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Hector looked confused. “Unexpected? What’s unexpected, exactly? The fact that I can talk to it? Or the fact that it even has as personality in the first place?”

“The latter, I’m afraid,” said Abbas. “My intent for the Living Core was to have to have it become the foundation of a larger interfacing mechanism for non-servants in the use of ardor. I felt that a complex pseudo-consciousness would be well-suited to that purpose. But from the way you are describing your interactions with it, perhaps I... erred in some way. Hmm.”

‘So you accidentally created a sentient being,’ said Garovel. ‘Wonderful.’

Abbas paused on that thought. Had he truly done so?

No, no, that couldn’t be right. Sure, his plans for the Living Core had been quite advanced--perhaps the most advanced individual item he’d ever developed, even--but it just didn’t make sense to him that it could have manifested an entire personality without him realizing. Its ability to “think” shouldn’t have even been that sophisticated. It was only meant to simplify complex processes and bridge the sensory gap for individuals who could not innately detect ardor.

This didn’t make sense. How could it have--?

Abbas’ expression slackened as a thought struck him, and he felt compelled to ask a new question. “Wait a moment. You said that you... ‘connected’ the Core to the Candle and then ‘dove right in,’ didn’t you?”

“Er. Yeah?”

“And that is when you began to communicate with it?”

“Yeah...”

Oh. Gods. “And are you still able to communicate with it even now? At this very moment?”

Hector’s eyes went from him to the Core and back again. “Y-yeah...”

Abbas rubbed his temples with one hand as he processed that. “Then in that case... I believe that this ‘accident’ as you put it, is not my doing. Or at least, not entirely. It is also yours.”

“W-what do you...? Uh... Oh.” Hector smacked his lips. “We shouldn’t have done that, huh?”

Abbas sighed. “Probably not, no.”

‘Sorry, I’m a little lost here,’ said Garovel. ‘What shouldn’t we have done?’

“When you connected the Core to the Candle--especially so soon after its creation--you essentially poured... an unknowable quantity of ardor and... gods know what else... directly into the Core. So it is not unreasonable to think that the Core may have... shall we say, imprinted some of that metaphysical data onto itself?” Abbas tapped his head and groaned. “Agh, the memory structure! I spent so long weaving it together! I’d just put the finishing touches on it when I passed out, which means... it would have been empty and pristine at the time you connected it to the Candle... ah...”