'Why did you do it?' I asked.\n\n'The same reason we do anything." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Because it's what I believe in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The House of Suns matters more to me than the House of Flowers. The House of Flowers is just one part of the Commonality - take it away, and the whole stack of cards wouldn't come tumbling down. But the House of Suns underpins everything.'\n\nI asked, 'What is the House of Suns?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'What you always believed it to be." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Another Line, operating in secrecy, created by the Commonality to make sure our involvement in the extinction of the First Machines stayed a secret. Nice name, by the way.' He smiled. 'Yes, I was listening in on Purslane's conversation.'\n\n'She didn't say anything about us being involved in any extinction." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She just said they died out.'\n\n'Yes, and she was keeping something from you. She'd have had her reasons. But the sad, sordid truth of it is that we stabbed the First Machines in the back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gave them the poisoned chalice, made them die in agony just like the Ghost Soldiers in Palatial." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We didn't really mean for them all to drop dead, but that's no excuse, is it? We were looking for the means to kill them, and all of a sudden - oh dear - we did kill them.'\n\nI absorbed this truth provisionally, slotting it into a mental file but not yet making any emotional connection with it.\n\n'How did the House of Suns operate?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Where's Betony?' he asked suddenly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Betony's dead. That's why I'm asking the questions.'\n\n'Poor old Betony. He did his bit, you know. Just didn't have quite what it took.'\n\n'I'm still waiting for an answer to my question.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He exhaled a massive, world-weary sigh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'The House of Suns was designed to enforce and police the Lines' self-administered amnesia." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It wasn't enough just to forget about the crime we committed against the First Machines. Gentian Line, and the other complicit Lines, had to be actively prevented from rediscovering the evidence of that crime. So that's what we did. For five million years, ever since the Lines decided to wipe the story of the First Machines from their collective histories, we've been in the shadows - waiting and watching." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We've always known the truth - someone had to be trusted with it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's been our duty to monitor the activities of the Lines - and any other high-level civilisations - and make sure no one ever puts the pieces of that puzzle back together. And for four of those five million years it really wouldn't have mattered that much if anyone had. We're human - we'd have got over ourselves.'\n\n'But then the Machine People emerged,' I said. 'That changed everything.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'What would you rather have had, Campion, peace or war? That's how simple it was. We couldn't stop the Vigilance collecting data, but most of what they discovered never found its way outside their archives. Then you came along, worked your way into their graces and discovered something damaging." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We knew then that we had no choice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the next reunion, Gentian Line had to be wiped out. It was brutal, but what else could we do?'\n\n'The problem was, the Machine People already knew.'\n\n'They only had suspicions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We weren't to know that, but it wouldn't have changed anything if we had.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'You never suspected that Cadence and Cascade were agents, though.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Did anyone?'\n\n'You've got a point. Did you know about the stardam?'\n\n'About their plans to crack it open?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not at all. But I knew of the stardam. That was something else we were supposed to be monitoring. What I didn't know was that the opener was in Purslane's possession.' His good eye flared at my incomprehension." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'It's been five million years, Campion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Things are forgotten, even when you're trying very hard to remember them. We were sowing so much misinformation that some of it came back and bit us. We thought the opener had been destroyed circuits ago, or lost. We had no idea it was still in the Line's possession - even less that it had survived the ambush." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But the robots knew where to look. You know what that means?' Before I could answer, he leaned forward in his seat, his face glistening with a film of sweat. 'They've had spies inside the Line, so deeply embedded that even the House of Suns didn't know about them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Learning our secrets, finding out things about us even we didn't know." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Such as the fact that Purslane is the custodian of the opener." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You can kill me now - I won't blame you. But understand this: no matter what you think of me, Silver Wings of Morning cannot be allowed to reach that stardam.'\n\n'We'll do what we can to prevent that.'\n\n'You don't understand. I'm not even sure Purslane does, despite what she obviously knows." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What she told you, about the First Machines being trapped inside that thing--'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Yes?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'That's not the whole story.'\n\n'Our reserves of patience are rapidly diminishing,' Charlock said.\n\n'It's a stardam - that part is true. But it wasn't put there just to contain the robots." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Don't you think we'd have found a way to wipe them out if we'd been able to shepherd them into such a small volume of space?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We'd have used H-guns on them and turned them into a ball of molten slag.'\n\n'The thought had occurred,' I said.\n\n'The stardam doesn't contain the First Machines. They're somewhere else. It doesn't hold a dying star, either." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What it contains is a door, a mouth, an aperture.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Galingale's pale tongue licked his bloodless, snake-pale lips." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'The Priors made it, while we were still spineless slugs swimming around in the oceans of the Cambrian period. They cracked the causality problem - found a way to open a wormhole large enough for macroscopic transits that doesn't suffer from the information censorship bottleneck of our own little efforts.'\n\n'You can't \"crack\" the causality problem,' I said. 'It's built into the deep structure of reality.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'They found a way, Campion - trust me on this." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Interstellar transits weren't the problem - they were happy with relativistic flight, the way we are. Two hundred thousand years to complete a circuit around the galaxy? It's really not that long, once you get into the swing of things. But to travel to Andromeda, or one of the galaxies in the Local Group?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Different story. Then you're looking at millions of years." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fuck, we've only been doing language for six and a half.'\n\n'Time to get to Andromeda and back.'\n\n'Just. Still not enough time to make a second trip, even if we had a mind to do it. That wasn't acceptable to the Priors, so they built a wormhole connection between the two galaxies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It's been there since they vanished - dormant, but functionally intact." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the time of the First Machines it wasn't even recognised for what it was. It was only when they vanished that the nature of the door was established.'\n\n'Did the First Machines use it to escape to Andromeda?'\n\nHe smiled at my question." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Close, but not quite. They got there under their own power, at sub-light-speed. We're only talking about a small number of survivors, you understand. For a long time the fact that they'd escaped, that the Lines couldn't track them down and finish them off - because the survivors had to be finished off, even if most of the deaths had been accidental - simply wasn't an issue." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were heading to Andromeda." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing could catch up with them, but at least they weren't our problem any more. Let them get to where they were going. We had our galaxy. They could have theirs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No one expected them to survive and thrive and start doing things.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'The Absence,' I said.\n\nGalingale nodded gravely. 'Until then, the robots were a distant concern. They'd made no efforts to signal their existence, and as far as the rest of the galaxy was concerned, Andromeda was still uninhabited. But when the Absence happened, we knew things were taking a new turn.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'So what is the Absence?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'The signal that the wormhole had been reactivated. From that moment on, the House of Suns was faced with a crisis on two fronts. We had to prevent knowledge of the earlier atrocity from ever reaching the present Machine People. And we had to deal with the possibility that the remnants of the First Machines were preparing to return home." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We couldn't deactivate the wormhole - it was far beyond our understanding. But at least we had the stardam in place - our last and only line of defence. Fortunately, it was enough. We could be confident that nothing would ever be able to break through that containment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If a stardam can hold back the fury of a supernova, no weapon known to Line science could ever penetrate it. It was holding, too - in all the years since the Absence, nothing has ever broken through.'\n\n'And now?'\n\n'Work it out, Campion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cadence and Cascade want the opener so that they can release the First Machines back into our galaxy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's why it's so vital to stop them. You're not just dealing with a few pissed-off robots that have been stuck inside a box for five million years - there's an entire galaxy's worth of them waiting to pour on through. Oh, and I think we can take it as a given that they're not going to be in a reconciliatory mood.'\n\n'We'll do what we can,' I said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'But you won't do anything that might hurt Purslane.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'You were prepared to kill her. It didn't make much difference to the outcome.'\n\n'I only had one ship, Campion - you have four. But what do I care?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's your problem now, not mine. I've told you everything I know - not because I give a damn what you think of me, but because I want you to understand how important it is to stop Silver Wings. But I'm done now - I've said my piece. You can go ahead and kill me.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'You seem very resigned to it,' Charlock said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'What choice have I got? Even with its impasse raised, this pod wouldn't survive a concentrated attack from your ships for very long.'\n\nCharlock shrugged. 'No, it probably wouldn't.'\n\n'I think I'd sooner it was quick." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I shall put myself in abeyance, then I won't know a thing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Do what you will with me.'\n\nCharlock nodded. 'We will.'\n\nGalingale reached out of view and touched a control. Restraints whirred, sucking him deeper into his chair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He braced himself, like a man expecting an electric shock." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then the red cocoon of stasis locked around him.\n\n'We can draw straws, if you like,' Charlock said.\n\n'For who gets to kill him?' asked Tansy.\n\n'For who gets to take him back to Neume." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One of us has to abandon the chase and return home." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He said he'd told us everything, but we'd be fools to take him at his word.'\n\n'I agree,' I said.\n\n'Not that I'm not up for a chase,' Sorrel said, 'but Snowstorm's already pushed to the limit. I'm not going to be much good if Silver Wings pulls some thrust out of the bag.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He glanced at Orache, who was sharing his ship - nothing in her expression said she disagreed with him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Someone has to go back,' I said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'It might as well be Sorrel. Anyone else who doesn't want to stick around for the chase, I suggest you make arrangements to whisk over to Snowstorm as soon as you can. Really, though, I think you all should go. Dalliance is at least as fast as any of the remaining ships." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There's no reason for the rest of you to be dragged halfway across the galaxy.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I'd much rather see this through,' Tansy said.\n\n'Me, too,' Henbane echoed, after a moment's reflection.\n\n'Then I'll take Galingale back to Neume,' Sorrel said. 'One of us has to go back and let them know what happened out here." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They'll never entirely believe anything in a signal, but when I show up in the flesh, I think they'll listen.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He singled me out, our eyes meeting for a moment, and said, 'I'll speak well of Purslane, Campion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And you, of course. I'll let the doubters know they were wrong.'\n\n'One day she'll get to tell them in person. Good luck, Sorrel. Get back to Neume, help the Line consolidate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I think it's safe to say that we're going to be out of touch for a while. But we're still Gentian. Sooner or later, you'll find a way to get a message to us.'\n\n'I don't doubt that for a second.'" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding 1 sentence in the fantasy, LGBT, science fiction fantasy genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio had stumbled into the belly of Oma's Temple looking for the secret his dead sister had kept there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now that he had arrived within the temple's rapturous beating heart, he feared he had made a terrible mistake in pursuing this particular mystery." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The light blinded him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He covered his eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Warmth suffused his body, and for a moment he thought he had fallen through the stone monolith in the temple's basement into some bright day." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There wasn't supposed to be anything below the temple basements." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yet here he was, bathed in ethereal light, and clearly not alone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kai?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The voice again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio pulled his hands from his face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Squinted. He sat at the center of a circular stone room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The light came from a bank of windows twice his height." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As his eyes adjusted, he saw a tall woman with intricately styled white hair bound in jeweled silver pins and combs standing a few paces away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The cut of her long skirt and belted tunic was wholly unfamiliar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She did not move toward him so much as she floated, hands clasped behind her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was something uncanny in her demeanor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she moved, nothing else moved – not her dress, her hair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even her serious expression remained fixed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He moved slowly to his feet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His hands hurt from his fall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He saw a great streak of crimson and violet bands of light tangling with one another above the windows." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They wove strange characters in the air." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He couldn't quite make out what they were meant to be." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We are almost out of time,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I just got here,\" Ahkio said, confused." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She gestured to the tangling bands of light." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have been compromised,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's our water clock. Quickly now. I am the heart of the temple, and your predecessor warned me you would come. She said she would educate those who came after, but now that I have been… altered, I suspect much has gone wrong.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My predecessor… My sister, Kirana, the former Kai?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She withdrew her hands from behind her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They fluttered. It wasn't a motion she was making, but some kind of distortion of her form, as if she were reflected on a pool of water." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Has Oma risen?\" she asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" Ahkio said. \"What are you and how did I get here?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We built these beasts to take us to the moon, but that's pointless now, listen–\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What are you talking about?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was beginning to think this was a hallucination." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He remembered seeing his sister's ghost." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He remembered how she had ripped herself from Sina's maw to deliver a message that had, eventually, brought him here." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Was this Sina? Had he been transported to the star that carried the souls of the dead?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her expression did not change, but her tone was not as confident." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She pointed to the vast bank of windows." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We broke the sky.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Above her, the snarl of figures continued to whirl. Instructions? Numbers?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A ward losing its integrity?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He still wasn't certain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio went to the windows." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were not the smooth skin of the temple he knew, but metal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Had he stepped through a door to some other world?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He gazed at the jagged teeth of the mountains beyond the windows, ringed in wreaths of cloud." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a foreign vista, but not a foreign place." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mount Ahya rose high from the cloak of mountains, its crown so tall it lost itself to the sky." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He saw cities now at the base of the slopes and along the river." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Was that the Fire River?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The same one that circled Oma's Temple?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shimmering blue tiles seemed to seethe along the rooftops." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Brightly-clothed figures moved over sinuous roads the color of obsidian." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And something else was circling in the sky, too large for a bird." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where is this?\" Ahkio asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The woman floated toward him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had no feet. He shrank away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is a shard of time, stuck between spaces. When we broke the sky, we broke a good deal more. Broke reality itself. Do you understand these concepts? Your predecessor had some knowledge of the parallel theory of worlds, but many before her have not.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've met people with our faces,\" Ahkio said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is this some other world too?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not another world,\" she said. \"Another time.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't–\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She pointed at the flickering light above the window again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have been sabotaged. One of your number put a ward here tailored to your presence. If you do not leave now, you will perish with me. There is no telling what will happen when the heartstone breaks. It could fracture us into a hundred different times or realities.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who could get down here but me?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he asked. \"I'm the Kai. Only Kirana and I–\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Only a Kai can cross over into this space,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Only a Kai can speak to the heart of the temple. But she did not set the ward on the heart, only the stone. It will break, Kai, and when it breaks, you will be trapped here with me. Please go.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not until I have answers.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He pointed to the sky." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where's Para, in this time? You said this wasn't another world, so where are the satellites, then?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The satellites are…\" She brought her hands together." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let us pretend the gods were once one creature. They were a creature we did not understand, one that brought great strife and madness. The effects of this god were felt across the whole of the world. It hung in the sky for years, poisoning us. We had already been planning our escape, there.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She pointed to the edge of the eastern horizon, where a massive rising crescent blotted out the edge of the world." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"See how large it was? The moon. We planned to escape there through transference. You understand?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You wanted to open a door to another world. To the moon?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"See, you're not so dense. So many Kais I have told this to, so many, and here I am again, repeating it. You never learn.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She sighed and turned to stare at again at the bands of light. \"Not once.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How many have you spoken to?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Since the breaking of the world? At least a dozen.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you know what date it is? What year?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I told you – it doesn't matter.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Before Kirana, who was the last Kai you saw here?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They blur together.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Please.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her form went still." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He thought for a moment she was ill or having some kind of fit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then she spoke. \"They came after the battle of Roasandara. Kai Saohinla. But after Roasandara was far too late. Oma was in decline. They found me far too late. And the time before that, and before that… always, they came too late. My life is just this. This conversation. Over and over.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What did Kirana speak to you about before she died?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kai Kirana asked how to control the transference engines to prevent the other worlds from colliding here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Engines?\" When he thought of an engine, he thought of the devices like wind and water mills that converted energy into motion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Something told him she wasn't thinking of a water mill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The beasts.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You created beasts?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The engines are sentient beasts. Surely you know that by now? You have been living inside our beasts for centuries.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio thought of the warm skin of the temples." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Many believed they had souls." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your beasts, your engines, are the temples,\" Ahkio said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The is the literal heart of the temple.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have said that at least three times already. Listen, properly controlled, the engines act as great conductors for the energy from the satellites,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We thought we were able to kill the thing infecting our sky and harness its power. But it broke apart instead, and now its pieces travel across our world and many, many others. It poisons a new world every cycle. When Oma rises, all of these disparate worlds come together again. All the stars. All the worlds. Only the engines can stop it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am not an engineer, Kai. Now our time is over. Quickly, move to the center of the room.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Please, I–\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am not a god, Kai. Just a woman unstuck in time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She waved at him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He refused to move back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her hands passed right through him, and he yelped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She really was a ghost." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He stepped back to the center of the room, a few inches from a symbol on the floor that matched the one on the stone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How do I stop the worlds coming together this time?\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can only tell you how we broke the worlds, not how to fix them. I was lost before anyone learned how to do that. Perhaps they never did.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio stared at the rising moon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It tinged the sky lavender." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The double suns were the same – their hourglass form in the sky comforted him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He saw the smaller red sun, Shar, riding high up over their left shoulder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Whatever thing had killed this world, or this… time, was not visible in the sky, unless it was the moon itself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With all that he had seen and experienced since his sister's death, maybe this wasn't so remarkable." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She could be a hallucination, a dream." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He could have been spirited off to some other world, or some other time, as she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reality had become a questionable thing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing would surprise him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The figures above the windows consisted of fewer characters now. Counting down? Unraveling?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not everyone is prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to win,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What will you sacrifice, to stop these worlds from entering yours. Do you know, yet?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She smacked her lips, making the motion but no sound." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You are the first to give me such an honest answer,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's time to go back. Step back.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Who sabotaged you?\" he asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"An Ora,\" she said, \"one of your own.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nasaka?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No.\" Her form flickered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The room trembled, out of focus." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio rubbed his eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Step back, or die here.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Almeysia,\" Ahkio said, and stepped back onto the symbol on the floor—" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "–and woke on the basement floor in Liaro's trembling arms." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What will you sacrifice?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio stabbed his sister Kirana in the eye." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Blood gushed from her face, smearing his clothing and skin, until he could not tell where he ended and her body began." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She screamed at him with his mother's voice – the same screaming he had heard when his mother was burned alive, and he could not save her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The same screaming…" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio woke in a drab stone room, shivering but soaked in sweat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The presence of the stone told him he was no longer in one of the temples, which meant someone had moved him a great distance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He pushed out of bed, and found he was wearing little more than a linen shift." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He moved groggily to the narrow window and looked out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was high enough up to gauge that he was gazing west into massive woodlands of bamboo and bonsa and giant everpine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Above it all was the peak of Mount Ahya, its crown lost to cloud." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The only place in Dhai with a view like that was the Kuallina Stronghold, at the center of Dhai." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He heard raised voices in the hall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The door burst open, and Liaro and Caisa entered, arguing with a third woman who wore the green and violet apron of a Clan Osono doctor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How long have I been here?\" Ahkio asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The three of them stopped short when they saw him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Liaro was the first to break away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He ran to Ahkio's side and embraced him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I thought you were lost,\" Liaro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're the greatest fool in all of Dhai.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Have I finally usurped that title from you?\" Ahkio said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A joke! Tira, it can't really be you if you're telling jokes,\" Liaro said, and though his tone was light, Ahkio noticed that Liaro's brow furrowed, and he peered into Ahkio's face as if half-expecting to find a stranger there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We've kept you almost a week,\" the doctor said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It was necessary,\" Caisa said quickly, and Ahkio sensed the length of his stay may have been what they had been arguing about." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We couldn't leave you with Ora Nasaka,\" Liaro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We got you out on the Line, just the two of us and some novices Caisa trusted. If Ora Nasaka thought you harmed, she'd have done some other awful thing like light a kitten on fire.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There's rumor she's…\" Caisa began, and then came up short, staring at the doctor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The doctor frowned. \"I'll see myself out, then,\" she said, and left them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She's looking for your Aunt Etena,\" Liaro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Or that's what we've been hearing. She put out word to her little spies about it. No one looks for Etena if they want to keep you on the seat. So if you wondered what she was doing all that time we were hunting down Tai Mora spies, now you know.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And there's Liona!\" Caisa said. \"And the emissary.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you're well enough,\" Liaro said, \"You should go to Liona first. Your friend Ghrasia says there are refugees swarming the wall. It's a disaster.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"One disaster at a time,\" Ahkio said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who's minding Nasaka in the temple? Has she had full run of it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Caisa and Liaro exchanged looks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We've been busy saving you,\" Liaro said, \"in case that wasn't clear. All your Oras from Raona are there, though – Ora Ohanni, Ora Shanigan, your third cousins–\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio said, \"Liaro, I want you back at the temple. Find out what's changed, and dig more into what's happening with Etena. I can't imagine it will be any easier to find her now than it was before I took the seat. Also, let people at the temple know I'm traveling to Liona. The last thing we need is rumors I'm dead. There was an emissary coming, wasn't there? Gods, if Nasaka's handling that… put off the emissary, too. Caisa, come with me to Liona. I'll need militia to accompany us, and a couple good jistas.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Caisa sniffed. \"I'm a good jista.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Another good jista, then. Move now. We've tarried long enough.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Caisa ran to the door, but Liaro lingered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What happened to you, Ahkio?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I went somewhere… else.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But that's the thing,\" Liaro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You didn't go anywhere. You slopped against that stone like a dead man. I couldn't rouse you until the thing cracked.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's broken?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I thought you were dead, Ahkio. I thought you wouldn't wake up.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio embraced him again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Get things prepared for Liona,\" Ahkio said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Was he mad? Was Liaro?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can talk more about what I saw later.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't keep me in the dark.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't argue with me!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio said, more forcefully than he meant to." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You don't know what it's been like,\" Liaro said, \"loving a dead man.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio sat back on the bed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm exhausted, and I'm doing the best I can.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Caisa sent clothes and broth, and Ahkio stumbled his way down into the banquet hall to meet with the head of Kuallina and assure her he was all right." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Within a day he and Caisa and their little party of militia and six jistas were on the road to Kuallina." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The party was too big to take the Line, the great organic transit system that linked the temples and holds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The way to Liona was perilous." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Spring was rousing the snarling plant life of the valley, and they fought nests of floxflass and ambervine and pulled two of their number from hidden bladder traps, their mouths newly engaged." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They heard roving bands and semi-sentient walking trees nearby for two days, and had to alter their route twice to avoid them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Caisa came down with a hacking cough their last night on the road, and one of the tirajista's coaxed up a great flowering plant tendril from her throat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Bad season for traveling,\" Ahkio told her as she shivered in bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He fed her broth and took her hand when she asked and told her she wasn't going to die." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have too much to do before I die,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We all do,\" he said, and pressed her hand to his face and wondered what Liaro would do." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tell some fine joke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lighten her mood. But his mood was so dark he could see no light as far as he could glimpse into the future." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio remembered the temple keeper's words again as they approached the great wall of Liona." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was exhausted and drained, full of worry about Caisa, Ghrasia, Liaro, Nasaka, the clan leaders, the impending war, and gods, what had happened to Meyna – too many things for a mind already stretched to the edge of sanity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Liona was a fortress three hundred feet high made of massive cut stones and tirajista-trained vines." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio rode at the head of the party astride his bear just outside the massive gates of Liona, Ahkio could barely see the top of the wall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Liaro was right that this was the immediate issue – the threat of more people pouring in at the borders as the Tai Mora escalated their war was very real." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They could be sending anyone in with the refugees." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All that killing in Raona meant nothing if they could not secure their borders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What's that noise?\" Caisa asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She rode beside him on a great brown bear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't hear it,\" Ahkio said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Caisa rode ahead. He called after her just as their party broke through the woods and into the great meadow burned clean around the wall of Liona." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He came up short as they did, struck dumb by the sight ahead of them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Four walking trees, the tallest over a hundred feet high, crashed across what should have been a bare clearing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But it was not empty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was very much occupied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Camped all along the outside of the wall were hundreds of members of the militia, all dressed in red, and clumps of what must be the refugees, all of them hemmed in by a makeshift thorn fence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The trees bludgeoned their way through the mass of humanity, stirring them like a terrified hive of insects." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The trees swung great sinewy tendrils, plucking up the defenseless people below them and depositing them into the great, poison-filled sacks swinging from their massive crowns." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio waved back at his party." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Help them!\" he yelled, and urged his bear forward, though he had no weapon. \"Caisa!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he yelled as the bear galloped to catch up to her, its great tongue lolling." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She already had her hands raised." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He saw a small whirlwind skitter across the meadow, heading straight for the smallest of the trees." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One of the militia behind him caught up to Ahkio and offered a big machete." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He took it and raised it high, barreling at the same tree that Caisa had targeted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The largest of the trees whipped its sticky tendrils at him, moving laboriously into their path on its great undulating roots to protect the smaller tree." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio glanced back at his jistas." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had no sinajista strong enough to produce a flame – the only thing the trees were truly afraid of." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They would need to turn them back with brute force, a slow and dangerous thing with so many untrained people on the ground." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He caught up to Caisa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She yelled, \"Get inside!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She huffed at him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The air was already heavy as cream." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He saw the loop of the main gate open up, allowing him a brief glimpse into chaos as half a dozen figures came out to assist in the fray." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He hoped one of them was a sinajista." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He saw hundreds more dirty, haggard figures camped inside the lower courtyard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sina's breath, how many had Ghrasia let in?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He turned his attention back to the big tree." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We need to coordinate with the ones at the gate,\" Ahkio said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He raised his machete and gestured for his party to come forward." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Dangerous run,\" Caisa said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We didn't bring you back just to–\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Go,\" Ahkio said, and slapped his bear forward." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They made a breakneck run across the melee of militia and screaming refugees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A sweeping vine swung past Ahkio's head and caught one of the militia behind him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She screamed as she was hoisted a hundred feet into the air and neatly dropped into one of the poisonous bags at the top of the tree." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio gritted his teeth and circled back behind the figures that had come out of the gates." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He recognized Ghrasia immediately." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was shouting orders to three jistas who broke away from the group." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He saw the little feral girl with her, the one from Raona, barking madly at her side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On seeing him, something in Ghrasia lit up, briefly, before going out, like watching a candle flame flicker and die." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He didn't understand it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fire!\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We have no sinajistas,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We're loading fire archers on the wall. We need to herd them together. Take your party back around the other side and flank them. I'll come up behind them. I have parajistas who can help contain the fire. I can't risk it catching the woods.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio relayed the order to his group and circled them back around to the north." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The trees were spread widely now, grazing at random all across the broken encampment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He rode with Caisa and their companions in a long line, seeking to herd the trees back against the wall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The big tree nearest them turned its attention away from feeding and lashed at them with its sinewy appendages." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio clung tightly to his bear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wrapped his wrist around the reins twice, hoping he and the bear together would be too massive to draw up into the waiting pods." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The air was heavy, and strong wind blew from the east." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He glanced over and saw Ghrasia at the head of her party, and two parajistas coaxing vortexes to come up behind the herd." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio waved Caisa and the others closer to the tree, yelling at them to keep up the long line of their formation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Just as the big tree began to move inward, the smallest made a break between the two at the center, trying to run diagonally at them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ghrasia broke formation and charged after the littlest one." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio raced to meet her, hoping they could pin it back in with the others." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He saw a few dozen fiery arrows flame across the sky from the parapet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One landed just ahead of his bear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It spooked and veered out of control, nearly colliding with Ghrasia." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Two of her people had caught up to her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio's charging bear enraged the other two, and they broke." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Above them, the trees' appendages snapped and shivered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One grabbed hold of Ahkio and pulled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He clung to the bear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The resistance seemed to dissuade it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It lashed away and plucked one of the parajistas from his mount." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man screamed. A heavy whump of air slammed into Ahkio, nearly taking him from his seat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's my parajista!\" Ghrasia yelled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She urged her bear forward and reached up for one of the lashing vines." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio watched in a mixture of awe and horror as she grabbed the vine and started climbing it toward the pods in the treetop." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He took a great breath and yelled at his bear for another burst of speed, but the bear was already running at full tilt, slavering." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio raised himself up in his stirrups and took hold of a swinging vine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was tough and slippery, but he found purchase, and began a stuttering climb after Ghrasia." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the tree tried to tip him into the lip of the pod, he hacked himself free with his machete." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ghrasia perched on a pod opposite him, sawing away at it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She firmed her mouth when she saw him, but said only, \"Don't cut open the pods. Cut them loose. The stuff inside will cushion the fall. We may be able to save a few.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio swung back onto the long branch from which the pod dangled and began to cut." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was hard and fibrous." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He glanced back at Ghrasia." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why did you open the gates?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he said. \"All these people drew the trees.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are we honestly going to talk here?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ghrasia said. Her bundle came free, spilling to the ground." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She jumped to the next." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Exile, Ghrasia! You put me in a place to exile you!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You haven't seen her,\" Ghrasia said, but Ahkio had no idea who she was talking about." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your world is good and evil. But mine is far more complicated than that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How do we know they're dajians and not Tai Mora?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Below them, the feral girl was barking." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ghrasia gestured to the girl below with her dagger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm responsible for her now, too. Should I kill her as well, like some trash because of what someone else did to her? Those refugees were shaped by Dorinah. She was shaped by the Tai Mora. People aren't born monsters. Monsters are made.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The pod Ahkio worked on finally came free, dropping its contents." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He dodged one of the tree's knotted appendages. Smelled smoke. Turned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Some arrows had found their mark, but the fire wasn't taking hold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I think the wood's too wet!\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you have oil?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We're out,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Used it all to fuel the refugee fires.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Curse that, Ghrasia!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Exile me or don't,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can put Arasia in charge of the militia in addition to Liona. But you must make that decision now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"After all we've–\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't you bring that up. Don't you dare.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The vehemence in her voice surprised him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But aren't we–\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" she said. \"I made a mistake.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ghrasia–\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We need to get off this tree,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We're almost at the woods.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He glanced back. The other four walking trees were still well behind them, circled together now by their combined forces." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This isn't working,\" he said. \"We need sinajistas.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I would conjure one for you if I could,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she said it, one of the trees behind them burst into brilliant flames." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oma!\" he said, pointing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ghrasia gave a determined little smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The other two trees went up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ghrasia's smile faded. \"Off the tree!\" she yelled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But–\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Off the tree, she'll light it up!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ghrasia grabbed the vine next to her and swung out toward Ahkio." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She caught him around the waist and yelled, \"Let go, for the love of–\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tree's crown burst into flame." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio let go." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They slid more than seventy feet before the vine began to wave frantically." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It came alive again, and curled around them while the smoking detritus of its crown fell all around them in ashy whispers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ghrasia cut them free." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio held her tight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They fell another fifteen feet to the soft, loamy ground, and landed with a huffing thud." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio lost his breath." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He turned just as the flaming tree crashed into the woods." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ghrasia crawled to her feet, yelling for parajistas, but they were at the far end of the encampment now, at least five hundred paces from its edge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ghrasia,\" he said, scrambling to his feet, still winded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If there was anything between us–\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She rounded on him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It was a mistake. I know I can rely on you to respect that I've made my decision and leave it be.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I thought–\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You thought incorrectly,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When I made the decision I did to open the gates, I also made a decision about our potential future. If you don't know it now, you will.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She gazed back at the tree." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It crashed into the great rooted trees of the woodland, thrashing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It emitted a terrible hissing sound as its sap bubbled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We need to contain that fire.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She started back down to the encampment, limping." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He ran to catch up with her, and reached for her arm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She yanked it away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I revoke consent,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stopped dead still, as if struck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's done, then?\" he said, still not understanding." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's done,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're Kai and I lead the militia, and no more.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "They strode down into the camp as Ghrasia called for doctors and tirajistas to help cut out the people they had released from the pods." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio was still confused and breathless, uncertain as to why Ghrasia had wanted to change their relationship so suddenly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes, the world was mad, but that was a good reason for two people to stay together, not break apart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Another line of people walked across the battered ground toward them while the great blazing mass of the dying trees guttered at the center of the camp." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A small, hunched figure limped along at the head of the group." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Beside her was a very tall Saiduan person who looked very familiar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Faralis!\" Ghrasia said to one of the men beside them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That tree in the woods–\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We're containing it,\" Faralis said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have two on it now.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We freed people from the kill pods,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll need doctors to care for them, if they lived.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Faralis turned and sprinted back toward the hold." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All around them the survivors of the attack milled about with glazed eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some shrieked, but most wandered around in shock." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ghrasia said to the limping girl, \"There were people in those kill pods. We could have cut them free.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's a reason they're called kill pods,\" the girl said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're welcome,\" the Saiduan said, and Ahkio realized why the figure had seemed so familiar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was Taigan, the Saiduan who had visited the temple and carted away a scullery maid almost a year ago." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ghrasia grimaced. She turned to Ahkio." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Here she is,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio still wasn't sure who she meant." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The little limping girl had scars on her face, and a serious, graven expression, though she could not have been very far into her teens." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her hair was tangled with frayed white ribbons that matched her dirty dress." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She wore an oversized coat that made her look even smaller than she was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When she squinted at him, he felt as if he were being weighed and measured like one of the trees." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Burn him or save him?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Realization dawned, then. \"You're the scullery girl,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oma's tears, you're the one who brought these people here?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He looked at Taigan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What have you done to her?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Taigan shrugged. \"She did this to herself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "More people were crowding up behind the girl." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some were grinning and whispering." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're a sinajista?\" Ahkio asked the girl." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You took out those trees?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm more than that,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She's Faith Ahya reborn!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "some young man from the crowd yelled, and a little cheer went up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio felt more fearful then than he had halfway up a blazing tree." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This could get out of hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's something else,\" Ghrasia said as the crowd swelled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He wasn't sure he could bear any more surprises." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ghrasia gestured to someone from the crowd who began to wend her way forward." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your wife is here,\" Ghrasia said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mohrai cut between Taigan and the scullery girl." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was as Ahkio remembered, a plump, soft-faced woman with a gaze that told him she was used to getting her way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her low brow and pinched features put him in mind of an owl." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She wore a knee-length purple tunic cinched with a leather belt and embroidered with silver stars." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The extravagance was not lost on Ahkio, especially when paired with her flamboyantly curled hair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Catori,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kai,\" she said. \"I've been looking for you for days. My family's closed the harbor gates.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They all stared at her, including Ahkio, and he wondered if this was the best place to relay this news." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We need to go inside,\" he said." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Tai Mora have blocked the harbor,\" Mohrai said. He caught a hint of fear in her voice then, \"and they are making demands for our immediate surrender.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Let's engage in a collaborative writing exercise in the fantasy, LGBT, science fiction fantasy genre. I'll provide a starting point, and you'll continue with 5 sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio told no one when he went to visit the heart of the temple again, despite the known danger. Liaro had told him the stone was broken, so what was the harm? After two weeks in the temple, watching Hofsha stride about the grounds as if she already owned the place, he was running out of reasons to put her off. A few days before, he had seen Nasaka escorting Hofsha around the temple, showing her every room like she was a loved and respected guest. He spent most of his days talking over paper, and he was tired of his own inaction." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He needed the temple keeper's advice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He needed to know what had happened to Almeysia. He needed to understand Nasaka's plan for the temple, and how he would subvert it, and his Oras were too often bickering with one another to provide him many answers.\n\nHe waited until he had sent Liaro on various errands, and Caisa was safely off at the Temple of Para. The only one who questioned where he was on occasion was Masura, who had taken up residence in the temple sometime after his ascension and had simply never left. When he asked Una why she tarried here, Una admitted that Masura had stepped down in all but name from her duties as Elder Ora of the Temple of Tira." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He heard little from the harbor in all that time. Mohrai sent a missive that Lilia and the sanisi had arrived at the harbor and discussed strategy, but gave no details. He suspected that was prudent. Not even he knew how many in the temple were trustworthy. They were engaged in delay just as he was. Delaying the inevitable." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He visited the heart of the temple the second time in the midafternoon as a heavy thunderstorm rolled in over the plateau." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Novices and drudges rushed throughout the temple, shuttering windows and doors against the storm's incursion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio moved from this eerie darkness to the black basements, and put his hand on the stone for the second time in the flickering light of a flame fly lantern. As Liaro had said, the stone was broken. Ahkio examined it, wondering what it was he hoped to find. Whatever ward Almeysia had set on the stone must have done this damage, but to what end? To silence the keeper?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To keep him from going through?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He raised his hand to the mark on the stone, just to be sure it was inactive, and—\n\n–And he fell through the stone, or through time, or into the seams between worlds, and there he was again, standing in the brilliantly lit room, unstuck in time.\n\nHe had thought to find it ruined, or mired in darkness. But it was still broad daylight. The sky had not moved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The moon remained, and the double suns rode over the tongues of the mountains. He stood at the center of the room and waited for the keeper to appear. The whirling lighted numerals were gone now, though.\n\nAnd so was the keeper.\n\nHe shivered. It seemed he wasn't the only one playing with forces he didn't understand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio explored the room, poking at the large pieces of furniture, the end tables and desks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He half expected he would be able to pass his hands through them as he had through her, but they were solid. He rifled through what looked like large desks, but they contained no papers.\n\nHe called for the temple keeper, but received no answer. He began to feel vaguely alarmed, as if he trespassed on some sacred space. And perhaps he did." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He found a set of double doors on the far side of the room, and tried to open them, but they were locked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Keeper?\" Ahkio called, again.\n\nSomething wavered at the corner of his vision. He turned, but it blinked out. \"Keeper?\"\n\nNothing.\n\nAhkio tapped the walls, looking for some other way in or out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How did the keeper come and go?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What was she, really?\n\n\"I want to speak to you again,\" Ahkio said. \"I have more questions this time. I have–\"\n\nThe floor beneath him rumbled softly. Ahkio froze. He gazed out the great windows." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Something flickered in the sky there, a flashing star." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He walked to the windows and found a faint trace of lettering there, as if someone had pressed their fingers to the pain and written letters. It was in the Kai cipher. But how did a ghost write on a window?\n\nThe same way a ghost became unstuck in time, perhaps.\n\nHe had been writing in the Kai cipher for so long that he was able to work it out in his head:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Guide will show you to the engines at the heart of the temples." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We will deliver the Guide. But you must lead the army.\n\nNow go. She is coming for you.\n\nA chill rose in the room. The floor rumbled again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The light went out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He woke suddenly on the floor next to the stone. He was sweating heavily. He stared up at the stone, and it was then he heard a noise, the sound of feet scuffling across the floor. Someone else in the basements. He shuttered the lantern and lay still on the floor, breathing softly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How long had he been out this time?\n\nHe lay that way for an hour or more, listening to someone stumbling around in the darkness. He saw the light swinging somewhere in the tangle of the roots that made up this final basement of the temple, but it was far-off, indistinct. Even when it was well gone, when he heard nothing else, he lay there in the dark for a long time after.\n\nShe is coming, the keeper had said, but he didn't know if she meant Kirana, or Nasaka, or Hofsha, or any number of other people he didn't know about." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio had spent a long time trying to avoid doing what he knew he needed to do, but it was time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stumbled upstairs into the light, and asked what day it was. The novice he asked looked at him as if he were mad, but told him. She gave him a date that must have been wrong – the date she gave was the day before he had entered the basements. And it was clearly evening, not the middle of the day.\n\n\"Are you… sure?\" he asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She cocked her head at him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you all right?\"\n\n\"Fine,\" he said. He went to the scullery and asked a drudge. He found Shanigan in the banquet hall and asked the date. They all gave him the same date. He sat down next to Shanigan then, suddenly dizzy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What is it?\" Shanigan said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We had a meeting today,\" Ahkio said. \"You called me a fool boy.\"\n\nShanigan laughed. \"That meeting is in a few hours,\" he said. \"I thought you said you were going to rest upstairs? Why would I call you a fool? No, wait. I can think of several reasons.\"\n\nAhkio tried to work out why he would have gone back, and a terrible fear came over him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What if he wasn't in the right world at all?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What if he hadn't gone through time, but he'd gone... somewhere else? Where was the \"he\" from the day before? He gazed at the staircase. Was he still up there, in bed? Were there two of him now?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He sprinted upstairs and burst in on Liaro. He was in a dance class with Ohanni. The whole class startled at his appearance.\n\n\"Liaro!\" Ahkio said, breathless. He called him away into the hall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Liaro looked just the same way he had the day before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He asked him question after question. \"Do I look the same? Are there two of me here? Who is Kai? Is Nasaka alive? What day is it, really? Who teaches mathematics?\"\n\n\"What in Sina's name is going on?\" Liaro said. \"What did–\" He came up short. Frowned. \"You went down there again.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I didn't lose time,\" Ahkio said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I… I don't know what I did.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're going mad,\" Liaro said.\n\n\"I have an extra day, but… nothing of importance happened, not really. Why would I get an extra day that isn't important? Why would–\"\n\n\"Because this is all mad,\" Liaro said firmly. \"Ora Nasaka warned me–\"\n\n\"When did you talk to Nasaka?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who do you think is talking to Ora Nasaka for you now that you threw Caisa out? I don't care who she was, she was your ally – an ally to both of us – and that leaves me to ferry your little orders to Ora Nasaka while you avoid her.\"\n\nAhkio turned away from him and ran up two flights of stairs to the Assembly Chamber. He was out of breath by the time he reached his own quarters. He flung the doors open.\n\nThe room was empty, but the bed was unmade, as if he had indeed been sleeping in it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He walked to the side of the bed and pressed his hand to the sheets." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were still warm. He shivered.\n\nHe had moved, somehow, between one time and the next.\n\nLiaro came into the room behind him, swearing and huffing. \"What's going on?\"\n\n\"I'm not here,\" Ahkio said.\n\n\"You aren't making sense.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have extra time,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why was I given extra time? Why did I jump from one day to another and back again?\"\n\n\"Maybe it means nothing, Ahkio. It's not all signs and portents. The sky is in chaos. There are people from other worlds running around. Everything is mad and means nothing.\"\n\n\"No,\" Ahkio said firmly. \"It's time.\" He turned to head back downstairs.\n\n\"Where are you going?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"To Hofsha. Call Ora Jakobi and Ora Naori. Have them meet me in the foyer.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, wait–\"\n\nBut Ahkio did not wait. He needed to put her out of the temple. She wasn't going to walk around like she owned it any longer. He had delayed enough." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The longer she was here, the longer she and Nasaka schemed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The one thing he had not done the day before was finish things with Hofsha. He had let her stay here, continuing her long and oppressive occupation of their temple. Now was his chance to act.\n\nHe asked for and found Hofsha in the Sanctuary. The evening was warm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The light of the moons glittered against his skin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He moved as if he were in some dream. A day repeated. He had spent this day doing nothing but arguing over paper. He had spent the night alone while Liaro went out with Ohanni. A wasted day. He would not waste it again.\n\nHofsha raised her head when he entered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kai,\" she said, as he crossed the broad room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her smile was large and ungainly, if only because it showed so many teeth. It put him in mind of the posturing of some predator.\n\n\"I've come with a response to your offer.\"\n\n\"So soon? I've enjoyed the hospitality of your temple the last two weeks. We can wait a while longer.\"\n\n\"Your boats block our harbor. It gave the impression you would like a quick resolution.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She returned the book she held to the shelf." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He made note of it – she was in the section containing the epic romances, the great early stories of Faith Ahya and Hahko forging their way across the wilderness from Dorinah to Dhai. They were operatic tales of alliances and betrayals, hardship and the tornadic nature of love.\n\n\"Where is Ora Nasaka?\" she asked. The smile remained. Her tone was light." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I fear you may have been mistaken about Nasaka's role in this country,\" Ahkio said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She is my religious and political advisor. To that end, I'm happy to listen to her counsel on all matters. But at days' end, I must be the one to speak for Dhai.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Of course,\" Hofsha said. She folded her hands in front of her.\n\nHe squared his stance, but did not take a step back. \"I appreciate your own Kai's… your… Empress? Well, I appreciate that she took the time to make this offer. We've been happy to host you. Unfortunately, I'll need you to tell her–\"\n\nHofsha raised a hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her smile was less boisterous now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She showed no teeth. \"Before you continue, I urge you to remember our ships lie ready.\" She leaned over, and picked up the cage of birds. She set them on the table beside her. The birds twittered madly, fluttering their little wings, hurling themselves at the cage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I remember.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She folded her hands again, standing just behind the cage so he had to look past it to see her. \"Very well.\"\n\nHe hesitated. The droop of her shoulders, the look of resignation, surprised him. \"How many others have you made this offer to?\"\n\n\"A few.\"\n\n\"And how many take it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not enough,\" Hofsha said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The birds rattled the cage.\n\n\"You know, then, that I must refuse.\"\n\n\"Perhaps you should speak to Ora Nasaka again,\" Hofsha said. \"I could stay another day or two–\"\n\n\"I'm afraid that's my final word, Hofsha. Now you will leave peaceably.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She reached for her hat on the table, a broad-brimmed thing that Ahkio had only ever seen Aaldians wear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She ran her fingers over the brim.\n\n\"Spring is here,\" Hofsha said, \"and that's not so bad, is it? You'll be dead before you have to see another winter.\" She put on her hat, and took up the cage with the other hand.\n\n\"What are those for?\" he asked.\n\n\"Oh, these?\" she held the cage aloft, smiled brightly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I love birds. I love to cage them, you see, because when you first do it, they fight so terribly hard. They are so alive, so defiant. I measure how long it takes for them to lose their spirit. To stop fighting. To resign themselves to their fate.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And how long does that take?\"\n\n\"It depends,\" she said.\n\n\"I'm sure there are some who never give up,\" he said.\n\n\"Oh no,\" she said. \"They all give up, eventually. They are all in a cage, you see. There is no way out.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She touched the brim of her hat and strode to the door, swinging the cage.\n\n\"Hofsha?\"\n\nShe paused, hand on the door. \"Kai?\" Hopeful.\n\n\"What were you looking for in Saiduan?\"\n\nShe grinned. \"A very good question, isn't it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hofsha opened the doors, and left him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ahkio stood alone in the Sanctuary for a long time, wondering what would happen on the day Nasaka decided he wasn't worth saving anymore, either. Would she burn the temple down around them?\n\nThe door opened, and, as if thinking summoned her, Nasaka entered. \"Was that Hofsha I saw in the foyer? Tell me you didn't speak a word without me. Tell me you had the sense to call on Ghrasia and Mohrai first.\"\n\n\"It will take time for Hofsha to–\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No it won't, you fool,\" Nasaka said. \"You're lucky Liaro came for me. They open tears between worlds to send messages. That invasion is going to start. There's no time to warn the harbor. They could be inundated as we speak.\"\n\n\"How do you know that, Nasaka? How do you know how they communicate?\" He knew, though. He had always known.\n\n\"The invasion has been primed for just this moment. All she waited on was your refusal.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He pushed past her and into the hall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where are you going?\" she asked.\n\n\"We need strong lines of supply,\" Ahkio said. \"You'll be stepping down as my political and religious advisor. I'll be appointing Ora Shanigan.\"\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"You're confined to your quarters,\" Ahkio said, \"until further notice.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nasaka barked out a laugh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And who will hold me.\"\n\nAhkio peered further down the corridor where Jakobi and Naori waited. He called for them, and turned back to Nasaka. He had thought he would need their help to escort Hofsha out. It was a bitter irony that it was not Hofsha he had to use force against." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "lets do a fantasy, LGBT, science fiction fantasy thing. u write 1 sentence bits" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is he dead?\" Zezili asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fuck you to Rhea's eye, just tell me if he's dead!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She slumped against the wall of the closet they'd thrown her in – in the panic, no one had seemed sure what to do with her – and roared herself hoarse, but no one came for her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They'd ripped the skewer from her arm, and she felt her whole face puffing up from the surprisingly solid hit from Natanial Thorne, the man she intended to murder in his bed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She huffed herself against the door once, twice – and much to her surprise, it burst open." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She tumbled to the stones and scrambled up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She ran past startled servants and one man fondling himself in front of some old painting, looking for an exit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her body protested mightily, but it could rest when it was dead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Zezili broke out a side door, past a scattering of chickens, a horrified stable boy, and a young woman cutting up the body of a boar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She made for the kennels and slammed her right shoulder into a man leading a bear across the yard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He fell. She kicked him so he stayed down and stood on his body to get the leverage she needed to mount the bear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She slapped the bear with her good hand, keeping her seat entirely by clenching her thighs tight while gritting her teeth hard enough to make her face hurt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was shouting behind her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Something zipped past. Arrows, already?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The bear plunged down the muddy streets." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Waves of civilians scrambled out of her way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She knew nothing of Tordin, but she knew the sky." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked up, found the suns, and turned herself north." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She rode for hours until the bear frothed at the mouth, its great forked tongue lolling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had not heard any signs of pursuit for miles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Zezili came upon a little farm with a dog tied up out front, and exchanged the bear for the dog." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The owner appeared on the stoop just as she whistled it forward." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She took off again at a lope, following a dirt track she hoped was a road." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Zezili camped that night well off the road in some abandoned barn." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It worried her less than the woodland, which was treacherous, more treacherous than anywhere in Dorinah." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The vegetation was dense, full of snapping, biting plant life." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her skin burned with dozens of bites." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She pushed herself into a corner of the barn, and the dog curled up next to her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She slept badly, plagued by nightmares." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Anavha, beautiful Anavha, bleeding in her arms." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If he was dead, what did she have left but revenge?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was the Empress's doing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She kicked awake sometime in the blackest part of the night, and sobbed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sobbed for the loss of many things – the loss of her legion, her health, her hand, the loss of her dog Dakar, and Anavha." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had spent her life trying to convince the world she was worth something, and in the end, she had nothing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Zezili slept in the barn for two days, nursing her aching body, living on young plant shoots and dandelions and a hare who made the mistake of coming into the barn within the length of the dog's lead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then she rode out – north, stealing what she needed along the way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In a little town four days out she stopped to barter for a map, but found that her reputation had preceded her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She heard her own name whispered as she got off the dog." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So she took what she wanted – with a look and sneer – and used the map and supplies to get her to the spot on the map Storm had given her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The final resting place for the Empress's weapon was nearer than ever." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A week and a half alone on the roads, talking only to her dog and frightened village people, gave her too much time to think, and to dream." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the longer she was on the road, the less she dreamed, and the less far ranging her thoughts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her focus was a searing brand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saradyn and his people were a menace, yes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But it was the Empress who had called her dajian, who had made her dance like a puppet on a string." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the Empress who had killed Anavha." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Empress who had taken her hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And she would destroy everything the Empress wanted her to save." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Burn it out as surely as she would a cancerous weed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When she came within sight of the circle of mountains that marked her final destination, the fist of her drive loosened." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She took her time picking out the track the army must have taken." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They would have arrived here weeks before, but the trail was still fresh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "New plant life curled about the edges of crushed wildflowers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She followed the broad track around the towering deformity in the ground, that marked her final destination." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were not properly mountains, but some kind of spongy matter, like a single great tree stump that ran for miles along a circular border." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She followed the track around the anomaly for half a day before she found the hole." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Masses of dirt were piled up outside the hole." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It looked like someone – or something – had tried to burrow under the ridge of the \"mountains.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Zezili dismounted. She saw dog and bear tracks, human tracks, too, and further on from the hole, a ragged line of abandoned tents, already curled in little tufts of moss and fast-growing vines." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Anyone here?\" she yelled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She tied off the dog near the hole and kicked around the abandoned camp." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The supplies were all intact." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She found packs of dried meat, rice, hard bread, and tubers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then she saw the first and only body." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A crumpled, partially rotted figure, hunched against a tree." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Zezili recognized the armor. It was Jasoi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Zezili knelt in front of her to inspect the gaping wound in her side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It looked like the bite of some monstrous animal, but if that was so, why hadn't it eaten the rest of her?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wherever the others had gone, they hadn't intended to go long, and yet… She gazed over her shoulder, over at the hole. Shuddered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stood. \"We're going to eat,\" she told the dog." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You remember real food?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The dog whined." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Me either,\" Zezili said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She put Jasoi's name onto her very long mental list of the dead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had killed hundreds of people in her lifetime, but it was her foolishness, her neglect, her poor choices, that murdered most of them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The weather was warm, but she wanted cooked rice, so she used one of the flint kits to make a fire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She yanked the vines off one of the tents and got it set up properly again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She kicked out a mean little rodent and two snakes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stepped on the head of the biggest snake and mashed its head in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rice and snake meat sounded delicious." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had gotten adept at skinning and gutting animals with her three good fingers and her teeth, and she did it now, throwing together a meal for her and the dog." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When they were fed, she lay there with him at the center of the abandoned camp and stared up at the moons." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She sucked in a breath of warm air while the insects buzzed around her, snapping and biting, undeterred by the smoke." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was a good final night." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She woke at dawn covered in dew and dozens of shiny green beetles." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were harmless and beautiful, like being covered in jewels." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With cool resolve, she spent nearly two hours tying a dagger to her left arm with a long string of cord pulled from one of the tents." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The stump had healed well enough that she could wrap the cord from the stump around her elbow, so that if she kept her elbow crooked, it gave her the proper leverage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She shoved the blade into the wall of the surface anomaly a few times to test it out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then she untied the dog's lead and yelled at him to clear off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He loped a few feet away to the edge of the camp, flicking his ears forward." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At least he had a better chance at survival than Dakar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Zezili went to the edge of the hole and peered in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She got down on her belly to try to see the other side, but all was blackness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And in that blackness she saw Anavha's pained face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The mirror exploding in the other world." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The end of the fucking world." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fuck it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She crawled down into the blackness, pushing dirt and insects, and Rhea's eye alone knew what, past her as she went." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It wasn't high enough for her to walk, so she moved along on her elbows and knees, huffing in the smell of the dirt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The darkness stretched on." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was descending slowly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She felt the descent in the curve of the floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What kind of weapon was down here?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She crawled and crawled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The air still felt fresh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A flicker of light." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She squinted and crawled toward the light." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The hole was curved upward again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thank Rhea." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she rose, she began to smell something bad." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The unmistakable stench of rot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Zezili huffed her way to the lip of the hole and braced herself for whatever was on the other side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She took a deep breath and popped her head out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then ducked back down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her brain frantically tried to make sense of what she'd just seen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Zezili steadied herself. She looked again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had come up inside the living circular barrier – the strange anomaly on the map." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Great, tangled tree limbs clawed upward from the top of the barrier, obscuring the sky." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ground was littered with bodies for as far as Zezili could see, in various states of decay." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some were merely skeletons, tangles of bone and armor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Others were bloated bags of meat and she crawled over the lip of the hole carefully, weapon at the ready." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She kept low, walked over to the first body." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This one was very ripe, maybe six or seven days dead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She knew the armor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Eye of Rhea was embossed on the helm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All around her, above the bodies, hung massive cocoons as big as cages." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They dangled from the broad branches of the trees." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Some of them had split open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They dripped with some kind of plant goo or mucus." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The one nearest her trembled softly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Zezili stepped back, nearly falling back into the hole." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She heard a susurrus, like a swarm of insects rubbing its wings together." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A hundred paces across the broad plain of bodies, six figures moved toward her, ducking their heads, their arms moving strangely, as if double-jointed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were golden creatures, naked, with two sets of legs and absurdly narrow waists, like wasps." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But it was their gait that gave them away, the way they moved side to side, cocking their heads at her like curious cats, green eyes blinking furiously." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They walked like the Empress." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They walked like the woman who had sent for them, their… mother?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Their companion? These were the Empress's weapon. Her own people." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Empress always wore a big, beautiful belled skirt, hiding two sets of legs, padding out an impossibly small waist.\n\nThey were visitors from somewhere else, hidden in some other time for just this moment: the moment when Rhea herself was coming back into the sky, and the Empress called them home." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding 6 sentences in the fantasy, LGBT, science fiction fantasy genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lilia's first plan had been to serve the Tai Mora their own dead and set the whole table on fire as a massive distraction, believing that was appropriate, but Ahkio's face at her suggestion put that idea to rest. When she found the forsia tubers among Gian's hoarded food, she had a far better idea. Most of the refugees were eating plain rice now and little else, but Lilia proposed they spread out a proper banquet with fresh food shipped in via the Line from the Temple of Tira. If they pretended they were well-stocked and eating well, it told the Tai Mora they were comfortable with a long siege. And the tubers would be just one dish among many.\n\nThe Line had become a front of sorts for the battle of Kuallina – the Tai Mora had already severed the lines going to Asona Harbor, Liona, the Temple of Sina, and the Temple of Para, leaving only the routes to the Temple of Oma and Temple of Tira intact." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lilia had Laralyn protecting the remaining two lines." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Those who took the second shift were weaker, less experienced. It was only a matter of time before the Tai Mora hit them when the second shift protected them, and then they were completely cut off.\n\nThe banquet they planned was one Lilia would have eaten at the temple during the high spring festival season: honeyed fiddleheads, curried yams, caramelized onions and salted weed plantains, marigold blossoms in buttery cilantro rice, soft braided bread braised in garlic, and fried edamame.\n\nFor the final dish, she walked with little Tasia along the creek bed running behind Kuallina. The creek was now festering with the piss and shit of the great army, which used it as a latrine. Kuallina itself had a well, so it didn't threaten their own water, but the waste had polluted the stream, killing various types of fishes, toads and other, more delicate creatures, and that made Lilia angry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had worked personally to oversee the digging of the latrines for the refugees outside the wall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shitting in a creek was wasteful, irresponsible, filthy.\n\nHer anger made it easier for her to put up with the stink and mess of it on her shoes as she waded in and pulled out the great knobs of the dormant forsia lilies growing on the little islands at the center of the stream. Tasia carried them in a big sack that eventually dragged across the ground. Lilia needed one for every guest, and a half dozen more for practice.\n\n\"Never eat these,\" Lilia told Tasia as she put them in the sack, just as her mother had said to her when she was small.\n\n\"But you're going to eat them,\" Tasia said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They are poisonous,\" Lilia said. \"They have to be prepared the right way, and divided up and eaten correctly. Until you learn how, they will kill you. Understand?\"\n\nLilia hauled the forsia tubers back into the kitchens of Kuallina, and stood at the sink with her sleeves rolled up and scrubbed them herself. They had a spiny outer skin and soft, sweet-nutty interior. Lilia liked the idea of serving the Kai and her people some weed that grew in their own shit. Liked it very much." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She cooked one of the forsia tubers in the oven, then called down Gian and the Kai to teach them how to eat the tubers without killing themselves." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yisaoh and Mohrai came down with the Kai, watching him and each other like predatory birds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "War had a way of bringing people together." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This needs to be done correctly,\" Lilia said, \"or it will kill you.\" She said it in the same tone she'd used with Tasia.\n\nLilia carefully removed the skin of the root and put it aside. \"Don't eat this part,\" she said. \"This next is most important, though.\" She took the knife and gently tucked it into the center of the tuber, and pulled the knife all the way around its stiff core." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She pulled apart the two halves, revealing a sticky black center from which radiated three dark tendrils." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This whole black center must be removed,\" Lilia said. \"These tendrils, too. You must not eat this part. Not even a taste. It will kill you.\" She began to de-vein the tuber.\n\nMohrai examined the skin of the tuber. \"We should at least have Ahkio's already cleaned.\"\n\n\"It will give us away,\" Lilia said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What will happen if he dies at that table?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mohrai said. \"It took a year to unite the clans. Succession now, especially after that… performance in the temple, will be contested. This is much riskier than I thought.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yisaoh shrugged. \"Let him do it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You would say that,\" Mohrai said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How serious is this poison?\" Ahkio said.\n\nLilia neatly pulled the first black thread away, and set it aside. \"An hour, maybe two. They can burst if you don't handle them carefully.\"\n\n\"Can we wash them?\" Ahkio said.\n\nLilia sighed and set down the knife. She wiped her hands on her apron and then rubbed her aching head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If we think they will fall without a head,\" Mohrai said, \"their… leader is certainly thinking the same thing. If this doesn't kill Ahkio, sending him down there surely will. I'm having second thoughts about this. It sounds bold here inside, but out there–\"\n\n\"Kai?\" Lilia said. \"You thought this a fine idea when I proposed it.\"\n\nMostly fine, anyway.\n\nAhkio folded his arms, tucking his hands under his armpits. It was an annoying, defensive gesture." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He looked at the table as he did it, weighing and considering.\n\nLilia smacked her hand on the table. \"Now is not a time to talk,\" she said. \"Now is a time for action.\"\n\n\"I hate to say it,\" Yisaoh said. \"But Mohrai is right. Do you really think you can sit at that table and kill your own sister, Ahkio? We know she's down there. I don't think you can.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ahkio raised his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lilia saw his answer. He was not a ruthless man, not a killer. It infuriated her more than she thought it would. She had given him a way out before, but he insisted on being part of this, and now, when the time came, he became a coward. He would not follow through.\n\nShe stared hard at the knife on the table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have given a lot of things to fighting these people,\" she said. \"You–\"\n\n\"Revenge,\" Ahkio said.\n\n\"It's not revenge,\" Lilia snapped. Reflexive. Of course it was about revenge.\n\n\"I'm sorry about what they did to your mother,\" Ahkio said. \"I'm sorry about your world, your village, your leg. But destroying them fixes none of that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is not about revenge, it's–\"\n\n\"We'll have a banquet,\" Ahkio said, \"without the poison. We'll meet them like civilized people, and accept what happens. The more I've considered this duplicity, the more I dislike it.\"\n\n\"It's the only way,\" Lilia said.\n\n\"Is it?\" he said. He seemed disappointed in her. They all did. She was disappointed in herself, too – for failing at the harbor, for burning out, for not telling them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ghrasia wouldn't have agreed to this,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It was compassion that had her open those gates for you. The same compassion that would stay her hand now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You can't speak for the dead,\" Lilia said.\n\nYisaoh interrupted. \"We'll do as the Kai says.\" She pulled a cigarette from a leather case in her tunic pocket. Lilia wondered if she would run out soon, and whether or not she would be so mellow, then.\n\nLilia picked up the knife and jabbed it into the table. \"Fine, then. But I won't be part of it. This was my idea, and this was the only way it was going to work.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The way it worked at the wall?\" Mohrai said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It would have–\" Lilia stepped away from the table. \"Do what you like. This isn't my battle anyway.\"\n\nShe stormed out of the room. Gian ran after her, grabbing at her hand.\n\n\"I'm sorry, Li,\" Gian said.\n\nLilia pushed away her hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lilia went to her room and curled up on her bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No one but Gian and Tulana knew she could no longer call on Oma, but even with no power, with nothing but bluster, she was willing to do this: to sit with the leader of Tai Mora and feed her poison and risk the consequences." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Because this was their only option." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The illusion that shielded the retreating civilians was already going to be difficult to sell after the bold one she had used to cross the great army. She knew her plans sounded extreme, desperate, and they were. But doing nothing was worse.\n\nGian came in to sit with her, but Lilia yelled at her to get out. She was increasingly agitated now, anxious. She chewed more mahuan root and lay alone in the dark room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hunger gnawed at her belly, but she did not get up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Taigan was right. She should have gone to Saiduan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Saiduan, at least, would do what needed to be done. The Dhai were cowards, just like she had been. They lived fearfully, like she had. But cowards never changed anything. Cowards didn't win.\n\nShe didn't remember sleeping, but she must have dozed. She woke to the smell of Tordinian tobacco." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her door opened, slowly. In the pale light of the moons, she could just make out Yisaoh's long face, the crooked nose.\n\n\"I've drugged the Kai,\" she said. \"You and Mohrai are going out tomorrow, with Gian and Mohrai's cousin, Alhina. I'll lead the civilians out while you distract them. Ahkio will go back to the temple, when he's awake.\"\n\n\"What happens when he finds out?\"\n\nYisaoh shrugged. \"I'm telling him you drugged him. If you succeed, he'll have to forgive you. If you fail, we'll say you went rogue and manufactured this yourself. Fair enough?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But–\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know what it is to be driven by revenge,\" Yisaoh said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're the only one of us foolish enough to do this.\"\n\nThe active assault of Kuallina's defenses ceased the day the Empress accepted their parley, but as Lilia stepped through their own still-active parajista shield, her heart hammered so loudly she thought Mohrai, walking beside her, might tell her to turn back for being cowardly after all.\n\nThey made an odd party – Lilia and Gian, Mohrai and Alhina. Gian held tightly to Lilia's hand. It sweated terribly in hers, but Lilia dared not let go, not now.\n\nBehind them came the staff who had prepared the banquet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They carried dish after steaming dish.\n\nTwo great tables had been moved from Kuallina, and set in a narrow space between the two barriers that protected each of the forces. Behind Lila's side were the refugees, so close she could reach them in just fifty steps. And behind Kirana was her camped army, tent after tent aligned in neat rows, as if a siege were the most normal thing in the world.\n\nLilia and her companions came up beside their chairs on the dais. The cooking staff spread out the food." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lilia waited. Gian nervously tugged at her hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mohrai coughed a few times, and whispered something to Alhina." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Will they come?\" Alhina asked Lilia.\n\n\"She'll come,\" Lilia said.\n\nThey had attracted crowds from both armies. The army on the other side of the table, the Tai Mora, all sat outside their tents, watching. Some stood, sipping tea from metal cups. It seemed to Lilia like an extravagant use of metal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a ripple among the army further back; Lilia followed it with her gaze.\n\nThe crowd parted, and two women and two men strode forward. The woman at the front wore chitinous red armor, but no helm. Beside her was a woman wearing a Dorinah-cut dress. The men behind both wore armor as well. The armor was the blue she associated with parajistas." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lilia had wanted to bring parajistas too, but knew that if things went very badly at this table, no amount of parajistas would save her.\n\nThe two women at the front she knew. The woman in the armor was the Kai, the one who had attacked her mother with a willowthorn sword while Lilia stood on the other side of the rent between the worlds, screaming. The other was Isoail, the woman who wore Lilia's mother's face here, the one who had happily sent Lilia off to the slave camps before realizing she was more useful than she first realized.\n\nLilia's stomach knotted. She had to let go of Gian's hand, then, because she was going to grip it hard enough to hurt her.\n\nAs the Kai approached, Lilia reached for some sense of calm, the same calm she had when others were grievously injured, and she had to concentrate wholly on their problem." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She felt her fear bleed away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her hands ceased to tremble.\n\nThe Kai was just a woman. Women died.\n\nAnd Isoail… she should not have been surprised that Isoail had switched sides.\n\nKirana reached her seat. Placed her hands casually on the back of it. \"I was promised your Kai, ugly bird,\" she said to Lilia." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am the Catori of Dhai,\" Mohrai said. \"I speak for the Kai. You must excuse his absence. He was called away on other matters.\"\n\n\"He lost his nerve, you mean,\" Kirana said. She sat in her seat, and waved at the rest of them. \"Sit, sit. Let's get this over with.\"\n\nIsoail sat beside Kirana, but the men did not sit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lilia sat opposite Isoail." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mohrai sat opposite the Kai, with Alhina to her right." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gian sat at Lilia's left.\n\nThe serving staff removed the covers on the food. The smell of it made Lilia's stomach growl. She had not eaten properly in days. She could not keep herself from looking at the piles of the forsia tubers, their honey-smelling steam dominating the other scents.\n\n\"You know I won't eat anything,\" Kirana said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm not so great a fool as that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Eat what you like,\" Lilia said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But it's polite here, to parlay over a table, especially during this festival season.\"\n\n\"A festive season.\" Kirana laughed.\n\n\"You and I know one another,\" Lilia said. She asked Mohrai to pass her one of the forsia tubers. Mohrai raised her brows as if to ask \"So soon?\" but she passed it nonetheless." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gian took one as well, though her fingers trembled as she did. Mohrai and Alhina did the same before adding other dishes to their plates – the fiddleheads and rice, the honeyed onions and oily kale.\n\nKirana touched nothing. Lilia started to panic. If she would not eat, it meant they needed to drag this distraction on a very long time, long enough for the civilians pouring out the back entrance of the temple to make it a good way to the woodlands. Hours, maybe. She could not imagine sitting with this woman for hours.\n\nKirana tapped her glass." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One of the men came from behind and filled it with something from a flask at his hip. \"Do I know you?\" she said. \"I know many people.\"\n\n\"You killed my mother,\" Lilia said. \"So I destroyed your mirror.\"\n\nKirana smiled broadly. It was Isoail who looked like she wanted to bolt. \"You did?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She drank the amber liquor in her glass. Smacked her lips. \"You killed your own mother in the process. How did that feel?\"\n\n\"I could tell you, if I felt anything anymore,\" Lilia said, \"but I've given that up for embroidery.\"\n\nKirana laughed. It sounded like a genuine laugh, deep and long. For a terrible moment, Lilia imagined a world where they could have been friends, or lovers. Different worlds. Different choices." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Isn't it right that we get along?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lilia said. \"We both love this world.\"\n\nKirana smiled. \"Let me take a stab. Poisonous, is it?\" she said. She pushed at her plate again.\n\nMohrai and Alhina were already eating, but neither had dared touch the tuber.\n\n\"There's nothing wrong with any of it,\" Lilia said. \"You insult me.\" She began to carefully cut up the tuber." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gian watched her plate, too intently. Lilia should have left her in Kuallina. Taigan had a less easily read expression, but Taigan had abandoned her, and Gian had only run from her. Lilia tried not to smile too broadly as she ate the first bite of the rich, spongy interior of the tuber. It tasted nutty-sweet. Like revenge.\n\nKirana peered at Lilia's plate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lilia's stomach squeezed. It was very possible they had the same kind of plant over there. If it was recognized, they'd take Lilia's head now. She may as well take it off herself.\n\nInstead, it was Isoail who took one of the tubers from the plate. She set one on Kirana's as well, and served her rice and fiddleheads too.\n\nIsoail did not exchange a single look with Lilia." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She began to cut up the tuber. She removed the skin, as Lilia had. But as Lilia watched her cut it up she noted Isoail missed the translucent, veiny spine of it. The part filled with the poison. Isoail took a careful bite. Rolled it around on her tongue." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her eyes lit up. Surprise. Joy.\n\n\"That's very fine,\" Isoail said. \"Just as I always read.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" Lilia said, though what Isoail was tasting was something Lilia never had. Her mother said forsia was the most delicious delicacy in the world. The most sublime. Unforgettable." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The inner, edible tuber was nothing compared to the ecstasy of the poison. And Isoail knew what it was. She ate it gladly. Isoail was not a traitor. She was another captive, with no way out.\n\nIsoail continued eating while Kirana talked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lilia tensed with each bite Isoail took. Lilia ate her own, de-veined tuber slowly. Each bite tasted like stones now.\n\n\"Let's get to the point of this meeting,\" Kirana said. \"I believe we're to have an exchange. What is your proposition?\"\n\n\"We ask for immediate cessation of hostilities,\" Mohrai said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In exchange we are willing to turn over a woman of some interest to you. Yisaoh Alais Garika.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirana took a long, slow drink. \"Why should I cease this assault for just one woman?\"\n\n\"If she is of no interest to you, then we are at an impasse,\" Mohrai said. \"We will send her home.\"\n\n\"She is in Kuallina?\" Kirana said. Too quickly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lilia knew, then. Yisaoh was someone to her. The double of someone close to her.\n\nI know your weakness, Lilia wanted to squeal, but Isoail was washing down the poisoned tuber with more water. Refilling the glass. Extreme thirst was the first sign of poisoning. Lilia could do nothing. Could not speak. Could not yell." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This was Isoail's choice. The woman with her mother's face.\n\n\"Water?\" Gian asked. She was filling their glasses. Lilia nodded absently.\n\n\"She has asked for harbor in Kuallina,\" Mohrai said, \"but if we cannot work something out, I suspect she will return to the woodland.\"\n\n\"You'll just turn her over to me, like that?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We understand our position,\" Mohrai said.\n\n\"It seems like a very easy choice,\" Lilia said, \"but you can think on it here as you eat. We'll have drinks, after, and decide then.\"\n\n\"I have no interest in dragging this out,\" Kirana said.\n\nLilia stopped eating her tuber and picked at her rice. As she scooped a bit of it to her mouth, she saw a black thread in it, right before eating. Her stomach heaved. It was a bit of the poisoned vein of the tuber." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She set it back on her plate." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We are in no hurry,\" Mohrai said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirana leaned forward. \"Is that right? Well, I am. If this is a serious offer, let's say this – you bring me Yisaoh, alive or otherwise, it makes no difference to me, and we withdraw for one hour. We let your civilians leave the fortress. But your jistas and your militia stays. Their lives are forfeit.\"\n\n\"Unacceptable,\" Mohrai said.\n\nBut Lilia wondered, for a long moment, if they should take it. They were here risking their own lives to save those civilians, to give them a few precious hours to escape. Could they not turn over Yisaoh? Yet the Kai would never permit it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mohrai would know that too.\n\n\"That is my offer,\" Kirana said. \"Convenient as it is for you to deliver Yisaoh to me, even if she runs, I will find her eventually. I find all those who oppose me, and I give them a fitting end.\"\n\nHer gaze swept the table. She made some imperceptible nod and served herself up some kale and weed plantains. Lilia tried not to stare as she poked at the tuber on her plate." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lilia concentrated very hard on her own food, making a moat around the tainted rice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Alhina spoke, suddenly, words spilling loudly, \"You will love the forsia tuber,\" she said. \"It is such a delicacy.\"\n\nLilia stiffened. Fool.\n\nMohrai said, \"I will consider the offer. We will, of course, have to speak to the Kai.\"\n\n\"I doubt that,\" Kirana said. \"You forget we share faces as well as temperaments. My brother was always a coward. I suspect this Ahkio is no different.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"In that, you are wrong,\" Mohrai said. \"He is one of the most compassionate, honest and trustworthy human beings I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.\"\n\nKirana raised her brows. \"There are some differences, then,\" she said, and laughed a little as she began to skin the tuber.\n\nLilia tried to measure how much time had passed since they had left the hold. Nearly two hours? The Kai would be awake now, and angry, but Yisaoh would have already begun the retreat into the woodlands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did you recover many omajistas?\" Lilia asked Kirana. \"The ones the rebellion sent to other worlds?\"\n\nKirana paused in her peeling. \"We recovered a great many,\" she said. \"They were on the wrong side of this conflict, and all of them knew it. It's too bad you yourself burned out.\"\n\nMohrai and Alhina turned to stare at Lilia." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Heat moved up Lilia's face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why do you think that?\" she asked.\n\n\"Because Isoail here has had you in a palisade spell this whole time, and you have yet to attempt to counter it,\" she said.\n\nLilia met Isoail's look across the table.\n\nIsoail's gaze was warm and very frank. She did not look away as she pulled the black mushy center of the tuber from its heart and pushed it into her mouth.\n\nOf course Isoail knew what forsia was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Isoail gagged almost immediately." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She vomited on the table, so violently it splattered Mohrai and Alhina, who shouted and pushed away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lilia pressed her hands to her mouth, but did not move.\n\nBeside her, Gian gagged. She knocked over Lilia's wine glass. Fell to the floor. Began to convulse.\n\nLilia stared at her, not comprehending. She grabbed Gian's plate and saw the broken tendrils of the of the forsia plant mixing with bits of her rice and fiddleheads." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gian had accidentally eaten it, just as Lilia had almost ingested it herself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Gian!\" she scrambled after her, and held her in her arms. Gian vomited black bile. It splattered across Gian and Lilia both.\n\n\"Parajistas!\" Kirana's voice.\n\nThe voice that called for the destruction of Lilia's village, for the enslavement of her mother. The voice that would bring the whole world to its knees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now that voice would smite her, once and for all.\n\nSomething flashed in the sky overhead.\n\nLilia held Gian's convulsing body close. Black bile oozed from her mouth and nose now, and her eyes were glazing over, so very dark, just like the other Gian… the other Gian… so many Gians, all dead. So many worlds, all dead.\n\nFlickering in the sky." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A wash of violent light." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lilia looked skyward. Two stars blazed in the sky where there had only been Para a moment before. As she watched, Para blinked out, leaving the great purple mass of Sina blaring balefully upon them. A great, thunderous rumble shook the clear sky.\n\n\"Gods,\" Lilia said.\n\nThe parajista walls. The barricades around Kuallina. Their entire defense relied on Para's breath." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kirana started shouting again, a different order. She had left the platform. Mohrai and Alhina, too, had fled, running back toward Kuallina through the broken barricades.\n\n\"Sinajistas! Raise the flags! Raise the flags! Burn that fucking hold down while it's vulnerable!\"\n\nLilia held Gian a breath longer. She ran her fingers through Gian's long, silky hair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the other side of the table, she saw Isoail's prone form covered in black bile." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were the only three still on the dais.\n\nLilia – ungifted, forgettable once again. Her greatest gift was appearing too ordinary and powerless to bother killing when there was a whole defenseless stronghold at one's mercy, and she had already murdered all of her greatest allies." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing buddy needed! gimme 4 sentences more in Kameron Hurley's voice. stick to fantasy, LGBT, science fiction fantasy pls" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Aaldian ship was a living thing, like a Saiduan fortress. Luna had thought that was impossible. No Saiduan or Dhai knew how to ensoul a hold anymore, but when she tried to ask the crew about it, they turned up their hands at her and smiled bright white smiles. Only the man on the beach spoke Saiduan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Luna pressed her ear to the hull at night, shoved into the packed hold of the ship with the other refugees, and listened to it breathing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The surface of the ship was spongy and slightly sticky, like undercooked bread.\n\nAaldians were strange people. Luna knew little about them. They left their country only to trade." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They sent no travelers but those in the ships, and none of them ever stayed behind when they docked. Where they had come from, no one seemed to know. Perhaps they had always been in Aaldia, hiding from the Dhai and Dorinah and Saiduan.\n\nThey were lean, dark people with twisted hair the color of burnt wheat that they wore in tight locks, intricately woven into knotted crowns." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Their sex, let alone their gender, was often difficult to tell, and Luna gave up on it. With no common language, Luna had no way to ask them what was polite or proper. Those on the ship seemed very young, for sailors. She did not see a single person older than thirty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The storm came upon them suddenly, driving great curtains of rain from the northwest. Luna stood on deck when it came, heaving the contents of her breakfast as she had done for the last six days. The wind knocked her back from the rail, and nearly took her from her feet. One of the Aaldian crew called out from the main top, and the rest of the crew took to the rigging to bring down the sails." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Luna slid below deck just as the deluge opened from the heavens. She clattered down the steps with a wave of water, instantly soaked. She ran to the long storage hold she shared with the other refugees and pulled on her coat. She huddled next to a barrel of salted fish, pressed hard against the spongy hull." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was still nauseous, and the rolling of the boat didn't help. Another of the refugees, a little girl called Sola, vomited her meager breakfast. Luna gagged at the smell.\n\nLuna heard a great cracking overhead." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A thump. The whole ship shuddered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Water poured into the hold.\n\nLuna made for the stairs. She got to the top just ahead of those behind her, just as a great wave smashed into the side of the ship, sweeping her overboard, heaving the ship over with her.\n\nWater embraced her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Come all this way, this far…\n\nLuna gasped for air. Swallowed water. Gagged. Darkness.\n\nClawed for the surface." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her hands broke into the air." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Luna's head came up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She gasped. Got a mouth full of water." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The waves pummeled her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She splashed in the roaring sea, adrift. Saw wreckage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Paddled for a bobbing bucket. Grabbed it. The wind roared. Rain fell, nearly horizontal, like a shroud.\n\nShe needed a miracle, Luna knew." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But Luna only had herself.\n\nLuna heard someone calling. Looked for the voice, nothing, but there… she saw a shoreline. A coast. That's what it was, wasn't it?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "That long black bar gave the suggestion of land, a black sand beach." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She held onto the bucket and kicked – it was futile, though. Luna was carried by the waves, buffeted, a buoy on the open water.\n\nThe book was a heavy burden. She shrugged out of her coat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She could lose the coat, not the book." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not after all this." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not when she was so close.\n\nThe sea fought her.\n\nShe fought back.\n\nHours passed, though it felt like days." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had to be hours because she saw the gray light of dawn, the burning brand of Sina piercing through the heavy cloud cover. Fog had descended sometime during the night. Luna couldn't see much past her outstretched arm. Just her and the bucket, floating in a borderless sea." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was a ghost, unbound, and Sina would not take him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Five years old, six years old, when the Saiduan took her, but she remembered so little of it, and so little before that. Her first memory, this flat sea, blazing hot, the water so blue, and the horizon stretching out so far it looked like a painting. One mother dead, the other gasping like a fish, so thirsty, squeezing the last bit of dewy moisture she had wiped from the inside of the boat into Luna's thirsty mouth.\n\nLuna was too young to ask why she bothered, why she persisted, in the face of certain death for all of them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hope. Her mother had hope." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hope drove the world, and despair destroyed it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Luna jerked awake, splashing.\n\nShe had nodded off, slipped from the bucket. She kicked and pawed after it in the heavy surf.\n\nHer legs hit something soft. Found purchase." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Luna stood on the sandy bottom. She clawed forward. The fog thinned, and she saw the black sand beach of northern Grania stretching before her. She slogged up onto the beach, pummeled by the surf. Luna collapsed a little ways up the beach, and crawled a few more feet forward, just out of the reach of the encroaching tide." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If the tide was coming in, it meant she would have to move at least a mile and a half more to escape the rising water, but her exhaustion was so deep she could not move.\n\nLuna put her face into the crook of her arm and made a terrible sobbing sound. She shed no tears, just made the noise, shuddering there in the sand until the feeling passed and she could begin moving up the beach.\n\nShe crawled and crawled as the fog cleared and the high tide line drew nearer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she finally collapsed, Luna had forgotten that there was anything in the world but this: struggling across the black sand to the tideline, hands scratched by black sand.\n\nWhen she woke, massive black gulls circled the sky, screaming.\n\n\"What's this?\" Voices, speaking Dhai.\n\n\"Another body from a wreck. Storm must have taken several ships.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Dhai ships? There are no Dhai in the water now. Ours?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Luna felt someone kick her. She rolled over. Two Dhai faces peered down at her. One short and fat; the other smaller, leaner, with a meaner face.\n\n\"Ours?\" the smaller one said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The fat one crinkled up her face. \"Those are Saiduan clothes.\" She switched languages, something that sounded very like Dhai, but wasn't. Then waited expectantly.\n\n\"Is this Dhai?\" Luna said, in Dhai." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The fat one sighed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Dhai.\" She pulled at a weapon on her hip.\n\n\"Wait, wait!\" Luna said. She pushed herself up.\n\n\"You have news for me, Dhai?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "the fat one said.\n\n\"Saiduan. I have news of Saiduan.\"\n\nThe leaner woman laughed. \"You hear that, Gaiso, she has news of Saiduan.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have all the news I need,\" the fat one, Gaiso, said. \"I organized the final purge of Anjoliaa myself.\"\n\n\"Where am I?\" Luna asked.\n\n\"Where do you think you are?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gaiso said. \"You've got yourself washed up on Dorinah, the first commonwealth of Tai Mora reborn.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Above them, something red and malevolent seethed in the sky." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll kick things off by writing a bit, then you'll take over and write the next 2 sentences in the distinctive voice of Nicole Kornher, keeping within the fantasy, scifi, dystopia, ghosts, post-apocalyptic genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasp was never sure whether it was because the Archivists' presence drew them, or because their presence drew the Archivists, but the ghosts always came up thick as suns-and-moons on Execution Hill. The field notes theorized that since deaths had happened there, there ghosts remained, each pacing out its circuit like a dog on a chain too short for comfort." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Each with its dream (some previous Archivist had written) of a long drop on a short rope, or an axe to the neck, or a half-dozen bullets sinking themselves, warm as kisses, in its flesh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "However it was they'd killed people here, back in the world Before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But then there were the ghosts that didn't fit in to that theory. Infant ghosts, blue-faced with crib-death." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ghosts that had visibly died from illness or old age." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ghosts traveling with the company they'd died in: singly, or in pairs, or whole bouquets. Gangs of starving children." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Families. Traveling like any wanderers on any road, linking hands and lighting fires against the eyes out in the dark." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And nobody knew why.\n\nVarious Archivists had added their guesses to the field notes, but until somebody captured a ghost that could talk, guesses were what they'd remain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was even a list, worn and soiled from the hands of countless Archivists, of questions one was supposed to ask a ghost, if a ghost was ever found who could reply." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Name of specimen. Age of specimen. Description of surrounding environment during specimen's lifetime." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Description of specimen's life, work, family, friends, enemies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Does the specimen recognize other ghosts? How does the specimen decide where to appear in the living world?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Where does it come from when it appears?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Where does it go? How many found objects in the Waste can the specimen identify?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Did the world die during the specimen's lifetime?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Place and manner of specimen's death. Manner of the world's death, if known, in as much detail as possible." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wasp was no nearer than her predecessors to filling any of those answers in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As far as she could tell, the dead conversing with the living was a thing that happened in stories." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Carrion Boy slinking down out of the stars to scare dreamers into a year of wakefulness, or the Chooser giving people advice that was like as not to get them killed.\n\nBut she was the Archivist, and it was her job to get those answers or die trying." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'You uselessness,' the Catchkeep-priest would say." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'You misery. Why do we keep you? You're no solace to anyone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You couldn't unpuzzle a snarl in your hair.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You keep me,\" Wasp muttered to herself, kicking windfalls, \"because none of you can kill me.\"\n\nLong years had passed since Execution Hill had frightened her, though today, the prospect of the climb was almost enough to turn her on her heel and send her home." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She could still see the remains of the narrow old road that spiraled up, or did once, to a high broad stage-like ledge seventy-or eighty-odd yards from the ground where she stood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The road was mostly crumbled now, a path at best, punched into powder by some storm, or the weight of years, or maybe the same blast of lightning that had clawed the scar into the face of the Hill.\n\nShe was not frightened anymore." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now she only felt affinity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's right, you bitch,\" she told it, unconsciously setting one hand to her own matching scar, Catchkeep's mark. \"I'm still here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasp tore a strip from her sleeve and bound the lid to the jar, then the jar to the pack, and climbed.\n\nShe did not come here often." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At first the Catchkeep-priest didn't even know she could climb to the ledge, thought she'd be daunted by the crumbled path like so many other Archivists before her and choose to catch her ghosts elsewhere. That information had proven useful to her, her first year: this was where she'd hidden from Catchkeep's shrine-dogs, the first time she'd attempted escape—it was here or else the lake, rocks in her pockets, and the lake had almost won." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And then the dogs had treed her on the ledge, hunger had forced her down eventually, and all she had to show for it anymore was a pain in her heels when it rained, from when the Catchkeep-priest had dragged her back in triumph through the town, spitting, slashing, half-starved, and smashed her feet between two stones.\n\nSheer dumb luck, or stubbornness, she'd healed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the place tended to leave a bad taste in her mouth after that." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still, she was the only one she knew of who could climb the thing, and so it remained her location of choice for disobeying direct orders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Today, though, as much as she'd like to, she wasn't planning on disobeying anything. After what she'd done on the Archivist-choosing day, Wasp's educated guess was that pushing the Catchkeep-priest any further right now wasn't exactly going to end in her favor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But she'd already had enough of people today, and the ledge was still one place where she could go where she was guaranteed to be left alone.\n\nIn the end, she made it up there gracelessly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She almost broke the jar several times and almost fell to her probable death at least twice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But it was worth it when she hauled her screaming muscles up onto that high black ledge, her hands leaving sweaty palmprints on the rock, and she looked down knowing that the Catchkeep-priest, if he were standing at the foot of the Hill, would be the size of a beetle to her eyes, and that a lucky dropped rock would end him.\n\nShe set the backpack down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Against it, the jar tried to wiggle from its bonds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The lid heaved and clacked a little but stayed shut.\n\n\"Easy, easy,\" she told it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not much longer now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As she spoke, she was untying the knots holding the jar against the pack. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a low pale huddle, keeping as far away from her as the ledge allowed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She would not look at it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She did not look at it. Not yet.\n\nInstead she kept talking, low and sweet as she was able, knowing that the ghost in the jar couldn't understand her words, unsure whether the soft steady noise of them might calm it anyway." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Working the rust of two weeks' disuse from her voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sorry about the wait. Locked in there for so long, nothing to look forward to except me destroying you when I finally let you out.\" The knot came loose and she sat on her heels a minute, imagining those smooth clay walls all around her, too narrow to stretch her arms or comfortably sit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, if it helps, we're not so different, you know. I just live in a bigger jar, and they give me a fighting chance when they let me out of it. But if I win, I go back in. You're better off. You get cut loose. One way or another.\" She lifted the lid off the jar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Anyway, come on out. I promise I'll make it quick.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She gave it a moment. Nothing happened. She peered into the jar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Just a silvery blur, sunk to the bottom like fog." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd never seen a ghost so weakened. For all she knew she wasn't going to be able to get it out of the jar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Could she still send it on to Catchkeep if it was stuck in there?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had never been covered in her predecessors' field notes, and today was not the day to be screwing things up. She took the notebook from the backpack and settled in to wait, thumbing back through the few field notes she'd taken on this ghost the day she'd caught it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "found at the baker's house." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There'd been salt at the baker's house, she remembered. Salt despite the ban." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Idiot. She was tired of cleaning up after stupid people." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "throwing-things-ghost. nasty. annoying. looked like it died violently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "attacked the baker's wife." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "howling so loud the baker's ears bled.\n\nIt had been dripping silver, slinging gouts of silver as it smashed facefirst into walls." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The baker's sleeping-room would never be the same." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "tried to attack me, got put down.\n\nHer eyes strayed from the page to the jar, her brain unwilling to match the ghost that had crushed the baker's wife's face like an eggshell with the washed-out used-up squashed bug of a ghost she had here." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "useless for study. going to give it a day to calm down, then see if i can get anything out of it.\n\nIt'd had no discernible gender." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No clothing. It had barely been person-shaped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Many decent specimens tended to mime the moment of their deaths, over and over, allowing Archivists to guess at least at what had killed them. Not this one. Beyond a mouth, it hadn't even had features to its face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Just a blur of light and rage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasp had found it tearing up the baker's house two days before the Archivist-choosing fight. Being forgotten in its jar on her shelf for two weeks while she'd healed had calmed it down, all right, but it looked much the same." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Only smaller. Less angry." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Like a fire that had nearly gone out.\n\nShe stuck a finger in the jar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Poked the ghost, and her finger sank in to the first knuckle. No response." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was still a little space left on the page. She wiped her finger off on her leg and took out a charcoal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "too weak now to even take shape. left in the jar too long?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "no fight left in it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "almost dead. if that even happens.\n\nconclusion: ghosts wither in captivity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She read it over." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It wasn't anything groundbreaking, but it was an observation she'd never seen written up before, and that had to count for something. At least it might save her a beating when she reported her day's work to the Catchkeep-priest. Maybe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Weak and insubstantial as the ghost had become, being here, in a ghost-place, seemed to be lending it a bit of strength." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As it stirred and stretched at the bottom of the jar, sending out stubby appendages from its mass, Wasp put the notebook down and began readying the items for the ritual that would destroy a ghost that had given its Archivist as much information as she was likely to get out of it. In this case, almost none." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Waste of time, really." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was moving quicker now. No point in being cruel, letting the ghost come into its strength only to annihilate it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not when all it had to do was get out of the jar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She took the firestarter out of the backpack, and a handful of dried leaves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A tiny plastic vial of water and another of milk followed those. The milk was long since soured, but that didn't matter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She set these down on the ledge in a rough circle in front of her, then put the jar, ghost and all, in the center." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All she needed now was blood.\n\nShe eased into a crouch as smoothly as her shaky muscles allowed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Something hissed a white streak up her leg, ankle to thigh, but she set her face and waited it out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The harvesting-knife was at her belt, and an eroded crater of black rock was by her feet, stained with rusty brown.\n\nA flick of the blade against her thumbtip and the blood ran down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She held it out over the crater and waited as it dripped a tiny pool, hardly big enough to drown a bug.\n\nThe line she'd cut into her thumb had crosscut old scars from days and months and years of bloodlettings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd long since run out of empty spaces to slice into." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "<A map,> thought Wasp, who had seen one once. <A map to nowhere.>" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ghost in the jar roused a little, scenting. Farther back, other ghosts rose and settled in a mass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Out of the corner of her eye she watched them watch the blood run, watched them watch her raise her bloodied hand and lick it clean." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The silence curdled now. Clung to her crawling skin like the tarry rains of spring and did not lift." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She didn't need to look to know the ghosts were straining toward the pool and toward her backpack as far as their roots allowed, as if she were Execution Hill itself and they the orchard curled around its heels." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked away from the jar for a second, just long enough to replace the notebook and charcoal in her backpack—and when she looked back at it the ghost was, impossibly, climbing out.\n\nIt was the size of Wasp's hand, and glowed dully silver." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was shaped like a person, or like a person as drawn by a small child." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A cutout-shape person reduced to vague particulars—body, arms, legs, head. It was faceless, hairless, genderless." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It gained its stubby feet and stood tilting its oversized skull at her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasp knew that stance. When it strengthened enough to bring its eyes in clear, they would be looking at her with the bland inquiry of an infant." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If they could even see her at all.\n\nWhat baffled her was that it was out of the jar in the first place." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The saltlick was still in its box in her backpack, and the blood was two feet away. Where was it getting that much strength from?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had two options. Hurry up and destroy the ghost before things got complicated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Or wait to see what it would do." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her job was to destroy it. Send it on to Catchkeep, Who would carry it to that far green shore." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd seen enough of this ghost to know she wasn't going to learn anything from it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was just drawing out the inevitable, not to mention putting herself at risk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd had to fight this specimen once before, and she wasn't up for a second round today." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There had been Archivists before her who enjoyed destroying ghosts. There might well be another when she was dead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasp wasn't one of them. Something about how most ghosts never seemed to want to stay still for the ritual, kept trying to drag themselves out of the circle and back toward where they'd popped out of nothing into the living world, flopping against their salt tethers like fish out of water." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the stories they all went on to Catchkeep joyfully, but whatever Wasp saw in them, she didn't reckon it was joy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not that it mattered. That was the work, and she had to do it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The least she could do, here, now, with this ghost at her mercy, was to show it some and get this over with fast.\n\nShe drew the harvesting-knife." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oblivious to Wasp's approach, the ghost took a step back, staggered a little, windmilling the paddles of its arms, then proceeded to toddle in a slow circle and fall over." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As it lay there, its mouth came in.\n\nIt was saying something." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wasp sheathed the knife so fast she almost took off a finger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She dropped to her knees and snatched up the little ghost. It weighed literally nothing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd long since gotten used to the instantaneous visceral shock of touching one, halfway between frostbite and vertigo." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ghost smushed its face against the clotting at her thumb, then took a tentative little lick. Then another. And another." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At first the ghost's tongue felt like nothing, absolutely nothing, but as the ghost battened on her, strengthening, she became aware of a scraping sensation, as though she were a hide the ghost was tanning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tomorrow it would be a nasty bruise, her thumb would be green-purple to the webbing, and she'd have to think fast to keep it hidden from the Catchkeep-priest.\n\nShe didn't mind the pain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Whatever ghosts might do to her, she at least knew where they stood. They didn't hurt her to benefit themselves, like the upstarts, or because they wanted her to suffer, like the Catchkeep-priest, whose hate she never fully understood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ghosts were just hungry, lonely, lost. Desperate and confused. These were all things she could relate to." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And out here, among them, was the only place she felt safe—not because none of them ever harmed her, but because they never wished her harm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They barely even knew she was there.\n\nAs it drank, the ghost began to grow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "By the time she set it down and it inched on its belly to the pool and started lapping, it was the size of a weanling pup." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It drank and drank, pausing only to... glance?... over its shoulder at her with a blank silver face in which the only feature was a wide red mouth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the pool was emptied the ghost stood the size of a two-year-old child, and its eyes had come in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It blinked at her, not inquisitively, not anything." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had no idea what it was seeing, but whatever it was, it wasn't her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It stood there, its mouth releasing unformed mewing sounds in no language Wasp knew.\n\nWasp held her breath, listening." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And the hazy outline of the ghost sharpened off a little, and the sounds clarified with it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The same few syllables, looping over and over. It sounded like a name." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It could have been anyone's. A lover's, a child's, a friend's." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wasp's mouth twisted, scorn or envy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then she realized what she was witnessing, and scrambled for her notebook." }, { "from": "human", "value": "two-weeks-caught ghost" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "weakest Ive ever seen\n\nno salt no blood but walking talking" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She underlined talking three times, then circled it twice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "talking louder now with the blood in it but this thing went from silver smoke-blob to climbing out of the jar in a three-count on its own and that was before any blood any salt any reason\n\nUnderlined on its own. Underlined reason." }, { "from": "human", "value": "shouldnt be happening" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "stupid to destroy without further study.\n\nLike it mattered, sparing something already dead." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Stupid that she should feel relieved, but she always did." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd just have to destroy it later, once she was done with—\n\nShe glanced up, frantic for a second because the ghost was not where she had left it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then she caught sight of it, meandering back along the ledge, its hand twisting at the air as if turning invisible doorknobs. Wasp watched as it reached the others and began to play with its shape, stretching and shrinking, stopping when it was roughly the height of most of the ghosts in the group." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It stood among them as they patted its arms and face, which had grown fingers and a nose, respectively." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was looking into the face of each ghost in turn, still repeating those syllables that might have been a name. The last syllable had a little upward tilt to it now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As if it were asking a question." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasp stared, charcoal forgotten in her hand. A ghost was communicating with other ghosts?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was big. This was very, very big." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hey,\" she whispered at it, feeling stupid.\n\nOf course, the ghost didn't respond." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd mostly known it wouldn't." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ghosts couldn't talk to people, not even Archivists." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had a whole box of field notes to prove it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was only a very, very strong ghost that could do something like attack a person, but even then it did so mindlessly, like a tantruming child kicking at the floor.\n\nShe tried again. \"Hey there. I'm not going to hurt you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nothing. No surprise there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But she could still recapture the ghost for study. See what she could get from it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Give its death a purpose. It would be the same purpose that a struck spark gives firewood, but it was better than none." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was just reaching for the jar when the ghost found a crack in the wall and shrank down some more to disappear inside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She leapt after it, too late." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasp dropped her head into her hands, swearing as colorfully as she knew how. It was a good few minutes before she calmed down, but she had to." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When a tiny spark of hope shone out from the shitheap of her life, she had to focus on it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the only way she was going to get through another year of this without losing her mind.\n\nThe ghost was gone, but it could have been worse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She would have loved to study it further, try to figure out what it wanted, and, more importantly, what had given it the strength to want it in the first place." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No point in worrying about that, though. She was losing the light." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd tell the Catchkeep-priest she'd destroyed the ghost like she was supposed to, and catch another one to study. It'd have to be a good one, to make her less pissed at herself than she was right now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But she also had the notes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was rare that she was supposed to release a ghost, but what she was meant to say when she did so was this:" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "<I am the Archivist. Catchkeep's emissary, ambassador, and avatar on earth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her bones and stars my flesh; my flesh and bones Her stars." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I am She who bears you, She who sustains you, She to whom your dust returns. You have lived well." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You have died well." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I release you. Do not ghost my way.>" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What she did say was:\n\n\"Back into the soup with you, troublemaker. Next time, pick someplace smarter to haunt.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Destroying the captive ghost had been only one of her appointed tasks today." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was also supposed to catch another." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The midwife's niece wanted a baby, but was suffering from an uncooperative womb. An egg would catch, and clot, and grow, then lose its grip and trickle out, and the midwife's arsenal of tricks was to no avail." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The midwife had prayed to the Chooser and come away with the notion that an animated clot might have the will to hang on as a new body pieced itself around it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd gone to the Catchkeep-priest with her petition and her offerings to Catchkeep, and the Catchkeep-priest had given Wasp the job of finding her a ghost.\n\nIn Wasp's experience, the townspeople were terrified of ghosts, and with good reason." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unlike Archivists, they weren't under Catchkeep's protection, and Catchkeep's dominion was ghosts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was very, very rare for someone to come asking for a specimen for personal use, but it did happen. There was trade in ghosts to neighboring towns, for instance—once or twice a year, maybe, the Catchkeep-priest would barter a bottled ghost for Chooser knew what, and one time Wasp had seen her predecessor catch a particularly nasty specimen and tether it in the town gardens to keep the scav kids off the perimeter fence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The harvest that autumn had doubled.\n\nBut Wasp was not her predecessor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She didn't have a fraction of that kind of love for the work." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As an upstart, Wasp had been sent up to the Archivist-house on an errand for the Catchkeep-priest. All she remembered about the Archivist she'd go on to replace was that she'd left salt-trails running to her house, at least half the jars on her shelves were not only full but also blood-streaked on their inside walls, and she'd been in the process of squeezing a cut finger for a hungry ghost when Wasp had knocked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the Archivist had grinned at her, Wasp had shuddered at the sharpness of her teeth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasp wasn't in the habit of keeping ghosts around for long, and she wasn't looking to start a collection. She might have three full jars, at most, on any given day." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her method was as pared-back as possible." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cut, capture, carry home in jar, take notes, bring back in jar, destroy. No reason to prolong suffering, even of the dead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When they'd come to her asking to tether a scarecrow-ghost as her predecessor had done, she'd done it—but after a few nights of its howling drifting up her hill, she'd snuck into the gardens and cut it free. When they asked her to catch another, she'd obeyed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When that one and the next two also disappeared, they stopped asking." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So Wasp would catch a child-ghost for the midwife's niece. She had no idea how the midwife was planning to put this ghost in a living woman's womb, or whether a ghost would even want such a thing, and what a ghost might do in that case to show its displeasure if the idea was not to its liking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She wasn't sure she wanted to know." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still, before and after her doubts she was the Archivist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had a duty to her people." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The fallout from their decisions wasn't her business. Not unless the ghost got loose." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The other ghosts were still milling around the crack in the rock, oblivious to her inspection." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Most were ankle-height or less; a few topped out around her knees or thighs. The tallest one she'd ever seen stood half as high as the ledge, but she'd only seen it once." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Where it'd gotten the strength for that trick from, she had no idea. She'd been an upstart then, and had kept well away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thankfully, her thumb had stopped bleeding. Not that any of this batch of ghosts looked particularly threatening, but the blood had been known to bring it out in them, and things were weird enough today already without adding a brawl on top." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd bandage it. Meantime, she'd better get moving and distract them, just in case." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wasp rummaged in the backpack and came out with the little plastic box containing the saltlick." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She set it down near the nearest of the ghosts, putting herself between it and the bloodstained pit of rock. The ghosts nosed forward, browsing at the air—one or two taking a step, then others following, and a scuffle erupted at her feet as the ghosts descended upon the dish." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It still startled her, how violently the salt drew them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The field notes said it was because it put the ghosts in mind of their former flesh. That to them, it was the salt of sweat, of tears, of blood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It drew them because it made them remember being alive, made them hunger for everything they'd lost.\n\nShe sketched the feeding ghosts in her notebook, her mind on the one she'd let slip through her fingers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It fascinated and depressed her, the way the ghosts moved, pacing their confines." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sounding their boundaries, back and forth. She saw much of herself in them, so she never watched for long." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Today there were eight lone ones and what looked to be a rare set of three." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What with their ability to change size at will, it was always hard for her to tell the ages they'd been when they'd died, but by the way two of them were nudging the third one on before them toward the saltlick, shielding it against the others' jostling with what they most likely still thought of as their bodies, Wasp's best guess was that this used to be a family.\n\nAs the salt took hold of them, their faces began to resolve: first the features grew, claylike, then refining—their hair grew out, straight or curly, then darkened or lightened from that dullish silver—their eyes grew pupils, irises, and color slowly began to bleed in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Their heights and sizes began to stabilize, to calibrate against each other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was a family, she could see now. Or used to be." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Two females and a tiny male, maybe three or four years old at time of death." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It might be weeks before she found another child-ghost so young. And she hated unfinished business." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Keeping her eyes on the lapping ghosts, one hand reached behind her blind and felt around on the rock for the jar, while the other hand drew the harvesting-knife free of its dogleather sheath at her belt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The knife was as long as her forearm, forged from some bright metal, with a guard like a sword and a grip wrapped with the same dogleather as the sheath, and worth more than everything else in her little house combined. The shape of the blade was irregular, the hilt longer than the handle of a knife of similar size would be, and the point was unevenly tapered, as though the true point had broken off and this was what was left." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But it was a ritual blade, not a weapon, and it served.\n\nWhen she readied it in position, the low autumn sun caught on the sixteen dots of darker metal inset along the blade: the six larger ones, the size of a wild blueberry; the ten smaller ones, the size of a clover-seed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Vaguely they described a wedge-shaped head, a jaw like a beartrap, a barrel chest, long legs, a lashing back-curved tail." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Years ago, when she stood bloodied on the lakeshore above the previous Archivist's cooling corpse, and was presented with this blade, it was held out to her in such a way that the constellation on the blade caught and returned the light of the matching constellation in the sky. Catchkeep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The harvesting-knife felt strange in her hand now after two weeks without it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Strange and yet as familiar as any other part of her. She took a step toward the child-ghost, and it turned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This part used to frighten her a little." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sea-change in the ghosts' eyes as the salt waylaid them. The look on their faces, like they woke from a nightmare to find that the monsters had followed them back out into their cozy beds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It had not taken her long to realize that the only monster they were seeing was her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The child-ghost turned back to the saltlick. Its parent-ghosts didn't seem to have noticed her at all." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For the thousandth time she reminded herself of what the field notes had taught her: that when she harvested a ghost, the ones it had traveled with wouldn't even know it was gone, no longer had the minds with which to understand the loss or the hearts with which to feel it, any more than a hand feels the loss of a pared fingernail." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That ghosts, essentially, were recorded information rewinding, playing, rewinding. Skipping and resuming. A resource to be tapped and nothing more." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She wished she knew whether that were true." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Knife in one hand, jar in the other, she was kneeling behind the child-ghost ready to slice it free and lid it up when she realized: there was only the one jar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Only the one jar, which she was about to fill with a ghost that had died too young to be of any use to the field notes.\n\nIt wouldn't be the first time she harvested a ghost she didn't have much hope of learning anything from—but usually it was not her first day on the job after half a month in recovery, she hadn't just lost the ghost she should have been bringing back to study, and she hadn't forgotten to bring enough damn jars with her on a hunt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And she didn't much relish the idea of coming back up here to try again tomorrow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If she took the child-ghost for the midwife's niece, she would have made good on that particular duty, but otherwise she'd be returning to the Catchkeep-priest emptyhanded. And that was not a place she wanted to be." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But then she thought of the child-ghost, and wondered whether the midwife was right and it was possible for it to be reborn." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She thought of the children she had seen chasing each other around town and concluded that, as far as she could tell, children liked to be alive." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was her best guess that this one might have liked it, too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She only hoped it wouldn't come back as a baby girl with Catchkeep's mark on her cheek.\n\nShe glanced at the child-ghost, the parent-ghosts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Paring a fingernail,\" she said, either to them or to herself, and decided." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A quick swipe in a ring around the child-ghost with the harvesting-knife and it shrank back to ankle-height, weakened. Free for the picking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She set down the knife, closed her hand around the ghost's waist, and pulled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It came free of the rock with a sound like uprooting weeds from mud and she dropped it into the jar, looking anywhere but at its face.\n\nWhere she found herself looking instead was into the eyes of the two parent-ghosts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had turned from the saltlick and were staring at her with a look that she had seen rather often on the living but very, very seldom on any ghost." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Complete awareness. Utter hate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It froze her. These ghosts, these nothing little ghosts she'd disregarded, actually had the strength to turn their backs on the salt without her say-so. It flew in the face of everything she knew." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" she whispered, as her palms went clammy and her heart began to race." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "First she'd released a ghost from two weeks' confinement, which was apparently beyond long enough to wither it like a leaf, but somehow the ghost had found the strength to remember. To search. To attempt to speak." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To communicate with other ghosts, if Wasp's observation was correct." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And then there was the look in the parent-ghosts' eyes. Which was now in the others' eyes, too, as all the ghosts abandoned the salt to turn their faces upon her in unison, as though alerted by the sudden racket of her breath, the sudden stink of her fear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd read warnings in the field notes about clusters of strong ghosts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One on its own meant a difficult catch, but a first-class specimen. More than one meant trouble." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No catch at all, and maybe a dead Archivist." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had happened before. She had a pretty good idea where this was going." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It wasn't these ghosts that were the problem. Not any of the ones on the ledge, not the one she'd lost.\n\nIt was worse." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Today you will be acting as a writing assistant in the fantasy, scifi, dystopia, ghosts, post-apocalyptic genre. Your partner will send something and you will write the next two sentences." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She stepped through—and was abruptly in a forest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was unlike the orchard back home, unlike anywhere she'd ever been. She and the ghost had come out in a clearing ringed round with trees she'd never seen before and couldn't name, far taller and greener than the trees she knew." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The grass of the clearing was dotted with flowers the size of her fingernail, blue enough to hurt her eyes. Overhead, the sky was bruise-colored and luminous." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was water, somewhere, near enough to smell." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The grass, the leaves, even the clouds stood still. Wasp felt the same tingle up her spine she used to get when entering the Catchkeep-shrine, long ago." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Treading softly, so that whatever power slept in that place would not wake and find her there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was no birdsong, no rummaging of mice in the underbrush. All was silent.\n\nUntil something crashed behind her, loud as summer thunder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She whirled, knife out—but it was only the door, shutting. A brief moment of panic: the thread that attached her to her body must be stuck now, in the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But she pulled on it and found it spooling out of her, apparently endless, caught but unbroken.\n\nThe door stood there in the clearing, unattached to anything." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Grass grew around it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Remembering her cooling body's camouflage, thinking of invisible walls, Wasp walked around the door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The clearing continued on all sides of it uninterrupted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She pushed it open. The clearing was through there too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the boundary of the threshold, she could just make out the thread if she kept it directly in her sight, but the moment her eyes wavered from it, it seemed to vanish, and it was only after gasping and clutching at her chest that she reassured herself it was still attached.\n\nWherever she was, she was stuck there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She glanced through the open door at the ghost." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It seemed preoccupied, staring holes through the ground as though the grass and dirt of the clearing was reminding it of something it would rather forget." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasp cleared her throat, and the ghost snapped out of it.\n\n\"This way,\" it said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We have to find the bridge.\"\n\nIt took off and Wasp followed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Either the forest was tiny or the door was near its edge, because in a minute they'd come clear of the trees. Before them lay a river, black as tar and swift as thought, kicking up into whitewater." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Among all that stillness, one thing that moved. Wasp saw no bridge, no boat, no crossing of any kind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The rushing water made no sound." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Down it sailed a silvery clot of broken ghost-bodies, thrashing in silence but irreparable, having learned the hard way not to chance the river swimming.\n\nThey weren't too far from shore." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can reach them,\" Wasp breathed, and bolted toward the water with a branch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Half a step from joining them, the ghost knocked her down onto the riverbank." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You can't help them,\" it shouted in her face. \"You can't.\"\n\n\"Oh, but I can help you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasp snapped back, disengaging herself. \"You and you only? That's convenient.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She didn't think she'd heard it raise its voice before. Perhaps she'd finally shaken it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still, deep down, she knew the ghost was right." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She wasn't any use to anybody floating down a river, arms broken, leaking silver ichor from her head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And she wouldn't be much use to herself when she had finished here, if she cut off her way back to her body on the ledge.\n\nStill, she wasn't about to admit a word of that to some specimen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And she sure as hell wasn't going to let it shove her around. It reached out a hand to help her up, and she ignored it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And you do not get to push me, get it?\" Wasp stood, hand on the harvesting-knife." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll give you that one for free. You're going to pay for the next one.\"\n\nBefore the ghost could respond, a sound filled the air." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A kind of rolling, keening howl, many-voiced, low and shrill and sonorous at once. The echo of it rebounded and faded, was taken up, elsewhere, again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the silence since the door had shut, the sudden noise was huge. Worse, it was close." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Worse still, she knew it, in her blood and bones.\n\nCatchkeep's hunt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd forgotten all about it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It had been so long since she'd been a child small enough to be scared by fireside stories of the hunt, it hadn't occurred to her that she was going to the place where those stories were real and could do her actual harm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No time to think about running." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the stories, once the hunt had locked on to a target, it could not be outrun. No time to guess what they'd do to her if the hunt tried to bring her down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Whether it would scent the Archivist in her first, or the interloper. In the stories the hunt had Catchkeep Herself at its head, and She was capricious and did what She liked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The hunt could send ghosts back to earth or annihilate them outright—or worse, it could be delicate, could break without destroying, and leave a ghost to try and make its way through eternity with whatever the hunt had left it.\n\nAs far as Wasp was concerned, none of these things was an option." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She squirmed out of the backpack and tossed it aside, back toward the woods." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To her horror, she could see other ghosts making their way out from the door among the trees, following the path toward the river." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Stay back!\" she shrieked at them, not knowing whether that would put them further from danger or closer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hoping she and the ghost could draw the hunt, give them time to run or hide." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By the riverbank, the ghost was waiting, sword out, back to the water, eyes scanning the woods. There was something in its face and stance that made it look much more like the image of its dead self on the old paper than the ghost-self Wasp was coming to know." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Its focus had changed. It was in its element." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, that much she could understand.\n\nShe took her place beside it and drew the knife." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Later, it would unsettle her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Here she was, an Archivist, drawing weapons with someone rather than against. Fighting back-to-back with someone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Knowing that if she pulled through this, it would be in part because of the speed and skill and competence of someone other than herself. And if the ghost did, it would be in part because of hers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It wouldn't last, but at this moment, for the first time in her life, Wasp had an ally." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was very, very strange. It was not wholly unpleasant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I make seven or eight by the sound,\" the ghost was saying." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And closing fast. That way.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A tight little half-nod, over the woods. Back where she'd told the ghosts to stay." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To keep them safe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Already, from the direction of the door, she could hear thin screams arising.\n\nWasp cursed, then broke and ran." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And something exploded out of the trees. She caught the briefest glimpse of it—vast, bright, snarling—and then she was on her back in the dirt with a weight on her shoulders and a stabbing pain in her chest where her air should be." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was a little rhyme the children of Sweetwater would say, as they were tucked into bed and the snuffed lamps left them alone in the dark." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Catchkeep's lurchers, running free,\n\nHerding the souls out over the trees:" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cold ghosts you are. Till ghost I be," }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You have no power over me.\n\nIt did not begin to prepare her for the thing that loomed over her now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was like a dog, but not a dog." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Its breath stank like a sickroom on fire, and its eyes glowed green." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Its teeth were longer than her fingers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was a silvery rag caught in its jaws." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A silvery rag with eyeholes and a mouth. Over by the door in the clearing, the screaming had stopped." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No time. Wasp gripped the knife, gathered, and struck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The blade squelched in to the guard between two ribs, and she gasped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She must be hallucinating. There, for a second, she had faded out, lost consciousness, something—she had somehow seen a vision of Catchkeep's lurchers, several of them, stalking toward her dark-windowed little house on the hill. It jarred her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She faded back in just as she was pulling the knife free. If she had lost that second a moment earlier, a moment later—at any time but during the eyeblink of an opening following her blow—she would be dead, teeth in her throat, and knew it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Would Catchkeep's holy knife harm one of Her own? It was a gamble on a guess." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the lurcher shrieked and lunged, and it took all Wasp's strength to wrench her head aside in time for the huge jaws to snap shut where her face had been." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The lurcher was clearly unused to missing targets. It swayed back, unbalanced, and Wasp got her foot up between them and pushed with all she had." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The lurcher fell sideways a half step." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was all she needed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She dug her nails into the slime-slicked dogleather of the grip and dragged the blade free for a second strike even as she planted her foot in the lurcher's underbelly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It yelped like any kicked dog and swung back toward her snarling, but Wasp was out from under, crouched low behind the knife, counting seconds.\n\nShe didn't count many." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The lurcher took another snap at her and she dropped her weight and shot up fast with the harvesting-knife, and the lurcher went down hard with the hilt sticking out of the soft of its throat and the point of the blade in whatever passed for its brain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She pulled the knife free as the lurcher began to melt into a kind of slurry, which disappeared into the ground with a smell of lilacs and a sound like eggs frying. The grass died in its outline, black and slimed. One down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And then she saw the ghost. She had never seen anything like it in her life." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It had the death-stains of five lurchers arrayed around its boots and was working on a sixth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The lurcher leapt for the ghost's throat, and the ghost's sword got in the way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With no visible effort the ghost sidestepped, down came the teeth on the blade, the ghost gave what looked like a gentle push, and the top half of the lurcher's head came off and deliquesced as it fell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The rest of the lurcher, carried by its momentum, plunged into the river." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The current bore it away, a skin of black goo on the black water.\n\nAnother sprang for Wasp, and the ghost, calm as ever, drew the gun in its off-hand and fired—and the bullet passed straight over the lurcher as it tumbled to the dirt at Wasp's feet, her flung knife in its eye." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With that, the silence returned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Looks like the last of them,\" she said, pulling the knife free." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Suppressing a shudder at the feel of what she pulled it out of: meat, shadow, slime. Almost not registering the vision, dream-scrap, whatever, that zapped its way up the knife, through her arm, into her brain: a lurcher savaging what might have been a deer, facedown in its guts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She caught it in afterimage, blinked, and it was gone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ghost gave the woods one last once-over and holstered the gun. Still it kept its sword drawn, its eyes on the dark beyond the trees." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wasp cast a sidewise glance at it, finding herself suddenly, aggravatingly shy before this new aspect of it, this awful vicious elegance she'd only seen hinted at before." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To give herself something to do, she scrubbed the harvesting-knife on the grass. It didn't work as well as she'd have liked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do they come through here often?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "she asked, squatting by the water to wash the blade in the shallows. \"The lurchers. Catchkeep's hunt.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Never,\" said the ghost. \"I assumed they were after you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This made no sense." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even tiny children knew about the Hunt. Herding the souls out over the trees... And this, where the ghosts walked, this was their hunting ground." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Centuries down here, a ghost couldn't really help but notice. Either the ghost was lying or all the stories were." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She thought of the scars on her cheek and wondered which was true." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silent motion at her side as the ghost joined her. Its sword hadn't fared any better than her knife, and they were there for some minutes, saying nothing, letting the water do its work." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You fight well,\" the ghost said after a time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasp shrugged. \"I don't have a choice. It's what I was made for.\" Something in the quality of the silence changed. She turned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ghost's stare was unreadable. \"So do you,\" she added hastily, looking away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's what I was made for,\" said the ghost, so soft Wasp almost couldn't hear it, and now it was her turn to stare." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Despite the muddy riverbank, the ghost stood smoothly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's getting dark. We have to find the bridge.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Bridge,\" said Wasp. \"Right.\" Her questions could wait." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She jumped up, dried the blade on her coat-sleeve, sheathed it. The backpack." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd almost forgotten it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was badly slime-splashed, and the fabric of it had corroded beneath the stains, disintegrated at a touch. Most everything in it was beyond hope of salvage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Only the saltlick, the jar, and the firestarter could be kept. She pocketed them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Just as she didn't let herself ponder how the Archivist-coat somehow managed to fit all Archivists of whatever shape and size, she didn't think too long on how the pockets seemed to stretch to receive the box of salt and the jar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not for the first time she resolved to burn the coat the first chance she could, and wondered whether this time she'd actually follow through." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Into the woods beyond where she had left the backpack, she could see a huddle of ghosts lingering by the door, gauging the safety of the path, muttering amongst themselves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not looking at what lay ravaged at their feet.\n\nShe went to shout out to them, then thought better of it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She couldn't assure them of their safety. Not if she was, by her very presence, bringing the hunt down upon their heads." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The best thing she could do for them was get gone. Fast.\n\nThe sky had deepened to violet, casting green-black shadows." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She didn't see a bridge. \"Which way—?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It doesn't stay in one place for long. Your guess is as good as mine.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasp blew air out of her mouth hard. \"I don't know. Upriver.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They took off upriver.\n\n\"I mean, you're sure it's here somewhere, right? We're not going to just keep walking straight into another batch of those things?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm sure it's somewhere, yes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Funny. But the lurchers are out there, and they're looking for me, I guess, and you don't even seem to know how they got here to—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And if they find you, you'll handle it. You did as much already.\"\n\nWasp was not much used to having her abilities—not Catchkeep's puppet's but hers—spoken of favorably." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She mumbled something incoherent under her breath and took a sudden keen interest in her surroundings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Upriver was turning out to be much of the same. The woods were at her left shoulder now, and denser here." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Here and there she could glimpse movement off in the dark: ghosts walking unknown paths among the trees. The same purple sky above, in which stars were now emerging, their constellations unfamiliar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Beneath her feet the dirt of the riverbank was red as berries and wet-looking, even beyond where the water reached. It gave off a metallic smell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She mentioned as much to the ghost." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know,\" it said. \"We're getting close.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Some minutes later, it stopped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasp looked around. She saw nothing.\n\n\"Here,\" said the ghost." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Here what?\"\n\nThe ghost gave that slow half-nod toward something across the river." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wasp squinted in the almost-dark." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A hundred yards of rushing water and a misty shore. A road beyond. The tall grass of a meadow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lights, farther off: amber, sapphire, blackish red—and high up, like Wasp's town stacked on its own head thrice.\n\n\"Okay,\" said Wasp. \"What?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Stand here. Where I'm standing.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The ghost stepped aside, making room. \"Now look.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wasp stood, and looked.\n\nAnd gasped. Because the bridge, suddenly, was there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had planes and angles and high graceful arches. It was dull, shining, black, white, transparent, many-colored." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Short of Execution Hill and Lake Sweetwater, it was possibly the single biggest thing Wasp had ever seen on earth.\n\nShe took a step sideways and it vanished." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Stepped back and it reappeared. She was beginning to understand what had driven that raft of broken ghosts to swimming." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Close up, the bridge was made of trash. Coins. Stones." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shells." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Keys." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Birdskulls. Bits of glass." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bits of plastic. Bits of driftwood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Broken weapons." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dried flowers. Trinkets." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bullets." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Leaves. Rings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And a thousand things Wasp didn't recognize. Some of it pristine, some of it eroded into nonsense." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Most pieces no larger than the palm of her hand.\n\n\"The dead build it together,\" said the ghost." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"From their pockets, from their coffins. From their mouths and eyes.\"\n\nWasp thought of all the dead Archivists, green stones on their tongues." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How even the poorest dead of Sweetwater were buried with pebbles, pear-seeds, clay tokens." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Something. How the townspeople thought it lucky to die in early summer, when the suns-and-moons could be picked from the fields and placed over each corpse's eyes: one yellow, one white." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd come with little and lost most of it already. What remained to her was a knife, a jar, a firestarter, and a half-empty box of salt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her shoes, her clothes, a vaguely disturbing dogleather coat, the long curved pin holding up the burden of her hair.\n\nHer hair. She felt silly even considering it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She felt like Ember Girl in the stories, who seemed to cut her hair off every time she embarked on an adventure. But it was there to leave, and she didn't have much else that she could spare, and it was nothing she would miss or need." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And she liked the idea of laying all those murdered girls down to rest here after carrying them through the upper world so long.\n\nShe pulled the pin out, and her hair fell deadweight to her waist." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As an almost-ghost, she felt she shouldn't have been able to still smell it, but the stink of death was still as strong on it as ever. It might have been her imagination, but she was sure that cutting into it only made the smell worse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As though it wasn't hair at all, but a rotten egg cracked open or a days-dead raccoon run over by a cart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And sawing through the mass of it, sharp as the harvesting-knife was, took much longer than she'd guessed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she worked, she explained to the ghost how for every upstart she had fought and killed, a large part of the dead girl's hair was cut off and interwoven into Wasp's." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Three per year for three years, minus Aneko: undefeated. And some from the Archivist she had killed to get there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She explained how every year, after the fight, before she'd even recovered from her wounds, it all was unwoven, the new growth of her own hair trimmed, then everyone else's plaited back in and glued where the plaits didn't hold. How every year her head grew heavier, and if she were too successful for too long, the weight would blind her with migraines, slow her movements, level the field between her and the upstarts who would eventually tear her down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why?\" asked the ghost." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's how it's always been,\" said Wasp." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, realizing how weak this answer must sound, realizing she had no better answer to give, started cutting faster. Where her hair left the knife it turned silvery, reduced to ghost-debris, like the tangle of broken limbs sailing down the river." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Like the mask in the lurcher's mouth that was not a mask at all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ghost observed her, saying nothing, as around Wasp's feet the pile of braids and charms grew higher. Now that the fight with the lurchers was over, the ghost had reverted to that alert impassivity, precise and serene." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When Wasp had said that she was made for fighting, it had been a bit of an exaggeration, meant to deflect an awkward compliment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But after what she had seen she had little difficulty believing that, for the ghost's part, it was literally true." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It looked to her less like a person than like a weapon that had gone walking, out of a story and into the world, wearing a person's shape.\n\nBut what use would a weapon have for this search it was dragging her on, she wondered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What sort of person would a weapon call friend?\n\n<Another weapon,> the answer came to her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "<Another of the same.>\n\nThe whole mess made her think of stories, of Carrion Boy and His ally-enemy Ember Girl." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Each quested across a hundred songs and stories searching for the other, but the reasons for these searches—to trick, to slay, to rescue, or something in between—depended on the story. The only constant was that each time They met, They met in collisions that broke one against the other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was not Carrion Boy's fault, not Ember Girl's. It was simply what They were." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And the next winter, and the winter after that, They'd get up and, unable to do otherwise, start again.\n\nIt was all well and good in bloodless stories about distant stars." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Here, now, it made her uncomfortable on several levels, most of which she didn't want to examine closely enough to identify. Another of the same had hit her with hard enough of a pang already." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What did you leave at the bridge?\" she asked, knowing by now that she wouldn't get an answer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Only needing a stone, however small and ineffectual, to throw at her thoughts and make them scatter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the ghost surprised her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A medal,\" it said, and the knife froze in Wasp's hand. She had hated so much for so long, but it paled to nothing beside the bitterness in the ghost's voice now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The medal they gave me for turning her in.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wasp swallowed. There was one right thing to say to something like this, she felt, and as the only one here, it was her job to say it, whatever it was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She kicked words around in her mind, all useless, all she had: I am sure she was strong enough to forgive you. I hope she died well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They say the Ragpicker's favorite sweet is should-have-dones. Don't give Him yours." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was an easy choice between a wrong guess and a shut mouth, so she went with the shut mouth, and the ghost did, too.\n\nThe last strands of upstart-hair landed on the bridge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wasp sheathed the harvesting-knife and stepped out of the pile, brushing off her sleeves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The air was cool on the back of her neck. She felt so light." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Almost unbalanced—she'd learned so long ago to move with this great ungainly weight strapped to her, and now it was gone. She half wanted the lurchers to return, so she could see how well she fought unrestricted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Whether her skill would match the ghost's." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This ghost's or the vanished one's, Kit Foster's, trapped in that faded paper, testing her with its eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shut up, she thought. Focus.\n\nShe ran a hand through what was left of her hair." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was about fifty different lengths and stood out every whichaway, but everything that had belonged to the dead had been removed. What was left, as far as she could tell, was hers.\n\nThe bridge stretched out before her. She started walking." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I've got a bit of writer's block. I'm gonna send you something then keep it going two sentences at a time, also I'm going for a Frank Herbert sorta thing in the scifi genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "uring the private audience period preceding the Festival proper, many Dcommented that the God Emperor spent more than the allotted time with the new Ixian Ambassador, a young woman named Hwi Noree.\n\nShe was brought down at midmorning by two Fish Speakers who were still full of first-day excitement." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The private audience chamber beneath the plaza was brilliantly illuminated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The light revealed a room about fifty meters long by thirty-five wide. Antique Fremen rugs decorated the walls, their bright patterns worked in jewels and precious metals, all combined in weavings of priceless spice-fibers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The dull reds of which the Old Fremen had been so fond predominated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The chamber's floor was mostly transparent, a setting for exotic fishes worked in radiant crystal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Beneath the floor flowed a stream of clear blue water, all of its moisture sealed away from the audience chamber, but excitingly near Leto, who rested on a padded elevation at the end of the room opposite the door.\n\nHis first view of Hwi Noree revealed a remarkable likeness to her Uncle Malky, but her grave movements and the calmness of her stride were equally remarkable in their difference from Malky." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She did have that dark skin, though, the oval face with its regular features." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Placid brown eyes stared back at Leto. And where Malky's hair had been gray, hers was a luminous brown." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hwi Noree radiated an inner peace which Leto sensed spreading its influence around her as she approached." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stopped ten paces away, below him. There was a classical balance about her, something not accidental." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With growing excitement, Leto realized a betrayal of Ixian machinations in the new Ambassador." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were well along in their own program to breed selected types for specific functions. Hwi Noree's function was distressingly obvious—to charm the God Emperor, to find a chink in his armor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Despite this, as the meeting progressed, Leto found himself truly enjoying her company." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hwi Noree stood in a puddle of daylight which was guided into the chamber by a system of Ixian prisms. The light filled Leto's end of the chamber with glowing gold which centered on the Ambassador, dimming behind the God Emperor where stood a short line of Fish Speaker guards—twelve women chosen for their inability to hear or speak." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hwi Noree wore a simple gown of purple ambiel decorated only by a silver necklace pendant stamped with the symbol of IX." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soft sandals the color of her gown peeked from beneath her hem.\n\n\"Are you aware,\" Leto asked her, \"that I killed one of your ancestors?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She smiled softly. \"My Uncle Malky included that information in my early training, Lord.\"\n\nAs she spoke, Leto realized that part of her education had been conducted by the Bene Gesserit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had their way of controlling her responses, of sensing the undertones in a conversation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He could see, however, that the Bene Gesserit overlay had been a delicate thing, never penetrating the basic sweetness of her nature.\n\n\"You were told that I would introduce this subject,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, Lord. I know that my ancestor had the temerity to bring a weapon here in the attempt to harm you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"As did your immediate predecessor. Were you told that, as well?\"\n\n\"I did not learn it until my arrival, Lord. They were fools! Why did you spare my predecessor?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When I did not spare your ancestor?\"\n\n\"Yes, Lord.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kobat, your predecessor, was more valuable to me as a messenger.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then they told me the truth,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Again, she smiled. \"One cannot always depend on hearing truth from one's associates and superiors.\"\n\nThe response was so utterly open that Leto could not suppress a chuckle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even as he laughed, he realized that this young woman still possessed the Mind of First Awakening, the elemental mind which came in the first shock of birth-awareness. She was alive!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then you do not hold it against me that I killed your ancestor?\" he asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He tried to assassinate you! I am told you crushed him, Lord, with your own body.\"\n\n\"True.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And next you turned his weapon against your own Holy Self to demonstrate that the weapon was ineffectual . . . and it was the best lasgun we Ixians could make.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The witnesses reported correctly,\" Leto said.\n\nAnd he thought: Which shows how much you can depend on witnesses!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As a matter of historical accuracy, he knew that he had turned the lasgun only against his ribbed body, not against hands, face or flippers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The pre-worm body possessed a remarkable capacity for absorbing heat. The chemical factory within him converted heat to oxygen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I never doubted the story,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why has Ix repeated this foolish gesture?\" Leto asked.\n\n\"They have not told me, Lord. Perhaps Kobat took it onto himself to behave this way.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I think not. It has occurred to me that your people desired only the death of their chosen assassin.\"\n\n\"The death of Kobat?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, the death of the one they chose to use the weapon.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who was that, Lord? I've not been told.\"\n\n\"It's unimportant. Do you recall what I said at the time of your ancestor's foolishness?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You threatened terrible punishment should such violence ever again enter our thoughts.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She lowered her gaze, but not before Leto glimpsed a deep determination in her eyes. She would use the best of her abilities to blunt his wrath." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I promised that none of you would escape my anger,\" Leto said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She jerked her attention up to his face. \"Yes, Lord.\" And now her manner revealed personal fear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"None can escape me, not even the futile colony you've recently planted at . . .\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And Leto reeled off for her the standard chart coordinates of a new colony the Ixians had planted secretly far beyond what they thought were the reaches of his Empire.\n\nShe betrayed no surprise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lord, I think it was because I warned them you would know of this that I was chosen as Ambassador.\"\n\nLeto studied her more carefully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What have we here?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he wondered. Her observation had been subtle and penetrating. The Ixians, he knew, had thought distance and enormously magnified transportation costs would insulate the new colony." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hwi Noree thought not and had said so." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But she believed her masters had chosen her as Ambassador because of this—a comment on the Ixian caution. They thought they had a friend at court here, but one who also would be seen as Leto's friend." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He nodded as the pattern took shape." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Quite early in his ascendancy he had revealed to the Ixians the exact location of the supposedly secret Ixian Core, the heartland of the technological federation which they governed. It had been a secret the Ixians thought safe because they paid gigantic bribes for it to the Spacing Guild." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Leto had winkled them out by prescient observation and deduction—and by consulting his memories, where there were more than a few Ixians.\n\nAt the time, Leto had warned the Ixians that he would punish them if they acted against him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had responded with consternation and accused the Guild of betraying them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This had amused Leto and he had responded with such a burst of laughter that the Ixians were abashed. He had then informed them in a cold and accusatory tone that he had no need of spies or traitors or other ordinary trappings of government." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Did they not believe he was a god?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For a time thereafter, the Ixians were responsive to his requests. Leto had not abused the relationship." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His demands were modest—a machine for this, a device for that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He would state his needs and presently the Ixians would deliver the required technological toy. Only once had they tried to deliver a violent instrument into one of his machines." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had slain the entire Ixian delegation before they could even unwrap the thing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hwi Noree waited patiently while Leto mused. Not the slightest sign of impatience surfaced." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Beautiful, he thought." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In view of his long association with the Ixians, this new stance sent the juices coursing through Leto's body." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ordinarily, the passions, crises and necessities which had produced and impelled him burned low. He often felt that he had outlived his times." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the presence of a Hwi Noree said he was needed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This pleased him. Leto felt that it might even be possible that the Ixians had achieved a partial success with their machine to amplify the linear prescience of a Guild navigator. A small blip in the flow of great events might have escaped him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Could they really make such a machine?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What a marvel that would be! Purposefully, he refused to use his powers for even the smallest search through this possibility." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I wish to be surprised!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Leto smiled benignly at Hwi. \"How have they prepared you to woo me?\" he asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She did not blink." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was provided with a set of memorized responses for particular exigencies,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I learned them as I was required, but I do not intend to use them.\"\n\nWhich is exactly what they want, Leto thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tell your masters,\" he said, \"that you are precisely the right kind of bait to dangle in front of me.\"\n\nShe bowed her head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If it pleases my Lord.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, you do.\"\n\nHe indulged himself then in a small temporal probe to examine Hwi's immediate future, tracing the threads of her past through this." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hwi appeared in a fluid future, a current whose movements were susceptible to many deflections." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She would know Siona in only a casual way unless . . . Questions flowed through Leto's mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A Guild steersman was advising the Ixians and he obviously had detected Siona's disturbance in the temporal fabric." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Did the steersman really believe he could provide security against the God Emperor's detection?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The temporal probe took several minutes, but Hwi did not fidget. Leto looked at her carefully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She seemed timeless—outside of time in a deeply peaceful way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had never before encountered a common mortal able to wait thus in front of him without some nervousness.\n\n\"Where were you born, Hwi?\" he asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"On Ix itself, Lord.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I mean specifically—the building, its location, your parents, the people around you, friends and family, your schooling—all of it.\"\n\n\"I never knew my parents, Lord. I was told they died while I was still an infant.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you believe this?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"At first . . . of course. Later, I built fantasies. I even imagined that Malky was my father . . . but . . .\" She shook her head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You did not like your Uncle Malky?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, I didn't. Oh, I admired him.\"\n\n\"My reaction precisely,\" Leto said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But what of your friends and your schooling?\"\n\n\"My teachers were specialists, even some Bene Gesserit were brought in to train me in emotional control and observation. Malky said I was being prepared for great things.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And your friends?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't think I ever had any real friends—only people who were brought in contact with me for specific purposes in my education.\"\n\n\"And these great things for which you were trained, did anyone ever speak of those?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Malky said I was being prepared to charm you, Lord.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How old are you, Hwi?\"\n\n\"I don't know my exact age. I guess I'm about twenty-six. I've never celebrated a birthday. I only learned about birthdays by accident, one of my teachers giving an excuse for her absence. I never saw that teacher again.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Leto found himself fascinated by this response. His observations provided him with certainty that there had been no Tleilaxu interventions into her Ixian flesh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had not come from a Tleilaxu axlotl tank." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why the secrecy, then?\n\n\"Does your Uncle Malky know your age?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Perhaps. But I haven't seen him for many years.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Didn't anyone ever tell you how old you were?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No.\"\n\n\"Why do you suppose that is?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Maybe they thought I'd ask if I were interested.\"\n\n\"Were you interested?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Then why didn't you ask?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I thought at first there might be a record somewhere. I looked. There was nothing. I reasoned then that they would not answer my question.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"For what it tells me about you, Hwi, that answer pleases me very much. I, too, am ignorant of your background, but I can make an enlightened guess at your birthplace.\"\n\nHer eyes focused on his face with a charged intensity which had no pretense in it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You were born within this machine your masters are trying to perfect for the Guild,\" Leto said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You were conceived there, as well. It may even be that Malky was your father. That is not important. Do you know about this machine, Hwi?\"\n\n\"I'm not supposed to know about it, Lord, but . . .\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Another indiscretion by one of your teachers?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"By my uncle himself.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A burst of laughter erupted from Leto. \"What a rogue!\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What a charming rogue!\"\n\n\"Lord?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is his revenge on your masters. He did not like being removed from my court. He told me at the time that his replacement was less than a fool.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hwi shrugged. \"A complex man, my uncle.\"\n\n\"Listen to me carefully, Hwi. Some of your associations here on Arrakis could be dangerous to you. I will protect you as I can. Do you understand?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I think so, Lord.\" She stared up at him solemnly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Now, a message for your masters. It is clear to me that they have been listening to a Guild steersman and they have joined themselves to the Tleilaxu in a perilous fashion. Tell them for me that their purposes are quite transparent.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lord, I have no knowledge of . . .\"\n\n\"I am aware of how they use you, Hwi. For this reason you may tell your masters also that you are to be the permanent Ambassador to my court. I will not welcome another Ixian. And should your masters ignore my warnings, trying further interference with my wishes, I shall crush them.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tears welled from her eyes and ran down her cheeks, but Leto was grateful that she did not indulge in any other display such as falling to her knees.\n\n\"I already have warned them,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Truly I did. I told them they must obey you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Leto could see that this was true.\n\nWhat a marvelous creature, this Hwi Noree, he thought." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She appeared the epitome of goodness, obviously bred and conditioned for this quality by her Ixian masters with their careful calculation of the effect this would have on the God Emperor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Out of his thronging ancestral memories, Leto could see her as an idealized nun, kindly and self-sacrificing, all sincerity. It was her most basic nature, the place where she lived." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She found it easiest to be truthful and open, capable of shading this only to prevent pain for others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He saw this latter trait as the deepest change the Bene Gesserit had been able to effect in her. Hwi's real manner remained outgoing, sensitive and naturally sweet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Leto could find little sense of manipulative calculation in her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She appeared immediately responsive and wholesome, excellent at listening (another Bene Gesserit attribute). There was nothing openly seductive about her, yet this very fact made her profoundly seductive to Leto." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he had remarked to one of the earlier Duncans on a similar occasion: \"You must understand this about me, a thing which some obviously suspect—sometimes it's unavoidable that I have delusionary sensations, the feeling that somewhere inside this changeling form of mine there exists an adult human body with all of the necessary functions.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All of them, Lord?\" the Duncan had asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"All! I feel the vanished parts of myself. I can feel my legs, quite unremarkable and so real to my senses. I can feel the pumping of my human glands, some of which no longer exist. I can even feel genitalia which I know, intellectually, vanished centuries ago.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But surely if you know . . .\"\n\n\"Knowledge does not suppress such feelings. The vanished parts of myself are still there in my personal memories and in the multiple identity of all my ancestors.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As Leto looked at Hwi standing in front of him, it helped not one whit to know he had no skull and that what once had been his brain was now a massive web of ganglia spread through his pre-worm flesh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing helped. He could still feel his brain aching where it once had reposed; he could still feel his skull throbbing.\n\nBy just standing there in front of him, Hwi cried out to his lost humanity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was too much for him and he moaned in despair:" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why do your masters torture me?\"\n\n\"Lord?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"By sending you!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I would not hurt you, Lord.\"\n\n\"Just by existing you hurt me!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I did not know.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tears fell unrestrained from her eyes. \"They never told me what they were really doing.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He calmed himself and spoke softly: \"Leave me now, Hwi. Go about your business, but return quickly if I summon you!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She left quietly, but Leto could see that Hwi, too, was tortured. There was no mistaking the deep sadness in her for the humanity Leto had sacrificed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She knew what Leto knew: they would have been friends, lovers, companions in an ultimate sharing between the sexes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her masters had planned for her to know.\n\nThe Ixians are cruel!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he thought. They knew what our pain would be." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hwi's departure ignited memories of her Uncle Malky. Malky was cruel, but Leto had rather enjoyed his company." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Malky had possessed all of the industrious virtues of his people and enough of their vices to make him thoroughly human." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Malky had reveled in the company of Leto's Fish Speakers. \"Your houris,\" he had called them, and Leto could seldom think of the Fish Speakers thereafter without recalling Malky's label." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why do I think of Malky now?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It's not just because of Hwi. I shall ask her what charge her masters gave her when they sent her to me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Leto hesitated on the verge of calling her back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'll tell me if I ask.\n\nIxian ambassadors had always been told to find out why the God Emperor tolerated Ix." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They knew they could not hide from him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This stupid attempt to plant a colony beyond his vision! Were they testing his limits?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Ixians suspected that Leto did not really need their industries." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I've never concealed my opinion of them. I said it to Malky:" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Technological innovators? No! You are the criminals of science in my Empire!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Malky had laughed.\n\nIrritated, Leto had accused: \"Why try to hide secret laboratories and factories beyond the Empire's rim? You cannot escape me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, Lord.\" Laughing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know your intent: leak a bit of this and some of that back into my Imperial domains. Disrupt! Cause doubts and questioning!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lord, you yourself are one of our best customers!\"\n\n\"That's not what I mean and you know it, you terrible man!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You like me because I'm a terrible man. I tell you stories about what we do out there.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I know it without your stories!\"\n\n\"But some stories are believed and some are doubted. I dispel your doubts.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have no doubts!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Which had only ignited more of Malky's laughter.\n\nAnd I must continue tolerating them, Leto thought." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Ixians operated in the terra incognita of creative invention which had been outlawed by the Butlerian Jihad." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They made their devices in the image of the mind—the very thing which had ignited the Jihad's destruction and slaughter. That was what they did on Ix and Leto could only let them continue." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I buy from them!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I could not even write my journals without their dictatels to respond to my unspoken thought. Without Ix, I could not have hidden my journals and the printers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But they must be reminded of the dangers in what they do!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And the Guild could not be allowed to forget. That was easier. Even while Guildsmen cooperated with Ix, they distrusted the Ixians mightily." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If this new Ixian machine works, the Guild has lost its monopoly on space travel!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From that welter of memories which I can tap at will, patterns emerge. They are like another language which I see so clearly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The social-alarm signals which put societies into the postures of defense/attack are like shouted words to me. As a people, you react against threats to innocence and the peril of the helpless young." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unexplained sounds, visions and smells raise the hackles you have forgotten you possess." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When alarmed, you cling to your native language because all the other patterned sounds are strange. You demand acceptable dress because a strange costume is threatening." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Job: User writes start, you add ~3 sentences sentences. Style: Frank Herbert" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Moneo entered Leto's small chamber with evident agitation. He actually preferred this meeting place because the God Emperor's cart lay in a depression from which a deadly attack by the Worm would be more difficult, and there was the undeniable fact that Leto allowed his majordomo to descend in an Ixian tube-lift rather than via that interminable ramp. But Moneo felt that the news he brought this morning was guaranteed to arouse The Worm Who Is God." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How to present it?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dawn lay only an hour past, the fourth Festival Day, a fact Moneo could greet with equanimity only because it brought him that much nearer the end of these tribulations.\n\nLeto stirred as Moneo entered the small chamber. Illumination came on at his signal, focusing only on his face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good morning, Moneo,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My guard tells me you insisted on entering immediately. Why?\"\n\nThe danger, Moneo knew from experience, lay in the temptation to reveal too much too soon.\n\n\"I have spent some time with the Reverend Mother Anteac,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Although she keeps it well hidden, I'm sure she is a Mentat.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes. The Bene Gesserit were bound to disobey me sometime. This form of disobedience amuses me.\"\n\n\"Then you will not punish them?\"\n\n\"Moneo, I am ultimately the only parent my people have. A parent must be generous as well as severe.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He's in a good mood, Moneo thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A small sigh escaped Moneo, at which Leto smiled.\n\n\"Anteac objected when I told her you had ordered an amnesty for a selected few Face Dancers among our captives.\"\n\n\"I have a Festive use for them,\" Leto said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Lord?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will tell you later. Let's get to the news which brings you bursting in upon me at this hour.\"\n\n\"I . . . ahhh . . .\" Moneo chewed at his upper lip." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Tleilaxu have been quite garrulous in the attempt to ingratiate themselves with me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Of course they have. And what have they revealed?\"\n\n\"They . . . ahhh, provided the Ixians with sufficient advice and equipment to make a . . . uhhh, not exactly a ghola, and not even a clone. Perhaps we should use the Tleilaxu term: a cellular restructuring. The . . . ahhh, experiment was conducted within some sort of shielding device which the Guildsmen assured them your powers could not penetrate.\"\n\n\"And the result?\" Leto felt that he was asking the question in a cold vacuum." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They are not certain. Tleilaxu were not permitted to witness. However, they did observe that Malky entered this . . . ahhh, chamber and that he emerged later with an infant.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes! I know!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You do?\" Moneo was puzzled.\n\n\"By inference. And all of this happened some twenty-six years ago?\"\n\n\"That is correct, Lord.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They identify the infant as Hwi Noree?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They are not certain, Lord, but . . .\" Moneo shrugged.\n\n\"Of course. And what do you deduce from this, Moneo?\"\n\n\"There is a deep purpose built into the new Ixian Ambassador.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Certainly there is. Moneo, has it not struck you as odd how much Hwi, the gentle Hwi, represents a mirror of the redoubtable Malky? His opposite in everything, including sex.\"\n\n\"I had not thought of that, Lord.\"\n\n\"I have.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will have her sent back to Ix immediately,\" Moneo said.\n\n\"You will do nothing of the kind!\"\n\n\"But, Lord, if they . . .\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Moneo, I have observed that you seldom turn your back on danger. Others often do, but you—seldom. Why would you have me engage in such an obvious stupidity?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Moneo swallowed.\n\n\"Good. I like it when you recognize the error of your ways,\" Leto said.\n\n\"Thank you, Lord.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I also like it when you express your gratitude sincerely, as you have just done. Now, Anteac was with you when you heard these revelations?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"As you ordered, Lord.\"\n\n\"Excellent. That will stir things up a bit. You will leave now and go to the Lady Hwi. You will tell her that I desire to see her immediately. This will disturb her. She is thinking that we will not meet again until I summon her to the Citadel. I want you to quiet her fears.\"\n\n\"In what way, Lord?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Leto spoke sadly: \"Moneo, why do you ask advice on something at which you are an expert? Calm her and bring her here reassured of my kindly intentions toward her.\"\n\n\"Yes, Lord.\" Moneo bowed and backed away a step.\n\n\"One moment, Moneo!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Moneo stiffened, his gaze fixed on Leto's face.\n\n\"You are puzzled, Moneo,\" Leto said. \"Sometimes you do not know what to think of me. Am I all-powerful and all-prescient? You bring me these little dibs and dabs and you wonder: Does he already know this? If he does, why do I bother? But I have ordered you to report such things, Moneo. Is your obedience not instructive?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Moneo started to shrug and thought better of it. His lips trembled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Time can also be a place, Moneo,\" Leto said. \"Everything depends upon where you are standing, on where you look or what you hear. The measure of it is found in consciousness itself.\"\n\nAfter a long silence, Moneo ventured: \"Is that all, Lord?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, it is not all. Siona will receive today a package delivered to her by a Guild courier. Nothing is to interfere with delivery of that package. Do you understand?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What is . . . what is in the package, Lord?\"\n\n\"Some translations, reading matter which I wish her to see. You will do nothing to interfere. There is no melange in the package.\"\n\n\"How . . . how did you know what I feared was in the . . .\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Because you fear the spice. It could extend your life, but you avoid it.\"\n\n\"I fear its other effects, Lord.\"\n\n\"A bountiful nature has decreed that melange will unveil for some of us unexpected depths of the psyche, yet you fear this?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am Atreides, Lord!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ahhh, yes, and for the Atreides, melange may roll the mystery of Time through a peculiar process of internal revelation.\"\n\n\"I have only to remember the way you tested me, Lord.\"\n\n\"Do you not see the necessity for you to sense the Golden Path?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That is not what I fear, Lord.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You fear the other astonishment, the thing which made me make my choice.\"\n\n\"I have only to look at you, Lord, and know that fear. We Atreides . . .\" He broke off, his mouth dry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You do not want all of these memories of ancestors and the others who flock within me!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sometimes . . . sometimes, Lord, I think the spice is the Atreides curse!\"\n\n\"Do you wish that I had never occurred?\"\n\nMoneo remained silent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But melange has its values, Moneo. The Guild navigators need it. And without it, the Bene Gesserit would degenerate into a helpless band of whining females!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We must live with it or without it, Lord. I know that.\"\n\n\"Very perceptive, Moneo. But you choose to live without it.\"\n\n\"Do I not have that choice, Lord?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"For now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lord, what do you . . .\"\n\n\"There are twenty-eight different words for melange in common Galach. They describe it by its intended use, by its dilution, by its age, by whether it came through honest purchase, through theft or conquest, whether it was the dower gift for a male or for a female, and in many other ways is it named. What do you make of this, Moneo?\"\n\n\"We are offered many choices, Lord.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Only where the spice is concerned?\"\n\nMoneo's brow wrinkled in thought, then: \"No.\"\n\n\"You so seldom say 'no' in my presence,\" Leto said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I enjoy watching your lips form around the word.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Moneo's mouth twitched in an attempted smile.\n\nLeto spoke briskly: \"Well! You must go now to the Lady Hwi. I will give you one parting piece of advice which may help.\"\n\nMoneo paid studious attention to Leto's face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Drug knowledge originated mostly with males because they tend to be more venturesome—an outgrowth of male aggression. You've read your Orange Catholic Bible, thus you know the story of Eve and the apple. Here's an interesting fact about that story: Eve was not the first to pluck and sample the apple. Adam was first and he learned by this to put the blame on Eve. My story tells you something about how our societies find a structural necessity for sub-groups.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Moneo tipped his head slightly to the left." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lord, how does this help me?\"\n\n\"It will help you with the Lady Hwi!\"\n\nThe singular multiplicity of this universe draws my deepest attention." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It is a thing of ultimate beauty." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "—THE STOLEN JOURNALS" } ]