Today as always I wear the mask of state, and the armor with its leads to my life-support and data machinery. The AIs feed me information from the world and keep this body from overrunning me. Yes, there are days I hate it. My chain of state is an armory of drugs, and some of the leads are permanently implanted needles. At this point, my endocrine system is run by the AIs, and the immune system likewise. What I began with was overrun years ago.

The process is out of control, the techs told me.

They are summoned to the castle, and they attend on me in shifts and then are never heard from again.

***

Character interview with the Immortal of T-7, from NaNo 2013, Inside the Jump. Weekend Writing Warriors offers eight-sentence excerpts from a variety of writers; see the other excerpts here.