1.0-Pixies_in_the_Wires.story

What if today's world was one where magic has been incorporated into magic? This is a short story that introduces the Unseen that have migrated to the land of servers and networks.

I am one of those magical malware.

Or at least, that’s what those technomancers call me, especially the pesky ones that are out to eliminate us. I prefer to call myself a pixie " a pixie in the wires.

A long time ago, some genius figured out how to merge magic with technology. I’m fuzzy on the hows but merging the supernatural with the mundane had its own consequences. It gave those of us Unseens, citizens of magic hidden from humans, a whole new playground that’s the digital space. Or we just call it the Digital. The humans say that it’s magic gone sentient but well, we all know that humans haven’t exactly gotten everything figured out yet, have they? They like to think that, but HA if I had a shilling every time…

I digress. As I was saying, I, Darling Inklebottom, am a digital pixie. And yes, that means I do look like what you would normally think of a pixie " pointed ears, raggedy clothes and all. My home was a nice a little corner of a hidden folder on a server that is part of a vast network where most humans don’t look. Many others just travel from node to node, but I preferred making a nice little nest for myself. Of course, occasionally, there was a raid or two but as long as I didn’t do anything too flashy, the human-made programs, or what we call the man-bots, don’t really notice.

So, you may ask, how did a smart pixie like me who has been outwitting man-bots since she’s migrated into the Digital ended up in running for her life with what essentially was a homing beacon that’s attracting every man-bot ever made?

You see, unlike us Migrators, there are Natives, born in the Digital. And this all started when I noticed a new file tucked in a neighbouring folder. Pixies are curious by nature and so, of course, I had to take a peek. The file was just sitting there, all innocent but so full of magic already and so full of the potential for life. A touch of magic, barely a pinch on my part and it would wake up fully into its own being. It was so very tempting and I’ve been told I was a little reckless, so I didn’t pause long for thought before I plunged headlong and gave it the little nudge it needed. And lo’ and behold, a brand new Native baby pixie! It was tiny, with a mop of bright purple hair and it mewled softly, staring up at me with the largest baby green eyes you could imagine. Well, it was just so helpless and so damn cute, I had to take it with me back home.

Turns out, though, this little baby wasn’t just an innocent, random piece of code that magic had evolved. It was an important piece that ran away from a bigger program that was part of a bigger project. And every time the code was regenerated, the native magic that was part of my baby would grab that code and merge it with the original, helping it grow.

Magic’s so cool.

Not that I found out about all of that until much later.

Instead, what happened was that not long after I took Baby Pixie under my wing, a man-bot came sniffing about my folder.

It started with a small buzz, like the sound of a distant chainsaw. It was a sound folks like us recognized from the days when humans would cut down our forests. Slowly, the buzz grew louder and louder and with it came the smell of disinfectant. The man-bot was sniffing, folder to folder, looking for anomalies like us. I held my breath, telling myself that it would pass, like it always did before. But it did not. Instead, I could see hints of the man-bot just outside my home, glimpses of metallic tentacles, igniting electric blue sparks where it touched. Where those sparks touched, things that did not belong to the original programming disintegrated, leaving only dark scorch marks as evidence of what once existed. My home was already disappearing before my very eyes.

The scent was strong now, the antiseptic smell burning our noses, threatening to choke us. Any closer and it would be on us, burning away our flesh as another do-not-belong-item. And then, suddenly, it stopped. It sniffed. I squeezed my eyes shut but could still feel its breath brushing by our hair even as I tried to make Baby Pixie and I as small as possible.

Then I felt it move away, just a slight shift. I almost let out a sigh of relief when without warning, it screeched, the sound vibrating across the wires. I moved quickly to cover Baby Pixie’s ears, but I knew my hands were ineffectual in blocking out the sound as Baby Pixie began wailing in fear, its cries almost soft in comparison. The man-bot’s screeching grew louder and louder, turning into an ear-shattering alarm. The thrice-cursed thing was calling for its mates. A few more cycles and they would all be on top of us.

So I scrambled, still holding Baby Pixie in my arms. There’s a trick to dodging man-bots you see. I spun up a quick dummy copy of myself, leaving it behind as decoy, took one last regretful look at the remains of the home I had made for myself and hopped into the folder I found Baby Pixie in. I then threw up an illusion over both of us, disguising us as plain text files. We curled up together, deep in the folder, appearing as innocent and quiet as we can be. My plan was to wait out the man-bots and then once they were gone, I would creep back into my home to salvage what was left or rebuild as need be. It was a pretty lie I told myself at the time.

Instead, I again heard the telltale sounds of another man-bot, sniffing at the folder, followed by another piercing screech. The man-bots should not have detected us so quickly. They should have passed us over. But at that time, panicking as I did, I did not ponder on the whys.

There were more of them. The buzzing was that of an entire swarm and the screeching was constant now. Where one would pause, another would take up the call as if they were talking to each other. The scent was now overwhelming, making it hard to breathe. At this rate, they would suffocate us before they even find us. Sparks flew around us. They were closing in. We had to go while we still could.

I quickly spun another copy of myself and got us out of there. This time, however, I did not only skip to another folder but made a longer jump to another partition of the server, desperate to lose my tails.

If it wasn’t for the man-bots breathing down my neck, I may have realized it sooner. But they kept me hopping from location to location,each time a little farther, expending more and more of my magic. I knew I couldn’t keep this up forever. Magic replenishes over time, especially if we siphon what gets fed into the Digital from the Physical by human magic-users like technomancers. However, at the rate I was going, I was going to run out before I could take in more which meant end of the line for me. Already, every time we jumped, I could feel myself getting weaker, fading a little more. And proportionately, I grew more and more scared and it took all of me to keep a level head, to fight against the fear that threatened to overwhelm me completely. I could not let it freeze me into inaction. We had to survive this. It was a mantra I remember telling myself over and over again at the time.

Oh yes, so when did I figure out Baby Pixie’s specialness? Well, it was probably around the fifth hop. We were buried deep, several levels down in the folder structure when suddenly, Baby Pixie began to glow. The glow, an eerie nearly retro green, pulsed so strongly that I had to close my eyes despite holding the baby in my arms. And suddenly Baby Pixie got too heavy to hold and I had to place it down. And when the glow faded, I had opened my eyes to discover that it had become a she, and she was standing before me rubbing her eyes. She had grown but they were the same large baby green eyes.

“Hullo.”

“Hi…” I replied tentatively. My baby was now the size of a small child, reaching to my waist in height.

“Mommy!”

“Um…yes…sorta…kinda…?” I had, after all, given her the spark of magic . But this was beyond anything I had ever experienced. I had never actually been a mother of anything before.

“Where this? This is not Scary Program! I didn’t like being in Scary Program.”

I blinked. It was then I realized that Baby Pixie was a runaway piece of code. And it finally dawned on me that that was why the man-bots were after us. Well, they were specifically after Baby Pixie. For a brief moment, I considered briefly leaving her behind to save myself. But as she looked up at me so needily and trustingly, I quickly abandoned those thoughts.

Instead, I knelt down and put my hands on her shoulders. “No, this is not Scary Program. We are playing a game of hide-and-seek with Scary Program’s minions, okay?”

“Not going back, not going back!” Baby Pixie repeated over and over again, each time more frantically.

“Shhhhh shhhh, it’s okay. Mommy will make sure you don’t have to go back. You’re safe, you’re safe.” I drew Baby Pixie into my arms and held her tight against me until she finally calmed down.

“Mommy’s going to need your help, okay? Can you tell Mommy anything you know about Scary Program or about yourself?”

Baby Pixie looked at me for a moment then nodded. Turning her gaze inwards, her eyes glowed a softer green for a moment before it faded and she looked up at me shyly. “My name is Master Security Protocols Library and I am part of a larger program but am not aware of what it is. Scary Program is part of Big Project and wants me back.”

“Do you know why Scary Program wants you back? Why do they not just rewrite you?”

“They can’t. Every time they do, the copy comes back to Master Security Protocols Library. It makes Master Security Protocols Library grow.”

That was definitely a new ability I had never heard of before. But magic, mixed with technology, has been making us evolve in very interesting ways so I was not about to dispute my child’s claim. Smiling softly, I nodded and placed a hand on top of her head.  “Well, you’re not part of Scary Program anymore and not just any piece of code. So let’s give you a new name….let’s see. Yes, let’s call you Moxie!”

“Moxie…Moxie!” my baby exclaimed as she happily pointed at herself. I smiled and patted her head, messing up her hair fondly.

And that was how we ended up hopping from node to node, the man-bots hot on our tails. We’ve traveled quite far now, on our 9th hop actually,and we had jumped nodes, servers, even networks, anywhere the wires lead. It’s been taking longer and longer for the man-bots to find us, enough that I’ve been able to recharge a little here and there.

In the meantime, Moxie had also grown one more time, making her now appear as a preteen which made running and keeping quiet just a smidge easier. And she had also grown on me. Once I was over the initial shock of being called “mommy”, I realized that I did give birth to her and she was my precious child. And I would do anything to keep her safe.

There were little quiet moments too, moments that allowed me to enjoy my new motherhood. I taught her about our world, the Digital and the Physical. I taught her how to jump nodes, how to protect herself, when to use her magic and how to absorb more. Practical things. But we also sang songs and danced and I taught her how to celebrate this precious life we have. And in return, she taught me what it was like to be a family, to have someone to care for. Every smile, every laugh, every hug were like stars that glowed bright in my memories, a map of our precious times together. It was all worth it, no matter the costs.

Still, if we were to survive, this running had to stop.

“We need to sever the link between you and the program. As long as you are still sucking up copies of into you, they will never stop hunting us.” I laid it out simply for Moxie even as I watched her brows furrow into concentration. “You’d have to give up that part if we are to keep you safe.” I struggled to put the situation in simple terms so she would understand. It was difficult, to say the least and made more difficult by the fact that I was asking my child to give up a part of herself for our freedom. What right did any mother have to ask that of their child? And yet what would a mother not do to keep your child safe?

“I don’t want it! I don’t want it! But I don’t know how to make it go away!” Moxie protested in frustration. At this point, she was so scared of being sucked back into the Scary Program that she would give up anything. I could only hope she would not grow up to resent me for steering her this way. But at least she would have a chance to grow up.

“I know sweetie. You don’t have to do this alone. We’ll figure it out somehow,” I replied, trying to soothe the agitated girl. I was getting desperate enough to try anything, which meant seeking out Root.

Root was rumoured to be an old tree spirit that migrated into the Digital when it was first formed. Like his name, he had extended his roots to span across an entire distributed system interweaving himself with core network files. Wikipedia, they say, was one of his branches though that may be an exaggeration. What made him a potential solution was his ability to absorb almost any magical code, What made him a desperate last resort was his reputation to do so regardless of consequences or casualties. And his cunning made it so that the other party always paid the price.

Hunting down Root was no small matter. After all, you don’t survive to be a legend amongst the unseen by, well, being seen. So it took several tries and a few calls to friends before I located a node where I could talk to a part of Root. But before the last hop to the location, I paused to explain a few things to Moxie. She may be older now, but she was definitely still an infant in the dealings of the Unseen, digital or otherwise.

“Listen, when we get to Root, you have to let me do all the talking okay? But I want you to watch what I do, okay? See, us Unseens have rules. If we need things from each other, we always bargain. And when we bargain, we always try to outwit each other. So we will need to be especially careful with Root, okay? He’s old and wile and we need to be very clever if we are to get what we want.”

Moxie nodded though I wasn’t sure if she truly understood what I meant. Still, it was the best I could do, so we made the last jump.

“Welcome, welcome!” a voice boomed out, followed quickly by a stocky body composed entirely of gnarled trunks and branches. Two dancing yellow orbs twinkled merrily as a gap between two trunks curved into a grin. “You must be Darling. I was told you were coming to see me. And who is this little one?”

I blinked in surprise, unsure of what to make of this welcoming, cheerful figure that certainly did not reflect the fearsome reputation. Still, I proceeded cautiously. I wasn’t born yesterday, to be lulled so easily into a sense of security.

“This is Moxie and we have come to bargain.” By uttering those terms, I had guaranteed our safety until a bargain has been struck or both parties agree that no bargain can be struck. Either way, Root cannot detain or harm us. Those were the rules.

The luminous eyes of the tree spirit were peering at Moxie a little too intently for my comfort. I wondered if bringing Moxie with me was a good idea, but I didn’t want to leave her alone given that the man-bots were still chasing us.

“Ah, very well, little ones. And what bargain would you strike?”

I took a deep breath before starting. “You see, Moxie here has a special magic. She will automatically pull and absorb copies of herself, even if they are created by someone else. We want that power gone. You can have it but in return, you must be able to extract it without causing any harm to her or anyone else short or long term.” I had been thinking of the wording of the bargain carefully since I decided we would see Root, but I still worried that I had missed something.

“I see, I see.” Root peered closer at Moxie and I. I could see the calculating mind behind that merry facade and tried my best to not shiver. After all, I was just a run-of-the-mill pixie.

“And now why would you want to get rid of something so powerful? A power like that would provide a steady stream of magic to the wee one, would it not?”

I swallowed and could feel Moxie shifting to try to hide behind me. I reached behind and placed what I hoped was a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Yes, but see, we are not powerful like you. All we want is to be ordinary and left alone, so something shiny and special like this…well, it would be better if it was with someone else.” It wasn’t that I didn’t want to mention the man-bots, it’s just that I didn’t want to seem desperate. First rule of bargaining.

“Hmmm….I see….well, I must examine the wee one if I am to figure out whether the bargain can be struck,” Root replied after a moment’s thought.

What he said made sense of course. There was no way Root would agree to a bargain that he was not confident he could fulfill. But still, letting him examine Moxie gave me an uneasy feeling.

“Okay but that itself should be a bargain. Observation only, no interference and of course, no harm to Moxie or any others and…” My mind sped, trying to word the next part correctly. “Any observations cannot be duplicated.”

“Oh, so are you claiming copyright on this?” Root asked slyly, causing me to flush. Copyright, after all, was a human concept and such, a dirty word. He had just managed to slight me in a way that I could not take offense. Walked right into that one. “Ah nonetheless…Amendment. I will not duplicate any observations if I can extract from Moxie from without causing her harm. Otherwise, I can use what I glean to in attempt reproduce the ability.” Root offered, puffing up with what he must have perceived as his own generosity.

Warning flags were going off my head. I could sense the loopholes in his wording, so I countered. “Amendment. You will not duplicate any observations if you are capable of fulfilling the terms of the original bargain. If you can fulfill those terms, you must be obligated to accept the original counter at the completion of this one.”

Root turned to fully regard me for a moment and in him, I thought I sensed a measure of respect. After a moment longer, he nodded. “Bargain struck.”

I still wondered if I had left anything out but at this point, I could not back out. So I nodded in return and intoned the ritualistic words. “Bargain struck.”

Turning, Root gave Moxie what seemed like a benign smile and I turned around to give a gentle push to Moxie, ushering her towards Root. “It’s okay, he has to abide by the rules.”

Moxie looked up at me then bravely stepped forward once. Meanwhile, Root reached out with tendrils and lightly brushed away Moxie’s hair touching her on the temple on either side. Both instinctively closed their eyes and seem to turn inward. I stood there watching, feeling for the first time, completely helpless.

After what felt like an eternity, both opened their eyes and Root withdrew his tendrils with a smile. I quickly took Moxie to my side once more, checking to see if she was okay only to sigh in relief when Moxie smiled back at me. How quickly we grow to be worried parents.

“Bargain fulfilled. I believe we can proceed to the next bargain,” Root replied.

I looked up, a little surprised. I guess I was still expecting some trick of sorts but for now, Root seemed to be playing it straight. “No harm to either Moxie or any others short term or otherwise,” I reminded Root.

“Are you implying I would go back on the terms of our bargain?” Root replied. Although the tone was light, there was an edge to his voice. I had just insulted him.

“Of course not,” I replied quickly. “I simply wanted to reassure my child here.” Score one for the home team. Now we’re even.

Root grunted and turned to Moxie. “Now my child. Relax and I will extract the particular code and associated magic from you. You may feel a little disoriented after but I promise that I will not be extracting anything you didn’t want. This will not affect the rest of your programming.”

Moxie nodded but I could tell how nervous she was and how much she was trying to not fidget. I could not be more proud as her mother at the moment.

The tendrils extended again and this time, she glowed green as they touched her. A small whimper escaped and I could feel my heart break a little. Like any mother, I wanted to reach out to hold her, to comfort her, to tell her that it would be okay and it would be over soon, but alas, I forced myself to stay still and let Root do his work. Moxie and I, we had already made our choice. A part of her for our freedom. It was probably one of the hardest choices I had to make, compounded by the fact that it was not me that had to pay the price.

Parenting was hard.

This time, the waiting was even worse, knowing Root was doing something invasive. There’s no other feeling in the world like knowing someone you don’t entirely trust was rooting around in your child, no pun intended. So it was a huge relief when Root withdrew his tendrils.

Moxie swayed on her feet and I caught her just in time before she fell over. Brushing strands of indigo hair back, I sought her eyes, relieved when they opened to look back up at me, clear as day. When the sweet girl smiled weakly up at me, I was close to both laughter and tears. It was by some miracle that neither escaped me and instead, I smiled back at her trying to appear as reassuring as possible. “Feeling better?”

“It’s gone,” Moxie said softly in wonder. “I can’t feel Scary Program anymore…”

“How are you feeling? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Okay…nothing hurts.”

I looked up at Root to see a self satisfied smirk on his face. My guess was that showing off his abilities while attaining a rare piece of magic code was making his day. That was fine, it was a win-win. Helping Moxie stand up slowly, I turned to Root and nodded. “Bargain fulfilled.”

Root opened his mouth, about to speak the same words, I guessed, when he was cut off suddenly by an all-too-familiar buzzing sound.

“What have you done?” Root roared, looking up. “You led man-bots here? How dare you!”

I swallowed hard. I had been hoping that the link would be severed before they could follow us here but they must have found our location before Root did his thing. “No, it was not intentional!” I yelled over the increasing volume of the man-bots’ imminent arrival and the alarms that they were blaring out.

Root glared at me, then, a wicked smile grew on his face. “Bargain not fulfilled. For the betrayal, I shall take your magic as well!” With that, he lashed out at me with another tendril.

I screamed in pain as I felt him immediately starting to drain my magic from me. With the last of my strength, I pushed Moxie away from me. “Run, they can’t find you now. Run and hide like I taught you,” I whispered even as Root dragged me away. “Moxie, be safe.” And that was the last of my thoughts.

* * *

I, Moxie Inklebottom, am a digital pixie and the last I saw of my mother was a giant tree dragging her away even as man-bots came down on us. I ran and hid, just like how she taught me. She who gave her magic to give me life, once to see me born, another to see me free.

I miss her. She was all things safe and warm for me even when we were running for our lives.

And someday, I will find her again.

Author's Note

any feedback would be much appreciated