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"This will have positive effects some day," promised Veronica, "Think how many lives we could save if we worked out how to reverse engineer the process, to make it accessible to just four people... Lisette's healing powers available freely in every hospital, for instance..."
"I see your point," replied Medea, still not lowering the wards around the entrance to the Tuning Chamber, "And I'm not doing this out of sheer stubbornness or some sort of desire to preserve a sense of mystery. I just do not like my precious songbirds being treated like laboratory animals..."
"I'll get their consent before performing any experiments!" she promised, producing a set of papers from her briefcase. Medea briefly glanced in their direction - she never removed her blindfolds but Veronica sensed that there was always powerful magic around her that probably included several supernatural senses - then she shook her head and continued talking.
"I also distinctly remember you saying that magic was widespread in your own time, and that this ended rather badly," said the Court Wizard, "In fact, I had thought that the original plan was to discontinue the use of magic altogether once our lives were no longer under immediate threat. What happened to change your mind?"
"Ah, the thing is, there have been other developments since then," explained the scientist, "I still strongly do not recommend we allow the system to spread completely out of control again. For instance, we desperately need to put in place psychological screening for any mental imbalances that could infect the central command system again..."
"You talk as if you think you can fix Eve."
"Not me personally but I can provide guidance to Alto and the Witches, the only people who are really strong enough in magic and will to pull it off," she said, "We now know the theory, you see, and we have seen it proven that parts of the system can be disconnected and repaired..."
"Are you talking about Giselle?"
"Indeed, I even considered whether we could disconnect enough parts of the system to run them remotely and power a simplified version of the Qualia system directly from them..."
"Have our own choir of Angels, you mean?"
"Essentially, yes. However, we have the slight problem that if we deactivated the main system, it would, ahem, drop the moon out of orbit onto us. So we need to properly repair it anyway, not just shut it down."
"And you're sure its a good idea to just go straight back to using it? After all, we didn't use it for a long time..."
"And society regressed, reducing the overall quality of life and killing thousands through previously avoidable disease. Of course we can't take it for granted in the way we did before, in the way that damaged its AI psychologically. However, we can't just freeze our own evolution either. I'm not the one who should be advising anyone on how to be a well adjusted human being, anyway," she admitted, "I'm quite typical for the kind of people who caused the system to go wrong, actually. There's a reason I don't let myself near it personally."
"Have you at least stopped eating angels?"
"Why, does it show? My complexion is looking rather rough," she frowned, "At least I'm not instantly crumbling to dust or something, I suppose."
Medea frowned, "I'll let you see one of the Witches at once. Provided they agree. And you're not going into the Tuning chamber."
"You let boys in there and you won't let me in," she sulked.
"Alto isn't just 'boys'," snapped Medea, "Now leave!"