The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2020

Chapter 2020 The Clan of the Golden Ca

Weeks passed by. Every day, hundreds of applicants acquired a compound name. Each of them found a Larkinson to endorse their entry in the Larkinson Clan. After passing the review and successfully swearing the oath while touching the foot of a Bright Warrior mech, they became a new addition to the clan roster!

Ves didn't have to call up the list from his terminal to keep track of the clan's explosive growth. His bond with the Golden Cat allowed him to inspect the spiritual network as it changed before his spiritual senses!

A steady amount of new connections expanded the size and scope of the Larkinson Network as he began to call it. More and more, the Golden Cat became occupied with forming all of the new bonds.

He worried that the ancestral spirit would quickly exhaust herself, but his fears turned out to be unfounded.

Though Goldie always had to expend a bit of energy to form a bond, she received an increasing amount of spiritual feedback as the network grew larger! She was able to continuously invest her new-gained spiritual energy into forming more bonds, which soon paid back her initial investment in the form of spiritual feedback!

Of course, this cycle wasn't completely profitable. She slowly had to dip into more and more of her reserves, especially when the new applicant wasn't as aligned to the Larkinson Clan as the most dedicated newcomers such as Joshua Larkinson!

The addition of so many new people not only increased Goldie's strength, but also affected her character!

Every adopted Larkinson brought something different to the table. Their diverse origins directly exposed the Golden Cat to different values, principles and perspectives on life.

Ves noted that Goldie had become a little more introspective in the days to come. He checked on her every day in order to monitor her evolution. If she ever developed into a direction that caused her to shed her Larkinson identity, then he would immediately put a stop to the adoption rituals!

Fortunately, the Golden Cat managed to endure remarkably well. With Qilanxo's guidance, she found a way to accept the new influences without allowing them to overpower her core Larkinson traits.

As an experienced sacred god who enjoyed the worship of humans for centuries, Qilanxo was a veritable authority when it came to managing spiritual feedback!

Fortunately for Ves, his suggestion to utilize the Bright Warriors as the totems for the adoption ritual worked out for the clan. As long as the new applicants touched the surface of one of the mechs, the Golden Cat gained enough proximity to form her connections!

In fact, this newly-discovered purpose of his Bright Warriors also led to an unanticipated side effect.

The True Believers started to worship the Bright Warriors! They treated the mechs just like their altars and started to prostrate and pray to the mechs!

To many Brighters, this newly-developed custom from their more religious-minded clansmen was highly disturbing!

Ves received a hail of complaints from his trueblood relatives. He sympathised with their views, but it wasn't as if he could order the True Believers to stop their current practice!

"What do you think those fanatics will do if I ban the worship of our mechs?" He responded to Gavin. "They'll just worship the mechs in secret or come up with something worse! The former Ylvainans aren't harming anyone by kneeling in front of the mechs in prayer. As long as they don't get in the way of the mech technicians servicing the machines, just let them do whatever makes them happy."

"Your trueblood relatives won't like that, boss. Of all of the new groups joining the clan, the Ylvainan-born members are the most problematic of the lot! This strange ritual is just one of the sources of tension between them and the rest of the clan."

"If our clan can't even handle this problem, then how is it supposed to navigate a diverse and varied galaxy?" Ves shook his head. "If you ask me, then I prefer to keep my clan secular, but we can't always get what we want. People are going to believe in something regardless of what we want. Right now, the followers of the Living Prophet have become an inseparable part of our fleet. Accommodating their needs to an extent is not that bad as long as we make sure they are reciprocating towards us. There's no point in joining our clan if they aren't willing to adopt our ways!"

With the Golden Cat watching over them, Ves wasn't too worried about this problem. The True Believers were already fanatical towards him in his guise as the Bright Martyr to begin with, and James was astute enough to instruct his followers to integrate smoothly into the clan.

In fact.. His recent instructions to switch their worship seemed oddly prescient!

"Goddamn charlatan." Ves cursed under his breath.

There was another reason why he did not bother to rein in the True Believers. When Ves observed their actions, he noticed that the Golden Cat actually benefited from their practice!

Worship didn't do anything to a mech designer such as Ves, but it was different to a spiritual entity like the Golden Cat!

While Ves wasn't entirely sure why the Golden Cat preferred active worship, he didn't want to interrupt a beneficial process.

What Ves worried the most about the True Believers was that their loyalties would remain with the Living Prophet instead of the Larkinson Clan. Turning their worship to him and the Golden Cat was a lot more reassuring, especially if it persisted for decades! By then, no one would remember their old practice of worshipping the Living Prophet!

Of course, Ves wasn't naive enough to believe that James would fade into obscurity. The clone had seemingly struck a partnership with Calabast. The successful enactment of their proposal was probably just the first of many successes!

A lot of other changes ensued during the mass adoption events. The Larkinson Assembly passed a range of proposals to meet the emerging needs of a clan that was ballooning in size!

"The Executive Council wants a new uniform." Gavin passed on during another daily briefing. "There are so many new Larkinsons that it's more important than ever to foster greater cohesion. If everyone wears the same outfits, it becomes a lot easier to create a sense of unity."

The Larkinson Family never adopted a uniform. It never needed it, but the needs of the clan were very different. Ves immediately recognized the benefits of this proposal.

"What are they suggesting?"

"For ordinary clan functions, they want to adopt a clean and simple look that is similar to the uniforms of the Mech Corps. Those uniforms are something that most trueblood Larkinsons are familiar with. They think it would be nice to pay homage to their heritage as loyal defenders of the Bright Republic."

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify