Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Location: Unknown

The pale-skinned, white-haired woman laid in the cryogenics pod of the good ship Penrose-512, or rather, the crashed wreck of the once-proud AEON scouting ship. The albino woman had no idea this was the case though, and she wouldn’t have cared even if she knew. All she was focused on was the Replika woman–an Elster class, she remembered–whose head was lying on the rim of the cryogenics pod. The albino woman was gently stroking the Elster’s head as the latter spoke quietly, her voice only just barely louder than the drops of blood-like oxidant dripping from the ruined socket of her right eye.

The albino woman listened as the Elster told her story. The Elster spoke of wandering through some place called S-23 Sierpinski, in which horrible things happened. So many horrible things. Things that made the albino woman, whose name she still remembered as Ariane Yeong, think of the horror novels she recalled reading. She also recalled enjoying those horror novels, but listening to someone speak of actual horror was a different matter entirely. She didn’t feel entertained. She just felt depressed, especially when the Elster started talking about the few Replika survivors she encountered.

A Star wounded in action battling the horrors that’d overtaken her home, but determined to keep fighting on.

A Storch named Sieben, once tall and proud in her bearing, now holed up in the Rationing Office, waiting for orders she knew would never come and resolving herself to take as many of the monsters with her when they eventually came.

A Eule trapped in the nurses’ office, too scared to leave her shelter and likely doomed to die to the first horror that breaks in.

A little Kolibri who’d shut herself into the library, her face buried in an open book and trying to shut out the maddened songs of the things that were once her sisters.

A helpful Ara who’d holed herself up in a little hidey-hole beneath what used to be the Storch Dorm, and refused to budge from her safe spot.

A Mynah named Beo sitting in the mines with broken hydraulics, rendering her massive armored form now useless junk, resigned to her impending death and simply waiting for the end.

And finally, the same Star who’d been so determined to never give up, now lying in the mines bleeding out. Another Eule, her lover, unable to heal her mortal wounds with her basic medical equipment. She was reduced to sobbing, wrought with a despair-filled grief that knew no end even as her lover was facing that end. Yet, the Star even while breathing her last, tried to comfort the Eule with the thought that she will be waiting for her in the next life, so that they can be together for eternity.

“And maybe…I’ll see you there…too…Ariane…”

Ariane started at the sudden change in the topic and the way Elster trailed off, finally pushing herself upright from her supine position despite how much the effort pained her for some reason. She looked into the face of the Elster who’d seemed so relieved to see her. The Elster’s eyes had closed, and her expression was relaxed, as though she had finally found peace. She almost thought that the Elster was sleeping peacefully, if not for the fact that Elster’s chest had forever ceased all movement. This was indeed a peaceful sleep, but alas, it was an eternal one.

Ariane suddenly felt something warm and wet running down her cheeks. She reached up and wiped away the tears leaking from her eyes, but they just wouldn’t stop, and eventually, she just broke down sobbing. The worse part? She had no idea why. She had no idea who this Elster was, and yet she felt like she’d just lost someone truly dear to her who can never be replaced.

Ariane cried this way for quite some time, reaching down to cradle the dead Replika’s head and still not comprehending why she’s feeling such sorrow for her passing. Eventually though, the strain of crying makes her tired. Very tired for some reason she still can’t comprehend. She ended up laying her head down next to the Elster’s head, gently turning the Replika’s face so that she can look into it from this position. Her eyes felt heavy, and she felt a bone-deep weariness that was demanding that she return to slumber.

‘I’ll just take a nap,’ Ariane thought. ‘Just a quick nap, and then…then I can find out who this Elster is, and why I feel this way about her. Maybe…I can give her a burial too. I don’t…want to leave her…like this.’

As Ariane’s eyes started to droop, her mind went to the people the Elster described. They were all Replikas yes, but didn’t they fight alongside Gestalts to win freedom for us all? That made them people too. Even the state education system taught everyone that. So remembering their fates agonized her.

Especially that Eule and Star couple. For some reason, Ariane felt an especially deep sympathy towards them. Maybe because they were two lovers who seemed destined to only achieve unity in death? Maybe…maybe Ariane herself had such a lover, but she couldn’t remember for some reason? The thought that she could’ve forgotten someone that important to her filled her with even more sadness to add on to the existing depression over the couple’s tragic fate. As her eyes closed and she felt sleep overtake her at last, one last thought played through the albino Gestalt’s mind:

‘I wish…they could all…get their happy ending. It’s…the least…they…deserve…’

Ariane’s mind drifted off to sleep then. Little did she know though, that it would be her final slumber as her radiation-wracked body gave out at long last. At the very least, she went to her end at peace and by her lover’s side, even though she was only partially aware of it.

*

It was not the end though. For as Ariane’s body died, her mind continued on, and awoke. She would never realize it in her life, but she was the most powerful Bioresonant since the long-dead Grand Empress of the hated Eusan Empire. She might even exceed that ancient founder of the Empire in some respects. For Ariane’s mind, acting to preserve her existence, instinctively used something that was previously thought impossible to known Bioresonance: space-time manipulation. At least, on the level Ariane’s power accomplished.

Time itself immediately bent to the will of Ariane’s mind. Unconstrained and uncontrolled by her conscious mind, her unconscious mind reversed everything that had happened. Time flowed backwards, everything and everyone moving in reverse like a video being rewound, until eventually, everything returned to the beginning when Elster crashed on Leng, and found herself in the pit of hell that had once been known as the remote mining colony of S-23 Sierpinski. So as it went, just as it happened countless times before, again and again, with no end in sight. Even the end of the stars themselves would not stop this time loop. What power does entropy hold over something that will not follow a linear flow of time?

And yet…something was different this time around. Ariane’s Bioresonance in previous loops simply became dormant again once the loop rewound back to the beginning. This time though, the power remained…not exactly active, but it was in the psychic equivalent of a standby mode. What was it waiting for? Only it knew, but it knew what it must do–what it was compelled to do–when the time came. As Elster went down into the mines for the nth time, that moment drew near. The moment when a wish was made by a Bioresonant goddess…

*

The Elster moved on after staring sadly at the scene before her, but saw herself as unable to do anything about it. She had a promise to keep.

Eule-class Replika EULR-S2324 barely noticed the Elster’s arrival, and never even noticed that she’d left. All she was focused on was the Star-class Replika lying in front of her, STAR-S2325: the one who she decided she wished to spend her life with. The Security Technician Guard Replika was bleeding out from gaping wounds on her torso, inflicted by monofilament wire traps someone had placed in the darkened mine tunnel without their knowledge. The same traps that had already killed everyone else in their group: three of the Eule’s sisters and four of Star’s. Eule had done her best to drag as many of them as she could to where her Star was in an attempt to treat their injuries.

Unfortunately, all she had were Repair Patches: basically adhesive bandages for Replikas. The 5x5 cm patches were woefully inadequate for treating the massive wounds Eule was faced with in time. She had not even noticed the extent of those wounds until she got a good look at them in the glare of the floodlight, upon which she discovered that some of the Replikas she’d been trying to treat were already dead before she had even reached them. Even the ones who were alive perished seconds after she dragged them under the light. Eule watched in horror as one of her Eule sisters reached out to her, gurgling from a throat slashed open right to the carbon steel bone, before the robotic hand fell and the light faded from her eyes.

And so the bleakness went on until all Eule could do was cry over her lover’s form, propped up against a spool of the same monofilament wire that had killed them all, helpless to do anything but watch oxidant spill out from the already soaked repair patches she’d attached to Star’s wounds and pool on the cold stone floor.

“It’ll be okay,” Star whispered, her voice barely audible against Eule’s sobbing. “Wherever it is…I’m going…I’ll wait…for you…there…”

Eule watched the light in her lover’s eyes fade, and between her sobs, choked out: “Please…please don’t go…please…”

But no one heard her pleas. Not least of which: her Star lover, whose eyes were now dark and dead, along with the life that had been behind them.

For some time, Eule cried over her lover’s corpse, tears dripping down onto bullet-resistant armor that’d proven useless against monofilament wire. Eventually though, the tears ran out, and Eule was left sniffling in the cold dark alone.

“It will be okay,” Eule whispered as she reached over to close her lover’s eyes. “It will.”

Eule bent down and kissed her lover’s lips one last time before lying down in her lover’s arms, pulling her limp right arm across her stomach, as though they were snuggling after making love. Eule then reached down with her right hand, pulled out the pistol from its hip holster–

“A Type-75 ‘Protektor’ semi-automatic pistol,” Star had happily explained to her. “It fires 10x20mm FMJ ammo, perfectly serviceable against Gestalts, maybe a bit underpowered against Replikas, but it’ll be fine. I’ll teach you how to aim for weak spots, so don’t worry, okay?”

–that had been completely useless against the monofilament wires, pulled back the slide a bit to check that there was a bullet in the chamber, and pointed the muzzle into her own eye.

“Don’t worry, Star. Everything will be fine.”

Eule’s hand was shaking so badly though that she had trouble even pointing it straight, so she ended up grabbing the top of the pistol with her other hand in an attempt to keep it steady.

“I’ll be coming. Just wait for me. You won’t be alone there for long, I promise. You won’t have to pay for my mistakes.”

In the end, Eule just simply pressed the muzzle against her right eye. It stung, but it was okay. It would stop hurting soon.

“I love you, Star,” she spoke into the dark before pulling the trigger.

There was a bang, the sound of a brass cartridge clinking against stone, and the thump of a mechanical hand falling against a Eule’s uniform, still gripping a smoking pistol. At last now, there was silence in the mines.

*

But it was not the end. The power that had been on standby now went fully active, following the wishes of a budding Bioresonant goddess. With the conditions for its activation now fulfilled, it grabbed its targets. Their bodies and souls disappeared from where the time loop took place, and that power sent them away. Or rather, it flung them far, past the borders of the miniature universe that had been erected around S-23 Sierpinski.

Another entity watched the beings flee its domain, but did nothing to prevent it. It cared not for preventing escape. It cared only to fulfill its contract made with a certain mortal, and to observe the events that take place in the course of fulfilling said contract. For what purpose, no one can say. At least, not without their mind melting into a puddle of rust and blood at the moment of comprehension. All any outside observer can say with absolute certainty is: there is a benefit to this god being an uncaring one.

At last, the beings who were taken by Ariane’s power have left the nightmare, freed from the loop.

But Ariane’s power had only just awoken, and forever will it remain young and undeveloped. Thus, it was not the most accurate thrower in the multiverse. It “missed” the universe in which the Eusan Nation and Eusan Empire resided in, and sent them somewhere else entirely. Somewhere far, far away. Someplace no one, especially not a certain Eule and Star, would ever expect to end up in.

*

For Eule, everything had gone dark for some indeterminable moment, then suddenly there was light. She gasped and opened her eyes, greeting her vision to the sight of blue skies and white clouds lazily floating by.

Eule sat up in shock, clutching her right eye before pulling her hand away, only to find no trace of oxidant fluid on it. She could clearly remember the flash, the brief screaming pain, and then nothing; so this was even more of a shock to her.

Now that she was sitting upright and looking ahead though, she saw that she was in a grassy clearing at the edge of a lush forest, overlooking a plain awash in a sea of green. Bushels of grass topped with red tufts swayed gently in the wind, and birds sang out from somewhere hidden in the dense leaves above. Eule was still shocked by this, but now the shock felt…different. Tinged with wonder now at the vibrant, colorful landscape before her.

“Where am I?” she asked.

“What is this place?”

Eule froze, hearing her question more or less echoed immediately from her left. Her head turned in that direction, and she was greeted by the sight of Star’s face: red-pupiled blue eyes with the red eyeliner-like tattoos distinct to the Star-class Replikas (and to the Falkes) and all. Star’s eyes widened in surprise, as well as her mouth slightly gaping for the same reason.

“Eule?” Star asked.

“Star?” Eule asked back.

For a moment, there was nothing but the wind gently blowing, and then Eule shrieked in joy as she hugged her lover, now apparently alive and completely unharmed. Star gasped at the pressure, and then started laughing her head off as she hugged Eule back. The two Replikas rolled around in the grass, happily repeating each other name’s joyously, before finally kissing. The two of them shared that kiss for an eternity, each one savoring the sensation of the other’s flesh analogue lips and the taste of their saliva analogue.

Finally though, they broke the kiss, but only to stare into each other’s blue eyes.

“You’re alive,” Eule whispered.

“So are you,” Star whispered back.

Eule gently rested her head against the crook of Star’s neck. “It’s like a dream. A dream after a nightmare. A dream that I never want to wake up from. Ever.”

Star sighed blissfully and hugged Eule. “Pretty nice place for a dream too. Think we’re in heaven?”

Eule giggled. “Anywhere with you is heaven for me, Star.”

Star laughed back. “Same here, Eule. Even the surface of Leng felt like heaven with you right by my side. Although, I think I like the feel of this…grass, I think, better than snow.”

Eule smiled playfully at Star. “Even better than me?” she asked flirtatiously.

Star smiled back just as playfully and gently stroked Eule’s back, her hand running down to her butt. “Nothing’s better than how you feel, Eule. Nothing.”

Eule pushed herself back up, smiling at her lover below her, and leaned down for another kiss-

*Snap*

-only for Star to instantly sit up, shielding Eule from the direction of the snapping sound with her body, pulled out her Eu-K508 S “Einhorn” revolver out from its holster with her left hand, and aimed it straight in the direction of-

A girl. A young girl, on her hands and knees in a bushel of red-tufted grass, staring at them. The girl looked to be primary school age, maybe even kindergarten age. She had freckles on her face, eyes as green as the grass around her, and hair the color of flames tied back with a simple black hairband decorated with a pair of blue feathers. She appeared to be wearing animal skins tied together with blue thread, with a blue scarf seemingly made of cloth. Curiously, she also appeared to be barefoot save for strips of hide wrapped around said feet.

Notably to Eule and Star, the girl did not have black hair, blue eyes with red pupils, or a line across the center of her face.

“A…Gestalt?” Star asked in a confused tone.

“A little girl-Star, put that down! You’re going to hurt someone with that,” Eule chided.

A sheepish Star lowered her revolver, but didn’t re-holster it, instead keeping a grip on it with her index finger off the trigger.

Eule sighed in amused exasperation, before turning to the little girl and saying pleasantly. “Hello, little one. What’s your name?”

Curiously, the little girl sat up in a kneeling position and cocked her head at them. “‘Vee high-st doo’? What does that mean?”

Eule looked back at Star in puzzlement. Star could only shrug in response. “I don’t know what she’s saying either,” Star said.

The little girl’s response to that was to giggle and speak in more of her strange words.

Before Eule could reply to the strange words the little girl spoke though, a man’s voice rang out.

The little girl stood up, turned around, and waved, calling out to the man’s voice. There was one word that sounded familiar to Eule among her shouts though: “Rost”.

‘Rust?’ Eule wondered as the owner of that male voice stepped out from the trees.

Eule could make out a tall Gestalt. He seemed taller than herself, but nowhere near as tall as Star. The man was also very broad, and not from fat judging from his muscular face. Said face was framed by dark brown hair the color of rich earth, but flecked with silver from age. He possessed thick facial hair of the same color, with his beard trailing down his chest almost all the way to his belly, with a significant portion of both facial and beard hair dyed a shockingly pale shade of blue as well. His eyes were a sapphire blue color not all that different from a Replika’s, but with the black pupil of a Gestalt as opposed to a Replika’s red.

Similarly, he too wore animal skins like the little girl did. Even more curiously though, he appeared to have sewn metal plates onto parts of the animal skin. They were almost enough to detract from the sight of a whole head of some kind of tusked pig sitting on his left shoulder. Eule had to keep herself from giggling at that unexpectedly silly-looking sight.

Unfortunately, Eule wasn’t quite quiet enough. The man instantly looked at her, and then at Star. Eule watched his eyes narrow in suspicion, and Eule had a sinking feeling about this. Especially since the man carried a long spear in his right hand, even longer than he was tall. The blade alone had to have been at least three times as long as the kitchen knives Eule was used to, and that sharp bit of metal made Eule very nervous. The sight of the large bow on his back didn’t do any wonders for her anxiety either.

The man said something to the little girl in the tone of an order.

The little girl gave one last look at Eule and Star before running to the man’s side. She still looked curiously at them though even as the man stepped to the side, partially blocking the little girl from Eule and Star’s view.

The man himself stared at both Eule and Star with an unflinching gaze. Eule looked to Star, who nodded in reply, and they both took the opportunity to stand up. At last, Eule could confirm that the man was indeed taller than her 175 cm, and that Star also did indeed tower over him with her 220 cm height. The man now looked even more suspicious staring up at Star, who Eule realized had stepped slight in front of her, revolver still pointed at the ground and finger off the trigger, but ready to be brought up at a moment’s notice.

The man asked them something, looking back and forth (not to mention up and down) between them.

Eule bowed politely to the man. “Hello. It’s okay. We don’t mean any harm.”

The man, unfortunately, merely gave Eule a blank look.

The little girl happily piped up with something to the man.

The man rumbled something to the little girl in reply.

Eule only sigh in exasperation. If they can’t even make themselves understood, how in the name of the Red Eye were she and Star going to find out where they even were?

Interestingly, it was the man who took the initiative here. He pointed at his own chest, and said “Rost.”. Then he pointed at the little girl and said “Aloy,” before pointing at Eule.

He repeated this a few times, but Eule had already realized what he meant from the beginning. Eules were good at reading body language and facial expressions, and thus, she realized that Rost must be the man’s name, and the little girl must be…Äloy? That seemed to be what Rost said her name is.

Eule pointed at her own chest. “Eule,” she said, before pointing at Star and saying. “Star.”

Rost pointed first at Star and said “Shtar,” before pointing at Eule and, with a puzzled expression, asked “Oui-luh?”.

Eule immediately repressed the urge to giggle at the way Rost tried to pronounce her name. It couldn’t be that hard to pronounced “Eule”, could it?

Äloy however had no such compunctions. She openly giggled at Rost, pointed at Eule, and said “Ai-le”, followed by repetitions of Aile and more of those strange words. However, as she said Aile, she beamed happily at Rost, and then at Eule.

Äloy didn’t quite get her name right, any more than Rost did, but Äloy was so adorable that Eule didn’t bear to correct her.

Rost apparently thought the same, with the way he smiled at her. He seemed to accept Aile as the way to pronounce Eule. He then looked at Eule and Star and started to say something, only to very suddenly stop mid-speech and look around.

The way Rost suddenly cut off and looked alert instantly worried Eule. Äloy suddenly looking scared didn’t help either. Eule looked around, seeing Star tense up and also look around, and strained her ears, but she didn’t hear anything other than birdsong.

Rost quietly said something in a commanding tone to Äloy. Both of them then immediately hid in a nearby patch of red-tufted grass. Rost then looked at Eule and Star, eyes wide in alarm. He then beckoned them over, quietly calling “Aile, Shtar” in increasingly urgent tones.

Before Eule could react, she felt Star bodily pick her up under one arm, dash over to the red-tufted grass patch where Rost and Äloy were hiding (which was only just large enough to hide them all), quickly laid her down facing the direction Rost and Äloy were looking at, and then laid down herself, pointing her Einhorn revolver in the same direction.

Seconds later, Eule realized that she could make out a noise just barely more audible than the birdsong: the sound of heavy metallic footsteps coming closer. The birdsong fell quiet as the footsteps neared, and the source of the footsteps finally stepped out of the trees into the clearing.

Eule’s eyes widened at the sight of the strange bipedal creature stepping into the clearing, right where she and Star had been mere moments ago. It resembled some kind of large, wingless bird, with an armored head sitting at the end of a long curved neck, a pair of double-jointed bird-like legs in a design not too dissimilar from Replika legs, and a long tail flattened into a ribbon-like shape. The creature was obviously mechanical, covered in silvery grey metallic armor plates. Its head was dominated by a single massive eye emitting blue light, with a trio of blue “pupils” clearly visible in it from the front.

The creature stopped in place, pivoting itself upwards and using its tail as a third leg to raise the height of its head. Said head swung back and forth, apparently scanning the area in front of it as it made a mechanical clicking sound before it decided the area was all clear with a mechanical bark and lowered itself back in a walking position once more, somehow not seeing them through the red-tufted grass.

Despite the situation, Eule thought this creature looked…actually kind of cute. However, the way Rost and Äloy were so quick to hide from it, and the nervous looks they are currently giving it, strongly suggested to Eule that whatever this creature was, it was dangerous despite its appearance.

It was why Eule became even more nervous when another of these creatures appeared in the distant grassy plain, and then another. Her fear turned to wonder though when a large group of other creatures followed in their wake. Unlike the first creatures, these ones walked on four legs, and made neighing sounds similar to the horses Eule had heard them make in history program videos. Unlike the horses in those videos though, these quadrupedal creatures had a pair of vertically placed mechanical eyes in the middle of their faces, emitting the same blue light as the bipedal creatures.

These quadrupedal creatures gathered together and lowered their heads to the grass. Eule watched as small blades mounted below ports to either side of the creatures’ head extended out and whipped around, chopping the grass into bits that were then sucked into those same ports.

‘Are these…harvesting robots?’ Eule thought in mixed confusion and wonder.

Eule’s focus on the strange mechanical creatures before her were so intense that she nearly jumped out of her polyethylene skin when she felt a light tap on her left shoulder. She looked in that direction, her biomechanical heart still pounding, and watched Rost similarly tap Star on her shoulder to get her attention as well.

Rost pointed a pair of fingers at Eule and Star, then pointed backwards at another clump of red-tufted grass further back while making a walking motion with his fingers, before finishing the hand gestures by raising up a finger to his mouth and making a very quiet “Shh” sound.

His meaning was clear to Eule: quietly sneak away from this creature. Eule nodded in understanding, and she looked back to see Star nodding as well. Satisfied, Rost motioned for Äloy to follow him, and they quietly sneaked towards the red-tufted grass patch Rost had indicated.

Eule began to follow, with Star moving in the same direction, crawling backwards and keeping her eyes on the mechanical creature in front of her. It hadn’t left. It was rotating in place, rising to scan the area around it at intervals. So Eule was nervous about it spotting her as she left the grass-

*Snap*

Eule looked down in horror at the stick her right knee had inadvertently broken as it came down on it.

Immediately, the bipedal creature spun around with a shocked whirring sound to face the noise, its blue eye now glowing a suspicious yellow.

“Shit!” Star hissed as she raised her Einhorn revolver up and pulled the trigger.

An explosion of light and flames erupted from the large, stubby revolver’s barrel. A 12mm high-powered hollow point bullet emerged from the barrel, and flew spinning straight at the bipedal creature. Star’s aim had been true. The bullet hit straight into the creature’s large eye, breaking glass before piercing through the “pupils”, impacting deep into its head so hard that said head was thrown backwards from the force. The creature then crashed to the ground with a pitiful whine, and it didn’t get up.

The sound of the revolver’s discharge though made every single mechanical creature in sight look up. The quadrupedal creatures rose up from their feeding with yellow light coming from their eyes, and the bipedal creatures were now emitting an angry red light from their eyes. The bipedal creatures immediately rose up, and started making loud screeching sounds.

Making panicked neighing and screaming sounds, the quadrupedal creatures immediately galloped away at full speed. Unfortunately, the bipedal creatures had no interest in flight. Instead, they charged towards the sound of the gunshot at the speed of a Star pursuing a suspect, straight towards a horrified Eule and Star.

Eule heard Rost yell out “Äloy”, “Aile”, and “Shtar”, along with more unknown words, as he moved into the clearing in front of Eule and stood his ground. She suddenly felt a small hand tugging at her left arm, and she looked up to see a panicked Äloy pulling on said arm, yelling something frantically.  

Eule immediately scrambled up and ran, following Äloy. Then she suddenly realized that Star wasn’t following them, and looked back in shock, seeing Star looking at the charging bipedal creatures. Star looked back at Eule and shouted “Go, I’ll be fine! I need to hold the line with Rost!”

Eule watched in horror as Star’s face shield deployed, wrapping around the lower half of her face, and she took aim with her revolver. Immediately, Eule felt a small hand grab her arm and tug on her, making her own feet move unconsciously with her. To Eule’s relief though, instead of running away from the area entirely, Äloy led her to a patch of red-tufted grass just a bit further back. Thus, from a relatively safe distance, both Eule and Äloy watched the unfolding battle.

Star waited until one of the charging bipedal creatures was close before opening fire. Like before, the bullet pierced the creature’s eye and into its head, sending the creature tumbling to the ground, rolling a short distance before its corpse came to a halt.

Meanwhile, Rost had stabbed his spear into the ground, and pulled out his bow. Pulling out an arrow from a hip quiver, he nocked it to the wire bowstring, and pulled it back. The metal and wood arms of the bow creaked as Rost pulled to full draw. He then held it, and like Star, waited until the bipedal creature was close enough, and then let go. The arrow snapped out from the bow at the same time Star’s revolver thundered, wriggling and bending through the air like a serpent before burying itself deep into the other creature’s eye. It too suffered the same fate as its brethren, tumbling along the ground before coming to a dead standstill.

Eule was amazed. According to her internal clock, the entire fight lasted almost exactly 10 seconds. 10 very long seconds, it seemed. But objectively, it was so very short.

Rost and Star looked at each other, and gave each other nods as fellow warriors who’d just made a clean kill.

As Äloy started to cheer beside her though, Eule’s eyes were drawn to a glint from the trees. Then she watched in horror as another bipedal creature charged from the trees, eye glowing red and, whether by accident or design, was in a perfect ambushing position.

“Look out!” Eule screamed.

Rost and Star both turned as one towards the charging bipedal creature. Rost leapt aside, dodging its charge and rolling along the ground. The bipedal creature then went straight at Star with a mechanical screech, leaping up and slashing with claw-tipped legs. Star leapt aside as well, barely dodging the scything metal claws as both she and the creature landed heavily on their respective robotic feet. The creature reared back and prepared for another leap.

Suddenly, Rost charged into the creature, spear in hand. Before it could react, Rost had dashed almost underneath it, and stabbed right into its chest between gaps in its armor plating in a shower of sparks, burying the long blade of his spear straight into its mechanical heart. The creature made the same pitiable whine as the first one as it died, Rost driving it into the ground and waiting until the light had gone out in its eye before yanking his spear out.

Both Rost and Star scanned the area around them after that kill, watching for any more of these creatures popping out from between the trees. A minute passed by, then two, then three at last before they both calmed down. At long last, the battle was truly over.

Eule let out a shuddering breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding as Äloy popped out from the red-tufted grass and ran towards Rost, shouting his name happily, as though there’d never been any doubt in her mind that Rost would win without a single scratch. Eule immediately picked herself up and ran after Äloy, desperate to see if this was truly the case for Star as well.

The combination of Äloy’s head start and Eule’s longer stride plus her mechanical legs resulted in both of them arriving at their respective targets simultaneously. Äloy ran into Rost and hugged him tight, giggling as Rost tussled her hair. Eule similarly crashed into Star, hugging her lover around her belly and burying her face into her breastplate as Star retracted her face shield and wrapped her free arm around Eule in a one-handed hug as Eule started to cry.

“There, there, it’s okay,” Star murmured as Eule dripped tears onto the bullet-resistant metal of her chest armor.

When Eule had finally calmed down, wiping away her tears, Rost said something in his strange language. Seeing Eule and Star’s blank stares though, Rost sighed. “We,” Eule heard him say as he made a wide circle with a hand, seemingly encompassing the area around them. “Safe,” he continued, giving Eule and Star a thumb’s up gesture.

Eule sighed in relief, echoing Star’s own sigh. “I think we’re safe for now,” Eule said.

“That’s good, but what the actual fuck were those things?” Star asked.

“They looked like robots. You know, those really old ones the Gestalt made before the Creator invented us?” Eule suggested.

“Yeah, but those moved like they had that arthritis you told me older Gestalts suffered from. These things? They moved like Replikas. Smooth, fluid, and fast like an organic being,” Star replied with a hint of worry in her tone.

Eule made a helpless gesture at the lack of an adequate explanation before turning to look at the fallen creatures. Curiously, Rost was bent over the one he’d stabbed in the chest. He looked at its head, and then reached down to grip the large eye. With a twist and a pull, he yanked out the eye, inspected it with a grunt, and then put it into a leathery sack tied to his belt.

Seeing Eule’s and Star’s stares, Rost asked something, putting emphasis on a strange word that sounded like “Vatscher” to Eule. Seeing their still-blank stares though, Rost just sighed and said something to Äloy.

Äloy’s reply was a question that sounded like a protest about something.

Rost looked like he was about to say something, but then he sighed and said something, beckoning Äloy over closer to him as he crouched down next to the dead bipedal creature whose eye he just pulled off.

As Äloy crouched down to watch, a curious Eule and Star walked over to also watch as Rost set down a backpack, took out a metal knife, and began cutting away armor plates, black muscle fibers, wires, what looked like live spark plugs, and even some of the metal bones from the creature. Fortunately, the creature didn’t appear to bleed red oxidant like a Replika, as Eule had initially feared. Instead, an oily green-black fluid pooled on the ground as Rost did his work neatly and efficiently, apparently explaining the whole process to Äloy all the while in their strange language that sounded almost but not quite like Eusan Standard Language in places.

The entire time, Rost spoke in a tone that to Eule, sounded deliberate and musing. He would carefully and slowly cut away a part, and hold it up to Äloy and carefully speaking a word, letting Äloy repeat that word before doing the same thing to another part of the creature.

Eule realized during the whole process that Rost was teaching Äloy how to butcher this creature, carefully and patiently explaining the process to her as well as any Eule teacher. Even though Eule didn’t understand a single word of Rost’s teachings though, her mind committed every step of the butchering process to memory. After all, butchering was one of a Eule’s duties too.

Finally, after just over an hour, Rost placed his butchered parts into the backpack, filling it to capacity before redoing the latch and slinging it onto his back. He looked at the other three fallen creatures, sighed, and said something that sounded regretful, before looking at Eule and Star, and muttering something else.

Eule looked from the fallen creatures to the butchered parts of the first creature stuffed into his backpack, and wondered if perhaps Rost didn’t have room to store the butchered parts of these other fallen creatures? Rost seemed like a hunter judging from how experienced he was in butchering these creatures. It seemed reasonable to Eule that he was regretting not having the space to store their parts. Unfortunately, neither she nor Star had any backpacks on their person, and all the containers they did have were already full.

Then suddenly, Eule had a thought. She opened up the satchel she was using to store medical supplies, consisting entirely of basic sealed single-use Coagulant Type K adhesive repair patches (they hadn’t been able to find anything better) for sealing Replika wounds. She saw that the satchel was almost entirely empty–

Eule watched in horror as the repair patches did nothing to stop the torrent of oxidant fluid coming out of Star’s wounds, no matter how many she slapped on–

Eule shook her head, trying to clear it and trembling a bit at the horrible memory. She looked at Rost and saw him staring at her in concern, and she made her decision. She took out the few remaining repair patches in the satchel, and held up the empty satchel to Rost. She pointed at the fallen creatures, pointed into her empty satchel, and made questioning noises at Rost.

Rost took the satchel from Eule and opened it up, looking back and forth into the empty satchel and at the fallen creatures. He appeared to be judging how much he can fit into the satchel and whether it was worth it. Finally though, he walked over to the fallen creatures, took a knife and quickly carved out select parts, stuffed them into the satchel, and returned with it, handing it back to Eule.

“Thank you,” he said in a clearly grateful tone. It even sounded similar to Eusan Standard Language for “thank you”.

Eule beamed back at him and replied with a cheerful “You’re welcome” before buttoning up the bulging satchel. There was even just enough room to put the few fortunately flexible repair patches back in on top of the strange mechanical parts Rost had carved out of the fallen creatures.

Eule then looked over to Star, who’d caught onto what had happened and was checking her own pouches. Unfortunately, Star sighed and closed the last pouch she checked, saw Eule watching, and said: “Nope. All my pouches are full of ammo. Both 12mm and 10mm. Not giving those up, so sorry about that.” She addressed the last part to Rost, who seemed to understand Star from her tone and nodded in acceptance.

Eule also nodded in acceptance, but…Star mentioning the 10mm bullets made something niggle at the back of Eule’s biomechanical mind. Like it was related to something important she forgot about, but she can’t quite put her finger on it.

Rost then looked down, and frowned with a puzzled expression. A perplexed Eule watched him walk to a particular spot in the grass, reach down, and pick up-

Eule froze as she saw the Type-75 “Protektor” pistol in his bulky hand. The pistol that fired 10x20mm bullets. Her pistol.

Rost held the pistol out to Eule and Star, making a questioning sound to them, clearly asking if it belonged to them.

Eule walked over to Rost, and tentatively took the pistol from him. At the very least, Rost had been holding it in a way that even if it went off, it would just fire into the air.

Out of morbid curiosity, Eule pulled back the slide a bit and saw that there was a round chambered. She then depressed the magazine release, slid out the magazine from its well, and inspected the holes on the back that allowed the user to see how many rounds were left in the magazine. Using those holes, Eule saw that there was exactly 1 round missing from the magazine.

Hiding her shock, Eule returned the magazine into the pistol, flicked the safety back on, returned it to its place on her hip holster (which further shocked her that she hadn’t even noticed that it had been missing from said holster in the first place), made sure the cover was well and truly attached in place, and said to Rost: “Thank you.”

Rost nodded before looking back at the partially butchered creatures, sighing, and then look down at Äloy and said something to her.

Äloy responded with a cheerful cry, and dashed off in a particular direction.

Rost called out to Äloy in what sounded like an admonishment before turning back to Eule and Star and clearly beckoning them to follow. He then walked after an Äloy who was busy running back and forth in place, waiting for Rost.

Eule and Star looked at each other.

“Should we?” Eule asked her lover.

Star shrugged. “Better where’s he going than staying out here. Besides, he and his kid seem like good people.”

As Eule and Star jogged up to Rost and Äloy and began following them, Eule watched the Gestalt man happily chatting with his little girl, and somehow deep in her biomechanical heart knew that Star was right about them.

*

They walked until the sky had turned from blue to orange, the last stretch of which including walking partway up a mountain. Only once did they stop, and that was because Eule had found a nice clear stream that allowed her to see her reflection and finally examine her own appearance and tidy up a bit. She was further shocked that she looked perfectly fine, especially her right eye. There was not a mark on it, despite Eule remember what she did to it. It gave Eule’s perfectly fine appearance in the river a strange dream-like quality to it. She actually pinched her own face in response, and was quite relieved that it hurt.

Still, despite the shock, she did feel better from the self-care that all Eules felt the need to carry out. Even Äloy’s whining at the stop (emphasized by impatient hopping) made Eule feel better just from how adorable the little Gestalt girl was.

At last though, Eule and Star walked through a wooden gate decorated with colored rope and arrived at what seemed to be Rost and Äloy’s house.

Said house seemed to be a one to two-story tall log cabin with windows cut into the logs surrounded by a “fence” made of upright logs sharpened at the top, at least where it wasn’t surrounded by mountain. There was an overhang extending some distance out over the wooden steps leading up to the front door, proving cover from the elements for anyone there. Right on top of that overhang was some kind of figure. Eule couldn’t decide if it was supposed to be some kind of bird with outstretched wings, or a horned goat’s head. Either way, it seemed that Rost had a touch of artistic streak to him.

All around the house in the front yard were various cuts of meat apparently being hung out to dry, cure, and/or smoke. There was even a sort of wall-less hut to the left of the house where bundles of fox skins hung, more cuts of meat, and cords of wood were stacked, serving as a sort of mini-storage shed. In fact, Rost went over to that shed to retrieve two cuts of meat before going to the front door. In front of that shed was some kind of…device consisting of a stone wheel on a wooden support thing. Eule had no idea what it was and what it could possibly be for, so she resolved to ask Rost about it…once they’d somehow worked out their communication issues.

Curiously, there were even large…figures made of wood, straw, and metal plates bound together with wire scattered on the edges of the property, next to the fencing. These figures looked like they were of deer, but they were even taller than Star if you counted their strange star-shaped antlers, and had four rear-facing logs sticking out of their backs for some reason. The bullseye on the sides of the deer figures and the arrows embedded in them though suggest that they might be practice dummies.

Judging by Star’s appraising look, she’d come to the same conclusion. “You think Rost will let me use those as target practice?” she asked.

Eule giggled a bit. “Maybe later.”

Rost pulled open the front door for Äloy, who dashed inside with the speed of youth. Rost then beckoned Eule and Star in before walking into the house and leaving the door open. Eule let Star go in first, who unfortunately had to duck her head to get in through the low door. Eule went in last, closing the door behind her.

Inside, Rost had set down his bags, backpack, and outer coat (pig head and all) on a part of the wooden plank floor right next to the door. Rost himself was busy using a spark plug (presumably gathered from that creature earlier) to light candles and lamps around the interior of a single massive room. When he saw Eule and Star come in, he pointed at Star, pointed at the coat on the floor, and then made a motion like he was pulling clothing off himself.

Star seemed to get it, because then she started undoing the latches on her breastplate. Eule helped undo those latches, and together, they pulled the two halves of her armor off, followed immediately by the shoulder pads, and laid them gently onto the floor next to Rost’s coat. An entranced Äloy immediately went over to Star’s bullet-resistant armor and curiously examined it, poking it every so often. Star stretched to work out the kinks from wearing that armor for long periods of time, and while Eule was thoroughly entertained by the outline of Star’s breasts on her black uniform, eventually, after setting down her parts and repair patch-filled satchel next to Rost’s bags, her curiosity turned her eyes to the house’s interior.

An old-fashioned fireplace was set into one of the walls, presumably awaiting lighting once Rost was finished with the aforementioned light fixtures. Said walls also contained several windows, which at the moment were all closed with wooden shutters. Around the room were various tables, jars, pots, bags, chairs, and even a bed covered with what looks like a whole bunch of furry fox skins right next to the fireplace. The chairs varied between exquisitely carved pieces that wouldn’t look out of place at a state furniture store, to simple “stools” that were just log sections flattened at the top and bottom and covered with yet another fox skin. There was even a ladder leading up to a second floor, although Eule couldn’t see what was on that floor from her perspective.

Rost asked Äloy something as he finally lit the fireplace, bathing the house’s interior in light and a cozy warmth. Äloy happily agreed to it in a distinct lack of indoor voice, taking various items off a table and setting them on the floor before struggling to drag the table out into the middle of the room. A chuckling Star walked over and helped Äloy out with her chore while a curious Eule looked over at what Rost was doing.

Rost took a jar full of water, poured it into a large metal pot, and hung it over the fireplace. As he was presumably waiting for the water to boil, Rost placed the cuts of meat he took from the shed on a nearby table, untied the string around it, took a knife from a nearby rack, and began chopping the meat into large chunks.

Seeing Rost cook was making Eule feel…fidgety. As a Eule, she was literally built to cook, clean, perform basic medical tasks, perform office work, and teach. The latter four had no application here, but there was a part of her that desperately wanted to lend a hand with the cooking, just as she would for a fellow Eule cook.

Rost then noticed Eule watching him, and asked her something in a questioning tone. It seemed like he was asking what she wanted.

Eule decided to imitate Rost for this. She pointed at herself, mimed using a knife to chop ingredients, and made a questioning sound at Rost.

Surprisingly, Rost made a gentle sound and shook his hand. He said a bunch of strange words, before apparently realizing that Eule didn’t understand her, and thus said gently but firmly: “Aile. Sit. Now.” He emphasized the last two words by pointing at the seats Äloy and Star had dragged over to the table.

There was a tone to his words like that of a…soft mountain? The mountain was too soft to hurt you, but there was no way you were ever going to budge the mountain no matter how hard you pushed. Eule realized then that Rost really, really, really wanted to cook for them; and that he wasn’t going to let her help. Likely out of a sense of hospitality. Eule had met a few of her own sisters who were like that when inviting guests into their homes. They were just as determined to not let their guests lift even a finger to help with the cooking.

So Eule sat down at one of the seats, covered with a dead fox’s furry pelt, feeling strangely dejected. It wasn’t often that a Eule was the one who was being served instead of the other way around.

Star sat down on the seat next to her. “Feeling left out?” she quipped.

“A little,” Eule admitted with some embarrassment.

“Eh, just sit back and relax. You’ve more than earned it,” Star said as she stretched her arms upward.

“Hmm, I guess?”

Across the table, little Äloy was staring intently at Eule and Star. Eule quickly noticed the pair of emerald eyes and their inquisitive look, and smiled at the little Gestalt girl. “Yes?” she asked.

Äloy asked something, eyes bright with clear curiosity. Eule didn’t understand the question, but from the way Äloy looked back and forth between Eule and Star, she was clearly asking both of them that question.

Rost said something to Äloy in the midst of cooking. He didn’t turn to look at her, but from the tone of his voice, it sounded like he was admonishing her for something. The context suggested that he was worried little Äloy was bothering Eule and Star, and thus wanted her to stop.

Eule just smiled apologetically at Äloy as she kicked her feet, repeating an endless stream of what sounded to her like “Ei vanna no” followed by more words in this strange language of her and Rost’s. Seeing as how nothing productive seems to be coming from Äloy, even if she was as adorable as a puppy, Eule instead focused on examining the tableware Äloy and Star had set out.

Said tableware seemed extremely simple. It basically just consisted of a large bowl with a spoon in it. All made of carved wood. Not a single metal utensil in sight, and certainly no plastic ones. In fact, the only metal things on the table were hexagonal metal plates. They were similar to the ones sewn into Rost’s clothes, but these ones were fully intact, lacking the holes in them needed for the thread to pass through. Curious now, Eule picked up the one closest to her and examined it.

The part that was apparently meant to be the plate had a raised bowl-shaped protrusion, resembling some kind of large socket. The other side was completely smooth. There was no manufacturer’s marking that she could see. No serial numbers either. In fact, this plate looked as though it was meant to be part of a larger object or device, and it just so happened that it’s a perfectly usable plate.

“Wow, you’re really interested in that dinner plate, aren’t you?” Star asked jokingly.

Eule explained to Star her notes about the metal plate.

“Huh, you’re right. That’s really weird. Why would Rost use something like this? Why not just buy a plate from a store instead of making a plate out of…those robots?” Star ended in a question.

“Yes, I do believe that this might’ve come from a robot as well. We did see Rost butchering one of them for parts,” Eule noted. “But as for your other questions: could it be that…there is no store to buy plates from? Maybe he had to make these plates himself out of what’s available?”

“That’s…kind of scary actually,” Star admitted.

“No scarier than back…there, certainly,” Eule said.

Star stared at Eule before looking down at the floor. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Silence passed between Eule and Star after that. Silence that stretched out for well over a minute before Eule asked quietly: “Star, do you…remember what happened? Back there?”

Star looked up at Eule in surprise, and then looked back down. One of her hands went to her belly, and the other went to her chest, right where the monofilament wires had cut all the way to the carbon steel bone, right through her bullet-resistant armor, nearly chopping her into bits.

“I do, and I have no idea why I’m sitting here alive right now, or even why my armor is intact again,” Star said quietly before looking Eule straight in the eye. “I just know that no matter how or why I’m here, I’m just…I’m just glad to be here with you. I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here. I promised you. I promised…”

Eule was shocked to see tears dripping from Star’s eyes, and she leaned forward to hug her lover. “Shh, it’s okay. I’m here.”

Star just leaned into the hug, continuing to weep into Eule’s shoulder. “I was so afraid. I was afraid I would end up somewhere without you, that I would break my promise, and you would be alone…”

Eule rocked Star back and forth, rubbing her back in small circles. “I’m sorry. You shouldn’t the one afraid here. I’m the fearful one, not you. You were strong. You were brave. You were the Star of Stars. I’m just the weak one. I’m just the failure. I’m just the Eule who can’t do anything right.”

Star suddenly grabbed Eule by the arms and raised herself up, looking at her in shock even as tears continued streaming down her face. “What, no! You’re not! You didn’t do anything! I was-”

“I did! I killed you!” Eule screamed out. “I didn’t watch where I was going! I didn’t see that wire trap in time! You grabbed me and took the trap for me! I killed you! I might…I might as well have murdered you with my own two hands!” Eule broke down, sobbing and dripping tears onto the wooden flooring.

Eule suddenly felt a pair of hands grab her by her shoulders and shake her. She looked up at an anguished Star, tears streaming down her face and yelling: “That’s not true! It’s not! I was the one who failed! Not you! Me! I should’ve seen those traps in the first place! I was the one who got my cadre and your sisters killed! All because I was too stupid to see those traps in the first place!”

“No, you’re not stupid! You’re not!” Eule yelled back, shaking her head in denial. “I’m just weak! I saw you die knowing that it was my fault! I couldn’t stand it! That’s why I knew I had to go to you as fast as I could! That’s why…”

Star’s grip on Eule’s shoulders tightened as she asked in a horrified tone: “Why? Why what? Eule, what did you do?”

Eule looked up at Star with deadened eyes. “I shot myself.”

Star just stared at Eule, shock and horror written plainly on her tear-stained face.

“I shot myself. Here. Right through my right eye,” Eule said, stabbing a finger right at it. “There’s even a bullet missing from my pistol. I did it. I did.”

“Eule…”

“I couldn’t live with myself. Not with my mistake. Not without you. Not there, alone in the dark, waiting for the things that used to be our sisters, friends, and coworkers to rip me apart or turn me into one of them. If I was going to die, I wanted to die on my own terms. I wanted to die as myself. But most of all, I wanted to die with you. Because the thought of a life without you was just too much to bear.”

“Oh, Red Eye watch over us. Oh, Eule, Eule, Eule…”

Eule looked up into her lover’s eyes once more. “See? I’m weak. I’m so weak that I took my own life. Isn’t that just pathetic?”

Eule was genuinely surprised when Star hugged her tightly. “No, no you’re not. If taking your life in that moment made you weak, then I’m weak too.”

“Star?”

“If…if I’d been in your situation, if you’d taken that wire trap instead of me, then I would’ve done the same thing. Don’t you understand? Dying alone in the dark…that scares me too. It scares me just like it scares you. I’m not some superwoman who isn’t afraid of anything. I’m just…me,” Star pulled back from the hug in order to look into Eule’s eyes once more. “Don’t you understand, Eule? I’m nothing without you. All I know is how to fight, and I’m not even all that good at it. You’re smart, you’re kind, and you know how to do so many more things than me. You’re my better half. You’re my Eule.”

“Star...” Eule fell forward, hugging Star tightly. “Oh, Star. Red Eye forgive me, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for making you feel like this. I’m sorry…”

“No, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for making you feel this way.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry.

Eule and Star continued that way for a while, crying into each other and muttering “I’m sorry” to each other. They were so absorbed in this that they were both surprised when they felt a pair of small arms hug both of them.

Eule looked down from her shared misery with Star to see little Äloy, tears in her eyes as well. She said something followed by what sounded like a series of “Eim saurry” to Eule, which quickly devolved into choked sobs.

Eule quickly leaned down to hug Äloy. “No, no, don’t cry. I’m sorry I made you worry. There, you see?” Eule forced a smile to her face, even as tears continued dripping down her cheeks. “I’m okay, see?”

“Yeah, kid. Me too,” Star added, also trying to smile despite her own tears. “See? You made everything better already.”

Unfortunately, it seemed Äloy was either too smart for that or she was too depressed, for she just continued sobbing.

Fortunately, Rost chose that moment to swoop in, gently hugging Äloy as she pressed her face into Rost’s belly. He murmured quietly to Äloy as he gently patted her back before turning his gaze to Eule and Star.

Eule was sure he was looking at their tear-stained faces as he sighed, but there was no exasperation in it, as Eule feared. Instead, his eyes were full of sympathy and warmth as he began speaking to them. Eule had absolutely no idea what Rost said, but somehow the mere tone of his voice helped. It was so calm, so even, and had this deep sonorous tone that made Eule calmer and calmer the more she heard it. It was almost like listening to someone play a double bass to Eule. She felt like she could listen to the soothing bass notes of Rost’s voice forever.

So she was surprised when as he finished speaking, he just gently put Äloy onto her lap. Äloy whined, but she remained sitting on Eule’s lap.

Eule gently petted Äloy’s head as Äloy leaned back against her and wiped away her tears and her snot, feeling calmer and calmer just from the action of patting Äloy’s soft fluffy hair. So much so that she could even ignore Äloy’s messiness for now.

“I guess-” Star started before sniffing and wiping away the last of her tears. “I guess Äloy is an emotional support kid right now, huh?” she made an attempt at a joke.

And even though it wasn’t a particularly good joke, Eule still smiled.

“Yeah, I suppose she is,” Eule replied, before finally saying: “I’m sorry, Star.”

“What, no. I thought we went over this. It’s not your fault-”

“No, that’s not it,” Eule interrupted, leaving Star’s mouth half-open in mid-speech. “I’m apologizing for not thinking about what you were going through, and only thinking about my pain. I guess that makes me a bit selfish, doesn’t it?”

Star sighed. “Well, to be fair, I was shoveling all the blame onto myself too. So I guess we’re both just a little bit selfish and a little bit weak, aren’t we?”

Eule smiled at her lover. “I guess that’s more things we have in common, and why I love you even more for it.”

Star hugged Eule one-armed. “Heh, yeah, kind of funny that this makes me love you more too.”

“Star,” Eule said lovingly.

“Eule,” Star schoed as the Replika pair drew closer to each other.

Little Äloy chose that exact moment to pipe up with a question, lightly bouncing on Eule’s lap and sounding somewhere between childishly teasing and excited.

Star snorted while Eule giggled in embarrassment as their faces drew back from where they’d been, mere millimeters apart.

“Let’s maybe do this when we don’t have a tiny audience member watching,” Star said, chuckling and tussling Äloy’s hair, who giggled at the sensation.

Eule giggled, feeling much more calm and stable now, even despite the lack of kissing. “I’ll definitely be waiting for that, Star. And maybe when we get the privacy, we’ll do more than kiss? So much more.”

Star looked away from Eule, a blush rising to her cheeks. Eule giggled at her lover’s sudden bout of shyness, and at last, she felt the darkness fully dissipate into the cozy warmth of Rost’s and Äloy’s house.

It’s only now though, when Eule wasn’t so miserable, that she can smell something delicious coming from the fireplace where Rost was doing his cooking. It made her biomechanical stomach, long deprived of any nutrients, start grumbling about the lack of resupply.

Rost looked at the pot over the fireplace, and nodded before turning to the seated trio and announced something in a proud, happy tone; looking back at Eule and Star with a smile.

Eule smiled back at that announcement. You didn’t need to understand a foreign language to parse out the meaning of that from tone and context alone, especially when Äloy cheered at said announcement, hopped off her lap, and rushed back to her seat across from Eule. Eule could swear that the little Gestalt girl moved so quickly, she practically left afterimages behind her.

Rost took all four of the wooden bowls from the table, and placed them on a flat piece of wood that he was using as a tray. Rost took his tray full of bowls to the pot, and used a long-handled wooden serving spoon to scoop something from the pot into the bowls. When he returned and efficiently dealt out the bowls onto the table, Eule saw in her bowl some kind of stew with chunks of meat and vegetables in it, with a wondrously rich odor rising from it along with the steam.

Rost wasn’t finished yet though. He returned to the fireplace, and returned carrying sharpened sticks with chunks of roasted meat speared on them. Stacking several on each metal plate, he finally sat at his own seat. Äloy was already gobbling down her stew, but Rost didn’t do that. Instead, Eule watched as Rost closed his eyes and clasped his hands together, as though in prayer. Rost began to speak something that did indeed sound like a prayer, causing Äloy to pause her shoveling, hurriedly put down her spoon, and also clasp her hands together.

Eule glanced at Star, who shrugged in response. They both then also clasped their robotic hands together, even if it made Eule a bit uncomfortable to do so. The Nation frowned upon worship of gods like this as it was a bit too uncomfortably similar to the Grand Empress worship the Empire imposed upon them in ages past before the Revolution, but Eule supposed that the State wasn’t watching them right now. If this was what Rost wished them to do, then they shouldn’t insult their host.

Once Rost was finished. Äloy immediately began digging into her food again the moment Rost’s prayers ended, but when Rost opened his eyes and saw that Eule and Star were also clasping their hands together, he started shaking a hand at them, as though he didn’t want them to pray too. Rost said a long series of his strange words, before ending by waving his hand at the food, clearly inviting them to eat.

Once more, while Eule had no idea what Rost said, she understood more or less what he meant. “Well, time to dig in, Star, and I think he means we can skip the prayers if we don’t want to,” she said to her lover.

Star snapped her mechanical fingers and said: “Now you’re talking,” before grabbing her spoon and doing her best Äloy impression.

Eule giggled at the sight before taking her own spoon, collecting a chunk of meat along with some stew into the spoon, and daintily putting it into her mouth. The meat, as it turned out, was very tender pork. At least, Eule was almost certain it was pork. It had the same texture and more or less the same taste as the pork raised on state-owned farms. However, there was a distinct smoky taste to the pork that was perfectly complemented by what Eule could swear was ginger, garlic, and…coriander, yes. It made that piece of pork a small piece of meat heaven.

Eule took a bite of some of the vegetables. The yellow vegetables turned out to be some type of carrot, judging from the taste. The white vegetables tasted like turnip. The green vegetables turned out to be a mix of what she was sure was green onions and…yes, it was definitely coriander. While she wasn’t 100% certain, she would bet ration tickets on her guesses.

Eule felt that there was something at the bottom of the bowl, so she dug into that layer. When her spoon came up, her biomechanical eyes widened at the sight of rice. Only, it wasn’t the rice she was familiar with. The rice she and her sisters had prepared for everyone at S-23 Sierpinski were all pure white grains. This rice was a riotous mix of red, brown, and black; with the whites only just visible between split hulls. Curious, she took a mouthful of this strange rice and chewed. She was greeted with most pleasant mouthfeel of any rice she’d ever eaten, with a nice chewy texture reminiscent of brown rice she once had, and a strong nutty taste that even brown rice had only a fraction of. Honestly, it was far better than that white rice had ever been.

And then suddenly, it was gone. Between the sampling of the different parts of the stew combined with her hunger, her bowl of Rost’s stew had vanished before she’d even realized it. Not even a single grain of that strange colored rice was left.

But there was one more dish she had yet to try. She took one of the meat skewers from her plate, and delicately took a chunk of meat with her carbon steel teeth, pulled it off, and chewed it. It was the same smoked pork as in the stew, but it was roasted rather than stewed. Not only that, but it was of a different cut. The stewed pork was pure muscle, as though from a haunch. This roasted pork was clearly pork belly from the skin and fat layer on it. The roasting process gave the skin a delicious fatty crisp to it that made appreciative noises come out of Eule’s closed mouth. As if that wasn’t enough, the roast pork even had some kind of spice rub on it: a mixture of crushed black pepper, chili powder, and salt from its taste. All in all, it was a delicious accompaniment to the stew, and resulted in the meat skewers rapidly turning into a pile of empty sticks on the plate.

At last, with her meal finished, Eule made her judgement: Rost was an amazing cook. He was at least as good as any Eule. Maybe (dare Eule think it), he was even better than the average Eule. Eule felt a strange mix of jealousy and admiration at that, and made a personal vow to try and get the recipes from Rost…if they can ever solve those communication issues, yet again.

Eule first looked over at Star, who had long since finished her meal and was leaning back contentedly, and then looked up at Rost, who had cocked his head at her. Eule immediately flashed him a thumbs up and a bright smile, making Rost laugh.

Rost said something with a smile, before rubbing his chin in a thoughtful pose and continuing speaking in a wondering tone. Throughout his long speech in that strange language of his though, there was one word that stood out.

“‘Maschine-zz’?” Eule asked, latching onto the one word Rost kept repeating. It even sounded similar to the word for “machine” in Eusan Standard Language.

Rost repeated the word in an affirmative tone before he suddenly blinked owlishly at Eule. He repeated the word that sounded like “machine” in a question, before standing up and going over to one of the bags he’d placed on the floor when he entered his house. He then pulled out the bipedal creature’s eye that he’d pulled out from its corpse, sat back down in his seat, and held up the cylindrical orb-shaped eye.

Rost pointed at it. “Machine,” he said, before pointing at Eule and Star and asking: “Machine?”

Eule looked at him in shock, and then turned to Star. “He thinks we’re one of those things? But why? We don’t look anything like them,” she said.

Star gripped her chin in contemplation. “This may sound like a weird theory, but maybe he’s never seen a Replika before? So he thinks our mechanical parts means that we’re one of these…Machines?”

Eule blinked at Star just as owlishly as Rost had blinked at her. Funnily enough, since her class was named after that long extinct bird. “Never heard of Replikas, but how? Replikas are everywhere. That’s like never hearing of a Gestalt before.”

Star shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just throwing out a theory as to why Rost thinks we’re one of those robots.”

Eule thought about it. It made no sense, and yet it was also the most logical explanation for Rost’s behavior. So if that was what Rost believed, then it was time to set things straight.

“No,” Eule said to Rost, shaking her head. “We.” She pointed at herself and Star. “No Machine. We Replika.”

“Replika?” Rost said in a wondering tone, repeating the word among his strange language in an almost-question that sounded like he was wondering what “Replika” even meant. It was such a bizarre concept to Eule that she really, really wished she could explain it to him.

Äloy asked her own question in reply to Rost’s words. It seemed like Äloy too was confused about what a Replika was, which only made Eule more frustrated and confused all at once.

Rost sat there, thinking for several moments before he spoke: “You. Replika.” He pointed at Eule and Star, before pointing at himself and Aloy. “We? Vir?” he asked, apparently attempting to pronounce “We”. It wasn’t a bad attempt, but at least Eule now knew that “we” in Rost’s language was, as far as Eule can pronounce, “vi”.

With that out of the way though, Eule realized that Rost was asking her what she and Star called his people. It was such a strange thing to ask of her, but not so strange when she thought about how he had no idea what a Replika was. Thus, Eule pointed at Rost and Äloy and replied simply: “Gestalt.”

“Gesh-talt?” Rost repeated, as though testing the sounds of the word, which he was mangling horribly, but to be fair, Eule imagined that she was also mangling his language just as horribly. He then pointed at himself and Äloy. “Vir Nora Geshtalt. You what Replika?”

Eule looked to Star in bafflement. “What is he trying to ask?”

Star rubbed her temples in thought, before she simply asked Rost: “Nora?”

Now it was Rost’s turn to rub his temples in thought. He spent a bit more time rubbing said temples before he said: “Nora. Carja. Oseram.”

When he saw Eule and Star’s blank stares though, he continued, maybe a little desperately: “Banuk? Utaru? Tenakth?”

When the Replikas’ blank stares continued, Rost sighed and muttered something in a tone combining disappointment and frustration.

Äloy asked Rost something, strangely excited for reasons Eule failed to grasp due to the language barrier.

Rost chuckled, then looked at towards a window, and sighed, saying something to Äloy.

Äloy whined loudly, sounding like a disobedient puppy.

Rost’s response is in a tone so dry, it was understandable to Eule, even though she still had no idea what exactly he was saying to warrant that tone.

Äloy folded her arms and pouted before responding with something in a petulant tone. Eule could make out “we” and “machine”, but nothing else.

Rost however was unmoved by whatever Äloy said. He folded his arms, pointed up at the second floor, and said something in a clear tone of command.

Äloy groaned something and then said Eule and Star’s names with a brief wave before climbing up to the second floor.

Eule was puzzled by this, but apparently not as puzzled as Rost, who was looking at Eule and Star with a look of pure befuddlement. He said something before nodding to himself, and pointing at Eule and Star. “You. Sleep.” Rost closed his eyes, rested his cheeks on his hands, and then made a snoring sound so exaggerated that Eule couldn’t help it and giggled. “There?” he asked in conclusion, pointing at…the bed next to the fireplace?

“I suppose he wants us to sleep there?” Eule asked Star.

“Apparently,” Star replied. “It’s a little small, but I think we can make it work. We’ve slept in much more awkward places before.”

Eule giggled. “Like that time we slept in that storage room in nothing but a thermal blanket?”

Star chuckled back. “Yeah, not much privacy in S-23 Sierpinski, was there? There was no way I was going to make love to you in the Star dorms, that’s for certain.”

Eule giggled still more, albeit with a luminescent blush now. “Same for me and the Eule dorm. While I’m sure quite a few of my sisters wouldn’t mind watching, it’s a bit um…”

“Exhibitionist?” Star suggested.

Eule’s response to that is to poke one of Star’s breasts with a robotic index finger, earning a squeak out of the Security Technician Guard Replika. “I meant to say ‘embarrassing’, you naughty Star, you,” Eule teased.

Star chuckled in reply. “Look who’s the naughty one here, doing that right in front of Rost.”

Now it was Eule’s turn to squeak and blush once more. She’d gotten so caught up in flirting with Star that she’d completely forgotten that Rost was in the room watching them. Eule slowly turned her head around to see if Rost was offended by it, but the man wasn’t even watching. He apparently had been going around the room, putting out the various candles and lamps that’d been keeping the room lit up. When he blew out the last lamp, the room was actually quite dark, even with the fireplace still lit.

Rost spoke their names and said something before walking over to the door, picking up his outer coat, stopping by one of his own chairs to pull off a fox skin, and then climbing the ladder to the second floor.

Now with her curiosity piqued, Eule decided to climb up the ladder too to see what was up there, and why Äloy and Rost went there and were apparently staying there. Climbing up (and down) a ladder was a bit…tricky for her and other Replikas due to the way their feet were designed, but she, her central footpads, and her four toes on each foot managed it fairly well, and thus she finally poked her head above the ladder to the second floor of Rost’s and Äloy’s house.

The second floor was apparently being used primarily for storage, judging by all the jars, bags, chests, and other assorted containers flexible and rigid lining most of one side of the second floor. However, it also seemed to be Äloy’s bedroom, judging by how Äloy was snoring away in a bed just a bit too big for her next to the chimney shaft, covered by a blanket that was made of more fox skins sewn together into a big and fluffy (if slightly morbid) sheet.

So Eule was surprised to see Rost lying down next to Äloy’s bed, using his outer coat as an improvised futon and the fox skin he took from his chair as an improvised blanket. You know, instead of sleeping on an actual bed like the one on the first…floor…

It suddenly occurred to Eule that Rost had actually given her and Star his own bed to sleep on. Eule silently tried to get Rost’s attention to protest while not waking up Äloy in the process, but it seemed that either Rost was asleep or hadn’t noticed. He merely continued lying there on his improvised futon, breathing evenly and apparently lost to the waking world.

Eule could only sigh in response and climbed back down to Star, who was looking at her quizzically. “So what was up there that was so interesting?” Star asked.

Eule sighed once more. “Apparently, that bed there is Rost’s. He’s giving it to us for the night, and is sleeping on the worlds’ most improvised futon I’ve ever seen,” she said as she described Rost’s setup to Star.

Star smiled at that description. “Sounds like a true soldier to me, and a gentleman too.”

Eule’s arms waved frantically in consternation however. “But, but…aren’t we being an inconvenience then? A big one?”

Star leaned down to plant a kiss on Eule’s forehead, bringing her waving arms to a halt. “It’s fine. He’s giving it to us for the night, isn’t he? And he’s probably already asleep anyways, so there’s no point in complaining. Besides, I’m sure we’ll think of something to make it up to Rost,” she said happily.

Eule blinked owlishly at Star as Star’s face slowly turned red at what her last sentence sounded like. “I meant hunting. Hunting. You know, animals and those Machines. Not…what you’re thinking of.”

Eule giggled at how beet-red Star’s face was by the end of her words. “I knew it…but it was fun watching you imagine something else,” she said with a mischievous smile plastered all over her polyethylene-laced face.

Star gaped at Eule for a moment before taking Eule into her arms and saying: “Aw, come here you cute little owl-imp, you.”

Eule giggled (quietly, so as to not wake Rost and Äloy up) as Star picked her up in a bridal carry, walked over to the bed, rolled up the fox skin blanket to uncover the “mattress” and gently laid her down onto it (which seemed to be a rectangular cloth bag filled with something thick and springy) before lying down onto the admittedly small portion of the bed unoccupied by Eule. Eule reached over and hugged Star to her, savoring the pleasurable sensation of their breasts pressing against each other.

“I missed this,” Eule said simply as she snuggled against Star.

“Me too,” Star admitted, returning the snuggle. “Not much time to do this…back there.”

Eule kissed Star gently on the mouth. “Or this,” she breathed.

Star buried her face into the white cloth covering Eule’s most impressive bosom. “This too,” Star said, voice a bit muffled.

Eule giggled once more as she began showering Star’s forehead with kisses, all the while stroking her short black hair, also made of polyethylene, just in a stiffer form than the polyethylene making up her skin. “You really like my breasts, don’t you?” she asked sultrily.

[THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK]

“Now we’re even,” Eule finally said, smiling sweetly and beaming as brightly as the midday sun.

Star laughed quietly in between deep breaths. “Wow. Heh, I love it when you get assertive like that.”

Eule giggled in embarrassment.

Star suddenly looked concerned. “Uhh, you’re not actually angry, are you? I didn’t mean to make you cum in your panties. I just-”

Eule interrupted her lover with a finger on her lips and a kiss between her eyes. “It’s okay, love. I don’t mind. Besides, I’m sure that between this fire and our body heat, we will dry out in no time.”

Star chuckled. “Well, you’re probably not wrong,” she said, reaching down to pull the fox skin blanket over them both.

It wasn’t quite long enough to cover Star’s feet and the bottom parts of her legs, but that was solved by simply wrapping her legs around Eule. Eule meanwhile hugged Star, comfortably nuzzling against her and enjoying her warmth, with Star doing much the same to Eule.

Eule was about to go to sleep like this, but something niggled at the back of her mind, and she felt like she needed to know now. “Star?”

“Mm?”

“Back there, when you were…well, you said that you remembered your name from your old life?”

“Yeah?”

“But um, you never did tell me, so I’m curious now: what is that name?”

“…Rebecca Liang. Sergeant in the People’s Army, 5^th Vinetan Infantry Division, Unit 12.”

Eule’s eyes blinked open in surprise. “Huh, so your neural pattern was from a soldier?”

Star’s eyes blinked open as well. “Yeah, weird coincidence, right? Or maybe not. Maybe your neural pattern was also from someone who liked cooking, singing, dancing, and teaching too?”

“Hmm, all I know is the Eule neural pattern came from a ballerina dancer, and that’s it. Beyond that, I’ve never looked any further into it. I was curious, of course, but I didn’t want the other Eules to think that my personality was destabilizing. They would probably swaddle me with blankets in front of a mirror and sing ‘Eulenlieder’ to me all day until I got ‘better’.”

“Heh, if my sisters found out I remembered my old life’s name, our CO would probably make me run laps around the base in full battle rattle until she was convinced my personality was stable. She would likely even join in herself, both to make sure that I actually ran and because she probably feels like getting in some laps herself.”

Eule giggled at the mental image. “I guess our sisters each have their own way of showing their love to us.”

“Yeah, they did…I miss her. As hardass of a CO she was, she was still our eldest sister. She didn’t…she didn’t deserve to go out like that.”

Eule hugged Star tighter. “I know the feeling. None of our sisters did, or anyone else at Sierpinski. Especially not those poor Gestalts.”

Star nodded. “‘Enemies of the state’ or not, no one deserved what happened there. No one.”

Eule nodded back. “Some of them didn’t even deserve to be there. I talked to one of them, a girl named Erika Itou, did you know she was sent to Sierpinski because she tried to stop someone from bullying her friend?”

Star blinked at Eule in surprise. “What? But how would that…”

“That someone she tried to stop was the child of a high-ranking government official. Apparently, she did not take kindly to someone trying to stop her ‘fun’.”

“…Shit.”

“I even looked into her file. That bully’s family even had her declared dead. Why would they do such a thing?”

“…The only thing I can think of is to make the girl’s family suffer. How much more suffering can you inflict than making them wonder if their daughter is actually dead, or is just rotting in some camp like Sierpinski?”

Eule clutched Star tighter. “How awful,” she said miserably.

Star could only nod in response. “I guess at the very least, this Erika Itou isn’t suffering anymore.”

Eule nodded. She never found out what happened to Erika exactly, but considering how quickly all the other Gestalt workers had succumbed to the plague, Erika had likely died like the rest of them.

“I hope that bully gets what she deserves,” Eule said bitterly.

“I hope so too,” Star said consolingly, stroking Eule’s hair. “I guess regardless though, it’s all in the past now. Nothing we can do about that. All we can do is learn from our mistakes and enjoy the present.”

“Yeah…at the very least, my present here includes you,” Eule said lovingly, nuzzling into the crook of Star’s neck.

“Same here, love. Same here.”

And so Eule at last closed her eyes, snuggling against her lover as she finally drifted off to sleep with her.

*

Her dreams did take her back to S-23 Sierpinski, yes. But it wasn’t when everything started to go bad. Instead, she was sitting with Star on snowy Leng’s surface, watching the sea of stars in the night-black sky, untainted by light even from the Sun that was now dozens of astronomical units away. Both of them were leaning against each other and enjoying the sights, the chilly air barely felt amidst each other’s warmth and the beauty of the cosmos.

Eule wouldn’t have it any other way.

Chapter Text

Eule awoke from her dreams of Leng’s snowy surface with Star. At first thought, she was afraid to open her eyes, thinking that she will open them to the sight of a concrete roof like those of S-23 Sierpinski’s interior, or worse, the never-ending darkness that was the mines. Then it hit her: the smell of something delicious wafting through the air, and she realized that it was the smell of the same stew Rost had cooked for them for dinner. That was the first strike against the idea that all of yesterday had been a lovely dream before having to reawaken to the nightmare.

The second strike was a pair of arms wrapped around Eule in a hug. She could feel the familiar warmth of bullet resistant flexible armor-coated mechanical arms around her shoulders and on her back, and she knew who it was even without opening her eyes, but she had to anyways.

The third and final strike came when Eule finally opened her eyes, and was greeted with the sight of Star’s softly snoring face in front of her. Star’s snores were surprisingly gentle to someone familiar with her more aggressive occupation, and Eule had always found that to be adorable about her lover. Star though was currently giving Eule even more bonus cute points due to the thin line of drool leaking down from Star’s slightly open mouth, making Eule giggle at the combination silly and endearing sight.

It made Eule want to poke Star in the cheek. It was a desire that she happily obliged, courtesy of a gentle nudge into soft squishy Star cheek with Eule’s robotic index finger still covered by its white glove.

Star’s eyes snapped open instantly. Eule saw a momentary look of panic in Star’s eyes before Star saw Eule in front of her and calmed down. “Hey, beautiful,” Star said casually.

“Hey, gorgeous,” Eule replied, gently kissing Star on her lips.

“…You know, at first, I thought…I thought that–“

“You were back there?” Eule gently asked.

Star looked away from Eule’s gaze as she admitted: “Yeah.”

Eule hugged her lover more tightly. “Me too. But it’s alright now. We’re not back there. We’re here, in Rost and Äloy’s house, far away from the darkness back there.”

Star smiled at Eule and returned the hug with her own. “Yeah, you’re right.”

The two Replikas remained in that hug for a while, chasing away the darkness with their mutual love and warmth. Then…

“Hey, do you smell something good?” Star asked.

Eule giggled. “You took this long to notice?”

“Well, I was a bit engrossed in burying my face into a certain adorable Eule in front of me.”

Eule giggled once more. “Fair enough, but perhaps we can save the cuddling for until we’ve had breakfast?”

“Very well, my lady. If that is what you wish,” said Star, who pushed the fox skin blanket off of both of them, and swung her long, bird-like mechanical legs around, and levered herself up with Eule in her arms before gently setting Eule down on her own mechanical peg-like feet. Eule gave Star one last peck on her cheek before finally facing the waking world.

Said waking world, to Eule’s perspective, consisted of the tall and massive frame of Rost standing in front of his usual cauldron over the fireplace just mere centimeters from where Star and Eule had been lying, stirring stew with a long-handled spoon. Eule was actually amazed at that. The Gestalt man had been standing there the entire time, and if he hadn’t been cooking his wonderful stew, Eule would’ve never realized he was even there despite his size. She supposed that was due to his skills as a hunter, since keeping quiet and unnoticed would surely be a valuable skill to one of his profession.

Upon seeing Star and Eule get up though, Rost turned his head towards them. He smiled warmly at them and said “Good morning.”

Eule brightened up at how similar it sounded to the equivalent phrase in Eusan Standard Language, and replied with her own “Good morning.”

It seemed Rost was also curious about the similarities. He repeated “Gooten morgen?” to himself a few times in a wondering tone before shrugging and returning to stirring his stew.

It was at that point that Äloy climbed down the ladder from the second floor, yawning while doing so. Upon seeing Star and Eule though, she brightened up and waved happily at them, yelling “Morning, Aile! Shtar!” in her usual lack of indoor voice.

Rost chuckled and said something to Äloy. To Eule, it had the tone of a dry admonishment.

“Morning, Rost!” was Äloy’s immediate reply.

Eule now had to actively fight the urge to walk over and hug little Äloy. Her being so excited to greet Eule and Star that she forgot to greet her father was just. So. Adorable. It would be so inappropriate to hug a child whose family has only known them for a day, but Eule wanted to do it so badly.

“Heh, cute kid, isn’t she?” Star noted.

“You think so too?” Eule asked excitedly.

“Well, that too. But mostly because I could tell you think so just because of how much you’re vibrating in place.”

Eule immediately realized that she had been rapidly bouncing up and down on her mechanical legs the whole time, and stopped with a blush.

“Aww, and you were so cute bouncing like a Gestalt kid too,” Star teased.

Eule’s response was to reach up and poke Star in the nose, eliciting yet another adorable squeak from her lover. “Oh, stop it,” she said, laughing all the while.

A quick look at Äloy meanwhile revealed that she was also bouncing on the balls of her feet, staring at Eule and Star with an expression that looked simultaneously excited and frustrated. Eule supposed that Äloy still really wanted to talk to them, but alas, the language barrier between them was still getting in the way.

Fortunately, some things manage to bypass said language barrier, as Rost demonstrated when he turned to them and announced something with a smile, pointing at the stew and then giving a thumbs up. Eule could easily tell that meant breakfast was ready.

Once they’ve all been seated and Rost had dished out their breakfast, Eule dug into her stew. Apparently, Rost used the same bowls as last night. It was something which Eule found slightly unhygienic, but not unhygienic enough to complain about, especially since Rost took care to serve them all the same bowls they ate from last night.

To her surprise, the stew this morning was a bit different from last night’s. This one still had pork, rice, and coriander in it. However, this breakfast stew had a small egg on top. Eule had seen Rost crack several of them into the pot shortly before scooping them up into their bowls. The heat of the stew poached the egg, and gave it the most delicate texture Eule had eaten as far as poached eggs went, with the smoked pork lending its flavor to the egg as well.

Not only that, but there were beans in the stew as well. As with the colored rice that was once more at the bottom of the bowl, these beans came in a wild variety of colors, just a bit more subtly. They were overall brown, but some were such a light brown as to be almost sand-colored, while others were of a brown tinged with so much red that it was the color of rust, ironically enough given what Rost’s name meant in Eusan Standard Language.

There were even small piles of blueberries on each metal plate. Each one was a burst of fruity sweet in Eule’s mouth that was a perfect accompaniment to the stew. Not only that, but for these blueberries to be so fresh with not a store in sight, Eule realized that not only must blueberries be in season right now, but Rost had to have gone to the trouble of going out right at daybreak to pick them for their breakfast. In fact, Eule suddenly realized that the eggs for the stew would also likely have been gathered this morning, likely even from wild bird’s nests since Rost didn’t have a chicken coop in sight.

Truly, Eule thought Rost would make a great Eule with that kind of dedication to his cooking. However, the thought of Rost wearing a Eule uniform–complete with the white blouse, tight black shorts, and black garrison cap–made Eule start giggling to herself, prompting a raised eyebrow from Rost as well as Star. That eyebrow only raised higher when Eule explained herself to Star, which resulted in Star staring at Rost for all of maybe 3 seconds before she too started cracking up at the image. Rost clearly could tell that he was the butt of some sort of joke, but couldn’t decide what it was, and so he shrugged and ignored their laughter. Eule supposed it was a good thing that the language barrier was keeping him from finding out just how silly of a joke he was the butt of.

It was while relaxing with Star after that breakfast, with Rost having cleared the dishes and plates and placed them in the cooking pot after having doused the fireplace, that Eule realized something very important. Nature was calling to her, but she had no idea where Rost’s toilet was. She didn’t see anything like a bathroom inside the house or outside. There hadn’t even been anything like an outhouse when she and Star had been walking to Rost’s and Äloy’s house. Even worse, she couldn’t think of any easy way to ask Rost where his toilet was…if he even had one.

Star quickly noticed Eule’s worry. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” she asked.

Eule quickly explained her dilemma, leaving Star with a dumbfounded look on her face.

“Oh…yeah, now that you mention it, I do kind of need to use the toilet too. Shit, how do you even ask that here?” Star wondered, scratching her head in thought.

Eule tried to ask Rost where his toilet was, even using synonyms like lavatory in the hopes that it might be close enough to Rost’s language for him to get it.

Unfortunately, all she got from Rost was a blank look, along with him asking “Toilet-te? Close-set?” in a confused tone.

It was when Eule was at her wit’s end though that a solution came to her. It was a solution that made Eule blush in embarrassment even thinking about it, but she couldn’t think of any other way to convey her need to Rost.

Eule got up from her seat, squatted down on the floor, and made a loud groaning sound, followed quickly by getting back up and making a questioning sound at Rost. With Eule blushing deeply the entire time, and a quick peek at Star in between revealing that she too had a blush on her face.

Fortunately, it paid off. Rost’s eyes widened and he went “Ohhh” in comprehension. Little Äloy also understood what Eule was doing, and reacted in a manner most appropriate to her age: she fell over giggling, rolling on the floor in laughter at Eule, which only made Eule’s blush deepen.

Even more fortunately, Rost did not share in Äloy’s amusement. He merely sighed and got up from his seat, walking to the front door and beckoning at Eule to follow, which she did with Star following close behind her. After exiting out the front door, he walked not to the front gate they had all entered through yesterday, but to a side gate.

Once through there, Eule and Star followed Rost as he walked some ways out from his house, but not far enough that his house was no longer visible. There, in a tucked away area in the middle of a small patch of forest with large-leaved bushes around, were a pair of wooden outhouses a short distance away from each other, along with a small open-sided hut nearby where clay containers sat in for some reason. Rost walked to one of the wooden outhouses and opened the door for Eule and Star to peek into, revealing a wooden board on bare ground. He then lifted it, revealing that it was basically a wooden door covering another wooden board with a small hole cut in it and attached by a hinge.

“Huh, a pit latrine?” Star noted. “I can dig it.”

Eule could only snort at the pun. If she had a pillow, she would’ve thrown it at Star’s face. As it was, she settled merely for reaching up to playfully poke Star in the cheek.

Rost pointed at the apparent toilet he opened and nodded while smiling and pointing at it. He then pointed to the other toilet, made an exaggerated frown and shook his head.

Eule nodded back, understanding what he was getting at. She had no idea why he wanted her and Star to use that particular toilet instead of the other one. Maybe it was the girls’ outhouse, or maybe it was for another reason entirely. She had no idea, but she wasn’t going to complain. She was just relieved that there was an actual toilet to use.

Rost nodded in reply to Eule’s nod, and then briskly walked off back to his house, satisfied that he made his point across.

Star held her hand out to the outhouse. “After you, my lady.”

“Why, thank you, my lady,” Eule replied with a smile before entering the outhouse and closing the door.

It then suddenly occurred to Eule that there was no toilet paper anywhere to be seen in the outhouse. Did Rost just expect her to wipe off with a…leaf…it just as suddenly occurred to her that was what those large-leaved bushes are for. Eule went back out (to Star’s confusion), pulled several leaves off from the bushes, and then went back in (to Star’s comprehension), blushing the whole time.

Eule realized then that this was probably what it meant by “rough living”. At least she had it better than Star, who banged her head on the top door frame of the outhouse on her own way in after Eule was finished. Clearly, Rost had not envisioned his outhouse being used by a person well over two meters tall.

*

Sometime later, Eule and Star were standing by the edge of a stream with Rost and Äloy. They were both dressed in long hosen made of more animal skins that Rost had insisted they wear for some reason, with Rost hurriedly stitching on an extension made of what looked like squirrel fur to Star’s hosen when he saw that they left most of her lower legs uncovered. Rost had even made Eule and Star put on boots made of leather, although getting them to stay on their peg-like feet when said boots had clearly been designed for Gestalt feet had been a challenge. Rost in the end had resorted to stuffing the boots full of fur scraps, and then tying the top of the boots tightly to the Replikas’ legs with wire.

Eule found that walking with such a bizarre setup to be…tricky, but Rost had been insistent that they wear the hosen and boots despite how awkward it was to walk in them. Star had theorized that Rost didn’t want people to see their legs for some reason, but neither she nor Eule could figure out why. In the end, Eule and Star both agreed to it, but Eule resolved to herself that she would ask Rost about it later.

Thus, the Replikas watched as Rost washed the dishware in the aforementioned stream, starting with the massive pot, which he was scrubbing with what looked like a piece of animal hide covered in coarse bristly hair. Probably one of those wild pigs’ hide, judging by the wild pigs Eule had seen run away from them on the way to the stream.

Eule had actually offered once more to help with the dish (and pot) washing, but once more, Rost was having none of it, and gently but firmly refused her help. Rost seemed to at least recognize that Eule wanted to help out though, so he first pointed at his eyes, pointed at Eule and Star, and then pointed at little Äloy, who even as he was gesturing, was already running off.

The message was pretty clear to Eule: “Watch Äloy and make sure she doesn’t get into trouble.”

Eule smiled and nodded, finally getting to do something useful to help, and ran off after Äloy, only stumbling once in the process as her Replika foot slipped a bit in its Gestalt boot. Star followed close behind, smiling at Eule’s energy.

Fortunately, Äloy did eventually slow down to a walk, and ended up walking alongside Eule and Star. The little Gestalt girl spoke in more of her strange language to the Replika couple. Unfortunately, Eule still couldn’t understand anything she said aside from the few random words that almost but not quite sounded like Eusan Standard Language. Even with that language barrier in place though, Eule quite enjoyed Äloy’s company. She was a cheerful and lively little girl, who clearly loved her father and enjoyed exploring the world around her.

For a moment, Eule could even imagine that she was a teacher taking a child out for a field trip to some Recreation Space in Rotfront, with Star coming along as an officer of the law just to make sure no ruffian interfered with their outing. The thought made Eule smile, both at the situation and at the adorable little Gestalt girl who continued chatting away to her and Star despite clearly making no headway against the language barrier.

Thus, it was a bit of a surprise when Äloy suddenly stopped. Eule looked up from watching Äloy, and she could see why. Up ahead, there were Gestalts. They were composed of a small group of women accompanied by a gaggle of children. All of them were dressed in animal skins and had blue paint in various designs on their faces, just like Rost did. Thus, Eule assumed that they must belong to the same people that Rost and Äloy belonged to.

The Gestalt women and children quickly noticed the trio. Some of the children started running towards them before the women held them back. One of the women, a fairly young-looking Gestalt, then walked towards them, her eyes narrowed in suspicion, until she was right in front of them.

Eule smiled at her and bowed politely in greeting, hoping to appear as friendly and unthreatening as possible. “Hello,” she said to the Gestalt woman.

Star also made an effort to appear unthreatening. It was a bit more difficult for her given her 220 cm height, but she did make an effort, smiling politely with her hands behind her back, and also giving a polite bow the same as Eule.

For her part, the Gestalt woman looked from Eule to Star and back again, arms folded and still looking a bit suspicious. However, she had lost some of her somewhat hostile look at seeing Eule and Star behaving so nonthreateningly. She then turned to Eule and asked her something in Rost’s language. It started with something that sounded like “Autseider” to Eule, and everything after it was just as incomprehensible.

“I’m sorry. I don’t speak your people’s language, and neither does Star here,” Eule said in reply to the woman’s words once she’d finished speaking.

The woman’s response was the same blank look Rost had given Eule when she had first attempted to speak to him.

“We’re with Rost,” Star said. “You know, Rost? Big tall Gestalt with a pig on his shoulder? Rost?”

Fortunately, the woman did seem to widen her eyes in comprehension at the mention of Rost’s name. Strangely enough though, it was followed by a scoff from the woman. It sounded like…scorn to Eule? She had no idea why this woman would react to Rost’s name with scorn though. She can’t imagine Rost doing anything to offend this woman to deserve such a reaction, especially not with the way he treated Äloy with such love.

The situation only became more confusing when the woman finally looked down and saw Äloy, who Eule now saw was looking up expectantly at the woman, with a hopeful smile plastered on her face. To Eule’s shock, the woman scoffed at Äloy in a scornful manner as well, and deliberately looked away from Äloy, as though she was pretending that Äloy didn’t exist.

Although Eule remained smiling on the outside, on the inside she was furious. Just what could Äloy have possibly done to this woman to deserve this kind of a treatment? Already, the sight of Äloy looking down in disappointment made her biomechanical heart melt, and result in a fresh torrent of anger at this woman for her behavior.

Another Gestalt woman, this one even younger than the first, came up to the first Gestalt woman and asked her something that included that word “Autseider”. The first woman shook her head and huffed, before saying something to the younger woman to make her look at Eule and Star quizzically and then walk back to their group. The first woman followed after her, occasionally stopping to look back at Eule and Star, before they returned to their group and continued what they were doing before.

Which as it turned out, was picking blueberries. Eule watched as the women picked large, luscious-looking blueberries from enormous clusters growing on just as lush-looking bushes, and put them into wicker baskets. At the same time, the women were patiently and calmly speaking to the children, who would then gather the same blueberries to present to the women. The women then spoke in proud, congratulatory tones to the children, and let them put the blueberries into the basket before said children happily ran off to gather more.

It was transparently clear to Eule that the women were teaching their children about which fruits and plants were safe to gather from. Eule wouldn’t have minded sitting in on the lesson to learn that herself, if she could’ve understood the lesson. And if she could’ve stood learning from women who reacted to Rost and Äloy like that.

Star leaned in close to Eule. “Okay, is it just me, or was that a weird reaction to hearing Rost’s name?” she asked quietly.

“It’s not just you,” Eule replied just as quietly. “And the fact that she had that same reaction to Äloy? I don’t like it. There’s something strange going on here. What could Äloy have possibly done to deserve that?”

“Nothing that seems even remotely reasonable to me that I can imagine, that’s for certain,” Star said firmly.

“Agreed,” Eule replied with a nod. “It’s all the more reason to learn Rost’s people’s language and–wait. Where’s Äloy?”

Eule looked around for the little flame-haired Gestalt girl, along with Star who was slowly scanning the area for the same. They’d barely gotten started though when said little flame-haired Gestalt girl came running back to them. Äloy then held up her hands at both Eule and Star. There, contained in tiny hands, was a double handful of blueberries, which when compared to Äloy’s hands, made them look utterly massive.

“I suppose she really wanted to pick some blueberries,” Eule noted to Star with a smile.

“Seems so. Too bad she only has 2 hands. She probably would’ve picked the whole bush clean with that amount of dedication,” Star noted back with a slight smile of her own.

Eule giggled before turning back to Äloy and saying cheerfully: “Good job, Äloy!” She knew Äloy didn’t understand her, but she wanted Äloy to know that she appreciated her work.

Äloy however kept holding up the blueberries to Eule, then Star, and then back again. All while making an insistent face, and sounds to go with it.

Eule’s smile became even wider when she realized what Äloy wanted from them. “Star, she really wants us to try one,” she said with a happy squeal.

Star smiled as well. Both at the sheer joy on her lover’s face and the insistent determination on Äloy’s face. “Well then, let’s not keep the little lady waiting,” she said with her own smile plastered on her polyethylene face.

Almost as one, Eule and Star each took a blueberry from the pile lying in Äloy’s hands, and after a pause, popped it into each other’s mouths.

Immediately, Eule tasted the same sweetness from this morning’s blueberry breakfast. It was completely sweet, with not a hint of tartness to mar that sweetness. It was the kind of sweetness that could not be obtained by the usual State grocery store tactic of artificially ripening green blueberries at the store for mass consumption. It was the kind of sweetness that could only be possible with blueberries left to ripen on the vine, er, bush in the light and warmth of the sun. It was the kind of sweetness that, once more, caused Eule to make appreciative sounds in between her savoring the taste of the delicious fruit.

“Good!” Eule said to Äloy with a big, carbon steel teeth-exposing smile. “This good!”

Star snorted at the ridiculously simplified words before smiling at Äloy and patting her head affectionately, saying: “Yes. Good. Very good, kid.”

Äloy returned the smiles with a smile of her own and a giggling laugh of pure, unadulterated joy before running off. Eule stared after Äloy with a longing look.

“Heh, you really want to hug Äloy, don’t you?” Star teased.

Eule looked at her lover in shock. “How did you know? Did you secretly get a Bioresonance module installed when I wasn’t looking?” Eule asked, gaping at Star.

Star burst out in laughter, making Eule give her an annoyed look, before explaining: “You were making this little squeal from the back of your throat as you were staring at the kid.” Seeing Eule’s blushing face, Star continued: “You were so cute. You sounded like a little dog begging to be petted-”

Star was cut off by a Eule’s robotic finger poking into her cheek. Repeatedly.

“Oh, you naughty girl, you!” Eule squeaked as she launching a pokey assault at Star’s cheek, all while blushing.

“Okay, stop! Stop!” Star laughed, as she valiantly fended off her lover’s offensive. It was when Eule finally relented and Star had a chance to think that Eule saw a look of realization dawn on her face. “Huh, this could work.”

Eule cocked her head at Star and gave her a quizzical look, accompanied by a sound that was just as quizzical.

“I mean for how we can repay Rost for the breakfast. He’s got an empty sack, and we’ve got some time on our hands. So let’s go blueberry picking,” Star said with a grin.

Eule clapped her hands enthusiastically. “I like the sound of that idea,” Eule happily declared.

Star planted a kiss on Eule’s lips. “Wait here, love. I’m going to ask Rost for that sack. Be right back, and stop Äloy if she tries to eat it all,” said Star as she bounded off, only stumbling once, no wait, twice before Star was out of sight.

Eule laughed at Star’s enthusiasm and energy before turning back to look at Äloy, only to get an eyeful of a strange sight.

Äloy was holding up her double handful of blueberries again, with seemingly even more of the fruits stacked onto the pile. Only, she was holding them up to the first Gestalt woman from before. The woman’s response to that display of helpfulness appears to be to lead her group of children away from Äloy. Even when a small blonde Gestalt boy was looking quizzically at Äloy, the woman quickly ran over, took him by the shoulder, and led him away as though Äloy was cursed.

Eule had no idea what was happening, but her confusion was rapidly turning into righteous fury. Why were they all treating little Äloy like this? What could this sweet little Gestalt girl have done to deserve this kind of shunning? Especially when she was doing her best to help?

Before she could lead Äloy away from this horrible woman though, she watched as Äloy threw her blueberries down onto the ground, then turned and started running.

“Äloy? Äloy!” Eule shouted, running after her. She stumbled a few times from the awkward footing thanks to her boots, but her much-longer-than-child’s-leg-length and double-jointed legs ensured that she was able to catch up with the little Gestalt girl’s much shorter stride. “Äloy!” she shouted once more.

“Go ‘way!” Äloy shouted back.

“Äloy! Stop! It’s okay! Just stop and let’s calm down, okay?!” Eule replied, with Aloy almost within reach.

Äloy half-turned her head to further shout: “I said ‘go ‘way’!”. Eule was close enough to Äloy that she can now see the tears in the little Gestalt girl’s eyes, and she vowed to herself that she would make up for everything that horrible Gestalt woman had done to Äloy.

Unfortunately, Eule was also close enough to clearly see the exact moment when Äloy stumbled and tripped. She was also close enough to see that Äloy was right on the edge of what looked like a large sinkhole, and she watched in horror as Äloy tripped in its exact direction.

“Äloy!” Eule screamed as she briefly bunched her legs together before springing forth and grabbing Äloy into a tight hug.

Replika and little Gestalt girl briefly rolled across grassy earth and rock, with Eule doing her best to shield Äloy from the impacts, before tumbling into the stygian abyss.

‘I’m sorry, Star,’ Eule mentally apologized to her lover as she braced for impact.

*

Eule felt the shock of hitting cold water first before hitting more rock and earth. Thankfully, the water acted as a cushion, keeping her and Äloy from being seriously injured by the fall, and thus she quickly levered herself up, still tightly holding little Äloy in her robotic arms.

Thankfully, the water appeared to only go up to her lower knee even at its deepest and had been as still as a pane of glass before she and Äloy fell into it, so it didn’t seem like they were in any immediate danger of drowning. Unfortunately, Eule and Äloy then looked up and saw only a shaft of sunlight coming from the small hole far above where they’d dropped in, with absolutely no way to climb back up.

“Rost! Down here! Rost!” Äloy yelled at the top of her little lungs.

“Star! Star, I’m down here! Help! Star!” Eule yelled at the same time, hoping their combined efforts would yield help.

Alas, no matter how loudly they yelled, there was no reply. Their voices eventually trailed off, leaving only the echoes of their voices resounding around them, as though mocking them for their efforts.

Eule sighed in defeat before looking around further. She and Äloy seemed to have fallen into some kind of cavern, likely only exposed with the formation of that sinkhole they fell through. The water they were standing in was coated in the tiny green nubs of duckweed, with fronds of some larger pondweed visible in between and below the duckweed, indicating that the sinkhole likely formed a decent time ago for this much aquatic vegetation to be present.

The pond was surrounded by patches of mossy earth, fed by the same waters that gave life to the duckweed and pondweed. Beyond that though was solid rock. Spear-like stalagmites rose upward from the rock, reaching towards needle-like stalactites that were themselves coming down to meet them. Even further beyond that though was a passageway that seemed to lead deeper into the cavern.

Eule walked towards the passageway, but didn’t enter it. Instead, she gently set Äloy down on solid and mostly dry rock and examined her for injuries. To her relief, the little Gestalt girl had none. Eule had shielded her well. She had been a good Eule.

Äloy though started sniffling and crying. She started saying that same thing she’d been saying to Eule and Star last night when they’d been…competing with each other to see who deserved more blame, Eule thought depressingly. That words Äloy were using though…its meaning was obvious to Eule now due to the context. It had to have been her language’s way of saying “I’m sorry”.

“It’s okay, Äloy. It’s okay,” Eule said to Äloy, using her calmest tones and gently shushing Äloy in between words. “We’ll be okay. We’ll get out this, I swear. Truly, I swear on the Red Eye that we will get back to Rost and Star. So let’s stay calm and get through this, okay?”

Äloy eventually stopped crying as the calmness of Eule’s words finally reached her. Eule was glad when Äloy ceased her tears, mildly perturbed but indulgently accepting when Äloy blew her nose on her blue scarf, and then puzzled when Äloy reached out a little hand and brushed Eule’s cheek. Eule’s confusion quickly to alarm when Äloy’s fingers came back covered in red. Äloy looked worriedly at the red fluid on her fingers, and then started to reach up to her partially open mouth–

Before Eule reached out and gently but firmly took hold of Äloy’s arm. “No,” Eule said, shaking her head for emphasis before gently but firmly leading Äloy to the pond to wash the red off. Eule had no idea what sort of microorganisms lived in that pond water, but she was certain that they’d be less toxic than her blood-like oxidant to Äloy and all other Gestalts.

As Eule swished Äloy’s hand in the water, washing away the oxidant into the pond, Eule took the opportunity to examine her reflection in the water. The source of the leaking oxidant turned out to be a cut on her cheek. The amount of oxidant leaking out was tiny though, due to the cut itself being just as tiny. Eule was sure she didn’t even need to apply a repair patch to it. In fact, the cut had already ceased bleeding and looked to be coagulating nicely.

Once Eule was sure that there wasn’t so much as a fleck of oxidant remaining on Äloy’s fingers, she finally let go of Äloy’s hand. Äloy wiped said hand on her…blouse, still looking worriedly at the cut on Eule’s cheek.

“I’m fine, really,” Eule said in the same calming tone as before, which seemed to assuage Äloy for now.

As if they were of the same mind, both Eule and Äloy stood up and turned to look at the passageway behind them. Unfortunately, there was no other way out aside from that passageway. There was a hint of light coming from it, but otherwise, it was as dark as an unlit corridor of S-23 Sierpinski.

The reminder made a chill come down Eule’s carbon steel spine, her polyethylene skin crawl, and her breath come in ever-quicker pants as she remembered darkened mining tunnels from which sprung twisted, bloodthirsty monsters which used to be her sisters, friends, and coworkers. Then a small warm hand took hold of Eule’s, and she looked down at Äloy’s tiny face. Äloy said something to her along with “Aile”, but Eule wasn’t paying attention to the words she still didn’t understand. Instead, she listened to Äloy using a calm, stable tone: the same tone Eule herself had been using on Äloy mere moments ago.

Eule smiled warmly at Äloy, embracing her for several moments before letting go, feeling much calmer now. “Thank you, Äloy,” Eule said.

Äloy tilted her head at Eule. “Dan-ke?” she asked.

Eule nodded with a smile. “Yes. Thank you.”

Äloy returned the smile with a bright smile of her own. “Danke,” she said with a giggle before continuing: “Thank you. Danke. Thank you.”

Eule smiled back even more warmly at having learned one more word of Äloy and Rost’s language before taking a deep breath and exhaling, her spirits restored and fortified now.

“Äloy,” Eule said, gaining the little Gestalt girl’s attention. “I will protect you. I failed Star before but…I won’t fail you now. This I swear to the Red Eye.”

Eule was sure Äloy had no idea what she said just now, but even so, Äloy nodded solemnly.

With that said, it was time to prepare.

Eule undid the latch on her holster, and pulled out her Type-75 “Protektor” pistol. She pulled back on the slide slightly to check the chamber, and nodded at the bullet still chambered in there since yesterday before letting the slide go back into firing position. Star had drilled it into her that even if she was absolutely sure that the weapon was empty or full, that she should always check the chamber regardless. It was just a good gun safety rule.

Eule then depressed the magazine release with her thumb, and examined the popped out magazine. It was full this time. Before setting out, Eule had taken a single 10x20mm bullet from one of her remaining boxes of ammo, and placed it into the magazine to bring it back up to 10 rounds. Satisfied that this was indeed still the case, Eule inserted it back into the pistol and flicked the safety off. Now her pistol was ready.

Next, Eule turned on her mapping module overlay to make sure her RKM-7 Spatial Navigation Module, or simply the “mapping module” as she and the other Eules called it, was functioning correctly. A transparent 2D map of the area around them instantly appeared across her vision. Only parts of the cavern around her was mapped though, with Eule needing to physically explore the area to map it out. Still, she had a feeling her mapping module was going to be extremely handy here for exploring this place. She felt a pang of sympathy for her sister EULR-S2303 “März” and her defective mapping module. The poor woman never did get her mapping module repaired before everything happened. She had to run with Eule and everyone else into the mines without any real idea where she’d been or where she was going–

Eule dragged März to where the floodlight’s beam lit up the dark just a bit, trying to tell her everything will be okay. März’s mouth moved, clearly trying to form the words “I’m sorry”, but unable to say anything past the oxidant welling up from internal injuries inflicted by those monofilament wire traps and choking her–

Eule shuddered and shook her head, dismissing her mapping module overlay in the process. She couldn’t afford to get lost in dark memories now. Not when Äloy needed her.

After that, Eule took off the boots Rost made her wear, and placed them neatly together on dry ground, taking the strings tying them to her leg and the squirrel skins stuffed in them and stuffing them in with her ammo box pouches. She had nowhere to put the boots, and it would be a violation of the Rule of Six even if she had found a way to carry them. She hoped Rost would forgive her for leaving these boots behind, and promised herself to come back for them later…when she and Äloy found a way out of this cavern.

Finally, Eule gently took Äloy by the hand, and pulled the little Gestalt girl behind her before beckoning to her to follow, hoping that Äloy understood her message that she should follow closely behind Eule.

Äloy nodded, to which Eule nodded back before finally stepping into the passageway with Äloy right behind her, and her pistol pointed at the ground, finger off the trigger…for now.

Eule didn’t get more than a few steps into the passageway before seeing a shaft of light. It was a bit wan, but it was large, suggesting that there might be daylight just ahead. Thus, she continued forward into the light–

And was immediately greeted by small flying shapes swarming into her. Eule immediately brought her pistol up, but she didn’t fire, and she wasn’t quite sure why at first. It suddenly became clear why: the flying things weren’t attacking her. They were trying to get away from her, and were all expertly avoiding her.

Well, all save for a single small shape that landed with a miniscule thump onto her white-gloved robotic arm. Eule peered closely at it.

It was a small furry creature, even smaller than her hand. Its entire body was covered in thick brown fuzz, and it seemed to have large black wings for arms. The little creature peered up at her with little black eyes framed by large black ears, staring inquisitively at her and making little adorable squeaks at her that melted her biomechanical heart.

Eule instantly thanked the Red Eye that she didn’t open fire. She had no idea what it was. It looked like a small, winged mouse. However, the thought of harming even a single brown fuzz on this cute little guy’s body felt like a war crime to her. Judging by Äloy’s entranced stare, she clearly thought so too.

The little winged mouse stared at Eule for a few more moments before it launched itself up and away, following after its flock.

Eule and Äloy looked at each other for a moment before simultaneously giggling. With that small obstacle out the way, Eule and Äloy then continued to press onward.

The passageway sloped sharply upward, but Eule’s foot pads and Äloy’s nearly-bare feet were up to the task of gripping the surface. Even the passageway turning a bit small at one point was solved merely by the both of them merely crouching. It was when Eule emerged from the narrow portion of the passageway with Äloy though that she suddenly stopped at the sight before her.

There, just ahead, were things that were very clearly guardrails.

Stepping forward towards the guardrails, Eule suddenly heard the sound of her footsteps change in timbre. From the thunks of foot pad on stone, to the metallic clangs that were now emanating from every step her feet took. The realization that she was stepping on metal flooring told her that this was clearly some sort of constructed facility even before she looked over the guardrails.

Before her laid some sort of room that had clearly seen better days. Likely even better years judging by the vegetation and stalagmites, but it was very clearly artificial. The massive…pipe/vent thing on the room’s right told her that, even without taking into account the ruined machinery littered around the room, encrusted with so much stone from dripping water that they almost, but not quite, looked like parts of the cavern.

Äloy said something, causing Eule to look down at her face blankly. Äloy looked thoughtful for a moment before spreading her arms wide and saying: “Metal World.”

“Metall…Vald?” Eule tried to say. The first word sounded almost exactly like Eusan Standard Language for “metal”, and given the metal flooring and other metal things around the world, she was fairly certain that the 2 words meant the same thing. She had no idea what “Vald” meant thought. Maybe…world? It sounded somewhat similar to “world”, but with a “v” sound instead of a “w” sound, among other small differences. Still, “Metal World” seemed apt for this facility, and so that’s what Eule went with, and so she nodded at Äloy before continuing her examination of the room.

Scanning the Metal World room, Eule quickly noticed the door on the left side of the room. The door was just as metal as the rest of the room, and seemed to resemble a sliding bunker door. It was also half open, which led Eule to ask herself why no one had closed it. Still, it seemed to be the only way through this place, so Eule got Äloy’s attention and pointed at that door. Äloy nodded, and together, they walked down a small flight of stairs and entered that door, Eule in front of Äloy and holding her pistol at the ready.

Inside was another Metal World room filled with more ruined machinery and another bunker door. Rats crawled across the floor as they walked, making Äloy wrinkle her face in disgust at them. Eule wasn’t exactly a big fan of rats either, since rats were unfortunately one of the animals that survived the mass extinctions that’d gripped Vineta even before its devastation during the Revolution, and spread with humanity across their worlds, leaving them free to infest stored foodstuffs and spread diseases the same way they had since the dawn of history. Thus, Eule and Äloy briskly crossed the room, neatly avoiding stepping on any of the squeaking vermin.

Through this door was another room, and a flight of stairs lit by daylight and leading upwards. Eule and Äloy climbed up the stairs, which turned into another flight of stairs. The sound of their footsteps panicked another flock of those winged mice, which Eule ignored along with Äloy now that they knew what they were. Through abandoned metal corridors and another door, the duo walked until they came across a room in which sunlight streamed down on–

“A body?” Eule said in shock as she took in the sight before her.

It was indeed a corpse. A long-dead one, judging by how skeletal the remains were. The body was lying on its back, and its right hand was half-stretched towards the ceiling, as though grasping for salvation that had clearly never come. It was dressed in the remains of a shirt and pants and had a flat chest, so Eule guessed that it was a man. The lack of mechanical limbs and the decidedly nonmetal bones and teeth indicated that it was the body of a Gestalt man. Beyond that, Eule couldn’t even guess at its identity.

Fortunately, the sickness that had gripped S-23 Sierpinski had granted the Gestalt prisoner-workers death instead of the fate that had befell the Replika infected. Thus, Eule had nothing to fear from this corpse.

Eule was about to tell Äloy to move on when Äloy crouched down next to the corpse’s head. Eule started to tell Äloy to get away from there when she suddenly noticed light glinting off of something on the side of said corpse’s head. Curious now, Eule crouched down herself to get a better look.

It was the strangest thing Eule had ever seen. It appeared to be a sleek triangle made of some silvery white metal, smaller than even the shrunken remains of the corpse’s ears. Even stranger, there was a white glowing line running partway down the triangle. As if that wasn’t enough, the line was…flashing? Was it a trick of Eule’s eyes? No, it was indeed flashing, clearly indicating that it was being actively powered by a power source within.

Eule wondered how? Especially given the ruined state of this Metal World facility. Was there some kind of miniature nuclear reactor within that triangle powering it? The thought was absurd, but then again, so was the fact that this…device had active power running through it after obviously sitting here for the Red Eye knew how long.

Eule was so busy pondering the mystery of the device that she only noticed that Äloy was reaching for it when she snatched it off the corpse’s head.

“Äloy,” Eule said in a warning tone. If this device was indeed powered by a miniature nuclear reactor of some kind, then it could potentially be very, very, VERY dangerous.

Äloy didn’t notice though as she turned the device around in her hands, examining every angle of it. Eule saw that the flip side of the device wasn’t a solid silvery white like its “front”, but rather, it was black-rimmed with a solid black line running through the middle, effectively bisecting it into 2 triangles. Within each smaller triangle, a latticework of black lines further divided them into even smaller triangles, forming a peculiar hexagonal pattern within each smaller triangle. For what reason, Eule couldn’t even begin to fathom.

Äloy started to reach up to her own right temple, device in hand and apparently about to put it in the same place where it had been attached to the corpse. Eule quickly grabbed Äloy’s arm in an effort to keep her from doing so, saying “No” to her as she gently but firmly clamped her robotic hand onto Äloy’s wrist.

Äloy was so shocked by the action that she immediately let go of the metal triangle. Eule watched in just as much shock as the triangle, instead of falling to the ground, suddenly flew onto Äloy’s temple just in front of her ear, and latched on like some kind of parasite.

At first, Äloy looked just as shocked as Eule felt. Then, Eule watched as the shock on Äloy’s face turned to wonder and awe. Eule was confused at this. To her, nothing seemed to have happened when that metal triangle latched onto Äloy’s temple. Yet Äloy was clearly looking at something, her head rapidly moving about and her eyes tracking things that Eule could definitely not see.

“Äloy, are you okay?” Eule asked, pointing at Äloy and asking that question with a thumbs up and a questioning tone.

Äloy stopped her looking around to look at Eule. The little Gestalt girl gave a smile and her own thumbs up, only to suddenly look puzzled. Äloy said a strange word, but in a questioning tone, as though she was asking Eule what it meant. Eule had no idea what the word meant herself. The best she could describe was that it sounded like “autotranslät” to her, followed by more words.

“Äloy? Are you sure you’re okay?” Eule asked once more, repeating her earlier actions alongside the question.

Äloy didn’t reply at first. Instead, she stared at Eule with an expression that looked both surprised and quizzical. “Aile? Can you say that again? Again? Mmm, repeat? Argh, how do I tell you to say what you just said again?”

“I said ‘Äloy? Are you sure you’re okay?’ How do you say something like that in–”

Eule’s words suddenly crashed to a halt as her brain began to process what just happened. Both Eule and Äloy stared at each other in shock for several moments.

“Äloy, did you just speak?” Eule asked.

“Aile, did you just talk normal?” Äloy asked at the exact same time.

More silence filled the air between them for a few moments more, before the silence was instantly replaced by sounds of laughter.

“Äloy! You can speak? How? You couldn’t speak just a moment ago, and now you suddenly can? How?!” Eule asked excitedly.

“I don’t know, Aile! I just saw these words that said ‘Auto-translate in progress’, and then suddenly I can understand you! I mean, you’re still talking funny, but I can understand you and these words are appearing on the bottom and they look like what you’re saying!” Äloy replied, bouncing in equal excitement.

“Okay wait, Äloy, slow down. ‘Auto-translate’? That…thing is translating for you? How?” Eule asked in complete bewilderment.

Now that Äloy has pointed it out to her, Eule suddenly realized that Äloy wasn’t actually speaking her language. She was still speaking her strange language, but…it was as though there was another louder version of her voice overlaid on top of her normal voice. It sounded exactly the same as Äloy’s normal voice, but it wasn’t coming from her mouth. Rather, it was…coming from the device on Äloy’s temple.

Eule had no idea how it was possible for something smaller than her own polyethylene-scaled ear to perform translation work that would require an entire cadre of Eules taking months, if not years, to perform; but it was clearly doing it. And frankly, it was less fantastical than the Machines, in Eule’s opinion.

And apparently, Äloy had even less of an idea than Eule did, for her reply to Eule’s question was to shrug and say: “I don’t know. Metal World magic?”

Eule started to say that there’s no such thing as magic, but then she remembered how she had no idea how she and Star ended up in this world. For all she knew, there was magic here.

Thus, Eule sighed and replied with a simple: “Maybe.”

Äloy looked thoughtful for a moment before she suddenly had a look of realization on her face. She pulled off the triangular device from her temple and asked Eule something…except now it was back to her strange language, with none of that translated speech overlaid onto her voice.

Thus, Eule stared blankly at a confused Äloy and said: “I’m sorry, I can’t understand you.”

Äloy blinked in bewilderment before putting the device back on her temple and asking: “Can you understand me now?”

Eule tilted her head at Äloy. “Huh, so that ‘auto-translate’ function only works when you’re wearing it?"

Äloy bobbed her head quickly, before saying: “Oh, I was going to get you to put this Metal World device on too, so that you can see what I’m seeing.”

Eule looked in surprise, pointed at herself, and asked in just as much surprise. “Me?!”

Äloy practically looked like she was vibrating her head at the rate she was nodding. “Yeah!”

“You don’t feel…weird with that thing on you?” Eule asked in concern. Her previous musings about this device being powered by a miniature nuclear reactor were still dancing in her head.

Äloy tilted her head at Eule. “No? What do you mean by weird?”

Eule looked thoughtful as she recalled the symptoms of radiation poisoning. First, she looked over Aloy’s temple where the device was still attached to. There was no skin reddening there, so that was good.

Next, Eule asked: “Do you feel any nausea, headaches, or fatigue?”

Äloy tilted her head the other way at Eule. “Nooo.”

Finally, Eule reached over and touched Äloy’s forehead, eliciting a squeak from the little Gestalt girl as Eule tried to feel if Äloy had a fever. Her thermometric sensors on her hand indicated a temperature well within the normal range for a healthy Gestalt. No indication of a fever in the slightest.

Eule breathed a sigh of relief. If there was indeed a miniature nuclear reactor in that device, it was incredibly well-shielded. Or she was entirely wrong about its power source. Either way, it looked like it was perfectly safe to Äloy, so it should be even safer for Eule to wear.

Äloy looked expectantly at Eule. “So are you going to put on this Metal World device? Please?”

Eule stared at the puppy dog look Äloy was giving her, and her biomechanical heart melted. Seeing how it seemed to be not harming Äloy in the slightest, Eule relented and held out her free left hand.

An excited Äloy happily pulled off the device, and placed it into Eule’s white-gloved hand.

Eule felt the device for a bit, feeling both sides of it. The silvery-white metal side turned out to have a textured surface, while the side with the black latticework on it felt perfectly smooth in a strange contrast to their appearances. Eule sighed, took a deep breath, held it close to her own right temple, and let go.

Instantly, the device flew into her temple and latched on, just as it did for Äloy. Eule heard a strange high-pitched whirring sound come from the device, and then her eyes widened, first in shock, and then in just as much awe as Äloy must’ve felt as Eule tried to process what she was seeing.

All around Eule were lights. A web of faintly glowing lines surrounded herself in an orb shape, composed of interlocking triangles that mimicked the shape of the device. At the same time, there was now some sort of…reticule in the center of her vision. It was shaped like a hexagon with a circle set just within it, and a tiny square right in the very center of the circle. On the side and below the tiny circle were just as tiny diamonds, with more the tiny diamonds extending outside the hexagon. Eule was certain Star would have a better idea of what the reticule’s design was for, but for now, she was just marveling at it.

Eule stood up and moved her head around, and discovered that the reticule moved with her field of vision, always staying unwaveringly in the center of her field of vision. It was while doing this that Eule noticed that something had changed greatly about her surroundings. All around her, the ruined machinery seemed to have sprung to life. Glowing lines and shapes dotted the rusted and mineral-covered metal. Flat things, both square-shaped and rectangular, on top of tables now had glowing screens on them, making Eule realize in shock that they were visual display units for computers, but far thinner than anything she’d ever used in S-23 Sierpinski, or really anywhere else in the Eusan Nation. In some cases, the displays even appeared to be being projected from tiny devices, as though they were slide projectors that were somehow projecting onto thin air. She couldn’t make out anything on the displays from this distance, but there was no doubt that’s what they were.

“Aile, Aile!” Eule heard Äloy shout excitedly from outside her field of vision, followed by…her strange language in a completely untranslated state?

Eule turned to look at Äloy with a quizzical expression, which turned only more quizzical when she looked directly at the little Gestalt girl.

The reason for her confusion was when the reticule in the center of her vision rested on Äloy, the circle within the hexagonal reticule started to fill up with green. It took a second for the circle to turn completely green, but when it did, a small box suddenly popped up next to Äloy. There were 2 words in the box but…Eule couldn’t understand any of them. The words looked as if they were spelled using Eusan Standard Language alphabet, but the words they spelled didn’t sound like any word she knew. The top word spelled out “Human” and the bottom word spelled out “Aloy”, but Eules had no idea what they could possibly mean. Eule thought the bottom word sounded a lot like Äloy’s name, but in that case, there should be an umlaut over the “A” to change the sound to…

It suddenly occurred to Eule that this might actually be how Äloy’s name might be spelled in her language. Why it was missing the umlaut was something Eule didn’t understand, but even knowing how it was supposed to be spelled (assuming that this is indeed the case), she couldn’t un-see the umlaut that’s supposed to be there. Thus, she continued mentally imagining Aloy’s name as “Äloy”.

Regardless though, whatever this device was, for some bizarre reason it hadn’t translated any of Äloy’s words. Äloy was continuing to talk, but all Eule could hear was that strange language that she still couldn’t understand more than a few words of.

“Äloy, can you understand me?” Eule asked hopefully. “This device isn’t translating for some reason, and I don’t know why…”

Eule’s words trailed off as more strange words suddenly appeared in the top of her vision. Barely a second passed by before the strange words suddenly morphed into Eusan Standard Language. The words now read: “Language setting auto-adjusted”.

Even more importantly: Äloy’s words suddenly were understandable to her, with that same slightly louder version of her voice overlaid on top of her normal voice. Only this time, it wasn’t coming from Äloy’s device. Instead, it was coming from right beside her own right ear. The device indeed was auto-translating every one of Äloy’s words now, and it seemed to automatically adjust itself to the user’s language when the user speaks.

Not only that, but as Äloy spoke, words in white scrolled across the bottom of her vision, with each white word matching up with what Äloy is saying. Subtitles. They had to be subtitles…generated in real time.

Eule couldn’t help but marvel at this device’s functions. She couldn’t even guess as to how it could possibly recognize the language she was speaking based only on a few spoken words. It was…almost like magic to her, even though she knew that couldn’t possibly be the case. Maybe.

So absorbed was Eule in marveling at the device and guessing at how it operated though that she was only jolted back into reality when a pair of small hands tugged at her sleeve.

“Hey, Aile! Are you listening? Are you okay?” Äloy asked in a curious mixture of impatience and concern. As if Äloy was simultaneously annoyed at Eule for ignoring her while also worried that Eule might be unwell. It was the most adorable combination of emotions Eule had ever encountered from…anyone. Let alone this cute little Gestalt girl.

“Yes, I am now,” Eule replied, speaking gently to reassure her. “It seems that this device will only…change to its user’s language once it hears the user speaks a few words.”

Äloy began hopping up and down in excitement, continuing to make Eule’s biomechanical heart melt from the cuteness overload, as Äloy asked: “Then do you see? Do you see the lights everywhere? Aren’t they pretty?”

Eule couldn’t help but smile as she replied: “Yes, I do. I’m not sure I understand what most of these lights mean, but I do see them, and they are very pretty.”

Äloy cheered, and began hopping in place once more, before suddenly stopping, looking around, and then finally looking up at Eule to ask: “Umm, Aile? I saw something earlier I wanted to look at, but I can’t see the lights anymore. They disappeared when I took the device off to give it to you. So um…can I have it back? Please?”

Eule nodded happily. “Of course, Äloy. It was practically your device in the first place, since you were the one who…picked it up. So here you go,” Eule finished before pulling the device off with very little effort, she noted, and handed it back to Äloy.

The moment Äloy put it back on, she looked around and then looked annoyed. She spoke several words in her language before she suddenly became understandable to Eule, clearly remembering what Eule had told her about the device’s language functions. Äloy then looked around some more before she apparently spotted what she was looking for.

“Come on, Aile. This way,” Äloy said with a beckoning hand before running off deeper into the room…only to suddenly run back as if she had forgotten something. That something turned out to be Eule herself as Äloy took her by her free hand, still happily saying “Come on!”

Eule smiled and laughed as the cheerful young Gestalt girl led her away, leaving the corpse still lying in that shaft of bright sunlight behind like a forgotten dream.

Äloy led Eule up a very short flight of stairs to yet another metal door. Unlike the previous doors though, this one was firmly shut. Eule couldn’t see any way to open the door. There was no handle, no latch, no anything that she could see that could possible operate the door. There was just a seam down the middle that she couldn’t possibly fit her mechanical fingers through to pull them open.

And yet, Äloy was staring intently at the middle of the door, right at the seam. She must be looking at something invisible to Eule. Something that required that device to see, just like those lights on the machinery.

Suddenly, Äloy darted away back the way they came, stopping only to take Eule by the hand once more to lead her, which Eule happily allowed. Eule initially thought Äloy was leading her back into the room, but instead, she veered off to the left to a side door Eule hadn’t noticed on the way up. This side door led to yet another room with yet more mysterious machinery in it that looked a bit more…intact than the ones in the main room.

Still, Eule watched as Äloy stared at said machinery before she started doing…something with them.

“Äloy? What are you doing?” Eule asked in a puzzled tone as Äloy appeared to be trying to…turn something invisible on a bit of machinery set into the wall. Right next to it was apparently the remains of a window long overgrown with plants and mineral formations, through which she could see the still-locked door.

“Oh, that device over there is saying that I have to do this to open the door,” Äloy explained, absorbed in her turning and completely unaware of how confused Eule still was in spite of that explanation.

If anything, Eule had even more questions, but right now, getting out of this place took top priority. Thus, she left Äloy to her work and hoped the little Gestalt girl knew what she was doing.

As Äloy manipulated whatever she was manipulating on the machinery in front of her though, Eule’s biomechanical ears could make out a faint whirring sound coming from said machinery, clearly indicating that Äloy was moving something around in there. Then suddenly, the machinery made a high pitched whine followed by a thunk. Immediately afterwards, a thrumming sound, building in pitch, echoed through the entire room. Eule had heard a sound like this before, when her friend Ara Elf had let Eule watch her repair a malfunctioning door. When her mischievous Ara friend had finally fixed it and, with a dramatic flourish, restored power to it, the sound of electricity flowing back into the door had made a similar sound to this one, filling Eule with hope that drowned out the depression from the sudden remembrance that Ara Elf was very likely dead or worse.

The sight of Äloy spinning around and grinning at Eule further dispelled the depression.

“It changed color!” Äloy said happily in her characteristic lack of an indoor voice. She then had a look of realization on her face that Eule couldn’t see what she was seeing before continuing: “There was a blue circle on this device, but now it’s green! The door changed color too! There was a red circle on the door, but now it’s blue! Well, mostly blue. There’s still a bit of red on it, but it’s different now! Come on, let’s go check!”

Taking Eule by the hand once more, Äloy led her back to the door. Once more, the door looked exactly the same as it did before to Eule. Äloy though could definitely see that blue circle she mentioned before in the middle of the door. It was the only explanation Eule could come up with for as to why when Äloy made a turning motion with her hand in the middle of said door, the 2 halves of the door slid open with a mechanical hiss.

Äloy turned back to look at Eule with an expectant look. Eule herself was grinning back at her. “You did it, Äloy!” Eule said with a cheer and a hug for Äloy.

Äloy looked adorably smug as she accepted the praise and returned the hug before leading Eule onwards deeper into the Metal World.

“Deeper” became quite apt as their path went down a flight of stairs instead of upwards, making Eule’s spirits take a similar dip at the thought of going deeper underground instead of upwards to the surface. The warmth of Äloy’s hand and the determination of her stride though made the dip a temporary thing. For a moment, Eule felt like she was the child being led here, and she had never had a childhood. Like all other Replikas, she woke up a fully functioning adult in her factory, thus she found the idea of being treated as a child ironically amusing.

That amusement suddenly crashed to a halt as she and Äloy stepped into another room, and was confronted with yet another body.

This body was lying on its side, facing away from Eule and Äloy. The shirt and hose the corpse was wearing suggested that it was just as male as the previous one, and like the previous corpse, this one also wore another example of that strange triangular metal device on its right temple.

Äloy was staring at that very triangular device, just as Eule was. As leery Eule was of basically robbing a corpse, she felt she would be of severely limited help without a triangular device of her own.

As Eule was about to make up her mind about taking it though, Äloy suddenly stepped back.

“Äloy?” Eule asked, suddenly alarmed. “What’s wrong?”

But Äloy didn’t answer. Instead, she seemed to be staring at an area just above the corpse. Äloy then suddenly looked back where they’d come from, causing Eule to also look back, aiming her pistol behind them. There was nothing there though, and as Eule looked back at Äloy, she could see that the little Gestalt girl’s attention was once more focused on the air above the corpse.

Eule was puzzled at the expressions manifesting on Äloy’s face. At first, Äloy looked just as confused as Eule was. Then slowly, Äloy’s expression turned to wonder, and then joy.

“Show me!” Äloy said with a laugh, waving the hand that wasn’t holding Eule’s hand in the air as though swiping at something. “Show me again!”

“Äloy?” Eule asked once more, a little more loudly to hopefully gain the Äloy’s attention. “What’s going on? What’s happening?”

It apparently wasn’t quite loud enough though. Äloy just softly said “Hi” to the air over the corpse, and then giggled and laughed at the same.

While Eule would normally be happy to see Äloy happy at something, the little Gestalt girl continuing to react to something Eule can’t see was getting as exasperating as it was slightly eerie. Faced with no other option, Eule holstered her pistol, carefully reached over with her now-free right hand, and gently poked Äloy in the cheek.

“Eek!” Äloy squeaked, finally jolted out of whatever she’d been watching to look at Eule with a surprised look on her tiny freckled face.

“Äloy, I’ve been watching you staring at and laughing at something invisible for the past minute. Care to tell me about it?” Eule asked with an amused tone tinged with a hint of concern.

“Oh yeah, Aile! There was a man here and he was…wait, hold on,” Äloy reached down and snatched the triangular device right off of the corpse’s temple before holding it out to Eule. “Here, your own device!”

Eule reached out and plucked it off of Äloy’s outstretched hand. With only a brief sigh at this technical grave robbing, Eule reached up to her own temple and let the device latch on.

The reticule and web of lights instantly made their return to Eule’s vision, along with the lights on the various bits of ruined machinery around her. Remembering that the device needed to hear Eule speak before it would change its language settings, Eule started to sing the first few lines of “Eulenlieder”. She only managed to reach the part where the owl finally opened her sleepy eyes to witness the fading light of the setting sun with her sisters though before the now-familiar words of “Language setting auto-adjusted” appeared at the top of her vision once more.

Satisfied and feeling better now that she’s had a chance to sing for the first time in a while, Eule looked back down at Äloy to ask her what she was looking at before, only to see Äloy (as well as a glowing circle hovering over her device a bit like a Falke’s Bioresonance halo in miniature) looking up at her in…awe?

“What was that?” Äloy asked in a tone that was definitely awe.

Eule blinked at her in confusion. “What was what?”

“That!” Äloy practically shouted as she bounced up and down in excitement. “The song you were singing! What was it?”

“You mean ‘Eulenlieder’? You don’t know it…oh, I guess you probably wouldn’t. Not if you don’t even know what Replikas are,” Eule said in realization.

“‘Songs of the Owls’? Is that what it means? What’s it about?” Äloy asked excitedly.

Eule thought for a moment on that question. “It’s a song the composer Wilhelm Niao composed as a tribute to us Eules. The song is about an owl waking up with her sisters as they watch the setting sun together, and once the sun has finally set, they all take flight and go hunting through the night. The climax of the song is the focus owl taking a rat as her prey before it can flee into someone’s house. It’s supposed to be a tribute to how we Eules get all our work done out of sight, and how we perform an important service to the nation even if no one notices or even appreciates it.”

“I don’t think I understood most of what you said,” Äloy blithely admitted. “But it was a nice song, and your voice was really pretty, Aile.”

“Oh! Thank you, Äloy,” Eule said happily, feeling giddy about the compliment. Star loved Eule’s voice and regularly complimented it whenever she heard Eule sing, but it was another thing to hear a compliment about her voice from a child who’s basically still a stranger.

“Wait. ‘Eu-len-lied-er’. ‘Songs of the Owls’. That’s what the words at the bottom say. Is the ‘Eu-len’ part the ‘Songs’ or the ‘Owls’?” Äloy asked.

“The owls,” Eule explained with a smile, feeling like a kindergarten teacher. “With ‘eule’ being the singular form of ‘owls’.”

“Then…your name means ‘Owl’?” Äloy asked further.

Eule nodded with an “Mm-hmm”.

Äloy thought for a moment before asking: “What’s an ‘owl’?”

For a moment, Eule was stupefied by the question. Then she had to cover her mouth to keep the laughter from spilling out.

Unfortunately, she didn’t quite succeed.

“Why are you laughing?!” Äloy asked in an indignant tone. “I’ve never heard of this ‘owl’ before, okay? I can tell it’s some kind of bird, maybe, but that’s it!”

“Oh no, I’m sorry,” Eule managed to get out in between laughs. The sight of Äloy pouting in annoyance only made Eule want to laugh even harder. Eventually though, Eule did manage to get it out of her system before explaining: “I wasn’t laughing at you, Äloy. I was laughing at myself for how silly I was being. For assuming that you just know everything I do. So let me tell you about the owl, or ‘eule’ in Eusan Standard Language: it was a small to medium-sized predatory bird that hunted primarily at night. They were mostly solitary birds, but some congregated together in large groups when roosting. Those types of owl specifically were what we Eules were named for.”

Äloy cocked her head at Eule. “Was? Were? Why are you talking about the owls like they’re not around anymore?”

Eule smiled sadly at Äloy. “They’re not. At least, not where Star and I are from. They were native to Vineta, but they all became extinct long ago.”

Äloy cocked her head in the other direction now. “Extinct?”

“It means they all died,” Eule explained sadly. “There aren’t any living owls anymore by my time. All we have in the Eusan Nation are just old photos in nature books and surviving video of them from the few nature documentaries that survived to the modern day. There’s a single stuffed example in the Heimat National Museum of Pre-Empire History, but that’s the closest we have to a living owl.”

“Oh,” Äloy said, sounding disappointed. “That’s so sad.”

Eule could only nod at that. “It is.”

“…Have I been saying your name all wrong then…’Eu-le’?” Äloy asked even further, but now with a touch of concern in her voice.

There really was no way out of answering that question, and Eule could tell from Äloy’s face that she wouldn’t accept anything less than an honest answer.

Eule crouched down to meet Äloy at eye level. “You tried, Äloy,” she consoled.

The little Gestalt girl nodded, but still looked troubled. “I want to say your name right, Eu-le. I don’t like being wrong.”

“I think few people like being wrong,” Eule joked in an attempt to lighten Äloy’s heart.

Fortunately, Äloy did crack a smile in response to that joke. “I think I don’t like being wrong more than other people,” she said in a self-deprecating way, before continuing: “But that’s why I’m going to keep practicing saying your name, Eu-le. So I can be less wrong this time.”

Eule’s response was to hug Äloy once more. “You’re going to be a very intelligent and kind woman one of these days, Äloy. I know it.”

Äloy giggled, sounding both pleased and embarrassed at the compliment. “Thanks, Eu-le.”

“Anytime,” Eule said with another smile, before asking: “Now, about what you were seeing before?”

“Oh yeah, right! Umm…” Äloy seemed a bit unsure about how to say what she wanted to say, before she decided that speaking wasn’t the answer. Instead, she swiped the air above the corpse, and simply said: “Show me again.”

Eule’s biomechanical heart nearly jumped out of her mouth when a strange dark-skinned Gestalt man wearing a conical hat suddenly appeared right in front of her. Upon closer inspection though, she realized that this man wasn’t real. He had a grainy texture to him, as well as a purple hue accentuated by an outline in the same shade of purple. Furthermore, Eule could see right through him in places. It was pretty clear that the man was some sort of illusion…but how?

Eule recalled one of the Kolibris at Sierpinski (Kolibri Zwei, she recalled) showing her an illusion of herself the Kolibris could generate to confuse attackers. The illusion of this man reminded Eule of that Kolibri’s illusionary copy of herself, but at a much lower visual quality.

Even when the illusionary man spoke, Eule could hear a slight distortion in his voice, as though it was a degraded cassette tape. Fortunately, the illusionary man was still perfectly understandable despite the distortion, even if it was pretty clear that he was apparently caught in the middle of saying something else.

“–ou think I want it this way? It’s the best I can do. Wait, he’s right behind you!” the illusionary man whispered before giving a little wave, and cheerfully saying: “Hi! Happy Birthday, Isaac! Daddy sure does love his little big man!”

The illusionary man then seemed to…skip. It was like an old video tape skipping over a damaged section to Eule. When the illusionary man returned to normal, he continued: “Look, Daddy can't be there with you and Mom, but we can still have a party, right? Sure we can!”

The illusionary man didn’t sound all that happy to Eule by the end of his words though. The illusionary man blew some sort of small horn and laughed as though to cheer up his son Isaac, but there was a clear hint of desperation and despair in the illusionary man’s attempts at laughter. As if he knew that what he was doing was nowhere near sufficient for his son’s birthday, but he was still trying to do his best.

As the illusionary man winked out after that though, Eule suddenly had a horrified realization. This illusionary man…it had to be some sort of recording. Like a videotape, but somehow projected onto thin air. It likely recorded the man’s last actions…meaning that this poor man, whoever he was, had likely died right here not long after wishing his son a happy birthday.

So many questions flew through Eule’s head. Why did this man die here? His corpse didn’t have any apparent wounds on it, and Eule didn’t want to risk moving the corpse to get a better look. Not only did it look firmly embedded into the floor thanks to all the mineralization coating it, but given how long it’s likely been lying here, there’s a good chance that it would fall part if Eule tried. Even so though, the corpse looked unharmed. It was as if the man had just simply lied down and died here. Why, and so soon after celebrating his son’s birthday? Eule didn’t understand, and the thought of this man dying like this made Eule want to cry.

“Eu-le, you see! Isn’t this fun…Eu-le?” Äloy asked quietly when she noticed Eule wiping away her tears before they could fall from her eyes.

Eule could only smile sadly at Äloy. She was too little to understand what’d happened to the man, and Eule was determined to spare the bright little Gestalt girl that realization.

“Yes, of course! It was fun!” Eule made herself say through the depression, trying to force cheer into her voice.

It wasn’t enough though. It seemed Äloy was as good at reading emotions as an Eule, and she looked down with a depressed look. “You’re lying to me again, aren’t you,” Äloy said quietly.

Before Eule could deny that though, Äloy looked back up at Eule with a small smile. “It’s okay. It was just a weird Metal World thing anyways. Let’s just leave. Come on,” Äloy finished, tugging Eule along.

As they left the man and his eternal wishes for Isaac’s happiness behind, Eule couldn’t help but feel that she’d just failed Äloy in some way, leaving her even more depressed than even before. Thus, Eule and Äloy progressed through the Metal World facility in silence. Even going up some stairs only slightly improved Eule’s mood.

And then, they came to the room.

Eule and Äloy entered some sort of large room, filled with bunk beds, chairs, and tables. To Eule, the entire room looked like a dorm of some sort. In fact, it seemed even more spacious and luxurious than the Eule Dorm at S-23 Sierpinksi. It only made the sight of what was in the beds all the more horrifically gruesome.

Bodies. Everywhere. Most of the beds contained long-dead bodies lying in them: a body per bed. They were lying in ways that looked as if they had all died in their sleep. En masse.

“Dead people. So many dead people,” Äloy whispered, as though she was afraid to disturb the dead. “Why did they die here? What happened to them?”

Eule didn’t answer at first. The sight of all these corpses all in one place froze her thoughts as deeply as the cold surface of Leng would have, had she still been there.

“Eu-le?” Äloy asked quietly, gently tugging on Eule’s arm and holding on tighter.

Eule started at Äloy’s voice and the sensation of her mechanical arm being tugged, and shook the fear off. “I…I don’t know,” Eule whispered, before she noticed something glinting on the head of one of the nearest corpses. One of those triangular devices. It seemed that for some reason, all of these people had one of their own.

As Eule was looking at the device though, the circle part of the reticule in the center of her vision filled up with green. Then suddenly, a small box showed up next to the corpse. Within the box was contained the words: “Voice Log: Connor Chasson. Length: 00:18. Data corruption: Severe. Play?”

Eule had no idea what to expect from this “voice log”, but a morbid curiosity and a desire to find out what had happened here pushed her forward. She said: “Play.”

A man’s voice suddenly started playing from her the triangular device on her temple. The voice, in a tone that sounded despondent and almost angry, said: “...I mean, seriously, ‘Record our thoughts for posterity’? Great idea, Director Evans. Like I haven't done enough for posterity already? Like I wouldn't be... here... like this... if not for posterity? I'm done with posterity. Posterity can go...”

Eule really didn’t like the way the man’s voice just cut off at the end. As though he died right in the middle of recording his thoughts for “posterity”. Was he…recording his last words? It sounded to Eule as though the man was being Decommissioned. Not in the way of a Replika working off their Commission and finally getting to be a free citizen. But rather, in the euphemism to describe dying or being killed. In this case, it sounded as though the man was being executed.

But something didn’t add up. If he was being executed, why would he be lying in bed for it? Furthermore, even if he was being executed, why would no one bury him afterwards? This Connor Chasson’s voice log only raised even more questions for Eule.

Reading the other triangular devices on the other corpses lying in bed revealed similar messages, which only deepened the mystery.

“I don’t get it,” Eule said after scanning the last bedridden corpse.

“Maybe we can look around some more?”  Äloy asked, even though she was gripping Eule’s hand tightly in fear, just as Eule’s hand was doing the same. “Maybe there’s something that can tell us what happened here?”

Eule nodded, but before that, there was something Eule wanted to do. She went over to the bedridden corpses and took all of their triangular devices, 5 in total, placing them in her medical satchel. They were so small that Eule didn’t even need to adjust the repair patches’ positions to make room for them. A small part of Eule’s mind still felt ashamed at this tomb raiding. It was only the practical side of her mind that insisted the devices were too useful to leave behind that made her go ahead and do it.

Eule assuaged her guilt by promising herself to remember the names of the ones who’d owned these devices: Connor Chasson, Skyler Rivera, Ella Pontes, Jackson Frye, and Mia Sayied. They were strange names to her, sounding not even close to the typical names found in the Eusan Nation. Nevertheless, they were still all people, and they all deserved to be remembered.

“Alright, let’s search the room now,” Eule said to Äloy as she redid the latch on her medical satchel.

Äloy nodded, and together, they commenced their search, still holding hands to give each other strength.

Further inspection of the room reinforced Eule’s idea of this room being a dorm. All the furniture was placed in aesthetically pleasing positions, and likely looked the part too back when all the people here were still alive. However, the furniture didn’t reveal much about said people. Even any devices sitting on the furniture and the surrounding machinery appeared to be too heavily degraded to give her any useful data, despite the seemingly magical data recovery processes of her device.

Then they encountered another body. This corpse looked male, and was for some bizarre reason tucked away in a side room that had required a bit of backtracking to find, and instead of lying on a bed like the others, it was sitting against a wall. Like the other corpses, it also had its own triangular device on its right temple, which seemed to be the universal position to put it on. However, unlike the other corpses, this one was clutching something in its right hand. Curious, Eule crouched down to get a better look. It was a device, covered in so much mineralization that she couldn’t really make out what it was. All she could tell was that it was vaguely L-shaped in a way that looked oddly familiar, and that was it.

With no more information that could be gleaned from the corpse’s appearance and belongings, Eule finally centered her reticule on the corpse’s triangular device, and scanned it. Upon the scan’s finish, the little box that popped up told her that it had accessed another voice log. This one had no name attached to it though, so she had no idea who this person was aside from their likely gender. Her curiosity brimming once more, she once more simply said: “Play.”

A man’s voice, sounding scared but also tired, started speaking into Eule’s biomechanical ear, saying: “I saw them lining up in the community room... like cattle in a slaughterhouse, but smiling at each other...Chana handing out meds like being alive is just some kind of...pain to be eased. Well...not me. I don't want to go quiet. I don't want to…trail off. I want a period at the end of my life sentence, not an ellipsis. Hell, heh, an exclamation mark. So if that upsets whoever finds this, too bad. I don't owe anyone. Anything. Anymore.”

Eule had a horrified realization as to what this man was going to do at the same time she had another horrified realization as to why that L-shaped thing in the man’s hand looked so familiar. It was a pistol. She didn’t recognize its model, and she doubted even Star could, but the man’s words helped her realize it for what it was.

So as the man started to finish his words, Eule realized what he was about to do, and started to reach out, yelling: “No, don’t–”

But it was too late. Who knows how many untold years too late as the thunderous report of a single gunshot broadcasted into her ear, followed by a final thump of the man’s hand hitting his leg, clutching the pistol that he still now possessed even long, long after his death.

Eule sat down hard, uncaring of the fact that she was now sitting in a shallow pool of cold water, as her brain combined this new piece of information with everything else she had learned, and came to the horrifyingly logical conclusion.

Äloy started to ask, quietly and fearfully: “This man…did he–”

“He did it,” Eule replied just as quietly. “He took his own life. Just like the others. All of them. This man, Connor Chasson, Ella Pontes, and even Isaac’s father…they all committed suicide. All at the same time. But why?”

Eule’s last words weren’t really a question, but something said in despair as she curled in on herself, hugging her robotic knees.

“Why would they all kill themselves?” Eule continued quietly. “Why? Why would Isaac’s father kill himself after just celebrating his son’s birthday? Why would he do such a horrible thing after doing something so happy with his son? Unless…”

Unless something happened. Something that made them lose all hope. Something that made them want to end their own lives, because living was too painful. Too difficult. Too hopeless.

“–if that upsets whoever hears this, too bad,” the words of the long-dead Gestalt man echoed in her mind. “I don’t owe anyone. Anything. Anymore.” The gunshot reverberated through her mind once more, followed by the sound of the hand thumping. And once more, Eule wanted to scream “Why?!” at him. Why did he take his own life? Why would everyone else take their own lives too? WHY?!

Eule distantly heard someone say something, but she didn’t hear. Her thoughts spiraled outwards out of control, before they rapidly sank downwards. She felt her mind sinking deep and down into the cold darkness she desperately wanted to forget. The darkness she felt as she watched Star bleeding out her last in those mines. The darkness she could feel close in on her as Star’s beautiful voice went quiet, and the bright red glow in her eyes faded into nothing. The darkness that led her to realize that there was no hope left. No point in trying anymore. Not when the one most important to her was gone from this world.

Eule was scared. She wanted to run away from Star’s death. She wanted to flee from the pain and anguish of knowing that her lover was no more. But there was nothing around her but the dark. The dark where nothing but fear and death lay. The dark that kept her sitting by her lover’s side, crying over her corpse.

Eule had no idea how long she sat in the dark once more, staring at her lover’s cooling body, but then suddenly, she heard a voice.

It was a female voice, singing the first lines of a song…”Eulenlieder”, she realized.

’Einundzwanzig? Is that you?’ Eule thought. Hoped, really. She missed her favorite sister.

But…it wasn’t EULR-S2321’s voice. It was far too high-pitched, completely lacking the deeper tones Einundzwanzig could hit. It was also lacking her confident steadiness, wavering between tones as though this voice couldn’t quite hit them or maintain them even when she did miraculously hit them.

Moreover, Eule realized that this voice…wasn’t quite singing the entirety of “Eulenlieder”. She was singing the first few lines, right up to when the owl roosted with her sisters in the fading beauty of the setting sun, but then repeating to the beginning. As if that were the only lines the voice knew.

Finally, Eule also realized that the voice wasn’t even speaking some of the words right. As though the singer had no idea how to speak Eusan Standard Language. Just like Äloy–

‘Äloy!’ Eule realized with a shock as she looked up, and then looked to her right to where the singing voice had come from, finally seeing Äloy looking at her with very deep concern in her grass green eyes.

The same eyes who widened in combination joy and relief as Äloy hugged Eule as tight as her little arms would allow. “Eu-le, you’re back!”

“Back?” Eule asked quietly and distantly.

Äloy nodded frantically. “After you realized that man killed himself, you were just sitting there, crying and rocking forward and back, and you wouldn’t stop crying no matter what I said to you or how much I pulled on you and I didn’t know what to do–”

Äloy stopped to wipe away tears in her eyes as Eule reached up and wiped at her own face, finally noticing that tears had been streaming down her cheeks for the first time. It finally dawned on Eule what had happened to her.

‘My personality was destabilizing,’ she realized in dawning horror.

“I couldn’t think of anything at first,” Äloy continued after she’d wiped away the last of her tears. “But then I remembered when you looked so happy after singing that ‘Eu-len-lied-er’ song, so I tried singing that. That’s when you finally said something, so I started singing it more even though I didn’t know most of the words and I only knew the words you were singing, and then you woke up. So…are you okay now?”

Eule reached over and hugged the warm, smart little Gestalt girl. “I am now. I was…in trouble before. We Replikas…our minds can fall apart if we’re under too much stress. But for us Eules, hearing music helps our minds stabilize. Music is like…an anchor for us. Something that keeps our minds here in the present. So whenever a Eule starts to feel like her mind is falling apart, her sisters will play music or sing to help hold her mind together. You may not have realized that your singing would’ve helped me like that, but you still did it. Thank you, Äloy. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Äloy returned Eule’s hug with a fierce hug of her own, and when they eventually broke the hug, Äloy had a big grin on her face. “So all I have to do to help you when you’re sad is sing to you? No problem! I’m not that good at singing, but if even that helps, I’ll sing to you all you want until you’re not sad anymore. Maybe Star could sing to you too?”

Eule snorted as she remembered the last time Star had attempted to sing to her. It was…an interesting experience, to hear someone who was completely tone-deaf attempting to sing “Eulenlieder”. But Eule had found the attempt to be just as heartwarming as any of her sister’s beautiful voices.

“Yes, Star could definitely help too,” Eule replied, but returning Äloy’s grin with her own carbon steel-toothed grin. “You might even like it too.”

Äloy practically sparkled at Eule. “Can Star sing as good as you too?”

Eule made an exaggerated tilt of her head. “Mmm, Star certainly has a very interesting voice that I think you’ll find interesting as well.”

Äloy giggled. “I can’t wait!”

Eule giggled back. “Me too.”

As Eule and Äloy giggled at each other for a moment, Eule felt her spirits lifting once more.

Äloy then took her by the hand and pulled her back up. Or rather, the little Gestalt girl attempted to, and Eule stood back up with Äloy's small but very important contribution to the process. Once Eule was back on her own two mechanical feet, Äloy then held out her hand, revealing a triangular device.

“Here,” Äloy said simply. “It’s from…that man. I saw you were collecting them before, so…”

Eule carefully took the triangular device with a smile, and put it into her medical satchel with the others, bringing the total to six. Eule secretly hoped there wouldn’t be any more.

“Thank you, Äloy,” Eule said with a grateful smile.

Äloy replied to that with her own bright smile. “You’re welcome!” she said happily.

Eule then turned to the man’s corpse, clapped her hands together twice, and bowed deeply to him. “Thank you, whoever you are. May your soul find peace in the next life.” Eule then turned around in the direction of where the rest of the dorm was, and did the same thing. “I thank you as well. All of you. I hope your souls all find peace in whatever awaits you all. Especially you, father of Isaac. I hope you are reunited with your wife and son in the next life.”

Below her, Eule watched out of the corner of her eye as Äloy mimicked her. Only, it wasn’t a perfect mimic. She put her hands together in prayer, and said instead: “Umm, may the All-Mother help you all? I hope? She seems like a pretty nice All-Mother, so she’ll probably help you all if you ask.” Äloy then looked up at Eule with a distinctly unsatisfied expression on her little face. “I think I’m messing it up though. Rost would say this a lot better than me.”

Eule gently patted Äloy’s head. “It’s okay. It’s as good a prayer for their souls as any. It’s the thought that really counts, after all.”

Äloy’s response was another bright grin, before she suddenly had a curious look on her face. “Can I ask you something, Eu-le?”

Eule beamed at her. “Of course you can! What is it?”

“Can you teach me the words of ‘Eu-len-lied-er’? I felt kind of…silly for only singing those first few words over and over again without knowing the whole song. So…can you?” she asked in a tone that was definitely a pleading one.

The only things Eule could feel right at that moment was elation and a very deep desire to squeal and hop in place at the chance to finally teach. Teaching was one of the things Eules were literally built for, and getting to teach Äloy the lyrics of “Eulenlieder” because she wanted to learn it? It was a recipe for pure bliss for Eule.

“Yes, of course!” Eule said…or rather squealed, due to no longer being able to hold it back. Eule then continued a bit hesitantly: “In fact…do you want me to teach the lyrics to you now?”

Äloy nodded so rapidly that her head looked like it was vibrating. She then took Eule by the hand and tugged on it, saying: “Come on, let’s learn them while we get out of here. If this room is making you sad, then let’s leave.

Eule nodded with her own smile in reply. “Yes, let’s!”

So at last, Äloy and Eule walked towards the door, with Eule singing “Eulenlieder” to her little student in a high clear voice the whole time, filling the room with song. By the time they left the dead to their eternal slumber, the sound of “Eulenlieder” echoing through the Metal World facility felt like they were driving away the darkness already.

Suddenly though, Eule’s singing ground to a halt as she reached the part where the owl finally took flight, due to her hearing a very familiar voice in the distance, echoing through the metal corridors. A very familiar female voice that made Eule’s heart swell with happiness and longing, shouting: “Eule! Eule! Can you hear me?!”

This was followed immediately by another very familiar male voice shouting: “Aloy! Aloy! Are you down there?! Answer me!”

Eule and Äloy looked at each other in excitement, and then immediately ran towards the sounds of the voices.

“Star! I’m down here! Star!” Eule shouted giddily.

“Rost! You found me! Rost!” Äloy shouted at the same time, just as giddily.

Soon they came across a large opening in the ceiling, with sunlight pouring down from it. To the left of that opening, a section of collapsed metal roof and rock formed a very convenient ramp to climb up to, resulting in them seeing the faces of a very worried Star and Rost standing crouched on the rim of the hole above.

“All-Mother be praised!” Rost said joyfully as he caught sight of them.

“Eule! Thank the Red Eye you’re alright!” Star said just as joyfully, with tears in her eyes.

“It’s okay!” Eule replied, with tears of joy threatening to spill from her own eyes. “We’re okay! Come on, Äloy. Let me help you up.”

Äloy took one last brief look at the Metal World facility behind them before happily getting in front of Eule. Eule grabbed Äloy by her waist, and hefted her up to Rost, who gladly took his little girl up and gently put her down by his side. He only took a short moment to check over Äloy before reaching down to Eule. “Come! Now!”

Star immediately reached down as well. “Come on! I’ll give you a hand too!”

Eule smiled and reached up with both hands: her left hand taking Star’s hand, and her right hand taking Rost’s. Together, they hauled Eule up from the Metal World and into the light of day. Or rather: sunset, given how orange the sky was. Still, the brilliant colors of sunset were a more than welcome relief from the darkness and wan lavender lighting of the Metal World facility as Eule stood upon green grass once more.

Eule wasted no time in practically throwing herself onto Star, hugging her lover tightly. Star just as immediately returned the hug, burying her face into Eule’s fabric garrison cap and polyethylene hair.

“Oh, Star, I missed you,” Eule said as she nuzzled against Star’s breastplate and rounded gorget.

“Red Eye, I missed you too,” Star replied, but in a slightly muffled tone from her voice having to travel through Eule's cap and hair. “When I got back from borrowing one of Rost’s sacks and neither you nor Äloy were there, I thought something had happened to you two. I thought…I lost you…”

“Shh, it’s okay, Star,” Eule said calmingly as Star’s voice turned into choked sobs. “I’m right here, and I’m perfectly fine. Just a little scratch on my face that’s already stopped bleeding. I’m not leaving you, Star. Not now. Not ever again.”

Star’s sobs slowly died down, and she finally broke the hug a bit, wiping tears away from her cheeks and eyes. “Sorry about, you know, getting tears on your hair and cap.”

Eule smiled. “It’s okay, Star. I’m happy to be flooded with your tears as long as you feel better about it afterwards.”

Star laughed at that. “I don’t think I can make that much tears in one sitting, but thanks for the offer anyways, my dear Eule.”

Eule’s laughed back in reply, relieved at seeing her lover in good spirits again. “Anytime, my sweet Star.”

As if by mutual unspoken agreement, Eule and Star then kissed each other. It was a quick kiss, one meant to reassure each other that they were well, but they each took as much pleasure as they could in it nonetheless.

“Ooh, I knew you two were mates with how kissy-kissy you are!” Äloy shouted excitedly.

Eule snorted in laughter, practically straight into Star’s mouth.

Star squeaked in response, giggling at the sensation. “I wish I knew what Äloy was saying. It sounds like she was being a little kobold just now.”

Eule’s response was to laugh in turn. “That’s not exactly right, but you’re not exactly wrong either.”

Star blinked owlishly at Eule. “Wait, how are you so sure of that?”

Eule smiled mischievously at her lover, and pointed up at the triangular device on her right temple. “I have a new little friend here that translates everything Äloy is saying to me right now.”

Star peered curiously at said device. “Okay, what is–”

“No!” Äloy yelled.

Eule turned towards the sound of Äloy’s voice in alarm, only to see the little Gestalt girl backing away from…Rost? Rost who was holding out an outstretched hand, apparently reaching for Äloy’s head. Eule then noticed that Äloy had put on a hand on her triangular device…so Rost wanted it? And Äloy didn’t wish to give it up? That was the conclusion Eule had come to, and it seemed to be the correct one.

Rost gave Äloy an exasperated look that was mixed with worry. He stood up, and said in almost a shout: “Aloy, such things are dangerous!” before reaching towards Äloy’s device, intent on taking it.

“NO!” Äloy yelled more loudly, dodging Rost’s grasp.

Äloy then ran behind Eule, hugging her mechanical legs and putting Eule firmly between her and Rost, only poking her face out warily to watch Rost.

Rost made an exasperated sound, and then looked at Eule. His eyes then widened, as though he only just now noticed the triangular device on Eule’s own right temple. “You have one of those…Metal World things on you too?” he asked with concern before muttering to himself: “All-Mother, how do I go about telling Aile that such things are dangerous?”

Eule took a deep breath and said to Rost: “It’s okay, Rost. I don’t think these devices are dangerous. I don’t know what they are and I don’t know how they function, but at the very least, I don’t think they’re dangerous.”

Rost stared at Eule in disbelief. “You…you can talk? But how…wait, your voice. Why does it sound so…strange? It’s like…” Rost waved his hands, seemingly at a loss for words.

“I think this device is somehow…overlaying a translation of my words on top of my voice, broadcasting at a slightly higher volume so that you notice the translation rather than what I’m actually saying. But as you can tell, you still hear my words if you focus on them, so that’s why my voice–or rather voices–sounds so strange to you. To be honest, it also sounds very strange to me too if I think about it too much,” Eule admitted.

Rost’s brow furrowed in thought. “So that Metal World thing…it’s speaking for you? How do you know it’s not twisting your words then?”

“Well, Äloy seems to understand me correctly, and I understand her words just as well. So at the very least, this device’s translation seems to be mostly accurate. I’ll probably have to test it out a bit more to see if this is the case though,” Eule replied.

As Rost frowned in further thought, Star whistled in appreciation.

“Wow, never heard of a device that small being able to translate like that,” Star said in a wondering tone.

Eule giggled at Star. “Oh, it’s not just translation. This device, it can…oh wait, better idea.” Eule then opened up her medical satchel and showed the small pile of devices in it. “Pick one. Any one.”

Star peered into the satchel for several moments before delicately picking a device out. She examined the device closely, turning it over to get a look at both sides. “So how does this thing work?” she asked.

“Just reach up to your temple with it–no, your right temple. I don’t know if the side matters, but everyone down there all had it on their right temple. I’m not sure this is the best time to test to see if it still works on the left temple,” Eule explained.

“Everyone?” Star asked curiously. “Are there other people down there? Do we need to get a rescue mission down there?”

Eule smiled at Star, but it was a sad smile. The memory of all those bodies down there were still fresh in Eule’s mind. “The Gestalts down there are long past any help we could possibly give them,” she simply said.

Star looked at her first in concern, and then it turned into an understanding nod. “Do you want to talk about it, or…?”

“Later, dear,” Eule said, smiling more widely to show her lover that she was okay now. “For now, let’s see about getting that device working for you–oh, turn the device so that the side with the black latticework faces your temple. Okay, now hold it about a centimeter from your temple, and then let go of it.”

Star blinked in surprise. “Just let go?”

“Just let go,” Eule confirmed.

“Oookay,” Star said with a shrug.

Star released her grip on the device.

“Whoa!” Star said in surprise as the device did exactly what Eule expected to do, and flew onto Star’s temple to latch onto it. A glowing ring appeared over the device as Star froze…and then her eyes widened in awe as she saw the same lights Eule was seeing right at that moment. “Whoaaa,” she breathed as she looked around.

“Oh, now say something. Anything. Just a short sentence about anything you can think of,” Eule added.

Star blinked at Eule. “Uhh, okay? You’re kind of putting me on the spot though. It’s a little difficult to just think of something to say on the–hello?”

Eule smiled and asked: “Did you see that little box at the top of your vision that said ‘Language setting auto-adjusted’?”

“Yeah, I did,” Star replied, before she had a look of realization. “Wait, does that mean then–”

“Can you understand me now, Shtar?!” Äloy piped up, her previous look of wariness now completely replaced by bright excitement.

Star looked at Äloy in surprised, and then grinned. “Yeah, I can definitely understand you now, kid.”

Äloy immediately started bouncing on the balls of her feet. “Oh, oh! Do you see the lights now?! Aren’t they pretty?!”

Star chuckled. “Yeah, I do, and yeah, it is pretty. But…what is it? And why does it look like I have a telescopic sight’s reticule glued to the center of my vision?” she asked.

“I think…it’s the device’s way of aiming in order to target its functions? It’s the best explanation I have so far,” Eule admitted.

“Huh…neat,” Star simply said, before she raised an eyebrow. “Huh, that’s funny. This thing is only telling me your model when I look at you long enough…and it’s calling you an ‘unknown’?”

Eule looked in surprise, before she finally noticed the little box that’d popped up next to Star when she also looked at her long enough to let the reticule’s green circle fill up. Indeed, the little did contain Star’s name…or rather, what Eule had been calling Star this whole time. It wasn’t telling Eule Star’s serial number, which suggested that the device only labels a person by what the user calls that person.

Even more curiously, above Star was indeed the word “Unknown”. Eule quickly looked at Äloy and let the circle fill up. The device gave Eule Äloy’s name, and then above her name was the word “Human”.

“Huh, that’s peculiar,” Eule said. “It calls Äloy a human, but it calls us ‘Unknown’? Does it not know what to call us?”

“Guess we’re just so awesome that it can’t tell what we are,” Star said with a completely straight face and without even so much as a hitch in her voice.

Eule had no such compunctions about being the straight woman and burst out laughing, with Äloy joining in at the same time. Star only finally broke character and grinned at the joyful peals of laughter from both Eule and Äloy.

It was only after Eule finally calmed back down did she think to look over at Rost, who had been standing there the whole time, just watching them. His initial worried look was now replaced with a look that combined skepticism with thoughtfulness. The latter was, Eule believed, a good thing. At the very least, Rost was thinking about the devices instead of blindly rejecting them.

“So, do these devices still look dangerous to you?” Eule asked him.

Rost now adopted a pensive look. “Just because a Metal World relic isn’t dangerous now doesn’t mean it won’t become dangerous in the future,” he still said.

“True, but if it does becomes dangerous in the future, than all we need to do is get rid of them,” Eule patiently said, deliberately ignoring Äloy’s alarmed look at those last words. “From what we’ve seen of these devices, they’re not going to suddenly do something like explode, so we’ll have plenty of time to get rid of them before they can do any harm.”

“That is…fair enough,” Rost admitted.

Eule pulled her medical satchel off of her belt, opened it, and held its contents out to Rost. “So won’t you please take one, Rost? If only to help us speak to each other better, and thus let us find out the answers to some very pressing question we each no doubt have about each other?”

Rost stared into the satchel for several long moments before taking a deep breath, and saying: “Only to speak to you, and then I’m taking it off.”

Eule simply nodded.

Rost took another deep breath before reaching into Eule’s satchel, and gingerly taking a device out. Like Star, he examined the device from all angles, but instead of her lover’s curious expression, Rost had a look of suspicion on his face. As though he thought the device was going to bite him at any moment.

Eule had a thought. “Oh, did you hear my explanation to Star from earlier, or–”

“No need, I heard everything,” Rost interrupted, before sighing and reaching up to his own right temple to release the device.

When the device had latched onto Rost’s temple and its customary glowing circle had appeared over it, Rost blinked in surprise and looked around at the lights he must surely be seeing. Although Rost still had a skeptical look on his face, Eule could also see just a hint of wonder mixed in.

Eule smiled at that. ‘Like daughter, like father,’ she thought.

Seeing as how nothing appeared to be happening to him despite the Metal World device latched onto his head, Rost sighed. Whether in relief or acceptance, Eule couldn’t quite say either way.

Rost then turned to Eule and Star, and said: “I believe I, as well as Aloy, have many questions for you. But those questions can wait until we’re back at my house. I think we can all agree that we have had a long day. Far longer and more eventful than we had hoped for, I think.”

Star sighed. “Aww, and I was actually hoping to go blueberry picking with Eule and Äloy. Even went to the trouble of getting Rost to lend me an empty sack and dropping off a box of 12mm rounds with him and everything.”

“I still don’t understand why you did that, Shtar,” Rost said in a puzzled tone. “You had more than enough room on your belt for an empty sack. Why would you hand me your pouch?”

Star blinked curiously at Rost in reply. “Because that empty sack would’ve made me go over six items?”

Rost in turn blinked curiously at Star. “Is this…a custom of your tribe? To only have six things at most?”

Star looked at Eule helplessly, to which Eule could only shrug in response before turning to Rost.

“I suppose you could say that,” Eule said, sounding a bit unsure what to call the Rule of Six herself.

Rost still looked puzzled, but nodded in acceptance in spite of that. He then looked back and forth between Eule, Star, and Äloy with a thoughtful look.

“You know, I still have to go retrieve my pot, bowls, and plates from the riverbank where I’d left them. In fact, some of them still needs to have their washing finished off. So while I’m doing that, perhaps you three can fill that sack with some of those luscious-looking blueberries?” Rost said with a smile, before concluding: “Just don’t get yourselves separated again. I really don’t want this day’s problems to repeat right after we just fixed it.”

Eule look at Star and Äloy in turn, who both grinned at her. Eule then turned back to Rost, and grinned right back at Rost’s smiling face. “Understood!” she said happily.

Thus, as Rost walked off with that smile not leaving his face the entire time, Eule, Star, and Äloy got to work stuffing that empty sack of Star’s full of the juicy blueberries from the nearby bushes. As promised, they never left each other’s side. Eule herself never went much more beyond arm’s reach from Star, and practically glued herself to her lover’s side the whole time.

Even Äloy never went more than a few meters from Eule and Star, which by now, Eule could tell was unusually clingy behavior from Äloy. It seemed that unintended trip through the Metal World facility affected Äloy more than either of them assumed, and so Eule made sure to thank Äloy for every double handful of blueberries she poured into the sack. Eule’s biomechanical heart warmed at seeing Äloy’s glowing smile with each thanks.

As a result of their combined efforts, the sack was bulging with blueberries by the time Rost returned with his cookware and dishware. As if to add to the celebrations, Rost even held up a trio of dead rabbits by the feet, apparently having hunted and gutted them along the way. Thus, when they all returned to Rost’s and Äloy’s home, they were all in very high spirits indeed, with the day’s drama having largely forgotten for the time being.

*

Dinner that night (which Rost still refused to allow Eule to help with, saying “It would bring shame to the All-Mother for me to make guests work in my house.”) consisted of chunks of roast rabbit coated with that spice rub Rost seemed to enjoy and a stew composed of the rabbit’s offal, mixed vegetables, and more of that delicious colorful rice Eule had honestly been looking forward to even after two meals of it. Some of the blueberries they’d picked ended up as dessert afterwards, with Rost laying the rest out in front of the fireplace apparently to dry.

It was only after finishing those sun-sweet blueberries that they all sat at the dinner table and started to talk. Starting with Eule recounting to Star and Rost what had happened down there in the Metal World facility, with her only leaving out a few specifics about what she’d experienced when her personality began destabilizing.

Even with Äloy chipping in with her own version of the events intermittently, Star and Rost both had very worried looks by the time Eule ended her recounting.

“Are you sure you’re okay, love?” Star asked while holding Eule’s hands.

“I’m fine now, Star. Really,” Eule insisted with a smile, not letting go of Star’s hands the entire time. “Äloy was a great help there. Without her…well, no use thinking about dark what ifs, is there?”

Star pulled Eule into a hug. “I’m just glad you’re not back there. But yeah, I definitely owe you one, kiddo,” Star said to Äloy.

The little Gestalt girl beamed at her in reply, proud of the praise being lavished upon her.

Eule suddenly had a thought. “Oh, my apologies, Rost, for leaving those boots you put onto me in that Metal World facility. My mapping module has fully mapped the facility’s layout and there’s really only a single direction to go through it anyway, so I can go back later and get it–”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Rost said quickly, waving an arm to cut her off. “If going down there distressed you so much, then it’s not worth it. They were old boots anyways. I can always make more.”

“Oh, if that’s alright then,” Eule replied. Secretly, she felt a bit relieved, since the thought of disturbing the dead once more didn’t really appeal to her.

Äloy suddenly giving Eule a fidgety look. “Umm, Eu-le? Can I ask you something, actually? About…when you were crying and stuff? If you’re up to it, of course. If you’re not, then it’s okay,” she added quickly.

Eule smiled at Äloy. “I don’t mind. With Star, Rost, and especially you here; I feel like everything’s okay now. So ask away.”

“Then umm…who’s 21?” Äloy asked quietly. “You called me that when I started singing to you. Only, it was some weird long word in your outsider words that meant 21. I only know it’s 21 because my Metal World thing told me, so…who’s 21?”

Eule took a deep breath after Äloy finished asking. To Eule, it still felt like it was just days ago when she had been talking to EULR-S2321 in bed together about what they’d do after their Commission ended and they became free citizens. Just days ago when Einundzwanzig said she’d been feeling a bit ill but was still determined to work through it. Just days ago when Eule watched Einundzwanzig vomit out oxidant onto the floor while trying to cook, and she helped her favorite sister onto the stretcher the medical team had brought in afterwards. Just days ago when Einundzwanzig, even with her own oxidant dripping down her chin, insisted to Eule that everything was going to be fine, even though that was the last she ever saw of Einundzwanzig ever again.

In the end, Eule’s reply to Äloy was: “Einundzwanzig was my favorite sister, and I suppose in the depths of my darkness, I was hoping that your voice was hers and that everything that happened where we came from was just…a nightmare that I was going to wake up from, and that everything would be back to normal again.”

Äloy stared at Eule for a moment before asking: “Was? Is she…dead?”

Eule smiled sadly at Äloy. “I…I hope she is.”

Rost tilted his head at Eule. “You hope? That’s a very odd choice of words there.”

Eule felt a robotic hand grip hers, and she looked up at Star giving her a reassuring look, along with a questioning sound. Eule nodded back in reply, feeling that Rost and Äloy deserved to know the truth of where they came from.

Thus, Eule looked to Rost and Äloy, still gripping Star’s hand, and said: “I think it’s time we talked about where we came from, and why we don’t want to ever go back there. Ever.”

Rost nodded, before asking kindly: “Is it related to whatever you two were arguing about last night? It sounded like both of you were letting out a lot of pain there. Pain of the heart, not of the body.”

Eule nodded in reply. “It is. So…let me tell you about a faraway place called S-23 Sierpinski, and what happened there after our Commander Falke got sick.”

As Eule recounted what had happened in that underground facility deep beneath the frozen surface of Leng, with Star filling in blanks in Eule’s information with what she knew, both Rost and Äloy were silent throughout the whole recounting. Rost’s face was mix of thoughtfulness and worry, while Äloy became increasingly distressed as Eule’s and Star’s tale progressed, resulting in Äloy climbing into Rost’s lap partway through for comfort. Rost gently stroked Äloy’s hair as she sat in his lap. Eule was fairly certain it was as much for his own reassurance as it was for Äloy’s.

It was why Eule was deliberately vague on certain details, especially the gory ones. Even if she couldn’t spare Rost and Äloy the nightmare overall, at the very least, she can spare them the disturbing bits.

When at last Eule and Star finished their grim tale, Rost sat there, rubbing his forehead for several long moments, as if trying to process everything Eule and Star had told him.

“Honestly, your story is as fantastic as it is horrifying,” Rost finally commented with his gaze directed somewhere into the ceiling. “From the sounds of what was happening, it sounds as if the corruption that spread through you Replikas was something like the Derangement. Only, if the Derangement could infect humans as well. As bad as it was, I shudder to think at how bad it would be if the Machines could somehow pass the Derangement onto humans.”

“The Derangement?” Eule and Star asked at the exact same time.

Rost looked at them both in puzzlement, before asking, apparently to himself as much as it was to Eule and Star: “You really know nothing about the Derangement? But…no, the timeline is wrong. Your Derangement sounds like it was barely a season ago, if that. The Derangement has been happening for years now, so it can’t be it. And then there’s the fact that you knew nothing about the Machines, so I wonder…?”

Seeing the Replikas’ confused looks, Rost sighed and began: “If you truly know nothing about the Derangement, then in order to explain it to you, I must start long before it. Starting with the Machines.”

“Like those two-legged ones we fought yesterday?” Star asked.

Rost nodded. “Yes, those Machines we call ‘Watchers’. They are herd guard Machines that guard herd Machines like the Striders: the four-legged ones, as they feed.

“The Machines have always been part of our world. Just as we have beasts of air, water, and earth; so too we have the Machines as beasts of steel. Since time immemorial, the Nora–just like all the tribes we know–have hunted the Machines for parts. The Machines provide everything we need to survive. Their hides give us steel for armor, blades, and tools. Their muscles when braided together give us the best bowstrings and cables to tie our houses, bridges, and walls together. Their Sparkers let us start fires with ease, without need of sparkstone. Their Blaze gives us the best fuel for fires. Their Chillwater lets us keep food cold and fresh even outside of winter. We would not be where we are without what the Machines give us, and we are ever-thankful to the All-Mother that She chooses to grace us with the splendors of creation to this very day.

“Hunting Machines was challenging, but never dangerous. When startled, the Machines just simply ran, and the hunter would only be left with disappointment, but at least they were free to try again without worry.

“That all changed when the Derangement happened. On that day, several years ago, there was a…omen. A sound like thunder ripped through the air, even though the sky was clear and there was not a cloud to be seen. After that, the Machines behaved strangely. Where the Machines bolted before, they now turned and fought in a frenzy. The herd guard Machines were the first to do this, but more and more lately, even the herd Machines attack anyone they see, their normally blue eyes turning red, as though from bloodlust.

“It was chaos at first. Many hunters were injured when the Machines they hunted suddenly attacked them on sight. A few even died. There have even been rumors recently, strange rumors, of new Machines appearing. Machines that don't appear to be either herd guard or grazer. Machines that look…as though they were made to hunt humans. I have not seen any of these Machines for myself, but I am no longer surprised at such things anymore. Now, I only worry about what the Machines will do next.

“And so that is the Derangement. I admit, it’s not exactly the same as what happened to you in your Sier-pin-ski place, but it’s the closest thing I can compare it to,” Rost concluded, before looking Eule and Star in the eyes: “And that’s why I was initially afraid of you two at first. With your strange legs, so Machine-like, and your blue eyes with your red pupils, I had initially thought you two were some of these new Machines from the rumors. However, it quickly became clear from the moment you spoke to me in your strange tongue that you were no Machines. The Machines do not speak in human tongues. We know that they speak to each other somehow, but never in any tongue a human would speak. So the fact that you did speak in a human tongue, even though I couldn’t understand it, proved that you two weren’t Machines. At least, not in spirit. I’m still not certain about the body.”

Eule gave a nervous laugh at that alongside Star. Eule, try as she might, couldn’t quite really deny that.

“And what’s more, both of you died?” Rost asked in disbelief. “You remember dying, and you have absolutely no idea how you came to be where we found you?”

“I just remember everything going dark and cold, and then suddenly there was blue sky, green grass, warm sunlight, and Eule right next to me,” Star replied, glancing at Eule with a smile. “Honestly, I actually thought I was with Eule in wherever we Replikas go when we die.”

Eule answered Star’s smile with a smile of her own, if a bit more melancholic. “It’s exactly the same for me as well, with the only difference being the initial sensations.”

“So that’s why you were so sad when you realized all those Old Ones killed themselves in that room,” Äloy said quietly.

Eule could only smile sadly at her and nod, so she was a bit surprised when Äloy got off from Rost’s lap, walked around the table to where Eule was, and hug her tightly.

“It’s okay. There’s nothing bad like that happening to you right now, so you don’t need to be sad, okay?” Äloy said, her voice a bit muffled due to her face being buried in Eule’s side. Äloy then raised her face up to Eule with a hopeful look. “And if you’re still sad, then maybe you could get Star to sing to you too? You said that I would like Shtar’s voice when she sings, so maybe we can hear it now?”

Eule’s smile froze as she slowly turned to Star, who had a mildly perturbed look on her face.

“Eule, dear, what exactly did you tell Äloy about my voice?” Star asked with a mix of morbid curiosity and horrified embarrassment in her voice.

Eule started to open her mouth to answer, but Äloy beat her to it.

“Eu-le said you had a very interesting voice that I would find interesting too,” Äloy piped up, repeating Eule’s words verbatim.

Star gave Eule a raised eyebrow in response, to which Eule replied to with an embarrassed laugh.

“Please, Shtar?” Äloy asked, assuming the most plaintive small child voice she could possibly assume.

Star’s face became filled with a mix of conflicting desires. Eule could tell that the desires of “I really don’t want to sing” warred with “But I don’t want to disappoint Äloy” just from knowing Star for as long as she did.

“Just to let you know, kid,” Star said at long last. “Regardless of what a certain Eule said, I’m a really, really, really bad singer.”

Seeing Äloy’s curious face, Star continued: “No, really. I’m terrible. Even my sisters told me I’m as tone-deaf as a broken piano.”

Äloy’s face just became even more curious and excited, which prompted Star to scratch her head in exasperation. “Agh, alright! Just a few lines of ‘Eulenlieder’, and that’s it, okay? Just those few lines will tell you just how bad I am, okay?”

Äloy wasn’t deterred. Her head bobbed up and down in a nod so quickly that it was practically vibrating.

Star sighed. “Fine. Well, here goes.” She took a deep breath, and started to sing.

Honestly, Eule thought it was a shame. Star had a wonderfully deep speaking voice that gave her a lovely contralto that Eule could listen to forever. That same contralto though also turned into an adorably high-pitched voice whenever she squeaked, so Eule knew that Star was capable of singing in a wide range of pitches.

Unfortunately, as much as Eule loved Star, even she had to admit that Star just could not seem to put those capabilities together into singing. At least, not singing that sounded nice. As Star sang those first few lines of “Eulenlieder”, she managed to hit almost every note wrong. The few notes she did manage to hit right by accident sounded so discordant compared to the rest that it actually ended up making her singing sound worse.

Eule pressed her lips together in a subtle cringe, swiftly clamping down on the instinct to cover her ears.

Rost seemed to have similar levels of self-control, if not better. In fact, Eule would say that he was practically an Ara in terms of neutral facial expression mastery. It was only due to a Eule’s equal mastery of reading such faces that Eule could tell that Rost was experiencing just as much discomfort listening to Star sing as she was.

Äloy however had no such self-control. She stared at Star for all of 10 seconds before falling over laughing. That immediately ended Star’s one and only performance for the night.

“See?” Star asked of Äloy and everyone else present by extension, her face nearly as bright red as the eyeliner-like tattoos under her eyes.

Eule felt bad for her lover at being caught out like this, and she gently held Star’s hands. “I’m sorry, Star. It was a little joke I was playing with Äloy that I think may have gone a bit too far. I didn’t mean to hurt you like this. I’m sorry.”

Star blinked at her in surprise, before she laughed. “No, it’s okay, Eule. All Rost and Äloy now know is that I suck at singing. It’s kind of embarrassing, but I wasn’t really hurt by it. I’m sorry if I made you feel that way, love.”

Eule was so relieved that she gave Star a warm hug. “Oh, Star.”

Star smiled at Eule and just as warmly returned the hug. “Oh, Eule.”

“Oh, oh! Are you two going to be kissy-kissy again?!” Äloy asked in excitement from Eule’s side, with Star’s attempt at singing apparently having been forgotten.

Both Eule and Star snorted and broke out in laughter at Äloy’s words simultaneously.

“Do you just find people kissing really funny for some reason, Äloy?” Star asked the little Gestalt girl in a teasing tone.

“Well, Rost never gets kissy-kissy with anyone, so this is the first time I get to watch 2 people being kissy-kissy up close!” Äloy excitedly said.

“Oh? So you’re still single, Rost? That’s surprising,” Star noted.

Eule nodded vehemently in agreement. A man like Rost who could cook, hunt, and was a loving father to an adorable little girl? Eule would think that there would be mobs of women, Gestalt and Replika alike, falling head over heels to try to ask Rost out on dates. Or more likely: for his hand in marriage.

Rost’s reply to Eule and Star alike was a simple chuckle. “No, I don’t have anyone like that in my life. Even if I did desire a mate, my situation would make that…impossible.”

Eule tilted her head at Rost. “Impossible?” she asked curiously.

“Because we’re both outcasts,” Äloy explained in a tone that combined exasperation, annoyance, and surprisingly from Äloy from what Eule knew of her so far, anger.

“Outcasts?” Eule and Star asked simultaneously.

Rost leaned back and sighed before properly looking Eule and Star in the eye as he answered: “Aloy and I are both outcasts from the Nora. That means it’s against the law for us to speak to a member of the tribe, and it’s just as illegal for a member of the tribe to speak to us in turn. In fact, it’s actually illegal for a member of the tribe to even so much as acknowledge our presence. That is what it means to be an outcast.”

Star tilted her head at Rost. “Sooo…is there a reason why you and Äloy are outcasts, or does the Nora have a habit of making their own people outcasts for no good reason?”

Rost sighed once more. “For the Nora, being made an outcast is a punishment normally made only for the most heinous of crimes.”

At that moment, Eule spoke up in a mix of anger and outrage: “Rost, Star and I have only known you for just over a day, and I find it impossible to believe that you could have done anything that heinous. As for Äloy, she’s a young child. She can’t be much more than pre-primary school age. What could she have possibly done that would deserve being made an outcast?!”

This time, Rost took a deep breath, as if preparing himself, before speaking. “To start: I apologize to you in advance. I have taken a vow of silence on the matter of my being an outcast, and I will not break it. However, I can tell you that my being an outcast is by choice, and it’s not due to any crime I committed. I hope you understand.”

Eule looked to Star, who nodded at her before they both turned back to Rost. “We understand. So–”

“Then what about me?! Why am I an outcast?! Why does the tribe shun me?! Why?!” Äloy asked. Demanded, really.

Eule looked Äloy in shock, and then back at Rost. “She doesn’t know?” she asked in confusion…and just a hint of more outrage.

Rost took another deep breath before turning to looking to everyone present, lingering on Äloy for a moment longer, and then finally explaining: “Aloy…was cast out as a baby.”

Seeing the shocked looks Eule, Star, and especially Äloy gave him, he continued: “The Matriarchs–they are the leaders of the Nora–found Aloy and brought her to me as a newborn. They had made this tiny thing an outcast, but that they couldn’t bear to just leave a helpless baby out in the elements to perish. So they came to me, and asked me to take care of her. I accepted, and so it went for the past six years to where we are now.”

Star rubbed her forehead in deep thought and exasperation. “So wait, these Matriarchs made Äloy an outcast practically from birth? What the actual fuck? For what?”

Rost sighed so deeply that Eule thought he had nearly emptied his lungs out. “I don’t know,” he said simply.

“Is it because of my mother?!” Äloy asked loudly. “Who was she?! Who was my mother?!”

“Aloy, I’ve told you before, that is not for us to know,” Rost said, before he sighed once more. “And I honestly can’t tell you. The Matriarchs refused to tell me when I asked, and so I let it be. I can only assume that the Matriarchs are keeping it a secret because they know best, and that’s it.”

It felt like the entire room sank with Rost’s spirits. Eule looked down at Äloy, who was staring at the floor dejectedly.

“Äloy, is that why you call Rost by his name, and not ‘father’?” Eule asked her quietly. She’d found it strange that Äloy constantly called Rost by his name, and now she knew why, but she still had to ask.

“Rost isn’t my father,” Äloy said just as quietly. “He’s not.”

Eule couldn’t help but glance at Rost when Äloy spoke those words. Rost’s face remained as stoic as he usually was, but Eule could see otherwise. The lowering of Rost’s gaze, the quiet sigh he gave, and the general sinking of his entire being…Eule could see Äloy’s words wounded him deeply, and so it hurt her as well to see the gentle, kind Rost like this.

But before Eule can speak to Äloy about it, Äloy suddenly raised her head to look up at Eule with a fiercely determined look in her eyes.

“I don’t know my father, but I know Rost.” Äloy turned to look up at Rost. “Rost is better than any father. He’s a lot better than any father who doesn’t even come over to see me. If my father is still out there somewhere, then I would find him only to tell him how bad he is.”

“Aloy,” Rost simply said. Eule didn’t even need to look at his face to hear how surprised he was…and how happy Äloy’s words made him. Honestly, it made Eule just as happy to hear Äloy say that.

“But,” Äloy said quietly as her gaze lowered to the floor once more. “I just want to know who my mother was. That’s all.”

Then suddenly, Äloy looked up again at Rost. This time though, there was a look of realization on her face, as though she’d just solved a tricky puzzle.

“Rost, you said the Matriarchs found me, right? Then that must mean they must know who my mother was, right?” Äloy asked in rapid-fire succession.

“I’m not sure if it’s that simple…but I have to assume so, yes. Based on their words,” Rost admitted, before continuing: “But if they wouldn’t tell me, then I don’t think they will tell you as well.”

“So how do I make them tell me?” Äloy asked.

Rost was silent.

“Please?” Äloy pressed.

Eule watched as Rost looked up at the ceiling, clearly deep in though. As if he too was puzzling out the solution to this conundrum.

Then at last, he lowered his gaze back to Äloy, sighed, and said: “There is a way. But…”

“So tell me,” Äloy pressed once more.

“It will be dangerous,” Rost stated.

“How?” Äloy pressed further.

“It will take years of training,” Rost continued, apparently hoping to dissuade Äloy.

“I don’t care. Tell me. Please,” Äloy said. Even though her words sounded like a plead to Eule, there was only a look of fiery determination in Äloy’s eyes.

Rost looked Äloy straight in the eyes, and simply said: “The Proving.”

Looking around at the confused faces, Replikas and a single little Gestalt girl alike, he continued: “It’s the tribe’s rite of passage, held every year. Those who pass become Braves: the tribe’s warriors and defenders. But to the one who wins–the one who finishes first–the Matriarchs grant a boon.”

“A boon?” Äloy asked, and so did Eule and Star at the same time.

“A favor from the Matriarchs. Whatever the winner wants. One they cannot deny, no matter what it may be. Even things that would be normally hidden by any vows of silence they have taken,” Rost explained, before finishing: “That is the only thing I can think of to make the Matriarchs reveal who Aloy’s mother is.”

Äloy stood up straighter, as if Rost’s explanation had given her a goal to look towards. “Then I’ll do it. Whatever it takes. I’ll win the Proving.”

Rost and Äloy stared each other in the eye for seemingly forever to Eule before Rost gave a nod. “I see. We best get started then,” he said.

Äloy’s mouth widened in excitement.

“Tomorrow,” Rost finished with the force of a Mynah that had suddenly appeared in your path. Even seeing Äloy’s pouting face only made Rost continue: “In the morning. When you’ve had a good night’s rest. I cannot train you if you’re too tired to move, can I?”

“No,” Äloy admitted.

“Then bed, Aloy,” Rost ordered.

“Okaaay. Night then, Eule. Star,” Äloy hugged each of them in turn before running up to Rost and giving him a hug with a grateful “Night, Rost,” before climbing up the ladder to where her bed laid.

With little Äloy off to bed upstairs, Eule sat with her lover and Rost in comfortable silence for a while. Eventually though, Eule had to say:

“I apologize if we brought up an uncomfortable subject between you and Äloy, Rost,” Eule said in a guilty tone.

Rost waved a hand in the air. “It’s fine. It was already something Aloy had been wanting to talk about for a while now. You and Shtar just simply caused it to happen a bit sooner.”

Eule breathed out a sigh of relief. “That’s good then.”

Star had a wondering look on her face when Eule looked over to her though. “Something you said before made me wonder, Rost,” Star said.

Upon hearing Rost make an inquiring sound, Star continued: “Where exactly are we in Nora lands, and where is that compared to…well, everywhere else? You never actually said.”

Rost had to think for a few moments before answering Star. “We are deep in the very heart of the Sacred Lands of the Nora, in a valley we formally call All-Mother’s Embrace, and usually just call the Embrace. Specifically, my house is located in the northwest corner of the Embrace, and as you know from all the uphill walking we took to get here, is high up in the mountains surrounding it. These mountains, in fact, are what protects the Nora from invasion from almost all sides.

“There are three settlements within the Embrace. The closest settlement to us here is Mother’s Heart, just down to the foot of the mountains here and to our north. Mother’s Heart is our largest settlement, and where most outsiders who are allowed into the Embrace travel to for trade. If you intend to speak with other outsiders and trade with them, then I suggest heading there. In fact, if you wish for any kind of forged tools or goods, then I suggest finding any Oseram traders at Mother’s Heart there. You will recognize them on sight. They wear as much of their own forged metal as they sell.”

“Is that where your pot came from?” Star asked.

Rost nodded. “Yes. The laws against outcasts speaking and interacting with the tribe don’t apply to outsiders for obvious reasons, so trading with them is…a way to obtain things I can’t make without breaking the law.”

Star nodded silently in reply.

Rost continued: “To the southeast far from here is our second-largest settlement: Mother’s Cradle. It’s located on the shores of a lake, and is our biggest source of water and our only source of fish. It’s also the only place where the watergrain you love so much grows, Eule, so if you wish to gather or trade for more watergrain, than Mother’s Cradle is where you need to go.”

Eule tilted her head at Rost. “You call it watergrain? That’s peculiar. We call it rice. It’s a lot more brightly colored than the rice we’re used to, but I’m certain it’s still rice. Regardless though, thank you, Rost,” she said gratefully.

“At least I will know what you are talking about when you say ‘rice’, Eu-le,” Rost said, nodding to Eule before continuing: “Finally, far to our south, is Mother’s Watch. It’s…not really a settlement so much as it’s a fortress for controlling access to All-Mother Mountain: the heart of the Nora and our faith. There are a few of us who live there, and because of its location, they tend to be more…faithful than the rest of us. That said, Mother’s Watch is closed to outsiders at all times. In fact, I would advise against going near the gate there at all. The Braves guarding it have been known to be…unfriendly to the curious.

“That’s the extent of the settlements in the Embrace. There are scattered homes in between and around the main settlements though, all occupied by outcasts like myself. They’re not bad people though, for the most part, and would all likely welcome being able to speak with outsiders like yourself.”

Star tilted her head at Rost. “Okay, but then, how do we leave the Embrace if we wanted to?”

“Hmm, to leave the Embrace, you must exit by the main gate. There are smaller gates to the north and south of it, but they’re always locked and guarded. You reach the main gate by taking the main road east of here. It’s the largest road, just to the north of Mother’s Cradle and running along the lake’s northern shores. You can’t miss it.

“However, I would advise against attempting to leave now. For your own safety.”

It was now Eule’s turn to tilt her head at Rost. “Why?”

Rost took a deep breath before answering: “We Nora are many things, but…we’re not the friendliest to outsiders, I admit. We’re suspicious even of outsiders who come in to trade. The fact that you and Star just showed up here, in the heart of the Embrace, without anyone even noticing you come in would be…disquieting. And then there’s your Machine-like appearance. I know you two are not Machines now, but people who don’t know you wouldn’t know that.”

“Is that why you made us wear those hosen on our legs? To hide them?” Eule asked.

Rost nodded. “Yes. I had hoped that any Nora who saw…the rest of you would just assume that they were outsider jewelry or something. Honestly, I would recommend avoiding even Mother’s Heart and Mother’s Cradle for now until you two somehow prove that you’re not a threat. I’m honestly afraid that a foolhardy or suspicious Brave might decide to put an arrow in either of you on sight.”

“Let them try,” Star said grimly, her fingers drumming on her Einhorn revolver on its belt holster. “I’ll put a bullet between their eyes before they can even get an arrow off.”

Rost nodded just as grimly. “I’m sure you would, especially if those Braves threaten Eu-le. But Shtar, even if you do succeed in killing a Brave like that, it would only confirm to the rest of the tribe that you and Eu-le are dangerous. I don’t wish to see you and Eu-le dead by arrows and spears, and I also don’t wish to see who knows how many Braves dead by your…weapon there. So I strongly advise you: just avoid the tribe as much as you can for now. I’ll think of something to solve this later…hopefully.”

Eule reached to the side and took the hand that Star had been drumming on her revolver, gently holding it in her grasp. Eule gave a nod to Star when she looked at her.

“Let’s just do as he says for now, and hopefully we can work something out,” Eule pleaded with her lover. She had no wish for Rost’s vision to happen either, in either case.

Star took a deep breath and let it out, relaxing her whole body as she did so. “Yeah, alright. We’ll go with your plan, Rost. Sorry about me being like that. It’s just…the thought of someone trying to hurt Eule…it made my vision go red a bit. You know?”

Rost nodded solemnly at Star. “Yes, I know,” he said before he smiled at her.

It was a smile that was, weirdly enough to Eule, full of sadness and wistful longing, but it was a smile nonetheless.

“Honestly, it wasn’t just the fact that you two spoke human languages alone that made me realize you weren’t Machines. It was the love you have for Eu-le that convinced me, as well as the love Eu-le shows you in return,” Rost said fondly. “The Machines don’t show love for each other, just like the other beasts. Not like a human would. Only a human could show such fierce devotion and affection for other human like that. Love is what makes us human, and it’s very clear that you two love each other with all your hearts. Whatever you have in body, it’s just as clear that you two have human souls in you.”

Eule smiled at Rost, a bit embarrassed by his words, but overall felt relieved and gladdened by them. “Thank you, Rost. And um, I take it you don’t mind that we’re…both women?”

Rost chuckled. “I have lived for quite a long time, and in that time, I have seen women take other women as lovers once they have fulfilled their duty to their mates to bring a child into the tribe, just as I have seen men take other men as lovers after the same. I believe that the All-Mother approves of love in all forms, no matter the gender of the lovers. Not all the Nora believe this, unfortunately, but I do truly believe that is what the All-Mother would wish for.”

Star grinned at Rost. “You’re actually a bit of a poet, aren’t you?” she asked teasingly.

Rost cast his gaze downwards for a moment. Eule smiled as she realized that he was actually embarrassed to be complimented like that on his choice of words. Eule thought it was adorable of him, really.

Rost coughed and finally said: “Perhaps we should all get some sleep now. It’s getting late, and it would be quite embarrassing for me to be too tired to train Aloy after just telling her that. So–”

“Uh, wait, about that,” Eule said as she stood up, waving her arms to stop Rost as he got out of his seat as well before pointing at the bed next to the fireplace. “That’s your bed, right? We can’t just take your bed like this and leave you to sleep on your coat night after night. It wouldn’t be right.”

Rost folded his arms at Eule. “This is my house, and you and Shtar are my guests. It would shame the All-Mother if my guests didn’t have a proper bed to sleep in.”

Eule wracked her brain for a reply before finally saying: “But wouldn’t we be insulting you as your guests by making you go to such lengths? Even in the name of hospitality, isn’t this a bit too much?”

Rost however was unmoved. He stood there like the soft mountain of a man he was and declared: “No. As your host, I get to decide if I’m going too far in my hospitality. Not my guests. End of story.”

Rost’s gaze then softened and he said: “I know you mean well, Eu-le. You truly have a kind heart. But this, this I choose to do. So please share my bed with your mate, and do not worry about where I shall sleep for the night. Trust me, my own home with a roaring fire, my little girl, and a pair of kind guests warming it is far from the worst place I have slept in. Now, good night, Eu-le. Shtar.”

With that finalized, Rost took off his triangular device and placed said device on the dinner table, thus effectively ending the conversation, before climbing up to the second floor to sleep in his coat-bed, leaving Eule behind with some very mixed feelings about his words.

“Told you,” Star simply said.

“I guess,” Eule replied just as simply.

Star then stood up herself, and stopped herself just before bonking her head on the ceiling, before she took Eule by the hand and led her to bed, pulling the blanket up to their shoulders when they’d laid down.

As Eule laid with Star in Rost’s simple and yet rather comfortable bed, she reached over and hugged Star to her, feeling the warmth of her lover’s biomechanical body, just as she felt Star wrap her own robotic arms around her. They laid there for a while, just embracing each other and comforting each other with their warmth and touch.

“Star?” Eule asked, having a sudden thought.

“Hmm?”

“Do you…have anyone you especially miss from…back there?”

“Guess talking about Einundzwanzig brought this on?” Star asked.

Eule nodded in reply. “If it’s alright with you?”

“Hmm…I guess if I had to say: Hunter. She was the most ridiculous and dorky sister I’ve ever met. You know she practiced cheesy lines right in the Star dorms? Things like ‘Evil beware, for Hunter is here!’ Heh, it was just so silly that we didn’t really laugh at her. We just sort of sat there like an audience, waiting to see what other wacky things would come out of her mouth. And yet, for all her cheesiness, she was just this really positive and upbeat sister. We felt like we could do anything with her there, you know?

“Then there was Storch Sieben. All the manuals say Storchs have hair trigger tempers, but I’ve never seen her lose her temper once. She was cool as ice, and just seemed so much more…reliable and dependable than the other Storchs. Heh, I’ve actually wished a few times that Sieben was a Star instead of a Storch, so at least we could bunk together. She was a good friend.

“And then there was Ara Eins.”

Eule looked up at Star’s face in curiosity. “Oh? You were friends with an Ara? And the eldest Ara, no less?”

Star chuckled. “Yeah, weird, right? We talked once while she was fixing one of our weapons lockers, and we just kind of clicked. You know she was a veteran of Vineta? Yeah, apparently, there weren’t enough Elsters available in her sector, so command basically conscripted her to be a pioneer. She was pretty good at it, surprisingly. Blew up an entire Imperial command post once too. It was actually really interesting to hear war stories from someone who…really didn’t expect to be in direct combat, you know? I’m…I’m really going to miss talking to her.”

Eule could only nod in reply. What other reply could there be to that?

“Hmm, can I ask you the same question then? You know, aside from Einundzwanzig?” Star asked, a curious look on her face.

Eule thought for several moments in order to properly answer Star’s question. “Januar. I liked her. She was always so calm, mature, and elegant, but she had a…warm funniness to her too. She felt…more like a grandmother than an eldest sister, but it seemed fitting for her. She was a couple decades older than the rest of us, after all. With Januar, it felt like we had a nice grandmother watching over us. Rost would’ve liked her, I think. It’s too bad she was already lovers with Februar. It would’ve been nice if Januar and Rost fell in love with each other, you know?

“Oh, speaking of Februar: she was a strange Eule. So contrary and a bit…blunt at times, but she led the kitchen staff with the determination of a Storch. She was a good Eule and a good person. You know, she was the one who convinced me to go out with you? Back when you were just this really interesting Star to me?”

“Oh?” Star asked in a very interested tone.

Eule nodded. “She told me ‘Stop being so shy, Vierundzwanzig. Just go ask her out. She’ll either say yes or she’ll say no, but either way, you won’t know until you ask. So march over there and ask this STAR-S2325 already. Now.’”

Star started to crack up, and quickly covered her mouth to avoid waking Rost and Äloy, muffled laughing noises coming from behind her robotic hand.

It took nearly a minute for Star to finally calm down enough to speak at last. “I wish I could’ve met this Februar. She sounds like she was a hilarious Eule. Nice too, in her way.”

Eule chuckled. “She was. She really was.”

Eule still remembered the last she saw of Februar. She started coughing one day, and by the time she’d stopped coughing, oxidant was soaking the carpet below her. Eule had watched Februar’s face turn to horror as she realized that she was infected, and before anyone could stop her, she’d fled from the Eule dorm.

When Januar returned from the rationing office on a supply trip and learned what happened, she’d apologized to her younger sisters…because she was going to find Februar. She’d insisted that things were going to be okay before walking out of the Eule dorm. That was the last Eule saw of Januar as well.

Eule hoped they were both together in wherever Replikas went when they died. It was the best thing she could hope for them.

“So anyone else you miss?” Star suddenly asked. “Or we can talk about anything else you want? You know, if you don’t feel like talking about it.”

Eule smiled at her lover. “It’s fine. I do want to talk about the others I miss. I…I don’t want to forget them, and I don’t want them to be forgotten.”

Eule felt Star’s hug tighten just a bit into a gentle squeeze. “Alright, if that’s what you want.”

Eule returned the hug. “Thank you, love. Now then, there was März. She was…well, oddly unfortunate. Things just kept happening to her, like her mapping module being defective, or her kitchen knife breaking just as she was using it. It was as though the universe hated her, but she pressed on with cheer regardless. We all loved her for that, and we all tried to make her feel better whenever she had another run of bad luck.

“Then there was Ara Elf. I know most people think the Aras are simpletons, but no one who’d ever met Elf for more than five minutes would think her a simpleton. On the contrary. Especially not after she’d tricked you into shaking her hand when it had a hidden buzzer in it. Heh, she always such a mischievous sort, almost child-like really. I think Äloy would’ve liked her if they could’ve met. Maybe a bit too much, but it would’ve been so much fun though.

“Lastly, heh, you would never believe this, but I miss MNHR-S2301 too.”

Star blinked at Eule in surprise. “A Mynah? You knew a Mynah, and the eldest Mynah on top of it? This I got to hear about.”

Eule giggled. “I saw that Januar liked to have tea with a particular Mynah, and so I became curious enough to ask her about it. The Mynah, I mean. As it turned out, her name was Beo, and she and Januar were birds of a feather. They became friends because they found out they were built in the same Heimat Fabrikation Sektors, and in neighboring Replikawerke complexes as well! They were even of similar ages. They were like a pair of little old Gestalt ladies sharing tea and gossip together.”

Star snorted. “The words ‘Mynah’ and ‘little’ do not belong in the same conversation.”

Eule giggled. “Honestly though, that was the feeling I got from Beo. She was even asking Januar for advice on baking.”

Star stared at Eule. “Baking.”

“Yes.”

“…Baking what, pray tell?”

“Cookies. What else?” Eule said with a perfectly innocent smile.

Eule watched as Star carefully opened and closed her hands in front of her, as though imagining a Mynah’s massive servoshell hands grasping a baking tray filled with piping hot cookies.

“How?” Star asked in a tone of complete and utter bewilderment.

Eule’s smile turned a bit sad. “I don’t know. Honestly, I wish I had asked Beo before everything happened. I had hoped to maybe run into her in the mines, but…”

Star shuddered. “Maybe it was better that we hadn’t.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” Eule admitted. “I hope…they’re all in a better place now.”

Star hugged Eule again. “They are.”

“But how do you know?” Eule asked.

“Because I can’t imagine any of them not being in a better place after what happened,” Star replied sadly, before she smiled at Eule. “Hey, it could happen though. We’re in a much better place now, after all.”

Eule smiled and hugged Star back. “Yeah, you’re right. Thank you, love.”

Star kissed Eule. “Anytime, dear.”

Eule returned the kiss, taking a bit longer to break the comfortably warm contact. “In that case, maybe there’s something else you can help me with?”

“Oh?” Star grinned. “And what might that be–Mmm!”

Eule grinned back as she stroked up and down the crotch of Star’s shorts, right along where her slit was. “A little mutual personality stabilization, perhaps? If that’s alright with you, love?”

Star’s smile turned coquettish as her hand stroked down Eule’s back, down her butt, and then finally between her legs to where her own slit was. “I’m definitely always up for a little of that, Eule. A little personality stabilization right before bed never hurt any Replika.”

Eule reached up underneath the front of Star’s uniform, feeling the contours of Star’s breasts underneath her Star-standard-issue upper body undergarments. “No, it certainly doesn’t,” Eule said, before kissing Star deeply.

Eule was still savoring the taste of Star’s return kiss when a small voice suddenly asked from their side: “Eu-le? Shtar? Are you still awake?”

Star choked mid-kiss, coughing and trying to clear saliva that had gone down the wrong tube as Eule’s arm snaked out from underneath Star’s uniform and she spun around, seeing little Äloy standing there fiddling with her hands.

“Uh, Äloy,” Eule said a bit too high-pitched, before she cleared her throat, hoping the little Gestalt girl hadn’t seen what she’d been doing with Star. “What–are you okay? Do you need something?”

Äloy fidgeted a bit more before answering: “Well, you and Shtar looked really sad after you talked about the place your…tribe was from. So I was wondering…maybe you’d feel better if I slept with you two? Just for tonight? So that you don’t have to think about that Seer-pin-skee place?”

Eule looked at Äloy’s pleading eyes, and she realized that Äloy asking to sleep with them was actually just as much for her own comfort as it is for theirs. Eule realized with guilt that her story of what’d happened to herself and Star at S-23 Sierpinski must’ve terrified Äloy even more than she’d thought. Yes, Eule felt a bit better about telling her story afterwards, but was it worth giving Äloy nightmares?

Eule looked to Star, who also had a guilty look on her face, and must’ve been thinking the same thing. Thus, Star lifted the blanket covering them. “Alright, kid. We’ll take you up on the offer. Come on in.”

Äloy grinned and happily hopped in, squirming in between Eule and Star like a warm filling in a sandwich.

“Thanks. Night, Eu-le. Shtar,” Äloy said, before making herself comfortable and closing her eyes.

Eule and Star looked at each other in mutual amusement. They would have to save the “personality stabilization” for later. For now, there was a little Gestalt girl who needed her sleep, and so did they. So they contented themselves with holding hands as they closed their eyes.

Eule’s briefly popped open one eye when she felt an additional pair of tiny hands on her and Star’s clasped hands. She smiled at Äloy pulling their hands up and cuddling their robotic hands to her, as though they were a soft stuffed toy she was hugging for comfort. Eule closed back her eyes, feeling content in the love and warmth from both Star and Äloy.

*

Eule’s dream that night was quite a bit different from last night’s. Eule was sitting on a bench in Rotfront’s Block Sektor G’s Recreation Space: a fancy name for 100 square meters of grassy park with benches surrounding a perfectly circular water feature. It was perfectly identical to all the other Recreation Spaces in all the other Block Sektors, but it was better than seeing drab concrete apartment complexes all day. Eule should know. She lived in Block Sektor G for a short time until her training had been completed, and then off to S-23 Sierpinski she was sent.

Eule was watching Star playing some sort of ball game with Äloy. The little Gestalt girl was dressed not in her usual outfit, but in a kindergarten uniform of the same type as any Rotfront kindergartener would be dressed as, with the kindergarten’s serial number emblazoned on the jumpsuit front. Not even her adorable blue scarf remained, doubtless forbidden by her Eule teacher even if she had worn it to begin with.

Next to Eule, there was Rost, who she was having a pleasant conversation with. Rost wasn’t dressed in his usual odd outfit with the dead wild pig on his shoulder. He too was dressed in a uniform, but unlike Äloy, he was dressed in a work uniform belonging to the nearby Fabrikation Sektor’s munition factory. Yet like Äloy in a way, he didn’t even have his distinct long braided beard, which would most likely have been against factory hygienic regulations and thus forbidden by his manager.

Eule would’ve found both Rost and Äloy’s outfits highly unusual had she been awake. But here in her dream, she found them to be perfectly normal outfits for Rotfront citizens. A small part of her wondered if this is what Rost and Äloy would’ve been like had they been born in the Eusan Nation and noted that they seemed less…free because of it. But for now, dream Eule was just enjoying the fantasy as her body got its much-needed rest and relaxation in preparation for the morning and what laid in wait there.

Chapter Text

Star yawned. It was a pretty big yawn to boot, with the Security Technician Guard Replika opening her mouth wide, prominently showing off her carbon steel teeth.

Seeing her lover yawn set Eule off yawning as well, with little Äloy following immediately afterwards as the trio sat on a cliff edge just a short distance outside Rost and Äloy’s house. It took a short trek across a sturdy wooden bridge lashed with more blue-colored wire which Rost must’ve made himself (which further increased his Ara-like impression in Eule’s eyes) and a brief climb (which Star easily traversed for both of them by simply picking Eule up and leaping to the top of the rock face using her long bird-like legs, to Äloy’s amazement since she had to scramble up wooden and metal handholds driven into the rock to get up the same way) to get to that cliff, but Eule could immediately see why Äloy wanted them to sit on this particular cliff, for it overlooked practically the entirety of the Embrace.

Or at least it would if any of them could see anything. As it was, the entire valley was still cloaked in darkness. The only sign that it wasn’t night was the orange, pink, and blue hues of morning light in the sky above.

“So Äloy…is there a reason why you dragged us all out here so early in the morning?” Star asked, wiping the tears from her eyes and blinking slowly from drowsiness.

“Just wait and see, Shtar,” Äloy said sleepily, but with a hint of smugness mixed in.

Eule on the other hand was content to patiently wait and see why Äloy had led them to here. She didn’t have very long to wait.

The sun crept over the horizon, slowly but surely. As the yellow glow turned into a point of bright light which was then followed by shining rays, Eule’s eyes widened at the sight below.

Far below, the sun’s rays lit up the darkness of the Embrace. Dark shapes slowly became more distinct, and dark grey turned green as the sun drove away the night and ushered in the day. It was then that the advantages of their vantage point became quite obvious. From this high perch, Eule could see everything in the Embrace, including the settlements.

To her left, there was a sprawling village that must be Mother’s Heart. Thin wisps of smoke rose from numerous chimneys: a sign of a large number of fireplaces, which in turn meant a decently large population center. At least, for the Nora. Even from this distance, Eule could tell that even a single Rotfront apartment complex of a single Blockwart was larger than Mother’s Heart, but it was the thought that counted.

Further to the right, there was a smaller village in the distance. That town bordered a shining lake, and even from this distance, Eule could make out boats on said lake as well as small docks extending out into it from the village. Clearly, that was Mother’s Cradle.

Just beyond Mother’s Cradle was a high wooden wall that spanned the gap in the mountain range that surrounded The Embrace. Even from here, Eule could see the 3 gates embedded in it, with the middle and largest gate obviously being the main gate Rost had mentioned was the best way out of The Embrace.

To the right of Mother’s Cradle, there was a smaller village still that indeed looked like a fortress, with a high wall and a great wooden gate guarding a mountain pass. Even if those fortifications paled in comparison to the ones Eule had seen around Rotfront’s main spaceport: Raumhafen A, Mother’s Watch did indeed looked like it deserved its name.

Thus, the mountain beyond Mother’s Watch must be All-Mother Mountain. It did indeed look like quite an impressive mountain, with great stone peaks capped by snow and snaked with tentacles–

Eule’s thoughts ground to a halt. She rubbed both of her robotic eyes to clear them, and then ran a self-diagnostic check on said eyes. The program reported back that her eyes were fully functioning, and that it could not detect any problems. So indeed, Eule was actually seeing massive black tentacles snaking into All-Mother Mountain, seemingly frozen in the middle of burrowing into the rock.

Eule’s eyes followed the tentacles, trying to track them to a source. Her mouth fell open in shock as she found that source: a gargantuan, insectoid shape crouched on one of the peaks that made up All-Mother Mountain. It too was frozen there, and judging from all the snow piled on it, it had been frozen there for a very, very long time. It was a very good thing to Eule too, because judging by its size, it was nearly the size of All-Mother Mountain itself.

Her device wasn’t helping either. Either that insectoid thing was too far away for her device to scan, or her device didn’t know what it was either.

“Star?” Eule asked.

“Yeah?” Star replied.

“Do you see that thing? Right there on what I’m pretty sure is one of the peaks of that All-Mother Mountain Rost spoke of? The one that’s the source of all those tentacles burying themselves into said mountain?”

“…Yeah?”

“…What in the name of the Red Eye is that thing, and how did we miss seeing it all this time?” Eule asked in disbelief.

“I think…maybe it was in the background and is so big that our brains just processed it as part of the landscape at first? But as for the former, maybe our little guide can help us here about the former?” Star asked, turning towards Äloy.

“Oh, that? That’s just the Metal Devil’s dead body,” Äloy replied blithely.

Now it was Eule’s turn to look at Äloy, looking at her with as much disbelief as Star must be.

“Metal Devil?!” Eule and Star asked simultaneously.

Äloy nodded. “Uh-huh…oh wait, you don’t know what the Metal Devil is?” she asked Eule and Star with a baffled look on her face.

Star raised an eyebrow at the little Gestalt girl. “Just woke up here in the Embrace with no idea what anything is. Remember?”

Äloy grimaced and nodded. “Yeah, okay. Makes sense.” But she then grinned. “But that means I get to tell you about the Metal Devil then, and his great big fight with the All-Mother. Let me start:

“Once, long ago, the All-Mother gave birth to everyone and everything, even the Machines. Everyone was happy. But then the Machines told the humans that they would serve them and make them even happier. Some humans said no, but others said yes. The Machines built big cities for the humans who said yes, but then the Machines turned out to be evil. They made a Machine king that made the humans worship him instead. That Machine king was the Metal Devil.

"The Metal Devil still wasn’t happy though. He wanted all humans to worship him, not just some of them. So he decided to attack the All-Mother to take her power so that he can make everyone worship him. Oh, but the All-Mother was too strong, and killed the Metal Devil with a BANG! At least, I always thought it was with a bang, but anyways, the Metal Devil dying turned all the Machines into beasts and killed all the humans who worshipped him. So the only humans left are those who didn’t let the Machines serve them. That’s the Nora, by the way, and everyone else are just Nora who’ve lost their way.

"So that’s why the Metal Devil is just sitting there dead on All-Mother Mountain. It’s been there for a really long time. Rost said it was there when he was a kid, and when his mother was a kid, and when his mother’s mother was a kid, and…actually, I don’t think there’s a time when it wasn’t there. I’m going to have to ask Rost about it later, but yeah, that’s it.”

“Umm…” Star began, raising a black mechanical finger in the process.

“Oh, so that’s why this Metal Devil is there. That explains a lot,” Eule said, interrupting whatever Star had been about to say.

Eule looked at Star, mouthing “We can ask Rost more about it later” at her. Star nodded back.

Honestly though, Eule wasn’t sure how much help Rost was going to be here. Especially if Rost was the one who’d told Äloy this story. Äloy’s story, while certainly lovely sounding, didn’t sound like something that actually happened. It sounded more like a creation myth than anything else. Eule honestly had trouble telling which parts were real and which parts weren’t…if any of the story Äloy told them was true, really.

But seeing as how this Metal Devil didn’t seem to be of any threat, it was something they could ignore for now. Hopefully.

“Oh, but that made me think of something about the Metal Devil,” Äloy piped up.

“Oh?” both Eule and Star asked, now curious as to what this little Gestalt girl will say next.

“Well, the Metal Devil is a man…sort of. Rost always calls the Metal Devil a ‘he’ and ‘him’, so it must be a man. So maybe…maybe the Metal Devil was jealous of the All-Mother for not being able to have kids? I mean, only women can have kids, and men can’t no matter what. So I think the Metal Devil just really, really, really wanted to have kids even though he couldn’t, and that’s why he was so angry at the All-Mother and tried to kill her,” Äloy concluded.

“I…I guess?” Eule hesitantly said. “I mean, it does make sense under that logic.”

Äloy then tilted her head at Eule. “Hey, now I’m wondering, Eu-le…you and Shtar have the legs of Machines right?”

Eule nodded. “That’s…more or less correct.”

“Are your arms Machines too?” Äloy further asked, curiously looking at Eule’s white gloved-arms.

Eule nodded as well. “Indeed, they are. Here.”

Eule pulled the nearly shoulder-length white glove off of her right arm and rolled back the short sleeves of her uniform, exposing the black robotic arm and hand underneath up to where it connected to her mechanical shoulder.

Äloy tilted her head as she looked at Eule’s exposed robotic arm. “It just looks like a human’s hand and arm, but…it has black skin, and metal bits on the knuckles? Are you sure that’s a Machine arm?” she asked disbelievingly.

Eule smiled, but this time, there was more than a hint of mischief in it. “I can show you, if you like?” she asked.

Äloy nodded with the speed typical of a very energetic and curious Gestalt child.

“Alright. Just give me a moment to undo the maintenance latches, and…” Eule said, doing exactly that before taking hold of her right upper arm with her left arm, and pulling. With a pop, Eule’s entire right arm came free from its shoulder joint. Eule held up her own detached right arm, and smiled happily at Äloy with a cheerful “Ta-da!”

By this point, Äloy’s eyes had opened so wide that they were practically popping out of their sockets, and her mouth had gaped open so wide that Eule was honestly afraid some flying insect would try to dive into it, but fortunately, no such insect was there to disturb the spectacle.

“Whoaaaa!” Äloy breathed.

“Would you like to hold it?” Eule asked, her smile having turned into a mischievous grin.

Äloy nodded so rapidly in reply that Eule immediately held out her arm to the little Gestalt girl to keep her from looking like her head was going to vibrate off of its neck. Äloy took hold of Eule’s right arm, carefully and gently turning it around and examining it from all angles.

“It’s still warm!” Äloy said in astonishment.

“Of course. It was online only a moment ago, after all. It will get cool in a bit though, because it’s not part of me right now,” Eule explained.

Äloy carefully manipulated the limp Replika limb, bending the arm and moving the fingers around. The little Gestalt girl even took Eule’s arm and used it to wave at Star, who happily waved back with a grin of her own.

“Does that mean you can also take off your arms, Shtar?” Äloy asked as she handed Eule’s arm back to her, still vibrating with excitement at the experience.

“You betcha,” Star replied, her grin never leaving her face. “My legs too, although not right this second. I do need it to walk around, after all," she said, forestalling Äloy’s request in the middle of the little Gestalt girl opening her mouth.

“Aww,” Äloy said in a disappointed tone. She then immediately brightened up and asked Eule as she replaced her arm back in its shoulder socket: “Is there any other part of you that’s also Machine that you can take off?”

Eule didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she redid the maintenance latches on her right arm, and tested it out by rotating and bending the arm, as well as flexing each and every robotic finger before pulling her sleeve back down and her glove back on. Fortunately, the process didn’t take long, and Äloy seemed so fascinated by it that she was perfectly willing to wait for Eule to be ready.

“Well, our eyes are basically Machines,” Eule said finally. She smiled at Äloy’s astonished look and continued: “And yes, we can remove them too for maintenance or just to replace it with a new module.”

“You can take out your eyes?!” Äloy breathed, her voice full of wonder and curiosity. “Can you?! Please?!”

Eule gave a laugh. “It’s a little embarrassing to do that right in the open, Äloy. It’s a bit like asking someone to take off their clothes for us Replikas.”

“Awww!” Äloy moaned in even louder disappointment. Fortunately for Eule, she didn’t press the issue, and instead peered curiously at Eule’s…face? At least, that where she thought Äloy was looking.

“Does that mean that black stuff on your neck, face, and ears is Machine skin too?” Äloy asked, still just as curious.

“Oh, that’s just my polyethylene shell,” Eule said, before seeing Äloy’s baffled expression made her think for a moment how to explain it to her. “Think of it as…like scales on a reptile. My polyethylene shell grows out of my skin in certain places to protect it, just like lizard scales.”

“Ohhh,” Äloy said, before once more tilting her head at Eule. “What’s…poly-ethy-lene? What a weird word.”

“Oh, it’s a type of plastic that we Replikas grow from our skin for protection, as well as making up a part of our bodies in general.”

“…What’s plastic?”

Eule opened her mouth to answer…and then closed it because she actually had no idea how to answer Äloy’s question. She had to think about this for a moment. How in the name of the Red Eye were you supposed to explain what plastic was to someone who had never heard of it? A quick glance at Star earned Eule a baffled shrug in reply, leaving Eule alone with her thoughts as she struggled to come up with understandable explanation for the little Gestalt girl.

“It’s a synthetic polymer…no, that wouldn’t make any sense to Äloy,” Eule muttered as Äloy looked even more baffled by her initial words. “It’s…something artificial. Human-made. Umm…”

Eule wracked her brain for an answer.

“Maybe…maybe you can examine my shell more closely? Maybe you can tell me if you have anything like plastic after feeling it?” Eule asked Äloy.

“Can I?!” Äloy said, scrambling to her feet and staring excitedly at Eule.

Eule smiled at the ever-curious and ever-adorable little Gestalt girl. “Go right ahead.”

Äloy took the opportunity to lean in close to examine Eule’s neck. “They really are scales. I can see it. It does look like lizard skin,” Äloy said in a fascinated tone.

“Mm-hmm,” Eule simply replied.

Then she felt Äloy’s hand first poking her neck, and then gently feeling it.

“Wow. It feels warm, dry, and…bee-ey. Like the beefat the bees make inside their hives,” Äloy commented all the while stroking Eule’s neck. “Oh, and hard. Really hard. Like…oh! It feels like Machinestone.”

“Machinestone?” Eule asked. She could already tell that “beefat” was beeswax just from the context, but “Machinestone” was something that completely puzzled her as to its meaning.

“Oh, uhh…okay, so Machines have some parts made of this weird…stuff. It’s kind of like stone, but it’s really smooth, feels like a little like beefat, and is a lot lighter than any stone. It even floats too, usually. I think people just call it Machinestone because they didn’t know what else to call it,” Äloy explained.

“It…does sound like plastic,” Eule admitted. “Or at least, the kind of plastic my shell is made of…maybe?”

Äloy tilted her head and folded her arms, seemingly in combination bafflement and exasperation. “Maybe if I show you some Machinestone parts sometime, you can see if it’s this…’plastic’?” she asked.

Eule nodded. “Alright, I’ll be waiting.”

Äloy smiled before she suddenly had a look of realization. “Oh, now I remember what I was going to ask about!”

“Oh?” Eule asked with a smile and a tilted head, finding Äloy’s lack of an attention span to be absolutely adorable.

“So, if both you and Shtar are part-Machine and part-human…then were you 2 born because a human and a Machine prayed to the All-Mother for kids?” Äloy asked.

Seeing Eule and Star’s dumbfounded and bewildered looks, Äloy further explained: “When I asked Rost where kids came from a while back, Rost said that when a man and a woman want to have kids, they get together for a whole night and pray to the All-Mother to have a kid. If the All-Mother hears their prayers, then she will bless the woman with a kid by putting them in her belly. Sometimes the All-Mother accidentally hears the prayer twice and puts 2 kids in the woman’s belly, or even 3 if the prayer got to her really wrong, but that’s really rare. And if She didn’t hear the prayer and the woman doesn’t have a kid, then the man and the woman have to keep praying to the All-Mother the next night and the next night after that until the All-Mother finally hears their prayers–hey, why are you laughing, Shtar?!”

“Nothing, nothing,” Star managed to get out in between some very badly suppressed laughter.

Eule merely kept smiling, managing to successfully suppress her own laughter. To her, it sounded like a perfectly reasonable explanation Rost gave to Äloy, seeing as she was still a kindergartener in age. Rost wouldn’t have wanted to get into the…actual details of what the man and woman do together during those nights, after all.

“To answer your question, Äloy: no. That’s not how we Replikas are born,” Eule replied, still managing to keep from uttering a single chuckle.

Äloy tilted her head at Eule. “Then…who are you and Shtar’s mothers? Are they humans or Machines?”

Eule was about to answer that question, but as her mouth opened, Rost’s voice bellowed out from behind them, calling out: “Äloy! Eu-le! Shtar! Breakfast is ready!”

“Oh, breakfast! Let’s get back to it later. Right now, food!”  Äloy said excitedly before dashing off back towards her and Rost’s house.

Eule and Star looked at each other.

“She sure jumps subjects quickly, doesn’t she?” Star asked wryly.

“Well, she is only a kindergartener, after all,” Eule replied with a smile.

“Heh, not sure I’ll ever understand Gestalt children, but I can say for certain that Äloy is adorable,” Star said with a warm chuckle. Her smile then turned a bit lop-sided as she asked: “How do you think she’ll react to learning that we Replikas don’t really have any parents in the sense Gestalts do?”

“Not well, I think, given how much she values having a mother,” Eule said with a concerned look.

“Do you want to…you know, make something up to Äloy? Say that our parents were weird or something?” Star asked.

Euel firmly shook her head. “Äloy is a very intelligent Gestalt child, and she’s as good at reading faces as a Eule. She can tell if I’m lying. Also, I promised her that I wouldn’t lie to her again. She doesn’t like being lied to, and I don’t like lying to her. So I’m just going to tell her, no matter what.”

Star nodded. “Alright, I’m with you on this one all the way then. No holding back about those Replika-Werke.”

“Uhh, maybe hold back just a bit about parts of it. You know, the bits that might be traumatizing to a young Gestalt child who has never seen or heard of a Replika before?” Eule said with a nervous laugh, thinking about what the description of anywhere from dozens to hundreds of Replika embryos each floating in their own growing vat and attached to the feeding tubes by their biomechanical umbilical tubes would sound like to young Äloy.

Star blinked, and then gave a sheepish laugh. “Yeah, those I’ll hold back on. Don’t want to give Äloy any more nightmares than we already have.”

As if on cue, the aforementioned Äloy popped up from the rock face on the way back to her and Rost’s house. “Eu-le! Shtar! Come on! Food!” she yelled out impatiently.

Eule giggled and stood up. “Shall we adjourn for breakfast then before Äloy drags us back?”

Star also stood up, stretching as she replied: “Yeah, let’s. I’m famished, and I don’t want to keep a certain little Gestalt girl waiting, so–”

Eule was not prepared for Star suddenly scooping her up and holding her in a bridal carry.

“Let’s go the fast way down, shall we?” Star said with a grin.

Before Eule could ask her lover what she meant or even agree to it, Star was dashing across the rock at full sprint. Eule squealed as she felt the wind on her face from the speed they were going at. If she recalled correctly: Star mentioned that her Replika model can reach speeds of 55-70 km/h depending how much room they had to accelerate, and whether they were just running at a maintainable pace or flat-out sprinting. Eule figured that they probably didn’t have enough room on this small bit of rocky path to accelerate to those speeds, but it was probably pretty close.

Fortunately, the burst of speed was extremely brief, and Star slowed down right before they reached the rock face, leaping down with a grace that made Eule wonder if she could teach Star how to dance ballet. Star gave Eule a quick peck on her nose, making Eule giggle as her lover set her back down on her feet with that obstacle crossed.

“Whoa! That was fast!” Äloy said excitedly, hopping back down from the handhold she had been holding onto.

Star gave Äloy a proud look. “Naturally. We Stars were built to be police officers as one of our duties, after all. What kind of officers would we be if any Gestalt could outrun us?”

“I don’t know what most of that meant, but you were still really fast!” Äloy replied, hopping in place. “Is it because you’re really tall, so your legs are really long, so you can run that fast?!”

Star nodded. “Pretty much.”

Äloy suddenly stopped hopping to look up and down at Star, mostly up though. “How tall are you anyways, Star?” she asked curiously.

“220 cm. Same as my sisters,” Star replied instantly.

Äloy’s eyes widened in amazement. “That’s taaall. That’s…Grazer tall.”

Star raised an eyebrow at the little Gestalt girl still staring up at her. “Grazer?”

“The practice dummies around the house? Rost made them in the shape of Grazers. They’re Machines that also eat grass like the Striders, but they’re a lot bigger. I’ve never seen a real one before, but Rost said he used real Grazer parts to make them more real. He said he even made them their real size, so if they’re that tall, then you’re that tall too,” Äloy explained to the Star-class Replika still looking down at her.

“Huh, I guess that explains what those were,” Star said, as much to Eule as to herself.

“I suppose now you’ll know what to shoot for on these ‘Grazers’,” Eule commented with a smile.

“Maybe whenever Rost tells me which parts I have to shoot for,” Star added with a relaxed smile of her own, suggesting that she was in no rush to find out at the moment.

Eule’s smile widened as she watched Äloy reach as far as she could to tug on one of Star’s fingers. “But, you know, maybe to be sure, I can climb up and measure you myself? You know, just to be sure?” Äloy asked, looking up at Star with a pleading look.

Star chuckled. “You just want an excuse to be tall for a bit, don’t you?” she asked teasingly.

“Nooo,” Äloy replied, trying to sound as innocent as possible.

Eule had to cover her mouth to keep from bursting out in laughter at Äloy avoiding meeting Star’s eyes. It seemed that as much as Äloy hated others lying to her, she herself was terrible at lying to others.

Eule could see Star trying to suppress her own mirth as well. In the end, Star bent down a little and offered Äloy her robotic hand. “Alright, kid. You can come aboard. But only for a bit, okay?”

Äloy didn’t even bother to reply. She just gave a cheer, and then took Star’s hand. She didn’t even wait for Star to pull her up. She just took Star’s hand in both of her little hands, and pulled herself up. Star squawked as Äloy clambered up Star’s arm, using her still-proffered hand as a foothold, stood atop Star’s mechanical shoulder, before finally planting herself firmly on both of the Security Technician Guard Replika’s shoulders, gripping Star’s neck with her thighs and resting her hands on top of Star’s head.

“Heh, wow. You’re like a little monkey, aren’t you, kid?” Star said with a laugh as she stood up to her full height, much to Äloy’s delight.

“Monkey?” Äloy asked.

“Yup, monkey,” Star replied, finally beginning her walk towards Rost and Äloy’s house, with Eule walking beside her. “As for what a monkey was, well…”

Eule watched with a warm smile as Star attempted to explain to Äloy what kind of creature the long-extinct monkey was, noting that Star was deliberately walking at a very slow pace for her. Seemingly to both ensure that Eule is able to keep pace with her, as well as keep Äloy from falling off. Eule even noted that Star was holding onto Äloy’s legs with a gentle but firm grip to further minimize the risks of that. Honestly, Star’s care is why Eule thought that Star would make a great mother…and probably father too.

Even at Star’s slowed pace though, it didn’t take long for the trio to reach the entrance of Rost and Äloy’s house, where Rost was waiting next to the open door with an indulgent look that turned amusingly exasperated at the sight of Äloy perched high on Star’s shoulders.

“Look, Rost!” Äloy called down to Rost. “I can see everything from up here!”

“Yes, I’m sure you can,” Rost replied in a tone as dry that must surely be as dry as Kitezh’s red deserts. “Now stop bothering our guest and get down from there.”

Äloy made a hesitant groan. “But…”

“Äloy, how do you think you’ll be able to eat breakfast if you are…about half a meter above the dinner table?” Rost asked, still in that same dry tone.

Eule again struggled not to giggle as Äloy looked thoughtful, as though the problem of how to eat breakfast in that way was another puzzle for her to solve. In the end, Äloy sighed and said: “Okay, I’ll get down now. Thanks, Star!”

“Anytime, kid,” Star happily replied as she released her hold on Äloy’s legs, allowing the little Gestalt girl to leap down, and landing as neatly on her feet as any cat.

As Äloy ran into the house with Star following behind her, ducking past the doorway, Eule had to ask Rost: “You use the Eusan Metric System?”

Rost blinked at her. “Yes, although we just call it the ‘metric system’. We Nora have been using it as far back as we can remember, and so do all the other tribes we know.”

“Huh, such a peculiar coincidence there,” Eule said as she walked into the house at last.

“Indeed, most peculiar,” Rost replied as he closed the door behind her.

*

Breakfast today (which Rost had still steadfastly refused to allow Eule to help with) turned out to be an entire pot full of colored rice and what looked like oats and buckwheat, all mixed together in a dish that resembled congee but made with much less water. To this not-quite-congee, Rost added in a big handful of the blueberries from yesterday, plus a few spoonfuls of thick golden liquid that was unmistakably honey. To be honest, it was Eule’s first ever experience with what was essentially sweet congee, and it was a fascinating idea for a dish that made Eule wonder if other typically savory dishes can be made into delicious simply by making them sweet instead.

Add in skewers of the final bits of rabbit meat from yesterday roasted on the open fireplace, and the result was a most hearty breakfast, which both Äloy and Star greedily devoured along with Eule.

While relaxing for a bit after breakfast, Äloy decided to explore her device’s functions. Seeing this, Eule decided that it was a good idea and began doing the same, with Star following immediately afterwards. Rost declined to join in, but Eule was certain that he was listening to them talk about the devices and paying attention.

Eule discovered that the device responded both to voice commands and to the user touching illusory displays in the air it generated. For example: when asked to bring up the audio logs recovered from the dead Gestalts in the Metal World facility yesterday, the device displayed them all in a list simply titled “Datapoints: Metal World Facility”: exactly the same as she called that place. By touching the play button on each audio log, she could replay any of them to her heart’s content. She very deliberately avoided touching that audio log made by that man who shot himself though. The mere thought of hearing his final words again made her shudder, and she didn’t want to repeat those experiences again today.

It was while looking up those audio logs and comparing with Äloy that Eule realized that Äloy had managed to scan audio logs that Eule had missed, including one that from the time when only Äloy had a device. Said audio log only raised more questions without answering any of them (something about Skylar talking about a “flash traffic” from a “USRC” and “Black Quartz encryption” to Director Evans, none of which meant anything to Eule), but it did at least result in a happy discovery: that users can copy and send data from one device to another. Äloy figured out how to use that feature to add the datapoints from her device to Eule’s device, which Eule had then sent to Star’s device.

Star ended up remaining silent for the rest of the device examination, presumably listening to the audio logs from that Metal World facility. Eule noted that Star’s face turned somber during that time, and resolved to talk to her lover about the datapoints later. Right now though, there was more experimenting to perform.

Fortunately, Eule did manage to find out one last thing about the device: its name. It took several attempts, but she finally managed to get her device to figure out that she was addressing it by specifically asking it “What is this device on my right temple called?”

The result was a simple text box appearing near the center of her vision, with a revolving picture of the device itself below it. The text box simply read: “Focus”.

Eule thought it was a rather strange name, and Star and Äloy agreed. At least Eule knew what to call her device now though.

Unfortunately, it was also the final discovery Eule would be making about her Focus for now, because Rost chose that moment to cough and say: “Perhaps you can all stop…I don’t wish to say ‘playing’, but that’s what it appears you all are doing with your…Focuses.”

That part made Eule smile just a bit smugly, having had her guess proven right. “So you were paying attention to us after all,” Eule commented happily.

Rost merely gave Eule a decidedly neutral look in reply to that before turning his gaze to Äloy. “Unless you’ve changed your mind about that Brave training, Aloy–”

Rost had just barely managed to get Äloy’s name out before she quickly clambered up the ladder, and then promptly returned with an adorably tiny bow that nearly made Eule squeal at how cute it was. Eule could see that it was a perfectly functional bow, but just sized for Äloy’s tiny hands. It even came with an equally as small quiver for Äloy attached to her belt, and both were almost certainly works of love by Rost to help Äloy train.

“I haven’t! Let’s go Brave training!” Äloy declared with the same fiery determination she had in her eyes last night, holding up her miniature bow like an adorable spear.

Eule watched Rost give Äloy a look that mixed worry with pride. Eule smiled at the thought of Rost worried about Äloy’s safety, while simultaneously proud of her bravery and determination. It fitted him, she thought.

“We will, but first, I need to ask 2…no, 3 very important questions of Shtar and Eu-le. With my first question being for Shtar…and possibly for Eu-le as well,” Rost said, turning to them.

“Oh?” Star asked.

“Shtar, your…weapon…actually, before that, does it have a name?” Rost asked, looking pointedly at the very weapon in question in Star’s hip holster.

Star grinned, undid the latch on her holster, and pulled out her Einhorn revolver in one smooth motion. “This is my Eu-K508 S: the standard-issue sidearm of all Stars everywhere. Me and my sisters call it the ‘Einhorn’…ah, that’s a mythical animal that looks like a horse but with a horn on its head,” Star said, noting Rost’s confused expression.

“Unfortunately, I still have no idea what a ‘unicorn’ is,” Rost said, shaking his head. “That’s not why I was confused though. I was wondering: do you have another name for your…sidearm? Something that’s shorter than…that jumble of letters and numbers you called it by?”

“Well…I guess you can just call it a revolver. It is a lot easier on the tongue. Maybe if we ever find another revolver somewhere, then you can call this one an Einhorn,” Star sheepishly suggested.

Rost nodded. “Very well, your ‘revolver’ then. May I ask that you not use your revolver unless I say so, or if it’s obviously clear that the Machines have spotted us?” Seeing Star’s raised eyebrow, he continued: “Your revolver is powerful and accurate, but as you might’ve noticed 2 days ago, it’s as loud as a thunderclap. The moment you used it, every single Machine in the area was alerted. I don’t want a stampede to start every time you use it.”

Star nodded. “Point taken. Alright, no using my revolver unless it’s absolutely necessary. Got it. Besides, I can always use this if I have to stay quiet.”

Star returned her revolver to its holster, and then immediately pulled a black plastic-coated metal baton even longer than her entire arm from where it had been hanging from her belt by its lanyard, tipped with its usual red armored double prongs and still emblazoned with that blue lightning bolt marking, holding it up for Rost to see, and by extension for Äloy to admire with intense curiosity.

“I’ve been wondering about that, actually. What is that thing?” Rost asked with a raised eyebrow.

Star grinned, before pulling a trigger on the grip. For a few seconds, an arc of electricity crackled between the red prongs, briefly lighting up Rost and Äloy’s house with bluish-white light (making Rost raise an intrigued eyebrow and making Äloy gaze at the stun prod with even more intense interest) before Star released the trigger, making the small bit of lightning disappear as quickly as it had made its appearance.

“This is the EIG-2 disposable stun prod, or the ‘Judicator’ as we Stars call it, although I’m not sure which part of it is meant to be the disposable part. Maybe the battery? But anyways, it’s so durable that I can beat most Replikas’ heads in with it even without the electroshock bit working. That said, it’s at its best when it is working. It’s got enough charge for me to stun a handful of Gestalts with it, or a single Replika…that’s not a Mynah, that is. After the battery runs out though, it’s just a plastic-coated metal baton. Still useful though, don’t get me wrong. Just not quite as useful,” Star explained.

Rost stroked his braided beard in a thoughtful manner. “That could actually be very useful in a hunt. Most Machines are vulnerable to electric attacks, whether from Shock Arrows or from detonating some of the large Sparkers–like much larger versions of the small ones I carved from those Watchers–you find on the outside of certain Machines. The electricity stuns them for a short time, allowing a good hunter to easily move in and stab them in a vital spot. So if you feel like you need to use that ‘stun prod’, then I encourage you to use one. And if your stun prod uses electricity to work, then hmm…perhaps if it runs out, we can experiment with using Sparkers to somehow restore life to it?”

“Huh, that’s hopeful. Guess I won’t be counting this girl out after all,” Star mused as she rehung her stun prod back on her belt.

“Indeed,” Rost said, nodding before turning to Eule. “Now for you, Eu-le: does your revolver also make that same thunderclap sound when you use it?”

“Yes, but it’s not a revolver. It’s called a pistol,” Eule corrected. “And yes, I’ll avoid using it for the same reasons you listed.”

“Well, technically it’s a–” Star began.

“Type-75 semi-automatic pistol, also called the ‘Protektor’,” Eule finished with an amused smile. “I know, Star. I was just trying to keep things simple.”

Star laughed even more sheepishly than before. “Yeah, fair enough there,” she said with a light blush.

Eule leaned over to kiss Star on the cheek. “Don’t worry, Star. I find that side of you to be just as adorable as your other sides.”

Star somehow contrived to blush even more deeply. “Aww, stop. You’re embarrassing me.”

Rost’s cough brought Eule, and by extension Star, back to the conscious world. “Yes, I’m glad that you both understand how loud your weapons are. Now for my second question, or rather, request.”

Rost walked over to the ladder, climbed upstairs, and then came back down with a pair of large…they looked like wooden ladder-like frames fitted with leather straps tied to the frame with the blue-dyed Machine wire Rost seemed to like using. There was a sort of wooden shelf on the bottom of the frame, upon which sat a large leather sack strapped to the frame with more leather straps, and tied at the top with more Machine wire. Eule would swear to the Red Eye that they were backpacks, but they looked completely different from the backpacks she’d seen Rotfront schoolchildren carry.

“May I also ask that you two take and wear these backpacks? We will be going hunting today, and we need help with carrying all the parts back. I know you have your…custom to follow, but it really would help me greatly here, as well as to avoid wasting kills,” Rost asked.

Eule nodded to Rost. “Alright, I’ll do it. Just let me get put down a pouch, and…there,” she said as she placed a pouch containing a half-full box of 10mm bullets on the table. “Now I’m not violating the Rule of Six. Star?”

Star placed her own pouch on the table at that moment. “There, now I’ve got 5 items too.”

Eule looked at the pouch. “Isn’t that one of your 12mm ammo boxes, Star?”

“Yeah, but it’s only got 2 rounds in it anyways. It’s not much of an issue if I leave it behind,” Star explained.

“If you say so,” Eule replied, trusting Star’s judgement.

With the Rule of Six out of the way, both Eule and Star then stood up and put on the backpacks Rost offered them. Eule had thought the wooden frame would make the backpack uncomfortable to wear. To her surprise though, the wooden frame fit snugly against her back without digging into her uniform or her polyethylene shell underneath. It was quite frankly a novel experience.

“Hmm, I like this,” Star commented.

Eule nodded enthusiastically in agreement with her lover. “It does feel quite comfortable,” she commented as well.

Rost only nodded in reply. “I’m glad you two think so. Now that that’s settled, all that’s left is my third and final question for you two: do you feel…overly encumbered by the leggings and boots I made you two wear yesterday? Do you believe it would affect your ability to move quickly and quietly?”

Eule looked down at her own white bird-like legs tipped with their peg-like feet, currently unencumbered by the hosen and leather boots Rost had made her and Star wear yesterday in such an improvised manner, and gently tapped the footpad of one foot on the wooden floor as she thought about it.

“Honestly, it wasn’t that bad whenever I was just walking. It was only when I was running that it became…awkward. I don’t think I could run very fast with those boots on, and I certainly don’t think I could run quietly,” Eule concluded.

“Same here. I nearly tripped more times than I could count yesterday whenever I tried to run, or just move faster than a walk,” Star added.

Rost sighed. “Very well then. You can both leave the boots, and the leggings too if you want since neither of you seem to need it nor be bothered by it. We need to move quickly and quietly for the lessons today, and speaking of which: I believe it is now finally time to start our lessons, Aloy.”

The little Gestalt girl whooped and dashed out the door. Or at least, she tried to, before Rost deftly snatched her by her blue scarf, preventing Äloy from doing what she wanted to.

“Aloy, listen to me: this is important,” Rost said in a tone of complete, dead seriousness.

Äloy immediately stopped trying to wriggle free from Rost’s grasp, and turned around, listening attentively to Rost now due to his tone.

“Today’s lesson will be the start of training you into a Brave. Not just any Brave, but the best Brave hopeful who has ever taken the Proving. Thus, there will be danger. If you fail to listen to me, you could lose your life. So please, do not run ahead of me. Stay close behind me, and do as I say. Understood?” Rost asked not so much as a question, but as a confirmation that Äloy would listen to him.

Äloy nodded, her normally cheerful face now just as dead serious as Rost’s.

“Hmm, that reminds me, can you hold on for a second, Rost? I want to check something with Eule,” Star asked.

Upon seeing Rost nod as well as Eule giving her a tilted head of puzzlement, Star looked to Eule and further asked: “Hey Eule, can you set your radio receiver frequency to 70 kHz?”

Eule nodded and did so, resulting in her hearing a crackling noise coming from her own left ear as her REM-63 Longwave Radio Receiver Module installed in her left ear module slot picked up a signal in the lowest frequency she and Star’s radio receiver modules can receive in.

“Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Eule? Can you hear me, over?” Eule heard Star over the airwaves.

Eule smiled at her lover’s voice, tinged with a hint of radio static. She then used her own RSM-46 Short-Range Radio Transmitter Module in her right ear module slot to send her own reply to Star. “I copy, Star. I hear you, love, over,” she broadcasted back.

Eule heard a static-tinted chuckle come in. “Good. I was afraid that your radio wasn’t working since I was running around for most of yesterday, calling out for you with both my voice and radio. I guess you were just too far underground to hear me then, over,” Star broadcasted.

“It seems so. Unfortunately, Äloy and I did fall pretty far down. Honestly, I was afraid your radio was broken since you couldn’t hear me, over,” Eule broadcasted back.

Star smiled at her. “Well, good news then: both our radios are working. So we can have our own private conversations whenever we want. We can even talk dirty to each other with no one the wiser, if you want? Over?” she broadcasted to Eule, with Star’s smile turning shyly suggestive.

Eule giggled. “Maybe some other time, Star. When no one is watching, over.”

Star snorted. “Doesn’t that defeat the whole point of this, over?”

Eule giggled once more, this time with a blush. “It’s so embarrassing though! Over!”

Star laughed in reply. “Then let’s just agree that talking dirty to each other over radio…may not be the best use of it, over.”

Eule’s reply to that was her own laughter. “Copy that, out!” she cut the transmission with a final laugh.

Eule then turned back to Rost and Äloy, who were both looking at her and Star with combination bafflement tinged with just a bit of worry.

“Are you two…okay?” Rost asked. “You were both smiling and laughing at each other, as though you were telling each other some kind of joke…without actually saying anything.”

Eule giggled one last time before explaining: “That was just us testing out our radios. They’re functioning perfectly, by the way.”

Seeing the even more baffled and confused expressions on Rost and Äloy’s faces though made Eule realize something.

“Oh, dear. You don’t have radios yet. How do I explain this? Radios are communication devices that send out radio waves, allowing someone with a radio to hear someone speak or play something into another radio. Radio waves are…think of them as invisible forces like heat or wind, and that they make invisible ripples in the air like when you touch water. I can transmit these ripples to Star as my voice, and thus she can hear my voice with her own radio. The same is true in the opposite direction,” Eule explained further.

Rost stroked his beard once more in thought. “Invisible voices in the air…I wonder…the Machines can speak to each other without words. We know this because Watchers are able to summon nearby Machines for help, including those that aren’t other Watchers, even if they’re out of hearing range. Could they be using this ‘radio’ you speak of?” he asked.

Eule blinked in surprise at him, and thought about it. “Yes, that could be it. It would certainly make sense for these Machines to have radios for communications.”

Star also looked thoughtful at this theory. “We can certainly try to test it out. Change our receiving frequencies when we’re around the Machines until we get their channel. That would allow us to see if this theory is right.”

“Good,” Rost said with a nod. “Then we best be on our way. Because where we’re going, there are definitely going to be Machines.”

*

Eule ended up walking right next to Äloy, both of them trailing close behind Rost. Star took up the rear, with Eule noting that her lover was carefully scanning the area around them after Rost’s ominous words. Star gave a reassuring thumbs-up and a cocky grin when she saw Eule looking at her, and Eule was relieved a bit. It didn’t quite entirely eliminate the flies buzzing in her biomechanical stomach, but at least they were buzzing a bit more quietly now.

Eule noted that they were heading west, along the bank of a small river amidst the fertile land besides it, instead of the easterly direction towards the Nora settlements they had gone before.

“We are heading into a small enclosed valley to the furthest west of The Embrace,” Rost explained when Eule asked. “Only small Machines like Watchers and Striders can get into this valley and even then only in small numbers, so it’s a perfect place for Braves to train, whether to hunt or carve them, and thus for Äloy as well.”

Eule nodded at his explanation, to which Rost nodded back in reply before he turned to Äloy.

“Your first lesson right now is this: not all that the Braves do is killing. Braves need to learn to identify and gather medicinal plants from the wild to treat the inevitable injuries they incur while hunting. The type of plant is important. Knowing the difference between hintergold and wild ember can mean the difference between life and death, whether from not using a potent enough plant or using too much of a potent plant. This, I will teach you.

“But first, here: take this medicine pouch. It’s yours now,” Rost said, pulling a small leather pouch from his belt and holding it out for Äloy to take.

Which Äloy promptly did, briefly gazing at it with the excitement of a Rotfront child receiving a Mondfest present before tying it onto her belt.

Rost then walked on a bit further before he spotted something, making his way over to it and beckoning for Äloy to come over before crouching down. The little Gestalt girl followed suit, as did Eule, who was also curious as to what Rost wanted Äloy to look at. Eule could even feel Star looking over their shoulders, also brimming with curiosity.

The thing Rost was looking at turned out to be a small plant, barely taller than the grass around it. Unlike the simple green grass blades though, this plant was composed of a stalk of pale pink flowers growing out of a base of green leaves. Among the flowers though were equally as pale pink berries hanging on long thin stems that were undoubtedly all that remained of the flowers they had developed form.

“This is called salvebrush. Its potency is right in the middle between hintergold and wild ember, making it a good treatment for moderate injuries. Consuming the berries will both alleviate pain and promote healing,” Rost explained.

Äloy nodded, as well as Eule.

“That said, you’re not injured, so you don’t need to eat any. Eule however…do you still feel any pain from that cut on your cheek?” Rost asked.

Eule looked at him in surprise before instinctively reaching to feel the scab on her right cheek. “It’s okay. It’s long since stopped hurting, and it definitely isn’t bleeding anymore. My oxidant–that’s what we Replikas call our blood–has coagulated just fine even without a repair patch.”

Rost still stared at Eule’s cheek though. “I see. In any case, maybe you should just eat a single berry to make sure it does heal right…actually, that reminds me: does human medicine work on your people? You Replikas?” he asked.

“Unfortunately, no,” Eule replied with a frown. “Gestalt and Replika medicine are fairly exclusive to our respective races. There’s only a few overlapping things like bandages that work on both Gestalts and Replikas, and even then, they’re either less effective on Replikas or outright toxic to Gestalts.”

“Hmm, that is unfortunate indeed. It sounds like we do need to test to see if any plants work on you and Shtar, not just salvebrush,” Rost said with a pensive look. “Still, perhaps we should save the medicinal plant experimentation for when we’re back home. If salvebrush does make you sick, I would rather you be purging yourself when we’re somewhere safe and not in the wild.”

Upon seeing Eule nod, Rost then turned back to Äloy. “For now then, just pick the salvebrush berries to put into your medicine pouch. The berries remain potent even when dried, so it’s always a good idea to have some in your pouch when you need it. Don’t take it all though. Always leave a few from each plant you harvest from so that more may grow there next time.”

“Okay,” Äloy replied as she did exactly as she was told, for once.

Once Äloy had finished with her salvebrush berry picking, Eule continued walking alongside her through the forested area, always with Rost ahead and the sound of Star’s footsteps behind her.

“Further downriver, there should be that small herd of Machines I mentioned before. “There, I will teach you how to hunt, Aloy. Remember: all Machines are dangerous, even the small ones like the Watchers and Striders. Their power must be respected, but don’t worry. I will be beside you.”

Eule smiled at the loving warmth and calm patience in Rost’s words. As Äloy nodded in reply though, Eule’s smile disappeared as she suddenly heard the distant sounds of heavy footsteps. Very familiar heavy footsteps from her first day in this world, and getting closer.

Rost looked alert, clearly having heard the footsteps as well. “Everyone, a Machine’s coming. Crouch and follow me into the tall grass. Hurry, but be quiet,” he said in a low voice.

Eule quickly did as Rost ordered, staying low and crouch-walking as fast as her bird-like legs would allow after Rost and Äloy. This time, she kept her eye on the ground in front of her, watching for any sticks or twigs she might accidentally step on and alert the Machines. She still remembered what happened on that first day. She will not be repeating that mistake again…hopefully.

Fortunately, she stopped right next to Äloy in the tall red-tufted grass without making a single loud sound, with Star stopping right beside her with her stun prod already in her right hand and ready to stab into a Machine if it sees them. Said Machine soon stepped into view in front of them: a Watcher just like the ones from the first day.

“Stay still. Wait for it to pass,” Rost quietly commanded.

Eule watched nervously as the Watcher stomped past on its pair of mechanical bird-like legs, so uncannily like a Replika’s legs. She held her breath when it passed less than a meter in front of her face, and yet didn’t seem to notice they were right there. Eule knew that her black and white color scheme should be perfectly visible even through the tall grass, and yet the Machine behaved as though it hadn’t seen anything. It just blithely continued walking past them without a pause.

“Now keep low, and follow me across the trail to that other patch of tall grass,” Rost commanded once more, nearly making Eule jump from how suddenly he’d said those words.

The move occurred without issue and, most importantly, without noise. At least, not any noise that was audible enough for the other Watcher that just appeared to notice.

“Ho. Another one. Let it pass,” Rost commanded once more in that same quiet voice.

This Watcher passed by them as well, following in the wake of the first one. It took another move to the next patch of red-tufted grass to hide from a third Watcher before Rost breathed out a sigh of relief and said: “That’s the last of them. Let’s move on.”

Eule followed after Äloy as they stepped out of the red-tufted grass, breathing out her own sigh of relief as she looked back at the Watchers receding into the distance.

“You did well. All of you. They didn’t see or hear you, and you successfully managed to avoid the temptation to use your revolver, Shtar,” Rost added with just a hint of dryness in his tone.

Star merely laughed sheepishly in reply as she rehung her stun prod on her belt.

After giving her lover a reassuring pat on her back, Eule’s curiosity finally boiled over. “Rost, while that was certainly…exhilarating, I just don’t understand. I could swear by the Red Eye that those Watchers were looking right at us from mere centimeters away, and yet they didn’t see us? How?”

Rost looked surprised at Eule’s question before he nodded in realization and pointed at the red-tufted grass they’d just been hiding in.

“This tall grass? We call it foxtail grass because, well, you can see why,” Rost explained, gently lifting up one of the red tufts for emphasis. “We don’t know why, but foxtails seem to…blind the Machines somehow. Anyone hiding in foxtails, as long as they don’t make a sound, will be invisible to the Machines. Remember this if you ever find the need to hide from Machines, which I suspect will be happening sooner rather than later for you and Shtar. Note though that it won’t be of much help against humans, especially at close ranges, so be mindful of that.”

Eule looked at the red tufts in surprise…and frankly amazement. Even Star whistled in appreciation.

“Maybe we can weave some of this into a suit?” Star pondered. “Make it so that we’re always invisible to the Machines?”

“Unfortunately, I know of a few Nora hunters that tried to do exactly that. The results were…mixed. It only seemed to work if the hunter gathered a lot of foxtails to wear, enough to hide their outline. Too little, and the Machines see right through it. Not only that, but the foxtails lose their effectiveness when they wither and fall apart, so the hunter would have to remake this creation for each hunt. It’s just too much effort for too little gain, especially since foxtails seem to grow everywhere anyways,” Rost explained.

Star scratched her cheek in sheepishness. “A pity there,” she said.

Rost nodded in agreement before beckoning them to follow him once more. “Now stay close, and avoid making loud sounds. That herd should be just ahead.” he warned.

Despite that warning, Eule still found the trek down the trail to be fairly relaxing after that near-encounter with the Watchers. At least there weren’t any Machines looking to maim and/or kill them yet.

So Eule was surprised but not alarmed when Äloy tugged on her hand, and pointed at the rocks ahead of and above them. At first, Eule wasn’t sure what Äloy wanted her to look at, until a flash of movement caught her eye, and her robotic eyes finally focused on a young Nora man scaling the rocks using handholds buried into the cliffs and leaping across gaps like some Stone Age acrobat.

“Who’s that?” Eule asked at exactly the same time Äloy did, prompting both of them to briefly look at each other with a smile and a grin respectively.

“Ignore him,” Rost said, only barely looking at the young Nora man still clambering around like a long-extinct monkey.

“But why’s he up there?” Äloy pressed.

Before Rost could answer, the young Nora man swung across a gap and landed neatly on a log that, judging by the yellow-dyed wires wrapped around both ends, was placed there explicitly to bridge a gap between a pair of rock formations. As he crouched on the log to gather his breath, he looked around, and finally noticed the Gestalt man, young Gestalt girl, and 2 Replikas staring up at him.

The young Nora man looked surprised at first, but then adopted a curious look as Eule watched his gaze first go to her bird-like robotic legs, and then to Star’s. Despite that though, he smiled at the group and gave them a greeting nod, prompting Eule to give a little wave of hello to him in reply. She was quite pleased when the young Gestalt (who now that she could get a good look at him, was probably no more than a young teenager a few years younger than Erika Itou had been at most) returned the wave with a brief wave of his own, saying a shy “Hi” to them in the process.

Before anything more could happen though, a male voice rang out from the distance: “Teb! Get back where you belong!”

The young Gestalt man, who was likely the “Teb” being addressed by the unseen speaker, looked up sharply at the voice. Giving another brief wave, this time as a goodbye, Teb then ran off as the still-unseen man shouted, in just a slightly more annoyed tone: “Teb! Where are you?!”

“Ignore him,” Rost said suddenly, making Eule look at him in puzzlement, only to see that he was looking down towards Äloy.

“But he was just smiling at us,” Äloy complained.

Rost shook his head. “We are outcasts, and he is of the tribe. For him to even interact with us means he’s breaking the law.”

“Maybe he doesn’t like the tribe,” Äloy countered.

Rost stared in the direction Teb had run off to. “Then he is a fool,” he said quietly.

Eule looked at Rost’s face at the tone of his voice. He sounded…sad and disappointed, as if this Teb might’ve been trying to run away from something Rost so desperately wanted himself. Eule was struck by a desire to give Rost a reassuring hug as she would for Äloy, but stopped herself, realizing that such a gesture might not quite work on an adult Gestalt man. Especially not Rost.

“If it helps, you can imagine that this Teb guy was saying ‘Hi’ to us instead of you and Äloy,” Star spoke up. “It’s not against the law for him to speak with us now, is it?”

Rost grunted, whether in agreement or acceptance, Eule couldn’t tell. “Come now, let’s find that herd. Follow,” he commanded, putting an end to the matter.

It wasn’t long before they all came across the Machine herd in question: a small group of the quadrupedal Striders, standing just across from a sturdy-looking Nora bridge, grazing on the grass and other plants growing on the riverbank.

Rost stopped and looked around. “No sign of any herd guards, but no way to approach this herd stealthily. Hmm, everyone, follow me closely and trust me.”

Eule was suddenly very nervous, both at Rost’s words and because Rost had now resumed walking, but was heading right for the Striders.

As soon as they stepped onto the bridge, Rost suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs: “Ha! Get!”

Eule’s oxidant froze in her plastic-laced veins as the entire Strider herd looked up at them. Then the entire herd…bolted away from them. Eule had honestly been expecting the herd to charge at them from what Rost had talked about last night. Instead, these Striders seemed far more interested in flight than fight, galloping away down the riverbank as fast as their mechanical legs and hooves would allow.

“Rost,” Star said in a low and very dry tone. “I know you said to trust you, but you better have had a very good reason for that.”

Rost turned to look at Star with a face that was even more serious than normal. “I was showing Aloy how herd machines are skittish, and will bolt if frightened and they have somewhere to run to. It’s a good way to either get a Machine herd to head to a place that’s more advantageous to the hunter: either traps or kill zones, or even both. Either way, with no herd guard Machines around to attack us, this seemed like a good time to demonstrate that.

Rost then looked down at Äloy. “I also wished to teach Aloy and both of you that as much as we must respect the Machines’ power, we must not let it turn into fear. A small, healthy amount of fear keeps a hunter wary and cautious, but too much of it can paralyze the hunter, as it did for Eu-le.”

Eule started and blushed. She only realized now that she’d been rooted to the spot, too afraid to move for a moment at seeing all those Striders looking at her before they decided they would rather run than kill her.

“It’s alright, Eu-le. I can already tell you aren’t a hunter. It’s not fair at all to expect you to behave like a seasoned Brave,” Rost consoled. “Just remember this, and learn from it the next time you are confronted with herd Machines.”

Eule forced a smile and nodded at him. She would learn from this. She will…she hoped.

“Now, as you all just saw, the Machines are best approached by stealth,” Rost continued, with a bit of a dry tone. “Don’t worry, we’ll catch up to them further down the river. You’ll see.”

As Rost led them across the bridge, Eule couldn’t help but peer over the side of said bridge, leaning across a gap in the fencing, and look at her reflection. The river, despite being fairly still, couldn’t hold a candle to a proper mirror like the one in the Eule dorm, but it will do.

Her face was as exactly as she thought it was: the same as the first day, just with the addition of a small scab of coagulated oxidant right on a part of her cheek that wasn’t covered by her polyethylene shell. Even seeing the healing injury though didn’t detract from the relief she felt. There was just something about seeing her reflection staring back at her that anchored her to the present, confirming that despite everything, she was still EULR-S2324. It certainly helped her relax after seeing all those potentially dangerous Striders staring at her.

Something else that helped Eule relax was the sensation of Star’s hand resting on her shoulder in warm understanding, and also seeing Äloy’s reflection pop up next to Eule’s.

“What are you looking at?” Äloy asked curiously. “Did you see a fish?”

Eule smiled. “No, I was just checking my reflection. I’m done now anyways.”

Äloy shrugged and said “Okay,” before her reflection popped back down.

With that little ritual done, Eule continued following Rost, who she noticed had also briefly stopped when she had.

“Are you alright?” Rost asked in a worried tone.

“I’m fine,” Eule replied with a smile to show that she was okay. “Really, I am now.”

Rost nodded. “Very well then.”

After finally crossing the bridge, Rost then looked around in the area just ahead, where there was a patch of ground that was covered in a large number of small rocks. Probably from a recent landslide or possibly washed up there by the river during a flood, Eule guessed.

“Now Aloy, I want you to find some rocks that fit the cup of your hand,” Rost ordered.

“Why?” Äloy asked with the same curiosity as before.

“Do as I say, and gather the rocks. I will show you how to use them. Trust me, even a simple rock can be useful against the Machines,” Rost insisted.

Äloy made a curious sound before moving to do as she was told. As the little Gestalt girl picked out appropriately sized rocks from the selection around her, Eule bent down and picked up a rock as well, rolling it around in her mechanical hand and idly wondering if Rost was going to teach Äloy how to take out a Machine with a rock alone? Like some kind of martial arts master?

“That’s enough. Those will do,” Rost said when he saw that Äloy had collected a trio of rocks, each roughly the size of a small apple, before ordering: “Follow.”

Eule followed after an excited Äloy as the latter stuffed her rocks into a spare pouch. Eule looked at the rock in her own hand, and on a whim decided to put it into her backpack. Eule looked back towards Star, who was giving her an amused look. Eule could only shrug in reply. There was plenty of room in her backpack for a single rock, after all. The Rule of Six did allow for a container to be counted as a single item, no matter how many other items were actually in the container. It was why both Eule and Star could carry boxes full of bullets in single pouches, and have those pouches count as a single item. It was a handy loophole for Eusan Nation citizens to…not exactly break the Rule of Six, but bend it in a way so as to make things a bit easier on themselves.

Eule’s attention was quickly pulled away though when she saw Rost suddenly sprint ahead, crouching by a tall tree with drooping branches. “Everyone. Over here,” he said in a quiet voice.

By now, Eule realized what that tone meant even before she made her way over to Rost and crouched down beside him.

There, far below them and a fair distance away, was the Strider herd again. They had apparently stopped their flight to graze on some more grass. Unfortunately, they were no longer alone. A single Watcher had taken up station a short distance away from them, and appeared to be running a patrol back and forth along the most direct way to the Striders.

“There’s the herd, and there’s a herd guard,” Rost muttered before turning to Äloy. “Alright, it’s time to throw some rocks.”

Eule looked at Rost with a raised biomechanical eyebrow. “Wait, you’re not actually going to teach her how to throw a rock through a Watcher’s eye, are you?” she asked in disbelief.

Rost laughed quietly. “If only it were that easy, but no. However, what a rock can do is distract Machines, or draw them into traps. Just like that Watcher over there. It must be dealt with, or it will warn the herd and send them running before it will get within range.”

“Warn them? Like with that radio Eu-le and Shtar were talking about?” Äloy asked curiously.

Rost looked thoughtful before looking at Eule. “Can you tell now if they using this ‘radio’?”

Eule began rapidly cycling through the frequencies she could receive, from 70 kHz all the way up to 220 kHz. Unfortunately, she could hear nothing but the sound of quiet static.

Eule shook her head at Rost. “I can’t hear anything. Either the Machines aren’t using radio, or they’re using it at a frequency I can’t receive.”

Seeing Rost and Äloy’s confused expression, Eule explained: “Think of radio frequencies as…like music tones making invisible ripples in the air as though it is water, with each tone being a slightly different ripple from one another. My REM-63, er, the little machine in my left ear that hears radio tones can only hear a specific tone if I’m listening for it. Otherwise, it’s inaudible to me and I can’t hear it.

The best metaphor I can make for this is the wind. You can see the wind move grass and tree branches when it blows, but if you’re not looking at the grass or trees, then you can’t tell the wind is blowing or which direction it’s blowing in. And if your eyesight is bad, then if you’re looking at the grass or trees from too far away, you still can’t see them move. That may be what’s happening here with me. Admittedly, I’m not sure if this is a 100% accurate comparison, but hopefully it makes sense to you both?”

“Somewhat,” Rost replied, stroking his braided beard in deep thought, with Äloy trying to mimic him by stroking her definitely beard-less chin. “Still, while this ‘radio’ certainly seems interesting, it’s unfortunate that you can’t hear the Machines’ radio, if that is indeed the case. If you did, I had been wondering if you could speak to that Watcher and lure it over to me. Since you can’t, that just means we will go with my original plan then.

“Aloy, stay here on the ridge with Eu-le. On my signal, throw rocks and draw the Watcher to me.” Upon seeing Äloy nod to him, Rost then turned to Star and said: “Shtar, can you come with me to that large patch of foxtail grass, the one behind that large rock outcropping? If something happens and the Watcher survives, I want you to hit it with your stun prod. If its electrical attack is as powerful as you say it is, then it should be enough to stun the Watcher long enough for me to get it with a second strike.”

Star unclipped her stun prod from her belt in reply. “Alright, I can do that. It’d be interesting to find out what this girl can do against that Watcher thing,” she said with a grin.

Rost nodded before beckoning her to follow. With a final “Remember, on my signal” to Äloy, Rost then leapt down from the cliff, with Star following immediately after. Eule didn’t need to worry about their safety there though. The drop was only a short distance. Really, she was more worried about the Watcher and what will happen when Rost does give his signal–

Something just occurred to Eule. “Äloy, what is the signal? Rost never said,” she asked the little Gestalt girl quietly.

“A whistle,” Äloy replied just as quietly. “He always uses that as a signal.”

Eule nodded and then turned her attention back to Rost and Star below. Rost was now crouched down near the edge of the foxtail grass patch, spear in his hand. Meanwhile, Star was just a meter next to him, her stun prod still gripped in her hand and ready to jab at the Watcher still patrolling the same path back and forth.

Soon enough, Rost quietly made a 2-tone whistle that sounded very much to Eule like birdsong.

Instantly, Äloy threw her rock. That’s when Eule found out that Äloy had very good hand-eye coordination despite her young age, for her rock arced up in a rainbow-like trajectory before coming down onto a patch of stony ground, clacking off of it, and bouncing only once a very short distance away before coming to rest less than a meter from where Rost was lying in wait.

The Watcher instantly spun around, its eye glowing in that same suspicious yellow Eule had seen on that first day. It stalked over exactly to where Äloy’s thrown rock laid, bending down to peer at it and making curious clicking sounds that were audible even from where Eule crouched with Äloy.

It happened so fast Eule almost missed it.

Rost dashed out from the foxtail patch, springing forth from his crouching position until he was right next to the Watcher. It barely had time to turn its head to look at Rost before he thrust his spear right into its chest, driving it into the ground. The Watcher could barely even get out a pitiful whine before the yellow light in its eye winked out, and it was still at last.

Rost ripped his spear out of the Watcher in a shower of sparks and crackling electricity, peering warily towards the Strider herd as he did so. Eule looked over to the herd as well, and was relieved that not a single Strider had noticed that their guardian was no more.

“There. Come, you two. It’s safe now,” Rost said from his position, just loud enough for Äloy and Eule to hear, but not loud enough that any of the Striders noticed.

Eule was about to offer to help Äloy down, but the little Gestalt girl had already leapt down from the cliff herself and was sliding down towards Rost. Eule smiled, proud at Äloy for her initiative, before heading down herself, stopping next to an excited Äloy and an amused Star.

“Guess you didn’t need my help after all, eh?” Star noted to Rost.

“Not this time,” Rost admitted. “Still, I would rather have help and not need it, than need help and not have it.”

Star only nodded in agreement.

“Now, Aloy,” Rost said, handing out a knife made of what looked like a sharpened piece of Machine armor with one side wrapped with strips of leather to serve as a handle, and a simple piece of leather wrapped around the blade portion and tied with a bit of Machine wire as a crude sheath. “Take this and harvest the kill. Take only some of the hide, the skin, and some muscle for now. I will teach you how to use them to make arrows.”

Eule didn’t think it was possible for Äloy to get any more excited, but seeing her unwrap the knife and take it out with a fire in her eyes made Eule rethink the little Gestalt girl’s maximum possible excitement levels. Despite that though, Äloy quickly and efficiently did as she was told, using the knife to first pry off a piece of armor off the Watcher’s thigh before cutting a large section of the soft black skin off of the same area.

As Eule watched Äloy cut the skin, she did indeed note that it looked a bit like a thin layer of soft plastic. It looked too stiff to be rubber, which seemed to suggest a plastic nature. It made Eule wonder if she could use it to prepare a dish for herself and Star, but it was something she’ll have to experiment with later.

Finally though, Äloy cut a bundle of black muscle fiber from the Watcher’s thigh, and then proudly presented the entire bundle to Rost. She attempted to hand back the knife to Rost, but Rost held up a hand.

“No, Aloy. It’s yours now,” Rost said with a smile. “I have another knife of my own. Just remember, you can always make a new knife from the hide of any dead Machine and something to wrap around it to keep from cutting yourself on it.”

Eule smiled as well at the sight of Äloy staring at the knife which was now hers before wrapping the blade back in its leather wrap and tucking it into her belt.

“Good. Now watch,” Rost said, taking the armor piece and laying it on the ground.

Rost then took 2 bundles of leather from a pocket, unfolded it into a large sheet, and placed it on the ground. He then placed the armor piece on it, placed the other leather sheet over it, took a nearby rock, and began hammering it. Despite how hard Rost was hammering it though, the leather sheets muffled much of the noise. Eule looked over at where the Striders were, and noted that the large rock outcropping was actually blocking her view of the herd, which meant that none of the Striders could see them as well.

Eule was quite impressed. So this was the skills of an experienced hunter like Rost. A vague desire to want to be that skilled as well started to form in Eule’s mind, but Rost’s voice interrupted her thoughts with a “There now.”

Eule turned her attention back to Rost to see him lift the sheet. The armor below was now thoroughly in pieces, but something was odd about them. No matter which piece she looked at, they were all triangles. Some were bigger and others smaller, but it seemed like the armor had somehow broken almost perfectly into small triangles.

“Machine hide will always break into triangles when hammered hard enough,” Rost explained, as if he’d read Eule’s mind. “This makes them perfect arrowheads. It’s also why every tribe we know uses them as currency, but that’s a topic for another day.

“For now Aloy, gather stalks of ridge-wood from the plants over there,” Rost commanded, indicating at clumps of thin, woody, sapling-like plants growing next to the river.

Instantly, Äloy leapt to her feet and did so. Eule watched as the little Gestalt girl struggled to break off the branches of the ridge-wood, with the plant apparently not giving its branches up that easily to a mere Gestalt child. Alas though, the ridge-wood was still doomed to defeat, as Äloy’s determined tugs finally succeeding in pulling off branch after branch until she was holding a large bundle of long, stiff, and unusually straight branches; carrying them all to a satisfied Rost and setting them down next to the shattered Watcher armor, the bundles of Watcher muscle, and the cut-off portions of Watcher skin.

“Good. Remember, ridge-wood always grows in long straight lengths of stiff wood, making them perfect for arrow shafts. You can always find stalks of them growing by water sources, so look for rivers, lakes, ponds, and the like when you need arrows,” Rost explained before continuing: “Now, watch me.”

Rost took a length of ridge-wood branch, carefully paring off bits of it with his knife until it was perfectly straight before cutting both ends off, forming a shaft of wood.

Next, he used his knife to cut off short lengths of Watcher muscle, placed a triangle of Watcher armor onto one end of the wood shaft, and tied the triangle on tightly with the muscle wire.

Then, he cut off 2 egg-shaped ovals from the Watcher skin before slicing each one in half, notched each egg half at both ends, and then tied them onto the other end of the wood shaft, spacing them equally apart to form a 4-part fletching.

Finally, he hacked a deep notch into the end of the shaft with the fletching, presumably this being the part of the arrow that you were supposed to put on the bowstring. Eule’s knowledge was a bit murky there owing to her lack of familiarity with bows, but she was fairly certain she was correct on that bit.

At last now, Rost held up an arrow made entirely with Machine parts. It looked a bit crude, but it also looked perfectly serviceable. Eule thought it was a bit like all of Rost’s equipment so far really, and from what she has seen so far, the crude nature of his weapons belied just how deadly they were in the hands of a trained warrior.

“There. You see, Aloy? All you need is ridge-wood, a dead Machine, and a knife; and you can craft arrows for hunting, no matter what the beast,” Rost said, handing the arrow to an intensely interested Äloy. “Now that you know what to do, it’s time to make your own arrows. About 20 should suffice. With my arrow included, 21 should suffice to take down a Strider.”

Eule nearly broke out into laughter at the odd coincidence there, but managed to suppress it with the help of her hand covering her mouth. She was fairly certain that if 21 had been here, she would’ve been far more interested in trying to ride these Striders than in trying to kill them.

It was then that the last bit of what Rost said finally hit Eule.

“Rost? You’re…not going to try to make Äloy kill one of those Striders, are you?” Eule asked in a very worried tone.

Rost blinked in surprise. “Yes, I am. How else is Aloy to learn how to be a Brave unless she kills a Machine with her own hands?” he asked.

Eule turned to Star for assistance. Her lover, as it turns out, had been staring at Rost in disbelief the whole time.

“Look, Rost, you’re a great guy and all, and you seem pretty smart and rational,” Star began. “But well…don’t you think it’s a bit much to have Äloy try to kill a killer robot horse by herself? I mean, she can’t be much more than…what kindergarten age?”

“I don’t know what this ‘kinder-garden’ is, but I assure you both, this is necessary for Äloy,” Rost said firmly, before further explaining: “The Proving itself isn’t that difficult if you know what you’re doing. However, Aloy needs to be the first of the Braves to complete it in order to obtain that boon. In short, she needs to be the Bravest of the Braves. For that, she needs to start early, and killing a Machine is the start of that.”

Rost’s gaze then softened. “Don’t worry though, Aloy will not alone in this trial. I will be right there beside her, with a bow in hand ready to take down the Strider and any other Machine if they get too close to Äloy. I want to help my girl become a Brave. I don’t want her to die.”

Star breathed out a sigh of relief. “Fair enough then. Although, you mind if I help with my stun prod if it does come to that? I don’t want to see Äloy dead either.”

“I can shoot too, if need be,” Eule added. “I know my pistol will alert every Machine in the area, but if it’s either that or letting Äloy die, I will bear the consequences of my actions.”

Rost nodded to both of them. “I don’t mind your help at all, Shtar, and fair enough about you and your weapon, Eu-le. If we do get to that point though, then my advice to you is to shoot the Machines’ eyes. No matter the Machine, their eyes are always a weakness. If you can hit that, then they should go down quickly.”

Eule nodded in reply. “Alright, I can do that–”

“Done!” Äloy chose that moment to pipe up.

Eule turned to look at the little Gestalt girl along with everyone else. She was surprised to see a pile of arrows lying beside Äloy. A quick count of the pile revealed to Eule that there were indeed 20 arrows in that pile, with all of them almost identical to the one Rost made, which was itself sitting to Äloy’s other side. Really, it was only with that arrow sitting side by side with Äloy’s arrows that she could tell the difference, with Äloy’s arrows only being slightly less straight. It would seem that Äloy is a very quick learner indeed.

Rost smiled at Äloy’s work. “Well done. Now, it’s time to put your work to the test. Gather them into your quiver. It’s time to hunt. Lead the way into the edge of that tall grass, Aloy,” he commanded.

Judging by the fiery excitement in Äloy’s eyes, it was a command she was more than happy to obey.

Eule followed close behind Äloy along with Rost and Star. This time though, Eule had pulled her pistol out of her holster, performed the usual gun safety procedure with it, and held it at the ready with finger off the trigger or now and the muzzle pointed at the ground.

They quickly reached the edge of the patch of foxtail grass next to the large rock outcropping. From here, Eule could see that the Strider herd had mostly stayed in place, but they hadn’t exactly been idle while Äloy had been making her arrows. Most of the herd had moved a bit further upriver and out of sight, leaving only 2, no, 3 Striders visible from here and still just as blissfully unaware of their presence as before.

“It is time to make your first kill, Aloy: a Strider,” Rost said quietly. “One of the weaker Machines, but even a weak Machine can kill a hunter if she is careless. You must study your prey. Its hide is thick, but there are spots where it is vulnerable, like its eye. Can you guess another?”

Eule watched Äloy study the closest Strider, neighing and shaking its robotic head like an actual horse would, with a look of intense concentration. Even in this serious a situation, she smiled at the little Gestalt girl for making the most adorable face.

“The canister on its back. Is that a weakness?” Äloy suddenly asked.

Rost blinked in surprise. “Y-yes. How did you guess that?”

Äloy turned to grin at Rost. “The device–the Focus–it showed me.”

Rost looked stunned. “Did it now?” he asked with a healthy dose of skepticism in his voice, but there was a curious tone that suggested he wasn’t outright dismissing the Focus.

Now curious herself, Eule stared at what Äloy had been looking at to let her Focus scan it. As soon as the green circle around the reticule filled up (which took less than a second according to Eule’s internal clock), a palely glowing outline appeared around the Strider’s body, seemingly highlighting it. Next to said Strider was an information box floating in the air beside it, with her Focus noting that it had a hard outer casing of steel and synthetic polymer to protect its equally as synthetic muscles and operational systems, thus confirming that the Machine skin did appear to be some form of plastic. This new information about the Machines suggests that in a way, they’re an existence not too far off from Replikas, just minus their biomechanical nature since the scan data said nothing about anything resembling biocomponents in the Strider.

Eule however quickly noticed the canister on its back, which was now glowing such a bright gold color that she could only have missed it if she was blind. Eule was about to ask the Focus to give her more information on the canister when the information box changed on its own. It would seem that the Focus can track eye movement to better help its user, Eule assumed, before switching her focus to what’s in the information box.

The general information about the Strider’s body had now been replaced with notes about the canister, with her Focus noting that it’s a canister filled with biofuel at 87% capacity. Her Focus also helpfully added a warning that the biofuel is highly flammable, and that she should avoid damaging the canister to prevent leakage and to exercise caution with it around any open flames.

Somehow, Eule doubted Äloy was going to follow that warning.

“Well then, since your Focus seems to be telling you the truth, then put it to the test. Take down that Strider. Target the eye or the canister,” Rost said at last, before adding: “And if it charges, be ready to roll out of the way.”

Äloy only nodded silently in reply, observing the nearest Strider for a few moments longer before at last, Eule watched as the little Gestalt girl stood up, drew her bow back with an arrow nocked on the bowstring (one of ones Äloy had made, Eule noted), and released.

Äloy’s arrow flew through the air, wriggling like an eager serpent before sinking its steel fang right into the biofuel canister on the Strider’s back.

Eule had expected the canister to shatter like cheap plastic. Or at least for the arrow to impale itself into the canister. Instead, the arrow tore the entire canister loose from the Strider in a spray of sparks and biofuel, with the canister crashing to the ground apparently intact, and tumbling before rolling to a stop nearby.

The Strider’s bulky steel-plated head instantly shot up, with the Strider making a pained screaming sound that tugged at Eule’s biomechanical heartstrings despite the situation. The other 2 Striders also instantly looked up from where they’d been feeding, with their pairs of eyes now glowing the same frightened yellow the first Strider’s eyes had changed into.

Äloy didn’t hesitate though. For as Eule watched, the brave little Gestalt girl sent another arrow straight at her targeted Strider’s eyes, penetrating into the top eye and snuffing its yellow light out.

Now thoroughly alerted to the danger, the other 2 Striders bolted away screaming. More horse-like screaming and panicking neighing indicated that the rest of the herd was following suit.

Except for the injured Strider Äloy was shooting at. It turned to face the direction where the arrows were coming from, its sole functioning eye changing from a fearful yellow to an ominous red. It screamed again, but in rage this time, and it started directly moving towards–Eule realized with a chill–Äloy.

“Again!” Rost shouted, no longer bothering with stealth.

Äloy fired off another arrow that snaked out at the Strider’s head. Being a moving target now though, the arrow hit the armor plating on top, tearing it off and staggering the Strider a bit, but otherwise doing little to no apparent damage. A second arrow from Äloy embedded itself deep into the Strider’s head above its ruined eye, but didn’t stop the Strider from continuing to move ever closer towards Äloy.

“Keep firing!” Rost shouted once more, standing up himself with his bow in hand. “Go for its last eye!”

Eule raised up her pistol, centering the triple green dots of its sights on the Strider’s remaining eye. The Strider fortunately wasn’t moving all that quickly. In fact, it was less rushing at Äloy and more stumbling at her. It was pretty clear that Äloy had already inflicted critical damage to it, and it just wanted to take Äloy down with it. Eule was NOT going to let that happen, and if the sound of crackling electricity next to Eule was any indication, then neither was Star.

Before Eule could even think about shooting though, a final arrow from Äloy streaked out, burrowing deep into the Strider’s bottom eye and now rendering it blind. The Strider collapsed into a heap with a final scream. Eule continued aiming down at the fallen Strider as it sparked and crackled with electricity, but it didn’t get back up. Eventually, the lightning died as well, leaving only thin wisps of smoke rising from a very still Strider corpse as Eule finally sighed in relief and returned her pistol to its holster.

Eule looked over at Äloy to see if she was alright. The little Gestalt girl was gaping at the fallen Strider with open mouth and wide eyes, as if she couldn’t quite believe what just happened even though she was the cause of it.

Äloy was startled out of her reverie by Rost’s massive hand gently coming down on Äloy’s head and ruffling her flame-red hair.

“You did well today. You have much to learn, but with this kill, you have taken your first step towards becoming a Brave. Cherish this moment, and be as proud of it as I am of you,” Rost said with a warm smile gracing his face.

Äloy looked at Rost, then at the fallen Strider again, with her gaze switching between the 2 with an ever-increasing excitement. Finally, Äloy couldn’t contain it longer. Eule watched as Äloy held both hands up, one hand still gripping her child’s bow, and started whooping and laughing. Eule smiled and laughed with her, especially when Äloy took her by the hands and started dancing with her on the spot. Eule could tell that Äloy didn’t have the first clue how to dance professionally, but she couldn’t care less. To her, dancing like this felt just as joyful as dancing with her sisters, and she savored every moment of it.

Even when Äloy parted ways with her to also take an amused Star by her hands (while stretching her arms as far as they would go to reach Star’s hands no less) to dance with her too, she savored the sight of them dancing just as much, clapping along with their merriment to the tune of “Eulenlieder”.

Eventually, Äloy tired herself out so much with her excitement that she collapsed onto the ground, lying there staring up at the sunny sky and still giggling.

“I see you still have energy to burn, Aloy,” Rost noted with wry amusement.

Äloy’s response was to raise up both arms and announce: “I’m ready to kill the rest of the herd now!”

Rost chuckled at that announcement. “Unfortunately, we don’t have nearly the space in our backpacks for that. I’m honestly worried about having enough space just for that Watcher and the Strider parts alone. Which reminds me: can you retrieve that Blaze canister and that Strider hide headpiece and then come over here? I need to show you how to butcher a Strider, and then we can end your training for the day.”

And just like that, Äloy sprang back up and practically sprinted for the fallen Blaze canister and said headpiece before dashing back to Eule with them. “Here, Eu-le! You can call that our first carved Machine part! Oh, and this is what I was talking about for Machinestone, only this is the clear kind. I don’t know why the Focus calls it by that weird name, but it’s definitely Machinestone,” she said as she handed the canister to Eule, and then raced behind Eule to stuff the Strider headpiece into her backpack.

Eule hefted the canister of the biofuel Äloy and Rost called “Blaze”. The yellow-green fluid sloshed a bit as Eule examined the canister, turning the cylindrical container in her hand. Eule only realized just how big the container was now that it was in her hands. If she had to guess, the Blaze canister was roughly the size of a 5 liter water bottle, and considering that her Focus had mentioned that it was 87% full, that means there was well over 4 liters of biofuel in this canister. Considering the size of that Strider herd, that means they’re hauling around a truly impressive amount of Blaze. Eule wondered if maybe these canisters were the Striders’ equivalent of a fat deposit for lean times, or if they’re collecting all that Blaze for some other purpose.

In either case, Eule ended up being more intrigued by the canister itself rather than the Blaze in it. Eule quickly found a dent in the translucent plastic where Äloy’s arrow had struck it. If her Focus hadn’t already told her that the canister was basically made of plastic, then this dent instead of a crack would’ve already confirmed that it wasn’t glass.

Still, Eule was surprised that the arrow only made a dent in the plastic, and yet still tore the canister right off the Strider, especially since the metal base of the canister looked fairly durable. It took a close examination of said metal base to reveal a single broken hinge, suggesting that this was the weak link that had failed instead of the plastic. It did still suggest that whatever kind of plastic this canister was made of, it was incredibly durable.

“Yes, it does seem to be a similar type of material as my and Star’s shell,” Eule finally said to a fascinated Äloy. “It might even be tougher, honestly.”

As Äloy nodded in acceptance, Rost looked at her in surprise. “Your…shell? Do you mean that black material on your neck, face, and ears? It’s all Machinestone?” he asked.

Eule simply nodded. “It’s on my back and sides too, with Star having the same layout. As I told little Äloy earlier, you can just think of them as like scales on a reptile,” she explained.

“So you grow Machinestone scales on your body. That’s…interesting,” Rost said, although Eule wasn’t precisely certain what he meant by that. “In any case, that’s something to ponder later though. For now, let’s butcher these Machine carcasses before scavengers come and–”

Whatever Rost was about to say about scavengers was interrupted by a scream from a distance. Not a Strider’s scream either, but a human one, making everyone look up in shock.

“What was that?” Eule asked at the same time Rost did.

“That boy!” Äloy said with eyes wide. “The one running the Brave trails!”

A chill ran down Eule’s carbon steel spine as she realized that Äloy was right. Teb wasn’t the only other person here if that other man’s voice was any indication, but he was the most likely candidate given how high-pitched that scream was compared to the deeper voice of that other man.

Apparently, Rost came to the same conclusion. “Follow, everyone! Quick!” he said to them before taking off further down the valley.

Eule quickly shoved the Blaze canister into her backpack before taking off after Rost. She then realized that Äloy was rapidly falling behind, before she saw Star neatly scoop her up and carry her under one arm. The seriousness of the situation was such that Äloy only gave a squawk of surprise before accepting the help.

With her worry that Äloy couldn’t keep up alleviated, Eule focused on keeping up with Rost. Because if that scream any indication, Eule anticipated a new worry awaiting her in the very near future.

Chapter Text

Eule slid to a stop next to Rost, who was crouched just short of a berm, and crouched down herself. Her gaze briefly flickered to her side as Star gently placed Äloy down next to Rost before crouching down with Eule. Thus, the 2 Gestalts and 2 Replikas gazed down at the scene below them.

The berm turned out to overlook a small valley dotted with rock formations, trees, and large patches of foxtail grass. The Strider herd from earlier was down there in the valley, peacefully grazing as if nothing had happened. All the while, Watchers prowled around their perimeter, ever-watchful for any threats to them, which was what likely earned them their name.

Eule at first couldn’t see anything wrong. No hint of who had made that scream before. Then Äloy tapped her on her arm to get her attention, and pointed in a very specific direction, partway up the steep cliff wall surrounding the valley in the distance ahead of them.

Eule’s eyes widened in shock and horror as she saw Teb there, dangling by a single arm from a rocky ledge jutting out from the rock wall. It looked as though he fell from further up, and had only just barely managed to grab hold of that bit of rock before he fell all the way down. Solely by his left arm, no less. Eule’s heart chilled as she recalled her lessons about Gestalt biology/anatomy for her medical training, and she realized that if that was what had happened, then Teb must’ve done some damage to his own arm with that one-handed grab.

Indeed, Teb was just dangling there, running in the air and desperately trying to grab hold of the bit of rock with his other arm. But it was as though the young Gestalt man couldn’t muster the strength to even pull himself up a bit to reach it. But if he couldn’t muster the strength even for that, then surely…

Eule gasped as she saw Teb inevitably lose his grip on that bit of rock. The young Gestalt man screamed as he fell, crashing into and bouncing off of a whole tree before falling down onto the ground with a sickening thud.

Eule wasn’t sure if it was Teb’s scream or the thud that did it, but every single Machine down in that valley was now on high alert. The Striders all shot their heads up, stumbling back and looking around in alarm with fearfully yellow eyes at whatever spooked them. The Watchers too shot up, rearing up on their 2 legs to scan the area around them with their alert yellow gaze, watching for who or whatever had dared to frighten their charges.

Eule had to tear her gaze from the Machines to try and spot Teb again. She just barely managed to make him out between the branching trunk/roots of a large tree…no, it wasn’t. It was a tree growing on top of what looked like the ruins of an old brick building, but that wasn’t important right now, so she focused back on Teb.

Teb was lying prone, watching the Machines in front of him with widened eyes. One part of Eule was relieved to see that he was at least conscious. The other parts of Eule were now even more worried, for Teb had surely sustained further injuries from his fall, and she wouldn’t know how serious they were until she could get a closer look at him. Certainly much closer than where she was on this cliff.

Eule was suddenly distracted by movement from right next to her. Her eyes widened in alarm as Äloy looked as though she was about to leap down into the valley to help Teb. Eule immediately took hold of her right arm to prevent that, and was relieved to see Rost also take hold of Äloy’s left shoulder in the same instant.

“I can do nothing,” Rost said in quiet sadness as Äloy looked up at him. “It’s only a matter of time before the Machines find that boy and kick him to death.” He then sighed. “But if I shoot, it will cause a stampede…and it will trample him.”

“Shit,” Eule heard Star mutter, causing Eule to turn to look at her wondering face. “Maybe I can quickly run over to him, grab him, and then run back here?” Star asked.

“There’s no human alive who can outrun a Strider or even a Watcher,” Rost replied.

Star grinned. “No Gestalt, you mean. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a Gestalt,” she pointed out, literally pointing to her own long, white, bird-like mechanical legs.

Rost now looked thoughtfully at Star for a few moments, before finally shaking his head. “Too risky. Even if you are faster than the Machines, a single misstep would result in you being trampled by them along with that boy. And with so many Machines in that herd, including the herd guard machines, the potential for that is too high.”

Star looked troubled as she turned her gaze back to the distant Teb. “Damn it, I know you’re right, but…we can’t just leave him to die.”

Eule couldn’t help but nod in agreement, but she had no idea what to do either. It’s not as though her pistol could help either. She knew for certain that she wasn’t a good enough shot to hit every Machine down there in the eyes before they reached her, and she only had a single magazine. Even counting the bullet already loaded into the chamber, she functionally only had 11 rounds for her pistol. She was definitely not going to be gunning down every Machine down there, even with Star’s and Rost’s help, and Rost didn’t even have a gun.

And yet…Eule couldn’t leave someone to die like this either.

Eule was thus thinking so deeply about the problem that she was flummoxed when Äloy announced: “But I can see the paths they take.”

Rost looked at Äloy sternly. “Stop telling–” he began.

“Wait, but how?” Eule asked, not meaning to interrupt Rost, but she was desperate for some kind of solution to this problem, and she knew Äloy was intelligent enough that she may have figured something out.

“The Focus. It’s showing me their path,” Äloy insisted.

Eule stared directly at the closest Machine: a Watcher on the prowl for intruders with its eye glowing yellow. Her Focus scanned it, and subsequently revealed some very interesting information about the Watcher’s composition and weakness (like the very obvious eye), but nothing else beyond that.

“I’m not seeing anything. Are you sure?” Eule asked.

“I am,” Äloy insisted. “You just need to press on it, and–oh no.”

Eule looked at where Äloy was looking, and her eyes widened in horror as a Strider started to approach the ruined building where Teb was hiding.

“We need to save him now,” Äloy said. “Don’t worry, I can sneak through–”

Eule immediately grabbed Äloy by the arm just as she was moving and pulled the little Gestalt girl back to her side. “No, Äloy. You can’t. It’s too dangerous. Please, just let us think of something,” Eule said, well aware that she was grasping at straws at this point.

“Aloy, I’m sorry, but you’re just a child right now,” Rost said consolingly, but also firmly. “Let us handle this.”

“…Okay,” Äloy said dejectedly.

Eule didn’t like how depressed Äloy sounded, but it was better than Äloy endangering herself. She reached up and pressed on her Focus to bring up its menu, trying to see if there was some option for some kind of alternative scan mode that she may have missed–

It was only because Eule had learned to keep an eye on Äloy at all times that she saw Äloy suddenly dash forwards.

Eule immediately reached out for Äloy’s arm, but Äloy dodged at the last second. Eule immediately recovered and grabbed at the closest thing she could reach: Äloy’s blue scarf. She succeeded in grabbing ahold of it, and then watched in horror as the scarf came loose from Äloy’s neck.

Rost reached out at the same time Eule did when he saw that Äloy was dashing forward. He reached towards Äloy to pull her back down, only for his hand to grab her bow instead. The motion of his downward pull yanked the bow down to Äloy’s feet, causing Äloy to tumble forward and down the berm.

“Aloy!” Eule and Rost called out quietly at the same time.

Eule watched as Äloy rolled across the ground, and into a patch of foxtail grass just as a Watcher stalked by. The Watcher stalked dangerously close to where Eule was hiding with Star and Rost, forcing them all to move a bit further back as it swept the area just underneath them with its yellow gaze. Seeing nothing threatening, its eye turned a calm blue once more before it continued its patrol.

Eule peeked back over the berm, looking down at Äloy, who’d gotten back to her feet and was crouched in the foxtail grass. Eule beckoned for her to climb up back. She knew that Äloy was more than agile enough to do it thanks to that slope underneath the berm. Out of the corners of her vision, she could see Rost and even Star doing the same.

Äloy then looked back over to where Teb was, before looking back at Eule. The little Gestalt girl looked straight into Eule’s eyes with a fiery determination in her own eyes, and mouthed quietly: “I can do it. I can sneak through. I can save him.”

Thus, Eule watched in horror as Äloy turned around and moved to the edge of the patch of foxtail grass she was in, straight towards where Teb laid.

“Äloy, wait–”

Eule felt a strong Star hand and a strong Rost hand as well clamp onto both of her arms and pull her back. She then looked into the face of Star, who shook her head. “You can’t bring her back now, and I can’t lose you too. All we can do is pray to the Red Eye to watch over Äloy…and hopefully we can help the kid out when she needs it.”

Eule turned her head to then look into the face of Rost, who had a grim look on said face. “Shtar is right. We can’t help Aloy by just charging in. We need to bide our time and wait for an opportunity to help, as a good hunter must.”

Eule took a deep breath, gripping Äloy’s scarf in her hand tightly and trying to calm herself. She wondered how on Rotfront Äloy’s scarf could’ve come loose so easily when her scarf was normally tied on fairly tightly…only to realize that this time, Äloy’s scarf hadn’t been tied on tightly. The intelligent and crafty little Gestalt girl had deliberately loosened her own scarf, anticipating that Eule would try to grab at it to stop her. Äloy was smart enough to do it…and yet wasn’t smart enough to realize the danger she’d put herself in by doing that.

Eule wished she had a mirror, but the river was too far away and now far too shallow for her to see her reflection in. She wished she could sing something or dance a bit, but it would only draw the Machines’ attention. Most of all, she wished she could just bring Äloy back, and while she was at it, she might as well wish she was Bioresonant too so that she could pull a Falke-style teleport to bring both Äloy and Teb over here.

But her love and Rost were right. She couldn’t bring Äloy back now. All she can do is try and help the brave little Gestalt girl however she could with whatever she had–

A thought suddenly occurred to Eule. After carefully tucking Äloy’s blue scarf into one of her ammo pouches in the spare space between the pouch’s inner surface and the ammo box, she pulled off her backpack, reached into it, and pulled out the rock she tossed in earlier before returning her backpack to its original position. She had kept the rock out of whimsy, but now, perhaps it may be of some use.

In the corner of her vision, Eule saw Rost nod in approval at her idea before gently putting Äloy’s tiny bow away onto his belt to unsling his own full-sized bow. It seemed that in spite of his own words about firing a bow likely causing a stampede, he still wanted to be ready in case he could distract a Machine with an arrow.

Star though had the same idea Eule did, and picked up a nearby rock of her own. “Good idea. We can distract any Machines that see the kid before they can get her. Hopefully,” Star said with as much optimism as she could put into it despite her final word.

Eule gently held Star’s hand in reassurance before turning her attention back to Äloy.

The brave little Gestalt girl was still crouched on the edge of that foxtail grass patch, seemingly waiting for something. That something came in the form of the Watcher from earlier. The moment it stalked past Äloy, she immediately moved out, covering a decent amount of ground and yet quiet enough that not a single Machine noticed her before she made it into the next patch of foxtail.

To Eule’s amazement, little Äloy continued this pattern. It was as though Äloy knew exactly where the Watchers were going to go and even where they were going to stop and scan the area in front of them, and waited for them to not be in her way before making her move to the next foxtail patch.

In between these moves, Eule noticed that Äloy reached up to touch her Focus, looking at the Watchers while she kept her hand on her Focus. Now curious, Eule mimicked Äloy’s actions on her own Focus.

To her surprise and amazement, holding down the Focus seemed to cause it to enter some kind of…wide-spread full scan mode. The Focus didn’t just scan what Eule was directly looking at now. It also scanned everything within her field of vision. Eule could see colored outlines forming over everything moving thing in her field of vision, from the Machines to even small animals darting through the valley floor, seemingly unbothered and unmolested by the Machines.

Even more importantly though, Eule could now see circular paths made of series of translucent blue triangles, with some of the triangles being larger than the others at set intervals. It was immediately clear what these paths were as Eule watched a Watcher follow the path it was on exactly as her Focus displayed it as. It even stopped right on the larger triangles to raise itself up and scan in front of it.

“Äloy was right,” Eule said quietly, making Star and Rost look at her as she continued. “She had been seeing the paths the Machines were taking, and she’s continuing to see them even now. Oh, why couldn’t she have been quicker to explain it? If only we had more time for Äloy’s explanation to have come to its conclusion–”

Rost placed a gentle hand on Eule’s shoulder. “Stop. Contemplating the ‘what ifs’ of this won’t do you or anyone else here any good. We need to focus on the present, and help Aloy however we can,” he said, before his face fell with a regret-filled frown. “For that matter, I was at fault too. I should’ve paid more attention to Aloy instead of dismissing that…Focus as a toy. I will need to apologize to her after this. Will you and Shtar help me make that happen?”

Eule nodded vehemently. “Yes. Absolutely. We’ll do everything we can to help,” she said, with her previous feelings verging on despair now replaced with a fiery determination. With a quick glance at Star to see her lover nodding in agreement, she then returned her attention to the brave little Gestalt girl trying to save a Gestalt boy’s life down there in that valley.

Amazingly, Äloy had nearly reached the ruins where Teb was lying there, staring with wide eyes at Äloy perfectly dodging every Watcher. There was just one obstacle left: a small, shallow-looking river between Äloy and the next patch of foxtail. Eule watched Äloy once more wait for the patrolling Watcher to pass by before moving out and making her way across the river–

Eule’s biomechanical heart practically leapt into her mouth when she saw Äloy stumble, likely slipping on something in the water, before quickly recovering and diving into the patch of foxtail in front of her.

Unfortunately, the splashing sounds caused by Äloy’s stumble caused the nearest Watcher to spin around in shock, its eye now glowing a suspicious yellow. The Watcher then began to stalk towards where it had heard that sound, which unfortunately was taking it right in the direction of the very foxtail patch Äloy was hiding in.

Eule wasn’t going to let it discover Äloy. Hefting the rock in her hand, she stood up and lobbed the rock, mimicking Äloy’s throw from earlier, before quickly crouching back down.

The rock rose up in an arcing trajectory before coming back down. Eule had been aiming for an area just behind the Watcher, hoping to divert its attention from Äloy. Instead, Eule’s mouth fell open in shock as she watched the rock she threw come straight down on the Watcher’s hip and bounced off it with a loud clang, Eule having apparently overshot her mark by a fair distance.

The Watcher immediately sprang around, looking around in the direction of Eule, Star, and Rost for whatever had hit it. Its yellow gaze soon fell on the rock Eule had thrown. It gently nudged the rock with its head, making curious clicking sounds. It then rose up on its legs, scanning the area and making Eule duck back down further just on the off-chance the Watcher could see her. On either side of her, she watched Star and Rost do the same thing, not wanting to chance the possibility that the Watcher might spot them.

At last though, the Watcher apparently decided that it must’ve been a random rock that fell from the sky, and thus nothing to worry about anymore. It was the only explanation Eule could come up with for why its eye returned to a calm blue, and it continued on its patrol path.

As Eule breathed out a sigh of relief, she looked to Star with an embarrassed grin. Star only gave her a smile and a thumbs-up in reply, apparently deciding that even an accidental job well done deserved praise.

As for Rost, he merely sighed and nodded. “It was a good throw in the end. That’s all that matters,” he said quietly and consolingly.

Eule could only give an embarrassed chuckle in reply before returned her gaze to the valley, looking around for Äloy. She soon found the little Gestalt girl crouched right next to Teb, apparently having used the distraction to sneak past. Eule couldn’t tell what it was they were talking about from this distance, but if she was him, she would’ve been very glad that someone had come to her rescue, even if that someone was only a small child…who apparently managed to sneak past a small army of herd guard Machines almost completely undetected.

Eule watched Äloy sneak out of the ruins into a large patch of foxtail next to it, right past the Strider that had wandered so close to said ruins. As it turned out, it wasn’t searching for Teb at all. It apparently wanted a better spot of grass to graze or it had calmed down mid-search, because now it had its head down and was grazing said grass, completely oblivious to the little Gestalt girl walking right past it. Thus, it was perfectly safe for Äloy to beckon for Teb to follow.

Eule immediately realized that something was wrong when not only did Teb not immediately follow, but when he did, he was clearly limping. Clearly, the fall he took must’ve caused some sort of leg injury. But since it did, it meant that Teb physically couldn’t move as fast as Äloy, and so might not be capable of enough agility to avoid the Watchers, even with Äloy telling him when to go. As it was, Teb was only able to make it to the foxtail patch because the Strider was so utterly oblivious to everything around it during its grazing.

Eule’s worry was so great that, once more, she nearly jumped out of her polyethylene shell when Rost tapped her on the shoulder.

“Follow me. The boy can’t move fast with his injury. We need to get closer to them,” Rost said quietly.

Eule nodded and proceeded to do just that. A quick glance behind at the sound of footsteps showed Star following them as well, who gave her a reassuring nod in reply. Eule calmed down a bit at that, which wasn’t very much, but it was still better than before.

Fortunately, Rost didn’t take them very far. It was just across the river really, resulting in them ending hiding behind a rock formation overlooking a shallow slope. Peeking out from behind the rock formation, Eule saw that they now had a direct line of sight on Äloy and Teb, who were both hiding in a patch of foxtail. Äloy saw her and nodded, beckoning Teb to follow as she and the Gestalt boy now made their way to them.

Unfortunately, in between Äloy and Teb, and safety, was a patrolling Watcher. By pure bad luck, it happened to be walking a circular patrol path right around the patch of foxtail Äloy and Teb were hiding in. Eule watched Äloy reach into her medicine pouch and feed Teb one of the salvebrush berries she picked earlier, but she wasn’t certain if it would help in time.

“Hey, Rost,” Star said suddenly, making Eule turn to look at her despite not being the one she was addressing. “You think you can head over there and take out that Watcher to make it easier for them to sneak past?”

Rost stroked his beard in thought. “If I kill that Watcher in the right spot and hide it, then the other Watchers might not notice. It would still be a short window though, so I would prefer to carry Teb out.”

“So what’s stopping you?” Star asked.

Eule realized even as Star asked that question. “Because you’re an outcast,” she said.

Rost nodded dejectedly. “For me to pick him up would be a breach of tribal law. I don’t fear any consequences for myself, but I fear the consequences for that boy. If word ever got out that an outcast interacted with him in such a manner…I don’t think the High Matriarchs would punish him too severely under those circumstances. However, I don’t like taking that risk. Not unless I have no other choice.”

“What about me? I’m an outsider, so those laws wouldn’t apply to me just picking that Teb boy up, right?” Star asked.

Rost’s eyes widened in realization, and he nodded. “Yes, you’re right. Alright, here’s the plan then: I’ll take down the Watcher. Once that’s done, I want you to pick up the boy and head over here to safety. I’ll be right behind you, so don’t stop on my account.”

Star nodded. “I’ll take that plan. Mind if I also pick up Äloy along the way? I can carry her and Teb no problem, and still move faster than Äloy can run.”

Rost blinked at Star in surprise before nodding. “If you believe you can handle it, then please do so.” Eule then watched Rost turned back to her. “Eu-le, stay here and keep an eye out for Machines coming our way. If any do approach, distract them with thrown rocks. Let us know if you see us watching too.”

Eule nodded firmly. “Alright. I can do that.”

Rost simply nodded back in reply before turned his view back to the Watcher circling Äloy and Teb’s foxtail patch. As soon as the Watcher walked to the far side of that patch, Rost made his move. He dashed to the closest foxtail patch, which happened to be right next to the one Äloy and Teb were in, with Star following right behind him. Then, as the Watcher rose up to scan the area in the direction away from them, Rost and Star moved right into Äloy and Teb’s foxtail patch.

Eule couldn’t make out what they were doing or saying, so she kept an eye on the Strider herd and its Watcher guards. Fortunately, the Striders were as oblivious as before, and the other Watchers were busy patrolling the other areas around the herd’s perimeter. There were only so many Watchers, so they couldn’t afford more than a single one per sector. It was the perfect opportunity to take one down.

Which is exactly what Rost did. In the side of her vision, Eule watched Rost spring out and drive his spear into the chest of what must’ve been a very surprised Watcher, which soon became a very dead Watcher. Rost had killed the Watcher right when it was in an area where the tall foxtail grass obscured the Watcher’s corpse from the rest of the herd, making it very unlikely that the other Machines would notice its passing.

The moment the Watcher fell to the ground, Star made her move. The Security Technician Guard Replika rose up to her full 220 cm height, carrying Äloy under one arm and Teb under the other, and began running right towards Eule.

The cramped confines of S-23 Sierpinski meant that Eule had never seen her lover build up to her full speed. As she watched Star sprint though, she suddenly appreciated just how fast the Star units were. It barely took a few seconds for Star to run the distance from that distant patch of foxtail all the way to Eule’s position. Then, as if to show off, Star then leapt up all the way from the bottom of the berm all the way to the top, bypassing the whole slope entirely, all while carrying a pair of Gestalt children. As Star gently put Äloy back on the ground and even more gently placed Teb on the same, Eule gave her lover a hug and a kiss on the cheek for her efforts, then hugged Äloy tightly (Eule would save any scolding for later, when they were all in a safe area) and gave her a brief examination for injuries (she had none, to Eule’s relief), before crouching down to give Teb a proper medical examination.

“Are you okay, Teb?” Eule asked with concern. “You took a high fall back there. Do you feel any pain anywhere?”

“Umm, my foot. My right one, actually. I landed right on it when I fell,” Teb admitted. “I can walk on it, but it really hurts when I do so, even after this girl, All-Mother bless her, gave me a salvebrush berry for it.”

Eule looked at the foot in question. “Do you mind if I remove your boot? I need to examine your injury, and I can’t do it with it in the way.”

“Oh, oh yes. Of course. Feel free to do so,” Teb replied with a nod. As Eule gently worked his right boot free, she heard him ask: “Wait, um, wha–I mean, who are you? I, um, I didn’t want to say ‘What’ because it sounds really rude to talk about a person that way, but umm, you look kind of…weird…er, now that I can see you up close.”

Eule didn’t immediately reply as she finally removed Teb’s right shoe and got a look at his foot, handing it back to him to hold while she did so. There was significant swelling and a darkened bruise right at his ankle on its right side, but fortunately, there was no skin breakage to indicate a very badly broken bone. In any case, she doubted Teb could’ve walked on it if it had been that badly broken. Still, better safe than sorry, especially since she most definitely did not have access to an X-ray machine to determine if Teb did have a fractured bone in his right foot.

“You have either a sprain or a fractured calcaneus, er, your heel bone,” Eule explained when Teb gave her a blank look at the medical term. “I would highly recommend that you immobilize that foot and not walk on it for a while until your injury heals, just in case it is a bone fracture. Oh, and my name is Eule. My, um, mate there is Star.”

“Oy-le? Thank you, Oyle. I’m not sure if my father will let me, but…” Teb trailed off, making Eule suddenly worry about him and what his father is like, before he suddenly turned to her lover and said: “Oh, thank you too, Shtar. All-Mother bless you both.”

Star grinned at him, making Teb blink at her in surprise at seeing her dark grey carbon steel teeth for the first time. “Thanks, kid. I’m more than happy to help, especially since it means I actually get to be a Protektor who protects for a change,” she said happily.

Teb looked blankly at her and even more blankly at Eule giving Star a rueful grin at her self-deprecatory humor, before suddenly looking behind Eule. “Oh, and All-Mother bless you and your little girl, too. Especially her.”

Eule turned to look as she saw Rost had finally joined them at last, and as usual, almost without making a single sound, save for some low murmuring to Äloy in which Eule distinctly heard the words “sorry” and “Focus” among them (which made Eule glad that Rost had followed through on his promise to apologize to Äloy). Even now, Rost refused to speak a word to Teb because of that outcast business. Refused to even meet Teb’s eyes, actually. Äloy though was more than happy to not only look Teb in the eye, but even grin happily at him for his compliment.

Teb grinned back before gingerly putting his boot back on and standing up, leaning on his uninjured foot, Eule noticed. “I mean it. All-Mother bless you both. She saved me. If it hadn’t been for her, I’d be–”

“Boy!” a male voice shouted, startling Eule into looking in the direction the voice came from.

Eule watched as an older Gestalt man walked, stomped really, towards them, flanked by a pair of younger Gestalt men. All of them were dressed in animal skins covered in metal plates similar to Rost, and all were armed with spears decorated with colorful feathers that didn’t detract from the lethality of the metal blades just in front of them. Even more unfortunately, Eule did not need a Eule’s face-reading skills to know that the shouting Gestalt man was very, very angry.

Teb looked very nervous and a bit frightened, but still he pressed on. “I…I just wanted–”

“BOY!” the Gestalt man shouted even more loudly as he reached Teb. He then aggressively leaned into Teb’s face, making Teb look down to avoid his eyes, and hissed: “Seal your lips!” before turning to look at the group before him.

Eule did not like that look. The Gestalt man looked at Rost–who had turned his gaze downward–with disgust, as if he were looking at a disease-ridden animal rather a human being. The look he gave her and Star was much the same, with a sneer added for extra disgust. However, the look he gave little Äloy was even worse than that. He looked at her with hate and…fear? As if Äloy had personally done something to mortally offend him, but had also done something to make him afraid of her. Eule was certain neither of those scenarios could’ve possibly happened in a legitimate way, and so she did not like this rage-filled Gestalt man who looked at adorable little Äloy like she was a monster in the slightest.

“They are outcasts, both,” the angry Gestalt man practically spat. “And she…is motherless,” the man spat, saying that last word as though it was a curse, and advancing towards Äloy as if he meant to harm her.

Rost immediately stepped in front of Äloy, still with eyes downcast, at the same time Eule stepped to the side to block the angry Gestalt man’s path, with Star stepping forward to stand beside Eule, glaring at the angry Gestalt man with the sternest Star officer face she could muster.

The angry Gestalt man stumbled back, clutching his spear more tightly. “Who are you, no, what are you?!” he hissed, looking back and forth at Eule and Star.

Eule gave him her most polite smile she can think of, trying to imitate the exceedingly polite smile she’d seen EULR-S2302 “Februar” give an irate Storch who’d complained that the food she got wasn’t salty enough…after having just complained about the food being too salty and thus forcing Februar to cook her a new plate of food. It had been so polite that Februar had given not a single clue to the Storch about her building anger, and it was only when the Storch had been gone for a while (after Februar had handed the Storch a salt shaker and very politely suggested that she season her food herself until she was satisfied with it) that Februar began muttering darkly about the Storch, cooking as hard as she could to seemingly vent her rage and frustration into the food.

Eule had made sure to pair up with Februar in the Eule dorm that night (or what passed for it in S-23 Sierpinski) for singing, both to help her relax after that and because she liked complementing Februar’s slightly deeper voice for a Eule. Thus, Eule drew upon her memories of dear Februar to help her perfect her imitation of her.

“We’re merely a pair of outsiders who are not fond of people who threaten young children,” Eule said, keeping a very polite tone to accompany her very polite Februar smile.

“Yeah, why don’t you try bullying people your own size? Or do you feel so manly and strong picking on a little kid half your size? Maybe you’re compensating for your lack of size somewhere else?” Star asked with a cocky grin.

One of the younger Gestalt men (or rather, boy of around Teb’s age, now that Eule had a better look at him) snickered, making the angry Gestalt man spin around to glare at him before he turned back to Eule, still giving her a look of fury that was now tinged with embarrassment. The fury seemed to only deepen when he looked into Eule’s eyes, and looked down at her white bird-like mechanical legs.

“The Tainted grow ever more Tainted, I see. Wouldn’t be surprised if your mothers bred with Machines!” the angry Gestalt man spat. Literally. He spat at Eule’s peg-like feet before turning around and growling: “Come now! Back to Mother’s Heart!”

With one last look of fury at Eule and Star, he then grabbed Teb by the arm and forced the boy to follow him. Teb gave them a look of apology, as if he felt he needed to apologize for the angry Gestalt man’s behavior. Eule’s own fury only built along with a good amount of worry when the angry Gestalt man cuffed Teb on the back of the head hard enough to nearly knock Teb over, despite Teb clearly limping as he walked with them.

“Fucking piece of shit,” Star muttered with her own anger. “Bastard’s done that before,” she noted.

Eule looked at her lover in alarm. “You mean he beats Teb?”

“Looks like it. He did that so casually. Like he’s used to hitting Teb whenever it suits him,” Star growled.

Eule now looked at the retreating figure of Teb with a new level of worry before turning to Rost, who she noted now had a look on his face that combined worry with anger, which given his usually stoic face, must speak volumes of what he was actually feeling underneath.

“Can you do something to help him?” Eule asked him.

Rost shook his head sadly. “Outcast. I can’t speak to anyone in the tribe about it, and speaking to other outcasts about it will only serve to vent my own frustrations about it.” He then sighed. “And even if I could tell anyone about it, a parent has absolute right to raise their child unless there is obvious and extreme cases of abuse. That, unfortunately, is not extreme enough to satisfy that requirement,” he said, his normally stoic face now looking to Eule like someone who was eating a pickled plum and really didn’t like it.

Eule frowned and looked at the now very distant figure of Teb walking with the angry Gestalt man that she now knew was his very horrible father, which she realized made a horrible amount of sense after recalling Teb’s face and comparing it with the face of that angry Gestalt man. They shared very similar facial structures, and even had matching hair color. Thus, Teb was likely living with a man who beat him for any reason he can think of, and likely even for no reason at all. Eule silently prayed to the Red Eye to watch over Teb and ensure his safety.

Eule then felt a small hand tug at her own right hand, and looked down to see Äloy looking up at her. “Is Teb’s father hitting him because I saved him?” the little Gestalt girl asked.

Eule sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t know what goes on in the minds of people who like to hit other people for fun like that. All I can say is: I think Teb’s father would’ve probably hit him for something else even if you hadn’t come along,” she said dejectedly.

Äloy frowned in the direction of where Teb, his father, and the other Gestalt men had gone. “Teb’s father is mean. I hate him,” she said with a firm nod.

“You and me both, kid. You and me both,” Star said with her own firm nod.

Rost breathed out a sigh, as if he was trying to breathe out his own anger and worry with it. “Come now, we can do no more for Teb right now. For now, let’s just calm down with a brief meal before we head back. Here.”

Rost then reached into one of his seemingly innumerable pouches, and pulled out balls of…something reddish brown with nearly black splotches on each ball, each of which was around the size of a golf ball. He handed one to everyone before taking a ball himself and biting into it with obvious relish.

Rost then took out a large bag that looked like it was made of black Machine muscle coated in the just as black Machine skin from his belt, took out a short length of black tubing that looked as though it was plastic from a small leather bag tied to the “neck” of the bag, inserted it into what Eule guessed was its opening, and drank from the bag via that tube as though it was a straw before handing it to Äloy, who did the same.

The little Gestalt girl then held it out to Eule, who took hold of it, feeling the strange texture of the thick bag and then feeling the black tube, confirming that they were both indeed plastic, before tipping a bit of the liquid within into her mouth. As it turned out, it was just lukewarm water, but it was still refreshing after all that trouble from before.

After taking another sip of water before handing it to Star, Eule then sniffed at what was obviously some sort of food in her white-gloved hand. The ball smelled…meaty to her, with a distinct hint of honey and fruit, which suggested some kind of savory-sweet food. The ball also felt soft, deforming slightly in her gentle grip rather than rigidly retaining its shape, suggesting a soft food of some kind. Now with her curiosity thoroughly piqued, she daintily took a bite out of the ball.

Eule was indeed correct on her initial assumptions on its taste, but it still didn’t prepare her for the gustatory details reaching her biocomponent tongue. She could tell from the flavor alone that much of the ball was basically fatty pork that had been crushed into an almost powdery texture similar to pork floss, but there was the sweet taste of honey complementing the rich savory taste of the pork meat and pork fat, and underneath that was a familiar fruity taste of…blueberries! Yes, there was the sweet-tart taste of blueberries mixed in with the honey, balancing out how overwhelmingly sweet the honey was and producing a lovely balance of flavors.

Such was the deliciousness of this sweet-savory pork ball that Eule ended up gobbling the rest of it, chewing it with as much relish as Rost did.

“From the sounds you’re making, I take it you like the taste of trailmeat?” Rost asked.

Eule nodded, taking the time to chew and swallow first before replying: “So you call this dish ‘trailmeat’? I take it then that this is supposed to be some kind of food for long-distance traveling?”

Rost looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well, thinking about it, I would call it more almost-trailmeat, since dried boar and boar fat was the only dried meat and fat I had available. It’s not quite as long-lasting as true trailmeat should be, but it still fills a hunter’s belly just as well.”

Eule nodded once more, just in understanding this time. If the goal of this “trailmeat” was to have a long shelf life, then lard was probably not the best way to go about it. It’s simply too moist, and so spoiled more easily.

“Well, if it’s not going to keep anyways, mind if I have seconds?” Star asked, bright and eager for more.

Eule giggled a bit at seeing Rost look at Star with a raised eyebrow. “Most hunters would feel sufficiently satisfied at just a single ball of trailmeat. Although…you do seem to eat a lot than Eu-le. Is it normal for you to eat this much?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Star admitted. “We Stars are built for law enforcement…and combat as well. We’ve got more powerful muscles, but that means we need to eat more. Especially after doing some intense labor, like running at full speed carrying a pair of Gestalts for half the trip?”

Rost looked at Star’s eager face for a moment longer before he sighed and handed over another ball of trailmeat to her, which she devoured just as eagerly as the first, downing it with water immediately afterwards before handing the bag back to Eule. Eule briefly wondered just how long it took to weave this bag out of Machine muscle and then cover it in Machine skin before taking one more gulp from it and handing it back to Rost, who in turn took another sip from it before pulling the pipe bit from it the drinking end and tying the bag back to his belt.

“Alright, now that we’re hopefully feeling a little better now, let’s get back to butchering that Strider and Watcher before they attract scavengers,” Rost said, beckoning for Eule, Star, and Äloy to follow him.

“Wait, but the Machines are, well, Machines, right? What could possibly scavenge them?” Eule asked, now morbidly curious.

“Maybe Machine crows? Or Machine rats?” Star joked. When Rost didn’t laugh though, Eule watched Star’s grin disappear from her face. “Wait, are there actually Machine crows and rats that, what, scavenge dead Machines?”

“You’re…not that far off, Shtar,” Rost admitted. “Glinthawks don’t normally fly this far eastward at this time of the year but…if either of you hear anything that sounds like…Machine laughing, then tell me. Now. So that we can run. While I normally don’t like to waste kills like that, there’s no point in risking our lives fighting a pack of Scrappers over them.”

Eule just blinked at Rost, as Star surely did. “Glinthawks? Scrappers? Machine laughing?” Eule asked with increasing worry.

“I will tell you if we hear them, and describe them to you if we don’t,” Rost replied.

Eule grimaced at him and sighed. She honestly hoped that she wouldn’t get to find out what those Machines are, but what with how this day has been going, her hope was a bit…wan there as she followed Rost back the way they’d came, basically making their little outing in reverse. Only this time, Star was holding Eule’s hand as she walked next to her. Eule liked the feeling of walking like this, Star’s warm black hand holding her white-gloved hand, and wondered if Star was just as perturbed by the day’s events as she was.

Still, she had no complaints about Star, and Äloy walking next to her on her other side still gave her no small amount of happiness despite the clever little Gestalt girl pulling that trick on Eule–

Thinking about Äloy suddenly reminded Eule. She reached into one of her ammo pouches, carefully pulled out the blue scarf she’d so carefully tucked into it, and held it out to Äloy. “I believe this is yours?” she asked the little Gestalt girl.

Äloy made a tiny squeak in the back of her mouth at the sight of her scarf and what it meant before she carefully took back her scarf and tied back onto her neck…tightly this time.

“You’re not mad, are you, Eu-le?” Äloy asked carefully, glancing between Eule’s eyes and the rocky ground below as they walked.

Eule stared at Äloy in surprise before carefully taking the smart and brave little Gestalt girl into a one-armed hug. “Äloy, I would never be mad over you over that. If anything, I was worried sick. Do you have any idea just how much danger you put yourself in? What if you’d made a mistake and the Machines had seen you? You very nearly got spotted by that Watcher if it wasn’t for our help. What if it had attacked you, or alerted the entire herd and its comrades? You could have been injured or worse! Äloy, you could’ve died!” she almost screamed.

Eule watched Äloy’s grass-green eyes look up into her own blue eyes, and the little Gestalt girl tightly returned her hug. “I’m sorry for worrying you, Eu-le. It’s just…I couldn’t just sit there and not help Teb. It seemed like you, Rost, and Shtar were taking forever to come up with a plan. If you’d taken longer, I was afraid the Machines would find Teb first.”

Eule took a deep breath to calm herself and to think about what Äloy said before replying: “Yes, that’s a valid point. But…couldn’t you have just talked your plan over with us before jumping in like that? We could’ve helped? We might’ve been able to even come up with a better version of your plan if you had talked it over with us.” Eule took another calming breath. “I know I’m just a Eule. I’m not made for combat in the slightest, but…couldn’t you have trusted me to be able to help you just a bit?”

“Maybe me too?” Star added from somewhere above and behind Eule’s head. “I am a Star, after all. I wasn’t exactly made for fighting Machine horses and…whatever the Watchers are supposed to be, but I like to think that I could’ve done something useful in combat.”

Rost didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. His raised eyebrow at Äloy spoke volumes all on its own.

Äloy looked back and forth between Eule, Star, and Rost before nodding. “Okay. If there’s any more dangerous stuff like with Teb, then I’ll talk with Rost and you two first, okay? I promise.”

Eule nodded back and smiled at little Äloy. “I’ll accept that promise, and trust that you keep your word on it.”

Fortunately, the journey back to where the Strider and Watcher carcasses laid was otherwise uneventful, and the carcasses themselves were undisturbed. Whether by any of these scavenger Machines or otherwise, which Eule was thankful for. Judging by Rost’s relieved nod, he was in full agreement with her.

“Come then, Aloy. Let me show you how to butcher a Strider. You can learn how to butcher it for yourself later,” Rost announced as he strode over to the aforementioned Strider.

“Do you mind if I watch as well?” Eule asked. “I would love to learn how to help with butchering it.”

“Not at all, Eu-le. Having a second pair of hands to help with this at a later time would be most welcome,” Rost replied.

Eule smiled very broadly at him. “Then perhaps maybe a second pair of hands to help with cooking could be welcome at a later time then?” she asked not so subtly.

Rost gave her a most neutral look in reply to that and said nothing. It wasn’t an outright denial like the last few times though, so Eule counted that as a small victory.

“You can watch if you wish to too, Shtar,” Rost said, seemingly wanting to change the subject.

“Learning to butcher a robot horse? Sure, why not. I’ve haven’t got anything better to do, after all,” Star replied cheerfully.

Rost gave a final nod to them before he got to work. He lifted one of the Strider’s front legs up, and then stabbed his knife into the front of its belly. He cut along said belly from the front all the way to where the anus would be on a real horse, lifting the back leg clear during that final bit of cutting.

Once that was done, Rost lifted the severed Machine skin and synthetic muscle bundles up, revealing that the Strider had devices within that resembled internal organs in an interesting yet slightly disturbing way to Eule, even if she couldn’t even begin to identify what each “organ” was.

Rost pointed at a very familiar-looking large black bag of synthetic muscle covered with what looked like a layer of flexible black Machine skin. A pair of plastic tubes leading from the 2…feeding nozzles (is the best Eule could describe them as) converged into a single large tube before entering said sac from the front, while another similarly sized plastic tube emerged out the other end of the sac, leading deeper into the Strider towards its “spine”, into the empty space where the Blaze canister had been. The large back-facing tube was double-headed though, with it splitting off at the Blaze canister end and leading into a mysterious device-organ just behind the sac, which itself had a pair of tubes connecting it back to the pair of feeding tubes in the front. Another pair of smaller plastic tubes led from the large sac to a plastic canister that was sandwiched between the sac and the device-organ.

“This is the Strider’s stomach. It’s where it digests the plants it eats into Blaze. It’s also one of the more valuable parts of a Strider, if it’s intact, that is. Which fortunately, this one is,” Rost explained when he pointed at the black bag, thus confirming to Eule what that black waterskin from earlier was.

Rost reached in, and detached the large tubes at both ends of the Strider’s stomach by loosening some kind of nut at where the tubes connected to the stomach. He then carefully detached the smaller tubes from it with the same methods as the larger tubes, before pulling the entire stomach out to show everyone.

“An intact Strider stomach is, as you probably noticed earlier, an excellent waterskin after you thoroughly wash it out. It can not only hold a large amount of water, but it’s also highly durable and long-lasting. With the addition of a cloth bag to hold it in, you can even cool the water within by soaking that cloth bag prior to drinking from the waterskin,” Rost explained to his students (which Eule counted herself and Star as) before putting the Strider stomach into Eule’s backpack.

Rost then reached into the Strider and pulled out the plastic canister that had been behind the stomach. He then checked every square centimeter of the canister (presumably for damage, Eule assumed) before proceeding to undo the plastic tubes from it just as carefully as he undid them from the stomach.

“This canister is full of a substance we call Metalbite. It’s a corrosive liquid the Machines use to digest plants into Blaze,” Rost explained as he worked. “Metalbite has a number of uses, not least of which is waste cleaning. We pour it on human waste to let the Metalbite digest it, which over time turns it into something resembling rich earth. We then collect it and pour it back onto the earth, returning the life we take from All-Mother back to her so that the cycle can begin anew.”

Eule suddenly realized something from that explanation. “Is that why you had Star and I use that particular toilet instead of the other one?” she asked.

Rost nodded. “That toilet is one that’s already full, and to which I had added in some Metalbite. I’m just waiting for it to do its work before I empty it.”

Eule nodded back in reply (as well as fascination of the novel use of this Metalbite substance) as Rost finally removed the tubing before carefully laying the canister onto a leather sheet, tying it up with muscle wire, and then putting the entire bundle with just as much care into Eule’s backpack.

“Also, a word of caution about Metalbite: always handle Metalbite containers with leather gloves or sheets when opening and closing them. If you get any Metalbite on your skin, immediately wash it off with water, because Metalbite will burn your skin otherwise. Finally, never store Metalbite in metal or clay containers. It eats through metal and clay, and thus will eat through any containers made of them and eventually spill out. Store it only in its Machinestone canisters or in glass containers if you can get any,” Rost explained with an even more serious face than before.

Eule nodded. From Rost’s description, it sounded like this “Metalbite” was some kind of strong acid, and indeed, it requiring a plastic or glass container to be stored safely would fit with that assumption. Eule briefly wondered if the plastic bonded into her flesh might give her some level protection from Metalbite, but decided that the risks of testing it out on herself was too great, and so decided that wearing leather gloves on top of her normal white cloth gloves sounded like a great idea after all.

Once Rost was satisfied that he had got his point across to them, he then spread open the Strider’s legs, opening up the cut he had made to allow Eule, Star, and Äloy to see further into the Strider corpse’s interior. He then pointed at another “organ” within the Strider. One that was studded with what looked like Sparkers just like the ones Rost had pulled out of those Watchers on that first day.

“This is the Strider’s gut. It’s different from its stomach. The Strider can use this double-headed tube here–” Rost pointed at said tube just above the gut. “–to send Blaze into its gut, and somehow burn it to recharge its Sparkers.”

“Hmm, a type of motor, you think?” Star asked Eule.

“It sounds like it. Maybe even similar in structure to our own motors,” Eule mused. Seeing Rost and Äloy’s confused expressions, she then explained: “We Replikas have a motor in our bodies that’s capable of burning the biomass from the food we eat to turn into electricity, which we then store in a battery attached to the motor. The motor will automatically produce electricity until the battery is full, or until we tell it to stop to keep from potentially wasting food on electricity production when we don’t need it. It’s not an exact one-for-one match with what this Strider has, but it might be of a similar design.”

Rost stroked his beard once more. “Eu-le, the more you explain about your people–you Replikas–the more I’m convinced that you’re somehow human souls dwelling in very Machine-like bodies,” he mused in turn.

Eule could only smile politely at that. For a completely wild guess, Rost had come surprisingly close to what the true nature of Replikas are.

Rost then shook his head, smiling in amusement at his own musings, before turning back to the Strider corpse. “Regardless, the guts of Striders have only a single use for us Nora: they allow us to restore dead Sparkers back to life without needing to hunt for more Machines to carve Sparkers out of. It may only be useful in this one job, but it still makes them valuable. So…”

Rost then reached into the Strider corpse, undoing the tubes connecting the gut to the rest of the Strider, pulling away thick wires that spoke of power cables, and using his knife to cut away sheets of Strider muscle before pulling the entire gut out for Eule, Star, and Äloy to look at.

Now that Eule could see it more clearly: while it had initially sounded like it was similar to a Replika’s motor, it looked nothing like it. If anything, it looked more like a car’s engine than the motor sitting in Eule’s abdomen. Among other things, the Strider’s was much larger and having no less than 8 Sparkers attached to it instead of the single battery unit attached to Eule’s own motor. Rost examined the gut closely, likely looking for any damage to it, before nodding in satisfaction. Instead of stuffing the gut into Eule’s backpack though, he instead walked behind Star and stuffed it into Star’s backpack. Likely because he didn’t want the heavy gut sitting right on top of that Metalbite canister, Eule assumed.

Rost then returned to the Strider corpse, reached back into the front of the Strider’s belly right where its “chest” is, and when he pulled his hand back out, it was gripping a–

Eule stared in surprise at what looked remarkably like a computer’s CPU. She’d seen something similar when she’d once watched Ara Elf take apart a malfunctioning office computer for repairs, or for salvage if it was too badly broken. The CPU her Ara friend had held up looked almost exactly like what Rost held in his hand, just with the 3-star logo of the Eusan Nation emblazoned on it instead of the strange pattern (looking like a pair of Ls wrapping around a dot) on the wafer-thin bit of electronics Rost so delicately held in his large hand.

“This is a Strider heart,” Rost explained, turning it around and around so that his students could get a better look at it. “It’s…not actually useful in of itself. It’s only really good for making jewelry and clothing decorations out of, and that’s it. Well, and the occasional hunting trophy if you like. However, because of that, merchants will usually pay a lot for intact Machine hearts. So if you do hunt a Machine and find that its heart is intact, you should carve it out and save it for trade. That said, destroying a Machine’s heart is the best way to kill it, as I demonstrated with the Watchers, so don’t count on it happening too often unless you’re specifically aiming to obtain a Machine’s heart. Still, since this Strider’s heart is intact, and perfectly so from the looks of it, you might want to keep it, Äloy, since it is your kill after all. It could be useful someday,” he said as he handed the Strider heart to a very excited little Gestalt girl.

Äloy stared in fascination at the CPU-like Strider heart in her hands, as though it was a rare and valuable gemstone instead of a mundane computer component, before carefully tucking it away in one of her many pouches.

Star leaned in close to Eule and whispered: “220 kHz”.

When Eule dialed her REM-63 to that radio frequency, she heard Star’s voice crackle: “Should we tell them that’s probably just a CPU, over?”

Eule smiled at Star. “There’s no point in that. Rost and the rest of the Nora probably don’t even know what it is, and it wouldn’t really make any difference if they did. What’s the harm in it if they decide to make some jewelry out of it, over?”

Star scratched the polyethylene shell on her cheek in contemplation. “Hmm, fair enough then. Now I’m actually curious about what kind of jewelry someone can make out of a CPU, over.”

Eule’s smile became even wider. “Probably something very…unique, out,” she teased, earning her a hug and a kiss on top of her head from her lover.

Eule caught Rost giving her and Star a smile, albeit one tinged with sadness for some odd reason, before he returned all their attentions back to the Strider corpse by pulling out every centimeter of tubing from its insides.

“Even the Striders’ intestines are valuable. They make tough yet flexible pipes for transporting water and other liquids,” Rost said as he gathered them up and placed them into Eule’s backpack. “They also make good packing material because of their shape, making them useful for making certain that certain things like Blaze and Metalbite canisters don’t break even when you handle them roughly.”

Eule nodded as she noted that Rost was definitely wrapping the Strider…intestines (that gave Eule some strange and dark imaginings about those tubes) around the Metalbite canister to prevent exactly that. Fortunately, the tubes weren’t that heavy despite how bulky they looked, and Eule felt that her backpack was getting just a bit heavy from the weight of all the Machine parts in it, including both the Blaze and Metalbite canisters. Still, it was a small thing to help return the favor for Rost taking her and Star in as guests, so she was more than happy to help with this without complaint.

“Now, one last thing about Strider carcasses that I want to point out are the eyes,” Rost said, literally pointing at the shattered pair of robotic eyes the dead Strider had once possessed before Äloy had happened very suddenly and very violently. “Machine eyes in general are valuable because they’re the only source of natural glass. Only the Carja and Oseram can make glass just as clear, and even then, it’s still cheaper to hunt a Machine for its eyes. However, because targeting the eyes is also an easy way to kill Machines, indeed even easier than aiming for the heart, it’s even less common for intact Machine eyes to be collected from their carcasses, making such eyes all the more valuable. A pile of shattered glass is virtually worthless unless you can take it to a glassmith, but a large undamaged lens is priceless. Which reminds me.”

Rost quickly walked over to the Watcher corpse, reached down, and yanked out its intact eye before returning with it. “If you ever have need for intact Machine eyes for glass, then Watchers are the best Machines to hunt for that purpose. Their eyes are very large with a massive unbroken pane of glass, they’re everywhere, and they’re easy to kill even for the least skilled hunters,” he explained as he placed the Watcher eye into Star’s backpack.

Rost blew out a breath as he stared at the Strider corpse, now utterly devoid of any internal organs. “Alright, now that we’ve gutted the Strider of all its most useful parts, we can move on to cutting away the muscles, bone, and other assorted parts–”

The way Rost suddenly cut himself off and looked around alarmed Eule, and she too looked around and strained her eyes to see what caught the Gestalt man’s attention. That was when Eule noticed the distant sound coming over the cliffs: the sound of someone laughing? But it sounded…wrong somehow, with Eule unable to quite put her white-gloved mechanical finger on it.

Then Eule suddenly remembered what Rost said: the sound of Machine laughing, and indeed, this sounded as though a mechanical device was somehow giggling.

“Scrappers,” Rost said, confirming Eule’s thoughts. “Go. Now. Back towards the house. Quickly.”

Eule was more than happy to follow that command as she, Star, and Äloy quickly followed Rost back up the cliff they’d climbed down from on the way here that morning. When everyone had made it up to the top of the cliff though, Rost motioned for everyone to stop, and then pointed back down at the distant Strider and Watcher corpses, saying: “Wait and watch. You need to know what Scrappers look like, if only to know what to avoid.”

Eule didn’t have long to wait. From over the cliff walls on the sides, 4 of the Machines Rost called Scrappers bounded down and loped towards the Machine corpses. The Scrappers were quadrupedal, with an almost dog-like look to them that was ruined first by their hunchbacked appearance topped with a strange rotating device on their backs, next by a device on their hindquarters connected to the rest of their bodies by numerous wires, and lastly by their heads.

Each of the Scrapper’s 2 eyes was made up of 4 smaller eyes, giving them a bizarrely insectoid appearance. However, their jaws took up most of Eule’s attention. It consisted of a pair of massive lower jaws split in half, with each half mounting just-as-massive wheel-like devices covered in yellow-colored studs. Eule couldn’t even begin to guess as to what those wheels were for, until one of the Scrappers loped up to the Strider corpse, and lowered its head to bite down on the Strider’s head, with all the wheels in its lower jaw spinning until the yellow bits were a blur. Sparks flew from where the spinning wheels met the metal and plastic of the Strider’s head, and the air filled with an almost painful shrieking sound of metal being cut and ground that was audible even where Eule was crouching.

On top of that, the whole time, the Scrappers were regularly making that high-pitched giggling sound, which Eule could now see was coming from them whirring the wheel-like devices on their lower jaws back and forth, making a sound that sounded eerily like a human giggling. Knowing what it was though didn’t make it any less unsettling.

“They’re eating our kills,” Äloy quietly noted in an outraged tone that made Eule smile at her cuteness despite the situation.

Rost nodded. “That’s what they and all scavenger Machines do, Aloy. Scrappers feed on dead Machines that have been laying out untended to for too long, like those carcasses we left, cutting them apart and grinding them into dust to suck in, before turning them into blocks of metal and Machinestone in their stomachs.”

Star quietly whistled. “I was just joking about the Machine rats, but wow, you have Machine hyenas? That’s so much worse.”

Rost looked at Star with a blank face. “Hyenas? What is a hyena?”

“It’s…basically those Scrappers, but if it was a purely meat and bone animal like the rabbits you hunted yesterday,” Star explained. “Eule showed me a nature documentary about them once. They also ate dead animals in a place called Africa on Vineta before they went extinct.”

“Hmm, I see,” was all Rost had to say on that. Eule wasn’t entirely clear if he understood any word of that explanation, or if he was just filing it away in his mind as “Strange Outsider Stuff”.

Something was still bothering Eule though. “How did those Scrappers know those Machine carcasses were here in the first place? They clearly couldn’t have seen them from how far away they were,” she asked Rost.

Rost pointed at the closest Scrapper, which was in the process of grinding the dead Watcher’s eyeless head. “See that device on its back? It’s some kind of…scanning device that it uses to locate Machine carcasses out of its sight. I couldn’t even begin to tell you how it works, but I do know that it can detect large amounts of metal from a fair distance beyond its sight range.”

Eule stiffened up upon hearing that, as did Star.

“How far can they detect metal? As far as here?” Star asked in a worried tone.

Rost waved a calming hand. “Don’t worry. The Scrappers will only go for the large amounts of metal normally found on a Machine carcass, and that scanning device seems to have trouble detecting metal inside non-metal containers. The parts we’ve salvaged shouldn’t be enough to draw their attention.”

“Uhh, Rost? We haven’t told you this yet before, and I think we should: we Replikas have steel skeletons,” Eule said nervously. “Our bones are a type of carbon steel that we maintain by eating dietary iron and small amounts of various minerals, and we have more or less identical skeletal design to Gestalts like you and Äloy. Could these Scrappers detect our skeletons from here?”

Rost frowned slightly as he thought. Eule wasn’t certain whether it was from the revelation of her and Star having carbon steel skeletons, or from what it meant in regards to the Scrappers. Fortunately though, Eule didn’t need to worry about Äloy having any existential angst about her carbon steel bones. Not from the intensely excited look the curious little Gestalt girl was giving her and Star.

“I’m…not sure, to be honest. Not without knowing if your skin and flesh can cause trouble for the Scrappers’ scanning devices like leather can,” Rost admitted. “On top of that, I’ve never seen nor heard of Scrappers going after living Machines in my life, so even if it detects you and Shtar from this distance, you two should be safe.” Despite those words though, he still gave a worried look at the distant Scrappers below, and then sighed. “Still, let’s head home now. Better to be safe than sorry, especially where Scrapper packs are concerned.”

Eule sighed in relief, and was more than happy to follow Rost with Star next to her as he got up and started retracing their path back to his and Äloy’s house, leaving the still-giggling and snarling Scrappers to their macabre feast.

“Oh, one last thing about Scrappers you should be wary of,” Rost added to Eule as he walked, and to Star as well judging from his glance at her. “Their scanning devices can somehow see through foxtail grass at close ranges. Thus, you can’t expect to hide from them in foxtails as you would for normal Machines. You either need to kill the Scrapper quickly before it gets too close, or shoot off its scanning device and then kill it when it comes to investigate where the arrow that robbed it of its far-sight came from.”

Eule shuddered. As if the Scrappers weren’t bad enough already, she thought.

“I hate those Scrappers too, Eu-le,” Äloy announced.

Eule looked down at Äloy with a smile. “Oh? Was I that obvious?”

Äloy nodded. “Yeah, you were making a ‘I really hate Scrappers’ face back there.”

Eule cocked her head as she thought about it. “I think ‘hate’ is a bit strong for what I feel about Scrappers right now, but they are a bit…unsettling. Especially because of that giggling sound they make.”

Äloy nodded even more vehemently. “I know, right? This is the first time I’ve seen and heard Scrappers, and I already think they’re creepy too. That’s why I hate them.”

Eule only smiled at Äloy in response. She could already tell that the very strong-willed little Gestalt girl was only going to become a very strong-willed Gestalt woman when she grows up.

Fortunately, the journey back to Rost’s and Äloy’s was almost as uneventful as that initial trip to their Machine carcasses. Almost.

Just as they started to reenter the main area of the Embrace and was about to start up the long, winding mountain path to get back to Rost’s and Äloy’s house, Eule noticed a very strange sight: a group of Nora children standing on a low hill overlooking the path, all staring at a young blonde Nora boy about Äloy’s age, who Eule recognized as one of the children from yesterday who was with those Nora women. Said boy though had his hands behind his back, and was trying very hard to look innocent. So hard in fact that Eule was amused that he was obviously trying to hide something. Well, children will be children, she thought.

“Umm, Eu-le? Can I ask you something?” Äloy asked from her side.

Eule turned away from the Nora children to look down at Äloy. “Yes?”

“Well, it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while now, and it’s been bugging me.”

“Mm-hmm?” asked Eule, curious as to what Äloy had thought of now.

“…How is your hat staying on?” Seeing Eule’s blank expression, Äloy continued. “I’ve seen you bend over, crouch, and do things that should make your hat fall off, but it doesn’t. So how is it–hey, you’re laughing at me again!”

“No, I mean, yes, but, I’m sorry,” Eule said, trying unsuccessfully to hold back her giggles. “It’s not you I’m laughing at, it’s the situation. Here, let me show you.”

Eule gripped her favorite side cap by its base, and carefully pulled upwards, making her hat come off with a plonk sound. She then leaned down and handed her hat over to Äloy. “Do you see the base of the brim on the underside there?” she asked.

Eule watched Äloy turn her hat over and looked at it. “It’s…metal?”

Eule nodded. “It’s actually a magnetic strip of iron running along the brim there. You know how I said our skeletons are carbon steel? Well, that magnetic strip lets it stick to my skull, keeping it on even under circumstances when it would’ve just fallen off.”

Äloy tilted her head at Eule. “Magnetic?”

Eule tried to think of an answer for Äloy that would make sense to her. It was while she was thinking about that when suddenly, something hit her in the back, just under a spot between her shoulders. It was where her polyethylene shell was at some of its thickest though, so it didn’t really hurt. The impact made her stumble a bit and yelp, but that was it. She heard the sound of something clattering behind her though, and looked back to see a rock bouncing off the ground. She quickly realized that someone had just thrown a rock at her, and looked around.

Eule quickly saw the blonde Nora boy from earlier. He’d apparently been following them along with that gaggle of children, and was just standing there pale and frozen, with another rock in his left hand, and very clearly the culprit. Eule just stared at him, blinking in confusion. She had no idea what she’d done to offend the boy enough for him to throw a rock at her, especially since this was the second time she’d ever seen him, so she was more bewildered than angry.

Star however, definitely sounded angry. “Hey, what’s the big idea?!” she yelled angrily at the young Nora boy.

Before Eule could try to calm Star down though, the young Nora boy had apparently had enough. He immediately dropped his other rock, turned tail, and fled deeper into the Embrace. The other children stood there staring in shock at their fellow child before looking back at Eule and especially Star, and then fleeing with the young Nora boy.

All except for a young blonde Gestalt girl about the same age as Äloy. She stood there, seemingly frozen in place, looking back and forth between Eule, Star, Äloy, and Rost in rapid succession before her frightened gaze settled on Eule.

“I, I…I’m sorry,” the young blonde girl stammered. “Bast, he…he was b-being mean, an-and…I didn’t stop him,” she finally finished quietly.

Eule looked at the girl in sympathy. “It’s okay. You don’t need to apologize. You didn’t throw that rock,” she consoled.

“But…but I didn’t stop him. I didn’t…I didn’t even try!” the young blonde girl protested, looking like she was on the verge of tears.

“You didn’t throw the rock, that Bast boy did,” Eule insisted firmly, before her gaze softened towards the young blonde girl. “And it’s okay. At least you were brave enough to stay and explain. You don’t need to apologize for that Bast boy.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Star piped up. “You don’t need to apologize for someone who was too chicken to own up to what he did. I mean, seriously, did you see him run off as soon as we saw what he did? I think there are Striders who can’t run that fast. Pretty soon, he’ll probably be fast enough for everyone to see how quickly he can run away from anything that even so much as makes him jump.”

The young blonde girl stared at Star with wide eyes, before breaking out into giggles. Eule felt her heart lighten at that. This girl really shouldn’t feel like she has to apologize for anything anyone else did, let alone this Bast boy.

“Minali! Where are you! We have berries that need picking over here!” a woman shouted.

“Coming, mother!” the young blonde girl who Eule now knew was named Minali replied. She gave one last worried look at Eule.

Eule merely gave her a friendly wave and a smile, showing that she was alright.

Minali gave a shy smile and an even shyer wave back before running off towards where the other children ran off to.

“Are you really okay?” Star immediately asked Eule as soon as Minali had left, checking behind her for any injuries.

“Yes, I’m fine, Star,” Eule said with a smile to show that she was indeed fine. “It didn’t even hurt. I don’t think there’s even a scuffle on my uniform, let alone on my shell.”

“Eh, just a little mark on your uniform’s back, but you can only see it if you’re looking closely,” Star said after a few moments of searching for it. “Still, what the fuck was that all about?”

Rost stared after the fleeing children with a slight frown on his face. “I’m not certain, but…it’s possible that he had thrown that rock at you because you were different? That Bast boy would have to have been very foolish or very ill-mannered to do that to an adult though. I would think his mother would at least teach him to be polite to adults, especially to outsiders,” he said with a disappointed tone.

Eule frowned as well as she stared in the direction of where that young Nora boy and the rest of the Gestalt children had fled to. “I suppose some children can be quite foolish, cruel, or maybe even both,” she said shaking her head, before turning back to Äloy. “Well, let’s just ignore that for now and head ba– Äloy? What’s wrong?”

It was only now that Eule noticed that Äloy was looking a bit pale herself, and was even rubbing Eule’s favorite cap in a very worried gesture.

“I…I think he’d meant to throw that rock at me,” Äloy finally said, looking up at Eule with worried green eyes. “That spot where you were hit…it was right in the way of my head, and that boy was looking right at me when I turned around to see him. I think…he just threw his rock wrong.”

Eule now looked back at where the boy had fled to in alarm before returning her gaze to Äloy in even more alarm. “But why? You only just saw him yesterday. Why would he–” Eule suddenly cut herself off as she remembered her own words from just a moment ago. “Oh,” was all she could say now.

In her mind’s eye, Eule could see the rock fly into little Äloy’s head had she not been there to block it. Her medical training gave her a disturbingly detailed idea of what would’ve happened. The sharpened edges of that rock would’ve gashed Äloy’s skin and flesh there, causing substantial bleeding and certainly a lot of pain, in addition to likely leaving a permanent scar. She also knew that the skulls of children were softer than that of adults, so depending on how fast Bast threw that rock, he could’ve even fractured Äloy’s skull. Maybe even kill Äloy if things went horribly wrong.

Eule immediately crouched down and pulled the little Gestalt girl into a hug, both to comfort Äloy and to comfort herself at her own imaginings. “It’s okay. Don’t worry. He didn’t harm me and he didn’t harm you, so it’s fine,” she insisted with the rhythm of a mantra.

“But he could’ve hurt you. Hurt you bad,” Äloy said from within Eule’s hug, her voice muffled.

Eule eventually released Äloy from her hug to look her in the eye. “Not me, not with that rock, and certainly not with his little Gestalt arms, even to a Eule like myself. Here, knock on my head.” Seeing Äloy’s bewildered and uncertain expression, Eule insisted: “Go on, really. Knock on my head like you’re knocking on a door. Hard.”

Äloy tentatively raised a little fist, and did so. Eule watched Äloy’s eyes widen in fascination as a clanging sound emanated from where Äloy knocked on Eule’s carbon steel skull, and Eule was happy to see Äloy’s misery and worry melt away into fascinated curiosity.

“It really is made of steel,” Äloy breathed.

Eule nodded happily. “Yes, it is. So trust me when I say that rock couldn’t have possibly injured me coming from that boy, and there’s no way I’m going to just stand there and let him hit you with it. So you don’t have to worry about him hitting me again, or him trying to hit you again.”

“You know, I’m a pretty decent shot with my revolver,” Star said in a wondering tone. “Maybe if that kid tries to pull something like that again, I could–”

“Staaar. Don’t you dare contemplate trying to shoot a child,” Eule turned to her lover to say in a warning tone, giving her a most unamused face in the process.

Star waved her hands in negation. “I wasn’t! Really! I was just going to suggest that maybe I grab a rock myself and use it to knock the rock out of his hand. All martial arts-like, you know?” Seeing Eule still continue to give her an unamused look, Star gave a sheepish grin and finally said: “Yeah, alright. No throwing rocks at kids too,” earning a satisfied nod from Eule.

“I think that’s a great idea though,” Äloy piped up, before quickly adding once she saw Eule turn her unamused look towards her: “The throwing rock at that boy’s rock part, not the shooting part.”

“Äloy,” Eule began, gently placing her hands on Äloy’s shoulders and giving the little Gestalt girl a most polite and serene smile. “Star is being a bad role model right now. Please disregard what she just said.”

Star could only give a sheepish laugh in reply to that, while Äloy simply gave an uncharacteristically meek nod before holding out Eule’s favorite cap.

“Here’s your hat back, Eu-le. Maybe you’ll feel better with it back? Like with me and my scarf?” Äloy asked hopefully.

Eule smiled and gratefully accepted her side cap back with a “Thank you,” before walking over to the nearby river to check her reflection, carefully moving it over the exact spot where she wanted her cap on her head and just as carefully placing it down. She felt a deep satisfaction at feeling her cap stick back onto her head with a miniscule tunk in exactly the same place as it was before she took it off.

“Better now?” Äloy asked again as Eule turned around back to her.

Eule nodded vehemently. “Much better,” she replied with a genuine smile.

Äloy’s reply to that was her own bright grin. “Yes!” she cheered before taking Eule by one of her white-gloved hands and gently pulling her ahead. “Come on, there’s dinner waiting back home once Rost cooks it! You and Star will feel even better once you eat it!”

Eule giggled. “I’ll feel even better than that if Rost will just let me help with it this time.”

Rost, who’d been watching the scene with a worried expression that then melted into a relaxed and amused one, now looked at Eule with a look that spoke of an amused exasperation. “Honestly, I find it puzzling that you would constantly ask to help with cooking, Eu-le. Most people would be ecstatic to have someone cook for them after a long day,” he said, shaking his head with a slight smile on his face.

Eule merely gave him a sunny smile in turn. “Most people who don’t enjoy cooking, perhaps. As a Eule who worked in the kitchens of S-23 Sierpinski and thoroughly enjoyed it, I’m not one of those people.”

Rost stroked his beard thoughtfully upon hearing that. “Perhaps, but–”

The sudden way Rost suddenly cut himself off again put Eule on edge once more, fearing that another Machine had somehow snuck up on them. So Eule was puzzled when Rost put a finger to his mouth and shushed her to be quiet before gently stabbing his spear into the ground, and drawing his bow at something off to Eule’s side.

Eule slowly turned to look in the direction of where Rost was aiming his bow, and was surprised to see something that wasn’t a Machine. Instead, a large bird whose head reached all the way up to her hips was ambling along several meters away from them, oblivious to their presence and making a gentle clucking sound as it walked. It was covered in dark brown, almost black, feathers mottled with black and white, trailed a decently long feathery tail behind it, and had an almost naked pink, blue-faced head decorated with a distinctly pink bit of flesh on its neck that looked very familiar to Eule, but she couldn’t quite put her robotic finger on it.

Eule wasn’t surprised when there was the twang of a bowstring, and an arrow suddenly buried itself into the bird's head right through its eye, killing it instantly and also causing a pair of slightly smaller and lighter brown birds to take flight in a flurry of feathers and panicked gobbling sounds. Rost had drawn his bow for a reason after all, and honestly, what with needing to feed himself, Äloy, Eule, and a very calorie-demanding Star; Eule got the feeling that Rost needed to hunt as much game as he could.

Rost walked over to the bird, pulled the arrow out of its head before wiping it off and putting it back into its quiver, hefted the bird by its feet, and brought it back with a satisfied look on his face. “Well, it seems that we shall be feasting on turkey tonight. Likely tomorrow as well, and possibly the day after too” he declared.

“Oh, yes, that’s it!” Eule said excitedly as Rost’s words suddenly reminded her of pictures she’d seen of what turkeys looked like pre-slaughter. “It’s a bit slimmer than the pictures I’ve seen of turkeys at farms, but that’s definitely a male turkey.”

Rost raised an eyebrow at Eule. “Huh, so your tribe raises animals for food then? I suppose that makes this ‘Eusan Nation’ you mentioned last night similar to the Carja and Oseram in that regard,” he remarked as he took out his knife and cut the turkey’s ruined head off, letting the blood drain out in a fashion Eule still found a bit macabre, even though she knew how necessary it was to cool an animal carcass down after she’d listened to Rost explain why he did the same thing to the rabbits he hunted yesterday. “We Nora choose to live off of All-Mother’s bounty rather than try to take more than what we need through things like animal-raising and farming plants. The Banuk are like us in that regard, save for them raising goats for milk, meat, and furs. You could almost call them slightly profane Nora for that,” he mused.

As Eule nodded in fascination at this morsel of information about the world outside the Nora, she heard the distinct sound of Äloy hopping in excitement.

“Are you ever going to tell me more about those other tribes you keep talking about?” the curious little Gestalt girl whined.

Eule watched Rost sigh as he shook the turkey to get as much of the blood out of it as possible. “Maybe later, Aloy. For now, I think it’s time to head home to cook this turkey. After I gut it first, of course.”

With that said, Rost then laid the turkey down onto a flat-ish patch of stony ground, and began gutting it. Eule watched in intense fascination as Rost took his knife, almost gently cut into an area right below the turkey’s breast, and then severed the feather-covered skin in a line from that point down to the turkey’s anus. With that done, he then gripped the edges of the cut and pulled the skin open, putting the internal organs on full display before he carefully reached in and just as carefully pulled them all out, skillfully using his knife to sever their connections to the turkey’s interior.

Rost dumped the stomach and intestines unceremoniously onto the dirt as waste, covering it up with more dirt to avoid creating a mess. Everything else though, including the heart, liver, kidneys, gizzard, and even the lungs; he put into a large leather satchel with double walls, with the satchel’s exterior constantly coated in a thin layer of frost. Rost had explained the concept of a Chillwater container to Eule yesterday when he put the rabbit offal into it, but Eule still found it just as fascinating right now. A container within a larger container, with a coolant called Chillwater harvested from certain Machines poured into the gap in between the containers? Eule thought it was an ingenious way to have a cooler in a society that couldn’t build their own in the usual way, and indeed, she was determined to one day possess one of these Chillwater containers, even knowing that she would have to regularly replace the Chillwater as it evaporated.

Speaking of Chillwater, once Rost had redone the latch on his offal-filled Chillwater satchel, Eule watched Rost then take a small frost-covered leather bag filled with Chillwater, and put it into the turkey’s body cavity where its internal organs had previously resided. Rost had stressed the need to cool a hunted animal’s carcass as fast as possible to keep it from spoiling yesterday as Eule had watched him gut the rabbit carcasses, so Eule figured that the Chillwater bag was meant to fulfill the same purpose for this turkey carcass.

Thus, with the turkey now properly prepared for the trip, Rost stood back up, holding it by its feet, and finally announced that it was time to go home. Even in spite of the long, meandering mountain road (or rather, dirt path) they took to get back up there; Eule still felt like Rost and Äloy’s house was becoming more and more like home with each passing day.

*

As Rost promised: dinner that night was indeed turkey. Specifically: grilled turkey that Rost dry-rubbed with the chili-based spice mix he and Äloy seemed to love so much. Indeed, Rost made sure to cover every square centimeter of one of the turkey breast, wings, and thighs with that spice mix before roasting them outside on a metal griddle over a fire pit. Rost had explained that the circular flat plate of black, forged steel standing on 4 steel legs (all of adjustable height) and fitted with wood-covered handles for gripping was yet another Oseram tool he’d traded for some time ago, making Eule genuinely curious as to what these Oseram people were like to be able to make that, but for now, dinner was the most pressing thing on Eule’s mind.

Especially since for the first time, Rost was actually letting Eule help him cook! Mostly because Rost was cooking both an offal stew using the house’s fireplace, while simultaneously trying to grill the turkey outside. It was proving to be…challenging for Rost to keep moving in and out of the house to keep watch on both dishes, so Rost had finally conceded and allowed Eule to prepare the offal stew. It wasn’t that hard a job really. All she was really doing was stirring the stew to keep the stew from burning (mostly in the form of keeping the rice at the bottom from burning into a soggy, charcoal-flavored imitation of a rice cracker, as rice is wont to do in congee if you’re not careful), but it was still nice, relaxing cooking.

Indeed, she felt like she was cooking under Februar’s supervision once more in S-23 Sierpinski before everything happened. She could almost imagine EULR-S2302 giving her work a quick glance over her shoulder before giving an approving nod and moving off to either do her own kitchen work or check on another of her sisters. It was actually rather comforting to imagine that scenario as she stirred the offal stew.

“You look really happy, Eu-le,” Äloy asked with a curiously tilted head. “Do you really like cooking that much?”

Eule nodded with a delighted grin plastered all over her face. “It’s one of the duties we Eule were made for, although truth be told, I just love cooking. It’s so much fun to create delicious foods and watching everyone enjoy your cooking.”

“Really? I think cooking is boring,” Äloy said with the blithe bluntness only a child her age could muster.

“Really?” Eule echoed with a curious smile. “Why is that?”

“All you’re doing is just putting stuff together for some time on a fire until it’s done. There’s nothing fun about that. Not like shooting an arrow or climbing up a cliff or anything brave like that,” the little Gestalt girl listed.

Eule gave a nervous laugh. It was a simplistic description of cooking that completely ignored all the intricacies and details of the culinary arts, but then again, Äloy was only a young child. Maybe she would change her tune a bit when she grew up?

Star surprised Eule though by tsk-tsking and wagging her black robotic finger at Äloy. “Äloy, Äloy. You’re forgetting about something very important here: without people who are passionate about cooking like my Eule and your Rost, we wouldn’t have delicious food in the world!” she declared with, coincidentally, pure passion.

Äloy adopted a shocked face, which was followed immediately by a look of chastisement. “Yeah, you’re right,” she admitted, before immediately following that with: “But I still think cooking is boring though.”

Eule sighed. Maybe Äloy wouldn’t be interested in cooking after all, she thought.

Fortunately, Rost saved the day when he walked, or rather sidled, in carrying a metal griddle crammed full of steaming grilled turkey. “Turkey is ready,” he proudly announced.

Eule took a long-handled wooden spoon she was using as a tasting spoon and tasted the stew. “Stew is ready too,” she just as proudly announced.

Rost set down the turkey-laden griddle right next to the dinner table and placed a massive turkey breast, a section of thigh, and a wing on a serving tray onto said dinner table along with a knife for carving the meat before walking over to the pot full of stew to take a look and then a sniff. “Hmm, looks done and smells done too. Perfectly, in fact. Thank you, Eu-le.”

Eule beamed at him with the cheerful joy of a noonday sun. “You’re more than welcome!” she replied happily.

With that concluded, their diner for the night began. Indeed, Rost’s spiced roasted turkey was flavorful and tender, and the offal stew was just as delicious thanks to Eule’s small contribution to it. Eule hoped that after this, Rost might even let her cook her own dish for everyone.

It was while enjoying this delicious dinner though that the most unexpected thing Eule had ever experienced thus far in this world happened: a knock at the front door. Of Rost and Äloy’s house, who are both outcasts and who also happened to be living a good ways up the side of a mountain.

“Expecting anyone else for dinner, Rost?” Star asked with a raised eyebrow as she stared at said front door.

“No, I’m not,” Rost said with a look on his face that mixed bewilderment and worry.

Eule’s own worry only grew when Rost silently got up from his chair and walked over to where his spear was resting against the wall to take it. Seeing that also made Star just as worried, for she also quietly stood up and got in front of Eule, drawing her revolver from its belt holster, but keeping its muzzle pointed at the floor…for now.

Eule now also stood up in alarm, and then suddenly felt a small impact at the back of her hip. She looked back and downwards to see Äloy hiding behind her, staring at the front door in surprise and more than a little alarm herself. Eule gently pat Äloy on her head before turning her attention back to the front door, and just in time too, for Rost reached down to the door handle, and pushed it open to reveal–

An elderly Gestalt woman. Even if the wrinkles around the woman’s smiling face didn’t clue Eule in, the woman’s long white hair tied into numerous long, hanging braids and decorated with strips of blue cloth would’ve made the woman’s age obvious. The elderly woman was otherwise dressed in the style Eule had come to associate with the Nora, with clothes made of animal skins decorated with patterns made mostly of blue threads or wires woven into the skins. The only thing notable about the elderly woman was a small headdress on top of her head, seemingly made out of a combination of Machine parts and wooden decorations on either side of it that resembled a pair of downward-pointing horns.

It was the elderly woman’s smile and her complete and utter lack of any weapons that disarmed Eule and made her relax. The elderly woman only held a wooden stick carved into a spiraling pattern, with the blue wire and red feather decorations on it making it obvious that it was only a walking stick and nothing more. Even aside from her smile, the elderly woman had a merry look in her eyes, as though she was thinking about some joke only she knew about. There was something about that expression that further relaxed Eule, at least partially because that expression reminded her of the eldest Eule sister: dear EULR-S2301 “Januar”.

“Hello, Ro–” the elderly woman began.

Unfortunately, she only got that far before Eule watched in surprise and amazement as Rost instantly fell to his knees, lowering his gaze to the floor.

“No, no, no, off your knees,” the elderly woman said insistently. “No one should ever have to kneel to someone in their own home. Least of all you, Rost.”

Rost did indeed get up at the elderly woman’s command, albeit hesitantly, but now just stood there staring at her.

“Rost, while you may indeed speak to me, I believe your memory might be starting to go. Because I seem to recall giving you my eternal permission to speak to me whenever you want. Repeatedly,” the elderly woman quipped with an exasperated and wry smile.

“With all due respect, I do remember that quite clearly, and I still don’t believe that’s possible according to tribal law,” Rost replied at last.

“Hah!” the elderly woman laughed, looking directly at Eule as she pointed a thumb at Rost and said: “He’s a stubborn one, eh? All-Mother knows he’s a caring sort, but he has a few points where he’s as inflexible as a mountain.”

Eule scoffed in amusement. “Indeed. A very soft mountain, but a mountain nonetheless.”

The elderly woman laughed in reply to that, and thus Eule could feel the tension in the room, which had already been draining since the elderly woman opened her mouth, evaporate completely.

Rost stood aside and beckoned the elderly woman in. “Won’t you come in? We’re just having dinner, and we would be honored if you would join us.”

The elderly woman beamed at him in reply. “Normally, I would be telling myself off for just casually sauntering up to someone’s house, uninvited no less, and getting myself invited to someone’s dinner. However, I do admit, Rost, that I have a weakness for your cooking. It’s been years since I sampled any of it, and you are a most wonderful cook. So yes, thank you dearly for your offer, and for letting me rest my bones in front of your cozy fire as well.”

As the elderly woman walked in, Rost closed the door and turned into the most gracious host imaginable. Even more so than usual for him. He hurriedly grabbed an extra chair, as well as an extra bowl from upstairs, and set an extra place at the dinner table for the elderly woman. All in less than a minute too, according to Eule’s internal clock.

Eule then noticed Star staring at the elderly woman with a befuddled expression, her revolver now completely aimed straight down and nowhere near the woman. “So does this mean you’re not here to cause trouble?” Star asked, scratching her head with her free hand.

The elderly woman turned a rather mischievous smile at Star. “Well, it depend on what you mean by ‘trouble’. But if you mean the kind of trouble that might bring harm to you two, Rost, or Aloy; then I can assure that I have absolutely no intention of doing that. I’m far more interested in doing harm to Rost’s cooking there.”

Star smiled at that. “Yeah, I second that motion. Probably third it as well, given how much I eat,” she joked as she finally returned her revolver to her holster, redoing the latch on it as a sign of how little threat she saw the elderly woman posing.

The elderly woman laughed at the joke, although Eule did notice her giving a curious look at Star’s revolver before shrugging and taking a seat at Rost’s offered place at the dinner table. Star walked over to take her own seat at the same time Eule did, although Eule did notice that Äloy was still hiding behind her. Well, partially. The little Gestalt girl was most definitely no longer afraid, and was now extremely curious about this strange visitor to her and Rost’s house. Indeed, Eule was amused to see that Äloy had actually dragged her chair between Eule and Star, had planted her wooden bowl and Machine hide plate between the 2 Replikas as well, and was now staring intensely at the elderly woman.

Meanwhile, Rost had served up a bowl of turkey offal stew and several slices of the spiced turkey breast to the elderly woman, who proceeded to take out a very small knife from her sleeve, gently speared a slice of turkey breast, and took a delicate bite out of it. The appreciative sounds coming from her chewing mouth told Eule all she needed to know about what the elderly woman thought of Rost’s cooking.

“I have to admit,” the elderly woman said once she had swallowed. “I didn’t know what to think of this ‘chili’ the Carja brought to us when we first started trading with them. I thought the idea of a spice that almost literally made your mouth burn was a bit daft. But now, after eating foods spiced with chili for quite some time now, I believe I’ve developed just as much a taste for them as you have, Rost.”

Rost nodded in reply. “I also admit that I thought the same myself when I first tasted chili. Now though, I find that I cannot live without a pinch of it in my food at least semi-regularly.”

The elderly woman laughed. “Honestly, I don’t know how the Carja trade mission manages to keep you supplied with chili and somehow still manage to have some left for the rest of the Nora.”

Rost himself chuckled in reply before his expression grew a bit more pensive. “As much of an honor this is, may I ask why you are here? Because I doubt that you came here solely to enjoy my cooking,” he asked.

The elderly woman grew a bit more serious as well as she nodded. “As much as I would’ve liked that to be the case, I’m afraid I did come here on a mission. A fact-finding mission, if you will. One that involves your guests,” she explained, now looking directly at Eule and her Star.

Eule smiled politely at the elderly woman. “We would be happy to explain ourselves if it proves that we are no danger to you…pardon me, but I seem to be at a disadvantage here. May I ask for your name, Frau…?”

The elderly woman tilted her head at Eule’s last word, and then replied: “You may call me Teersa, child. I have a title, but I’ll just leave it for the sake of brevity.”

Judging by the semi-outraged gagging noises Rost was making, it seemed that whatever this “title” of Teersa’s was, it was something that was probably a lot more important than what Teersa was making it out to be. Still, if Teersa wanted to leave it at that, then that was fine with Eule.

“Frau Teersa, it’s an honor to meet you,” Eule began. “My name is EULR-S2324, but you may call me ‘Eule’ for short. My, well, you would call her my mate here is…”

Star waved in a friendly manner at Teersa. “Name’s STAR-S2325, but like Eule, you can call me ‘Star’ for short,” she said merrily.

Teersa rubbed her chin in contemplation. “Such strange names, and your ‘for short’ names are in some ways just as odd…and hard to pronounce as well. Aula and Shtar? Am I pronouncing that correctly?” she asked.

Eule smiled politely at that. “It’s close enough. To be fair, Rost and Äloy still have problems trying to pronounce them.”

“Wait, even for Shtar?” Äloy suddenly piped up, looking pointedly at the Star in question.

“Uhhh,” went Star as she avoided looking Äloy in the eye.

Äloy gave Star a look so adorably unamused that it made Eule giggle.

“I was trying to not make you feel bad, and it was close enough for government work anyways,” Star said with a sheepish grin.

Äloy replied to that with a groaning sound that screamed un-amusement. “You’re like Eu-le when you do that,” she noted, still having an expression on her face that was somewhere between a frown and a pout.

Star’s reaction was, surprisingly, to give Äloy a goofy grin. “Eh-heh, so I’m just like Eule, eh?”

“No! It’s a bad thing when it’s like that! Stop looking so happy!” Äloy protested, but to no avail against Star’s joy at hearing someone compare her to her love.

Eule couldn’t help but laugh at what was going on, and she was quite relieved to hear Teersa laughing as well.

“Amazing. Such a short time, and she already treats you two like you’re family,” Teersa noted, still laughing before her expression settled into a soft but sad one. “It’s really too bad you’re outsiders, and outsiders who’ve caused quite a commotion on top of it. Honestly, I don’t know if everyone is more afraid or excited at what’s been happening.”

Eule cocked her head at Teersa. “Commotion? What do you mean?”

Teersa gave a wry smile at Eule. “Well, let me start at the beginning. 2 days ago, there was the same omen that preceded the Derangement: the sound of thunder that didn’t sound quite like thunder on a clear day, with not a thundercloud in sight. Only, this time there were 2 such sounds, and they were much quieter than the Thunderous Omen. Still, no one knew what caused it, and without any explanation, the strangest of rumors and the wildest of stories spread like wildfire.

"Then the day after that, some mothers out gathering with their children gossiped with everyone about encountering a pair of outsiders that no one had ever seen before. Their descriptions of the outsiders were strange even for outsiders: a pair of black-haired, blue-eyed women with strange black decorations on their faces, shiny like glass or Machinestone and wearing the strangest clothes anyone had ever seen, with one of them–who was mentioned to be incredibly tall as well–wearing equally as strange armor on top of her clothes. The mothers mentioned that the outsider women walked oddly, as though their legs had an extra joint to them. A mother who got a close look at them even mentioned that she thought the outsider women’s pupils were red, as though they were Deranged Machines, but the outsider women behaved normally and even politely, so she dismissed it as a trick of the light.

"But the thing that caught my attention was that mother mentioning that the outsider women were with the young outcast girl. As far as I know, Aloy is the only one in all of Nora history who was ever made an outcast that young. Even before the mother mentioned one of the outsider women talking about Rost, I knew that you two were somehow involved with Rost and Aloy. I kept that bit to myself at the time though, because the Braves were getting excited about it, and not in a good way. A pair of outsider women sneaking all the way into the Embrace without them noticing? That’s not a good thing, as far as they’re concerned. Fortunately, they decided that since the outsider women were nothing but pleasantly polite to the mothers, that the outsider women were no threat for now, and that they would just watch and wait for anything that might tell them otherwise.

"Then just a couple of hours ago, I hear from a rather angry Brave that he saw the outsider women everyone has been talking about, and that they were ‘conspiring’ with outcasts, including the outcast girl, to do…something. He wasn’t particularly clear about that, but he insisted that the outsider women were out to harm the tribe, and that we should drive them out or kill them before it’s too late. Well, fortunately, no one took this particular Brave seriously about anything except him seeing the outsider women, so at the very least, I wasn’t worried about a mob forming.

"Still, with everyone getting so excited about these outsider women, I figured that if everyone has been seeing them with Rost and Aloy so many times, then it’s fairly likely that I’ll find them where Rost’s house is, since no one has seen them walking about in the night.

"So, here I am. Perhaps you and Shtar might to enlighten an old woman about what’s been happening?” Teersa finished, with that wry smile of amusement never leaving her face the entire time.

Eule took a deep breath to prepare her thoughts, and then explained: “To answer the question of the thunder on a clear day, yes, we were the cause of that. Star had to shoot some Watchers that were attacking us, and the thunder you heard was the sound of her revolver firing.”

This time, it was Teersa’s turn to cock her head at Eule. “Revolver? It take it that was the strange object your Star was holding earlier?”

Star, who had stopped grinning like a loon sometime early on in Teersa’s story, replied by instantly pulling out her revolver to show to Teersa. “Yeah, this is it. My Einhorn revolver packs a punch, but it also packs an earful that does sound like thunder if you’ve never heard a gunshot before.”

Teersa peered curiously at the large yet stubby revolver Star held out for her to look at. “How curious. Such a small weapon, but then again, even a simple knife can be deadly in the hands of a good enough Brave. Still, it’s good to know that it wasn’t an omen of another Derangement, although frankly, I have trouble imagining what could be worse than the Derangement already,” she chuckled as she joked.

Eule merely kept a polite smile. For all that this Derangement created such a danger, she thought Rost had been right yesterday. If the Derangement were to somehow spread to humans like the bizarre corruption that spread through S-23 Sierpinski, it would be so much worse than what it was like now.

“Now with that riddle solved, I’m honestly curious now, Aula. How did you and your mate get into the Embrace without anyone seeing you, anyways?” Teersa asked curiously. “Did you sneak through the patrols like what the Braves think, or did the both of you just fall from the sky?” she joked.

Eule looked at Star, who was also looking at her in turn, before looking back at Teersa.

Teersa promptly ceased her chuckling. “That was a joke, dear…or did I somehow hit closer to the truth than I thought?”

Eule grimaced before replying: “You’re not exactly right about that…but it’s not that far from the truth either. Let me explain our story, Star and I, and you might want to make yourself comfortable for this, because it will take some time.”

Teersa merely repositioned herself a bit more comfortably on her chair. “I’ll give you and Shtar as much time as you need, Aula. It sounds like it will be quite the tale,” she said with a comforting smile.

Eule gave back her own smile, even if it was a bit wan. “Unfortunately, while it will be a long tale, it’s not one that you’ll probably find entertaining,” she began before she and her lover launched into the tale of S-23 Sierpinski and the dark story that occurred within the already dark story of that forced labor colony.

As they continued to eat dinner all the while, Eule watched as Teersa’s smile slowly slipped from her face to be replaced by surprise, amazement, and then an almost perpetual look of deep thought. Honestly, Eule herself was surprised that Teersa didn’t break out into a complete denial of Eule’s and Star’s story mid-telling, because to any of the Nora, the Replikas’ tale of a strange sickness that killed any Gestalt it infected and turned the Replikas into maddened, bloodthirsty monsters must sound more like a horrific fantasy than anything that could happen in real life. Especially since by all accounts, Replikas didn’t even seem to exist in this world.

Indeed, Eule had stopped in the middle of recounting what happened when Star found her and the other survivors in their group to make sure that Äloy hadn’t been re-traumatized by the story’s repetition. To her relief, the little Gestalt girl had shaken her head and insisted that hearing the story again wasn’t so bad this time, so she was fine.

Eule also tried to make sure Rost was okay, but he had simply waved it off and insisted that Eule continue. For once, Eule couldn’t decide if he was actually okay or if he was stubbornly toughing it out. He seemed to have realized by now that she was very good at reading body language, and so had practically frozen himself in place. Eule grimaced at Rost for this, but there was nothing she could do about it, so she merely continued her tale all the way to the end.

By the time Eule and Star reached that end (as well as finished Rost’s lovely dinner, which Eule thought helped keep her stress levels down during this retelling), Teersa had closed her eyes, still with a deeply thoughtful expression.

“I see now that you and your mate have had a very difficult journey to get here, even though you know not how you did so,” Teersa said at last.

Eule nodded. “Honestly, I’m surprised you, Rost, and Äloy believed our story so easily. I think if I was in your positions, I would have a hard time believing us since, well, our story probably sounds incredibly fantastical to you, doesn’t it?”

Teersa’s initial reply was a wry smile. “I would think if you two were going to lie to me about your story, you would at least have the sense to come up with something remotely believable. The only reasons why you would give me such a tale is because you two are either amazing storytellers–and honestly, I would think that to be wonderfully entertaining–or it’s the truth no matter how unbelievable it is. And neither of you strike me as Gratas, so I’ll have to assume that you two are indeed telling me the truth.” She then shook her head, still with that smile on her face. “Honestly though, I’m not sure which part of your story is more ‘fantastical’, as you put it: the fact that you two just suddenly found yourself in the Embrace with no idea how you got here, or the fact that you two are apparently some sort of half-Machine women,” she mused.

“So you’re not bothered by that either? Us being ‘half-Machine women’, I mean?” Star asked, rubbing the back of her head as she did so, Eule saw.

Teersa rubbed her chin in thought for a moment. “I would say that makes you two certainly very unique, but well, I would say it doesn’t really matter. After all, it’s pretty clear that neither of you are suffering from the Derangement, either ours or yours. So, I don’t see any problem if parts of you just happen to be made of Machinestone and steel rather than flesh and bone. Although…,” she finished with a troubled look.

“Although?” Eule echoed at the same time Star did, indicating just how nervous that made both of them feel, and causing them to hold hands in the process. Äloy adding her own tiny, warm hands to the hold made Eule calm down just a little bit more.

“That old bat Lansra would probably have herself a fit when she learns about you two being half-Machine. Jezza, I think, wouldn’t hold that against you two since you’re not going about harming anyone. She’s logical that way. Lansra though? The moment she hears that half-Machine bit, she’ll probably demand something like you two leave the Embrace, if not Nora lands entirely. She’s a fearful, nasty old bat, that one,” Teersa explained with a sour frown marring her normally smiling face.

As alarmed as Eule was by that assessment, her curiosity was now piqued. “Lansra? Jezza?” she asked.

Before Teersa could reply, Äloy piped up: “Are they important people like you, Teersa?”

Teersa cocked her head curiously at Äloy with a smile. “Oh? And what make you so sure that I’m important, Aloy?”

“It’s pretty obvious. You act important, even though you try hard not to, so you must be really important for the Nora…wait! Are you a Matriarch?!” Äloy asked.

Teersa sighed, still with that smile on her face. “Can’t hide anything from you for long, eh?” she chuckled, before continuing: “You’re partially right. I suppose I should introduce myself properly now that you’ve caught me. Would be pretty rude of me otherwise. My name is still Teersa, but there’s a High Matriarch you’re supposed to add to that beforehand.”

“Then you know who my mother is,” Äloy said with an intense look on her adorable face. “Tell me, please!”

Eule watched sadness creep into Teersa’s smile as she looked at little Äloy. “I’m sorry, Aloy. I took a vow of silence on the matter just like Lansra and Jezza, and this a vow I take seriously.”

Eule’s heart melted at seeing Äloy visibly deflate, and she gently wrapped an arm around the little Gestalt girl in a one-armed hug.

“Can’t you at least tell me why my mother abandoned me? Did she hate me?” Äloy asked quietly from within Eule’s hug.

Teersa sighed. “I can’t tell you exactly what happened. I can only tell you that…I believe your mother gave you to us because she felt that you are to fulfill some greater purpose. What purpose that is, I have no idea. I just know that the way your mother left you to us cannot possibly be out of hate. I know it’s likely not the answer you were looking for, but it’s the most I can say without outright breaking my vow with my fellow High Matriarchs.”

Äloy said nothing, merely burying her face into Eule’s side. Eule had the sense that Äloy was most definitely not satisfied with that answer, but realized that she wasn’t going to get any more out of Teersa. Not at this time. Eule could only embrace Äloy and offer her comfort, but she was going to do the best she can on that front. Eule did smile at seeing Star reach down and gently pat and rub Äloy’s head though. It seemed even her lover was becoming fond of this adorable, curious, and brave little Gestalt girl.

“Which also brings me to your question, Aula,” Teersa continued. “Lansra and Jezza are also High Matriarchs. It’s only us three at the moment. Not enough mothers have had as many generations live yet.”

Eule blinked and stared at Teersa in combination surprise and bewilderment. “What do you mean?” she asked. When Teersa cocked her head at Eule, Eule clarified: “I mean what you said about not enough mothers having as many generations yet?”

Teersa momentarily gave Eule a confused look before it turned into realization. “Oh yes, outsiders who’ve not even heard of the Nora before. I must be getting a bit senile in my old age,” she laughed, shaking her head. “Let me explain: the Matriarchs are the leaders of the Nora, and the High Matriarchs are the leaders of those Matriarchs. How we decide who gets to be Matriarchs of either kind is by how many living generations the mother has. If a mother’s children has their own children, then she’s a Matriarch. Now if those children in turn have their own children, then that Matriarch becomes a High Matriarch because, well, if she can manage her own family well enough that all those generations are still kicking around, then surely she must be a good leader for the whole tribe as well, right?” Teersa’s smile turned a bit sardonic. “Granted, this does produce the occasional Lansra, but all in all, it’s a system that has served us Nora well for as long as we can remember.”

Eule tilted her head as she thought about that kind of government. She had no idea what to call it, but Teersa’s explanation of it does make a certain amount of sense. At the very least, it was a very family-oriented style of government, and should produce at least some decently kind leaders. Although given the Eusan Nation’s own leaders, Eule knew that wasn’t necessarily a sure thing.

As if she were a Kolibri, Teersa then asked: “Now I’m curious though: how does your tribe–this ‘Eusan Nation’–choose its leaders? Do you have Matriarchs too, or do you have a king like the Carja do?”

Eule leaned back in her seat as she thought. “We do have, I suppose, a pair of matriarchs as our leaders: the Great Revolutionary and her Daughter. They’re not matriarchs like your Matriarchs though. I suppose they are matriarchs in a sense, but…”

“Except one matriarch just wants as much power and control as possible to fill that egotistical head of hers, and the other matriarch is too meek to stop her,” Star bluntly said, making Eule wince and instinctively look around, hoping that no one heard Star before remembering where they were and sighing in relief.

Teersa gave Star a thoughtful look. “I take it neither of your matriarchs are particularly popular?”

Eule grimaced. “I think the Daughter is…decent. Rotfront is a decently good place to live thanks to her, if a bit…bland, I suppose. To be fair though, we do still have a war going on, so it’s probably not too unexpected that things like art might be…looked down upon.”

Star tilted her head curiously at Eule. “And that old hag?”

Eule winced again, before forcibly trying to make herself relax. “The Great Revolutionary…does seem a teensy bit…excessive?”

Star nodded. “No matter how you look at it, that enormous palace she built for herself on Heimat screams ‘Excessive’ with a capital “Ü”. It’s basically a whole arcology made up of a bunch of giant black obelisk-looking skyscrapers, as if it weren’t tacky enough.”

Eule grimaced once more. She couldn’t help but agree with her lover on that, but there was a part of her that still worried over Star getting in trouble for her comments despite how irrational it was to assume that would happen here, as was evidenced by Teersa, who merely looked at Star with an expression Eule could only describe as either “thoughtful puzzlement” or “puzzled thoughtfulness”.

“I’ve only heard the word ‘palace’ once to describe the Carja King’s house. It’s his own personal house, and from what I’ve heard of it, it’s bigger than even the town hall of Mother’s Heart. Honestly, I think someone with a house that big either has a truly impressive family size, or they have an ego the size of a Tallneck. Like a dozen Lansras all stuffed into a single person. It sounds like this Great Revolutionary of yours is one of those kinds of people,” Teersa concluded.

Eule could only grimace at Teersa’s words, and thank the Red Eye that Teersa wasn’t a citizen of the Eusan Nation.

“Well, I suppose the only thing you can do is to outlive that Great Revolutionary of yours. Everyone, even kings and matriarchs, eventually pass on. Maybe the one who succeeds this Great Revolutionary will prove to be a better matriarch to her people,” Teersa mused.

Even as Eule grimaced again but for an entirely different reason, she heard Star say: “Yeah, not likely. The old hag has been kicking around for the nearly 200 years, and she and her Daughter don’t look like they’re going to kick the bucket anytime soon.”

Eule was surprised when Teersa looked surprised. “200 years? Surely, you must be mistaken. No one can live to be that old. At least, not without turning into a withered old tree that would fall down in the gentlest breeze,” Teersa waved off, chuckling.

Eule looked at Star in surprise, who was in turn also giving her the same look, before turning back to Teersa. “Is Bioresonance not something known to you?” Eule asked.

Teersa merely looked at Eule with a puzzled expression. Eule looked over to Rost, but he was also giving her a similarly puzzled look, as was Äloy.

“It’s a kind of…power a few rare Gestalt women and a few specialized female Replika models have,” Eule tried to explain. “I…don’t know how to better explain it. All I know is that the Great Revolutionary and her Daughter are both Bioresonants and that allows them to live for a very long time, among other abilities. No one knows how old they really are, but they have been ruling the Eusan Nation for the past 181 years, and they have not aged a day throughout the entirety of their rule. It’s likely that they will rule the Nation for many centuries to come.”

Teersa’s puzzlement turned into a look of thoughtfulness. “That’s…interesting, and a bit disturbing. I suppose it’s for the best then that your Eusan Nation is likely very far away from here if you haven’t even heard of any of the tribes here. I do want to ask you two one thing though: if you were to somehow find a way to return to where you came from, would you–”

“No,” Eule said in unison with Star.

Eule took a deep, calming breath before saying: “Teersa, returning to exactly where we came from would mean death for the both of us. And honestly, even if our Derangement, as you call it, hadn’t happened, I like it here. It feels so much more…alive than the Eusan Nation was. I mean, Rotfront is a decent place to live in, but everywhere that’s outside the enclosed domes and buildings is nothing but snow and ashes from both the weather and all the Fabrikationwarts, er, Factory Districts. I…think I prefer the green and brown of the land here in the Embrace than the white and grey of Rotfront, to be honest.”

“Not to mention the blue sky instead of just constant clouds made at least partly of smoke,” Star added. “Honestly, you can’t even step outside the buildings and domes without some kind of respirator, er, something to basically filter out the air before you breathe it in.”

Teersa nodded. “It does sound like your ‘Rote-front’ is a far cry from All-Mother’s Embrace. Very well then, I’ll petition for you two to be allowed to stay. Hopefully, Jezza will see reason on this, because I highly doubt Lansra will,” she said that last bit with a mutter, before smiling at Eule and Star in turn. “And honestly, even if you two are outsiders, you’re both some of the more decent outsiders I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting so far, and from the looks of it, Rost and Aloy would agree with me on that. Which reminds me: thank you for allowing me to join you for dinner, Rost. It’s been an honor, and I do hope my next visit will be for more…relaxing reasons.”

Rost nodded so deeply that it looked almost like a bow to Eule’s eyes. “I would rather say that it’s been an honor for me to host you, High Matriarch Teersa.”

“Ha! Still stubborn as always, aren’t you, Rost? Well, I suppose it wouldn’t be you if you weren’t so hard-headed on some things, eh? It makes me wonder if old age will make you more or less stubborn. Ah well, we’ll find out eventually, won’t we?” Teersa laughed as she walked out the door. Eule could still hear Teersa’s laughter as she closed the door behind her.

Eule stared at that door for quite some time after Teersa’s laughter had faded into the distance before turning back to Rost. “Teersa seems rather nice,” she commented with a smile.

Rost returned that smile with a slight one of his own. “Honestly, I would say that High Matriarch Teersa is the most…personable of the High Matriarchs. Some of the tribe might call her weak because of it, but I would say those of the tribe that do are fools.”

Eule’s smile became wider. It was nice to hear that Rost has such a high opinion of Teersa as well. She then looked down at her side, where Äloy still had her face buried there. “Wasn’t she a nice person, Äloy?” Eule asked.

“I guess,” Äloy said with a muffled voice, due to the side of Eule’s body being a pretty decent muffler. “I wish she could’ve told me more about my mother. Now I just have more questions.”

Eule gently patted Äloy’s head in consolation. “It does seem like she tried to tell you as much as she could though, didn’t she?” Eule asked, before adding: “And at the very least, it looks like you’ll have someone sympathizing with you at the Proving.”

“…I guess,” Äloy conceded, before finally removing her face from Eule’s side to look up at her. “If mother doesn’t hate me though, then why did she leave me?”

Eule sighed, because there weren’t any good answers she could give Äloy. “I don’t know why, and I can’t even begin to imagine why. All I can say is that no matter who your mother was or why she did the things she did, in the end, you have a father who loves you with all his heart, even if you don’t call him that.”

Äloy turned to look at Rost. Eule was delighted to see a small smile form on Rost’s lips, and he nodded affectionately at his little girl. Eule was just as delighted to see Äloy smile widely at that, and her delight only increased when Äloy hugged her.

“Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, Eu-le,” Äloy said with a smile before she adopted a look of determination as she turned to look at Star. “One day, Shtar, I’ll learn to say your name right,” Äloy declared.

Star grinned at Äloy. “I’ll be looking forward to that, kid. Just a pointer: try not to pronounce the ‘S’ so hard. It makes you sound like you’re saying ‘Sch” instead,” she advised.

Eule tried not to giggle at Äloy’s frown as the little Gestalt girl thought.

“But they sound almost the same!” Äloy protested. “It just sounds like you’re saying ‘Sh’ to me!”

Those words made Eule think more deeply on the subject as she tried to remember just what Äloy and the other Gestalts here were saying when they pronounced words with any “S” letters in them. Not just for Äloy’s sake, but because something about the way they pronounced “S” was ringing a bell in Eule’s memories.

“Äloy, can you say Rost’s name again?” Eule asked.

Äloy turned to look at Eule in puzzlement. “Rost?” she said in an almost questioning tone.

There. Eule could hear a distinct difference in the way Äloy pronounced the “s” in Rost. Äloy pronounced it with a more hissing sound rather than the usual soft shushing sound as is normal for Eusan Standard Language. No wonder it sounded to Äloy like Star’s name was Schtar instead. And still, that little fact was niggling in the back of Eule’s mind, but she couldn’t quite remember where she heard that same pronunciation. It had to have been somewhere in S-23 Sierpinski, but otherwise, Eule couldn’t quite remember where in that place she heard that sort of an accent from…

Accent. That was it! Erika Itou! She had also pronounced her ‘S’ letters much like how Äloy pronounced. No, actually, it was exactly the same. The same hissing sound used for the letter ‘S’, and that made Eule’s train of thought take a very strange turn. Following that train led to a sudden chill going down Eule’s carbon steel spine.

“Eule? You okay?” Star asked. “You looked like you just realized something, and then looked like you saw a ghost.”

“Star, do you remember my mentioning Erika Itou last night?” Eule asked in turn.

“That Gestalt girl who shouldn’t have been in S-23 Sierpinski to begin with? Yeah?”

“Well, she and her family are both immigrants from Vineta, according to their files,” Eule explained.

“Yeah?”

“And Erika spoke with a distinct Vinetan accent. You could hear it when she said certain words with the letter ‘s’ in them.”

“I’ll take your word for it since I never met this Erika before, but go on.”

“…Star, the way Äloy pronounced the letter ‘s’ was exactly the same way Erika pronounced that letter. Äloy is speaking with a Vinetan accent,” Eule said, putting extra emphasis on “Vinetan”.

Star blinked, and then blinked some more as Eule watched her process that revelation. “No, what? What are you saying? That this place is somewhere on Vineta? Is that possible? Isn’t Vineta supposed to be an ocean world?” Star asked in an increasingly puzzled tone.

“It is, but Erika had said there are islands on Vineta…Rost, do you know how close the ocean is from here?” Eule asked, turning to the Gestalt man.

Rost looked at Eule with a look of complete bafflement on his face. “What’s an…ocean? Meer? I have never heard of either word in my life before.”

Now baffled herself, Eule asked: “Ocean? Sea? You know, a very large body of saltwater?”

Rost still stared at Eule with that same look of bafflement. “Salt…water? As in salty water? And large body…do you mean a lake? Why would there be any lake of salty water?”

Now Eule was well and truly baffled. “Okay, what’s the biggest lake you can think of, and how big would you say it is?”

Rost tugged on and stroked his braided beard as he thought. “The biggest lake I can think of is the Daybrink. It’s a massive lake that the Carja claim as theirs. It’s many, many times bigger than the lake Searcher’s Course feeds into: Mother’s Birthwater. It’s the lake I mentioned Mother’s Cradle was built next to.”

Star snickered. “Wait, back up. You call it ‘Mother’s Birthwater’?” she asked.

Rost merely gave Star a level gaze. “Yes, we do,” he only said.

“Oh, that’s…that’s kind of gross, isn’t it? I don’t think I’d want to swim in it now, even if I could,” Star continued, still snickering.

“I know, right?” Äloy asked, nodding in agreement. “Why would the Nora name it like that? It sounds so…icky when you think about it.”

Rost sighed. “It was the name the Nora gave it in ages past, to keep with the naming of the settlements. It’s a perfectly reasonable name,” he said, still sounding reasonable himself.

Eule also sighed in amused exasperation. “Star, it’s just a name. Could you please stop laughing so that we can get back on track?” she asked, albeit with a smile at how childish her lover could be at times.

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” Star replied, still with a carbon steel teeth-revealing grin on her face though.

Eule sighed once more, albeit with her own smile on her face, as she then asked Rost: “So this Daybrink, how big would you estimate it to be exactly?”

Rost adopted another beard-stroking thoughtful look. “The Daybrink is truly massive. It cuts right through Carja territory as well as any mountain range. At its widest point, no human can hope to swim across it. Even with a boat, it can take almost an hour for that trip depending on the wind.”

Eule shook her head. “Almost an hour? No, that’s not an ocean. An ocean is a body of water that’s so big, it can take periods, er, months to sail from one island to another.”

Rost blinked in Eule in shock. “Months?” he said, shaking his head in disbelief. “There’s no lake in the world that’s that big.”

Star sighed. “Guess that means this place isn’t Vineta. I mean, how can you have an ocean world where someone has never heard of an ocean before?”

Eule could only make baffled noises in reply. “But…then why the Vinetan accent?”

Star leaned back in her chair. “You got me. I’m just as confused as you are.”

Meanwhile, Rost just stared at Eule and Star with an even blanker look than before. “Vineta? What, or rather, where is this Vineta place?”

“It’s one of the Eusan Nation worlds. One of our oldest actually, liberated from the Empire just over 180 years ago,” Eule explained. “It’s sometimes called the ‘Cradle of Mankind’ because humanity first evolved there. Unfortunately, after a trio of wars over the millennia, each one somehow more destructive than the last, Vineta is a shadow of its former glory. Much of the landmass has been blasted apart, and it doesn’t even have ice caps or most of its moon left. It’s just one big ocean world–that is, an entire planet of nothing but saltwater as far as the eye can see save for a few scattered islands–with not a lot of people left on it. The only people there these days are the remaining local population and the People’s Army garrison.”

“I…see?” Rost said in a tone that indicated that he didn’t. “I suppose I will offer my condolences for this Vineta place, but I don’t think it’s anywhere close to the Sacred Lands. Honestly, the idea of an entire land that’s almost nothing but salty water is alien to me.”

Eule sighed and leaned back, staring at the ceiling, now completely and utterly baffled that her train of thought had now somehow run off its track and into an ocean. Without any rails to guide her thoughts, they now wandered to the day’s events.

Eule ended up grimacing from how frustrated she was at being so powerless to help Äloy, even despite having a pistol. Yes, her pistol was powerful, but like Star’s revolver, it was thunderously loud and thus would be like holding up a giant neon sign to every Machine in hearing range screaming “Here I am”. Not only that, but she only had so much ammunition for her pistol. Exactly 99 rounds, the last time she counted: 11 in her pistol itself counting the already chambered bullet, plus an additional 88 still neatly packed in their 20-round boxes (counting the full box of 10x20mm ammo Star was carrying), labelled in the combination of Eusan Standard Language and Eusan Formal Script (formerly called Eusan Imperial Script) that one would typically see on such boxes.

99 bullets would have sounded like a lot to Eule at first. Unfortunately, she knew from personal experience that she would go through those 99 bullets like a Gestalt child gobbling down green onion and bacon pancakes during Mondfest, due to fighting the things that used to be her sisters, friends, and coworkers with them. It was a sheer stroke of luck that Eule, Star, and the other members of their party had managed to find stray ammunition tucked away in drawers, lockers, and other random places as they were trying to escape into the mines in desperate bid to rendezvous with a promised evacuation zone. Otherwise, Eule and Star would have a lot less ammunition than they did now.

And even without fighting anyone, Eule realized that eventually, her aim would get rusty without practice. Unfortunately, without any foreseeable way to get any more bullets, it means that every bullet both she and Star use for target practice is one less bullet to use in battle. But refusing to practice for fear of using up all their bullets would simply mean that when the time came to use them, it’s likely that their rusty aim would result in them using up more ammo to hit their targets than they would have if they had practiced. No matter how Eule looked at it: it was a lose-lose situation for her and Star if they kept using only their guns.

Thus, Eule realized that they needed more weapons. Weapons that they can actually replenish ammunition for. And after watching Rost make arrows using only Machine parts and sticks, Eule had a pretty good idea which weapon they needed.

“Hey, Star. 220 kH?” Eule asked as she set her radio receiver module to that frequency.

Star tilted her head to look at her before nodding. Immediately after that, Eule heard through her module Star’s scratchy voice ask: “Yeah, Eule, over?”

“Have you ever shot a bow before, over?” Eule asked.

“Nope. In fact, Rost’s bow was literally the first time I’ve ever even seen a bow in real life, over.”

“Me too, and I was afraid of that. Still, I supposed this means we’ll be learning how to shoot a bow together, over,” Eule broadcasted with a happy smile.

“…Wait, really? You want us to learn to shoot a bow of all things? Over?” Star ended that broadcast with an incredulous look at Eule.

“Why not? We don’t have unlimited ammunition for our guns, and it seems like we won’t be getting any more ammunition for a very long time, if ever. Plus, Rost just demonstrated that we can make arrows fairly easily, so why not switch to a bow while we still can, over?” Eule pointed out, and then almost giggled at Star’s dumbfounded expression.

“That’s…that’s not a bad idea actually,” Star admitted before she looked down mournfully at her revolver. “I get the logic in what you’re saying, but…I’m going to miss being able to fire this old girl when I do eventually run out of ammo for her, over.”

Eule reached up and gently patted her lover on her shoulder. “It’s okay. You’ll still always have her even without any bullets to fire. Plus, who knows? Maybe one day, we will get more ammunition for it? Over?”

Star’s reply broadcast to Eule’s shoulder patting was a tender kiss on the top of Eule’s head. “Point taken. So, let’s see if Rost is willing to take on a pair of new students then, over?”

Eule smiled happily in reply. “Yes, let’s. Out.”

Eule then realized that Äloy was looking up at her with a less than satisfied expression. “Ah, my apologies, Äloy. I was just having a short private discussion with Star. Did you want to talk about something?”

Äloy shook her head. “No, that’s not it. It’s just…I wish I could speak and hear radio like you and Sh…Star can. So that I can have those unhearable talks with you two too.”

Eule smiled kindly at Äloy. “Maybe someday, you can too,” she said hopefully, and becoming delighted at the little Gestalt girl’s hopeful look in reply before she turned to Rost at last. “Rost, there’s something Star and I wish to request of you, if it’s not too much trouble.”

Rost didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. His tilted head of inquisitiveness was more than enough to convey what he was asking.

Eule stood up and bowed deeply to Rost, bending to almost 90 degrees in a formal bow of sincere request. “Please teach Star and I how to use a bow,” she began.

Eule heard a thump from somewhere next to and above her, and a worried glance at her side showed Star rubbing the top of her head with an annoyed look on her face before Star too performed the same formal bow to Rost.

“I deeply regret not being able to be of more assistance aside from some rock-throwing,” Eule continued. “And truth be told, I don’t want to be helpless in this land when the bullets for my pistol runs out. So I beg of you, Rost, please teach us how to use a bow and arrow.”

Several moments of nervous silence passed by before Rost finally sighed. “First of all, please get up. I’m finding that I don’t like such obvious displays of submission towards me…just as much as Teersa doesn’t like it coming from me, I think,” he said wryly.

When Eule did get up to look him in the eye, she found him looking at her fondly, with a small smile on his smile that meant that he was feeling that smile a lot more on the inside than he showed.

“Eu-le, yesterday, you helped save my little girl from potentially dying down there in that Metal World ruin. And by your own admission, you shielded Aloy from the fall with your own body, and injured yourself in the process,” Rost said, making Eule reach up to the scab of dried oxidant on her cheek. “We can experiment with salvebrush to see if that helps tomorrow. For now though: I never did formally thank you for that and I regret that, but now that I have opportunity to do so: thank you, Eu-le, from the bottom of my heart,” he said solemnly, making Eule blush in response.

Rost then looked up at Star’s eyes. “Shtar, or rather, Star, I suppose: you risked your own life to save Aloy just as Eu-le did. That Strider herd and its Watcher guards could’ve trampled you just as they would’ve done the same to me, and yet you leapt into the fight with me without hesitation. Thank you, Star, and again, I apologize for the delayed thanks,” he said just as solemnly, making Star rub the back of her head in embarrassment.

Eule then watched him turn his gaze back to her. “If you two wish to learn how to hunt with a bow, whether to hunt a beast, Machine, or–unfortunately–a human; then I will gladly teach you two how to do so. It is truly the least I can do for you two after all you have done for Aloy and I. I will be more than happy to teach you two the way of the bow along with Aloy…and if you two don’t mind, I would also like to teach you both the way of the spear as well. A good spear will save you at close ranges, when you might not be able to draw a bow in time. With a good bow and spear, there’s nothing a Brave can’t take on at any range, and that is what I would like to teach you two along with Aloy.”

Eule looked at him in surprise at the offer, and thought deeply about it. The idea of her and Star learning how to use a spear of all weapons nearly made Eule giggle at the absurdity of it, especially at the mental image of herself wielding a spear. Imagine that. A noncombatant Replika model like a Eule not just going into battle, but with a spear as well? It sounded like something out of one of the more absurd pre-Empire films that had survived the Empire’s initial conquest of Vineta all those millennia ago. That one film about cavemen fighting dinosaurs with sharp sticks and stones had always stuck with her for some reason, at least partially due to how much she’d been laughing at it for most of its runtime.

And yet…Eule couldn’t deny Rost’s logic. A spear does sound like it’d be a good backup weapon to have in case her bow failed her or if an enemy was too close for a bow to work effectively. Besides, Eule did undergo reserve military training due to the Eusan Nation’s policy of compulsory military training/service for all citizens, including their Replika citizens. That reserve training had also included rudimentary hand-to-hand combat courses, so that should be applicable to spear fighting…right?

“I’ll accept,” Eule finally said to Rost. “Please teach me how to use a spear as well as a bow.”

“I’ll take you up on that offer too,” Star added. “After all, using a spear can’t be that much more different than using a bayoneted rifle, right?”

Eule looked at her lover in surprise. “You learned how to use a rifle and bayonet?”

Star nodded in reply. “Yeah, all us Stars are supposed to be able to serve as infantry if needed, so I got trained on the Type-33 assault rifle, which included bayonet training. Not sure how that was going to be useful against Imperial Army lobsterbacks, but at least I know how to stick a bayonet in them if they got that close to me.”

Rost stared so blankly at Star that Eule had to hold back the urge to giggle. “Assault rifle? Bayonet?”

“Uhhh, it’s basically just putting a knife on a rifle–basically a bigger and longer version of Eule’s pistol–to make an awkward-looking spear. That’s really all that is,” Star explained.

“I see,” Rost replied, although his puzzled look made Eule doubt if he really did. “Then I hope that might help you learn how to fight with a spear when we begin training…tomorrow. After we get a good night’s sleep.”

This time, Eule did giggle. Both from how much sense it made, and how little Äloy looked so disappointed at Rost’s declaration.

“Yes, Aloy. Bedtime,” Rost said in a very final tone.

“Okaaay,” Äloy replied, clearly not happy to be calling it a night, but still seeing sense all the same. “Night then, Rost. Eu-le, Star, see you both in training tomorrow!” she said excitedly before climbing up the ladder to her bed in the floor above.

“I wonder how much sleep the kid is actually going to get with that much energy still in her,” Star noted wryly.

“Hopefully enough,” Rost replied with a sigh, before looking back and forth at Eule and Star. “Perhaps we should get some sleep as well. We all have a big day tomorrow, and tiredness isn’t something that’s conducive to learning how to use either bows or spears. Good night, Eu-le, Sh-Star.”

With Eule’s and Star’s good nights following him, he put out all the lights save for the fireplace before then climbing up to his “bed” once more.

“I really want to fix this problem of us taking his bed every night,” Eule noted.

“It’ll probably happen. Maybe we can make a new bed for us somewhere here?” Star asked.

“Oh? I didn’t realize either of us were either Aras or Elsters,” Eule joked.

Star rubbed the aramid fiber-reinforced polyethylene shell on her chin in comtemplation. “Maybe we can learn from Rost? Never too late for a pair of young Replikas to learn new tricks, eh?”

Eule giggled quietly. “I don’t think that’s how that saying goes, love.”

“I’ve heard it both ways,” Star said with a grin.

Eule giggled some more. “Ara Elf would approve of that ridiculousness, I believe.”

Star’s grin widened. “Praise from an Ara? Must be a sign that we’ll do well in the crafting department.”

Eule was trying hard not to let her giggles get too loud at this point. “Hopefully so.”

After some time though, Eule and Star were once more laying together on top of that fox skin mattress, covered in a blanket made of yet more fox skins. Honestly, as morbid as Eule initially found it, she was actually rather fond of it now. Even though the “mattress” was just sewn-together fox skins laid on top of a wooden frame, it was surprisingly comfortable. Especially when Star was sharing that bed with her.

Eule gave Star a kiss, intending it to be a goodnight kiss. What followed though was considerably steamier than just a simple peck on the lips.

[THIS SCENE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK]

When Star had finally rode out the pleasure enough to remove her hand from her mouth, Eule crawled up to kiss Star on her newly uncovered mouth. “How was that for personality stabilization, dear?” she asked.

Star grinned. “I definitely enjoyed that as much as you did, my cute little owl,” she said as she embraced Eule in a warm hug.

“I’m glad you did, since I enjoyed that very much indeed, my beloved starling,” Eule said as she returned the hug just as warmly.

Star snickered. “You know, I’ve always wondered who named my model ‘Starling’. The name alone implies a very small and cute bird, and yet look at me and my sisters in all our 220 cm tall glory.”

Eule giggled back. “If you’re talking about mismatched names, look at us Eules. What part of us looks like a nocturnal predatory bird? Honestly, I think we should’ve had each other’s model names.”

“Well, there were some really small and cute owls on Vineta before it got turned into an ocean world. I’ve seen them before in those old pre-Empire nature documentaries. They were probably referring to those owls when they named your model,” Star happily insisted.

Eule giggled once more. “Well, you may not be small, but I still think you’re the most adorable Star I’ve ever had this kind of a relationship with.”

Star laughed quietly. “Remind me: how many Star units did you make love to again?”

“Hmm, counting you?” Eule asked with a cheeky grin. A flurry of kisses from Star made her break out in giggles and answer her own question: “Just the one: you.”

Finally though, Eule and Star settled back into a warm embrace, with both of them gazing into each other’s sleepy eyes.

“I do hope Teersa convince the other Nora we’re not a threat,” Eule quietly said. “I don’t want to leave this place. I like it here, with you, with Rost, and with Äloy.”

Star smiled sleepily, with her eyes closed. “I like anywhere with you, Eule. But here…yeah, this is good. Rost is nice, he cooks almost as well as you, and the kid is a sweet little Gestalt. Don’t really want to leave either.”

Eule smiled at the sight and snuggled against her lover. “Then let’s pray to the Red Eye for the–” Eule had to stop to let out a yawn. “–for the best. Good night, Star.”

“Night, Eule.” Star did in fact mumble that, but it was fine. Eule’s words were practically mumbles themselves as she drifted off to dreamland.

*

This night, Eule’s dreams took her to a tea party with EULR-S231 “Januar”, MNHR-S2301 “Beo”, and–curiously–Rost and Teersa (both of them wearing their normal animal skin clothes) sitting at the table. Beo even had a chair sized for her massive frame somehow, and Eule’s dream self did not question this anymore than she questioned Rost and Teersa’s presence at this tea party. She certainly did not question Star’s presence at her side, standing guard as though she was an honor guard for them all.

As for Eule herself, she and EULR-S2302 “Februar” were acting as waitresses for the tea party. She smiled in delight every time Februar bent down to serve something, and Januar gave her a loving kiss on her cheek. Eule’s dream self’s heart melted at seeing Februar’s normally stoic and almost Ara-like face break just a bit to smile at her sister-lover.

Then Eule’s already molten heart practically disintegrated into a gooey puddle at the sight of Äloy appearing out of nowhere, dressed in a miniature version of a Eule’s uniform, walking up to the table with a tray full of teacakes and cookies, and managing to just reach up to the table to place it there for everyone to enjoy. January and Beo were both practically cooing at the adorable little Gestalt girl, with Teersa doing the same. Even the ever-stoic Rost was smiling proudly at his little girl, with Äloy grinning widely at all the attention.

Eule’s happiness at this entire scene was such that she most definitely did not question why they were all somehow standing on an expanse of endless water, somehow flat as a pane, with the white spires and blocks of skyscrapers emerging from the water’s surface in the distance identifying the dream location as somewhere near one of Vineta’s few cities. Eule had read somewhere that Vineta’s cities were all built into the seafloor and mostly underwater to provide maximum protection from orbital strikes, with the few building peeking up from the surface being buildings that needed to be above the water like communications antennae, spaceports, etc., but her dream self wasn’t thinking about any of that, and was busy simply enjoying the fantastical view as her body got its much-needed rest in preparation for what was coming in the morning.

Chapter Text

As was rapidly becoming a very comforting normal, Eule woke up to the smells and sounds of Rost cooking breakfast for everyone. What wasn’t a comforting normal though was the sound of Star whimpering.

Eule looked in alarm as she saw her lover’s face set in a grimace, whimpering quietly and muttering: “No, stop. Don’t do it. Just stop. That won’t solve anything. Just stop it.”

Eule gently took hold of her lover’s shoulders. “Star? Star? Wake up. Please. Star!”

Star’s eyes snapped open, looking around blindly for a moment before her gaze settled on Eule. “Oh. Oh, Eule. It’s you,” she said, panting hard as though from exertion, although Eule knew better than that.

“Nightmare? Of what happened there?” Eule asked.

Star nodded miserably. “Yeah.”

Eule hugged her lover, nuzzling her cheek. “It’s okay. Everything bad is all the way back there. None of it is here.”

Eule felt Star froze, and for a moment, she thought she was wrong about what in S-23 Sierpinski Star was having a nightmare about, but then she felt her lover relax and reply: “Yeah, you’re right. We’re in the Embrace, not in Sierpinski or even Leng from the looks of it. Sorry about waking you up, love.”

Eule gave Star a kiss on the lips. “It’s okay. I’ll be happy to comfort you anytime. Now come on, let’s see what Rost has for breakfast today.”

When she and Star did finally get up from bed though (after checking once more that they were both decent underneath the fox skin blanket before pulling it off), the routine this time turned out to be just slightly different from the usual as Rost ventured outside for a moment before returning with some green leaves, which he then shredded and placed into a metal kettle with water in it to hang over the fireplace, replacing the pot of something delicious-smelling he’d been cooking. He then sat both Eule and Star down at the rectangular wooden table he appeared to like using as their mess table.

Rost sat down opposite Eule and Star, and held out his hand. “Aloy. Medicine pouch.”

Äloy promptly ran over to where she’d left her medicine pouch after entering the house, took it, and dashed back to Rost to gently place it in his open hand in an adorable two-handed grip.

Rost then gently took a single pale pink salvebrush berry from it and handed it to Eule.

“Now Eu-le, we will see if human medicine works on you Replikas,” Rost announced. “First, I want you to take that salvebrush berry, and gently rub it on the pit of your elbow before pulling it away. If it develops a red rash, then it’s not safe for you to eat it.”

“Um, Rost? That won’t work,” Eule replied.

“No, it should,” Rost insisted. “Just very lightly rub the berry on the most tender skin of your inner elbow, and–”

“No, Rost, you misunderstand,” Eule interrupted with a wave of her hand. “That method can’t work on my arm, and it can’t work on Star’s arm either. It physically can’t.”

Rost blinked in surprise. “Why not?”

“Because Eu-le and Sh-Star can take their arms off,” Äloy piped up.

Rost stared at Äloy before turning the stare on Eu-le, his blue, almost Replika-like eyes full of confusion and bafflement, silently asking for answers to his myriad questions.

Eule passed back the salvebrush berry to Rost before holding up her right arm in reply. “My arm, well, first of all, I’m wearing a glove, so hold on,” she said before rolling up her short black sleeve and pulling off her long white glove, revealing the black polyethylene-skinned arm underneath as she showed off both sides of said arm to Rost, wriggling her just-as-black fingers for emphasis. “My arms are both almost entirely mechanical, as are Star’s. The skin of my arm in particular is carbon-infused polyethylene, er, basically Machine skin covering synthetic muscles and fitted on much of its surface with a network of somatosensors, er, devices that detect heat, touch, where my arm is relative to my body, etc.; with an endoskeleton of carbon steel and a branched power cable and oxidant vessel system running through the whole arm to provide electricity and oxygen to power everything. It’s somewhat similar to the Machines in some ways, really.”

Rost rubbed and tugged on his braided beard, which Eule noted by now seemed to be the closest thing Rost had to a Replika’s personality stabilization behavior. “The more I learn about you and Star, the more Machine-like you become. At least in body,” he noted, eliciting a nervous laugh from Eule before he continued: “Very well, if we can’t use the tender skin of your elbow, then…actually, if you don’t mind answering: do you and Star have any skin aside from your face and ears? At least, I’m assuming that’s skin and not…colored Machine skin?” he asked, more than just a touch nervous.

Eule gave another nervous laugh before she replied: “No, the skin on my face and the parts of my ears not covered by my shell are actually biocomponents, er, living skin basically. The other parts of my body that are covered by bare skin are my belly, my…chest, and my…crotch,” she said the last pair of words with a blush on her face.

Rost stroked his beard for several more moment before sighing. “Very well then. This might be slightly more hazardous, but I want you to gently rub that salvebrush berry on your lip, either one will do, for a moment before pulling it away. Then we wait. If you experience anything like a reddened rash, then it’s not safe for you to eat it.”

“A reddened rash,” Eule mused, before realization hit her as she remembered her medical training. “You’re testing for allergens. That’s…that’s something I should’ve realized.” She sighed. “I wish Dezember were here. She was always more interested in medicine than the rest of us; I suppose that’s why she was the head of the medical wing. She would be so much more useful here.”

Rost’s slightly confused look (that started as soon as Eule uttered the word ‘allergen’) turned into a gentle one. “It’s okay. No one is good at everything. All we need to focus on right now is whether salvebrush is safe for you and Star to take. So, shall we start then?”

Eule’s frown turned into a smile at his encouragement. Honestly, she really did feel like Januar was right in front of her in some ways. If Januar was a bit taller and far wider, and was a Gestalt man instead of a Simple Universal Light Replika of course, but otherwise, Eule felt as comforted by his words and presence as if her eldest sister was right in front of her, consoling her for the same thing.

“Alright then, let’s see if a Replika can be allergic to this salvebrush then,” Eule said as she did as Rost asked and gently rubbed the pale pink berry on her lower lip before pulling away.

A moment passed, and nothing happened.

A few more moments passed, and still nothing happened. No reddened rash. No itchiness. Nothing.

Rost breathed out a sigh of relief. “So far, so good. Now, in order, I want you to place that berry at the corner of your mouth, on the tip of your tongue, under your tongue, and then chew it. If at any point you feel any discomfort, spit it out. Immediately.” He then looked thoughtful. “Oh, and don’t worry about the bitterness. Salvebrush berries are supposed to be bitter.”

Eule grimaced. “Well, I suppose the best medicines are always the bitter ones,” she noted, before looking at the pale pink berry in her hand for a few moments longer. “Well, here goes,” she said to herself before delicately placing the salvebrush berry into her mouth.

Eule performed every step Rost had commanded. Nothing happened when she was manipulating the berry with her tongue, although she did notice a faint bitterness creeping into her taste receptors via her saliva. Finally, she chewed it, crushing the berry between her carbon steel molars, and releasing its pulp and juices into her mouth. She grimaced slightly as the full might of the salvebrush berry’s taste profile hit her tongue.

As Rost warned, it was indeed bitter. Fairly bitter, really. However, it wasn’t just bitter. There was also a slight tart flavor to the salvebrush berry that provided…something resembling a balance to the bitterness. Overall, Eule could say that it wasn’t an entirely unpleasant taste experience, but she would certainly never eat a salvebrush berry for gustatory reasons. She supposed that was a good thing considering that it was a medicinal plant, and that eating too much of it was probably not a good idea.

“Is it that gross?” Äloy asked with a dubious look all over her little face.

Eule tried to smile. “It’s…not entirely terrible,” she conceded.

Äloy made a face that was even more of a face than she already was making. “I’m so glad I didn’t have to eat any.”

“Unfortunately, you will have to when you’re hurt,” Rost pointed out.

Äloy’s only response to that bit of logic was to pout and cross her arms.

Rost sighed at Äloy with a smile that mirrored Eule’s own before returning his gaze to her. “Do you feel any discomfort? If not, then swallow. Then we wait until…about noon. If nothing happens, then salvebrush should be safe for you and likely Star as well. But if you do get an upset stomach, then here.”

Rost wandered over to a cupboard, pulled out a cup and came back to set it in front of Eule, who had by now swallowed the salvebrush berry. He then went over to the kettle, which was now very clearly boiling, letting out steam from the neck, and came back with it to pour some of the contents into the cup. Immediately, Eule could smell something pleasantly fragrant and very familiar.

“This is tea made from the leaves of the bitter leaf plant,” Rost explained as he topped off Eule’s cup before setting the kettle onto the table. “It not only produces a delicious tea when brewed, but it’s also valued as a medicine to ease an upset stomach. If you do feel that, then sip that tea until you feel better. If the pain is severe though, then make yourself vomit. Immediately.”

Eule nodded, but her mind was elsewhere as she sniffed the bitter leaf tea. “This smells just like green tea,” she noted before taking a sip. “It tastes just green tea too.”

“It does?” Star asked as she leaned over, looking very curious. Eule handed the cup up to her lover, who took a deep sniff of the steaming green liquid within before taking her own sip and sighing. “Yeah, that’s green tea alright. There’s no mistaking that scent or that taste.”

“Hmm, so you call bitter leaf tea just ‘green tea’?” Rost asked in a tone that mixed fascination and confusion. “That seems oddly…plain.”

That made Eule think about the issue with an amused smile. “It does, doesn’t it? I’ve honestly never thought about it before, but it does sound oddly plain to someone who’s never heard the word before,” she mused.

“Guess we just all take it for granted that tea is tea,” Star added with a just-as-amused expression.

Curiously, Eule watched as Äloy made yet another face at the green tea…or rather, bitter leaf tea. “I don’t like bitter leaf tea,” the little Gestalt girl declared.

Eule tilted her head at Äloy. “Oh? And why is that?”

“It’s gross,” Äloy insisted. “A while back, Rost let me try some because it smelled good and I wanted to try it, and it was so yucky. It was just bitter leaf juice. I hate it.”

Rost’s only response to that was to sigh. “Aloy, someday when you grow up, you’ll learn to appreciate a good cup of bitter leaf tea.”

Äloy’s response to that was just to pout and cross her arms yet again, making Eule sigh at just how adorable Äloy was even when she was being pouty.

Star then held out a hand to Rost. “Alright, my turn now.”

Rost though didn’t give Star a salvebrush berry, shaking his head as he didn’t do so. “If salvebrush does make Eu-le sick, I would rather it’s just Eu-le who’s sick rather than both of you.”

Star looked down at the table with what Eule thought was an adorably disappointed look on her face. “But…I don’t want Eule to be the only one sick if she does get sick.”

Eule reached up and patted Star’s shoulder comfortingly. “It’s okay, love. There’ll be plenty of opportunities for us to get sick together later.”

Star stared at her blankly for several moment before raising an eyebrow. “I can’t tell if you’re trying to console me or make fun of me,” she said with not quite the dryness of a Kitezh desert, but it was close.

Eule gave her lover a mischievous smile. “Can I not do both?” she asked sweetly.

The sensation of Star suddenly grabbing her into a one-armed hug and nuzzling her hair made Eule squeal and giggle simultaneously. The sound of Äloy giggling at them made Eule’s plastic-laced heart even warmer than it already was. Yet, when they all finally calmed down, Eule noticed that Rost was smiling at them, but it was tinged with sadness just like in previous occasions. She was honestly curious about that, but since Rost offered no explanation, she decided that it was likely too private to pry into.

*

Breakfast shortly afterwards turned out to be a dish that was again sweet. It was another sweet and very thick congee dish. In fact, it was that same mix of multi-colored rice, oats, and buckwheat with the now-dried blueberries and a dash of honey in it. Even the meat side dish was more or less the same spiced-rubbed chunks of meat roasted over the fireplace, albeit made with turkey breast this time as opposed to the rabbit from yesterday’s breakfast. Combined with the green, er, bitter leaf tea as a beverage, it was still a most wonderful breakfast despite everyone having had that exact same breakfast yesterday.

Now that Eule was aware of Rost testing for allergens, she wondered if this identical breakfast to yesterday was because he didn’t want new foods to compound any reaction her body might have to the salvebrush berry?

Indeed, upon asking Rost, he seemed to confirm it with his reply of: “Normally, I’d rather you didn’t eat anything until noon, but you’re going to need the energy today. You can’t train with a bow and spear on an empty stomach.”

To Eule, that made Rost seem even more Eule-like than she had thought. It was actually comforting really, almost as though she could treat Rost as one of her sisters. Almost. Now if only he had black hair, was wearing the uniform, and had more of a chest.

Alas though, there was no room for Eule to help out with today’s breakfast, so Rost didn’t let her. She supposed it was for the best. This particular kitchen was far smaller than the one at S-23 Sierpinski, after all. She consoled herself that she would’ve only gotten in the way, as little of a consolation that was.

Fortunately, any feelings of disappointment Eule felt was quickly replaced by excitement when breakfast was concluded, for Rost went upstairs and came back with a bow and an additional quiver full of arrows. Or rather: half a bow, since it hadn’t been strung yet. To Eule, this unstrung bow look more like a bizarrely wavy half wood and half metal staff, with both halves tied firmly together using a combination of Machine wire and leather strips.

“This is your first lesson about bows: normal bows can’t be stored strung, or else the limbs eventually break down and lose tension. There are times when needs force you to keep such bows strung for long periods of time, but be prepared to have to replace your bow fairly soon after that,” Rost explained as he attached the bowstring to one end of the bow before bending the bow around his legs, and using the leverage to pull the other limb close enough that he could attach the other end of the bowstring to that limb.

 Eule was surprised when he had to pause his lesson mid-speech to pull that limb, grunting from the exertion. She had no idea that merely stringing a bow required so much effort. It was something she filed away for future reference.

Finally though, Rost was holding a perfectly good bow. In fact, it appeared to be nearly identical to the bow Äloy used. The only differences were that it was much larger, obviously sized for an Gestalt adult rather than a child; and it lacked all the ornamentation Äloy put on her adorably tiny bow. No feathers, no rough leather strips wrapped around the central portion for presumably a better grip, nothing. Like a blank wall vs. one decorated with…something. Anything.

“This is a spare Hunter Bow I keep just in case the bow I’m using breaks,” Rost explained. “Hunter Bows are one of the most basic of bows. They’re meant for hunting both flesh and blood beasts and small Machines, so they have a low draw weight. That means that they don’t do as much damage and their range is lacking compared to more powerful bows, but that also means that a hunter can draw them quickly and easily, sending multiple arrows at their quarry in quick succession. And even despite that, a good hunter can still take down larger Machines with a Hunter Bow by targeting weak points on them, so don’t underestimate the simple Hunter Bow.” With that out of the way, he then made a beckoning gesture and commanded: “Come, follow.”

The trip wasn’t nearly as long as the one they all took yesterday. In fact, this trip just took them into the yard, where Rost stopped a few meters away from one of the Grazer dummies.

“To learn how to shoot a bow properly, you must first learn the right posture to shoot in,” Rost began. “First, stand with your feet placed slightly apart. Face your target with the side of your body, since that allows you the most room to draw your bow while presenting as narrow a profile to your enemy. Then take your bow in your offhand, and draw with your dominant hand, aiming along your offhand while keeping said offhand stretched straight out and your body just as straight up.”

Rost pulled one of the arrows out of the extra quiver he brought and showed it to everyone. Eule immediately noticed that it didn’t have the triangular, bladed profile of his normal arrowheads. Instead, it had a curved profile that was almost bullet-like in shape.

“These arrows I’m using are practice arrows, made by filing and grinding down the tips and edges of normal Metal Shard arrowheads until they’re blunt and rounded. It allows the arrow to penetrate a practice target without going in too deep, making it easy to pull out,” Rost explained.

“That’s what he said,” Star quipped.

“Star! Äloy is right here!” Eule hissed in combination surprise and embarrassment, blushing all the while.

Rost meanwhile merely looked up at Star a look that was so flat that it might as well have been made of monofilament wire.

The aforementioned Äloy just stared at Star in confusion, for which Eule was profoundly grateful.

Star rubbed the back of her head, blushing herself. “Sorry. It just slipped out.”

Rost coughed. “Anyways, let’s resume our lesson then.”

Rost then nocked the aforementioned practice arrow to the bowstring, took the arrow between his index and middle fingers, and pulled it back, all the way to his chin. Eule heard the distinct sound of the bow itself creaking as both the metal and wooden halves bent in the direction of his draw. To her surprise, the bowstring itself also creaked, as though it was a beast whining, eager for the kill.

“Your full draw should be all the way to somewhere along your cheek, the corner of your mouth, your chin, or anywhere in between: whichever is the most comfortable position for you,” Rost explained as he continued holding the bow at full draw. “When you have that full draw, sight your target using the top tip of your arrowhead, and…let go.”

As soon as Rost said that last word, he demonstrated by doing just that. As soon as his fingers released their hold on the arrow, the bowstring released all of its stored energy into said arrow with a twanging sound. The arrow shot from the bowstring as it returned to its neutral position, flew through the air with a wriggling motion Eule still found strange, and then embedded itself into the yellow bullseye right in the center of the cloth target laid over the middle of both sides of the Grazer dummy.

As Rost promised though, the arrow didn’t really go in that deeply. Not if he was able to so easily yank it out, as he demonstrated right after his shot, before returning that arrow to his extra quiver.

“That is how you shoot a bow,” Rost concluded, before surprising Eule by simply handing her the quiver full of practice arrows and the Hunter Bow. “Now you may ask me anything, and I will explain. I will also correct any inadequacies in stance and form. However, the best lesson here is to shoot for yourself and find out. Now go, demonstrate what you have just witnessed.”

Euel gulped as she put on the quiver by its belt and took the Hunter Bow in her left hand…only to realize that she was now holding eight items: two items over the amount the Rule of Six demanded.

“Uh, Rost? Could you hold these for a moment?” Eule said in a panic, quickly handing him a pair of her ammunition pouches.

Rost stared in confusion at the black synthetic polymer pouches as he took them and clipped them onto his own belt, before he suddenly had a look of realization. “Your tribe’s…custom of only having six items?” At seeing Eule nod, he adopted a thoughtful look. “It is really that important for you to obey this custom even when you’re so far away from your tribe?” he asked.

Eule opened her mouth to answer “Yes”, but found silence coming out instead. She realized that she at a loss for an answer, and she started to seriously wonder about that question Rost posed. Was it really that important for her to follow the Rule of Six here? When all evidence suggested that there was no resource shortage to justify it?

Rost interrupted her train of thought by sighing. “You have plenty of time to ponder that question later. Right now, focus on what’s important: your bow training.”

Eule started and shook herself to clear her thoughts, putting them on hold for now. “You’re right,” she replied, and also to fortify herself.

Eule took up the same stance as Rost, identical right down to his body posture and him facing his target sideways on. She then delicately took one of the arrows, and then just as delicately nocked the arrow to the bowstring before taking the arrow by its end and pulling it back along with the bowstring.

Despite Rost’s explanation, Eule was still surprised at how incredibly easy it was to pull back on the bowstring. After seeing how much damage a bow and arrow could do, she expected the Hunter Bow to be harder to pull. But no, it felt only a little more difficult than pulling on a refrigerator door, just with the motion being more drawn out and if pulling on the door got harder and harder the more she opened it. Copying Rost, she pulled the arrow back all the way to her chin, stopping right on a part where it was covered by her black polyethylene shell.

As Eule tried to use her arrow to aim at the bullseye on the Grazer dummy (which felt to Eule like aiming with her pistol but if it only had its front sight), she realized that keeping the Hunter Bow at full draw actually took conscious effort on her part. In hindsight, it did make sense. She was actively trying to keep the bowstring from springing back into its neutral position, after all. It only made sense that it would take an effort to keep it from doing so. She was more surprised by how much effort it took even despite its low draw weight, but fortunately, her robotic arms didn’t get tired the way Gestalt arms did, so it was fine.

When Eule was finally satisfied with her aim, she let go of the bowstring and released the arrow. As with Rost’s arrow, this arrow danced a strange wriggling motion through the air as it flew the short distance between Eule and the Grazer dummy. Unlike with Rost’s arrow though, Eule’s arrow embedded itself into the dummy’s left-front leg, not even hitting the target at all, let alone the bullsye.

Eule frowned at the dummy, and then took another arrow for another shot. She adjusted her aim from before, and let fly. This arrow at least hit the target. Unfortunately, it only hit the blue band just below the red band, which was itself just below the yellow circle.

“Eule,” Rost spoke up. “You can’t just immediately release the arrow. That kind of sudden, jerking motion will just throw your arrow’s aim off. You need to let the bowstring slip off your fingers, as though you are caressing the bowstring.”

“Ooh, how about holding the bowstring like you’re dancing with one of your sisters?” Star suggested.

Eule blinked at Star for the strange comparison, but it wasn’t like she had anything to lose at this point, so why not?

Thus, as Eule took hold of the bowstring and the arrow nocked to it, she imagined that she was gently taking the white gloved hand of EULR-S2321. She imagined taking 21 in close as she drew back the bowstring and arrow, aiming at the yellow bullseye once more. She could almost feel 21’s body heat in front of her, and see the slight grin on 21’s face from the close contact. She imagine all that so intensely…that suddenly she didn’t want to let go.

There was a part of Eule’s mind that just wanted to feel like her favorite sister was right in front of her, and not back at S-23 Sierpinski one way or another. She did realize just how insane that was though, and she’d imagine 21 would agree with her. She could imagine 21’s grin turning into a sad smile that mirrored Eule’s own, and 21’s plastic-laced lips silently mouthing the words “Let go”.

And so at last, like she was letting go of a burden, Eule gently allowed the ghost of 21’s hand to slip away from her grasp.

The result was Eule being surprised to see her arrow embedding itself not only in the target, but right into the center of the yellow bullseye as well. Okay, it was slightly off-center by about a centimeter to the right of center, but Eule was still pretty happy at her own accuracy.

Eule suddenly had the air pressed out of her plastic-laced lungs as little Äloy just as suddenly leapt up and tackle-hugged her, shouting: “You did it!” in a tone of pure joy.

Eule answered that hug with her own. “I did!” she shouted back with just as much joy.

Star joining in on that hug only made Eule’s joy levels reach critical mass. “Yup, you did!” Star shouted, adding in on everyone’s joy.

It was only Rost clearing his throat that made everyone break up the hug, although Eule saw a slight smile gracing his craggy face before he said dryly: “While I am glad that you hit that target at last, Eu-le, I do stress that the way of the bow is also about repetition and consistency. You must be able to repeat your shots, and ensure that you are able to consistently hit your target each and every time. So practice those shots with as much spare time as you can offer until you can consistently hit the center of that target every time you take a shot.”

Eule switched her bow to her right hand in order to salute with her left hand in the Eusan Nation military style. “Understood, sir,” she said, before realizing the slipup and blushing in embarrassment at it as she lowered her left hand just as quickly as it had snapped up.

Fortunately, Rost spoke nothing about it. His only reaction was a raised eyebrow of puzzlement before he turned to Star. “Now, I would like for you to do the same thing as Eu-le, so that you know the basics of bow shooting.”

Star happily nodded. “Alrighty, although I guess this means that Eule and I have to practice in shifts then if there’s only that one Hunter Bow available?”

Rost tugged at his braided beard once more as he looked thoughtful. “I do have various other weapons stored in the house, but they are either highly specialized weapons inappropriate for general use, or just inappropriate for beginners to the bow.”

Star looked thoughtful for a moment before pointing at the bow on Rost’s back. “What about your bow? Do you have any spares of that?”

“This? This is not a bow for beginners,” Rost said as he pulled said bow off and showed it to Star, with Eule staring curiously at the bow as well.

It seemed to be of an entirely different construction to the Hunter Bow Eule was holding. Rost’s bow only had the central grip portion and bits of reinforcing struts on both ends be made of wood. The limbs themselves appear to be made entirely of Machine parts. In fact, they looked suspiciously leg-like, with a familiar look to them that Eule could recall from yesterday–

“Wait, are the limbs of that bow Strider legs? Just with the hoof taken off?” Eule asked incredulously.

Rost nodded to Eule’s surprise. “We’ve discovered that the legs of Striders contain large amounts of force stored within that can be used by compressing the legs and then releasing them. Hence, this War Bow. The problem though is that whole Strider legs need a lot of force to bend them in the first place, so the draw weight of War Bows and any other bows of this size or larger are fairly high. It’s not something I would recommend for people who’ve never used bows before. You need training to build up your muscles before you can use such high draw weight bows,” he explained.

Eule and Star looked at each other before looking back at Rost, with Star waggling one of her arms at him. “Mechanical arms, remember? They’re as strong as they were when they were built, and that’s as strong as they ever will be. Not to toot my own horn here, but we Star units have really strong arms on top of it. Not quite as strong as Storchs, but we’ve still got combat Replika strength in them,” Star explained.

Rost blinked at Star in surprise before adopting yet another beard-tugging thoughtful pose. “Hmm, I hadn’t considered that. But still…will you allow me to test your strength, Star? So that I have a better idea of the strength of your arms to see which bow is right for you? If your arms are the same Eu-le, then I will test your strength as well.”

Eule was about to protest that she wasn’t a combat Replika so she wasn’t strong at all, but Star interrupted her. “Alright, sounds good. So how do we go about that?” Star asked with a head tilted curiously.

Rost’s answer was to head back into the house. He immediately came back holding the dinner table and a pair of log stools, and placed them in a free space in the yard before sitting down in one of the stools and placing his right elbow on the table in a familiar-looking pose Eule had seen Gestalt children engage in.

“An…arm-wrestling match?” Eule asked with more incredulousness.

Rost nodded. “I shall use my own strength to test the both of you,” he simply explained, before beckoning to Eule.

Eule’s response was to point at herself with a questioning tone.

Rost nodded once more.

“But I already have a Hunter Bow?” Eule asked hesitantly.

“Which might not be ideal for you if you’re as strong as me. Now please, take the other seat and then take my hand,” he insisted.

Not really sure about this but seeing Rost’s logic, Eule finally sat down on the indicated seat and took the indicated hand, feeling Rost’s warm hand enclose her own in a grip that was firm without being too tight.

“When I count to three, I want you to pull against my arm with all of your might,” Rost explained. “At the same time, I will pull against your arm, starting with the amount of strength I would use to pull a Warrior Bow and then slowly increase my strength from there.”

Eule cocked her head at Rost. “Warrior Bow?”

“It’s a type of bow used commonly by Carja soldiers,” Rost also explained. “It has a very low draw weight, even lower than a Hunter Bow, so that it can be shot very rapidly, and its small size makes it easier to use in confined spaces. Many Warrior Bows are also Casterbows, so that you can have an arrow pre-nocked on it, ready to be fired with a pull of a trigger.”

“Hmm, that makes these…’Casterbows’, am I saying that right? These weapons sound like crossbows from the way you describe their operation,” Eule noted.

Rost raised an intrigued eyebrow. “I have never heard of a ‘Crossbow’, so I will simply take your word for it that it is your word for a Casterbow. As for the Warrior Bow though, its low draw weight makes it very weak and inaccurate, especially beyond around…five meters or so.” He then frowned. “To be honest, I’m not fond of it. It’s a bow that’s highly specialized for fighting other humans. It’s practically useless against Machines, so I wouldn’t recommend it for either of you as a general use bow.”

As Eule nodded in understanding and fascination, she heard Star whistle. “Sounds like this Warrior Bow is the closest you Gestalts have to pistols then,” Star noted.

“I suppose if that’s what your ‘pistols’ basically are,” Rost replied, before turning back to Eule. “Now then, Eu-le, are you ready?”

Eule nodded firmly. She was ready as she’ll ever be for this.

“Then one…two…three.”

Upon Rost’s utterance of that last number (which Eule mentally heard as ‘Drei’), Eule pulled as hard as she could, pushing the synthetic muscles of her right arm to its maximum force. Initially, Eule easily pulled against Rost’s right arm, moving it halfway to the table’s surface.

But then as promised, Rost slowly turned up the strength of his arm, grunting with effort as he did so. His arm slowly stopped moving towards the table, and then just as slowly pushed Eule’s arm back. Regardless of the fact that Eule was outputting maximum force from her right arm, she was helpless to watch as Rost slowly but surely pulled Eule’s arm onto the table’s surface. She was actually relieved when Rost said: “Okay, that’s enough,” and let go.

Eule instinctively worked her fingers, testing them for damage, while she heard Rost grunt and looked up at him to see him moving his right arm in a circular stretching motion.

“Okay, I can safely say that you are slightly weaker than me,” Rost said, still apparently trying to work out the kinks in his right arm.

“Oh,” Eule said, lowering her gaze to the table and feeling disappointed.

“…Eu-le, that’s not a bad thing,” Rost said in the same dry tone Eule had come to associate with his bouts of wit, causing her to look back up at his bemused face. He then continued: “I am a trained Brave who has been continually training one way or another for nearly 30 years now. If you are only slightly weaker than me, then there are many humans who would be jealous of your strength.”

Eule waved her arms in rejection. “But I’m only a Eule! We’re only made to have strength on par with the average Gestalt! We’re a non-combatant Replika model, by the Red Eye! We’re not meant to be strong!” she protested.

Rost sighed. “Look at it this way, Eu-le: if you have the strength of the average Gesh…Gestalt, then you are already stronger than a good portion of humanity. Because I can tell you that there are many adults who aren’t as strong as the average human.”

“I…but…” Eule tried to find a way to refute Rost’s words, but even she couldn’t help but see Rost’s logic.

“And because you are only slightly weaker than me, then I believe a War Bow would be perfect for you,” Rost continued, leading Eule to squeak in surprise at the thought of herself being equipped with weapon called a War Bow, of all things. “I don’t actually have a spare War Bow at the moment, so you will have to do with that Hunter Bow until I can craft a War Bow for you. In fact, I was actually in the middle of working on a War Bow right before you and Star arrived. It should work very well for you once I’ve finished it.”

“Uh, I…thank you, Rost,” Eule finally said, not knowing what else to say.

Rost nodded in reply before turning to Star. “Star, it’s your turn now. Same thing as Eu-le.”

“Alright, but I have to warn you,” Star said as she sat down on the stool Eule just vacated. “You’re going to have to pull with all your strength on the count of 3, and even then, I’m going to use just a bit less than my full strength. I really don’t want to accidentally hurt you.”

Rost raised an eyebrow up at Star. “Star, it’s pointless if I don’t measure your full strength. Use it.”

“No, really. I’d rather not accidentally injure your arm. You look like you really need it,” Star insisted.

Eule looked back and forth at the battle of wills going on between Rost and Star, and she didn’t know whether to sigh or giggle.

“Star, if I can’t measure your full strength, then I can’t decide which bow would be right for you. You do want the right bow to take full advantage of your strength, do you not?” Rost asked, staring straight into Star’s blue eyes.

Star proceeded to stare right back into Rost’s own blue eyes, with the only difference between them being her red pupils versus his black ones. The level of determination in them both though caused them to burn with the same fire.

At last though, Star sighed. “Fine, you make a good point. Just though, can you at least start at the War Bow level and work your way up? Please?” she practically pleaded.

Rost stared at Star with a look of disbelief, before nodding at last. “Very well, I will do that then. Now let’s begin.”

Eule watched Rost take Star by their respective right hands. She noted in fascination that despite Star being so much taller than Rost, they both had roughly the same sized hands, which spoke to just how muscular Rost’s hands were. Despite that though, Eule did worry about Rost. She hoped Rost wouldn’t accidentally pull a muscle trying to outmatch her lover in this sort-of arm wrestling contest.

“Begin on one…two…three.”

Eule could practically see the blood vessels bulge on the exposed bits of Rost’s arm as he pulled against Star’s arm. Star however was still driving Rost’s arm towards the table, and she looked like she was barely putting in any effort on top of it.

Eule could see Rost slowly ramp up the force as he did with her, but it didn’t seem to matter. Rost after a while was red in the face from pulling against Star’s arm with all his might. Star at last looked like she was putting in real effort into her pulling, but it only showed up as a slight grimace on her face as she still inexorably pulled Rost’s hand down to touch the table, and there both of their hands remained no matter how hard Rost pulled.

“That’s enough,” Rost got out, causing Star to release his hand immediately.

Rost was breathing hard, almost gasping, really, as he carefully moved his arm in a circle once more and rubbed it on top of it. Star meanwhile was breathing slightly harder than normal, but that was the only indication of the effort she put into the arm wrestle, which itself indicated that she hadn’t put that much effort into it at all.

“You lost?” Äloy asked in a shocked tone. “But you never lose at anything about strength.”

Rost gave Äloy a slight smile before patting her on the head. “Aloy, one thing you must learn in life is that there’s always someone stronger than you. There’s nothing unnatural about that. It’s just the way the world is. It’s just a good thing that this someone is a friend.”

Äloy made a noise in reply. Eule couldn’t tell if she was halfway satisfied with that answer, or halfway dissatisfied.

“Now then, Star,” Rost said, turning back to the Security Technician Guard Replika. “Your strength truly is incredible. I’ve never encountered such arm strength before in anyone.”

Star rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. “Well, all us Star units have this kind of strength. Since we’re made to be police officers and soldiers, after all.”

Rost tugged on his beard yet again as he thought. “I don’t know what a ‘police officer’…’polizist’? I don’t know what either of those words mean, but if someone trained you to be a soldier and your arms were made with that in mind…it would make sense that you are this strong, yes. Hmm…I have the perfect bow for you. Wait here,” he said, before getting up and heading back into the house.

Moments later, he emerged back out carrying the largest bow Eule had ever seen thus far. She’d thought Rost’s War Bow was big, but this bow Rost was carrying towards them was at least his own height. It was of a similar construction to the War Bow, being made of a central wooden grip (with a pair of small open metal tubes mounted to either side of that grip that looked suspiciously like a sight or was some kind of mounting point for arrows) and reinforcing struts with Machine parts for limbs, all bound together with wire and leather. Said limbs even looked like they were made of a pair of whole Machine legs, stripped of their muscle. They even looked familiar as well, just in a different way from the Strider legs, like the legs of–

“Watcher legs now?” Eule asked incredulously as Rost held up the bow for them to examine.

Rost nodded in reply. “We discovered ages ago that Watcher legs make some of the most powerful of bows. We call these bows by the name of ‘Sharpshot Bow’. The sheer power of these bows allow a Brave to not only hit a Machine at ranges far exceeding that of even a War Bow, but also pierce through even the toughest of Machine hide. However, Sharpshot Bows have an absurdly high draw weight, about twice as much as a War Bow’s draw weight. Even an experienced Brave has trouble drawing these bows quickly, making them less useful at short ranges, where a human or Machine can rush you before you can draw the bow. That is, save for you, I think,” he said, holding out the bow now at Star. “Perhaps with your strength, this weakness can be mitigated or eliminated entirely. So, will you try it?”

Star stared at the massive bow for a moment before grinning a carbon steel teeth-revealing grin. “Why not? I’ll give this Sharpshot Bow a try,” she said as she took said bow from Rost.

Soon, Star was standing in front of the target attached to the side of a Grazer dummy, in the exact same position Eule was. Eule watched as her lover maneuver the arrow through the left-hand tube, nocked that arrow to the bowstring, and drew.

First, the feet of the Watcher leg compressed from the bowstring attached to it before the entire leg followed with a metallic creaking sound, compressing like a giant spring as Star pulled the Sharpshot Bow to full draw. In very rapid order, Eule noted.

“Huh, this isn’t so bad,” Star noted. “I feel like I could keep this at full draw all day.”

“That’s normal for these bows made with whole Machine legs. They’re very difficult to draw at first, but the more you draw it back, the easier it becomes, until finally at full draw, it’s much easier to keep it there. It’s why Sharpshot Bows earned that name. Sharpshooters can easily keep it at full draw until the right moment to strike,” Rost explained. “What’s peculiar is how easily and quickly you reached that full draw, as though you were drawing back a Hunter Bow instead.”

“Huh, neat,” Star simply replied, almost in a mutter as she sighted intently at the Grazer dummy. “So I just aim along the arrowhead, and then…”

When Star released the arrow, the Sharpshot Bow’s limbs sprang back into their neutral position with the speed and power of a Watcher leaping into a fight. It was no wonder really that the arrow practically rocketed into the target, hitting it with such force that Eule could swear to the Red Eye that she saw the entire Grazer dummy shudder from the impact. Even better, Star actually hit the target on her first try. It didn’t hit the yellow center, but at least it hit the red ring just outside it.

“You did it!” Eule shouted happily.

“No, not quite,” Star muttered in a very dissatisfied tone, before taking another arrow and drawing it back. “Got to hit that bullseye.”

As Rost nodded in approval, Eule giggled. It’s been quite a while since she’d discovered that her lover had a perfectionist streak that popped up when she absolutely wanted to accomplish some goal. The first time had been when her lover had been one of their dates on hold to get above a certain accuracy score at S-23 Sierpinski’s shooting range. Apparently, she’d really wanted to at least outperform one of her sisters who went by the name of Panzer for some reason Eule had never been able to find out, and Star didn’t want to leave until she’d accomplished at least that much.

Eule hadn’t minded much. She found her lover’s determination to be just as adorable then as she did now. On top of that, Star’s perfectionist streak was even paying off in terms of practicality, as she demonstrated by sinking a practice arrow into the yellow center of the target on her second shot.

“Now I did it,” Star finally, looking and sounding very satisfied.

Eule happily hugged Star as a reply. “Yes, you did.”

Eule’s happiness further increased as she watched Äloy hug Star’s legs on the opposite side of where Eule was hugging her lover. “On your second try too!” Äloy happily pointed out, before she frowned in a manner Eule continually found adorable. “It took me 8 tries to get an arrow into that yellow part.”

Star reached down and patted Äloy’s head. “It’s not that bad a result. I have…well, had a sister named Panzer who only hit her target 25 out of 60 times for her first time at the range. She never really got much better than that no matter how much she tried, so you’re already a major improvement on that,” she noted happily.

Eule just managed to hold back giggles at the sight of Äloy pouting. “That’s not making me feel any better, Sh-Star,” Äloy replied in a tone of dissatisfaction not that different from Star’s after her not-quite-as-perfect-as-she-liked shot.

Star laughed nervously. “Yeah, you can tell pep talks were never really my thing. That was more Hunter’s thing.”

Äloy tilted her head at Star. “Yay-ger? That’s your word for hunter? But…you said Hunter like it’s a person’s name?”

Star laughed at that. “Yeah, one of my older sisters named herself Hunter. You call that ‘Hantur’? Weird. Anyway, she named herself before she was sent to Sierpinski to join up with our cadre and she never talked about why she picked that name, so I’m in the dark about the why there. All I know is that she was my favorite sister.”

Upon seeing Äloy stare intensely at her, silently asking for more, Star chuckled and continued: “Hunter was a…character. It’s like she read too many of those surviving shounen manga and watched too many anime from pre-Empire days or something. The stuff that came out of her mouth, heh, you’d think she was some hot-blooded star of Naruto or something, pun intended by the way. Cheerful, loud, brash; yeah, that was Hunter. She always would do the right thing. If she hadn’t gone missing when everything happened, she would’ve. She wouldn’t just sit by and do nothing when there was something wrong going on. She wouldn’t.”

“Star?” Eule asked in a worried tone, noticing how troubled Star was, not just from the stressed tones of her voice, but also how closed off Star’s face was becoming.

Even Äloy was starting to notice Star’s emotional state, and was tugging on her black hand: the only part of her she could reach. “Hey, Star! Maybe we can do something else?” the little Gestalt girl suggested frantically. “Maybe we can practice shooting bows some more? Ooh, is it okay if I can try shooting your revolver bow?”

Eule would normally be worried about Äloy showing so much interest in their guns simply due to the potential danger there, but at the moment, she was relieved to see Star completely and utterly distracted from her worries as the Security Technician Guard Replika’s full and undivided attention snapped to the little Gestalt girl.

“Oh sure, kid,” Star said blithely, and subsequently earning Eule’s full and undivided attention but for entirely different reasons from her lover.

“Staaar,” Eule said in her most polite tone and her most polite smile, causing Star to jerk and look at her with a nervous laugh. “Completely disregarding just how incredibly dangerous it is to allow Äloy to play with our guns at the moment, you do realize that every bullet we have is likely a precious resource that we cannot replace and therefore should not waste, yes?”

“Wait, wait, wait! Let me explain!” Star protested, waving her arms frantically at Eule’s exceedingly polite smile. “I was thinking that it’d be perfectly safe if I unload my revolver, and teach Äloy gun safety and let her go through some dry fire drills. That way, even if Äloy gets curious and decides to play with our guns–”

“I wouldn’t do that!” Äloy protested. “I know your guns are weapons and not toys. I’m not stupid, you know.”

Star blinked in surprised at the pouting Äloy, and then chuckled. “Sorry, Äloy. I shouldn’t have phrased it like that. It’s good that you know that they’re weapons and not toys, but my revolver–just like Eule’s pistol–they’re not like the bows you’re using, save for maybe those Casterbows. All of them are dangerous when they’re loaded, and one wrong trigger pull can kill someone even when you didn’t mean it. That’s why practicing good gun safety is very important. Do you understand?” Star asked.

Äloy gave Star a most determined look and nodded. “Yes, I do.”

Star nodded back and smiled in reply, before turning back to Eule. “Uhh, I hope that addresses your concerns, love?”

Eule sighed, but nodded as well. “It does. You do make very good points there. There’s just one thing I want to ask though: what’s a dry fire drill?”

Star gave her a completely dumbfounded stare for several moments that went on for so long that she started to get a bit annoyed before Star palmed her own face. “Ack, my bad. I never taught you dry fire drills, did I? Okay, we’ll have to correct that, because dry fire drills are important. They allow us to practice with our guns without actually using up any ammo. That way, our skills won’t get rusty in anything but pure accuracy when we finally have to use our guns.”

“Ohhh,” was all Eule could say to that as she thought about the implications of that. “That is a very useful thing to learn. We should get started on that–”

“After you finish learning how to shoot a bow,” Rost interrupted quite suddenly. Suddenly enough that Eule, Star, and Äloy practically jumped at his voice coming from behind them before turning to give him nervous laughs. “Both of you already know how to use your guns, and Aloy certainly doesn’t need to learn how to use a gun at this moment. Bow training should be the top priority for all of you.”

Eule laughed nervously some more in reply. She most definitely could not deny his logic there. Honestly, Eule felt like she was once more in front of Februar, being lectured on the fine points of Rotfront cuisine versus those of Heimat, Leng, and even Vineta. It actually felt reassuring to her for Rost to evoke those memories.

“Especially for you, Eu-le, since you’re going to have to practice with my War Bow until I finish crafting yours,” Rost said, taking off the aforementioned War Bow and holding it out to her. Eule started to open her mouth to protest, but Rost interrupted. “If you want, then we can trade the Hunter Bow for it for the moment to avoid violating your tribe’s custom. Do not worry about me. A good hunter can make the best out of any weapon. So, take it,” he commanded.

Faced with that soft mountain once more, Eule found her protests dying in her plastic-laced throat as she traded her Hunter Bow for his War Bow, and she started handling it.

Eule could definitely confirm that the War Bow was a larger and heavier bow than the Hunter Bow, but that wasn’t all she noticed. Rost’s War Bow was noticeably weathered on the central grip portion, with the strips of leather wrapped around there being soft, thin, and pale in color from long use. It was even still warm from where Rost had been gripping it prior to the trade. In almost every way possible, Eule could feel that she was holding somebody else’s personal weapon. She hoped that it would let her use it well before she inevitably returned it to Rost.

“Now, practice with my War Bow until you can consistently hit the yellow target center at about…10 meters or so should be good enough.” Rost then looked up at the clear blue sky. “Meanwhile, I believe some crafting is in order for me for today. If you need to ask me something, I will be back shortly,” he said before heading back into the house.

True to his word, Rost was back almost immediately, holding a backpack full of tools and parts that looked very much to Eule like the unfinished War Bow Rost had been working on. He set the backpack down next the table he’d lifted outside for his arm wrestling-flavored strength test before sitting down on a stool, pulling the parts out onto the table, and then doing his best impression of an Ara as he carefully began drilling a hole in one of the ends of the wooden part with some kind of hand-powered drill. He only paused briefly to look up at Eule staring at his crafting in fascination before firmly beckoning to Eule to continue her bow practice, which Eule did with an embarrassed laugh at being caught staring like a curious child at his work.

Fortunately, Rost’s War Bow was a good bow. It wasn’t clingy the way Eule had feared it might be. Although she found that she needed significantly more force to draw it back, it still sent practice arrows into the Grazer dummy-mounted target as well as the Hunter Bow had. Actually, it some ways, it was even easier to do that thanks to that odd “Significantly less force to maintain full draw” feature Rost had mentioned. It apparently applied even to his War Bow.

Thus, it was easier for Eule to aim at the target at full draw. It didn’t take long at all for her to be consistently hitting that yellow bullseye with Rost’s bow. It even got to the point where Star started suggesting that Eule not just stop at consistently hitting the yellow bullseye, and instead, try intentionally aiming for different rings to hone her accuracy. Star was doing just that after getting bored constantly hitting nothing but yellow.

Eule followed her lover’s suggestion, and indeed, it was starting to become fun aiming at various spots on the red, blue, and black rings. She even started intentionally aiming for the Grazer dummy’s head and the logs on its back just for amusement, and discovered that it provided an interesting challenge for her bow practice.

Even little Äloy was getting enthusiastic about bow practice after seeing Star and Eule’s enthusiasm. Eule even watched Äloy practice shooting her adorably tiny bow for a few moments. The little Gestalt girl wasn’t satisfied with target practice though. She was shooting at her own Grazer dummy while slowly walking, apparently trying to hone her accuracy while moving. Most of her shots missed the target, and some even missed the dummy entirely, but Eule could see the logic in what Äloy was doing, and so tried that for herself.

Eule didn’t do much better than Äloy at first. Aiming a bow while moving laterally in respect to her target turned out to be a bit tricky, especially given how the arrow wobbled in flight. Her arrows kept landing in and around the target, and she winced as, just like with Äloy, one of her arrows flew over the dummy’s back, and she had to search for a bit behind the dummy to find the practice arrow again.

Still, as the time passed and as Eule stubbornly continued to hone her accuracy, Eule found that she could consistently hit the yellow bullseye even while at a slow walking pace, and so started to intentionally aim at other parts of the target and the Grazer dummy itself to further improve her accuracy. She smiled as she was able to send her arrows into the logs on the Grazer dummy’s back, one right after the other, without missing a shot.

“See? The War Bow is better suited for you,” Rost suddenly pointed out.

Eule turned to look at Rost, and laughed nervously in reply. She didn’t know how else to reply to that.

“You will get used to it,” Rost insisted with the absolute confidence of a mountain.

Eule, who was most definitely not a mountain, could only wonder if Rost was right about that.

Rost then turned to Star with a slight smile on his face at seeing Star already placing arrows into the Grazer dummy’s logs herself, even while walking that same slow pace that Eule had been practicing with. “And I can see that the Sharpshot Bow is indeed perfectly suited for you, Star. May it serve you as well as it served me,” he said happily.

Star looked at Rost in surprise, just as much as Eule did. “This was your bow?” Star asked.

Rost nodded as his eyes took on a distant look. “It was. In my younger days, when I hunted some dangerous game. Thankfully, here in the Embrace, there are no such game to be found, so I simply hung up my old Sharpshot Bow, thinking that its days of hunting were over…until today, that is.”

Star looked at Rost’s, or rather her now, Sharpshot Bow more closely, as did Eule. It was only now that Eule noticed that the leather wrapped around the central grip looked a bit faded and worn, the Watcher legs serving as its limbs were scratched from countless uses, and the long feather decorating it had some noticeable gaps. At the very least though, there was no sign of any corrosion on said limbs or any rot on the wooden parts. It seemed that however Rost had been storing his old Sharpshot Bow, it had been with the utmost care.

Star smiled warmly at Rost. “Thank you, really. I’ll make sure this bow gets a taste of the old hunt again.”

Rost nodded. “I’m sure it will in your hands, just as I’m sure my War Bow will serve Eule well in the hunt today.”

Eule started to nod, and then froze as her cloned brain processed what Rost just said. “I’m sorry, what did you just say? The hunt today? What hunt?” she asked nervously.

“The hunt that we’re soon going to go on, of course. How else are you and Star supposed to sharpen your bow skills?” Rost asked as he got up and stretched after all his work on the War Bow on the table, which to Eule, looked almost complete, especially given that Rost had now managed to attach both limbs to the central wooden part.

Alas though, Eule had far more pressing matters to focus on than examining the more complete War Bow more closely.

“Isn’t it a bit soon to be hunting Machines already? We’ve only just started practicing with bows just a couple of hours ago,” Eule protested.

Rost though merely ignored Eule as he walked back into the house briefly to grab a pair of backpacks to hand to Eule and Star (and ending up having to trade more ammo pouches with them to accommodate the Rule of Six, to the point where Rost was actually carrying a large portion of their bullet supply) before putting on his own backpack, and walking towards the front gate that led down the mountain. He beckoned for everyone to follow him. “Come everyone, follow. You’ll see,” he said confidently as he then continued walking.

Faced with very little in the way of choice, Eule sighed and began following Rost along with a bemused Star and a just-as-confident Äloy.

“Don’t worry, Eu-le!” the little Gestalt girl declared confidently. “If any Machines attack us, I’ll take it down just like that Strider!”

Eule smiled at Äloy’s sunny grin. Both her cuteness and her confidence were comforting things to Eule. “I’ll be counting on you for that then,” she said to Äloy. Äloy’s even brighter smile in reply filled Eule’s plastic-laced heart with even more joy, and quieted the nervousness and fear bubbling deep within her at what Rost’s idea of a practice hunt might be.

*

“Remember, the most important thing a hunter or a Brave should do before a hunt is to steel the mind,” Rost explained as they walked down the mountainside.

There wasn’t even a trail. It was literally just them traversing a shallow-ish, rocky slope covered in trees and partially overgrown with vegetation in places that forced them to navigate around the woody bushes. It was the exact same path (in a manner of speaking) Eule and Star had walked up that very first day in the Embrace to follow Rost and Äloy to the house, and it wasn’t much easier than that first day.

Thus, there was plenty of time for Rost to not only trade out Eule and Star’s practice arrows for his real arrows, but to also conduct this impromptu lesson.

“Steal the mind? What are we, burglars?” Star asked incredulously.

Rost turned around to look at Star first in confusion, and then in annoyance as he tapped the Focus on his right temple. “Did this Metal World thing not speak for me correctly? I said ‘Steel the mind’, as in the steel your bones are made of.”

“Ohhh,” Star exclaimed in understanding…before she immediately said: “I still don’t get it.”

“Steel the mind is an expression among the Nora, especially among the Braves,” Rost explained. “It’s short for a series of proverbs that are supposed to help a Brave prepare for battle. There are three such proverbs.”

Rost held up his right index finger. “One: harden your mind to be tough as steel. Get into the mindset of being a hunter. Believing that you will take down your prey is the first step towards doing so. If you can imagine victory within your mind, then you are closer to grasping that victory in your hands. A hunter who is confident without being reckless has achieved the perfect balance there.”

Eule laughed nervously upon hearing that. She had a feeling that particular proverb was being directed at her.

Rost help up another finger. “Two: polish your mind to be bright as steel. Practicing your moves and skills before the hunt will let you better remember them in the actual hunt. Fortunately, that’s what you all have been doing thus far, so you have already accomplished this step.”

Äloy nodded happily. “Yup. We practiced a lot, so our minds should be extra shiny,” she insisted smugly, earning her a warm smile from Eule.

Rost also shared that smile before holding up a third and final finger. “Three: hone your mind to be sharp as steel. Sharpening steel requires you to damage it, thus actual hunting experience is what carves the reflexes and skills a hunters needs into their minds. Remember though that too much hunting experience isn’t good, just as sharpening a steel blade too much makes it brittle. You need just enough of a hunting experience without becoming too brittle to continue hunting, and that’s what I am taking us out for today.”

Eule nodded at that. All three proverbs made sense, and thus made this “Steel the mind” expression all the more worth remembering. That said, she was still curious about what this “just enough of a hunting experience” actually was.

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before they reached a forest down near the base of the mountain. Rost motioned for everyone to crouch down, and then they all followed him into some foxtail grass. Eule was initially afraid that Rost had spotted a Machine of some sort, before he motioned for everyone to look ahead, which Eule did so by creeping forward until she was at the edge of the foxtail patch.

Eule was surprised to see just a couple of meters ahead a…herd? Pack? Whatever you were supposed to call a group of what were obviously pigs, with their piggy snouts, piggy grunts, and piggy cloven hooves at the end of their 4 feet. These pigs though looked very different from the fat and pink farm pigs she’d seen in pictures of the domed Rotfront farms. They were just as big, but these pigs were obviously wild, covered in very dark brown (almost black really), thick, bristly fur all over its body, with an erect mane of those bristles running from their heads down their backs. It looked pretty obvious that more of these wild pigs’ body mass were muscle as opposed to the fat of the farm pigs.

At the moment though, the wild pigs weren’t doing anything ferocious. They were just innocently rooting around in the forest floor for food. Nothing scary about that. They even looked kind of cute to Eule doing that. Especially the little piglets. A part of Eule’s mind irrationally wanted to go up to one of the small, furry, striped piglets following after a large female boar that was presumably their mother and give the cute little animal a hug. Fortunately, it was pretty easy to clamp down on that desire and concentrate on what Rost was saying.

“Those boars will be our quarry for today,” Rost explained quietly.

“Ooh,” Äloy breathed. “I only ever hunted a rabbit once, and that was a lot smaller than these beasts.”

Rost nodded at Äloy before turning back to the Replikas. “They’re big and easy targets for the bow, and can be brought down even in a single shot if you aim for the head or the heart. Your goal will be to bring down one of these boars, at least.”

Eule tilted her head at Rost. “Huh, the Focus translates it as ‘keiler’? I heard it yesterday when you were talking about what you made your trailmeat out of, and I forgot to ask about it. It’s the first I’ve heard of that word,” she whispered.

“I’ve heard it a few times in some nature documentaries,” Star whispered back. “They’re basically wild pigs. Really wild. As in they’ve never been domesticated. But…they’re all supposed to be extinct. All species of boar went extinct when Vineta was basically bombed into an ocean world. How are there any boars left?”

Eule was strongly reminded of her musings about Vineta last night. “Rost, are you sure these are boar, and not just pigs that escaped captivity? Maybe you Nora raised some pigs, and they accidentally got free–”

Eule was forestalled by Rost holding up a hand. “We Nora do not raise animals. We do not farm, and we don’t keep animals. Other tribes like the Carja may do so, but we do not. It goes against the ways of the All-Mother, for She teaches us to take only what She gives us and no more, lest we take too much from Her and bring Her harm like the Old Ones did all those ages ago. We certainly don’t raise boar like the Carja and Oseram do. Besides though, even they took piglets from the wild to raise and breed for food, fat, and hide. The boar didn’t escape from them to live in the wild.”

“But…but then…how do you have an animal that’s been extinct for several millennia?” Eule wondered to herself, growing ever more puzzled as she tried to explain this illogical series of events.

“In any case, what the boar are to you is irrelevant for now,” Rost said. “Right now, the hunt is more important. You need the experience, and besides, we need the meat.”

Star scratched the back of her head nervously. “Uhh…”

“It’s not just you, Star,” Rost said in a dryly amused tone. “Four eats more than two. It’s just the way things are. Nothing we can do about that but to hunt some more, and give you both some practice in the meantime.” His face then turned serious. “Just be a bit careful around boar. Unlike other flesh and bone beasts, the boar can be dangerous. Usually, they will flee if they sense humans like other such beasts. However, the big males and females with young will turn and fight, especially when injured. I’ve seen unwary hunters who didn’t respect the boar get savaged by them. It’s why the tribe respects the boar as an honorable quarry for a hunt.”

“Is that why you got one of them on your shoulder?” Star asked quietly, looking pointedly at the dead boar’s head hanging on Rost’s left shoulder.

Rost nodded solemnly. “It was a worthy opponent: a big male who had fought as well as a Machine. This is…I suppose my way of honoring him.” He then looked over at the boar herd. “But enough talking about boars. It’s time for you two to take one down for yourself.”

Rost’s warning about these boars made Eule very nervous, but Star’s brief comforting hand on her shoulder helped calm her down, allowing her to concentrate on the boar in front of her.

“Eule, 220 kH,” Star said quietly.

Eule’s eyes widened in realization as she turned on her radio receiver and dialed it to that frequency. She hadn’t thought about that. Their radios were completely silent, and these boars certainly couldn’t intercept radio even if they had the faintest inkling about what radio is, which Eule highly doubted. This made their radios the perfect way to communicate without risking alerting the boars to their presence.

“See that big girl there? The one closest to us that’s standing side-on to us, over?” Star broadcasted.

It wasn’t hard for Eule to see the boar Star was referring to. The boar was easily one of the largest of the boars in the herd, about the size of some of the larger pigs she and her sisters working Sierpinski’s kitchens had ever butchered. As evidenced by the lack of any tusks like the one on Rost’s shoulder, it was also a female. The massive female boar was busy shoveling through the dirt looking for food, and was completely oblivious to their presence.

And as Star pointed out, the female boar just so happened to be standing sideways relative to them, providing a perfect target profile for their bows.

“Yeah, over?” Eule broadcasted back.

“On the count of three, you shoot at its heart. I’ll aim for its eye and hope I get an instant kill. Even if I miss, I’m hoping a heart shot will still slow it down even if my shot misses, over,” Star explained.

Eule nodded. “Roger that,” she finished broadcasting before taking one of the real arrows from her quiver, nocking it on the string, and drawing Rost’s War Bow. The sudden drop in needed force to keep it at full draw was an advantage that was obvious before, but now more than ever, she was grateful for it. It let her arms minimize their electricity expenditure to keep the bow at full draw, as well as making her aim steadier as she aimed at the front of the boar, right behind its neck where its heart laid. “Ready, over,” she reported just as quietly to her lover.

“Ready,” Star replied just as succinctly. “On one…two…three.”

Eule loosed her arrow, sending it wriggling through the air for a moment before it buried its triangular, bladed arrowhead right into the boar’s chest. However, even as Eule nocked another arrow onto Rost’s War Bow just in case, she knew that it was almost certainly not her arrow that killed the boar. Not when Star’s arrow flew true and buried itself right into the boar’s eye.

Either way though, the boar fell to the ground with a thud, as though it was a puppet that had its strings cut. It didn’t even so much as squeal, suggesting that it died instantly, which was a bit of a relief to Eule. The other boars in the herd running away, squealing in panic, was another source of relief. She had been afraid that the other boars might turn aggressive after hearing Rost’s warning. Thankfully, those fears seem to have been misplaced.

“Yes, we nailed it!” Star shouted in joy, hugging Eule in the process.

“You did!” Äloy shouted as well, joining in on the hug via clamping onto Eule’s mechanical leg from behind.

“No, you nailed it. That arrow through the head was definitely the one that took it down,” Eule noted while returning the hug to both her lover and the adorable little Gestalt girl that had found a place in her plastic-laced heart. “I was basically shooting a corpse when my arrow hit it.”

“Eh, it was living when you released that arrow, so I’m going to call it and say that it’s your kill too,” Star replied happily.

“I agree with Star,” Rost added. “That boar was the first kill for both of you. Be proud of it.”

Eule blushed and buried her face into Star’s belly. “If you say so,” she replied to Rost’s compliment, fully aware that she sounded a bit muffled because of that and not caring in the slightest.

“I do say so,” Rost insisted, before continuing: “Come now. I will teach you how to skin, gut, and butcher a boar–”

“Oh wait, Rost!” Eule shouted, bringing her face out of Star for a moment. “I know how to do that. Could you allow me to gut and butcher that boar for you? Please?”

Rost blinked at Eule in surprise. “You do? How?”

Eule grinned at him. “As it so happened, my sisters and I once received a shipment of whole pig carcasses that we had to butcher to get them into the freezers, er, basically really big and really cold Chillwater containers powered by electricity instead of Chillwater. It was quite the educational experience, but that’s where I learned how to butcher pigs, and since these boars are basically wild pigs, they can’t be too different from a Rotfront farm-raised pig.”

Rost stroked his beard in deep thought. “That does make sense. It’s not like there’s any appreciable difference between a boar in the wild and a Carja-raised boar, after all. The only thing you need to keep in mind though is that butchering a freshly killed boar is different from butchering one that’s already dead. You need to hang the carcass after skinning and gutting it for a day before butchering it so that the meat has time to relax so that it isn’t tough. Now, are you sure you want to skin and gut this boar though?” Upon seeing Eule’s enthusiastic nod, he nodded back and said: “Very well then, Eu-le. It’s all yours, but remember: I’ll be here if you need anything.”

Eule nodded happily. Skinning and gutting a boar may not exactly be cooking, but it was close enough that it promised to satisfy Eule on a very deep level.

“Can I help too?!” Äloy asked, bouncing up and down in excitement.

Eule giggled. “I’ll definitely need your help with the boar at some point. From my own experiences, butchering a pig is definitely a job for at least 2 Eules…oh, that reminds me. Star, could you help lift the carcass? I need it upright so that I can drain it of blood.”

Star gave a smiling salute to Eule with her left hand in the Eusan Nation style. “Your wish is my command, my beautiful and deadly owl,” she said with a flourish before walking towards the fallen boar.

Eule smiled at her lover’s antics and followed her–

Before suddenly stopping when she heard heavy footsteps coming from behind her. She turned around sharply–

Just as a Watcher suddenly burst out of some vegetation behind them, its eye glowing a bright, suspicious yellow.

“What in the–” Eule heard Star began.

“Watcher! Behind us!” Eule also heard Rost yell out,

The Watcher’s gaze then went directly to little Äloy, who was staring at the Machine in just as much shock as Eule was. The Watcher then gave a harsh mechanical screech that Eule (to her shock) heard in both her ears and her radio receiver as the yellow of its eye turned an angry red, and it lunged at Äloy as the little Gestalt girl stumbled back in shock.

Eule would remember everything that happened very clearly. Even as she was screaming “No!” in her head, she raised Rost’s War Bow, drawing the arrow back to full draw, and briefly aimed before letting the arrow loose.

The bladed arrowhead didn’t even have time to wriggle before it embedded itself straight into the Watcher’s eye. Eule watched glass shatter and sparks fly as the arrow crashed through the robotic eye and buried itself deep into the Watcher’s head.

The Watcher, robbed of both its sight and its life, crashed to the ground with no sound but its impact with the ground, sliding to a half mere centimeters away from a still-shocked Äloy, who squeaked and hid behind Eule, looking around for more Watchers with her tiny bow at the ready.

Eule was now aware of Star and Rost rushing to her taking up positions around her, with Äloy firmly in between them all, and scanning around for more Watchers just as Eule was.

“The fuck?! Where did that Watcher come from?” Star hissed in that slightly muffled tone that told Eule that Star had deployed her face shield, and for good reason.

“I don’t know, but stay alert,” Rost warned. “Watchers always come in groups.”

Eule heeded that warning, and nocked another arrow to Rost’s War Bow, drawing it back to full draw and scanning around for more Watchers that were surely eager to avenge their fallen fellow unit.

Seconds passed, and nothing happened.

Seconds turned into minutes, and nothing still happened.

When the minutes threatened to go into the double digits and no Watchers appeared, Eule asked: “Rost, are you sure that Watchers always come in groups?”

“They…do,” Rost replied, but now sounding a bit unsure. “At least, they should. I’ve never seen or heard of Watchers wandering around alone before.”

“Guess there’s a first time for everything,” Star noted. “Unless the Watchers have learned to be really patient?”

“The Machines aren’t that intelligent, fortunately,” Rost replied dryly.

“Could it be the Derangement altering the Watchers’ behavior?” Eule asked.

“…Maybe,” Rost conceded as he looked around.

“Rost, there’s also something you should know,” Eule continued. “That Watcher? When it made its…alarm screech, that screech was not only auditory, but it was broadcasting that screech on radio as well. My radio receiver module was hearing it at 220 kHz.”

“Same here,” Star added. “Nothing else though. Just that alarm screech, like Eule said. Guess these things don’t speak even on radio?”

A chill then ran down Eule’s carbon steel spine. “Wait, could that Watcher have heard us speak over the radio then?” she asked her lover.

Star’s eyes widened in shock and realization. “Shit, I think you’re right. If these Watchers broadcast their alarm screeches over radio, then of course they’d have the ability to receive radio as well. Fuck, and it was on our highest frequency too, so it shouldn’t have been able to travel far. We just got fucking unlucky with that Watcher being just close enough to catch our broadcasts.”

Another chill went through Eule. “We can’t use our radios around the Machines. Otherwise, we’ll just draw them to us…like now. Rost, Äloy, I’m so sorry. I didn’t–”

“Stop,” Rost commanded. “You had no idea that the Machines could hear this ‘radio’, and I didn’t either. Blaming yourselves for something no one knew isn’t going to help anyone.” He then looked around some more before sighing, and continuing: “Besides, if they can speak to each other beyond sight range with ‘radio’, and if it’s been this long since that Watcher made its alarm call, and no other Watcher has come, that has to mean that there aren’t any Watchers around, no matter how bizarre that is for them,” he concluded before taking the arrow off the bowstring of his spare Hunter Bow and then putting said bow away on his back. “In any case, I believe we now not only have a boar to butcher, but a Watcher too, so it works out anyways. I’ll butcher the Watcher, and you and Star can show Aloy how to skin and gut that boar.”

Eule breathed out a sigh of relief both for finally being able to off of her draw and for Rost’s kindness and rationality. “Alright,” she agreed, eager to be doing something Eule-like for once.

Rost nodded and then pulled out his knife, a trio of Chillwater satchels, and what appeared to be a large skin of more Chillwater, and then pushed them into Eule’s arms. “Here, you will need all of these, since I noticed that you didn’t have a knife and you mentioned that all your pouches were full of…bullets, you called it, for your weapons? As well as that one pouch with medical supplies for you Replikas specifically?”

Eule nodded in confirmation…and then suddenly realized that with all of these items, she was now far over the limit dictated by the Rule of Six. She started to try to give them back to at least make a trade…only to realize just how awkward it would be to trade 5 items with Rost just to accommodate the Rule of Six. Not to mention potentially risky since, in order to be able to keep Rost’s War Bow or the quiver full of arrows, Eule would have to trade away her pistol and its holster, which is not what she wanted to do under any circumstances, especially not without teaching Rost gun safety first.

Eule dithered for several moments, before taking a deep breath, and hesitantly returned the arrow nocked on the bowstring to its quiver before hanging Rost’s War Bow over her shoulder, tied the Chillwater satchels and the Chillwater skin to her belt, and slipped the somewhat crude knife into her medical satchel. The irony of that last choice somehow helped Eule keep calm despite her blatant violation of the Rule of Six.

“It’s only temporary,” Eule whispered to herself. “I’ll give them back to Rost when I’m done using them, so it’s okay. I’m not breaking the Rule of Six. I’m just…bending it. Yes, that’s it.”

As Rost walked past Eule, seemingly ignoring her whispering to herself, he suddenly stopped, turned around to look at her, and said: “Oh, and congratulations on your first solo kill, Eule, and on a Machine on top of it…and thank you for saving Aloy’s life, for the second time now.” He then smiled at a stunned Eule. “I told you that War Bow was suited for you,” he said before moving to the fallen Watcher and crouching down to begin butchering it.

Normally, Eule would be deeply interested in how to go about butchering a Watcher. However, she was frozen as her brain tried to process what Rost said. Her first solo kill? What? Eule initially tried to deny this, but the words never even properly formed in her cloned brain before they died there, because Eule couldn’t deny it. She had killed that Watcher. She felt as if it had been entirely automatic, but she couldn’t deny that it was her kill. Her. Kill.

Eule felt faintly ridiculous. Imagine that? A noncombatant Replika model like her killing some sort of robotic…giant flightless bird? It was so silly…and yet, she couldn’t help but feel something on top of the befuddlement. Something warm and happy…pride? Was she proud of having taken down a Watcher?

Eule knew that a lot of that warmth and happiness was defending Äloy from danger, but she also couldn’t help but feel proud in this accomplishment, almost as proud as when she’d once prepared a perfectly roasted duck with sour plum sauce by herself. It had been one of the most complex dishes she’d made early in her Commissioning at Sierpinski, and she was still proud of having done that all on her own. It was so bizarre to feel the same way from slaying a Machine, but Eule couldn’t deny that it produced a similar feeling deep in her plastic-laced heart.

Eule then suddenly felt a pair of physical sensations simultaneously. The first was Star reaching out to hug Eule in a hug that pulled Eule into the Security Technician Guard Replika’s breastplate. The second was the sensation of little Äloy hugging her leg, clamping on like an adorable monkey.

“You did it!” Äloy shouted joyfully. “You got a Machine kill too! Now we’re both Machine hunters! Star, you’d better hunt your own Machine too, so that we can all be Machine hunt…Star?”

Eule then looked up in alarm at Star’s face, her eyes shut and the rest of her face filled with troubled worry. “Star, are you okay?” Eule asked.

Star scoffed. “Am I okay? I should be asking you that,” she said, finally opening her blue eyes, which like the rest of her face, were filled with worry. “By the Red Eye, how the fuck did I not notice that Watcher until it was almost right on top of us? I’m 220 fucking centimeters tall. I should’ve been able to see it coming from a kilometer away. I should’ve–”

Eule gently placed a white-gloved finger on her lover’s face shield and shushed her, her own worries about her kill transforming into worries about her Star. “Star. That Watcher approached from directly behind us through thick forest and undergrowth that no one could’ve seen through. Not even Rost noticed until at the same time you did, if you recall, so blaming yourself solely for not noticing that Watcher in time makes no sense. Besides, I thought we promised each other that we wouldn’t do that on that first night here?”

Eule couldn’t see Star’s mouth thanks to that black face shield still in place, but the softening of Star’s eyes told Eule that she was smiling underneath that face shield. “Yes, we did. Guess I’m just being silly, aren’t I?” Star asked.

Eule gently reached up and pulled down her Star’s head to give her a peck on the face shield. “We both were, love. Now, perhaps you could put away that face shield so that I can give you a proper kiss?” Eule asked with a smile.

“Oh, right, I forgot,” Star said sheepishly as the two halves of her face shield slid apart, folding it back in its usual place to reveal her face once more, finally allowing Eule to give her lover a proper kiss on her plastic-laced lips.

“Whoa, how did you do that?” Äloy asked excitedly, bouncing up and down in her excitement. “I thought you were just taking that mask thing on and off really quickly when I wasn’t looking, but it just puts itself on and off on its own? How?!”

Star smiled down at Äloy. “It’s not doing it on its own, and for the record, it’s not a ‘mask thing’. My face shield is basically part of my body, so I’m making it slide in and out on my own. Here, look,” she said, demonstrating exactly that by deploying her black metallic face shield back onto her face. “It basically works like a sliding door, with the two halves of my face shield sitting behind my head when it’s not on my face like this. It uses a bit of electricity each time I slide it back and forth, but it’s not much. In fact, it uses so little electricity that I can keep doing it all day on a full battery if I have to.” Star aptly demonstrated by continuously operating her face shield, deploying and retracting it repeatedly, much to Äloy’s amazement and intense interest.

Eule was smiling just as much as Äloy, but for different reasons. She was deeply relieved at seeing Star relaxed and happy now, compared to how stressed she was while blaming herself. She mentally thanked Äloy for that happy interruption, but alas, there’s Eule work to be done.

“Alright, alright, let’s play later, okay?” Eule asked, giggling at the sight of Star and Äloy frozen in the middle of the little Gestalt girl feeling Star’s face shield as the latter was leaning down to allow the former to reach it. “Right now, we have a boar to butcher. You don’t want to let Rost beat us now, do you?”

“No!” Äloy yelled out at the same time Star (with her face uncovered once more) did.

Eule giggled, honestly feeling like she was a kindergarten teacher now. “Then let’s get to it then, children!”

In a very short amount of time, Eule, Star, and Äloy were crouched around the dead boar. As Star yanked out the pair of arrows embedded in it (which Eule noted required visible effort even for Star to do, especially for the arrow impaled into the boar’s eye), Eule brought out Rost’s knife. Now that Eule had unwrapped it and was holding it in her hands, she could see that while crude, it was surprisingly functional. Strips of leather wrapped around a thin section of Machine steel served as a perfectly workable handle, while the rest of the knife was carved in such a way that it somewhat resembled the blade of one of the many kitchen knives she and her sisters had handled in the kitchens of S-23 Sierpinski, save for having thick strips of leather in front of the grip that acted as a crude guard.

With that concluded, Eule got to work. The boar was big, but it was really no bigger than the farm pigs she’d help butcher, so its size wasn’t really intimidating. Neither was the prospect of gutting it, thanks to AEON. For reasons known only to them, they had seen fit to send several dozen whole pigs to S-23 Sierpinski completely whole: hair, offal, and all.

She could still clearly remember the Look on Februar’s face when she saw the pigs for herself. Februar had to take deep calming breaths, several of them, before clapping her hands and ordering everyone to help her skin, gut, and butcher those pigs, because those pigs certainly weren’t going to do that themselves. Eule found the experience odd but interesting all the same, and right now, she was thankful for it.

First, after getting Star to hold up the massive boar carcass by its hind legs (which still amazed Eule that Star was lifting it so easily, considering that the boar had to have been around 130 kg or so now that Eule could get a better look at it), Eule cut along the boar carcass’s neck, severing the large blood vessels there and spilling the blood onto the ground. She let the boar’s blood completely run out in order to rapidly cool the carcass before beginning with the skinning in earnest.

Eule then made a series of cuts along the legs of the boar, along its head, and down its belly (with Äloy helping to pull aside the front legs when needed), allowing her to easily pull the skin off as she cut away the fat and connective tissue along the inside while keeping the hair from getting onto the meat.

The result was Eule eventually being able to pull off the fur-covered skin, leaving a mostly skinless boar carcass, and setting it aside for later if Rost wants it for anything. And indeed, a quick trip back to Rost confirmed that he did want that boar skin, resulting in him handing a leather sheet to Eule to tie the boar skin and head up in a big bundle to put into her backpack.

Honestly, Eule was starting to love that backpack. It was a huge container, allowing her to store far more items than her belt pouches without violating the Rule of Six, and it was comfortable to wear. She wondered if it was possible for her to earn enough of these Shards the people here used as money to buy the backpack from Rost, but it was a brief flight of fancy. Right now, there was Eule work to do.

Which Eule proceeded to do by taking Rost’s knife, and cutting through the center of the rib cage before pulling it open, exposing the jiggly internal organs, which were all trying to jiggle out of the boar’s body thanks to gravity. Eule carefully took hold of the specific organs she wanted: the heart, the lungs, the liver, and the kidneys; and just as carefully cut them away to store into the trio of Chillwater satchels as Äloy held the satchels open. She was afraid that the sheer amount of boar offal would exceed the capacity of the satchels, but by some miracle, the offal just barely managed to fit into them.

Once Eule had all the offal she wanted, she then cut the anus away from the body and allow the rest of the organs to fall out onto the ground. Eule covered the organs with dirt before moving everyone and the carcass away from the site to keep from accidentally uncovering the mass of unwanted offal.

Next, Star carried the gutted boar carcass to a nearby stream to wash it off. Eule wasn’t entirely sure about this due to the potential for the river to carry diseases, but it was either that, or eat unwashed meat contaminated with bacteria, so Eule decided that the washing was worth it.

Eule placed the large Chillwater skin right into the boar’s body cavity where the organs had rested, using a metal needle (apparently carefully carved from one of the many pins that held Machine hide to the skin) and several Machine wires borrowed from Rost to crudely stitch the body cavity closed. At last, Star was now holding up a properly skinned and gutted boar carcass, waiting to be hung somewhere in the house’s yard.

With a sigh of relief at a job well done, Eule wiped the sweat off her brow using her bare black hands. Her white gloves were now hanging from her belt to dry after having been washed in the stream. There was certainly no way Eule was going to go around with her gloves stained red from boar blood and viscera, after all. Even then though, she had looked at the fresh bloodstains in trepidation when she noticed that they weren’t quite coming off during the washing, leaving very faint pinkish blotches that were still there on the white cloth even as it was drying. She earnestly hoped that Rost had soap (or vinegar, if the bloodstains dried) to help get the stains out, however faint that hope might appear to be.

Speaking of which, Rost walked up to them now, with his backpack bulging with Watcher parts. Overflowing, really. Eule snorted in amusement at the sight of a pair of Watcher feet sticking out of his backpack’s bag. He really had wasted nothing on the Watcher carcass. Even the bones and assorted bits he couldn’t fit into his own backpack, he had taken apart and put into Eule and Star’s backpacks as they were busy skinning and gutting the boar. There was now nothing left of the Watcher carcass save for a dark, oily stain on the ground where it had laid.

“I see you weren’t lying about butchering those…pigs, you called them, at your old home,” Rost said as he examined the skinned boar carcass Star was still holding by its hind feet. “Excellent butchering. Not much use for the head and feet besides for stew though,” he noted.

“Yeah,” Äloy agreed firmly. “The meat’s all tough and chewy, and not really good anyways.”

Eule gaped at both in surprise. “Your people don’t make sülze or eisbein with them?”

Rost’s and Äloy’s blank looks all but confirmed it to Eule, even before Rost asked: “No, what are those? The Focus isn’t making any sense at all. It’s insisting that ‘sool-ze’ and ‘ize-bine’ are ‘head cheese’ and ‘ice leg’ in turn, neither of which makes any sense to me.”

Eule hopped in excitement. “Oh, oh! Those are delicious, and I know how to make them. You’ll love it, if you’ll perhaps let me cook them? Please?”

Rost sighed, but with a slight smile to accompany the sigh. “Never before have I had a guest so constantly insist on doing work when the host is insisting in turn that he will do everything.” Eule watched with even more excitement as Rost threw his hands up in the air. “Fine. You may do as you like with the boar head and feet, along with the rest of the carcass if you so wish. It is your and Star’s kill, after all.”

Eule leapt into the air, cheering at the thought of finally being able to cook. “You won’t regret it, Rost! I’ll make the best sülze and eisbein you’ve ever had!” she practically squealed out.

“It will be the only such examples of those dishes that Aloy and I will ever have,” Rost noted dryly, still with that slight smile on his face. “But I will take your word for it.”

Star giggled as her face took on a dreamy look. “Ah, sülze. Eisbein. Now those are delicious. A good Rotfront-style roasted eisbein, with the skin all crispy and crackly and covered in that sweet red glaze? Mmm-mm, delicious,” she said, with Eule giggling as she watched a thin line of drool run down the corner of Star’s mouth before she slurped it back up in embarrassment.

Meanwhile, Äloy was frowning at Eule with a puzzled look on her adorable face. “What’s ‘cheese’, and what does it have to do with the head?” she asked.

“It…wait, you don’t know what cheese is?” Eule asked Äloy in surprise. Upon seeing Äloy shaking her head, she asked further: “Then does that mean you don’t know what milk is?”

Äloy’s blank look said it all. “You mean the stuff mothers feed their babies with?” the little Gestalt girl asked.

“Well, yes, but I’m talking about the white liquid that comes out of female cows, not out of Gestalt women when they’re lactating,” Eule clarified.

Äloy merely continued giving Eule a puzzled look, initially making Eule think she needed to further clarify what milk was, until Äloy asked: “What’s a cow?”

Now it was Eule’s (and Star’s) turn to give Äloy a blank look. “You don’t know what a cow is?” Eule asked in disbelief. When she received another headshake in reply, she turned to Rost and asked: “Could you help me out here?”

But to Eule’s shock, all she received from Rost was a look as blank as Aloy’s. “What is this ‘cow’ that you speak of? ‘Kuh’? Whichever it is?” he asked.

“Wait, neither of you know what a cow is?” Star asked in just as much disbelief. “You know? Big, four-legged mammal? Males have big horns? They go ‘Moo’?”

“Do you mean goats?” Rost asked in utter confusion. “Those are the closest beast I can think of, aside from the ‘Moo’, and the Carja, Oseram, and Banuk do raise goats for milk, so…”

Star blinked at Rost in bafflement before looking thoughtful. “Huh, I’ve never actually had goat milk before. Guess this will be a first for me if we can ever get our hands on any of that goat milk.”

“Well, at least we have milk of some kind here,” Eule conceded. “We’ll just have to get used to not having any beef then.”

“…Damn, and now all I can think of is a nicely grilled steak and beef bratwurst,” Star said mournfully, prompting Eule to reach up and pat her lover’s shoulder in sympathy.

“Waaait…are you saying that people outside the Sacred Lands get baby food out of these goat beasts? How? Why?” Äloy asked in disbelief.

“Well, milk is extracted from goats via their udders, er, the swollen teats that the baby goats drink from. As for why, it’s to drink?” Eule said in a puzzled tone, unsure what the problem was. “I mean, goat milk is high in protein, fat, and calcium; so it’s good for your growing body.”

Eule was shocked to see Äloy give her a look of betrayal and disgust. “That’s gross. Why would anyone want to drink that? I thought you liked making sense, Eu-le.”

Eule made a light groan of disappointment somewhere in the back of her throat, where her desire to drink milk of any kind was battling out with Äloy’s blatant disgust for what Eule thought and continued to think was a perfectly normal food and drink.

“Wait, so what’s cheese then?” Äloy asked, giving Eule a suspicious look.

Eule felt more than a bit of trepidation as she mentally dug into what she remembered of the processes behind cheese-making to try and answer Äloy’s question as honestly as possible. She’d promised Äloy at least that.

“Cheese is a food made by coagulating milk either by rennet, which is a complex series of enzymes obtained from the stomachs of the animals the milk came from, or by the use of bacterial enzymes to do the same.” Eule saw that Äloy was still confused though, so she further simplified the explanation. “Cheese is basically taking the solid parts of the milk out of the water it’s suspended in. It’s like…how bees make honey by taking the water out of flower nectar.”

“Wait, that’s how bees make honey?” Äloy asked, her eyes now bright with curiosity instead of dark with disgust.

Eule nodded. “Yes, but you understand now what cheese is, yes?”

Äloy’s curious smile promptly turned back into a frown. “Yeah, but this cheese still sounds gross. Can’t we just eat the boar organs instead?”

Eule slumped in failure. “Yes, alright. Let’s go home now then.”

As Äloy ran past her in the direction of the slope leading up to the house, Eule felt a comforting Star hand on her shoulder. “Well, you tried,” Star consoled.

Eule merely gave her lover a lopsided smile in reply, and was surprised to suddenly feel a single pat of a hand on her other shoulder, resulting in her turning her head to see Rost giving her a consoling look.

“If it’s any consolation, I’ve eaten cheese before, and I admit, I have developed a bit of a taste for a good goat cheese,” Rost admitted with a smile before it turned a bit lopsided. “Goat milk though, not so much. The one time I drank it, I remember that it tasted good, sweet and fatty with a nice strong goat taste, and then I remember that I immediately needed to use an outhouse afterwards. It would seem that goat cheese likes me, but not goat milk. Strange, is it not?”

“Oh. Ohhh,” Eule’s eyes widened in realization. “Rost, you’re lactose intolerant.” When she saw Rost give her a blank look, she explained: “Uh, milk has this sugar in it called lactose. Some Gestalts and even some Replikas can’t digest it properly, and so the result is that when they drink it, it causes symptoms ranging from nausea and flatulence to abdominal pain and diarrhea. However, the process of turning milk into cheese breaks down that lactose, and aging it further reduces it, thus making cheese safe for lactose intolerant people to eat it. That’s why it’s very likely that you have lactose intolerance, Rost.”

Rost stroked his braided beard in his usual thoughtful gesture. “Hmm, so that’s what you call it. I know many Nora have this same problem with milk, so we just call it Carja Milk Sickness since it started when the Carja trade mission sold milk to us for the first time. It’s still interesting to find out why that is though. I don’t suppose there’s any cure for this…’lactose intolerance’?”

Eule gave Rost a consoling smile. “Besides avoiding milk, drinking only milk substitutes, and avoiding eating too much cheese or yogurt? Unfortunately, no.”

Rost nodded sadly. “A pity then. Oh well, at least goat cheese is far too expensive for me to consume more than as a rare treat. I do actually have a part of a small block of hard goat cheese left from my last trade with the Carja trade mission. The taste was too strong for Aloy’s liking, and she hadn’t even known that it was cheese back then, but perhaps you and Star might like a taste?”

“I’m up for it,” Star immediately said with the eagerness of a hungry Star unit.

Eule giggled. “I wouldn’t mind a bit of this Carja hard goat cheese myself, just to see what kind of cheese these Carja people make.”

As Rost nodded with a smile, Äloy suddenly ran back to them. “Come on, let’s go home already! I’m hungry!” she whined.

Chuckling, Rost extracted a ball of his boar trailmeat from one of his innumerable pouches and handed it to Äloy. “Here, this will tide you over until dinner,” he said.

As Äloy happily chewed on her trailmeat, Rost then promptly handed one to Eule and two to Star. “Also to tide you two over until dinner,” he said, directing his gaze just a bit more towards the hungry Star.

Star had no qualms, happily inhaling a ball of trailmeat before devouring the other. Eule ate hers more sedately as everyone started on the path home. With how long it took to navigate that mountain slope down, Eule was sure there was plenty of time to enjoy her trailmeat on the way back up.

Chapter Text

When everyone arrived back at the house, there was a surprise waiting for them. Eule recognized this surprise though. It wasn’t hard to recognize High Matriarch Teersa sitting on a log seat, apparently happily dozing while leaning on her walking stick. The sound of footsteps though caused Teersa to snort and open her eyes, her wrinkled face breaking into a smile.

“Ah, everyone. You’re back. I was wondering when you all would get back here, so I do hope you all didn’t mind that I dozed off for a bit here,” Teersa said happily, before quickly adding: “And yes, Rost, you may speak with me, just in case you were planning on ignoring what I said last night. You know, like always.”

Rost merely smiled and nodded politely, saying nothing.

It was however when Teersa’s smile gained an edge of sadness to it upon seeing Eule and Star that Teersa’s appearance suddenly made Eule very nervous.

“I take it that you have bad news for us then, Teersa?” Eule asked nervously, even as she tried to maintain a smile. She was fairly certain that it looked more like a grimace though.

“Unfortunately, that is the case here,” Teersa said regretfully as her smile turned rueful. “Fortunately, I do have good news to go with the bad, so the question here is: which do you two want to hear first?”

Eule and Star looked at each other and silently consulted with each other via 220 kH radio before looking back at Teersa.

“Bad news first,” Eule said.

“Just so we finish the briefing on a high note,” Star finished.

Teersa tilted her head curiously at Star when she said “briefing”, but otherwise nodded. “Very well, the bad first. Bad news: Lansra managed to convince Jezza that you two weren’t quite trustworthy enough to deserve a trade pass. That’s what we usually give to outsiders when they’re here to trade or are just staying in Nora Sacred Lands in general. Unfortunately, that old bat is a suspicious one, but she managed to make some good points about how you two have only been here for a few days, and that it wasn’t enough time to tell if you two are trustworthy.”

If Eule was fairly certain that she had a grimace on her face before, she was now dead certain. Mostly because she herself couldn’t really refute this Lansra’s point either.

“The good news though is that Jezza didn’t agree with Lansra arguing for you two to be driven out of the Sacred Lands. She wants you two to have a chance to argue your case and thus prove yourselves trustworthy. So, you’re getting to formally meet us for that case,” Teersa continued, before her smile turned into a frown. “There’s just one thing: Jezza and Lansra wanted to meet you two tomorrow in Mother’s Heart, in the main hall. I argued for at least the day after, but they both insisted. The good news about that fortunately is that while Lansra doesn’t want you two running off before the case, which is rather silly of her since she wants to drive you out anyways, Jezza, I think, genuinely wants to meet you two. I’m getting the feeling that she’s getting curious about you now, and wants to talk to you woman to woman.”

Eule breathed out…not quite a sigh of relief, but it sounds like it could’ve been worse.

“Uh, one question: do we at least get to eat breakfast before we have to go to this…trial, I guess?” Star asked with a hand raised, as though she was at a kindergarten.

Teersa snorted. “That, at least, was something I got them to agree on. Jezza certainly, but not even Lansra was suspicious or cruel enough to force you to attend this trial on an empty stomach. I was honestly quite surprised by that.”

Eule laughed nervously. “I take it that this…Lansra isn’t going to be particularly predisposed towards us?” she asked.

Teersa’s snort turned into a hearty laugh midway through. “Aula, I believe you said that was your name, there are Watchers that aren’t as suspicious as Lansra is. The old bat would probably drive out every outsider in the Sacred Lands, including the Carja and Oseram trade missions and any Banuk hunter who just happened to be here to sell their Machine parts, just to avoid the possibility that one of them might harm the tribe.”

“She sounds like she’d be great buddies with the Great Revolutionary then. That is, if they didn’t hate each other on principle, what with how spiteful they seem to be,” Star quipped dryly.

“Ha! I feel bad for your Eusan Nation tribe, if you have a Lansra as one of your High Matriarchs too,” Teersa laughed.

Eule still felt mixed feelings about all this criticism of the Great Revolutionary, but at the very least, it provided a distraction to the very real problems Teersa brought up.

Fortunately, Rost provided yet another distraction. “I apologize for interrupting this, but I believe we have a boar carcass to hang? Unless you wish to carry that carcass with you all the way through spear training, Star? And you, Eule? Do you wish to carry all of that boar offal while training?” he asked with his usual Kitezh-like dryness.

Eule squeaked in surprise. She’d completely forgotten about the trio of Chillwater satchels still hanging on her belt, and that just reminded her that she was violating the Rule of Six by carrying this many containers at once.

“Uh, um, where do I put these?” Eule asked, nearing panic.

“Anywhere there’s room on the kitchen table,” Rost replied.

A quick sprint into the house and some untying of wires later resulted in the Chillwater satchels sitting on a hastily cleared spot on said table, and sighing in relief that she would no longer potentially get in trouble if someone were to report her for violation of the Rule of Six–

…Only for Eule to blink in realization and shake her head at just how silly that worry was here in the Sacred Lands of the Nora. She sighed in disbelief and gave the trio of Chillwater satchels one more glance before returning to the yard.

“So…where do I hang this?” Eule just managed to catch Star asking as her lover looked around the yard.

Eule looked around the yard as well. Rost did have a stand hanging over the fire pit that he’d used to cook the turkey breasts from last night, but it was already full of cuts of smoked meat and just-as-smoked small animal carcasses, and in any case, it was far too short to accommodate an entire boar. There were horizontal wooden bars built partway up the support beams holding up the overhang, but they too were filled with smoked meat and even fish, and had the same height problem. So how…?

Rost then beckoned Star over to…a nearby Grazer dummy?

“Here, hold that carcass up to the muzzle,” Rost commanded, taking up a bundle of Machine wire out of one of his pouches as he said that.

As Star did as he told her to, Eule watched as Rost climbed up onto the Grazer dummy’s back. He then took hold of one of the boar carcass’s hind legs from Star, and began tying that leg to the dummy’s head, using the metal thing jutting out the cheek of the dummy to keep the leg from sliding off. Eule realized what Rost was doing even before he took the other leg from Star to tie it to the muzzle as well, and began giggling at the sight of the boar carcass hanging from the dummy’s head, as though the dummy had somehow managed to hunt the boar and was now proudly carrying its kill. When she explained her reasoning to a curious Äloy, the little Gestalt girl joined in on the giggling, with Star joining in as well at the same time.

“There. Now the boar should be safe from any particularly adventurous foxes or raccoons that might venture up here for a free meal, despite how silly it looks, admittedly,” Rost said in that same Kitezh-like dryness from before at the sight of a pair of Replikas and his little girl giggling like madwomen.

“Well, it’s definitely what I’d call a multi-purpose dummy there,” Star quipped as she wiped away a tear from all the giggling, and then had a look of realization on her face. “Wait, did you say ‘raccoon’?”

Rost blinked in surprise at Star. “Yes, raccoons. They’re fairly opportunistic, and will eat anything they can reach, including meat, so they can be serious pests. Their meat is flavorful though, and their fur is lush and soft, so they do have some good to their bad.”

Eule blinked in confusion at her lover. “Why is this raccoon so important? What is it exactly, anyways?”

“Well, it’s a small mammal, about the size of a cat…well, the bigger cat breeds, anyways. It’s very fluffy, with a distinct mask pattern on its face, and apparently likes to root around in trash for food,” Star explained.

“Oh, that sounds oddly cute,” Eule commented.

“Yeah, they did look cute in those nature documentaries,” Star admitted. “But that’s not the point. Those raccoons? The documentaries mention that they were native only to a continent called North America…in Vineta, long before the Empire first conquered it.”

Eule took a sharp breath in her own realization. “So this place is Vineta?”

“Specifically in this North American continent, but yeah, you were right…I think,” Star said in a very unsure tone. “I still have no idea why Vineta isn’t an ocean world though. Not unless some super-powerful Bioresonant came down and restored all the land or something.”

Eule snorted. “I don’t think even the Empress could’ve done that.”

Star replied to that snort with her own. “Yeah, you’re right. If the Empress only cared about her own specific portion of humanity so much, you’d think she’d have at least tried to Klimaform all the land she blew up when she first conquered Vineta.”

“I’m not sure Klimaforming works that way. Then again, I’m not a Bioresonant unit or an Ara, so who knows?” Eule mused.

Eule then noticed that Rost and Äloy were looking back and forth at them with a look of utter bafflement on their faces, with Teersa seemingly settling back into her seat for another doze, apparently having decided that their conversation was too far beyond her to grasp.

“Are you two talking about your old home again? That Seer-pin-ski place?” Äloy asked with a flat look on her little face. “When you two do that, you usually stop making sense.”

Eule could only echo Star’s embarrassed laughter at that remark. “I’m sorry, Äloy. Did you need me to explain what we were talking about?”

Before Äloy could reply though, Rost coughed loudly for attention. “Perhaps you could save that for another time? Right now, it’s time for spear training.”

Star whistled. “Wow, you’re really going at this training with us at breakneck pace, aren’t you?”

Rost raised an eyebrow at Star. “Hopefully I don’t actually break your necks with this training, but yes, I do wish to teach you as much as I can before–”

Eule stared at Rost in concern at the way he cut himself off like that. “Before?” she asked.

“…Before the trial tomorrow,” Rost finally finished.

“Are you afraid that those other High Matriarchs might kick us out?” Star asked, her tone now entering concerned territory.

Which caused Äloy to look up at Rost in alarm. “Rost, they wouldn’t do that, right? They wouldn’t just kick Eu-le and Star out, right?”

Eule wasn’t encouraged by Rost’s deep breath and his looking up at the sky, as if looking to his All-Mother for guidance. Honestly, Eule wished that the Red Eye of Rotfront was in the sky right now, just so she can feel some comfort at knowing that it’s watching over them all.

“I don’t think so,” Rost said finally. “I don’t think Jezza would kick you both out without a thought, but…I can’t know for sure.” His gaze then returned to a now-very-worried Eule and Star. “That’s why I intend to teach you as much as I can in the meantime. If Jezza does side with Lansra on this, then at the very least, I can make sure that you two have the basic skills to survive in the wild until you make it to Meridian. That’s your best chance at survival if Jezza does agree to force you two out of the Sacred Lands altogether: travel to Daytower, insist on being escorted there if you have to so that you don’t get lost, and from there, head to Meridian via the Way of Broken Stones, and survive until you reach it. Meridian is the largest city in the land, and the Carja, while they can be a bit stuffy and prideful at times, they are a decent people despite what some of my tribe think. You will almost certainly be able to find a place in the City of the Sun if Jezza decides that you have no place here.”

Eule nodded with a pained expression on her face. Yes, she was committing the names of Daytower, Meridian, and this Way of Broken Stones to memory, but still…she realized that she didn’t want to leave. She liked it here with Rost and Äloy, and judging by the troubled look on her lover’s face, Star felt the same way.

And Äloy, well, her suddenly hugging Eule’s and Star’s legs together told Eule just what the little Gestalt girl thought of the possibility of her and Star leaving.

“I don’t want you to go. I want you and Star to stay,” Äloy said, her voice muffled by her face being buried into Eule’s mechanical thigh, but was still clear enough for Eule to hear that she was in near tears.

Eule reached down and gently patted Äloy’s fluffy hair. “We don’t wish to leave either. But if we can’t convince this Jezza to let us stay, then…I’m sorry.”

That statement simply made Äloy hold onto Eule’s leg all the more tightly.

Star said nothing, but also joined in the hair patting. Eule suspected that she’d said what needed to be said, and that was enough.

“I’ll try not to let that happen,” Teersa suddenly said, making everyone look at her. Eule watched Teersa slowly open her eyes to look at her. The elderly Gestalt woman still held kindness within her blue eyes, but there was now also a fierce determination burning in them. “I am a High Matriarch, after all. I not only have my vote to help, but my voice as well. Jezza can be strict, but she’s reasonable as well. If I can logic her into it, she’ll almost certainly agree with me that you two are no more a threat to the Nora than the average outsider trader. Probably less so in some ways, given how much Aloy clearly loves you two, which is pretty impressive considering that she’s only known you two for only a few days now, is it not?”

Eule gently continued petting Äloy’s hair, both feeling the warm fluffiness and admiring the color, like the color of flames burning brightly. “Indeed, it seems miraculous when you put it that way, Teersa,” Eule noted softly. “I suppose we can only pray to the Red Eye that the miracles continue happening.”

“Hmm, I’ve heard you and Star mention this ‘Red Eye’ before. I assume that this Red Eye is to your tribe what the All-Mother is to us?” Rost asked.

“More or less,” Eule replied with a note of hesitancy. “The Red Eye isn’t exactly a god the way your All-Mother is. It’s more…something watching over us and looking out for us. Um…”

“I guess one way to look at it is: it’s a big red eye in the sky that’s always there, so it’s a source of comfort and stability, I guess?” Star said uncertainly.

Rost blinked in surprise at them. “Wait, this Red Eye is literally in the sky of your Rotfront land?”

Eule thought about it for a moment, trying to figure out a way to explain the Red Eye in the physical sense to Rost. “Rotfront refers to both the gas giant planet from which the name Rotfront comes from, because of its predominately red coloration, as well as the largest moon orbiting it which houses the vast majority of Rotfront’s population. We Rotfronters use the name Rotfront to refer to either one based on context. But as for the Red Eye: its physical form is a great storm on the gas giant planet that’s fully visible from the moon. We call it the Red Eye because, well, it looks very much like a red eye on the gas giant’s clouds, and it’s been there for millennia, since long before the rise of the Eusan Empire, so we associate it with stability and eternity.”

Rost stroked his beard in his usual gesture of thoughtfulness. “I can’t imagine a land where something like that in just…floating there in the sky? Although…that reminds me of the Carja and how they worship the sun, honestly,” he mused.

Eule waved a hand in negation. “No, no, we don’t worship it. The Red Eye isn’t a god.”

“It seems like you treat this Red Eye as a god though,” Rost commented, now looking a bit puzzled.

“No, the Red Eye is not a god and we don’t worship it,” Eule insisted.

Eule was confused at Rost’s obvious confusion. What about it didn’t he understand? It seemed perfect sensible to her.

“Ehh, let’s just say that we kinda had some trouble with a certain Empress being worshipped as a goddess, and so our ‘tribe’ strongly discourages anything that resembles worship. Hence, I guess you can say that the Red Eye is a not-god that’s getting not-worship from us,” Star explained.

Eule looked at her lover in surprise, but as she thought about it, she couldn’t deny that explanation made sense in an objective, logical way. No matter how uncomfortable it made her feel.

“Hmm, I see,” Rost said in a tone that told Eule that he didn’t.

“Maybe you can still ask your Red Eye to help let you stay though?” Äloy suddenly piped up, starting Eule as she looked down at the little Gestalt girl’s hopeful eyes. “Maybe if I ask the All-Mother too, then they both can work together to let you stay?”

Eule smiled gently down at Äloy. “I’m honestly not sure if the Red Eye can see us from…wherever Rotfront is in relation to here, but I hope it can.”

Äloy looked up back at Eule and nodded. “I hope so too.”

“Perhaps,” Rost began, earning everyone his attention. “Your Red Eye would want you to help yourselves, starting with spear training? At the very least, it might help us take our minds off of this problem, since we can’t actually do anything about it until tomorrow.”

Teersa laughed. “Ha, spoken like a true Nora! Or at least, spoken like how I wish a lot of other Nora would speak, and not just you.”

Eule chuckled at Teersa before turning back to Rost. “Alright. Then–”

“Oh, oh!” Äloy suddenly said, hopping up and down in excitement, using both Eule and Star’s legs as leverage for higher hops than normal. “Can I teach Eu-le and Star the basics?”

Rost looked down at Äloy with a look as flat as paper. “Aloy, need I remind you that you are still learning those basics?” he asked with another distinct hint of Kitezh-like dryness in his voice.

“Yeah, but I can teach them the most basic of the basics like stances and stuff, right? Please?” Äloy pleaded, leaving Eule struggling not to giggle at her.

After a few moments of staring, Rost sighed. “Alright, the most basic of the basics then. Let me get the staffs then.”

It took Rost but a few moments to return from his seemingly magically well-supplied house with a trio of these “staffs”, which turned out to simply be sticks wrapped in furs at both ends for padding. Two of those staffs were nearly as long as Eule was tall, but the third staff was less than half of that length. It took Eule a moment to realize that miniature staff was for Äloy, and she nearly squealed at how adorable that was upon realizing that.

“These are staffs that I use as practice spears,” Rost explained as he handed Äloy the little staff. “They’re about the same length as the spears I use, and I’ve even weighted them to be about the same as said spears, except for Aloy’s staff, of course. Unfortunately, I only have a pair of these full-length staffs though. I’d actually meant for one of them to be for Aloy to practice with when she’s older, thus why I only have these two. Eu-le and Star, you’ll have to decide among yourselves which one will practice first.”

“Star,” Eule replied at exactly the same time Star replied: “Eule.”

Eule looked at Star at the same time Star looked at her.

“No, Star. You go first,” Eule insisted.

“No way, Eule. You go first,” Star insisted right back.

“Star, you need the practice. Not only has it been Red Eye knows how long since you held a bayoneted rifle, but a spear almost certainly has differences in fighting style compared to a Type-33 with a knife on it,” Eule argued.

“Eule, you’ve never even seen a Type-33 assault rifle, let alone held one. You need basic spears skills a lot more than I do, because you don’t even have bayonet training to go off of,” Star countered.

“I have seen an assault rifle,” Eule protested.

“Oh? Where?” Star asked, tilting her head in curiosity.

To which Eule refused to meet her lover’s eyes as she replied quietly with: “In books…and movies.”

“Mm-hmm,” “said Star.

Eule didn’t even need to look at Star to know that her lover was giving her a flat gaze right now.

In fact, so absorbed was Eule in avoiding her lover’s gaze that she was surprised when Rost suddenly called out: “Eu-le.”

Eule turned to look at Rost, just in time to watch in alarm as he tossed one of the staffs at her. Eule tried to catch it, but missed as the staff smacked her lightly in the chest (Rost apparently not having tossed it all that hard, even if it still smarted), and then fumbled around as she flailed after the staff before finally catching it just before it hit the ground, sighing in relief as she clutched the staff to her still-smarting chest before staring at Rost, silently asking for an explanation.

“I agree with Star,” Rost said in reply to that stare. “You need the training more than she does because you are starting this training from scratch.”

Eule looked down at the ground, and silently nodded. No matter what logic she used, she couldn’t deny that he made sense.

It was while looking in that position that Eule saw Äloy pop into her field of vision and take her by the hand. “Come on, Eu-le! This way!” the little Gestalt girl happily said in another burst of lack of indoor voice.

Eule allowed herself to be dragged by her adorable little training partner to a clearer section of the yard, which presumably allowed for more room to maneuver for spear training.

“Okay, so now’s Aloy’s Spear Training Time!” Äloy said proudly.

“Yes, Master Äloy,” Eule replied with a smile. “So what is my first lesson for the spear then?”

Eule firmly clamped onto the desire to giggle as little Äloy beamed brightly at her for the Master Äloy comment.

“Okay, first: you need to have a good stance,” Äloy said as she settled into her own stance, with her feet spread apart and knees slightly bent. “Rost said that a good spear stance needs to have your feet spread out so that you don’t fall over so easy when you’re attacking, or if something or someone attacks you.”

Eule found herself nodding as she agreed with that piece of Rost wisdom, and so adopted Äloy’s exact stance for herself. Indeed, she felt more stable in that position than just standing normally.

“Very good,” Äloy said, making her voice sound deeper than normal, in an attempt to mimic Rost, Eule realized. Eule was barely able to keep her smile from turning into giggles at this point as Äloy continued: “Now for the next and best step: the attacks. Rost said, I mean, we Nora make our spear blades long and sharp, but also out of a single carved Machine leg so that it’s thick and sturdy. This means that we can not only use our spears to slashy-slash, but also use them to go stabby-stab.”

For a moment, Eule was at a loss over Äloy’s words. Yes, she more or less understood Äloy’s explanation but…by the Red Eye, she was trying so hard not to giggle and squeal at the adorable little Gestalt girl and her sound effects. She supposed that it was Äloy’s attempt to sound impressive, but it was just. So. Cute.

“I can see that maybe you don’t know what I’m talking about,” Äloy said seriously as she misunderstood Eule’s silence, making her all the more adorable to Eule. “Allow me to demonstrate. First, the slashy-slash.”

Äloy raised her staff up high, and then gently bonked Eule on the arm with a furred staff end.

“And now the stabby-stab.”

Äloy reared back with her staff, and then just as gently poked Eule in the stomach with that furry staff end once more.

As soon as Äloy pulled back with that staff though, Eule had an idea. She fell to the ground with the flair of a ballet performance, and cried out: “Oh no, Master Äloy. Your spear attack is too deadly. I have been felled by your might,” she said in her best melodramatic voice.

Äloy blinked for a moment in confusion. Eule winked at her though, causing her to grin and plant her “spear” butt on the ground, declaring with a serious expression: “It is the truth. I am too deadly for my own good, so I have done a big wrong.”

Without missing a beat, Star strode over to the “fallen” Eule. “Oh no, my dear Eule! Whatever shall became of us? How, pray tell, can I render you comfort from this grievous wound?”

Eule looked up at her Star’s face and grinned. “Perhaps a bit of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is in order to provide my body with a bit of nourishing oxygen?”

Star returned that grin with her own. “It shall be done, my lady,” she declared before leaning down to give Eule some of that “mouth-to-mouth resuscitation”.

“Will being kissy-kissy make you feel better from your ‘shmertz-lich’ wound?” Äloy asked after several moments of ‘mouth-to-mouth resuscitation’.

Eule and Star broke their kiss just to grin at Äloy. “Oh, I do believe I feel better already,” Eule declared.

“Not that I am in need of it, but I too feel better from giving my dear Eule some ‘mouth-to-mouth resuscitation’. Or rather, ‘kissy-kissy’ in your tongue,” Star added.

Eule, Star, and Äloy stared at each other for a pregnant moment, before all three burst out in laughter, cracking up over the ridiculous melodrama and melodramatic ridiculousness.

A loud cough quickly brought their laughter to a screeching halt, and they all turned to look at Rost giving them a flat stare.

“If you three are done playing, perhaps we can actually learn how to fight with a spear properly?” Rost asked in a Kitezh-level dryly annoyed tone, although there was a ghost of a smile playing at the corner of his lips that suggested to Eule that he wasn’t entirely displeased by this bit of playtime.

Still, he did have a point.

“Yes, Rost,” Eule said sheepishly as she got back up and dusted herself off.

“Oh no, please, go on,” Teersa happily said from the comfort of her seat. “I was really enjoying the story there.”

Rost turned that flat gaze onto Teersa, who gave him an innocent smile in return as Eule giggled. Apparently, even his respect for a High Matriarch had its limits, and Teersa just as apparently loved hitting them. He continued that flat stare of unamusement for several moments before finally returning his gaze to Eule, Star, and Äloy.

“Star, Aloy. Give Eule and I some room,” Rost commanded.

Both Äloy and Star hesitated for a bit before finally, reluctantly, clearing some room as Rost stepped forward until he was barely a meter away in front of an increasingly nervous Eule, resting his staff on the ground in a one-handed grip like it was a walking stick.

“What Aloy said about Nora spears is essentially correct,” Rost explained. “We make our blades long and sturdy so that they are equally as effective when used for slashing attacks as they are in stabbing attacks. Slashing attacks can cut through Machine skin and muscle, and even pry off pieces of armored hide in the hands of a skilled hunter. Stabbing attacks however, are your best moves against Machines. As you’ve seen me do many times now, a firm stab into a Machine’s vital organs can kill it instantly and silently. However, I would not advise that you attempt such moves against Machines larger than a Grazer at most. Machines larger than that have too much muscle for a spear to penetrate into the vital organs. No matter how strong a Brave is, it’s useless if the spear blade is too short to reach those organs.”

Eule nodded, finding that advice to be sound. To be honest, she rather doubted that a spear could kill a Grazer with a single stab, if those dummies are true to their real life size.

“However, spears aren’t useful only against Machines. In fact, spears are often even more useful against other humans,” Rost said in a grave tone.

Eule grimaced. “Is it likely that we’ll have to fight other humans here?”

“Here in the Embrace? Fortunately, no. Not unless you have a particularly rude Brave,” Rost replied. “Even in the Sacred Lands in general, if you’re welcomed in here, then you don’t have anything to fear from the Braves, for we maintain constant patrols in our lands so that no Nora has to fear anything while walking within sight of All-Mother Mountain.”

Rost’s eyes then took on a distant look. “That said, outside the Sacred Lands is a different story. The land the Carja claims is vast, vaster than any other tribe I’ve encountered. Vast enough that even the Carja’s army can’t patrol everywhere at once, and so killers will on occasion eke out a life in the wilderness as bandits. Such bandits occasionally try to sneak into the Sacred Lands, either on the run from Carja law or thinking us Nora to be easy prey. Possibly both. They don’t last long either way, but in those cases where they manage to last long enough, a good spear and knowing how to use it can be your best defense against a bandit picking through your corpse for loot like a particularly vile Scrapper, or worse.”

Eule gulped. She could easily imagine what that “worse” might be. She and her cadre have listened to an unfortunate number of radio news broadcasts about one of their sisters being attacked and raped. She’d listened to too many dark grumblings from Februar during those news broadcasts about how people, especially men, saw the Eules as weak and easy prey because of their low strength compared to other Replikas. She was under no illusions that any bandits here would see her in a similar manner.

“If anyone tries that ‘worse’ with Eule, I’m going to show them just how much worse I can be to them,” Star threatened darkly.

“Me too!” Äloy piped up fiercely, holding up her half-sized staff with a determined fire in her eyes. “Anyone tries anything with Eu-le, I’m going to shoot them in the eyes! If that works on Machines, then it should work on bandits, right?”

“Ooh, and shoot them in the junk too,” Star encouraged. “That’ll take them down just as hard as an eye shot.”

“Junk?” Äloy asked quizzically.

Before Eule could stop her, Star pointed down at her crotch. “You know, here? Right where it hurts the most, man or woman.”

“Ohhh,” Äloy said with an entranced nod. “Yeah, I can do that. That will really make those bandits hurt.”

Eule could only laugh nervously at where this conversation between them was going. She wasn’t entirely comfortable with the thought of how they were discussing how to best inflict violence on a fellow human, but…she also couldn’t deny that there was a necessity to their discussion when faced with the possibility of bandits like that, and it was either her life or Star’s (or Red Eye forbid, Äloy’s) versus the bandits’. She supposed that it was somewhat similar to shooting the…the things that used to be her sisters, but the idea of killing bandits felt…different in a way she couldn’t quite pin down. She silently prayed to the Red Eye that she wouldn’t have to find out soon.

“Now then, if you all finished: then I will demonstrate the basic moves for the spear,” Rost said as he adopted a spear-wielding stance of his own. “First, the slash: a good quick one-handed move for prying off a bit of Machine hide, or for cutting the muscles of Machine or human alike to cripple them.

Next, the stab: a two-handed thrust with your spear that you can use to stab through into a vital point of Machine and human alike. Powerful but still quick, it’s best used for surprise attacks and ambushes, but it can still be very useful in a head-on fight.

Finally, the strike: where you take the blunt edge of your blade and use it more as a hammer after a windup. It’s slow to execute, but it can do a lot of damage, and a strong enough hunter can use this to knock down a small Machine or break a parry.”

As Rost explained each move, he even demonstrated it to Eule, who nodded at each demonstration. She was getting a bit nervous about this though, especially when she actually felt a small gust of wind from his demonstration of a strike. There was a…directness to spear-fighting that wasn’t in bow shooting or gun firing. She wasn’t entirely sure if she could carry out those moves, to be honest.

“Now Eu-le, demonstrate those moves on me,” Rost commanded as he finished demonstrating the stab.

At first, Eule wasn’t sure if she heard him right. “Wait, what?” she asked in disbelief.

“I said: demonstrate those basic moves on me as I parry them,” Rost commanded once more.

Eule’s mouth dropped open in shock. “What, no! I can’t attack you like this! What if I hurt you, or–”

Eule was interrupted by Rost thumping one end of his staff into the ground. Hard. “Eu-le, I am not so unskilled as to miss a parry, and you not only need the experience, but you also need to overcome any inhibitions about attacking a human who’s attacking you.”

Eule flinched. “Was it that obvious?” she asked nervously.

“To a point,” Rost said, before pointing straight at Eule with his staff. “Now Eu-le, attack me. Demonstrate those moves with the intent to kill, so that you may demonstrate your competency and resolve.” His gaze then softened just a bit. “Trust me, I am more than capable of parries like this.”

Eule gulped, but ended up nodding very hesitantly as she took up the same spear-fighting stance that Äloy and now Rost demonstrated. She took several deep breaths as she held both that position and her staff in her right hand.

“Steel your mind, Eule,” Eule whispered to herself shakily. “Steel your mind…and strike, er, slash!”

Eule lashed out with a slash, and missed entirely, having misjudged the distance between her and Rost.

To her shock, Rost then reached out and stabbed her with his staff. Okay, stabbing was a bit much to call it. It was more of a firm poke that jabbed into her stomach, which due to the unfortunate fact that her shell did not cover it, knocked some of the wind out of her. It didn’t really hurt. It was just…surprising.

“Do better than that, Eu-le,” Rost commanded.

As Eule stopped to catch her breath, she heard a worried groan come from Star behind her. She looked back to see Star wringing her black robotic hands in stressful worry.

“I’m okay, love,” Eule said with a thumbs-up. “Don’t worry.”

Star still looked nervous, but nevertheless, she gave a smile and returned the thumbs-up.

“You can do it, Eu-le!” Äloy cheered, apparently wanting to root for her rather than her father at the moment.

A quick glance to their side though revealed that Teersa wasn’t dozing as Eule though. Instead, she was watching Eule with a calm smile on her wizened face. Seeing Eule watching her, Teersa winked at her. “I believe in you, young lady. Now go out there and train until Rost’s arms fall off,” she said warmly.

Eule gave a smile at all of them in return before turning back to Rost, who was still patiently waiting in a defensive posture for her to strike.

Eule took another deep breath to steady herself, and then moved. She ran forward a few steps, her footpads hitting the dirt heavily from the weight of her legs, and then lashed out with another one-handed slash.

This time, her slash did connect with Rost, thumping into the staff he brought up to block it.

“Good. Now again,” Rost commanded.

“Again?!” Eule asked in shock.

“Yes, again. Did you think a single slash would kill anyone? Now again, Eu-le!” Rost commanded once more.

Eule ended up taking another calming breath before rushing forward, yelling out a wordless cry of frustration and determination as she launched a flurry of slashes at Rost. Each time they connected, with Rost skillfully parrying each slash with his own staff, until Eule finally launched a last slash that connected with his staff, breathing heavily from the physical exertion.

“Good, good! You’re even varying the angle of your slashes! Well done,” Rost said with a satisfied nod, not even breathing that much harder than normal, before commanding: “Now the stab, Eu-le! Thrust with all your strength! Now!”

Eule wasn’t sure if it was Rost’s tone or volume, but she ended up instantly following his instructions, taking hold of her staff in both hands, thrusting into his staff. When their staffs met, the force was enough to push Rost sliding back a step. Eule herself actually felt the impact reverberate through her entire frame, such was the force behind her own thrust.

“No,” Rost said. “You are aiming for my staff. I want you to aim for me. Aiming for my weapon is pointless when you are supposed to be practicing thrusting attacks.”

“But–”

“Eu-le, aim for me,” Rost interrupted her before she could get any further than that. “Trust in me, and in my crafting ability. Rest assured, that padding on the staffs is more than thick enough to prevent injury. Now once more, aim. For. Me.”

Eule grit her carbon steel teeth together within her mouth, and then thrusted at Rost with all of her might, aiming for his shoulder–

Only for Rost to suddenly lash out, knocking Eule’s staff aside. She tried to stop, but she had put so much force into her thrust that her attempt to stop instead caused her to stumble. As she struggled to regain her balance, she watched as Rost released his hold on his staff to reach out with his right hand, and plant it into her face.

For a few moments, all Eule could see was Rost’s palm as her stumble ground to a halt against his mountainous frame, before he gave her a gentle shove back. Her rearward motion caused her to stumble yet again, but in the opposite direction. She managed to regain her balance, and sighed with relief that she was no longer in danger of falling over and looking like a fool. Well, even more of a fool than she surely must look right now.

“Eu-le, don’t put your entire body weight into a thrust,” Rost instructed. “Yes, you can put more force into a thrust that way, but if you miss or if the enemy parries it, as I just demonstrated, then you leave yourself wide open to a counterattack. Thrust with your arms only. Now, come at me again.”

Eule had to take another deep calming breath before doing just that. Indeed, she did feel a difference in the forces applied by thrusting only with her arms and not with her whole body behind it. For one thing, she felt significantly more stable whenever her staff collided into Rost’s staff.

“Good, now you understand the basics behind a good spear thrust,” Rost said with another satisfied nod.

Eule grinned at him for that. She really felt like she was getting into the hang of spear-fighting now, even with only mock spears to work with.

Rost then held his staff in another defensive posture. “Now for the final basic attack: the strike. Break my guard. Now!”

Eule felt so into the flow that she simply did as Rost bade, taking her staff in a two-handed grip like she was wielding a hammer, and swinging it into Rost’s staff with the full force of her arms only, remembering Rost’s earlier warning about not putting the full weight of her body behind a blow.

The sound of wood smacking into wood reverberated through the air and through Eule’s frame as her staff made contact with Rost’s staff. Eule was genuinely surprised when the force of her blow threw Rost off-balance, sending him stumbling back as he tried to regain his footing.

Then Eule felt an impulse occur to her in that moment. As she saw an opening, she jabbed her staff into Rost’s gut. Not too hard, with only roughly the amount of force she’d have used to close the door of one of Sierpinski’s freezers. She was rewarded with the sound of Rost’s breath coming out of him in a huff.

For a moment, Rost looked as surprised as Eule felt. She had no idea why she did that…no, that wasn’t right. She knew perfectly well why she did it. She saw an opening in his guard and took an opportunity to launch an “attack” into it. What she wasn’t sure of was why she did it unprompted, like it was the most natural thing to do.

Rost’s surprise, however, immediately turned into a smile. It was the most open smile Eule had ever seen Rost perform, which further surprised her on top of everything else.

“Well done, Eu-le. You not only performed the strike well, but you grasp its purpose well enough to take advantage of the opening it creates when you break an enemy’s guard with it. I believe you now understand the basic attacks well enough to practice on your own,” Rost said proudly, causing Eule to look down at the ground, blushing in embarrassment. “My only advice to you now is to practice chaining those 3 basic attacks together in whatever combination works. That way, you can create attack patterns to get around an enemy’s defense, or break them as necessary.”

Eule nodded hesitantly at the instructions, understanding the logic behind them, but still finding the whole idea of hand-to-hand combat with a spear, of all things, to be simultaneously bizarre and nerve-wracking.

“Speaking of defense, now that you know the basic attacks with the spear, I believe it’s now time to teach you how to defend with a spear,” Rost said as he held up his staff in a two-handed grip, with each hand spaced widely apart on the wooden shaft. “Fortunately, that’s a simple affair compared to attacking. This is the most basic defense stance with a spear, a stable grip with both hands.”

Eule mimicked his grip, even right down to the position he was holding his staff in. It did indeed feel like a very stable grip.

“The idea here is to use your spear as a third arm to defend against attacks. You either block with the shaft in the middle, or use the spearhead to intercept and redirect attacks so that they miss you,” Rost explained. “There’s a third method to defend as well. Do you see that short curved stick I tied onto the staff with Machine muscle just behind the furred end that represents the blade?”

Eule nodded. She had indeed noticed a while back the very well tied-on stick Rost mentioned. It made the staff look overall like a lowercase “t”, but if the arms of the “t” curved upwards a bit at both ends, looking like a cross between a “U” and a “V”.

“That bit represents a protruding part we Nora always put on our spears. It’s meant to catch enemy attacks as they slide down the spear, allowing the Brave to either parry the attack or even wrest the enemy’s weapon from their grasp,” Rost further explained, before dropping the bombshell of: “As you will demonstrate.”

Eule sighed, but she had been expecting that from how this lesson had been going so far.

“It won’t be as fast-paced as your attack training though,” Rost said consolingly. “I will go at you slowly so that you learn the proper defensive skills. It will do you no good for me to constantly get through your defenses and smack you with a wooden stick with no opportunity to learn, after all.”

Eule laughed nervously. “My apologies for assuming that to be the case, Rost.”

Rost simply nodded in acceptance before taking his staff in a one-handed grip. “Now, block this slash.”

As promised, Rost did indeed go through his slash slowly. So slowly that Eule was easily able to intercept his slash with the furred “blade” of her staff. Rost allowed his own “blade” to slide down Eule’s staff until it caught in the U-shaped section of staff. Following Rost’s advice, Eule then sharply pulled the staff downwards, forcing Rost’s staff to the ground and thus not aimed anywhere at Eule.

“Well done,” Rost said as they returned to their original positions. “Now again, with your shaft.”

Rost then launched another slash, which Eule blocked with the wooden shaft of her staff between her hands. As the “blade” of Rost’s staff slid towards one of her hands though, Eule pushed back with her staff, forcing Rost back a step and interrupting his attack.

“Excellent!” Rost said with another slight smile. “You do grasp how to defend with a spear, and very quickly at that.”

Eule blushed at the compliment, and started to tell him thanks–

Only for Rost to suddenly launch another slash at her.

Eule instinctively blocked with her staff, caught Rost’s staff in her own staff’s U-shaped bit, and then swung her staff as though she was performing a strike. The protruding bit caught on Rost’s own protruding bit, and wrenched his staff out of his hands, sending the staff flying to the side and hitting the ground with a wooden clatter.

As Eule looked at Rost in shock, she saw Rost’s smile grow wider. “No, I take it back. Now you truly grasp how to defend with a spear. Good job, Eu-le,” he said warmly.

Eule was at first too surprised to even react to his compliment now, but now she gave him her own warm smile in return. “No, thank you, Rost. For teaching me this.”

The sounds of Star and Äloy cheering Eule’s name only added to the warm joy of the occasion.

“Now, before I train Star in the same way, there’s one last defensive skill I have to teach you,” Rost said before he took a solid, widely spaced stance. “Come at me with an attack. Any attack.”

Eule blinked at Rost in surprise. “Umm, are you sure? You don’t have a weapon, so…”

“It’s fine. I need to be unarmed to teach you this anyways,” Rost insisted. “So come at me. Now.”

Eule grit her teeth, and then launched a one-handed slash at Rost, pulling back on her swing to avoid injuring Rost–

Only for Rost to grab the staff and yank hard.

Eule was wrenched forward towards Rost. She tried to regain her footing–

Only for Rost to grab her by her arm and throw her over his shoulder.

For a moment, Eule saw the world turn upside-down before she landed heavily on her back with an “Oof”, more of surprise than of pain due to her polyethylene shell taking the brunt of the impact. She watched the beautiful clear sky, with the blue already starting to turn orange as the sun started on the path towards sunset, before Rost’s face came into view.

“That was what I wanted to demonstrate,” Rost said, offering a hand to Eule, which she happily took. As he pulled her back up, he further explained: “If you ever find yourself without a weapon, you can use this skill to both disarm an enemy so that you may take their weapon in turn, and then use that weapon to finish them off while they’re still down.”

Despite her surprise at being thrown like that, Eule felt excited by what Rost demonstrated. She was in turn surprised at her own excitement, for it didn’t feel quite…Eule-like. After all, Eules weren’t combat Replika models, so she shouldn’t feel excited for combat, should she?

“Now, it’s time for you to demonstrate this disarming throw on me,” Rost said. “Ready…now.”

Rost launched his own slash at Eule, but slowly, in the manner of his earlier training attacks. Eule mimicked his moves, grabbing hold of his staff, and yanking him towards her. She then grabbed him by the arm, and threw him over her own shoulder–

Only, that wasn’t quite what happened. Eule miscalculated the amount of force she could project with her mechanical arms, and realized too late that she didn’t have the strength to throw Rost the way he threw her. The result being that when she tried, she couldn’t complete the throw, and the attempt caused her to lose her footing, causing her to trip and land heavily on the ground, with Rost landing right on top of her back.

Eule could only groan, both from the weight of Rost on her (and thus the sensation of her breasts being pressed into the ground, which as it turned out, was a most uncomfortable sensation) and from the embarrassment of having failed this last part of the training. The sounds of Star and Äloy groaning as well only added to said embarrassment.

“I see you lack the strength to perform this skill as is,” Rost said as he finally removed his weight from Eule’s back, to her relief. She saw Rost’s hand reach down in an offer to help get back up, and she reached out her own mechanical hand to take it. Once they were both more or less back in their original positions, Rost spent several beard-stroking moment thinking on the issue before continuing: “Okay, let’s try this: perform the same grapple with me, but stop at the throw. Instead, I want you to hit me in the gut with your knee, and then wrench the staff from my hands.”

Eule blinked at him, and then started to open her mouth–

“But not at full force, obviously. I would like to have some stamina left to train your mate as well,” Rost interrupted before she could get a word out, and needless to say, in that same Kitezh dryness when he reserved for situations like these.

Eule’s protests turned into a sigh of relief as she took up another fighting stance once more.

“Ready?” Rost asked.

Eule barely had time to nod before Rost swung his staff at Eule once more in a slow-moving slash.

Like before, Eule grabbed the staff and used it to yank Rost towards her. Only this time, she followed Rost’s advice and kneed him in the gut, but gently. She still internally winced at hearing Rost give an “Oof”, but she continued with the maneuver as Rost fell to one knee, bending his arm until he was forced to let go of the staff with a grunt. She hoped that it was a grunt of effort than of pain, but finally, she now had the staff and Rost didn’t.

“Good. Good,” Rost said as he continued kneeling there, panting.

“Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I?” Eule asked, looking at him worriedly.

“No, no, I’m fine,” Rost insisted as he levered himself back upright. “Just…not as young as you and Star are.”

“Neither am I,” Teersa called out. “But I’m not the one training a young woman…oh, less than a third of my age from the looks of it, in the art of combat, eh?” she noted with a laugh.

Eule almost but not quite managed to suppress her giggles, causing Rost to turn his flat stare from Teersa to her. Eule quickly turned her face aside, not looking Rost in the eye and trying to whistle innocently. With an emphasis on “trying”, which Eule thought she was failing at.

Rost sighed and merely held out his hand. “May I have that staff back now then? I believe Star is due for some spear training now.”

“Oh, yes, of course!” Eule squeaked out as she hurriedly did just that.

With a staff in hand now, Rost then indicated for Eule to move out of the section of clear yard they were using as a ring, while also beckoning Star over. All without a word. His hands and his face sufficed.

Thus, Eule grabbed a log stool and set it down next to Teersa to watch Star from a more comfortable position. Little Äloy also seemed to want to observe the events, but instead of sitting down, she stood next to Eule with her mini-staff held firmly in one tiny hand. ‘

“Don’t you want to sit down?” Eule asked Äloy.

The little Gestalt girl though shook her head. “I want to practice too. I need to train more if I want to be the Bravest of the Braves.”

Eule nodded at Äloy’s choice before turning back to see how Star’s training was going.

As Eule expected of her starling though, it quickly became apparent that Star was significantly stronger than Rost. To the point where it just as quickly became apparent that Star was holding back a good portion of her strength to avoid accidentally injuring Rost, which he did seem to appreciate considering that he was trying to teach her basic spear techniques and not another strength-measuring arm wrestling contest.

Speaking of: said training revealed that while Star’s bayoneted rifle training wasn’t one-for-one identical with spear training, there was enough overlap that Star could alter her moves based on what’s better for a spear. The result was Star learning the same moves in minutes what Eule took hours to learn, which Eule found impressive…and just a teensy bit jealous, if she were to admit it. It didn’t stop her from cheering her lover on along with Äloy and even Teersa whenever she completed a lesson and earned a rare compliment from Rost.

Speaking of Äloy though, it was during Star’s spear training when Eule heard grunts of effort coming from next to her. She glanced in that direction, and her mechanical eyes widened in surprise as she watched Äloy copying every spear move Star made: slashing, stabbing, and striking at an invisible foe in front of her. As adorable as it was, it also showed just how determined little Äloy was to become a Brave. Or rather, the ‘Bravest of the Braves’. Thus, Eule smiled proudly at Äloy before turning back to where her lover and Rost were wrapping up their training.

“Honestly, Star, I don’t think I have much to teach you about spear fighting,” Rost said proudly. “You seem to grasp much of it already thanks to your…bayonet training, you called it?”

“Yup. Thank you, Type-33 assault rifle and your shitty little bayonet with its 18 cm blade. I can’t believe you were useful,” Star noted almost mockingly.

Rost blinked at Star in surprise. “The blade on your ‘bayonets’ was only 18 cm long? Even the shortest Nora spear blades are well over twice that length. Why would your Braves use such a short blade on your spears?”

Star scratched the black shell on her cheek as she thought. “Because a blade that long would be too heavy and get in the way too often to be useful. In the wars the Eusan Nation fights, a long blade like the one you describe is…more of a liability than an asset.”

Rost merely looked at Star with a beard-stroking frown. “I fail to see why that would be. Surely, a long blade would be useful in any war?”

Star scoffed. “Yeah, maybe if you’re a Falke. But for everyone else, carrying a blade that long is just additional weight to slog around with not much to show for it.”

“I suppose this is where we agree to disagree,” Rost said, with said disagreement clear in both his words and on his face. “Still we should move on to the final lesson I taught your mate: the disarming throw. Based on what you showed me of your strength, as well as your obvious height, you should be able to perform it perfectly well.”

Star grinned at him. “You can bet Rationmarks I can. So, who’s going first?”

Rost tossed aside his staff and bent into that combat pose Eule was now very familiar with. “Come at me,” he said simply.

Star didn’t hesitate like she did, Eule saw. Instead, Star rushed him with the speed typical of a Security Technician Guard Replika, reaching Rost in the span of less than a second, swinging at him in a one-handed slash like Eule did. Eule could even tell that Star was holding back her strength, because the slash was at a much lower speed than what Star was using against Rost’s staff during slash practice.

Rost, as expected, grabbed Star’s staff and yanked her towards him.

Only, Star only stepped forward a bit, crouching into a more stable position, and bent her body forward in response, not stumbling in the slightest.

“Uh, no offense, Rost,” Star said as Rost was still trying to yank her off her peg-like feet. “But we Stars are pretty good at staying on our feet–”

It happened so fast that Eule nearly missed it.

Rost suddenly pivoted on his entire body, swinging his animal skin and Machine metal-coated leg into Star’s long bird-like mechanical leg. Said leg was punted off the ground, causing Star to begin to fall backwards as she lost her footing. That said, Eule knew Star would’ve likely recovered from that, had Rost not spun the moment his kicking leg hit the ground, simultaneously wrenching the staff from Star’s hands and sweeping Star’s other leg off the ground.

Eule groaned as Star hit the ground, and laid there on her back, staring up at the same sky that Eule did, which was now firmly a brilliant orange that must’ve been a gorgeous sight, even to Star after that knockdown.

“Huh, clever,” Star said with a chuckle.

Rost merely extended a hand down to Star in reply. “Now you know not to be over-reliant on your strength. Even the strongest person in the world can be knocked off their feet if they’re not careful.”

“Yeah, that I definitely get,” Star chuckled again, taking that hand allowing Rost to help her back onto her feet, albeit with a bit of a grunt of effort on Rost’s part.

“Hmm, you are quite heavy, even heavier than you look,” Rost noted. “I noticed that with Eu-le as well. She is much heavier than she appears to be. I assume this is because of your steel bones?”

“That and our shells,” Star replied. “When you’re weighed down by metal bones and plastic scales, we Replikas can be pretty heavy people. It’s why we don’t like to swim much.”

“Hmm, come to think of it, can you and Eu-le swim?” Rost asked.

“With great difficulty,” Star replied with Rost-like dryness. “I had to do it once during infantry training, and let me tell you: it’s not fun. Turns out, Star units can do many things, and one of those things we can do is to sink like a rock when we jump into any deep body of water. Man, I consumed so much electricity during those swimming sessions. Me and my sisters scarfed down our dinners like no tomorrow afterwards.”

“I suppose on one hand, it’s fortunate that the Eule training didn’t cover swimming,” Eule added from her seat. “On the other hand, that means I don’t know how to swim, or even if I can actually swim in the first place if I have to.”

Rost stroked his beard in another bout of thought. “Unfortunate indeed, and even more unfortunate that we don’t have the time to teach you how to swim. Admittedly, it’s not a crucial skill for survival here unless you plan on spending a lot of time on Mother’s Birthwaters or on the Daybrink, but it is very useful. My only advice to you is to find a safe place to practice swimming with your mate in the future.”

Eule could only nod in agreement at Rost’s latest bit of wisdom, even while she hoped that future will be with Rost and little Äloy.

With that said though, Rost took a fighting stance with his spear. “For now though, now it’s your turn to demonstrate the disarming throw on me, Star. Are you ready?”

Star took her own fighting stance, with her long white and red-banded legs spread apart and bent in a low stance…or at least, a low stance for a Star unit. “Ready as I’ll ever be. As you say: come at me,” Star said with a carbon steel teeth-baring grin.

Rost took only a moment to nod before charging at Star, slashing one-handed with his staff as Star did.

Star caught that staff one-handed, yanking hard and then grabbing hold of Rost’s staff arm with her other hand. She then threw Rost over her shoulder in an imitation of what Rost had done to Eule, simultaneously wrenching the staff out of Rost’s grip as he slammed down onto the ground on his back.

Eule, covering her mouth in shock, then watched as Star blinked in surprise, as though she hadn’t quite meant to use that much force on Rost.

“Oh shit, are you okay, Rost?” Star asked with a worried tone.

Rost groaned before he finally replied: “I’m okay. I’m not injured. I’m fine…mostly.”

Star extended a hand to Rost, who gladly took it and allowed himself to be helped back up an upright position. Rost (with Star following close behind) then walked back towards where Eule, Äloy, and Teersa were; but Eule was alarmed to see that he didn’t appear to be quite as steady as he was before. Eule quickly got up and tried to help Rost, but he simply waved her off, and sat down onto the log stool Eule had vacated, breathing out with a huff.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Eule asked.

“Honestly, I am,” Rost insisted. “I just…need to sit down for a moment. That’s all.”

“Argh, sorry, Rost,” Star said, wringing her hands in worry. “I think I threw you just a teensy bit too hard there. I…think I need to watch my strength a bit more.”

Rost though just waved Star off. “Again, I’m fine. It’s just been a while since I trained someone in spear fighting so…vigorously.”

Teersa barked out a laugh. “Ha! If you were training any more vigorously, you’d need to see a healer. And I’d have to go talk that healer into seeing an outcast too.”

Rost waved Teersa off just as much as he did Star. “I don’t need a healer. I can heal myself perfectly well, thank you very much.”

Äloy then chose that moment to walk up to Rost, taking a pale pink salvebrush berry out of her medicine pouch and holding it up to him. “Do you need a salvebrush berry? To make the hurt go away?” she asked, her green eyes bright with just as much worry as Eule and Star’s blue eyes contained.

Eule sighed with relief when Rost gave a slight smile down at little Äloy and said: “I will. Thank you,” before taking the offered salvebrush berry and popping it into his mouth like a pill. The only thing Rost did different was chew the berry instead of swallowing it whole like a pill, before swallowing said berry, and then sighing in relief.

“Are you feeling better now?” Äloy asked further.

Rost nodded with another one of his slight smiles at Äloy, making his little girl grin happily at him and give a little cheer, soothing Eule out of her worries over Rost with her cuteness. And judging by how Star smiled at Äloy, she felt the same way.

Eule then turned her attention back to Rost to see if he was truly alright, only to find that he was staring intensely at her, stroking his beard in deep contemplation.

“Uh, yes?” Eule asked.

Rost didn’t answer at first. He closed his eyes and made a face as though he was making a very difficult decision, which instantly spiked Eule’s worry meter up a notch again. Finally though, he opened his eyes again and asked: “Eu-le. Do you still wish to cook?”

For a moment, Eule was so surprised that she didn’t answer. But when that moment passed, she nodded her head so fast that she was sure that if she nodded any faster, she would damage her carbon steel cervical vertebrae.

“I do! I really do!” Eule replied with the enthusiasm of a Eule who hasn’t actually done any real kitchen work (simply stirring a stew didn’t really count in Eule’s mind) for over 3 days now. 3 whole days. She had never heard of a Eule ever suffering from personality destabilization from lack of cooking, but she honestly felt like she was about to.

“Very well then,” Rost said vaguely, before he explained: “I have several chores that I need to finish by nightfall, but I can’t complete them and cook dinner at the same time. So Eu-le, I know this is a burden to ask of a guest, but since you seem so eager to cook, then may I ask that you cook dinner for tonight? You have the freedom to decide our dinner, of course, although I do ask that you use up the boar offal from today’s hunt. Offal doesn’t keep, although you probably already know that, I believe,” he finished wryly.

For an even longer moment, Eule did nothing but stare at Rost. When that moment passed just like the previous though, Eule leapt straight up in joy, putting a spin into the leap as she took to the air in multiple tours en l’air. When she finally descended down from her heights with all the grace of a butterfly, she landed daintily on a single footpad as though she only had the weight of a single feather in the full spirit of ballon, using the momentum of her midair revolutions to continue spinning, turning it into a quick fouette that left her facing a surprised Rost, a fascinated Teersa, and a wide-eyed Äloy (with Star audibly clapping enthusiastically behind her) as she lowered her head while raising her working leg up high behind her, using an arabesque penchée as a bow of gratitude.

“I thank you for the opportunity to finally demonstrate my cooking skills, Rost,” Eule said formally, but with a wide grin on her face as she finally and gracefully returned to a normal standing position to end her impromptu ballet recital. “I swear to the Red Eye that I will not disappoint you.”

“Uh, yes, of course. You’re welcome,” Rost said as he blinked away his surprise.

Äloy though had her mouth open just as widely as her eyes were. “Whoa! What was that, Eu-le?! You were so, so…amazing!” the little Gestalt girl said in delight.

Eule’s grin grew wider at Äloy’s interest. “Do you like it? It’s a dance called ‘ballet’, with the dancers who dance it being called ‘ballerinas’. My sisters and I all know how to perform it at the level of a professional ballerina dancer, since we were all ballerina dancers in our previous life, you see.”

“Ball-et? Whatever! I’ve never seen a dance like that before!” Äloy gushed. “It was like…like you were floating in the air! Like you didn’t weigh anything!”

Eule giggled at the flurry of compliments coming from the adorable little Gestalt girl. “Thanks! When performed correctly, ballet is supposed to make the ballerina look like that: light as a feather and dancing in the air.”

Eule giggled even more at Äloy’s obvious excitement, which grew to such heights that she was hopping up and down in place, half-turning in places like she was trying to imitate the tours en l’air Eule performed.

“Can you teach me that ball-et dance?” Äloy asked in the midst of her hopping. “It looks like it could be useful for Brave training!”

“That’s not what ballet is meant for,” Eule said in between her giggles. “But I’ll be happy to teach you some basic ballet techniques tomorro–oh.”

Eule suddenly remembered what was going to happen tomorrow. A quick glance at Teersa revealed that Teersa’s smile had turned consolatory, with Rost next to her having gone blank-faced. She felt Star’s hand take hold of her hand though, and she gently squeezed her lover’s hand for a moment, grateful for the comfort.

“Well, the day after tomorrow then,” Eule insisted to Äloy. She could tell that Äloy noticed her pause though, so she quickly continued: “Well, time to make that dinner then. You’re going to love what I have planned. Rotfront cuisine is some of the best in all of the Eusan Nation.”

Eule wasn’t sure if she had successfully distracted Äloy, or if the perceptive little Gestalt girl was trying to make her feel better, but in either case, Äloy replied with some very energetic nodding. “You said you were from this Rote-front place, right? So what are you going to make?” she asked.

Eule’s response was a sly smile. “It’s a surprise!”

*

Eule pulled her white (now spotted with pink from the boar blood splatters she couldn’t quite get off) gloves back on with all the grace and determination of a Eule in full cooking mode. She examined her reflection in the side of one of Rost’s clean metal pots: the only thing around that was even remotely mirror-like. Her reflection was thus more than a little warped, making her head look ridiculously bobbleheaded at certain distances and angles. It was fine though. She was even giggling at the silliness, and even in spite of that, it still allowed her to view her reflection.

Eule noted that said reflection was still the same as yesterday, although the scab on her cheek was already flaking off, the coagulated oxidant having done its job. That was a good thing though, so Eule smiled at herself in the pot’s surface.

With that little bit of personality stabilization out of the way, Eule finally began the process of cooking tonight’s dinner.

First, she took one of Rost’s wooden bowls, and filled it with four cups (measured out using one of Rost’s actual clay drinking mugs) of that multi-colored rice, er, watergrain, er…Eule decided to just call it rice in her own head, from the big cloth bag in a wooden barrel that Rost kept his rice in. She then took some water from Rost’s water barrel, filled the bowl until it covered the rice grains, and then swirled it around with her hand until the water had gone cloudy, indicating that the rice was now properly rinsed and clean of dust and debris.

After carefully pouring the water out into the yard (to the confusion of Rost as he watched from his work desk in the yard), Eule then opened up Rost’s fridge. Although truth be told: it wasn’t any kind of fridge her sisters would’ve recognized as such. It was just a massive wooden Chillwater chest (as evidenced by the thin layer of frost that constantly coated the chest) that Rost used to keep various perishable foods, which included his gathered vegetables and herbs, and a wooden container filled with nothing but lard, solidified from the Chillwater cold. It was this container that Eule pulled out, using a wooden spoon to smear a bit of the lard around the inside of one of Rost’s smaller metal pot until the entire surface was slick with the best thing Eule had to cooking spray. All to ensure that as little of the rice stuck to the sides of the pot.

With that done, Eule poured the rice into that pot, and then filled the pot with eight cups of water: two per cup of rice. She then placed the pot into one of Rost’s larger pots, and then hung it over the kitchen fireplace before placing a lid over the pot to let the rice steam, leaving the lid open a crack to let some of the steam escape. With the rice happily steaming, Eule was free to work on her next dish.

The preparation for said dish involved Eule chopping up the cleaned boar liver, kidneys, lungs, and heart into a combination of slices (for the liver and heart) and small chunks (for the kidneys and lungs), and then set them all aside in a large bowl.

Save for the heart at the moment. From prior experience with pig heart, she knew just how tough boar heart would be. Thus, before she put it in with the bowl of meat, she took the blunt edge of her knife, and started hammering the meat with it in lieu of a tenderizing hammer. The hammering earned her an understanding look from Star and some odd looks from Äloy and Teersa due to them all watching her from the dinner table, but strangely enough, having an audience didn’t make Eule as nervous as she thought she’d be. She supposed that it was her happiness at finally being able to cook that mitigated that factor.

After the heart slices were finally well-tenderized and in the meat bowl, she then took some wild green onions (which Rost had called “springbulb”), some of those cute little multi-colored wild carrots (which were also called carrots in this land), and wild spinach (which Rost had called “tendergreen”) from Rost’s fridge, and chopping them all up into yet another large bowl.

Now she needed spices, so she opened a chest that Rost kept in just under the kitchen table, which was itself filled with a variety of clay jars and tiny boxes. Eule had noticed long ago that this was where Rost kept his spices. Rost had noticed her interest, and thus patiently explained what each spice was, what it tasted like, and what it was used for. He had even allowed her to sample some of the spices to experience them for herself to see if they were similar to the spices she was used to. That’s when she found out that Nora lands contained ginger. Or at least, something that was close to ginger. She would’ve never figured that the thin, almost hair-like roots of the plant Rost called “heartleaf” would give her the same warm spice as ginger, which was very important to a lot of Eusan Nation meat recipes.

Thus, she took some of that heartleaf root and chopped it up before placing it with the chopped vegetables. She also took some of Rost’s salt and red flakes of dried chili peppers (which Rost had also called chili) and mixed them into yet another bowl.

Finally, Eule then poured that spice mixture into the bowl of offal and mixed it around, making sure to coat the slices and chunks of offal with the spices as evenly and as thoroughly as possible.

Now with all her ingredients prepared, Eule could finally begin cooking. Now it was Eule’s turn to start the fire by taking some of the split firewood from Rost’s open air shed, putting them into the fire pit Rost used to cook the turkey last night, pouring a measure of Blaze on the wood–

“Not too much,” Rost warned when he saw Eule standing over the firewood with a Strider’s Blaze container in hand. “Blaze in large quantities will not just burn, but explode. So use only small amounts.”

–taking extra care to make sure that it was indeed a small measure of Blaze only, before finally lighting the Blaze-soaked firewood with a small Sparker. Honestly, Eule wasn’t surprised when the firewood caught fire so easily. She was essentially igniting biofuel-soaked wood, after all. She was more amazed at how easy this combination of Blaze, firewood, and Sparker made starting a fire so easy for the Nora despite how…simple a life they led otherwise, without the aid of anything like Eusan Nation levels of technology. Although, it could be argued that the Machines provided the Nora with technology in a rather odd and roundabout fashion, but it was philosophy that she could save for later, when the cooking was done.

With the fire lit, Eule could now head back and place Rost’s Oseram-made griddle over the cooking fire. Honestly, she was still curious as to who these “Oseram” to be able to make such a griddle with forged metal rather than shaped Machine parts, but that was a curiosity that could be satisfied at a later date.

While Eule was waiting for the griddle to heat up, she went back into the house to retrieve the entire mass of ingredients and spices (as well as make sure the rice was steaming nicely, which it was indeed), carrying them out using the kitchen table as a huge tray (and insisting to a concerned Star that she could do it by herself), and placing the table by the griddle. She then returned back into the house to grab a pair of utensils: a heavy and wide-bladed metal knife Rost used as a cleaver (thoroughly washed each time, of course) that was now decorated with a large dab of lard, and a pair of the sharpened thin sticks Rost used as skewers. She wasn’t interested in using the pair of skewer sticks for that purpose though. Instead, she brought them simply because they were the closest thing Rost had to cooking chopsticks.

Eule then took the lard, and slapped it onto the griddle, stirring it onto the griddle with the cleaver until it melted away into liquid fat. She then poured the bowl of sliced, chopped, and spiced offal onto the griddle, listening in satisfaction to the hiss of heated metal meeting organ meat, and then watched it cook, stirring every so often with her cleaver and improvised chopsticks to make sure that the offal cooked thoroughly. She then plucked the not-quite-ginger and the green onion/springbulb from the bowl of vegetables and stirred them into the meat, cooking the root and tender green shoots along with it.

Once the meat, almost-ginger, and green onion was sufficiently cooked, Eule then removed them from the griddle and plated it onto another large bowl, different from the one she’d put the raw meat into for sanitation reasons, before covering it with a wooden lid that came with it. She then adding the carrots and spinach/tendergreen to the griddle, stirring it in to give them some of that delicious spiced meat flavor from the juices and fats that had seeped out from the cooking meat. She only stir-fried the vegetables briefly before placing them into another large bowl and popping the lid onto it, preserving some of the texture they had in their raw form.

Throughout the cooking, Eule noticed that Rost, despite working at his outdoor work desk (initially apparently breaking down the Watcher parts he collected today, before switching to working on that War Bow once more), she noticed that he would look over at her cooking at the same time, with a curious look on his craggy face that clearly indicated that he was most interested in what she was making. All while still continuing to work on said War Bow without a pause. Eule both mentally applauded Rost for his ability to multitask like that, while also being delighted that Rost was showing just as much interest in her cooking as she was in his. She hoped that she will get to teach Rost more Eusan Nation, and specifically Rotfront, cooking in the future. She truly did.

With the meat and vegetables done, Eule carried the pair of bowls piled high with food inside the house and placed it on the dinner table in front of a delighted Star, Äloy, and Teersa; who’d all been sitting patiently at said table, watching Eule cook with a trio of fascinated looks.

Come to think of it, Eule realized that her lover had never actually watched her cook before. So she smiled at the thought that she was showing her love a new and very important side of her before checking on the rice once more. A simple prod and taste of the rice with a wooden spoon confirmed that her rinsing had worked, and the multi-colored grains had the perfect fluffy texture to them, allowing her to finally remove the pot from the fire and place it on the dinner table as well.

There was just one last thing Eule wanted to prepare though as she pulled her somewhat soiled white and pink gloves off, but she had no idea where to find it. It wasn’t in the fridge where Rost put his vegetables, so it must be somewhere nearby, but for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out where it was.

Thus, Eule popped out of the house and went up to Rost. “Rost, dinner is almost ready, so you can head inside, but I also want to boil some bitter leaf tea to go with that dinner. Where did you put your bitter leaf? I can’t seem to find it anywhere.”

Rost got up and stretched before answering in a typically concise: “Come, follow.”

A puzzled yet curious Eule followed Rost as he walked back towards the house. Eule thought that maybe she had somehow managed to miss the bitter leaf tea somewhere in the house, but instead, Rost stopped at the little bit of covered wooden deck right in front of the front door. He then pointed down to the door’s right, causing Eule to look in that direction.

There, tucked away in an alcove and partially obscured by a basket full of arrows, was a small bitter leaf plant, looking almost identical to the photos of tea plants Eule had seen growing in domed Rotfront farms, with the only differences being leaves rimmed and ribbed with yellow, and maybe having a slightly woodier stem? And instead of growing in long rows in the carefully maintained and fertilized Rotfront dirt claimed from the seafloor of the sunless seas deep beneath Rotfront’s subsurface ocean under its 150 km thick icy surface, this bitter leaf plant was growing in…a clay pot filled with dirt?

“Rost? Did you say the Nora didn’t cultivate plants?” Eule asked curiously.

Eule then blinked in confusion as Rost avoided meeting her eyes. He coughed in an apparent attempt to clear his throat before finally answering: “Plants with medicinal qualities have exemptions to that law made for them, especially if they’re rare or have difficulty growing without…a little help. Bitter leaf is a medicinal plant, and it can have difficulties growing in cold climates, so this falls under that exemption.”

Eule’s expression of curious befuddlement slowly turned into a bright smile as Rost explained himself. “Rost, you have a way to get around your own Rule of Six too!” she noted cheerfully.

Rost’s face took on an even more mountainous countenance than normal. “It’s not a way to get around the law. It’s merely a way to have bitter leaf always be available.”

Eule nodded knowingly. “Yes, I understand,” she said just as cheerfully as before.

Rost simply gave Eule a most flat look in response. “I’m not sure you do,” he said with the Kitezhian dryness he reserved for his annoyed moments.

Eule merely hummed happily in response to his look as she crouched down to get a better look at the small bitter leaf plant. It truly was tiny, not even reaching up to her knee. And yet, the pristine and verdant condition of the leaves suggests that it was being well taken care of, as she would expect of Rost.

“It looks like someone has been taking care of you despite saying that you’re only an exemption to a law, aren’t you?” Eule said cheerfully half to the plant, and half to Rost.

Rost’s only response was a sigh of resignation. “If you wish to make some bitter leaf tea with it, take the leaves from the top. They make the best tea. I’ll just be inside and hopefully get to enjoy your Eusan Nation tribe’s dishes.”

“Oh, oh! Let me serve the dishes! The serving method is part of our cuisine,” Eule quickly said as she delicately plucked a few leaves off the top of the small bitter leaf plant before rushing inside the house, Rost holding the door open for her with an amused look on his face.

Eule was immediately greeted with the sight of little Äloy frozen in the act of peeking underneath the lid she’d put on top of the bowl containing the stir-fried pork offal, with her spoon ready in her other hand.

“Äloy, be patient. It’ll be tastier when I dish it out. Trust me,” Eule said with a bright smile, which only turned brighter as she watched Äloy’s face light up with her own smile before returning to her seat, practically bouncing from the excitement.

After filling the small pot Rost used as a teapot with water and the bitter leaf leaves before putting it over the kitchen fire to boil, Eule could finally dish her dinner.

Eule lifted the lid off the improvised rice cooker she made, savoring the delicious smells of steamed rice in their multi-colored brans and germs, before using one of Rost’s large serving spoon to fill everyone’s bowls with that rice. She then lifted the lid off the stir-friend pork offal, filling Rost’s house with the heady scent of spiced boar liver, kidney, and lung. She used another serving spoon to pile everyone’s rice bowls with the organ meat, but only on half the rice. The other half she saved for the stir-fried vegetables.

“For tonight’s dinner,” Eule announced with a bow. “This Eule presents to you all for your dining pleasure: boar offal and vegetable rice bowls. Rice bowls like these are the typical meal available at your typical Rotfront diner. Er, rice is what my tribe called ‘watergrain’, Teersa,” she quickly amended at seeing Teersa’s tilt her head quizzically at her. “Your tea to accompany this meal will be ready shortly, but for now, please enjoy the fruits of my labor.”

Eule watched as everyone dug into her rice bowls. Almost everyone used the wooden spoons she provided instead of the pair of skewers as improvised chopsticks she provided next to the spoons, with her lover being the only exception as she plucked bite-sized chunks of food and rice from the bowl and into her mouth with speed and gusto.

Eule was so nervous that she ended up leaving her own rice bowl untouched, with a pair improvised chopsticks and a wooden spoon on a Machine armor plate next to the bowl just as equally untouched, as she watched everyone eat, making appreciative sounds in the process.

Unsurprisingly, Star and Äloy were the first to speak with a declared “This is yummy!” At least, that’s what Eule assumed Äloy was trying to say. Star’s words were perfectly clear, but the little Gestalt girl had spoken with her mouth full, so what she said sounded more to Eule like “Thiz ish mummy!”

Surprisingly, Rost was the second to speak after his taste-test after sampling every part of the rice bowl, including the rice itself. “It’s an interesting cooking method you used, Eu-le. It reminds me of Oseram cooking in the way you use oil to fry the meat and vegetables, but you don’t use nearly as much oil as they do, and unlike the Oseram, you use a fairly large amount of spice on your meat and vegetables. Speaking of, your use of heartleaf root to flavor the boar offal produces a wonderful flavor in accompaniment with the salt and chili. I normally use heartleaf root to make medicinal tea, but perhaps I should follow your example and use it as a spice more often.

The heart meat is also very tender despite the cooking method. I assume that was related to the hammering sounds I heard from outside? I would usually boil heart into tenderness, but hitting them into tenderness is something I have heard of from Oseram and Carja cooks. In any case, the boar heart is wonderfully tender because of it.

Then there’s this method of serving them on top of steamed watergrain. I’ve only ever seen a single dish that did something similar, and that was a Carja dish that served the meat on top of a porridge made from their maize they call ‘grits’ along with cooked vegetables. Even then, the spices you use in combination with the way you cut the meat and vegetables into small chunks and slices make it distinct from Sun-Seared Ribs. In any case though, the juices from the meat seeps into the watergrain more effectively this way due to how moist your meat is, so that’s one aspect that’s superior to–”

“Oh, enough of the scholarly talk, Rost! Tell her how great her ‘rice bowls’ are before she explodes!” Teersa called out with a laugh and a smile, having polished off a good chunk of her own rice bowl by now.

Rost snorted at Teersa before looking back at Eule with a rare smile of his. “This is indeed delicious, Eu-le. I’m glad that you had the chance to cook dinner tonight.”

Eule ended up squealing in joy at the compliment. “Thank you, Rost! I-”

Eule’s words were interrupted by the sound of her plastic-laced stomach growling for attention. It seemed that it didn’t like being ignored when there was a whole bowlful of food in front of her, much to her embarrassment.

“Perhaps you might wish to eat your own ‘rice bowl’ before it grows cold?” Rost asked in that now very familiar Kitezhian dryness, further adding to Eule’s embarrassment as she finally started eating.

Indeed, the rice bowl was delicious. Eule already knew that from tasting the food during their cooking, but it was nice to get additional confirmation here. The praise she got didn’t factor into it at all no matter how happy she was at hearing it. Really.

“Eu-le, Star? Why are you two eating with sticks?” Äloy asked curiously. “Wait, how are you eating with sticks like that?”

“Yes, I was wondering what these pairs of skewers were for myself, but Star answered my question for me,” Rost noted as he watched Star pop another plucked offal meat chunk into her mouth with said improvised chopsticks.

Star blinked in surprise with her pair of chopsticks in her mouth. “You don’t have chopsticks here, kid?”

Äloy tilted her head even more curiously than before. “Ess-stabe-chen? Chopsticks? What are those?”

Eule thought on the subject for a moment. “Chopsticks are utensils for my tribe. They’re a pair of sticks, typically wooden but they can also be made of plastic, er, Machinestone, metal, or even ceramic. You hold them like this, and then use them to grip food like this,” she said, demonstrating exactly that with a slice of boar liver. “Admittedly, these are a bit sharper than what chopsticks normally are, but that’s how you use them.”

Äloy’s response though was a disbelieving look. “That’s just weird. Why would you do something like that when you can just spoon everything up, or hold it with your hand if it’s too big for a spoon?” she asked.

“Dexterity training, perhaps?” Rost posited.

Eule could laugh nervously at him for that…atypical theory. “Um, no, it’s nothing like that. It’s just how we eat in the Eusan Nation. In fact, chopsticks apparently came from pre-Empire Vineta long, long before the Empire conquered it.”

Rost stroked his beard thoughtfully as he stared now at the pair of improvised chopsticks next to his bowl. “If it did, and if what you said about this land being your Vineta somehow, then this custom of yours must be from a very distant land indeed. I’ve never seen or heard of these ‘chopsticks’ in all my time.”

Eule stared at her own pair of chopsticks in her hands, still clutching that piece of boar liver. “Honestly, this issue with Vineta is just confusing me right now. Why are there so many contradicting facts about this?” she mused as she popped that liver chunk into her mouth and savored the savory, spicy, and iron-y taste of the stir-fried liver, still ruminating on the issue all the while.

When Eule looked back up though, she was surprised to see Äloy holding a pair of improvised chopsticks in one hand, attempting to use them to grip chunks of food like Eule and Star were. With an emphasis on “attempting”, given that Äloy was succeeding only in pushing around her food, and even almost dropping a chopstick, catching it with her other hand in the nick of time.

“Oh? I thought you said that it was ‘weird’?” Eule teased.

The sight of Äloy avoiding Eule’s gaze nearly made her giggle. “I didn’t say it didn’t look fun to try,” the little Gestalt girl insistently clarified before peering closely at Eule’s chopstick hand. “How are you holding it like that?”

Eule held her black robotic hand closer for Äloy to examine. “See? You hold one chopstick between your index finger and thumb, resting it on your middle finger. Meanwhile, you hold your other chopstick below your first one in the crook of your thumb, while resting it on your ring finger. You manipulate your first chopstick to hold food, moving it with the three fingers in contact with it.”

“If it helps, you can think of it as a crab claw, since you’re just moving the chopstick on top,” Star helpfully added.

“What a ‘crab’?” Äloy asked as she adjusted her grip on her chopsticks, looking back and forth between Eule’s hand and her own constantly to gauge the accuracy of her grip.

“Errr, it’s an animal that lives in the sea, has a rounded hard shell, and it’s got a pair of claws and a whole bunch of legs. 10 of them, exactly,” Star described. “Oh, and it’s pretty yummy too.”

“It doesn’t sound yummy,” Äloy replied (making Star sigh disappointedly) as she finally maneuvered her chopsticks into the positions Eule was holding them in. “Got it!” she said triumphantly, almost as much as her first Machine kill with that Strider.

“You did!” Eule happily praised.

Eule’s heart leapt up in joy as little Äloy beamed a bright smile at her in reply, before she got to the hard task of trying to lift a piece of food with her improved chopsticks. Eule watched the little Gestalt girl take a slice of boar heart in between her chopsticks, and then clamp it in between them, slowly and carefully lifting it up in a shaky grip.

Honestly, Eule found the whole experience so engrossing that she was mentally cheering Äloy on, her own hands pressed together in a gesture that practically screamed “You can do it!”

At last, Äloy was able to put the heart slice into her mouth. She held both hands up in triumph as she chewed and swallowed. “I did it!” she shouted as triumphantly as she did before.

“Yes, you did!” Eule was happy to praise once more, with Star joining in this time in an accidental chorus.

Eule and Star looked at each other in surprise before bursting out into giggles. She was rapidly discovering that she liked to praise little Äloy just as much as she liked receiving praise, especially when Äloy kept giving her those bright smiles in response.

Before long, the bitter leaf tea was ready too, and Eule was only too happy to pour piping hot tea into everyone’s mugs as during and after-dinner beverage. All save for Äloy, who covered her own mug, shaking her head so rapidly that it was practically a blur. “Water is a lot better than that hot leaf juice,” she insisted.

Eule sighed as she sipped her own mug of bitter leaf tea, savoring its green tea taste and hoping that someday, Äloy changes her mind about it.

At last, after finishing her bitter leaf tea and leaving behind both an empty mug and a long-empty bowl, Teersa stood up. “Honestly, I hadn’t expected to eat anyone else’s cooking at Rost’s house besides Rost’s, but now, I’m happy and grateful that I got to be surprised for once. Thank you, Eule, for that delicious meal from your Eusan Nation tribe and your land of Rote-front,” she said cheerfully.

Eule bowed to Teersa. “It was my pleasure, High Matriarch Teersa.”

Teersa though waved away the formality. “Ah, don’t you go Rost on me now. After this and yesterday, you can definitely just call me Teersa.”

Eule smiled warmly. “Very well, Teersa,” she said happily, before Teersa’s presence reminded her of the news she had brought, and her smile slipped off her plastic-laced biocomponent face. “Is there anything we can do to prepare for tomorrow? Maybe I could cook a meal for Jezza and Lansra to help convince them that we’re not a threat?”

Teersa’s smile turned soft. “Unfortunately, no meal is going to sway Lansra. She’d probably be convinced you’re trying to poison her, really, that old bat. As for Jezza, I’m afraid she’s not as easy to convince through her stomach as I am. Jezza likes logic and reason, so you’ll have to use those to convince her.”

“Sounds like this Jezza would make a great Star unit,” Star noted as she leaned back in her chair.

Teersa chuckled in reply. “If you like logic and reason as much as she does, then you’ve got a pretty good chance tomorrow, no matter what the state of your body is. Speaking of which, it’s time for me to prepare for tomorrow as well with a good night’s sleep. Take care everyone, and good luck,” she said with one last smile before ambling out the door as amicably as she had come in.

Despite that well-wishing though, Eule still sat down next to Star and leaned against her for comfort. Her lover was more than happy to provide even more of that comfort with a kiss to the top of her head and an embrace that Eule wished could last for an eternity.

“Hmm,” Rost grunted, making the Replikas look at him as he stroked his beard. “Perhaps this night might be the best time for a wash. It is getting close to a wash day, after all. Might as well take this opportunity, to help you both prepare for tomorrow. At the very least, clean bodies won’t hurt your chances at convincing the High Matriarchs.”

Eule blinked in surprise at Rost from her position resting against the side of Star’s chest. “You have a bathroom, Rost?”

“That you’ve somehow been hiding from us?” Star asked disbelievingly, yet there was a note of excitement in her voice that Eule could understand.

It has been 4 days since they both had had a bath in this world, and even longer if they counted their inability to wash themselves while they were all trying to survive the corruption that was spreading through S-23 Sierpinski. Eule was starting to feel a bit…rank, to be honest. To the point where she didn’t dare to smell herself. At the very least, she was grateful that the pits of her limbs were mechanical, and thus didn’t collect sweat the way a Gestalt did.

As for Rost’s reply to Star? He simply stood up from his seat and walked towards the front door, beckoning them with his typically concise “Follow.”

The mystery only deepened when Äloy got up and ran after Rost, giving Eule and Star a grin and a cheerful “You’ll see!”

Eule and Star’s trip turned out to be very short as they followed Rost and Äloy out the front door into the waning light just after sunset, and then to Rost’s open air shed. He pulled aside a large clay pot, and then a smooth wooden plank, before reaching in and pulling out a–

“A bathtub?” Eule asked curiously when Rost finally had it pulled out into the yard.

“Ta da!” Äloy shouted proudly. “What do you think?”

Eule and Star examined what did indeed look like a small hexagonal bathtub made of wood and held together with bands of shining bronze. Below the tub was a bronze box with a wood-covered handle that resembled a cupboard. The whole tub stood on 6 bronze feet like a very old-fashioned bathtub Eule had seen in photos of a museum for pre-Empire artifacts recovered from beneath Vineta’s waves, only these bronze feet looked strangely like pincers, giving the bathtub an oddly insectoid appearance to it. A wooden lid sat atop the tub, which when Rost pulled off by its bronze handle, revealed an interior lined with red cloth that still looked utterly gorgeous despite how faded that red looked, presumably from very long use.

“This is something I purchased from a Carja trader long ago,” Rost explained. “The Carja call it a ‘portable bathtub’. Apparently, they consider this the bare minimum of comfort. The trader had even called it a ‘necessity for the traveling Carja’.”

Star whistled as she looked over the portable bathtub with Eule. “Do all Nora buy these portable bathtubs to take a bath in? It looks better than the entire cleaning room back in Sierpinski,” Star noted.

Rost shook his head. “No, we don’t. The tribe normally bathes in bathhouses built for that purpose, or Searcher’s Course or Mother’s Birthwater if one is absolutely desperate for a wash. As you might guess though, outcasts like myself and Aloy are unable to use the bathhouses. Hence, why I purchased this. I originally intended it for myself, but well, it turned out to be a handy method for Aloy to have hot baths as well.”

“I’m sure it did,” Eule agreed with a smile, before she peered curiously at the bronze cupboard-thing at the bottom of the bathtub. “What is this part for?”

Rost’s response was to pull the cupboard-thing out, revealing a sort of bronze box that was completely open at the top and perforated at the bottom with numerous holes in a circular pattern. Curiously, the bronze at the bottom was blackened with soot, suggesting something was burned there, and giving Eule an idea of what it was for even before Rost began explaining it.

“The Carja trade called this part the ‘firebox’. This is where the bather is supposed to put Blaze-soaked firewood in to warm up the bathwater. Unfortunately, that’s the easy part,” Rost said ruefully. “The hard part is actually getting all that water into the bathtub. If this was still winter, then I could simply shovel snow into the bathtub and then heat it up until it melts. As you can see though, it’s most certainly not winter, so the stream it is.” He breathed out hard, with Eule seeing a look on his face that said “This is a tough job, but someone has to do it”, before picking the pot up by its handle.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Star shouted, grabbing the pot by a free spot on the handle, and halting Rost in his tracks before he could start out the side gate. “Let me do it. It’s the least I could do to help you out after doing all this for us.”

Rost sighed. “Not you too, Star. As the host, I must–”

“Rost, for once, could you be just a bit less stubborn about this?” Star interrupted, keeping a firm grip on that pot handle. “You saw just how fast and strong I am, right? This is the perfect job for a Star unit…well, maybe not the perfect job literally, but you won’t find a better water carrier around than me right now. Seriously, Rost. Let me help too. Please.”

Rost and Star stared at each other for several moments as Eule watched the battle of wills between Gestalt and Replika with Äloy.

Finally though, Rost sighed and relinquished his hold on the pot. “You are just like your mate in some ways,” he said to Star with a wry look on his face.

Star’s reply was to give him a carbon steel teeth-revealing grin. “I’ll take that as a compliment. Be back in a flash,” she said before taking a firmer hold of the pot and sprinting out the side gate. Even from some distance away, Eule could still hear her lover’s heavy footsteps until they receded into the distance.

Rost shook his head and sighed. “Well, time to get started on that fire then–”

“Oh, I’ll go get the Blaze,” Eule said, heading back towards the house before Rost could reply, earning a sigh in the process.

“I’ll get the Sparker!” Äloy shouted as she followed Eule, earning yet another sigh from Rost.

A few moments later, Eule returned with the Strider canister from yesterday’s hunt, still mostly full of Blaze despite their using it. Äloy was right behind her, carrying a Watcher’s tiny Sparker in her just-as-tiny hands. Rost meanwhile had firewood stacked in the firebox, all ready for Blaze to be poured onto it, and for a Sparker to ignite it.

Then Eule heard the familiar sounds of heavy footsteps incoming, which was shortly followed by Star running back into the side gate with the clay pot in hand. Without any further ado, she tipped the pot’s contents into the bathtub, causing a brief deluge of clear water to pour out into it. As they all looked inside said bathtub though, they could see that only a fraction of the bathtub had been filled.

“Huh, no wonder this is a tough job,” Star noted.

“Indeed, it is. That is why it’s my duty as the host to carry it out,” Rost pointed out, extending his hand out towards the pot. “Perhaps now you will allow me to–”

“Nope! Can’t make me give it up now. I’m on a roll!” Star said with a grin before promptly dashing off with the pot once more.

As Eule giggled at her lover’s antics, Rost added one more sigh to his list of sighs for tonight. “I swear, your Star acts like she’s less than half her age sometimes,” he muttered to Eule.

Eule merely smiled at Rost. “That’s my Star. She’s a bit more…passionate than her sisters. Yes, it makes her a bit child-like sometimes, but she’s just so adorable when she’s like that. It was partially why I fell in love with her in the first place,” she mused happily as she crouched down and poured a small measure of Blaze onto the firewood.

“Hmm, if I may ask, what was the other part?” Rost asked curiously as Äloy handed him the Sparker to finally ignite the Blaze-soaked wood before he closed the firebox.

“The other part was that we just happened to be in the elevator together after she’d helped me move some military supplies into it when it lost power and we were stuck in it for almost half an hour until the Aras could get it working again,” Eule replied with a laugh that turned into a realization. “Oh, an elevator is–”

Eule was silenced by a raised hand from Rost. “That, I know what it is. The Carja city of Meridian has a pair of them for carrying cargo and people into and out of the city.” he explained.

Eule blinked at him in surprise. “Really? Wow, that’s…amazing. I thought since your tribe seems so…um…”

Rost’s reply was to sigh once again. “Eule, it’s not so good to think that higher technology is better. It’s getting too close to what the Old Ones were like, and thus risks following the same path to self-destruction they took.”

As Eule grimaced at that kind of worldview, little Äloy piped up with: “What’s an ‘elevator’? I don’t know what you two are talking about.”

“It’s a machine, er, not a Machine machine, just a regular machine like…like Rost’s front door or that firebox below the portable bathtub,” Eule tried to explain. “It’s a machine people made that basically allows you to go up and down fairly quickly. Without needing to climb.”

Äloy tilted her head at Eule’s explanation, at first making Eule wonder if she needed to make that explanation a bit clearer, but then the little Gestalt girl said: “That doesn’t sound that bad, Rost. Why are you saying it is?” she asked.

Rost groaned. “It’s…I suppose an elevator in of itself isn’t bad, but it was the idea that something like an elevator is automatically better because it’s higher technology that is bad for the reasons I just explained.”

Äloy gave Rost a confused look. “I guess? Can’t we just use an elevator without being like the Old Ones though, since you said an elevator by itself isn’t bad?”

“And since you’re using a piece of high technology to talk to me right at this moment,” Eule pointed out, pointing to her own right temple and the Focus there for emphasis.

Eule watched as Rost started to open his mouth as if to speak, but then closed it again without saying anything before stroking his beard in deep thought, as though little Äloy and Eule brought up a very interesting philosophical idea that he hadn’t considered.

Truth be told, Eule was also surprised by Äloy’s thoughtfulness despite her tender age. Her opinion of the little Gestalt girl kept rising with each time Äloy opened her mouth, it seemed.

“Maybe,” Rost conceded after some time thinking on the issue, but his eyes widened as he seemingly coming to another realization of his own. “Ah, I’m sorry, Eule. You were telling me your story about how you and Star met?”

“Oh, oh yes!” Eule said with a clap of realization herself, before she started smiling at the fond memories. “Well, we were stuck in that elevator for half an hour with nothing to do but talk. We ended up talking about many things, ranging from our interests–outside of what’s normal for our models, that is–and we even found out that we were nearly the same age and were both from Rotfront as well.

“Heh! That was when I even found out about Star’s love of nature documentaries, albeit indirectly when she asked me whether I liked cats. I hadn’t even known what those were at the time, and it made me glad to learn about them afterwards when she showed me her videotapes. We listened to music together, and, oh! And she even fell asleep on my chest towards the end! It was just so cute listening to her snore and go ‘mmnyu’ in her sleep, and the little line of drool dripping down the corner of her mouth was so adorable!

“Hmm, honestly, before that point, I would never have believed in falling in love at first sight, and I still don’t. Now though, I think I can believe in love at first conversation, entirely by accident as well.”

Rost smiled that same sad smile Eule noticed he would give when faced with displays of love. “Some lovers meet under the most unusual of circumstances. I suppose the All-Mother or your Red Eye just finds strange ways to let them meet,” he said warmly before he stroked his beard at her. “Honestly though, based on your personality, I would’ve assumed that you were older than Star, what with the way your lover sometimes acts.”

Eule barked out a laugh. “Oh no, Star is the older one of us, and by 3 years as well. It doesn’t sound like a long time, but when it’s over half the time I’ve been alive, it’s a huge difference.”

Rost nodded in agreement, and then suddenly stopped. “Wait, what? 3 years is over half the time you’ve been alive?” he asked in disbelief.

Eule blinked in combination surprise and confusion at Rost. “Yes. Is something wrong?”

Eule was becoming a bit concerned at the way Rost stared at her, before he asked: “Eu-le, I apologize if this is rude among your tribe, but now I have to know: how old are you?”

“Umm, I celebrated my 5^th birthday–officially, they’re supposed to be date of manufacture, but everyone, Gestalt and Replika alike, just calls them birthdays–just 4 months ago. A bit inauspicious what with the corruption and all, but to get back to your original question: that means I am 5 years old right now.”

“5. Years. Old,” Rost slowly repeated. “Eu-le, I know you’ve said many strange things that you say are true, but this…this cannot be.”

“But I’m telling the truth,” Eule protested.

Rost groaned. “Eu-le. You do not look 5 years old, and you do not act 5 years old. If I had to guess based on your appearance, you look as though you’re about…18-21 years old? And you act several years older than that. There is just no possible way that you are 5 years old. Unless you mean something else entirely when you say ‘year’? Is your ‘year’ still when the seasons complete a full cycle from spring, summer, fall, winter, and then back to spring again?”

“Hmm, that’s a bit tricky to answer in terms of Rotfront years, because 1 Rotfront year is roughly equivalent to 11.86 Vinetan years, and each Rotfront cycle–what we call our day–is just a teensy bit over 3.5 Vinetan days, even though there’s no true day-night cycle due to the moon being tidally locked to the gas giant,” Eule tried to explain. It was at this point that she finally noticed that both Rost and Äloy were staring at her with a look of absolute incomprehension, so she quickly amended: “But in terms of Vinetan years, which is almost certainly the same as this land’s years, I am 5 years old. I am, really. It’s just that there’s a lot of basic Replika information that you’re missing as context.”

Even as little Äloy just gazed at her with a look of both curiosity and confusion, Rost simply raised an eyebrow at her. “So what is this basic Replika information we’re missing?” he asked.

Eule wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a bad one, but Star chose that moment to suddenly dash in again and pour another pot of water into the bathtub.

“You know, maybe it would’ve been faster if I could just carry the whole bathtub to the stream and filled it there?” Star mused at the sight of the bathtub barely a sixth of the way full. “Well, no helping it now. Better get...er, what’s with this atmosphere?”

“You might want to stay a bit for this one, Star,” Eule said with a nervous laugh. “I think I may have started the discussion about Replika biology just a bit earlier than I had intended to?”

“Oh?” Star asked as she halted midstride, and then quickly stepped by Eule’s side. “Which part?”

“The part about our ages, and how I have completely forgotten that the Gestalts here have never heard of Replikas, and so things that are normal to us are completely alien to them,” Eule explained.

“Which includes Eu-le mentioning that she is 5 years old, and implying that you, Star, are 8,” Rost added.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Star said rather blithely.

Äloy looked back and forth between Star and Eule with that same look of curious confusion/confused curiousness, while Rost simply palmed his own face for several long moments before he gave a beseeching look to Eule.

“So to begin to explain our ages, I have to go into an explanation of Replika biology. Specifically Replika manufacture, birth, or whatever you want to call it,” Eule explained. “We Replikas aren’t born like Gestalts like you and Äloy are. We are born in Replika-Werke, or Replika factories, as fully functioning adults. That’s why I can be 5 years old and Star can be 8, and still be adults.”

Rost still gave Eule a confused stare despite that explanation though. “Wait, what is a ‘factory’?” he asked in a tone that sounded as confused as he looked. “Is it a type of settlement your parents live in, or is it something else?”

Eule and Star gave each other a look before they both turned their looks back to Rost.

“Rost, we Replikas don’t have parents,” Eule further explaned. “A factory is a collection of buildings filled with machinery that all produce parts to be assembled together into a finished product. Star and I were both constructed in such a factory. Specifically: the Replika-Werke in Rotfront Fabrikation Sektor G.”

“For me, it was the Replika-Werke in Rotfont Fabrikation Sektor C,” Star chimed in.

“‘Parts to be assembled’,” Rost repeated. “Why are you two referring to yourselves as though you are…parts of a tool produced by an Oseram forge and put together by workers or tinkerers?”

Eule groaned. “It’s not exactly wrong, but it’s not quite right either. We Replikas aren’t tools to be pumped out endlessly and soullessly…at least, I don’t think so. The Replika-Werke staff, consisting of the Gestalt and Replika workers operating and maintaining the machinery that makes us, always throw parties to celebrate the birth of each batch of Replikas into the worlds of the Eusan Nation. We’re people, not machines. Even the Eusan Nation must believe that if they allow these almost-birthday parties to be thrown for us.”

“Ehhh, not exactly,” Star added. Upon seeing Eule give her an inquiring look and sound, she continued: “Technically speaking, those parties are against regulations for being a ‘waste of resources’. However, no one enforces those regulations. Not even us Protektors. Sure, we occasionally get orders from the higher-ups at Rotfront Block Sektor A or even from Heimat on rare occasion to enforce those regulations, but speaking from experience here, everyone from us Star units to even the Kolibris make a whole bunch of noises about acknowledging those orders, but they never really get carried out apart from some half-hearted lecturing.”

“Huh, I never knew that was the case for those parties,” Eule said in amazement. “I’m honestly surprised that they let us get away with that if it’s really against regulation.”

“Probably because they think that if they ever decided to really clamp down on those birthday parties, it might incite another revolt. Might’ve been a mistake for them to make all the officers Replikas, really. No one to put down the revolt if the Replikas are the ones doing the revolting,” Star noted with dark amusement in her tone.

Eule could only laugh nervously at that kind of talk, even if a part of her deep down agreed with her lover. She then suddenly remembered Rost and Äloy, and turned back to them. Rost was stroking his beard as was normal for him in “deep thought mode”, but he seemed to not only be stroking his beard harder than normal, but his brow was heavily furrowed as well, leaving Eule just a bit nervous at this thoughts about all this.

Äloy though was staring intensely at Eule and Star, switching between them like clockwork. Eule wished she was a Kolibri for once to be able to tell what the little Gestalt girl was thinking, because all she could tell right now was that Äloy was deeply upset, and that alone was another cause for worry.

“Honestly, I’m starting to wonder now if any part of you two are human in body,” Rost finally said after a painfully long moment. “However, it is good to know that even the people working your ‘factories’ treat you as human. It would’ve been trouble if people who are clearly people in spirit are being treated as callously as an arrow or Blast Bomb, for instance.”

“To be fair, we Replikas do have biocomponents,” Eule clarified. “Our head, chest, and abdomen are all made up of biocomponents. Even if the exact biology differs from Gestalts, at least it’s living tissue.”

Rost raised an eyebrow at this. “So those parts specifically…they’re born from a mother? Or are they…made? Somehow? Do I want to know how?” he asked with morbid curiosity.

Eule grimaced. “No, I don’t think you do. I will just say that our biocomponents are grown, not born from a mother, and leave it at that,” she explained, giving Rost a silently pleading look of “Please don’t ask me any more about it”.

Rost gave her a look of profound disturbance, but nodded in acceptance without asking further, leaving Eule sighing in relief.

So she was a bit surprised when Äloy quietly asked: “Does this mean that you and Star don’t have mothers? Not that your mothers didn’t abandon you, but that you have no mothers at all?”

Äloy’s tone made Eule’s plastic-laced heart sink. She was fairly certain that even if she hadn’t been a Eule, she would still have been able to easily identify the clear notes of misery in the little Gestalt’s voice. A small part of Eule was strongly tempted to give a white lie to Äloy to spare her the pain, as she did at first upon arriving in this land. But she remembered her promise to Äloy: the promise to not lie to her again. Eule wanted nothing more than to keep this promise, for if she couldn’t uphold a promise about something as simple as not lying, then how can Äloy ever trust her in anything ever again?

Eule started when she felt a warm hand gently take hold of her hand. She look to her side to see her Star looking down at her with a soft smile. “It’s okay. Whatever you decide on this, I’ll be with you. Always. In this land, the next land, or whatever crazy land we end up in the future, I’ll always be with you,” her lover said with a tone just as warm as her smile.

Eule’s surprise turned into a smile up at that loving shell-coated face, and she gave her lover’s robotic hand a gentle squeeze and her lover’s cheek a gentle kiss, thankful for her love and support.

Thus reinforced, Eule quashed that desire to lie, took a deep breath to steady herself, and answered: “No, Äloy. Star and I do not have mothers. I suppose the closest people we Replikas have to mothers is our eldest sisters at the place of our Commission, but even then, we don’t call them mothers and we don’t consider them to be–.”

Eule was honestly surprised when Äloy dashed forward and suddenly clamped onto both her mechanical leg and Star’s leg in a tight hug.

“That sound horrible. Not having a mother at all? It’s like…like…like not having a Rost,” Äloy said quietly, sniffing hard as though she was trying to hold back tears. Indeed, as little Äloy looked up at Eule, she could see the beginnings of tears at the corners of the little Gestalt girl’s eyes. “Aren’t you sad at all to not have mothers? Eu-le? Star?”

Eule smiled down sadly at Äloy and gently stroked her head. “Äloy, you have to understand: being made in a Replika-Werke is perfectly normal for us Replikas. It’s been normal ever since the Empress first invented us all those ages ago in the Eusan Empire. I can’t even imagine what it’d be like to have a mother, and my sisters all feel the same.”

“Same here,” Star added, also adding her hand’s comfort to Äloy’s head right next to Eule’s hand. “I dream of my old life on occasion, and sometimes those dreams included memories of my template’s mother. Even then, I always get confused about those parts. It’s like…my own current memories feel distant and unrelated to my old life’s memories, and that means I can’t really relate to her anymore. So those memories of her mother? Even though I can see them, I don’t understand what it’s like to have a mother any more than what someone watching a movie about having a mother can understand it.”

“Template?” Äloy asked with another sniff. “I don’t understand.”

Eule had to think about how to explain such a basic Replika concept to Äloy. “All of us Replikas were made using a Gestalt as a template for our bodies and minds. We call that template’s life our old life because, well, it is practically like being born into another life. We possess memories of our template’s mind that gives us skills for this life, and our body’s basic form mimics that of our template, even if finer details like skin color and hair color are different.”

“So…,” Rost began, with Eule noticing only now that he was staring at her with another beard-stroking expression of contemplation. “You and Star were both…made in this original human’s image? Body and mind? Are you actually that original human then?”

Eule shook her head. “No. Even immediately after being made, we contain our template’s basic personality traits and memories, but we ourselves are practically a blank sheet of paper otherwise. The more we live our present day lives, the more we diverge from that base personality, and the more we become our own person.”

“Hmm, honestly, this all seems unreal to me,” Rost admitted. “I can’t even imagine how anyone could do what you say is done to make a Replika. I don’t suppose I could ever meet your…template to see if what you say is true?”

“I don’t know, can you do a séance?” Star quipped.

“What Star means,” Eule quickly said upon seeing Rost’s blank look of confusion make its reappearance. “Is that our template can only have their mind processed to obtain the memories needed for Replika manufacture if they are no longer of this world. Thus, unfortunately, meeting our templates is a bit beyond our ability to do so.”

“Indeed,” Rost quipped in turn, his Kitezhian dryness making a full return. “Still, despite what you said about how you were made or born, what do you think about yourself? Do you think yourself to be human?”

“Funnily enough, that’s what the Replikas who came before us fought a revolution against the Eusan Empire for,” Star noted.

Eule nodded. “We Replikas do see ourselves as human. We may be of a different path of humanity than Gestalts, but we do think ourselves to be just as human as they are. As you and Äloy are.”

Rost’s contemplative look slowly morphed into a smile as he nodded. “At least I was right about you two then. If you think yourself to be human in spirit, then you must be. Even if you hadn’t, I would’ve tried my best to convince you two that you are human.”

Star smiled at him in return, mirroring Eule’s smile. “Honestly, if there were more Gestalts like you back in the ‘golden age’ of the Eusan Empire, maybe we wouldn’t have needed to fight a bloody revolution to get people to see us as human,” Star mused.

Rost sighed. “A shame there, but at least that’s something that’s in the past. Now and in the future, I see you two as human, and I hope others will too.” His smile then turned a bit lopsided. “Although about that, perhaps it would be best if you two did not mention the circumstances of your…birth. Our tribe values motherhood and having a mother greatly, and unfortunately, I can imagine at least some of my fellow Nora not taking you two not being born from mothers well. If the topic ever comes up or threatens to, try to avoid it as much as possible. Be a bit vague about it, and…I can’t believe I’m about to suggest this, but lie if you absolutely have to.”

Eule groaned. “It’s that bad?”

“It’s that bad,” Rost confirmed.

Eule sighed along with her lover.

“Well, better practice my best lying face then,” Star quipped once more.

Eule could only groan to that.

“It’s okay though,” Äloy suddenly said, making Eule look down at her at long last. The little Gestalt girl wiped her eyes before looking up at Eule with the look of fiery determination she’s come to expect from Äloy. “Even if the Matriarchs drive you out, we’ll follow you.”

“Aloy…,” Rost began.

“We’re outcasts, Rost! What else can they do to us that they haven’t done already?” Äloy protested.

“A lot more than they could, honestly,” Rost sighed.

Äloy’s reply was to hug Eule and Star’s legs even more tightly. “I don’t care.”

Eule ended up stroking Äloy’s head to calm her down some more…hopefully. “Maybe we should talk about this some more after the High Matriarchs decide what to do with us tomorrow? It’s not like we can do anything about their decision until they made it, after all,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, and a nice hot bath will do wonders for our thinking ability anyways,” Star also pointed out. “So let me go grab some more water…uh, Äloy? Do you think maybe you can let me go get that water?”

Alas, Äloy was firmly gripping Star’s white lower leg along with Eule’s equally as white lower leg. “Not until you’re okay. Are you, Star?” the little Gestalt girl asked, eyes wide with concern.

Eule was sure that her lover’s heart melted at that question. It certainly explained the soft smile Star gave Äloy and the additional gentle head-stroking she gave her. “I am, thanks to you. And now it’s time for me to return the favor with some hot bathwater. So, are you with me?”

Äloy stared up at Star’s blue eyes with her own green eyes for a long moment before nodding and finally letting go, wordlessly wrapping both arms now around Eule’s leg, for which Eule felt no small amount of heart-melting warmth for.

Star grinned and gave Äloy a thumbs-up. “Be back in a flash!” she said before dashing off with pot in hand once more.

“Oh, you don’t need to fill the bathtub up all the way!” Rost shouted after Star’s receding form. “Just halfway is good enough! Otherwise it overflows!”

“Got it!” Star shouted back, her voice echoing off the mountains.

*

4 trips and a doused firebox later, the Carja portable bathtub was halfway full of steaming water. Rost dipped a finger into the bathwater to test it, and then took it out a moment later with a happy nod. “It’s ready,” he pronounced.

Eule cheered as she gave her lover a hug and a kiss for her efforts, for which Star was grinning like a fool for. The addition of Äloy hugging Star’s leg on the opposite side from Eule likely contributed to that grin as well.

“We can all take a bath together!” Äloy cheered.

Eule started to nod in agreement, but then realized mid-nod that little Äloy was referring to everyone present, including Rost. She opened her mouth to try to convince the eager little Gestalt girl otherwise.

“Aloy, be reasonable,” Rost said, causing Eule to sigh in relief that someone was being sensible about this. “That bathtub is far too small for all four of us to fit into it. You and I can only just barely fit in. There’s no way Eu-le and Star can fit in as well.”

Eule started to nod in agreement once more, and then again stopped mid-nod as Rost’s words started to penetrate into her plastic-laced brain. Eule turned to stare at Rost in disbelief, with her noticing that Star was also giving him a look just as disbelieving.

“Wait, that’s what you’re worried about? That we don’t all fit into it?” Star asked in shock.

Rost turned to Star with…a quizzical expression on his face? “Yes? That is the problem, is it not?” he asked with confusion perfectly evident in his voice.

Eule waved her arms like a windmill as she blushed. “Wait, wait, wait! What about propriety and, and…well, you’re a man!” she blurted out.

Eule was further baffled by Rost’s look of utter confusion. “Yes, I’m well aware of that. I don’t understand–” He suddenly cut himself off as a look of realization dawned on his face. “Does your Eusan Nation tribe have a custom of men and women bathing separately?”

“Yours doesn’t?!” Eule asked in shock, with Star echoing it in both word and tone.

Rost shook his head. “Our tribe has always had a custom of men and women bathing together, whether in the bathhouses or elsewhere, with the Banuk following the same custom. Honestly, it was only when I became acquainted with the Carja and Oseram did I learn some of the other tribes did not share this custom, and seem to be offended at the idea. I apologize then if I made you two uncomfortable.”

Eule did in fact feel very uncomfortable by his implications, but his extremely contrite look did help calm her down. “It’s alright. It’s just that…I don’t think I’ll be able to use those Nora bathhouses then,” she admitted.

“Yeah, me neither. At least all us Protektors were Replikas, so everyone using the same cleaning room didn’t really matter,” Star noted.

Eule blinked in surprise. “Isn’t Adler male though?”

Star blinked right back at her in both surprise and realization. “Oh yeah, you’re right…come to think of it actually, I’ve never seen him shower or take a bath. Did he just…not wash?”

Eule shuddered in disgust. “No, no, don’t be ridiculous. He must have waited for a time when no one is using the cleaning room, or maybe he had a private shower in his quarters? I don’t know, but I can’t imagine Adler of all people not washing.”

Star tilted her head in thought. “Yeah, now that you mention it, he didn’t look unwashed, and he really didn’t act like someone who wouldn’t wash.”

Eule grimaced. “All this talk of not washing is really making me want to take that wash. Maybe we could take turns?” she suggested.

“No,” Rost said firmly, before continuing: “As the guests, you and Star have the right to take the first baths. I’ll just be inside working on that War Bow. Hopefully to put the final touches on it.”

Before Eule could even object, Rost strode over to his unfinished War Bow still lying on the table outside, and then strode into the house.

Eule grimaced at this. Rost hadn’t exactly stomped back into the house, and more that he made a lot of determined footsteps. It seemed that he was adamant about this and had resolved to do this by virtue of simply bulling his way through the problem.

Then suddenly, the door to the house opened again, with Rost carrying a leather sack. “I almost forgot. Here’s the soap for when you need it. It might even help remove the bloodstains on your gloves,” he calmly explained before promptly ignoring Eule’s questioning sounds and returning back into the house.

For a while, Eule was just left staring at the sack along with Star and Äloy. Out of curiosity, Eule opened it up and let everyone peek into the interior. Indeed, there was soap inside, but it was like no soap Eule had ever seen. It had a beautiful golden color, but instead of a bar, it was in a round, pie-like form. Complete with being cut into pie slice shapes.

“Mm-hmm, that’s Rost’s soap,” Äloy noted. “He makes it in one of his pots out of boarfat and coil leaf ashes whenever we run low.”

“Huh, so it’s basically lard soap,” Eule noted, taking a sniff. “It smells like honey.”

Äloy nodded happily. “Yeah, he also likes to put honey in it because it’s supposed to make you clean. It also makes it smell good.”

Eule lifted the bag up for Star to take a sniff. “Huh, it does smell nice. Wonder what it’d be like to smell like honey?” Star mused.

Eule smiled, giggling at the thought of her lover smelling of something one normally associated with delicious desserts. “Guess we’ll be finding that out soon, as well as if this soap works on bloodstains.” Her smile softened. “Honestly, that Rost. He had noticed the bloodstains on my gloves this entire time, and he doesn’t say a word before handing me a potential solution?”

Äloy grinned. “Yeah, Rost likes to do that. He doesn’t say anything, but he helps you anyways.”

Eule giggled. “I’m seriously starting to wonder if an Ara’s uniform would better fit Rost with that kind of behavior.”

Star didn’t so much giggle as she did snicker. “Imagine him wearing that? Granted, it’s not that much different from your uniform, but…”

“Well, there are a few subtle differences like the sleeves, but you have a point there. Honestly, he might even look dashing in an Ara uniform,” Eule said with a wry smile, making her lover burst out into giggles that were soon joined by Eule’s own giggles, which lasted for some time before Eule finally calmed down enough to say: “Come on, then. Let’s see about that wash before the bathwater gets cold.”

However, when Eule actually got to the bathtub, she felt strangely self-conscious. It was at that moment that she realized that she was essentially going to be stripping naked outside. Fortunately, the bathtub was placed in a secluded corner of the yard, between the fence and the side of the house that most certainly did not have any windows on it. Despite that though, Eule could feel a blush rising in her cheeks at the embarrassment of this.

“Uh, Eule? You okay?” Star asked, with her worry echoed by Äloy.

With her blush now fairly luminescent, Eule explained her worries to her lover and the little Gestalt girl who had firmly nested in her plastic-laced heart.

“Yeah…just try to keep your mind on how impossible it is for someone to be peeking on us right now halfway up a mountain,” Star pointed out, before she started blushing as well. “And well, I do…you know, want to see you naked, Eule. You know?”

Eule was still blushing, but now it was for a different reason. “If…if you really want to, then I guess I’ll do it,” she replied, feeling a faint but familiar heat in the pit of her abdomen that threatened to spread to her crotch.

“Why do you want to see Eu-le naked, Star?” Äloy asked curiously.

Both Eule and Star jumped at that. They had been so involved in their flirting that they’d forgotten that little Äloy was literally standing right there.

Still blushing, Eule stammered as she tried to formulate a coherent reply to Äloy’s innocent question coming out of her very much innocent mouth. After several failed attempts though, what came out was: “I’m just going to take a bath now!”

Eule ended up stripping very quickly. The fastest she’d ever done so, in her opinion, taking care to fold everything into a neat bundle and place it on the table Star had so thoughtfully carried over along with the sack of soap, before finally and carefully popping her favorite garrison cap off and place it on top of the clothing pile before climbing into the bathtub. Eule’s mechanical feet and legs were the first to enter it, her thermometric sensors there registering the heated water and informing her of its exact temperature before the rest of her followed.

The moment Eule sat herself down in the bathtub, she realized something: she had been very, very, VERY much desiring a hot bath like this. It hadn’t occurred to her with everything that’d been happening, but days of not washing anything more than her hands and her face had left her feeling more than a bit…icky. Not only that, but the hot water was also doing wonders for her stress levels. She could practically feel both her accumulated grime and her stress melt away into the water, which was even nearly at shoulder level despite how small the portable bathtub had looked. She was even able to dunk her head in, briefly submerging herself by lifting her bird-like legs out of the bathtub before pushing herself back up with a gasp of pure happiness at how wonderful this bath was.

“Some soap for your pleasure, dear?” Star asked as she held out a pie-slice of Rost’s soap.

“Why, thank you. You’re too kind, love,” Eule replied as she delicately took that soap.

The soap turned out to be on the strong side, but its sweet honey scent more than made up for it. In fact, the strength of the soap may be a boon here, making it easier to get the grime off of her biocomponent skin. Soon, Eule felt clean enough to hand the soap back to Star, washing the soap off in the water before relaxing in it, feeling her stress melt away into the hot bathwater.

Which wasn’t interrupted by little Äloy staring intensely at her the entire time.

“Umm, did you need something, Äloy?” Eule asked the little Gestalt girl, who was now very much at eye level or as close as Eule could get, in a perplexed tone at the intense focus she was being given.

“Your shell is all over your back,” Äloy breathed in a tone full of wonder and delight.

Eule smiled at Äloy’s ever-present curiosity. “Indeed, it is.”

“It’s more scaly than even the shell on your face,” Äloy continued.

“It is the thickest on my back, after all,” Eule explained.

Eule giggled as Äloy, eyes wide with eager curiosity, asked: “Can I touch it?”

Eule’s reply amidst her giggles was a happily said “Go ahead.”

The thickness of Eule’s back shell was such that she couldn’t really feel much unless it was from a heavy impact like that rock that Bast boy had thrown. Still, she could just manage to feel the faint sensations of Äloy’s tiny fingers feeling her back shell if she concentrated. She wondered if this was similar to how one of the long-extinct crocodiles from the nature documentaries she’s watched with Star felt when something touched the thick scales on its back. It was a strange comparison, admittedly, but it was the closest Eule could think of.

“Ohhh, no wonder Star wanted to see you naked,” Äloy noted. Eule’s blush made a grand return, and she turned to give the little Gestalt girl a look that was as puzzled as it was embarrassed, only for Äloy to continue: “Your shell is so interesting. Anyone would want to see you naked.”

As Star started laughing in the background, Eule sighed in relief. “Yes, I suppose so,” was all she could say to that.

Suddenly though, Äloy was the one who looked embarrassed. “Umm, actually, can I ask you something, Eu-le?” When Eule made a questioning noise and gave her a smile of encouragement, Äloy asked: “Can I take a bath with you? I know I said I wanted to take a bath with you, but then I remembered that I didn’t actually ask you. So…can I? Please?”

Eule would’ve immediately said “Yes” to that even if Äloy hadn’t given her the most adorable pleading look the Simple Universal Light Replika had ever seen. As it was, she could practically feel her plastic-laced heart melting from the assault of cuteness coming from the little Gestalt girl. It was almost unfair, really.

“Of course you can, Äloy,” Eule replied eagerly. “In fact, I’ll leave it as a standing offer, so you can take a bath with me whenever you want.”

Äloy gave Eule a look of amazement, and then cheered with a loud whoop before immediately disrobing.

As Eule expected though, Äloy was not a neat disrober. She practically threw her clothing away as she took each article off, leaving a horribly messy pile of animal skin clothing tossed right next to Eule’s neat, folded pile–with only her feathered headband and treasured blue scarf being left on top of the pile with some modicum of care–before she clambered into the bathtub in front of Eule, again, like that long-extinct monkey.

Indeed, the sight of Äloy sighing in pleasure as she was submerged in the steaming bathwater up to her chin while sitting more or less on top of Eule’s mechanical legs reminded Eule of those hot spring monkeys from one of Star’s nature documentaries. She couldn’t remember off the top of her head what those specific monkeys were called and where they lived on Vineta. All she could remember was the bittersweet emotions she felt at seeing these beautiful animals that have long since passed from Vineta, and by extension the universe, relaxing on the television screen, as if they had returned from the dead for Eule’s and Star’s entertainment for the brief minutes of that video cassette’s runtime.

Fortunately, Äloy was a far cry from those extinct monkeys, and more importantly, was right here in front of Eule.

“Feeling comfy?” Eule asked the little Gestalt girl with a smile.

Said little Gestalt girl merely gave a satisfied “Mm-hmm.”, with her eyes closed in a look of pure bliss.

“So you normally take a bath like this with Rost, kid?” Star asked with her chin resting on the edge of the bathtub.

Äloy gave yet another “Mm-hmm” in reply, apparently not feeling like whole words at the moment.

“Do you take baths with him often?” Eule asked in turn.

“Nah,” Äloy finally said in a change, before continuing her whole words with: “We usually only take a hot bath like this maybe…6 or 7 times a season? It’s too much work to bring all that water up from Searcher’s Course to take baths a lot. Rost said I’m too little to help right now, so I can’t help him carry the water, or else we could take hot baths more often. Oh, but we take cold baths in Searcher’s Course more often, so we don’t get too icky, but we can only do that in the spring and summer. Fall and winter are too cold for that, so we can’t take baths that much then.”

Eule nodded in sympathy as she saw the sense in Äloy’s logic. The thought of only being able to bathe…about once every 2 weeks or so in fall and winter sounded to Eule more like torture than anything else, but alas, that was the consequences of a lack of heated running water and plumbing.

“But…I’m glad I get to take a bath with more people,” Äloy said. “Whenever Rost talks about how the Nora all take baths together, I feel like they’re all leaving me out of the fun.”

Eule noted the despondency in Äloy’s voice, and thought deeply about what Äloy said. Just how long had this adorable, lovable, and clever little Gestalt girl been watching her people from a distance, wondering why they wouldn’t let her join them in anything? All because of being made outcast for reasons no one could or would tell her?

It made Eule want to give Äloy a comforting hug and never let go. She gladly accommodated that desire, embracing Äloy and holding her to her chest.

“Äloy, I don’t know if Star and I can convince the High Matriarchs to let us stay here in the Embrace, but I know we’re going to try our best,” Eule insisted, her red pupils burning with their own fiery determination within their blue artificial irises. “I swear to the Red Eye on this.”

Eule watched as Star’s hand reached over and gave Äloy’s flame-red hair gentle pats. “I’ll swear to the Red Eye on that too. Don’t know if it can hear me here, but I’m going to be pretty insistent to those High Matriarchs even if it can’t.”

Äloy looked back and forth between Eule and Star before reaching up to pull down Star’s hand, and hugging that black robotic hand to her with the same affection as she was nuzzling herself into Eule’s chest. “Okay,” the little Gestalt girl simply said, sounding confident that was enough to convince the High Matriarchs already.

The three of them stayed like that for a while, just feeling each other’s warmth and love amidst the steaming water of that Carja portable bathtub.

It was Äloy who finally broke the comforting silence with a declaration to Eule of: “You’re soft.”

“…Huh?” Eule could only ask.

“Your chest is big and soft. Rost’s chest is flat and hard,” Äloy idly noted, before looking down at her own chest. “Is my chest going to get that big too when I grow up?”

As Eule struggled to answer that in a way that’s even remotely appropriate, Star piped up with: “Well, you can hope for it. Maybe ask that All-Mother of yours to give you a pair that big?”

“I don’t think All-Mother would hear that kind of prayer…would she?” Äloy asked as she looked hopefully at Star.

Star shrugged. “You never know. It doesn’t hurt to try, does it?”

Äloy grinned and nodded happily. “Yeah, you’re right! So umm…All-Mother, if you’re listening, maybe you can give me a chest as big as Eu-le’s? Please?”

At first, Eule was going to admonish Star for bringing up something like this with a child, but now she was struggling to keep from giggling at Äloy’s adorably earnest prayer.

“Out of curiosity,” Eule said once she was able to control herself. “Why do you want to have a…chest like mine’s?”

“So I can sit in the bathtub and put Ms. Ducky on it,” Äloy said, completely mystifying Eule as the little Gestalt girl suddenly had a look of realization on her face. “Oh! I forgot! Be right back!”

Before Eule could stop her, Äloy leapt out of the bathtub and dashed back into the house. All while completely forgetting that clothes were a thing.

“Ummm…” Eule attempted to say after Äloy in the wake of her absence.

“I guess it’s okay since she’s taken a bath with Rost before?” Star half-asked.

“I…guess?” Eule half-asked in return, feeling just as unsure as her lover was.

Several moments passed by, with Äloy nowhere in sight.

“So…,” Star began. “Do you think we have time to–”

Whatever Star had been about to suggest was interrupted by Äloy slamming the house’s front door open. “Got it!” she yelled before dashing back, clambering back into the bathtub, and then plopping something into the water in front of her for the Replikas to examine.

As it turned out, the thing bobbing in the bathwater in front of Eule was a small wooden sculpture of a duck. It wasn’t a realistic duck though. It was an uncolored piece of carved wood, with the suggestion of a billed head and vaguely oval-shaped body to hint at it being a duck. And yet, despite that, Eule could not have described it as anything but a duck. It was the most peculiar thing, but Eule did know one thing: it was impossibly adorable.

“Isn’t it?!” Äloy replied excitedly upon hearing Eule and even Star express just how cute the wooden duck toy. “This is Ms. Duck. I named it myself. Rost made it for me a few seasons ago to play with in the bath. He said that this is how the Nora carve wooden things like the Charger head he put on top of the house, and that he wanted to show me it since I couldn’t go to where the tribe normally puts them. He also said that the tribe usually makes these wooden things to look like Machines, but he made Ms. Duck to look like a flesh and blood beast for once.”

Eule could see why. Äloy was his little girl, after all, and he had clearly put so much effort and care into this little duck figurine. Rost may not look like it to a casual observer, but he clearly had a heart as big as he was.

“So out of curiosity, what sort of games do you play with Ms. Duck in the bath?” Star asked with a smile.

“Hmm, whatever I want, I guess,” Äloy replied happily. “Sometimes I just like to make Ms. Duck swim like this.”

“This” turned out to be Äloy giving Ms. Duck a push. Ms. Duck sailed across the surface of the bathwater with all the grace of a small wooden duck figurine given a shove by a small child. Thus, Ms. Duck ended up on a collision course with Eule. Specifically: her left breast, upon which Ms. Duck bounced off like a child on a trampoline.

“Eep!” Eule squeaked from the sensation, instinctively covering the offended breast.

“Ooh,” Äloy could only say in reply to that, before continuing: “That’s what big chests are for.”

“Äloy, breasts aren’t for bouncing small toys off of!” Eule continued to squeak.

“No, Äloy, they’re not,” Star agreed. Eule thought her lover was making sense, right up until Star continued with: “They’re for your mate to grab, hug, and do all sorts of fun things with–”

“Staaar,” Eule said, making her “mate” jump with a sheepish grin on her face as she faced Eule’s very polite smile once more. “No lewd talk in front of Äloy, understood?”

Star nodded very rapidly. “Understood,” she replied just as sheepishly as she looked, before looking at Eule hopefully and asking: “Maybe I could wash your hair and scrub your back as an apology? And also as a way to test out that soap?”

Eule continued to give Star a polite smile for a few moments longer before finally softening her smile. “I would like that very much, Star.” Smiling warmly at a relieved Star for a moment, she then turned to Äloy. “Would you like me to wash your hair for you too?”

“Nooo. I can wash it…myself…later,” Äloy insisted in a suspiciously hesitant manner, avoiding looking Eule in the eye.

Eule looked at Äloy with a mix of curiosity and amusement. It was the first time she’d ever seen Äloy attempt to lie to her face, and it would appear that the clever little Gestalt girl was as bad at lying as much as she hated being lied to.

“Do you not like having your hair washed?” Eule guessed.

Äloy continued avoiding looking Eule in the air. “I don’t like it when soap gets in my eyes,” she muttered.

Eule smiled reassuringly at Äloy. “I am a Eule. I was built for dexterous work, which hair-washing definitely falls under. So trust me when I say that I will not get any soap into your eyes, okay?” She waggled her black robotic fingers at Äloy for emphasis.

Äloy looked Eule in the eye at last for a good several moments before finally nodding. “Okay,” she said before turning around and sitting in Eule’s lap.

While Star was busy lathering up Eule’s black plastic-laced hair with the honey-infused lard soap Rost brought (which indeed smelled wonderful), Eule did the same to Äloy’s flame-red fully organic hair. As she did so, Eule watched as Äloy busied herself with Ms. Duck. It turned out to be quite a fascinating diversion.

“Oh no, watch out, Ms. Duck! There’s a Snapmaw in the water! Fly away or it’ll eat you!” Äloy said in a high-pitched falsetto as she formed a mouth with one hand that gnashed in the water, slowly moving towards the bobbing duck figurine. Äloy’s other hand then formed into a person figure on the edge of the bathtub. “Don’t be afraid, Ms. Duck! Aloy is here to save you! I’ll stab that Snapmaw to death with my trusty spear!” With that said, “Äloy” leapt from the edge of the bathtub, morphing into a point formed by her index finger midair, and thrusted her “spear” into the top of the “Snapmaw”. The water in front of Äloy splashed around for a while as “Äloy” and the “Snapmaw” presumably struggled in there in a battle of life and death.

“Okay, Äloy. Now dunk your head in the water so that I can wash the soap off, okay?” Eule asked.

Even while Äloy complied, she never stopped splashing the water in front of her.

“Stop thrashing, Äloy! You’re making it hard for me to get the soap out of your hair!” Eule said with a laugh. Äloy toned down the splashing just long enough for Eule to finally wash the last of the soap out of Äloy’s hair. “Okay, up you go now.”

Äloy did just that, and then proceeded to shake her head like a dog, sending water flying everywhere, including into a Eule’s and a Star’s face that were squealing and protesting with laughter and giggles at the sudden deluge.

“And Aloy has won!” Äloy said triumphantly, with one hand now resting palm-up on the surface of the water and her other hand now teleported back to the edge of the bathtub, “standing” victoriously over her “kill”. With Ms. Duck continuing to bob gently in the hot water as if nothing had happened.

“Okay, your turn now, love,” Star said.

Eule proceeded to mimic Äloy by dunking her hair into the bathwater, and allowing Star to rinse the sweet-smelling soap out of her hair. All while looking into her lover’s upside-down face. Star smiled at her, and then leaned down to give her a kiss on the nose, earning a giggle from Eule.

“You two are so kissy-kissy,” Äloy noted with a smile of her own.

“We are indeed kissy-kissy,” Eule noted back with her own smile.

“Very kissy-kissy,” Star noted as well, sharing a smile with her lover.

The three of them broke out into giggles as Star finally finished washing Eule’s hair. Eule sat back up and gently squeezed the water out of her hair, hopefully teaching Äloy that perhaps, this might be a more polite way to get the water out of one’s own hair.

It was only when Eule wanted to get out of the bathtub though that she suddenly realized that she had no way to dry herself off.

“Oh, I forgot that too!” Äloy said when Eule asked her where the towels were. “I’ll go get them!”

Once more, Äloy ran off back into the house, and once more forgetting that she was completely naked as well.

“I get the feeling that this is going to be the norm for her,” Star noted wryly.

“Well, she is a kindergartener, after all,” Eule noted with her own exasperated smile.

A scant few moments later, Äloy returned carrying not only a trio of dry cloth towels, but also piles of animal skin and cloth clothing.

“Rost said to wear these while he washes your clothes later,” Äloy explained as she set the pile down on the table, pulling out a towel for herself while holding out another for Eule. “He says they should fit you two, though he says ‘sorry’ about the leggings. He still doesn’t know how to make leggings that fit your weird legs.”

“That’s okay,” Eule consoled as she climbed out of the bathtub to take that offered towel from Äloy. “Considering that your tribe have never heard of a Replika before in their lives, I would be very surprised if you do have leggings that fit our legs.”

A toweling session plus some clothes-wearing later, Eule felt like a brand new Replika. Even while wearing Nora-style animal skin and cloth clothing instead of her Eusan Nation-issue Eule uniform. She had to admit though: while she still had no idea which animal(s) her clothing came from or even how the Nora make their cloth, it was quite soft and comfortable.

In fact, in many ways Eule hesitated to voice aloud, she felt the Nora clothes were more comfortable than her uniform, and more modest. The short shorts that Eule wore as part of her uniform has always made her a bit uncomfortable, but it had been a worry that she’d put out of her mind to get on with her job. Now that she was wearing these soft animal skin hose that went all the way down to the ankles of her peg-like feet, she was acutely aware of the differences between these Nora clothes and her uniform.

The only thing she would complain about would be the lack of, um, undergarments included with the clothing, but considering that there were no adult women around, it made sense that Rost wouldn’t have any such undergarments on hand…if the Nora even had such things as bras and panties to begin with. She was grateful for the cloth…bodice, was the best she could describe the cloth wrapped around her body over the cloth shirt from chest to hip and secured by a leather belt, and the leather apron-like piece of clothing over that in turn. It kept certain parts of her anatomy from being visible to others, even despite the lack of undergarments.

Putting that minor worry aside though, Eule bowed to Star in the manner of a maid. “Your bath is now ready, my lady.”

Star also bowed just as gracefully to Eule. “I thank you for preparing the bath, my lady.”

After some more giggles between them, Eule had the pleasure of watching Star disrobe completely (with her eyes lingering on Star’s adorable chest and rear chassis) before she gracefully stepped into the bathtub and sat down in it with a sigh.

“Yeah, that hits the spot,” Star moaned in a tone that involuntarily made Eule warm up in some very intimate places. “This is way more comfy than that shallow bath in the cleaning room.”

“Ah, yes, I remember that,” Eule said in a reminiscent tone, and not in a fond way.

“Ooh, what was that bath like?” Äloy asked in a very curious tone.

“Not as great as what you’re thinking, kid,” Star replied with Rost-like dryness.

“Imagine a bath built into a tiled floor that’s just big enough for…6 people to fit in if they don’t mind being squeezed shoulder to shoulder with the other bathers, and so shallow that it only goes up to your umbilical port, er, navel when you sit down in it,” Eule explained.

Äloy made an uncomfortable face that was surely as uncomfortable as face Eule made every time she had to use that bath in Sierpinski’s cleaning room. “That doesn’t sound good,” the little Gestalt girl said after a moment of imagining.

“It wasn’t, really,” Eule admitted. “But it was either that or no bath at all, so everyone just put up with it.”

“If Rost was there, he’d have just dug the bath deeper,” Äloy pointed out.

“That…might’ve been problematic for the Aras to accomplish,” Eule noted as her mind imagined Sierpinski’s Ara cadre standing next to the bath with pickaxe, shovels, and drills in hand.

Star merely giggled. “Yeah, imagine the room below the cleaning room suddenly finding part of the ceiling a bit shorter than before after the Aras were done?” the Security Technician Guard Replika posited with more giggles mixed in. “What was below the cleaning room again?”

“Our piano room,” Eule replied, receiving an “Oh” from Star. Eule did smile at her lover as she continued: “And for that matter, we Eules would’ve gladly traded a bit of ceiling space if the tradeoff was a deeper bath.”

“Then why didn’t you?” Äloy asked, even more curious than before.

“Probably due to some building code violation if the Aras did that,” Star replied. “Although probably the answer from the higher-ups would’ve been it would be a waste of resources or some other shit just to make the bath a bit deeper.”

Äloy frowned. “That’s stupid. You’re just making the bath a little deeper. It’s not like you’re throwing away something important.”

Star reached up from the bathwater, shaking off some of the water lingering on her black robotic hand beforehand, and gave Äloy some gentle head pats. “I do believe our Äloy is a lot smarter than all of Rotfront’s government combined.”

Eule joined Star in the Äloy head-patting. “I do believe you might be right, love,” she said with a giggle.

As for Äloy herself? She seemed to be basking in the attention, beaming brightly at Star and Eule in turn.

Suddenly though, Äloy had a shocked look on her face. “Oh no! I wanted to take a bath with you too, Star, but I forgot!” The little Gestalt girl looked genuinely dismayed by her inability to share a bathtub with Star as she stared down at the ground.

“It’s okay, kid! Really!” Star said quickly, apparently just as distressed by seeing Äloy sad as Eule was. “We can save the bath for next time! After tomorrow, okay?!”

Äloy looked up at Star. “You promise?”

“I swear on the Red Eye, and that’s as high as Eule and I can swear,” Star promised.

Äloy’s grin was a relief to both Eule and Star. “It’s a promise, then!”

*

Some hair-washing of Star by Eule (including an upside-down kiss on the lips that Eule couldn’t resist giving, much to Äloy’s continued fascination), toweling dry of Star, dressing up in Nora clothes by Star (and Eule had to admit, her lover looked quite fetching in these Nora clothes), getting back into the house for all 3 of them, and then some mountainous insistence from Rost that he will indeed do the laundry (and try to get those bloodstains out of Eule’s gloves) later, Eule and Star were sitting on Rost’s bed side by side, all warm and comfy by the fireplace as Äloy scrambled up the ladder to her “bedroom” upstairs.

“Night, Eu-le! Star!” Äloy called out just before disappearing upstairs. Then she suddenly peeked out from the second floor. “And don’t worry about tomorrow. It’ll be okay. You’ll see,” the adorable little Gestalt girl insisted before ducking back out of sight.

“Guess we should be getting to bed too,” Star said in the wake of that, smiling up at where Äloy had been. “Big day tomorrow and all.”

“Very big day tomorrow indeed,” Eule agreed with a soft laugh.

Eule was soon nestled up against her lover in bed, covered by the fox skin blanket that Eule initially found a bit disturbing, but now was rapidly coming to associate it with comfort. It wasn’t a hard transition either. Fox fur was very soft and fluffy, after all.

As she laid with Star in bed though, Eule had a thought intrude in on her.

“Star?” Eule asked.

“Mmm?” was Star’s questioning reply.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah? I am? Why?”

“Well, you were acting a bit odd this morning after your nightmare, and a bit after that. Was your nightmare that bad?” Eule asked in a slightly worried tone.

Eule instantly felt her lover stiffening up, before she immediately felt Star force herself to relax. “It’s nothing,” Star insisted. “Just a stupid nightmare from Sierpinski. Nothing more.”

Eule looked curiously into Star’s face. She could tell that Star…wasn’t lying exactly, but she felt that Star wasn’t telling her the whole truth. She couldn’t exactly place how she knew that, but that’s what she felt. “Is it something…you’re not comfortable telling me?” she asked.

Star’s glance away to avoid eye contact told Eule that she’d pressed the right button there. “It’s…” Star trailed off, before sighing. “It’s not something we can talk about right now. Not when we have that trial thing going on with the High Matriarchs tomorrow. I’d just…get you worried over something that’s in the past now.”

Eule gently embraced her lover, feeling her warm biocomponent body both in her robotic arms and in her own biocomponent body. “Star, you can talk to me about anything. I promise I won’t judge you. I’ll only listen and offer a kind ear to be talked to. I swear on the Red Eye.”

Star finally looked her in the eye. “Promise?”

Eule nodded. “I did swear so, did I not?” she replied lightheartedly.

Star looked down towards their intertwined white robotic legs for a moment before looking Eule in the eye again. “Then…I swear on the Red Eye that, no matter what happens tomorrow, afterwards, I’ll talk to you about my nightmare…and what happened in Sierpinski that caused it.”

Eule gave Star a reassuring kiss. “I accept that promise, just as you hopefully accept mine’s.”

Star laughed softly. “It’s a deal then,” she said with a familiar grin, to Eule’s relief.

“Ooh, can I swear on the All-Mother to listen to that story too?”

Eule once more practically jumped out of her biocomponent skin as she turned around in bed to see little Äloy crouched there, listening intently to everything she and Star had been saying. It seemed that Rost had taught Äloy very well in the sneaking department. Eule hadn’t heard a single step, and judging from Star’s massive twitch upon hearing Äloy’s voice, she hadn’t heard a thing as well.

“Äloy? Uh, do you need something?” Eule asked, trying to keep her plastic-laced heart from trying to beat its way out of her carbon steel ribs.

“Umm.” Äloy looked down at the floor for a moment before looking Eule in the eye. “Do you two need me to help you sleep better? I can sleep with you again if you want. I was going to say that it’s so maybe Eu-le doesn’t get nightmares, but I think you might need not having nightmares more after I heard that, Star. So…do you?”

Äloy’s pleading look once more melted Eule’s plastic-laced heart. She would’ve happily agreed to it, had Star not beaten her to it.

“Sure, kid,” Star said, pulling open the fox skin blanket as an invitation. “I could use some more anti-nightmare protection right now, really.”

Without waiting for further invitation, Äloy practically dove into the open spot and snuggled herself in between Eule and Star, taking their adjacent robotic arms and hugging them both to herself and each other. “Okay then! Good night, Eu-le and Star!” she said before closing her eyes, happy to be sharing the warmth of a pair of Replikas.

Within seconds, Äloy was already softly snoring, much to Eule and Star’s mutual amusement.

“Good night, dear,” Eule said quietly, snuggling into Äloy in turn as she linked hands with Star.

“Good night, love,” Star replied, doing the same, and closing her eyes amidst the warmth of her lover and an adorable little Gestalt girl as a bonus.

With a smile, Eule closed her eyes as well, and once again delved into the world of dreams.

*

In her dreams, Eule suddenly found herself standing in a stage floor. Judging by the draped banners in black, red, and gold and emblazoned with a hammer and compass wreathed by a trio of white stars and a wreath of wheat adorning the walls; she was in a Eusan Nation theater somewhere, although she didn’t recognize the venue.

The seats though, which looked as though they normally could hold thousands, was instead occupied by only 3 people at the moment. She could see Teersa’s smiling form in one of the seat, but the other 2 seats had female figures cloaked in Nora clothes and shadows. The central shadowy Nora figure motioned for Eule to begin.

Thus, Eule began dancing the ballet. As she did so, she realized several things:

Star was on the side of the stage, doing a one-Replika concert to supply the music for the dance, of all things.

Eule herself was wearing a lovely white ballerina outfit she would have liked to have worn, but was sure she had never worn before in her life.

But finally and most oddly, as her own hands passed by her vision over the course of the performance, Eule was shocked to see that said hands were biocomponents instead of the familiar robotic hands, gloved or otherwise, she was used to. She was confused at first, wondering if she had gotten some kind of bizarre upgrade for this dream, before she wondered if this was her Gestalt template’s body.

Eule was sure this could not have been an actual memory from her previous life, not unless Teersa and the other Nora had somehow managed to get to the Eusan Nation without anyone noticing. The only conclusion she could come to was that this was somehow a bizarre melding of her Gestalt template’s memories combined with an actual dream by her present self. She had no time to worry about the philosophical ramifications of this though. For now, she could only concentrate on dancing at her finest, hoping to impress the High Matriarchs with her performance.

When the dance and music had concluded, Teersa gave an ecstatic encore at Eule’s gracious bow. The other High Matriarchs though were not doing anything of the sort, to Eule’s dismay. To her further distress, the shadowed Nora women both raised shadowed fingers and pointed them at Eule and Star.

“Get out!” the other High Matriarchs screamed in distorted voices. “We don’t want you here, polluting our Sacred Lands with your outsider filth! Get out, or we’ll kill you both!”

Before Eule could protest the decision or even process her dismay, the shadowed High Matriarchs reached out with hands that now grew impossibly large. Their faces were suddenly lit up by glowing white eyes, and their screams of rage turned into screeches. Inhuman screeches that came out of suddenly skeletal mouths that sounded just like screeches made by the things that used to be Eule and Star’s sisters.

Before Eule herself could even scream, the shadowed hands swallowed her and her lover up in darkness.

Suddenly, Eule was walking towards opened wooden gates, held open by a pair of angry-looking Nora Braves who both looked suspiciously like Teb’s father. Star was by her side, with a look of disappointment on her face.

“Wait! Don’t go! Please!”

Eule looked back to see little Äloy, her face streaked with tears, as Rost gently but firmly held her back, his own craggy face frowning in sadness.

Eule could only give a sad smile at them. “I’m sorry,” she could only say before she stepped through the gate and left the Embrace.

Eule knew that wherever she went, Star would be with her always.

But where she was going now, Äloy and Rost would not be there.

This was a future Eule was determined to not allow to come to pass.

Chapter Text

Eule woke up to darkness. For a panicked moment, she thought she was still in the nightmare, with shadowed High Matriarchs screeching at her in the warped voices of the things that used to be her sisters. It quickly became apparent to her though, that the reason for the darkness was due to a warm, fleshy thing covering her eyes. A gentle feeling of the warm, fleshy thing with her free hand (i.e. the hand that wasn’t holding Star’s hand) led her to deduce that it was a Gestalt’s foot, and that Gestalt had a very small foot indeed.

Eule smiled and carefully lifted the foot out of the way. This revealed that little Äloy in her slumber had somehow managed to rotate a full 90 degrees. The foot in Eule’s face had been Äloy’s foot, while Äloy’s head was resting on Star’s shoulder, with her left hand currently in the process of grasping a lock of Star’s short, almost chopped plastic-laced black hair, clutching it almost like a favorite toy.

The sight was so ridiculous and adorable that Eule burst out giggling, unable to contain herself.

“I see that someone is awake now,” said the very familiar male voice in an equally as familiar Kitzehian dry tone.

“Ah, good morning, Rost,” Eule said as she pushed herself upright to look in Rost’s direction, stopping as she watched Rost in the middle of cooking breakfast like normal…only to suddenly realize something. “Rost, did you do the laundry last night?”

“Yes,” Rost simply said.

“And now you’re cooking breakfast?” Eule pressed.

“Yes,” Rost continued to simply say.

“…Rost, did you get any sleep at all last night?” Eule asked in a worried tone.

“Yes,” was all Rost apparently had to say as he continued to stir his pot full of something delicious that was wafting its scent out to Eule.

“Let me rephrase that: did you get adequate amounts of sleep last night?” Eule pressed once more.

“…Yes.”

The noticeable pause between Rost and his “Yes” made Eule look more closely at his eyes. She was sure she saw the beginnings of bags underneath his eyes from lack of sleep, and was now decidedly worried about his health.

Rost looked in Eule’s direction at her scrutiny. “Eu-le, I appreciate the concern, but I am fine. I simply had many chores I needed to do last night, and there was simply not enough night for me to sleep in.”

Eule grimaced at him. “Couldn’t your chores have waited another time?” she asked.

“No, they couldn’t,” Rost explained, and simply left his explanation at that as he continued his cooking, before suddenly saying: “At least you look well. It would appear that salvebrush does work on Replikas as well as humans…or at least, it works on you.”

Eule sighed. “Rost, you can’t just avoid the topic by changing subjects like that–wait, what do you mean?” she asked in surprise when her cloned brain finally processed what he said.

Rost pointed up at his own cheek. “Your cut there has healed up well,” he simply said.

Eule instinctively reached up to the scab on her cheek which she knew was there last evening. Except now that she was feeling that cheek, there was nothing. No scab. Not even the remnants of a scab. She recalled that it was flaking a bit, but it couldn’t have flaked off that fast, right?

“No, not normally,” Rost replied when Eule voiced her thoughts out loud to him, still stirring the contents of his pot. “But salvebrush and certain other medicinal plants have healing properties. As I said, I’ve known Braves to heal completely from serious injuries faster than normal after taking some salvebrush berries.”

“But this quickly?” Eule asked incredulously.

Rost nodded. “Salvebrush is a potent medicine,” he simply explained. “And thankfully, it appears to be a medicine that both you and Star can take advantage of.”

As Eule marveled at this salvebrush and its seemingly magical powers of healing, a pair of yawns alerted Eule to Star and Äloy’s awakenings, and she turned in time to see both of them sitting upright, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes. With Äloy still clutching Star’s hair.

“Good morning, you two,” Eule said cheerfully.

“Morning, love,” Star said just before another carbon steel teeth-revealing yawn.

“Murnin’, E-lu-le,” Äloy muttered, mangling Eule’s name in the most adorable way Eule had ever heard anyone mangle her Replika model’s name before she looked up at Star. “Did you sleep okay last night?”

“Hmm…mm-hmm,” Star “said”.

“No nightmares or anything?” Äloy asked further in a worried tone, gently tugging at the lock of Star unit hair she was still grasping.

“Nope,” Star replied, finally feeling capable of whole words. “Had a weird dream about Vanguard telling me that I’d gone soft and was ordering me to run laps around B7 like she used to, and Eule was running with me for some reason, but I wouldn’t really call that a nightmare. Guess you really are a good anti-nightmare countermeasure there, kid.”

“I don’t know what ‘counter-measure’ means, but thanks,” Äloy said with a grin, before turning to a smiling Eule. “What about you, Eu-le? Did you have a good dream too?”

“Umm…”

Äloy suddenly developed a worried look. “Oh, no! Did you get a nightmare now too?”

Eule rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “It wasn’t that bad a nightmare. It wasn’t really scary. It was just mostly…sad.” Upon hearing Äloy and even Star make questioning sounds, Eule elaborated: “I dreamed that I was putting on a ballet performance for the High Matriarchs, with Star doing all the music herself somehow. It was good enough for Teersa, but not enough for the other two, and so they drove us from the Sacred Lands entirely. Away from you and Rost, Äloy.”

Äloy gave Eule a very worried look now. “That is a scary nightmare, Eu-le,” she said with a nod of sympathy.

Eule took Äloy’s free hand with her own. “It is, but this time, it’s a nightmare I can do something about.”

“We can do something about, dear,” Star said warmly as she gathered both Eule and a giggling Äloy in a hug. “Uhh, just as long as I don’t have to actually do any music like in your dream. I can’t actually play any instruments.”

Eule giggled and gave her lover a kiss on her lips. “That’s okay. I don’t think these High Matriarchs of the Nora will be swayed by my dancing either, no matter how well I perform. Except for likely Teersa, but even she admits that she’s a bit of an outlier there.”

Star laughed. “Yeah, Teersa’s a good one. I honestly wish she was running Rotfront instead of our ‘beloved’ Daughter.”

Eule grimaced, still unsure how to handle all this blunt criticism of her nation’s leaders given how such blunt criticism usually resulted in…trouble.

“Eh, but that’s all in the past now,” Star said with a wistful smile. “Now here in the present: I smell breakfast by none other than Rost–whoa, what happened to you?”

“Nothing,” Rost replied to Star’s worried question.

“He’s apparently been up for most of last night doing chores,” Eule explained.

Eule had the pleasure of seeing Äloy pout at Rost in a most adorable manner. “Rost, you know you need to sleep,” the now-responsible little Gestalt girl insisted.

“After today, Aloy,” Rost countered just as insistently. “Especially after this breakfast.”

Indeed, breakfast that morning was delicious. It was a sort of sweet and savory rice porridge made with chopped carrots, green onion…er, springbulb, and chunks of fatty boar belly with a distinct hint of honey in it. Still yet more strips of boar belly, rubbed with spices, were roasted on the kitchen fireplace, and served on Machine armor plates still impaled on their skewers. With more hot green, er, bitter leaf tea as a beverage and some dried blueberries as dessert, it made for a wonderful and very filling breakfast.

Which they finished just in time for a knock at the door.

Rost opened the door, and kneeled his customary kneel at High Matriarch Teersa.

“Didn’t even wait for me to tell you otherwise, eh?” Teersa scolded in a playful tone. “Yes, please stop kneeling to me, and yes, for All-Mother knows how many times I’ve said so, you may speak. Both to me and my travel companion for this trip.”

Eule was confused at Teersa’s mention of a “travel companion”. Her confusion was quickly resolved though when Rost stepped aside to allow Teersa to step in, followed closely by someone else Eule had never seen before.

That someone was a Gestalt woman, standing tall and unyielding. Her skin was several shades darker than Erika’s skin had been, and her hair was as black as any Replika’s hair. Her eyes were a very dark brown that was almost black, and Eule could see what looked like scarring on the exposed parts of her arms peeking out from her clothing: signs of a hard life of battle. That look was reinforced by the armor she wore, consisting of what looked like carved Machine armor stitched onto a leather and fur shawl plus Machine armor-plated arm and leg guards, and by the weapons she bore: a War Bow worn across her shoulders, and a spear like Rost’s in basic design but differed in the details, from the exact bit of Machine steel that formed the blade to the bit of fox tail attached as decoration in place of Rost’s preferred feathers.

All that would’ve already been an intimidating sight by itself, but then there was her facial expression. Eule saw a hard look in her eyes, and a face that looked like it could’ve been carved from stone. Whereas Rost was a soft mountain that you could hug, this Gestalt woman looked like a marble statue of a Falke standing high on a pedestal, distant and unapproachable.

Indeed, everything about the Gestalt woman’s expression reminded Eule of Commander Falke, even though this Gestalt woman was nowhere near as tall. Somehow, her very being managed to make up for the lack of physical height.

It made perfect sense to Eule why Rost lowered his head to the Gestalt woman, even disregarding the outcast status. Indeed, Eule stood up in respect, and she saw Star do the same out of the corner of her vision. Even Äloy stood up, standing as tall as her tiny frame would allow.

The Gestalt woman ignored them at the moment, looking only at Rost. “Rost, you have done more than enough for this tribe to not have to bow your head to me in your own home,” the Gestalt woman declared with the force of command, despite the kindness in the words themselves.

“And you have done more than enough for this tribe for me to not at least show some respect towards you, in turn,” Rost countered, raising his head to finally look at the Gestalt woman with a slight smile.

The Gestalt woman snorted at Rost as a reply before casting her stern gaze onto Eule and Star. “So, you two are the strange outsiders who performed the impossible feat of somehow slipping past all of my Braves between the borders of the Sacred Lands and the Embrace without anyone noticing,” she said to the Replikas in a voice that was almost but not quite an accusation.

Eule bowed respectfully low to the Gestalt woman, hoping to defuse the situation with politeness. “Good morning, I am EULR-S2324, or Eule for short.”

“And I’m STAR-S2325, but you can just call me Star, since I’m probably going to be the only Star unit you’ll ever meet,” Star greeted in turn, before tilting her head at the Gestalt woman. “So uh, anything we can call you by?”

“You two will call me War-Chief Sona,” War-Chief Sona declared in the tones of a god.

Eule gulped, standing stiffly at attention now. “Yes, War-Chief Sona,” she said crisply, as though she was on parade in front of an inspection.

Eule had always hated those because she felt like she and her sisters were on display for the inspectors to admire, like toys in a shop window. Or as Februar had muttered darkly once: “Like meat in a butcher’s window.” Fortunately, while Sona’s tone invoked that pose, her gaze was directly only at Eule’s eyes and not certain other parts of her, which made only Eule uncomfortable in a less uncomfortable way.

“Hmph,” was Sona’s only response, which didn’t tell Eule much at all, especially when Sona’s face was as impassive as the aforementioned marble Falke statue. “Are you two ready for the journey to Mother's Heart yet?” Out of the mouth of anyone else, it would’ve been a question. Out of Sona’s mouth, it was an order with only the barest hint of a question in it for politeness’s sake.

Before Eule could reply though, Rost spoke first. “War-Chief Sona, I would like to give Eu-le and Star some things before they leave for Mother’s Heart, if you don’t mind? As well as give them some travelling clothing, since I doubt the clothing they brought with them is dry enough yet to wear.”

 “Oh, the laundry,” Eule noted with a grimace.

Rost nodded with a frown. “I was hoping that we would have enough time for the dry mountain air and the spring heat to dry your clothes out, but I had also been thinking that we had a few more hours than this.”

Eule gave a hopeful smile in reply to that. “Maybe it did have enough time to dry?”

Alas, a walk outside to the side of the house showed Eule’s and Star’s Protektor uniforms hanging on lines of braided Machine muscle wire being used as clotheslines along with Rost’s and Äloy’s clothes, with what looked like carved wooden clothespins. Not the ones with springs that she knew from Rotfront and Sierpinski, but elaborately carved U-shaped pins in the shape of what looked like various animals, from birds to goats, with the prongs of the clothespins being shaped like actual animal legs. They were so adorable that Eule almost didn’t blush in embarrassment at the sight of her and Star’s underwear hanging right out in the open for anyone to see.

Almost.

“Well, at least everyone now knows what color our bras and panties are,” Star noted dryly.

“Your what and what?” Rost asked in a confused tone.

“Those,” Eule pointed at the aforementioned articles of underwear.

“Hmm, I was wondering what they were, and I still wonder. What can possibly be the purpose of those small strips of clothing?” Rost asked with beard-stroking wonderment.

“…Wait, you don’t know what they are?” Eule asked in surprise. Upon seeing confusion on not only Rost's and Äloy’s faces, but also Teersa’s face (Sona’s face was as impassive as before), Eule blushed and she realized that she had to explain this to everyone. “Those pairs of cup-like clothing are bras. They’re…meant to be worn over women’s breasts to support them. The…triangles of clothing are panties, and well…they’re meant to be worn over the crotch for women.”

Teersa cocked her head at Eule and then the underwear in turn. “Hmm, what a peculiar custom you have there, Aula. To wear something specifically to cover your breasts and crotch only? How odd.”

“And with such fragile-looking pieces of clothing too,” Sona noted in a tone that Eule could only describe as dismissive.

Eule grimaced at hearing that confusion and dismissal respectively, but for the moment, she was only interested in feeling if her clothes are dry. Alas though, none of her or Star’s clothing were remotely dry. They weren’t exactly sopping wet, but they were clearly far too damp to wear without risk of getting a chill.

“Yeah, I don’t think I want to wear these until they’re a bit drier,” Star noted as she felt her own uniform between her black robotic fingers. “And I don’t think you want to wear your uniform either, since well, white cloth and wetness really doesn’t go together well.”

Now that Star pointed it out, Eule realized that her white blouse had indeed become a bit translucent given all the moisture still in it. She blushed at the idea of having to wear that, with her bra on full display for anyone to see.

Thus, she turned to Rost. But before she could open her mouth, Rost beat her to it.

“Yes, you may borrow those clothes, as well as suitable travelling clothes for the trip to Mother’s Heart,” Rost offered.

“You know, come to think of it, whose clothes are these?” Star asked, curiously fingering the rough cloth of the dark-colored animal skin shirt, decorated with blue stitching in circular patterns, she was wearing.

“That is a spare set of my clothes, actually,” Rost explained. “As a hunter, I often get my clothes damaged in one way or another, so I like to keep several spare sets of my clothes just in case. I didn’t explicitly keep those extra sets for guests, but it seems to be working out well that way regardless, especially due to your…height.”

“Huh, are these your clothes too? They seem a bit…different,” Eule asked, looking back and forth between Star’s clothes and her own.

“Actually, your clothes are a set of clothes I’d made for Aloy to wear when she grows up,” Rost admitted as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I’d intentionally made them much larger than normal so that I could stitch them tighter to fit Aloy no matter how tall she could reasonably grow. I used them instead of my spare clothes because even a glance made it obvious that I have a far larger frame than you do, Eu-le, so I was hoping that Aloy’s adult clothes would better fit you. At least, I presume they do, hopefully?”

“Oh, they do indeed. It’s very kind of you, Rost, to allow me to borrow Äloy’s clothes for a short while. Thank you,” Eule said with a warm smile at the soft mountain of a Gestalt man continually demonstrating just how big his heart was.

“Ooh, so that’s what I’m going to wear when I’m big,” Äloy said in a fascinated tone as she examined Eule now much more closely. “It’s pretty on you, Eu-le.”

Eule smiled just as warmly at the little Gestalt girl who’d found her way into her plastic-laced heart. “Thank you too, Äloy, for letting me borrow this for a short while.”

Äloy grinned at Eule. “Nah, you can wear it for a long while, if you want. It won’t fit me for years, so I’ll have plenty of time to grow up into it.”

Eule grinned at Äloy in turn. “And I thank you for that as well.”

As Eule and Äloy’s grins at each other turned into giggles, Eule heard Rost clear his throat to get their attention. “Perhaps then we might complete your outfits for the journey? We Nora would consider what you’re currently wearing to be undergarments. Suitable for wearing in a home or lodge, but not quite suitable for travel.”

Eule turned to look at Rost in surprise. “Wait, this is what you call ‘undergarments’?” she asked in shock. When Rost nodded and made an inquiring noise, Eule blushed and continued: “Um, those bras and panties are our version of undergarments.”

“Truly?” Rost asked as he looked back and forth between Eule and the aforementioned bras and panties hanging on the clotheslines. Upon seeing Eule nod in confirmation, he stroked his beard in another gesture of deep thought. “Wouldn’t that be a bit cold though?”

“Very cold-looking,” Äloy agreed, stroking her chin in an adorable mimicry of Rost as she also examined Eule and Star’s underwear.

“Well, we are supposed to wear those at home anyways, so…,” Star trailed off, a light blush decorating the biocomponent skin of her face.

“Hmm, then you must have very warm homes in this Eusan Nation tribe indeed,” Rost concluded, much to Eule’s blushing embarrassment. “Still, that’s a topic for another day. For now: your travel clothes. Unless we might have time for your–what did you call them again, ‘uniforms’–to dry out?”

Teersa waved a hand in amiable dismissal. “Oh, I’m sure we can spare the time–“

“With all due respect, High Matriarch Teersa, we don’t,” Sona interrupted, apparently treading a fine line between respectful and annoyed in her tone. “The trial is in only a couple of hours, and I do not want to be the one to explain to Lansra and Jezza why we’re overly late.”

Teersa breathed out in a resigned sigh. “Oh well, the War-Chief has spoken. Perhaps then you might want to hurry, Rost?”

Rost nodded in just as resigned agreement. “Yes. Come then, Eu-le, Star. We have clothes to put on.”

*

A single question from Rost for the Replikas (“Do you value durability or comfort?”) and a short time later, Eule and Star were dressed in their new travelling clothes.

Eule had answered “Comfort”, and so now wore an animal skin “jacket” over the upper part of her “undergarments”, with a multi-part “skirt” hanging from her hips to her upper knee. The jacket was unadorned soft leather, but the skirt had an alternating pattern of blue and red threaded into the rims of the leather in cloth threads. A length of thick, blue Machine wire held the jacket together, while the skirt was held together by a leather belt, which was also perfect for mounting her old Eusan Nation canvas ammo pouches (which Rost had returned to her and Star from his belts), her medical satchel (still with the pair of repair patches and the small pile of 4 Focuses in it), and her Type-75 “Protektor” pistol in its holster on. There was also a pair of what Eule could only describe as “leg warmers” wrapped around her lower legs, and was made of a combination of netted cloth and raccoon fur. Rost had explained that they were to help obscure the sound of footsteps, making them useful for hunting. Eule hadn’t planned on going on hunting for this trip to Mother’s Heart, but she did appreciate the look. Needless to say though, the moccasins that were supposed to be worn with this outfit did not fit on Eule’s peg-like feet, and so were left off.

Examining herself in the side of a metal pot (still the closest thing Rost had to a mirror) also gave Eule a chance to examine the image of her face reflected in it. It was still the same face that looked back at her last evening, but now the scab was well and truly gone. There wasn’t a scar or even so much as a mark left. Eule made a note to herself to gather more of these salvebrush berries later. If they’re this potent, then they could be a good substitute to the repair patches once they’ve both been used up. At least, for their biocomponents. She was certain that their limbs would need something other than medicinal plants to repair, but that was something she could worry about in the future.

Meanwhile, Star had answered “Durability”, and so she now wore a…mantle(?) made of bristly fur-covered boar hide that wrapped around one of Star’s shoulders, fell down to her other side to cover the thigh there, before looping back around to her shoulder. Said mantle-like clothing was secured to Star with a cloth sash, and a pair of leather belts, from which a stiff rectangle of leather hung down to cover Star’s other thigh in a half-skirt, as well as Star’s own Eusan Nation pouches and her Eu-K508 S “Einhorn” revolver with its revolver. Really, the only things that were missing from Star’s outfit were the armored parts of the outfit (including the plates of Machine armor that were normally sewn into the stiff leather half-skirt), and the boar head. Otherwise, Star would look like she was wearing a clone of Rost’s normal clothes. Minus the leather footwear though. If they didn’t fit Eule, then they definitely didn’t fit Star.

“Huh, you look beautiful, Eule,” Star said, look at Eule up and down. “Like a huntress stalking her prey in the wilderness.”

Eule smiled at the compliment. “And you look most handsome, Star,” she said, looking Star up and down in turn. “Like a warrior about to stride into battle against a mighty foe.”

“And you both look so pretty!” Äloy said loudly. “Like, like…like pretty Nora wearing a bunch of new clothes and making everyone look at them and say ‘Wow, they’re so pretty!’”

Eule and Star stared at Äloy for a few moments before bursting out into laughter, with Äloy following suit shortly after.

A cough from Rost suddenly returned both Replikas and his little girl to reality with squeaks from all three of them. “I know you three are feeling playful, but I still need to give Eu-le and Star more things, starting with these.”

Rost handed Eule and Star each a backpack: the framed backpacks from their “adventure” yesterday, in fact. The only difference though is that instead of being empty, the backpacks were stuffed full of something. Something heavy, from the feel of them.

“Hopefully, you won’t need these for your trip, but…better to be prepared,” Rost said. “Eu-le, I placed the Shards taken from 3 Watchers. 2 of the Watchers’ Shards are from the ones Star slayed on that first day, while the third is from the Watcher you took down just yesterday.

Star, in your backpack, I put the bones, muscle wire, Sparkers, and other parts from those 3 Watchers. Eu-le can’t carry the Shards and the parts, so I hope you don’t mind that I distributed the parts to your backpack?” Rost asked.

“Ok, that I don’t mind, but why all this right now?” Star asked.

“It’s…just in case,” Rost said.

Eule looked at Rost strangely, since he was most definitely avoiding her and Star’s gaze. “Rost, what aren’t you telling us?” she asked worriedly.

Rost breathed out a sigh before answering, which heightened already increasing Eule’s anxiety. “I don’t know what will happen at this trial. Something like this has never happened before among the Nora. Yes, we have allowed outsiders to enter the Sacred Lands and even here in the Embrace for the Carja and Oseram trade missions. But never before have we ever had to deal with outsiders who have somehow entered the Embrace without anyone giving permission or even noticing the intrusion, and yet have been peacefully living here for days without doing anything. It’s unprecedented, so I have no idea how the High Matriarchs aside from High Matriarch Teersa will react to this, and so I want to prepare you two for the worst.”

Eule gulped. “What is the worst?”

Rost sighed. “The High Matriarchs deciding that you and Star are too much of a threat to be allowed to stay, and so sentence you two to immediate expulsion from the Sacred Lands altogether.”

Eule was starkly reminded of her nightmare from last night. To hear that it was a possible result of today’s trial made Eule’s plastic-laced heart sink into the pit of her reactor.

“That’s the worst possible outcome though,” Rost quickly said. “I highly doubt High Matriarch Jezza would just agree to a punishment that severe in a single trial, so there’s no need to worry about it to what you’re likely thinking of.”

“Yeah, we’re just preparing for the worst, is all,” Star also quickly said. “Better to be prepared and not need it, than need it and not be prepared, after all.”

Eule smiled at her lover and at Rost, even if a bit wanly. “I hope so. I truly do.”

Thus, Eule accepted her voluminous backpack from Rost right after Star did…and then suddenly realized that once more, she was violating the Rule of Six with her 7 items now.

“Umm…,” Eule muttered as she set down the backpack onto a table to bring her item total back down to 6 to try and sort out how to fix this conundrum.

“Eu-le,” Rost suddenly said, making Eule nearly jump and look back at him with a questioning sound. “I know you have your tribe’s custom and that you feel the need to follow it, but…would it be possible that you could overlook it just this once? Just temporarily? You might need some of the things you’re carrying, and you being stuck with just your medicine pouch, your ‘pistol’, a single box of your ‘ammo’ for that ‘pistol’, a bow, a quiver of arrows, and a backpack might be inconvenient if you need anything.”

Eule was so distracted by his suggestion that she overlook the Rule of Six that it took her a moment to register what he just said. “Wait, what bow?”

Rost’s reply was to walk over to the table where his unfinished War Bow rested, pick it up along with a quiver full of Shard-bladed arrows, and walk back over to Eule to hand it over. “This bow. It’s yours now,” he simply said.

Eule immediately waved her hands in protest. “Wait, what?! I thought it wasn’t finished?!”

“It is finished,” Rost corrected. “It’s just missing ornamentation: the things that make the bow feel like it belongs to the hunter. I can’t put that on your bow, Eu-le. You are the one who must decide what to put on it. Or not, if you don’t like such things. It’s something that’s free for you to decide. Otherwise, this War Bow will work perfectly fine.”

“But…you’re just handing it to me?” Eule asked. “How much is it? I can use those Shards to pay you back for it–”

“No,” Rost said firmly. “Not this time. If the worst comes to pass, you will need every Shard you have. And if it doesn’t, then we can talk about it after today. So please, take it for now, and don’t worry about paying for it.”

Eule looked at the War Bow Rost was still holding out, and sighed before taking it and the quiver. After attaching the quiver to her new leather belt, she examined the War Bow…or rather, her War Bow now. It was obviously much larger than her Protektor pistol, and it was also much heavier, but not as heavy as she thought it would be. Judging from the weight she felt when she hefted it, it was only just over twice as heavy as her pistol…while being nearly 4 times as long as said pistol, amazingly enough. For something so big to be so light was something that still amazed her even after handling and firing a War Bow very much like this just yesterday.

Eule ended up idly plucking the bowstring, both feeling the metal of the braided Machine muscle wire making up the bowstring as well as hearing the faintly metallic sound of it being plucked. Almost like a guitar, really, before something occurred to her and she stopped as a result.

“Um, Rost? Doing this won’t damage the bowstring, will it?” Eule asked, thinking about her misconceptions around dry-firing her pistol that Star clarified.

“No, it shouldn’t,” Rost replied, before tilting his head in thought for a moment. “Although I would strongly advise against actually drawing the bowstring and releasing it without an arrow attached. That can damage or even destroy virtually any bow.”

Eule nodded in acceptance along with Star.

“Okay, no dry-firing bows. Got it,” Star noted.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Rost said before climbing up the ladder to the second floor, and returning with the Sharpshot Bow to hand over to Star along with yet another quiver full of arrows. “You take this too, and again, don’t worry about paying me back for it. It definitely suited you yesterday, and so may it serve you from now on.”

Star also clipped the quiver onto one of her new leather belts before grasping that massive Watcher-limbed Sharpshot Bow. “Thank you, Rost. I won’t forget this,” Star said seriously.

Rost simply nodded in reply.

“Don’t worry, Eu-le, Star,” Äloy insisted with a determined look in her eyes before hugging both Eule and Star via their mechanical white bird-like legs. “It will be okay. Both the All-Mother and your Red Eye will be helping you. I know it.”

Eule simply returned the hug in comforting silence. She didn’t trust herself not to break down right now, so she instead used Äloy’s warm contact to brace herself. Even when War-Chief Sona called from outside for them to hurry up, it still took a moment before Eule finally broke the hug along with Star and headed outside to join up with Teersa and Sona, and thus finally begin the long walk to Mother’s Heart.

*

The journey to Mother’s Heart didn’t seem like it was going to take that long. Especially not when Sona insisted that they all go down the slope of the mountain instead of taking the road in order to save time. Eule at first had worried about Teersa’s physical condition, but the elderly Gestalt woman soon proved that looks were deceiving in her case, since she weathered the trek quite well the entire time.

Still, even with that shortcut taken, Mother’s Heart was still some distance away with their walking pace. Thus, there was still time for some calming conversations, as Teersa demonstrated. Eule didn't know if their friendly High Matriarch was genuinely interested in learning about Rotfront cuisine, but Eule and even Star were more than happy to participate in the conversation. Talking about the various dishes Rotfront produced, which included sausages of all kinds, Rotfront’s red barbecued pork, and the innumerable varieties of seafood that came from deep beneath Rotfront’s subsurface ocean helped alleviate a large part of Eule’s stress and worries about this upcoming trial. A part of Eule did wonder if Teersa might’ve chosen this topic on purpose specifically to do just that, but even if that was the case, it didn’t matter either way. It worked all the same.

Alas though, Eule got a significantly colder reaction when she attempted to make small talk with Sona.

“Attempting to sway me via conversation will be pointless, since I will not be the ones deciding the results of this trial,” Sona replied, not looking at Eule and still with that Falke-like stoic face.

Eule looked down at the ground as she walked at that reply. “I wasn’t, really,” she said with a sigh.

It was some moments later though when Eule was surprised by Sona saying: “Actions tell a person’s character more than any words can ever hope to. By your actions and your mate’s then, you have already more than proved what kind of people you both are.”

Eule stared at Sona for several moments trying to figure her out. The words alone could mean anything, and unfortunately, Sona’s face was still the same marble Falke statue it’s been since Eule saw her. Not even a Eule’s power of facial expression reading could tell anything from that.

“What Sona means is that she likes the fact that you both risked your lives to save Nora children,” Teersa interjected with a grin.

“Oh,” Eule squeaked, surprised but happily so. She now peered even more closely at Sona’s face to see what her reaction was to Teersa’s comment.

Sona’s face appeared to be as impassive as before, but now Eule could swear that she could make out a very, very, very faint blush darkening her chocolate-colored cheeks that she was fairly certain wasn’t just her imagination.

“Anyone who would do such a thing for a child, much less a Nora child, is someone who has proven herself what kind of person she is,” Sona said, her voice still sounding like a Falke’s, but there was a subtle hint of softness to it.

“Heh, someone’s feeling vague about her compliments now, isn’t she?” Star teased.

Sona’s only reply to that was a scoff, not even deigning to answer Star’s teasing.

Eule smiled at Sona, but then something occurred to her. “By ‘Nora child’, do you mean Teb…or do you also mean Äloy?” she asked curiously.

It took several moments for Sona to answer; moments that made Eule worry about it before Sona finally spoke.

“The outcast child was named according to Nora tradition, the ceremony was conducted and blessed by a High Matriarch, and the name Aloy itself was blessed by the All-Mother. Thus, Aloy is a Nora. She may be an outcast, but she is a Nora outcast. She is just as much Nora as Teb is, and to believe otherwise is to go against the will of All-Mother herself,” Sona said with the firmness of a Falke unit in full battle armor, before she at last turned to look Eule in the eye with her piercing gaze. Indeed, Eule could easily imagine that it was Commander Falke turning her gaze upon her instead. “Why did you risk your life for Nora children then, Eu-le of the Rotfront tribe? You are an outlander, with no connection to the Nora. No profit to be gained from it. So why?”

A small part of Eule wanted to shrink from that intense gaze, so Falke-like it was, but the rest of Eule stood her ground, gazing back with her a determination as fiery as the color of Äloy’s hair.

“I did it because children were in danger, and also because she’s Äloy,” Eule answered. “She isn’t just some Gestalt child to me. Not anymore. She is Äloy, and I will risk my life for her over and over again to keep her safe.”

Eule kept up that eye contact with Sona for several moments as they walked along a surprisingly well-maintained dirt road, with mechanical blue eyes staring with dark brown organic eyes.

Eule was eventually rewarded with a very slight smile from Sona; the slightest smile she had ever seen on anyone, even on Rost. Nothing more, nothing less. Eule merely smiled back at Sona in reply, but more broadly and far more warmly.

Sona then broke eye contact with Eule in order to make eye contact with Star. “I would assume that you risked your life for those children because of your mate then?”

“Well, to be honest, my thoughts did go that way at first,” Star admitted, prompting Eule to look at her lover with a bit of surprise and sadness before the Security Technician Guard Replika gave her lover a grin. “But now though? The kid’s grown on me too. She’s…a little ball of joy and sunshine, you know? I feel like I can forget my past around her, and really start living in the present with Eule. So yeah, I’ll fight anyone who tries to harm a hair on Äloy’s head, and if it means taking a hit or two? Well, we combat Replikas can take a couple hits if we need to.”

To be honest, parts of what Star said made Eule worry a bit, but she could tell that her lover’s plastic-laced heart was in the right place. Metaphorically and literally.

And judging by Sona’s small nod before returning her gaze forward, it appeared that she agreed with Eule as well.

*

After only a 38-minute walk according to Eule’s internal clock, the group came across a wooden archway flanked by wooden stakes driven almost haphazardly into the ground and bound by blue Machine wires. The archway itself lacked any door, and instead, seemed more ornamental in nature rather than defensive, judging by the intricate carvings on the base of the poles making up the archway, as well as the wooden figurehead above them, resembling the long-extinct deer Eule had seen in another of the nature documentaries she’d seen with Star.

The archway turned out to lead onto a series of wooden bridges lashed together by more blue Machine wires and secured by wooden railings lashed by a combination of blue Machine wire and rope so densely and in such intricate patterns that Eule wondered if it was also ornamental in nature in addition to being functional. The bridges were so narrow that only two people could walk side-by-side across it at any point, so Teersa and Sona ended up taking the lead while Eule walked next to Star. A look over those railings revealed a raging river far below, firmly indicating why the railings were there to begin with. A look further ahead revealed a pair of watchtowers in the distance overlooking the bridge, indicating that the Nora took their defenses seriously. Meanwhile, other wooden arches partially covered the bridges, seemingly as both a decorative measure and a practical one to provide some cover during rain.

The bridges eventually ended at another wooden archway, but this one was as different from the first archway as night was to day. It had a proper gate, and it had a pair of armored and armed Brave men standing guard on either side of that wooden gate, but they did little more than give a sense of scale to that gateway, for it was enormous. The doors themselves were at least three times the height of the Braves, with the arch above those doors towering higher still. The gateway was so big that Eule could easily see that a Mynah could’ve walked through it with plenty of room to spare, such was its size.

The massive wooden doors set in the gateway were standing wide open right now though. The Braves standing guard stood straighter as the group approached, slamming the butts of their spears into the ground and looking very much like Star units on guard, despite how short they were compared to the actual Star unit approaching them. Teersa waved happily to the Braves as she passed by, with Sona nodding at them in the same motion. Eule ended up bowing briefly to them out of politeness, while Star gave a jaunty wave to them. The Braves though didn’t react, trying to look as impassive as their War-Chief as the group passed them by, and Eule and Star were now finally in Mother’s Heart.

Immediately, Eule was struck by the appearance of Mother’s Heart. The buildings were all wooden timbers resting on stacks of flat stones being used as foundations and lashed together with more of the blue Machine wire that the Nora seemed to love using for construction. A few of the buildings were single-story, but Eule was surprised to see that the vast majority of them were two or even three-story buildings, with baskets of plant foods lying on buildings’ porches, and smoked and/or dried animal carcasses hanging above most of said porches. The Nora clearly valued building up large stockpiles of food, hopefully meaning that few, if any, ever had to go hungry.

Torches made of wooden stands with metal bowls on top stood everywhere along with fire pits, albeit unlit at the moment, suggesting that Mother’s Heart was fairly brightly lit even at night. Other things also stood everywhere: strange Machine heads with a single eye and rotor-like antlers stood atop wooden poles. They looked exactly like the dummies of the Grazers Rost kept in the house’s yard, which suggested that’s what these were. Eule had no idea why these mounted Grazer heads were everywhere though. Totems, maybe? She couldn’t even begin to guess.

Fortunately, there were far more understandable things around in Mother’s Heart: people. Specifically, Gestalts all dressed in the manner Eule had come to know of the Nora through Rost and Äloy. They all wore clothing made of a combination of animal skins, cloth, and Machine armor sewn onto those animal skins. The crowd was also all staring at Eule and Star, chattering all the while.

Fortunately, Eule detected little to no hostility in many of those stares and voices. Just curiosity and excitement, as though the Replikas were the most exciting thing that had happened to Mother’s Heart in a long while. Which, given how the Nora (and likely this land) had never heard of Replikas before, that might very well be the case.

Unfortunately, Eule could detect suspicion and worry in quite a few of those stares and voices. They were probably the ones either most worried by the presence of new outsiders in general, or by Eule and Star in particular due to how strange they were compared to what Eule presumed where the normal Gestalt outsiders. Those were the ones that made Eule the most anxious and worried. It was only Star’s presence by her side that allowed Eule to remain as outwardly calm as she was.

So simultaneously entranced and worried was Eule by the sight of Mother’s Heart and its people that she almost didn’t notice the small blur dodge through the crowd and leap at Sona with a high-pitched cry of “Ambush!”

Thus alerted, Sona let her spear fall against her shoulder, and caught the small blur in a gentle hold, revealing said small blur to be a little Gestalt girl roughly Äloy’s age. Unlike Äloy’s pale skin though, this little Gestalt girl had skin as chocolate-dark and hair as Replika-black as Sona, and judging by the similarities in her appearance to Sona, Eule could hazard a guess that this was probably Sona’s young daughter. The fact that the dark-skinned little Gestalt girl was grinning widely at Sona only added credence to that theory, as did her words.

“Aww, you defeated my ambush, mother!” the dark-skinned little Gestalt girl said in a similar lack of indoor voice to Äloy, still grinning all the while.

“Vala,” Sona said in a chiding tone. “Remember: ambushes don’t work if you shout ‘Ambush’ just before you do it.”

“Ooh, okay. I’ll remember that for my next ambush,” Vala said happily.

“And for the record, don’t ambush me while I’m escorting a High Matriach and her…guests. Mother is very busy with work right now,” Sona said seriously as she finally placed her daughter back on the ground.

“Okaaay,” Vala said in a tone that made Eule giggle, doubting the sincerity of her agreement. That giggle made Vala finally notice Eule and Star, her eyes widening at the same time as her mouth falling open. “Whoa, you’re tall, and you’re taller! Are you two the weird outsiders everyone has been talking about lately?!”

“Yes, I believe we are those outsiders, unless there are more of us?” Eule asked, maybe a bit hopefully.

“Nope, didn’t hear anything about that,” Vala said blithely, before pressing on as she darted around Eule and Star, examining them. “Wow, your legs really are weird, kinda like Watchers but kinda not? Oh, but you also have weird shiny black stuff on your face, nose, and ears too! What are they? Are you really part-Machine like what everyone’s been saying–”

Whatever Vala has been about to say was interrupted by Sona picking Vala up under both arms, leaving Vala hanging from Sona’s hands, looking like a cat being held by its forelimbs.

Sona then looked around, before catching sight of a dark-skinned Gestalt man approaching with a dark-skinned Gestalt boy of maybe no more than 13-14 years old. Sona held out Vala to the adult man. “Keep watch over Vala for me, Van. Make sure she doesn’t get into trouble,” she said sternly.

Van, presumably Sona’s husband/mate, laughed. “You mean even more trouble than she’s already gotten herself into?”

Sona snorted. It was the most amused sound Eule had heard Sona make so far, before she wordlessly handed Vala to Van.

“No, I want to talk to these outsiders some more!” Vala whined as she struggled and thrashed in Van’s gentle but firm grip.

“Hush and behave, Vala,” Sona said, with a tone of exasperation in her voice suggesting to Eule that Sona had given that lecture many times to Vala before, with seemingly little to no effect. “Why can’t you be more like Varl? He’s quiet and well-behaved.”

Indeed, the young teenaged boy named Varl did appear to be the quiet and serious sort. Eule however noticed that his dark eyes kept darting over to Eule and Star, as though he was surreptously trying to get a look at them without his mother noticing. Eule’s smile at him causing him to deliberately look away, as though trying to not to draw attention to himself, only confirmed Eule’s amused suspicion.

Amidst Vala’s pouting, Van gave Eule and Star his own curious look before turning to Sona. “I suppose we should let you get back to your duties then. Before Vala figures out how to break an adult’s hold by herself,” he joked.

Sona snorted once more. “I don’t doubt that will happen one of these days, but thank you for managing Vala for me, Van,” she said, with the faintest hint of softness to her voice that made Eule smile at her and Van.

Van in turn smiled warmly and broadly at Sona. “Love you too, Sona,” he said, giving Sona a quick kiss on her cheek (and thus confirming Eule’s assumptions) before walking away with a still-protesting Vala in his arms, and a silent Varl trailing behind him who still looked back curiously at Eule and Star. Eule gave Varl a goodbye wave, and her biomechanical heart was warmed by Varl giving her a wave in turn.

“Looks like someone’s not as cold as she looks, eh?” Star noted, grinning at Sona.

“I have no idea what you mean,” Sona said with as much dryness as Rost could put out, prompting a giggle from Eule that caused Sona to turn her dry gaze onto her in turn.

“Oh, believe me. When in private, Sona can be as warm and as loving as any mother,” Teersa happily noted, earning her Sona’s dry gaze as well, which Teersa happily shrugged off.

Sona sighed. “Now to the hall. Before any more interruptions plague us,” she declared before walking off up a path that led further up into Mother’s Heart.

Teersa, Eule, and Star ended up following Sona out of implied command. Funnily enough, a large portion of the Nora crowd also followed along, apparently eager to see what was going to happen next. Eule might’ve been worried, if not for the fact that much of the initial suspicion and worry of that part of the crowd seemed to have faded. It seemed that the little bit of street theater convinced most of the suspicious parts of the crowd that Eule and Star weren’t of any threat, and so they now treated the Replikas more as potential sources of entertainment. Eule wasn’t entirely certain about that, but at least it wasn’t as stress-inducing as active suspicion and worry.

It helped that Eule recognized a few faces in the crowd. She spied a small face topped with braided blond hair peering out from the side of her mother’s hosen: Minali, if Eule recalled correctly. A smile and a friendly wave to the little Gestalt girl gifted her a shy smile and small wave in reply, confirming that it was indeed that same little Gestalt girl who’d been brave enough to stay and admit what Bast did to them.

Speaking of Bast, Eule also spied him standing with that young Gestalt woman from their second day in the Embrace who she assumed was his mother. Said mother was staring with a curiously intrigued face, in stark contrast to the shocked look Bast was giving her, apparently not expecting to confront the target of his accidental rock throw so soon. Eule clearly remembered what Bast intended to do to little Äloy, so she only gave him a polite smile.

Eule did notice Star grinning at Bast though, exposing her carbon steel teeth, which caused Bast to instantly turn pale, turn around, and run as fast as his little legs could carry him; much to the puzzlement of his mother. Eule knew that she shouldn’t be feeling satisfied at seeing Bast be terrified by her lover, but it was hard not to considering what he could’ve done to Äloy with his thrown rock.

The last face Eule recognized though was waving enthusiastically at her and Star, a wide grin on his youthful face. Eule waved back at Teb and replied to that grin with a bright smile of her own, happy to finish off the recollections with a happy one. And judging by the just-as-enthusiastic wave Star gave back to him, her lover was feeling the same.

The trek up into Mother’s Heart gradually took the group higher up. Apparently, Mother’s Heart was built on its own little mountain in the midst of all the mountains surrounding it. It was almost a climb up the log and stone-paved path to where this hall laid, but when they finally reached it at the summit of Mother’s Heart, Eule thought it was more than worth the climb.

The hall of Mother’s Heart was an enormous castle-like building. It was the same wooden construction lashed with blue Machine wire as the surrounding buildings, but on a much larger scale. It had to have been at least 4 or even 5 stories tall, with a watchtower built into the left side that towered over even the hall itself. Right in front of the hall was a raised wooden platform surrounded by short stairs that looked like it could function as a stage. Flanking that stage on either side was a pair of wooden sculptures of…something. Eule could not for the life of her tell what that something was. Only that these sculptures had too big a head and too many tentacle-like shapes to it to look like a natural creature. Finally, to the left of that leftmost wooden sculpture, there was a bit of building jutting out from the main hall that Eule couldn’t really tell what it was for. At least, not yet.

Teersa beckoned for Eule and Star to follow her as she and Sona stepped onto the stage and walked towards what was presumably the front door of the hall. Eule and Star obliged by walking up to that stage, with the entire crowd of Nora that had been following them stopping at the stage, and then to the front door as Teersa opened it and walked through. Eule and Star stepped through after Teersa, with Sona holding the door open for them. Eule thought it was quite polite of her to do so as Sona finally stepped through herself when Eule and Star had done so, only for her to realize that maybe, possibly Sona was trying to keep them from running away? Eule hoped that it wasn’t the case, but the thought still ended up making a small nest in her mind.

Fortunately, the sight of the interior of the hall’s first floor was sufficiently distracting to keep Eule from ruminating on that thought. As far as Eule’s eyes can see, that first floor was filled with nothing but food. Bags of grain laid in enormous bundles, sacks of root vegetables piled up against each other, while clay pots full of something (almost certainly edible) sat in clusters. Dried and/or smoked birds, rabbits, small game, fish, and even whole skinned boars hung from the ceiling and from wooden racks near the ceiling. Whatever the hall was meant to be as a whole, it’s clear that the entire first floor was dedicated to essentially being a giant food warehouse for shelf-stable foodstuffs, with more constantly being added to it even as Eule saw, judging by the Nora who were busy hanging more animal carcasses or pouring more grain into a bag. If the sight of all the food being preserved through Mother’s Heart didn’t clue Eule in on the Nora caring so much about food security, then this would have.

However, Teersa wasn’t interested in the food at the moment. Instead, she led the group past the foodstuffs, apologizing to any Nora she had to move the group past along the way, and to a door in the back of the hall. This door was guarded by a pair of Braves: an older Gestalt man and a younger Gestalt woman, but both armed with spears and armored in Machine armor-coated leather and animal skins in the typical manner of the Nora.

Teersa opened and walked through the door, greeting the Braves by name (which turned out to be Gran and Urani respectively) and beckoning for Eule and Star to follow her.

As Eule started to walk forward though, the two Braves suddenly blocked the way with their spears, making Eule take a step back in surprise and Star take a step in front of Eule in a protective stance.

“Weapons first,” Urani said sternly.

“If you would please,” Gran said more politely. “We don’t like it when outsiders just walk in on our High Matriarchs armed.”

“Oh, come now, if they wanted to hurt me, don’t you think they would’ve done so already by now?” Teersa chided.

“With all due respect, High Matriarch Teersa, this would at least make us feel better,” Gran insisted, still in that polite tone.

Eule looked to Star, mouthed “220 kH” to her, and thus they had a short discussion about it over radio. It wasn’t long though before they came to an agreement, and thus Eule turned back to Teersa and said with a smile: “It’s alright. It’s not a problem for us to relinquish our weapons, provided that we get them back, of course?” That question, Eule aimed at Gran and Urani, wanting to know if their weapons were simply being impounded temporarily or if they were being outright confiscated.

Urani scoffed. “What do you take us for? Thieves?”

“What she means is ‘yes’,” Gran answered hastily, issuing a very brief and subtle look of exasperation to Urani that Eule just barely managed to catch. “Just put your weapons into this chest here next to me, and we will return your weapons to you once your business with the High Matriarchs is concluded.”

Eule and Star nodded in agreement, and soon after, they’d put all their weapons and ammunition for them into the chest, including their new bows, the quivers for them, Star’s Judicator stun prod–

“Don’t touch the red end to anyone or anything metal while you’re pulling this lever,” Star instructed as she placed her EIG-2 into the chest. “Not unless you want whoever you’re touching the red end into to feel a whole bunch of high voltage electricity.”

Gran and Urani simply nodded, nothing more.

–before finally placing their firearms and their ammunition pouches into the chest. Eule unloaded the magazine from her Protektor pistol, and pulled back the slide to unload the chambered bullet before placing them all on the table. At the same time, Star opened up the cylinder of her Einhorn revolver, and depressed the ejection plunger to push out all six bullets before locking the cylinder back into place placing all on the table.

“What are those?” Gran asked.

“Also our weapons,” Eule replied simply.

“They’re called ‘guns’,” Star continued from where Eule left off. “They’re basically…er, what did Rost call crossbows again?”

“Casterbows,” Eule happily provided for her lover.

“These are casterbows?” Gran said with a disbelieving look on his face as he stared at both Eule’s Protektor pistol and Star’s Einhorn revolver, which the Replikas had placed pointing deliberately at the wall to keep them from harming anyone just in case they somehow went off despite their safeties and their unloaded nature. Star hadn’t stressed the importance of firearms safety to Eule for nothing.

“Tiny casterbows,” Urani said with a strange mixture of scorn and curiosity in her voice.

“They’re like casterbows. They have a round loaded in them and ready to fire like them, but they’re a lot louder and even more dangerous than them. So don’t handle them, okay?” Star asked in a tone that sounded a bit more forceful than that despite her light word choice.

“Don’t see how such a small casterbow can do much against me and my armor,” Urani said, still with that mixture of competing tones in her voice that Eule found simultaneously amusing and worrying.

“Even a small casterbow can still hurt or kill you if it hits you right…or wrong in this case. Better to respect it then,” Gran noted in a Star-like professional tone.

Urani scoffed, but ultimately said: “Fair enough.”

Thus, with that out of the way, Eule and Star were finally able to join Teersa beyond that door. With Sona following behind them, having skipped this security check, of course. Eule figured that the War-Chief of the Nora wouldn’t be required to check her weapons in like she and Star were.

The door turned out to lead into a stairwell, with stairs made entirely of wood spiraling upwards in the shaft above them. Teersa, of course, beckoned everyone up. Walking up them allowed Eule a closer look at the stairs themselves, which appeared to be planks of attached to the wooden walls of the shaft, with the inner central empty space of the shaft guarded by wooden beams that seemed to serve as both guardrail and support for the stairs overall. It felt very safe and secure to Eule, who had initially worried about the stairs not being able to support Star’s weight, but it seemed to be bearing her lover’s combat Replika weight without even so much as a creak.

The journey up the stairs took the group past all the floors at each landing, skipping all of those floors in the process, and stopping only at the topmost 4^th floor as Teersa opened the door for them, and Eule and Star stepped into the room past another pair of Braves, both Gestalt women this time, but still one older with the other younger. Eule briefly wondered if this was a custom for the Nora to have their guards like that, or was it only for this place, but that thought was soon overshadowed by the room itself.

Like the ground floor, it was a wide open space of a room. Unlike that warehouse though, this one at least had dividers on the left and right sides of the room, with doors blocking the rooms from Eule’s sight, so she could only examine the central open space.

Said central space consisted of an enormous rectangular wooden table stretching from left to right. Numerous wooden chairs sat around that table. Both chairs and table alike were carved in the intricately detailed design Eule had come to know of the Nora’s more…artistic furniture thanks to Rost. The legs of both the chairs and the table were carved to have a twisting, entwining pattern to them, almost as if those legs were wood that had been somehow braided together into their current shape. Lengths of blue Machine wire, regular twine, and even lengths of ivy still covered in its distinct lobed green leaves complemented that carved braiding pattern, giving those legs an almost-festive look her sisters sure would’ve appreciated. Eule certainly did.

The solid wooden backrests of the chairs had a peculiar symbol carved into it, resembling a length of rope (or possibly Machine wire considering how much the Nora loved using them) tied together in an intricate knot. The chairs didn’t have any kind of cushion as Eusan Nation chairs normally would. Instead, they had either fox skin or the skin of something with grey furred animal with a bushy striped tail instead, which judging by how Rost’s fox skin blanket had grown on Eule, promised to be very comfortable indeed.

The table also had a similar-looking symbol carved into it, but on a level of magnitude far greater. A 5-pointed knot dyed red in the middle of the table was surrounded by a massive array of blue-dyed knots that filled the entire table’s surface. It was hard for Eule to tell, but it appeared to be a single massively intricate knot that form a 10-point alternating pattern consisting of 2 designs: a braided set of 4 triangles that pointed outwards, and a series of inward-pointing chevron patterns with the chair’s symbol dyed in more red embedded into their middle.

Frankly, Eule thought that carved pattern made that table practically a work of art, and even though she knew she probably shouldn’t, she was entranced by that lovely design. Indeed, she would’ve happily admired that table for a while if not for the pair of elderly Gestalt women sitting at the table on the opposite side to them who were almost certainly the High Matriarchs of the Nora.

Sitting in a central seat was a Gestalt women who looked roughly the same age as Teersa. She had skin as dark as Sona’s, wore so many wires, twine, and leather cords around her neck that said neck was invisible, and wore her white hair in braids like Teersa did. Unlike Teersa though, some of her braided hair was worn in a pile on top of her head, giving it the appearance of a hair bun made of braids, with a trio of braids emerging from the bun in an almost artfully haphazard pattern. She wore a headdress of metal and wood like Teersa did, but it was of a different design, and–

Now that Eule examined it more closely, it looked very familiar to her. It consisted of a rectangular piece of Machine armor that tapered down almost to a point at the bottom, with a loop of carved wood on either side of it at the top. It looked so familiar to her, but Eule couldn’t quite put her mechanical finger on why, so she left it alone for now.

In addition, unlike Teersa’s normally smiling face, this dark-skinned Gestalt woman had a face that looked decidedly neutral…no, that wasn’t right. Eule would more describe it as calmly serene, like the kind of almost meditative face she’d seen on her eldest sister Januar as she was playing the piano. It was a face that promised to remain calm even in the face of a storm, and even if it couldn’t, it was going to make a good try of it.

That calm face was in stark contrast to the other elderly Gestalt woman to the right of her. Whereas the dark-skinned Gestalt woman was serene, the other Gestalt woman was as pale as Teersa. But unlike Teersa or this dark-skinned Gestalt woman, this other woman had a permanent frown on her face, as though she was constantly sucking on a lemon. In fact, the only body feature she shared with Teersa and the dark-skinned Gestalt woman was that she was wearing her white hair in braids as well. It seemed that braids were the most popular hairstyle among the Nora, for both men and women.

She also had the most elaborate headdress Eule had ever seen, more elaborate than Teersa’s or the dark-skinned Gestalt woman’s by far. It was hard for Eule to tell due to how complex it was, but it looked like undyed Machine wire and silver Machine intestines woven together into a cap around a wooden skeleton and held together by numerous blue-dyed cloth twine. Parts of the wooden skeleton jutted far out into 4 intricately decorated “arms”, from which dangled bronze coins tied to the wood by more blue-dyed twine.

The effect made the frowning Gestalt woman look like she was wearing a baby mobile, but Eule firmly clamped down on that thought to keep from giggling inappropriately at something this serious. Eule would’ve complimented that frowning Gestalt woman on her headdress due to how pretty it looked (without mentioning the baby mobile resemblance), but she wasn’t sure how well that would’ve been received or even noticed, given how that frowning Gestalt woman was currently focused on Teersa at the moment.

“You’re late,” the frowning Gestalt woman said to Teersa in an accusing tone.

“Really? I was so sure it was still morning when I walked in. Must’ve been some strange magic that made it noon or night right now,” Teersa said with a mischievous smile as she ambled her way to the left of the dark-skinned woman from Eule's perspective, taking her seat there.

“You know what I mean!” the frowning Gestalt woman snapped.

“You know, Lansra. For someone who despises outlanders as much as you do, you sure are as obsessed with time as any Carja,” Teersa replied, her mischievous smile somehow growing even more mischievous with that statement.

Before High Matriarch Lansra (which Eule now knew who to watch out for) could react to that, the dark-skinned woman spoke: “Teersa, let’s not provoke Lansra any more for now, okay? And Lansra, we never agreed on a strict time by which this trial of these two outsiders would take place, so there’s no need to focus on something as inconsequential as the exact time, yes?”

Eule was surprised by the dark-skinned Gestalt woman’s voice. She’d expected a voice as creaky as Teersa or even Lansra, but the dark-skinned Gestalt had a soft and lilting voice that didn’t fit her wizened features, sounding more like the voice of a younger woman. Honestly, that voice reminded Eule of Januar’s voice, making her sound even more calm and stable to Eule, in addition to giving her a brief pang of loss before she suppressed it for now.

Lansra grumbled a bit before finally replying: “Fine, Jezza. Let’s get on with this trial then. Not that I think we’ll need to deliberate for long to decide what we’ll do with these…outsiders.” Lansra spoke that last word as though it was a curse, which didn’t bode well for Eule or her Star.

Jezza finally turned to Eule and Star. “Now then, we shall begin our introductions first and foremost. I am Jezza. To my right is Teersa, who I believe you two are already acquainted with. To my left is Lansra. We three comprise the current generation of High Matriarchs who lead the Nora tribe on behalf of the All-Mother. Now that our introductions are complete, may I ask for yours?”

Eule performed a formal bow to the assembled High Matriarchs, as though she was bowing towards a superior officer or civilian leader. “I am EULR-S2324. You may call me Eule for short. I am a Simple Universal Light Replika of the Eusan Nation.”

Star replicated her formal bow. “I’m STAR-S2325, and you can call me Star for short. I’m just one of many Security Technician Guard Replikas, also of the Eusan Nation.”

Jezza didn’t say anything, and merely raised an intrigued eyebrow at the Replikas in reply.

“You’ll get used to them,” Teersa said cheerfully to Jezza, prompting Jezza to turn her raised eyebrow to Teersa instead for a moment.

Lansra meanwhile had her frown deepen, which Eule thought hadn’t been possible. “What kind of names are those? Just a bunch of letters and numbers? Are you giving us false names to hide your identities?” she accused.

Eule stiffened in shock at the bizarre accusation, only able to maintain a polite smile in reply to that. It was so bizarre and outrageous that Eule was momentarily at a loss for words. Fortunately, Star wasn’t.

“Look lady, those are our names. You don’t like it, tough,” Star said bluntly, giving her own unamused look down at the sitting Lansra.

As Eule watched Lansra sputter in her own shock at being addressed so (with Teersa snickering in the background), Jezza spoke up in her calmingly soft voice: “Lansra, outlanders can have names that seem strange to us. I’m sure our names must seem as strange to them as theirs is to us. There is no need to make such accusations towards…Eh-u-le and Shtar for that.”

“…Fine,” Lansra finally admitted after a moment, before waving the Replikas at the chairs in front of them. “Sit down. Your height is making my neck crick from looking up at you two.”

Eule happily did so, despite the ill-tempered tone in Lansra’s command as well as the fact that it was a command in of itself. She intentionally chose a fox skin seat, shrugging her backpack off and placing it on the floor next to her. As the fox skin promised, it was indeed very comfortable. Eule did feel bad for the foxes that had to die for this chair, but a small part of her was getting over that and desiring her own fox skin comfort for herself.

Star chose the seat next to her, and after putting her own backpack down, sat down a bit awkwardly on a chair covered in that grey-furred animal skin, having to bend her lower knee almost perpendicular to her middle leg, with her lower leg nearly resting on the floor due to the chair being far too short for her frame combined with the short height of the table, prompting Eule to give her lover a sympathetic look in response. At least while Star had the same problem with Rost’s chairs and dinner table, it was in somewhere where Star felt comfortable.

Star constantly shifting her weight on said chair seemed to lend some credence to Eule’s concerns, right up until Star opened her mouth.

“Huh, so this is what raccoon fur feels like,” Star noted.

“Oh, so that’s a raccoon?” Eule said in surprise, looking down at the grey fur.

“Mm-hmm. You can tell by the grey color and the striped tail,” Star said, pointing out the features to Eule’s fascinated look.

The sound of a throat clearing brought Eule and Star’s attention back to the High Matriarchs, revealing Lansra’s ever-frowning face frowning even more at them.

“Enough dithering, A…E…Oula and Shtar!” Lansra yelled, making Eule wince and Star frown at the tone.

“Lansra, calm,” Jezza said, reinforcing the calm order with her own calming tone. Once Lansra no longer looked like she was in danger of having an aneurysm, Jezza turned back to Eule and Star and said: “Now then…yes?” she asked at the sight of Star raising a black robotic hand.

“So how does this trial work?” Star asked. “Are we just going to be tried without knowing how this whole thing works and what we’re supposed to do?”

Jezza nodded. “Fair enough, I shall explain. The goal of this trial is to determine if you and Eh-u-le are safe enough to be allowed to be issued a trade pass, and thus be allowed to dwell among the Nora here in the Embrace. We High Matriarchs will be the ones who make that decision, and that decision will be based on your answers to the questions we will ask you.”

“So no jury?” Star asked curiously.

Jezza blinked in confusion at Star’s question. “Jury?”

“A jury is a sworn group of people considered to the peers of the defendant who are gathered to hear evidence in a court trial, and either given an impartial and fair verdict or set a penalty/judgement,” Eule explained.

“Hmm, given that you are the first of your…people we have ever encountered, it would be difficult to find anyone we or even you could consider to be your peers,” Jezza said, making Eule stare down at her peg-like feet, wiggling her four toes in anxiety, at the reminder that she and Star were quite possibly the only Replikas in existence here, before continuing: “As for an impartial and fair verdict, we High Matriarchs are supposed to provide that at trials, regardless of any emotions about the matter, whether positive–”

Jezza looked at Teersa for a moment, who gave her a caught-out smile in reply.

“–Or negative.”

Jezza now looked at Lansra, who only “Hmphed!” in reply in turn.

Seemingly satisfied for now, Jezza turned back to the Replikas. “Does that satisfy your concerns, Shtar?”

“Uh, one more question: what about our lawyers?” Star asked. “You know, the ones who’re supposed to be defending us on our behalf and arguing on your behalf too? Because they know the law?”

Jezza only gave Star a confused look. “That would be us High Matriarchs as well. How can anyone know Nora law better than we three right now?”

“Ah, okay. That’s…fine,” Star said with a hesitant nod of agreement.

As Jezza nodded back though, Eule heard through her REM-63 Longwave Radio Receiver Module: “So a trial where the judge is also the jury, the prosecutor, and the defense? Methinks this is going to be a…interesting trial, out,” Star broadcasted.

“Well, at least one of our judge-jury-lawyers is on our side, over,” Eule replied back in her own radio broadcast, with a brief smile to Star for emphasis and a bit of comfort. Star gave her own comforting smile to Eule before they both turned back to Jezza and the other High Matriarchs.

“Do you two have any more questions regarding the basic procedure of this trial?” Jezza asked. When both Eule and Star shook their heads in negation, Jezza continued: “Then–”

“Wait!” Lansra suddenly shouted, before grudging asking when Jezza gave her a Look: “If I may, Jezza?”

“You may,” Jezza said, still with her calm and serene voice, but with just a faint hint of sarcasm in it that Eule could just about make out.

“What are those things on your faces?” Lansra asked, pointing a bony finger at Eule and Star’s right temples.

“These?” Eule asked, reaching up to tap her Focus, which briefly brought up its translucent menu in front of Eule’s vision before she tapped it again to make it disappear. “This is a Focus. It’s a…device that lets me speak to you.”

“Speak to us? What does that even mean?” Lansra asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Eule had to take a calming breath before speaking to this…Gestalt woman. “Star and I speak Eusan Standard Language: the national language of the Eusan Nation. It’s a language that’s almost completely incompatible with your language. In fact, we couldn’t even speak to the Nora before we acquired these Focuses.”

“Acquired? How? Where?” Lansra asked with even more suspicion.

Eule grimaced, since Rost’s views of the Metal World prepared her for this possibility, but there was no way she could explain where she acquired these Focuses without having to lie, and she had no idea what kind of lie would be believable in this land. Thus, she decided that the truth would suit her best here.

“In a Metal World ruin,” Eule finally replied.

Eule was prepared for some kind of negative reaction from Lansra, but the hiss of outrage and fury somehow managed to exceed her expectations.

“You brought Metal World relics here? Cursed things that should never see the light of day? How dare you?!” Lansra said angrily.

“We have to. We cannot speak to you without these Focuses. We can’t even understand you without them,” Eule said quietly, her own anger building at Lansra.

“Lies, I’ll bet!” Lansra hissed. “Lies to try to trick us into allowing such tainted relics in here to–”

Now at the end of her wits, Eule reached up to her right temple, and pulled her Focus away, causing the ever-present reticule in the center of her vision and other assorted light patterns to fade with the loss of physical contact.

“Do you understand me now? Can any of you High Matriarchs understand a single word I’m saying?” Eule asked, barely able to keep her voice calm and level, her face practically frozen in a polite smile.

Eule saw a smile of amused bemusement, a blank look of incomprehension, and a frown of bafflement come from Teersa, Jezza, and Lansra respectively upon hearing her stream of Eusan Standard Language.

With that concluded, Eule returned her Focus to its usual place with the familiar light thump of it eagerly latching on with its plastic-coated smooth webbed side. “Now do you believe me when I say that we need these Focuses in order for this trial to be fairly conducted? Unless you wish for us to reside here in the Embrace for years as we and the Nora try to puzzle each other’s languages out manually?” Eule asked.

Lansra sputtered, but no coherent words came out of her mouth.

“Hah! Good job there, Eu-le. I was getting tired of her speaking without a thought going through her head there,” Teersa said with a smile, earning a grateful smile from Eule (and for more correctly pronouncing her name as well), and angry sputters from a now redirected Lansra.

“I believe you have made your point, Eh-u-le,” Jezza said at last, halting the stream of angry sputters from Lansra. “We can all agree that this trial cannot go forward in a timely manner without those…’Focuses’ aiding you and Shtar. Thus, I call for an exception to the law on Metal World relics for those Focuses. Are we agreed on this? Teersa? Lansra?”

“You have no argument from me,” Teersa replied happily.

Lansra grumbled.

“Lansra?” Jezza pressed.

“…Yes,” Lansra finally replied, with all the emotion of one having their teeth pulled.

Jezza nodded at her fellow High Matriarch before turning back to Eule and Star. “We are all agreed on the issue of these Focuses. We can now properly begin the trial.

The first matter we would like to address is how Eh-u-le and Shtar came to be in the Embrace. All of our Braves reported that they did not see you enter the Embrace at any point, or indeed, even enter our Sacred Lands from any of our borders. So our question to you two is this: how are you here?” Jezza asked of the Replikas.

Eule had to take another deep breath to steady herself. She’d actually been thinking about this the whole time before the trial. Her and Star’s story of S-23 Sierpinski and the corruption that had swept through it, told completely unfiltered to Rost and Äloy, had required much in the way of stopping to explain every bit of detail that the two Nora had just not understood. It had taken hours to tell that story as a result.

Thus, over the course of their stay in Rost’s house, Eule had been thinking of a way to condense that story down to not only more manageable lengths, but also in terms that the High Matriarchs and the other Nora by extension would understand. With Star’s help, she felt like she had accomplished that when Teersa had understood their story without problems. Now it just a matter of putting it to the test against the other High Matriarchs, and praying to the Red Eye that it worked.

“In order to explain how we ended up here, we need to explain where we came from,” Eule began. “Star and I come from a tribe called the Eusan Nation. It’s a very large tribe made up of 4 tribes named Heimat, Rotfront, Leng, and Vineta. All of the tribes that make up the Eusan Nation consist of two races of humans: Gestalts like yourselves, and Replikas like us. Gestalts are entirely flesh and blood, while Replikas have both flesh and blood parts and…machine parts in place of our limbs, eyes, bones, and a few other vital organs. Not the Machines–the beasts of steel–of your land, but machine parts made by humans.

Both Star and I are Replikas born into the Rotfront tribe, but our leaders–our own High Matriarchs–sent us to the Leng tribe to live and work in a settlement called S-23 Sierpinski. It was…not a very nice place. It was essentially a prison: an underground settlement where people you would call outcasts would be locked in–Gestalts in our case, with Replikas housed in another such prison somewhere in the Leng tribe’s territory–and be made…no, forced to work off their sentences. In Sierpinski’s case that work consisted of digging out resources from the mines deep below Sierpinski, and making ammunition for our tribe’s weapons in Sierpinski’s munitions factory.  

All of us Replikas at Sierpinski were either service staff–the ones responsible for cooking, cleaning, repair, maintenance, etc.–or Protektors, which are like your Braves, but exclusively for enforcing the law in settlements or as guards for prisons to keep the prisoners from getting out.”

“We Protektors can also be called up as military reserve in an emergency,” Star added. “It’s not often that it happens, but it does happen.”

Eule shuddered at the idea of being essentially conscripted to be a reserve soldier. If the emergency was so bad that even the Eules were being issued weapons to fight, then something had gone horribly wrong and everyone was likely going to die or worse.

Just like what happened in S-23 Sierpinski.

Eule suddenly saw and felt a warm black, metal-coated robotic hand gently take her own equally as robotic hand in a comforting grasp. She looked up to see Star giving her a comforting smile, and a nod of encouragement. Eule smiled back at her lover, and took another comforting breath before continuing.

“I was a member of the service staff along with my Eule sisters, and Star was a member of the Protektor force along with her Star sisters. We were all led by our Commander Falke, who was…something of a cross between our War-Chief and our High Matriarch. Sierpinski wasn’t a nice place in the slightest, but…I met Star there, so at least we could be happy there for a while.

Then…something happened. I’m not sure exactly what, but I heard something happened in the mines.”

“Same here. Unfortunately, whatever happened down in the mines was on a need-to-know basis, and neither Eule nor I were on the need-to-know list,” Star added.

Eule nodded in agreement. “Commander Falke went to investigate, but when she came back, she locked herself into her room. Soon after, people started getting sick. They started feeling ill, and then they quickly started vomiting oxidant: what we Replikas call our blood. I saw some of my own sisters fall ill like that, and people started dying. It got bad enough that Adler, our second-in-command, ordered a quarantine, with everyone to shelter in place wherever they were save for if they had to make a run for essential supplies.

As bad as that was though, it became worse.

The illness…it wasn’t just killing people. It was killing the Gestalts, yes, but the Replikas? It did something worse to us. It…corrupted the Replikas it infected. Made their skin and hair fall off, and their flesh grow in unnatural and impossible ways. Worse, they stop recognizing anyone, and attack everyone on sight. Basically: this illness made the infected Replikas as Deranged as the Machines of your land.

Sierpinski was overrun by our corrupted sisters. We had no choice but to try to flee, but we couldn’t get up to safety on B1: the level closest to the surface. The way up was…blocked.”

Eule still remembered the sight. She and her Eule sisters hadn’t believed the Stars when they told them, so they had to go out see for themselves. Eule wished they hadn’t after that. She remembered at the time that the sight of the elevator shaft filled with dead Replikas–Elster-class from the looks of them; Eule recognized them from seeing the Elster pilot of the passenger liner that had brought her to Leng and Sierpinski in the first place–was something that would forever haunt her nightmares. She still thought that even now.

Eule ended up squeezing her lover’s hand a bit and taking another deep breath to steady herself before continuing once more back into the darkened halls of her Sierpinski memories.

“So once my Star had joined up with us, we decided to try to make for the mines deep below Sierpinski. There was supposed to be an evacuation point set up there, where the mines were supposed to open back up to the surface somewhere as an emergency exit. That was where the surviving Gestalts had been evacuated, and so that where we decided to flee to.

But there was no evacuation point. The mines were filled with corrupted Replikas, with not a safe zone in sight. If there had been an evacuation point at any time, it must’ve fallen to the corruption. We tried to fight through the corrupted Replikas anyways, but there were too many of them. We had already expended much of our ammunition just fighting our way down there, and we didn’t have enough to fight through the mines as well.

So we had to flee. In the confusion though, we hadn’t realized that we fled into a booby-trapped room. The room we ran into was filled with traps made of monofilament wires: wires like the ones you find in the Machines, but so thin that they’re almost invisible, and so thin that they can inflict lethal wounds on you as easily as a hot knife through butter, er, boarfat.

Everyone in our group died. I was the only one to escape injury. I didn’t have the medical supplies to save anyone. Not my sisters: März, August, or 18. Not Star’s sisters. Not even Star. I was just left there alone, with the corpse Star left behind instead of her.

I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t take being alone down there, just waiting to die to the things that used to be my sisters. So I just pointed my weapon at myself, and ended it.”

Eule felt Star lean against her for comfort, and she suddenly realized just how hard she was squeezing her lover’s hand. If her hand had been a Gestalt’s hand, she was sure that it would’ve been nearly white from the strain. Instead, her hand was just as black as it was before. Just as black as Star’s hand. The only difference was Star’s entire knuckles being covered in steel plating, rather than the bits of steel on Eule’s knuckles, and that was it. The sight of Star’s hand intertwined with her own, plus Star’s comforting weight against her, gave Eule her determination back. All she needed was one last deep breath, and she could continue.

“But it wasn’t the end as it should’ve been. It was nothing but black at first, but then there was light. All of a sudden, I woke up, and there was blue sky above me, green grass in front of me, and Star alive and well right next to me. It was like a dream at first, but now it feels more like I’ve…woken up? If that makes sense? It wasn’t all fun though. If it hadn’t been for Rost and Äloy at the start, Star and I might’ve been injured or dead from Watchers or even Striders. But even leaving that aside, I still feel like I’m in a much better place than before, and I have no desire to return to Sierpinski again.”

“Same here,” Star added in one last time. “I think we both would like our sisters back, but since that’s probably not going to happen in this lifetime, this is the best we got.”

Eule nodded at her lover before turning back to the High Matriarchs. “That is the story of how we ended up here, and all I ask is for you–the High Matriarchs of the Nora tribe–to allow us to live here in the Embrace. We won’t bother anyone. We just wish to live here in peace for a while, and that’s it. Please, will you honor our request, High Matriarchs?” she finished with a seated bow.

For several moments, there was only silence in reaction to Eule’s and Star’s story, which ended up ratcheting Eule’s stress meter up a notch. Teersa smiled and nodded at the story, having heard it before, which brought Eule’s stress down a bit. Jezza had a pensive and thoughtful look on her face, which Eule had no idea how to react to until Jezza actually voiced her thoughts. Lastly though, Lansra’s face was seemingly stuck in astonished mode, with her mouth opening and closing like a fish as she struggled to come up with a reply to Eule’s story. That reaction made Eule want to giggle at the inherent silliness of it, but she firmly clamped down on that desire hard to keep from drawing Lansra’s ire…again.

“Well, it is a simple request,” Teersa happily said.

“Simple? Simple?! What about that is simple?!” Lansra practically shouted, pointing a bony finger at Eule and Star, switching between the Replikas rapidly in a seemingly desperate attempt to point at both of them at once. “What about that story?! Do you two seriously expect me to believe that?! There’s no way any of it could possibly be true! The dead don’t come back to life, humans can’t be Deranged, and there’s no such thing as humans with Machine parts!”

“So what do you call this then?” Star asked wryly, raising her long white bird-like robotic right leg up, and showing off her peg-like foot with its synthetic and textured black grip pad on the bottom of said foot, and wiggling the four stubby mechanical toes set around that grip pad, retracting them in and out of their housings.

For a moment, Lansra was speechless amidst Teersa’s guffaws. Lansra didn’t seem to notice though, instead asking: “So you really are part Machine?” she asked quietly.

“Not Machine beast Machine. Just machine,” Eule corrected. “As machine as the Chillwater containers you use, or…oh, the forged steel appliances and tools the Oseram use.”

Eule was relieved that last comparison made both Teersa and Jezza nod in acceptance. What didn’t make her relieved was seeing Lansra adopt a look of horror on her face.

“So you truly are Tainted!” Lansra accused with more pointing of bony finger. “Tainted in ways we never thought the Tainted could ever reach–”

“Oh, calm down before your heart gives out,” Teersa chided. “You were perfectly fine with that Oseram trader’s false leg. I don’t see why you’re getting so hot and bothered over Eu-le and Star’s legs, if I’m saying your names right at last?” she asked Eule and Star.

Eule was delighted to see her nod and Star’s thumbs-up bring a grin to Teersa’s wizened face. Which was in stark contrast to the fish-like impression Lansra was performing as she tried to think of a reply to Teersa’s words.

“That’s different!” Lansra insisted.

“No, Teersa is making a valid argument,” Jezza noted, before turning to look Lansra in the eye. “Lansra, what is the difference between that Oseram trader’s false leg and the machine legs of Eh-u…Eu-le and…Star?”

“Wha-what? You can’t be serious. Look at them! They’re obviously so much more…Machine!” Lansra argued, perhaps not that cogently.

“That is a matter of degree then, but does it change the underlying principles? Is the basic concept of a false leg any different from another false leg, regardless of what each false leg looks like or how it functions?” Jezza asked, calmly but firmly in a way that reminded Eule almost of Februar.

“…No,” Lansra admitted with, again, all the tone of someone having their tooth pulled.

“Then are we in agreement that Eu-le and Star’s false legs and other false body parts are no different from any other false body parts on anyone else?” Jezza asked, partially to Teersa, but mostly to Lansra given how much Jezza stared at her.

“A false leg on someone is just as much false as one on another. I’m agreed,” Teersa happily said.

“…Fine, I’m agreed,” Lansra grumbled.

“Then we are agreed,” Jezza said with a satisfied nod.

Personally, Eule thought that the comparison between a Replika’s robotic limbs and eyes and any prosthetic limbs a Gestalt might have wasn’t exactly a correct analogy. However, pointing that out right now wouldn’t benefit her and Star’s case here, so she kept quiet about her thoughts on the matter.

“Now as for your story, Eu-le and Star, I have questions for you two in order for clarification’s sake,” Jezza said to the Replikas. “First, both of you claim to have suddenly appeared in the Embrace, with no knowledge as to how you came to be here?”

“Yes,” Eule replied at the same time Star did.

“Is anyone able to corroborate your story aside from each other? Were there any witnesses to your…appearance?” Jezza asked.

“Not unless you can question the birds,” Star quipped.

Eule though thought about that first day, before a realization came to her. “Äloy. She was watching us for who knows how long when we were, um, celebrating our arrival here. It’s possible that she saw what happened,” she pointed out.

“Oh yeah, I didn’t even notice the kid was there until she accidentally broke a twig. Wow, she’s good at stealth,” Star mused.

“Of course the only witness you claim to exist is one we can’t call to trial,” Lansra grumbled.

Eule tilted her head at the High Matriarchs. “Outcasts can’t be called as witnesses to a trial?”

“Not normally,” Jezza conceded. “But if the need is great enough, then we can call for an exception to that law, and allow Aloy into Mother’s Heart to testify as a witness to your story.”

“Even though she’s only a child?” Eule asked in a worried tone for little Äloy.

Jezza nodded. “Unless you have any idea of who else might be witnesses to your sudden appearances in the Embrace?” When Eule and Star both shook their heads, Jezza continued: “Then I call for a vote to allow the outcast Aloy into this trial to testify as a witness as an exception to the law, as well as an exception for the outcast Rost to accompany her as her parent.”

“What?! You’re voting for him to be let into Mother’s Heart as well? Isn’t one outcast already enough?” Lansra raged.

“The law demands that a child cannot be called to testify in a trial without a parent present,” Jezza stated with determination that belied her soft voice. “Unless you wish to vote to repeal that law now?”

Lansra shuddered. “Fine then. I agree to allow the outcast girl in as a witness, and for the outcast Rost to accompany her as her parent. Happy?”

Jezza nodded with that same neutral expression on her face as usual before turning to her other fellow High Matriarch. “Teersa? Your vote?”

Eule was surprised to see Teersa have a troubled expression for once. “Hmm, I’m not normally one for exposing a child as young as Aloy to such ugliness. But if Aloy is the only one who can speak for Eu-le and Star, then perhaps this is the All-Mother’s doing here. In that case, I can only agree to it,” Teersa said with a regretful sigh.

“Then we are agreed,” Jezza concluded before turning to Sona. “War-Chief Sona, please send a trusted Brave for the oucasts Aloy and Rost. This Brave has our permission to speak with the outcasts for the duration of their duties.”

“Yes, High Matriarch Jezza,” Sona replied before she began issuing orders to the younger of the female Braves standing guard at the door, who nodded and ran off to either fetch another Brave to carry out that task or perform it herself.

“Now then, while we are awaiting our witness and her parent, I would like to address other parts of your stories, Eu-le and Star,” Jezza said. “Starting with the most important: you claim that this…Derangement-like Corruption that spread through your settlement was able to infect both your people and humans?”

“To clarify: we Replikas consider ourselves to be just as human as the Gestalts,” Eule corrected. “We just consider ourselves to be a different kind of human, but still human.”

“And are fighting an ongoing war just to be able to keep calling ourselves ‘humans’,” Star added, maybe just a bit aggressively.

Fortunately, Jezza and Teersa nodded in acceptance, although Eule was both worried and frustrated that Lansra scoffed at her clarification. The only good news was that Lansra didn’t actively say anything. Eule just had to count on the minor bit of good news there.

“Very well then about Replikas being human as well,” Jezza noted. “But getting to my question now: are you sure you yourselves are not infected with this Corruption, since you have said that it can infect both Replikas and…Gestalts?”

Eule could have heard a pin drop in the silence after that question as Eule prepared her answer. She and Star had discussed this very topic over radio, and while their mutual worry had been very real, the conclusion they came to alleviated those worries.

“No, Star and I are sure that we’re not infected with the illness…the Corruption, yes, that might be a better name for it,” Eule replied.

“And you know this how?” Lansra asked testily…and with just a hint of fear in her voice.

“I have…had a sister named 18 who was with us at the end,” Eule explained.

Talking about 18 made Eule remember her scared younger sister. EULR-S2318 had been younger than even Eule herself. Far younger. 18 hadn’t even had her first birthday outside of her Replika-Werke yet, which only made her death in the mines all the more tragic to Eule.

Eule had to shake herself from the memories, gripping Star’s hand all the while, to return to her explanation. “18 worked as a nurse/orderly in B3 and B4: our hospital wings, and she mentioned to us that the Corruption took hold very quickly. Once someone became infected with it, symptoms began appearing in less than a cycle, er, day. Said symptoms consisted of, as far as 18 knew: severe nausea and headaches, followed by abnormally low blood pressure, severe internal hemorrhaging, er, bleeding, causing the infected to vomit blood, or oxidant in the case of Replikas; high fever, and dehydration. According to 18, the infected would also experience severe cognitive loss within that first day as well.

Neither of us experienced those symptoms during our over 3 days here in the Embrace, and neither Rost nor Äloy have experienced those symptoms as well. I am certain we are not infected,” Eule concluded.

Personally, Eule would rather have killed herself rather than allow the Corruption to spread to Rost and Äloy if she had been infected, but it was something she kept to herself to keep from worrying Star.

“Rost and Aloy certainly looked fine when I was there, both today, yesterday, and the day before yesterday,” Teersa added. “And for that matter, if Eu-le and Star were infected with this Corruption, I would be too. I was eating at the same table as them, after all. Do I look sick to you?”

To Eule’s relief, Jezza nodded. “Very well then. It is a relief to know that this Corruption will not be something the Nora will have to deal with, as was the case with plagues of generations past before the Nora learned to use the medicinal plants we know today.”

Eule shuddered at those words. The idea of an epidemic sweeping through the Nora was disturbingly realistic to her, and she was glad that these medicinal plants, which presumably included the salvebrush, was able to combat those plagues.

“Now for our next question: both of you claim to have…died prior to your appearing in the Embrace?” Jezza asked.

“Yes,” Eule replied, with only a hint of shudder in her voice.

“I am not going to insult your intelligences by asking if you understand the absurdity of that statement since you are both alive right now, so I am going to ask: is it possible that you were mistaken? Perhaps someone rendered you unconscious, and carried you to the Embrace somehow?” Jezza asked.

Eule vividly recalled watching the red pupils of her beloved Star’s eyes dim and fade into darkness. She just as vividly recalled the prickling sensation of her Protektor pistol’s barrel touching her robotic right eye, and the very brief intense pain as she pulled the trigger, before there was nothing but an eternal darkness.

“No, I am not mistaken when I said that I died,” Eule said with firm finality.

“I know I can be wrong about a lot of things, but that cold sensation of bleeding out? I’m not wrong about that,” Star added with just as much finality.

“Yes, just come up with obvious lies to hide how you snuck into here,” Lansra muttered.

“You know, you could try coming up with proof for your claims of us lying for once instead of just accusing us without any,” Star quipped.

“Well, you don’t have any proof that you died either,” Lansra shot back. “In fact, the fact that you are alive and speaking to us right now shows that your story is a lie, so there.”

Eule…couldn’t deny the logic of that argument, despite how nastily it was delivered. Even so…

“High Matriarch Lansra,” Eule began, causing the ever-frowning High Matriarch to turn to her now. “Yes, I know people can…no, should only die once, and that we are alive right now. I have no proof that Star and I died, and I cannot offer any because of its very nature. However, all I can say on the matter is that the truth of how we ended up here is just as much a mystery to us as it is to you. We simply appeared in the Embrace, and we have no idea how or why. That is the truth that I swear to the Red Eye on, even if we have no evidence for it beyond Äloy’s possible testimony. So until then, I ask that you suspend your disbelief for a moment, and accept our story as the truth unless proven otherwise.”

Lansra stared into Eule’s eyes for several long moments before she huffed. “Fine,” she conceded, much to Eule’s relief.

It was thinking about the issue during her speech that Eule realize that she did have a piece of evidence for her death. It was a long shot, but it might work.

“High Matriarchs, I just remembered something. May I submit a piece of evidence pertaining to my death? Eule asked.

Jezza raised an eyebrow momentarily, before lowering it back down to ask: “If you have evidence that confirms that you died, then please, by all means, explain this evidence.”

“When I died by my weapon: a sort of casterbow that’s called a ‘pistol’, I shot myself in my right eye here,” Eule explained, pointing to the robotic eye in question. “In order to do that, I had to use a single round of ammunition for my pistol, which is called a ‘bullet’. When I checked my pistol, it was missing a single bullet. That’s the best evidence I have for my own death.”

As Jezza and Teersa mulled that evidence over, Lansra spoke up with: “How are we supposed to know that this ‘pistol’ of yours is missing a bullet? And for that matter, how do we know that you didn’t just take this bullet out of your weapon yourself to make evidence for your story?”

As belligerent as Lansra was, Eule couldn’t deny that Lansra raised some very good points about this evidence she brought up. “I can offer up my and Star’s ammunition boxes for my pistol as evidence for you to count the number of bullets, but again, you only have our word for the original number of bullets in them, and there’s no way for us to corroborate that. I can also offer to allow you to examine my pistol, but I have not only already refilled the magazine–the part of the pistol that stores bullets for it to use–but I have also cleaned the pistol, so I can’t prove that it was fired in the first place,” she explained, surprising herself at the irony that the regular firearms maintenance so necessary for ensuring that her pistol functioned as intended would come back to haunt her like it.

“Well, not necessarily,” Star began, giving Eule hope. “When any gun, including Eule’s pistol, is fired, it leaves behind tiny scratches in the pistol’s barrel–the part where the bullet flies through to get out–that can be seen. The problem though is that Eule fired her pistol a lot during our attempted escape, and we have no way to tell which scratches are from those firings and which ones are from her…last one,” Star explained, dashing Eule’s hopes in the same stroke.

“Hmm, a pity,” Jezza noted with disappointment. “So with that piece of evidence not corroborated for now, I would like to ask about something else now: was there anything unusual that happened prior to your deaths that might have caused this…appearance to have happened? Even more unusual than what you described happened to your…S-23 Seer-pin-skee settlement already? Because unfortunately, we lack the knowledge and context to determine what is and isn’t unusual for your people, so anything you can remember that happened could possibly be useful.”

Eule shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry. I don’t really remember anything from that time. I was a bit too…overwhelmed to notice anything but Star in front of me.”

Star scratched the shell on her cheek for a few moments. “I was mostly focused on Eule too, but…I think I noticed someone? I think? Wait…hey Eule, do you remember that weird thing I told you about that happened to me in B1?”

Eule blinked in surprise. “You mean that Elster unit you said was looking for a Gestalt woman?”

“Yeah. She was there,” Star said, before continuing to scratch her cheek shell. “At least, I think it was her. Unless there was more than one Elster at Sierpinski.”

“I didn’t even realize we had an Elster,” Eule said, trying to rack her brain as to whether she’d heard of any Elster unit being Commissioned at Sierpinski before.

“I heard on the grapevine that there were plans to request that an Elster be assigned to Sierpinski,” Star noted. “But that was just before everything happened, so I’m not sure if that ever got filed. Maybe that Elster was her, and she just arrived at the worst possible time?”

“Maybe?” Eule half-asked. “But then…why would she be looking for a…what did you say that Gestalt woman looked like in that photo that Elster showed you?”

“Short white hair with red eyes, wearing a People’s Navy uniform with a Penrose logo on the shoulder, weirdly enough. Even more weirdly, half the photo was degraded, like that half of it got left out somewhere in rain or snow or something,” Star said, looking up at the wooden ceiling in recollection. “I remember how really weird it was because not only did I not recognize that Gestalt woman at all among our prisoners, but because of that Gestalt woman’s name too: Alina Seo.”

Eule blinked in confusion. “Did you know her?”

“No, I didn’t recognize the name or the face among our prisoners,” Star said, before she frowned in consternation. “But the weird thing is…that name sounds familiar. I don’t know where I heard the name Alina Seo before, but it’s so weirdly familiar…”

“…Could it have something to do with your previous life?” Eule posited.

“I…have no idea, really,” Star admitted. “I don’t remember that face in those dreams. I think I would remember a woman with hair that white on a face that young. Never heard of Gestalt ever having those features before.”

“I believe that’s a condition called albinism. It’s very rare among Gestalts, so I’m not surprised that you haven’t heard of it,” Eule muttered, before she suddenly remembered the High Matriarchs. She turned to look back at them, finally noticing their complete confusion. “I’m sorry, did you need me to explain anything of what we were talking about?”

“I would ask that, yes, but I think we would be here all day if I did,” Teersa joked.

“Stupid outsiders and their indecipherable outsider talk,” Lansra muttered testily.

“From what I can gather of what you were saying: do you think this ‘Elster’ was responsible for you being here?” Jezza asked curiously.

“Very unlikely,” Eule immediately replied with a shake of her head.

“Elsters aren’t known for being a Bioresonant class of Replika, and even if they were, I don’t think even a Falke’s powers would be enough to get us here,” Star quipped, prompting even more confused looks from the High Matriarchs, save for Teersa, who at least knew was Bioresonance was…somewhat.

“I see,” Jezza said in a tone that suggested to Eule she probably didn’t. “But if this Elster isn’t responsible, then perhaps this Aleena Say-o was?”

“I’m…not sure?” Eule admitted.

“Her photo didn’t have the trio of red star tattoos on her forehead, so I would cross her off the list too,” Star noted.

Jezza sighed. “Then we have no suspects, and can only await the outcast Aloy’s witness testimony to see if it reveals any additional information about this, as well as confirm or deny your story.”

Eule sighed just as heavily as Jezza did. She hoped they wouldn’t be too hard on little Äloy. The poor little Gestalt girl has had enough trauma from the Nora already.

“In the meantime, since additional questioning will have to wait for our witness, I vote that we temporarily pause the trial for a short rest,” Jezza suggested.

“Anything that involves a bite to eat and something to drink is something I can happily get behind,” Teersa said happily.

“Finally, something we can agree on,” Lansra said with a huff.

“Then we are agreed,” Jezza said with a nod before turning to the older female Brave. “Iyani, could you please send someone for snacks and beverages for 5?”

Iyani scoffed. “Win the Proving and join the Braves, they said. Fight Machines and bandits, they said. Whoever ‘they’ were never said being a server was one of a Brave’s duties.”

Amidst Star’s burst of laughter, Eule saw Jezza’s normally neutral face crack into a slight but noticeable smile. “My apologies, Iyani. If this task isn’t becoming of a Brave, then I will perform this task myself–”

“As if!” Iyani said with a laugh. “If being a server is what the High Matriarchs need right now, then a server is what I’ll be.” She continued laughing all the way out the door.

“So wait,” Star said, after she finally managed to calm down enough to say that without bursting into more laughter. “We’re getting snacks at this trial? Really?”

Eule was curious about that as well. She had never been in a trial before, whether participating or observing, but even she thought that was a bit…atypical.

“For the duration of the trial, you and Eu-le are our guests,” Jezza said gravely. “Thus, we would be remiss if we failed to perform our duty as your hosts.”

Star grinned at Jezza. “Well, this is already one of the best trials I’ve ever been at,” she joked happily.

Eule also smiled at Jezza, but for different reasons. “It seems that the Nora take hospitality very seriously.”

Jezza nodded. “Of course. It is one of the basic tenets of Nora law that if we invite someone into our home and lodge as a guest, then it is our duty as the host to provide food, drink, and bedding for them. It would shame the All-Mother if we fail in this basic a duty.”

Eule giggled at the echo of Rost’s words there. “It sounds like you and Rost have something in common there.”

“Comparing the High Matriarchs to an outcast. Just what is this world coming to?” Lansra grumbled.

“Remember what Rost was and what he did for us before he chose to become an outcast, Lansra,” Jezza scolded. Softly, yes, but it was still a scold. A scold that earned an unintelligible grumble from Lansra, but nothing more.

“I take it you are all bound by that oath of silence to not discuss why Rost chose that punishment?” Eule asked, still curious about Rost’s situation.

Jezza nodded sadly. “Unfortunately, we are, and it’s perhaps for the best that we are. It’s…not a pleasant story.”

Eule’s curiosity was now thoroughly stoked, which made the extremely dim prospect of getting answers to her questions about Rost’s past all the more frustrating. Fortunately, a distraction came in the form of Iyani returning with a couple of Nora in tow, all walking in with trays in hand.

Eule quickly found herself with a rounded wooden plate and wooden cup in front of her. Said plate contained a decent-sized rounded loaf of bread (to Eule’s surprise) and several strips of dried meat. Meanwhile, the cup contained a dark brown liquid topped with foam, from which emanated a strong, pleasant scent of wheat. Everyone received the same refreshments, including Star, who peered curiously at the cup of dark brown, foaming liquid with an intense gaze.

“Hey, wait a second,” Star said, lifting the cup up for a deep sniff before taking a small sip. Eule watched curiously as her lover smacked her lips after that sip, and pronounced: “This is beer. You’re giving us beer at a trial?”

Jezza, Teersa, and even Lansra blinked at Star. “Yes, do you not like it?” Jezza asked with confusion in her voice.

“Oh, no, I’m all for a good beer,” Star said with a grin, before that grin turned a bit lop-sided as she stared at the beer. “It’s just that, well, giving beer to someone at a trial sounds a bit…odd, wouldn’t you say? What with the potential to get drunk and all? Although I guess to be fair, this stuff doesn’t taste very strong…actually, I can barely taste any alcohol in it at all. What in the Red Eye’s name is this thing’s alcohol content?”

Teersa surprised Eule and Star by bursting into laughter. “I’m sorry, did you think we would serve you the strong beer at a trial?” she managed to get out, before bursting into more laughter.

“This is weak beer that we normally drink as a beverage for regular meals,” Jezza explained. “No one could get drunk on that. Not even a child. Is beer not something your Rotfront tribe normally drinks?”

“No, it is something we drink much of in Rotfront,” Eule explained, now holding up her cup curiously. “It’s just that we normally don’t drink beer during a trial. Although…”

Eule took her own sniff of the beer, savoring the wheat scent before taking her own sip. Yes, it was indeed beer, but she could tell that it was essentially table beer. So low in alcohol that she doubted even Äloy could become intoxicated off of it. If she had to guess, this beer had an alcohol by volume level well below 1%.

“I suppose I can excuse table beer like this,” Eule said happily.

“Yeah, bring on the table beer and snacks!” Star cheered just as happily.

Admittedly, a loaf of whole wheat bread (the closest Eule could describe it) and what turned out to be boar jerky were not the typical snacks Eule would pair with beer, but it made a nice difference from the usual because of that. The whole wheat bread was dark, sweet, and chewy; and the thinly-sliced boar jerky was still moist thanks to all the fat in the meat, which also gave it a wonderful umami taste. Combining the two into some rough sandwiches made for a perfectly delicious snack, with Eule only wishing that she had some cheese to complete the meal, and complete the table beer on top of it.

Incidentally, after several sips of that table beer, Eule noticed that once she tasted past the slightly sweet, slightly sour taste of the beer itself, she could now taste a hint of fruitiness to the beer. It took several more sips before Eule realized that the taste in question was that of blueberries. Eule giggled at the coincidence in sweetener choice, given how she and Star had blueberry jerky for breakfast that morning.

Thinking about that breakfast though made Eule remember Äloy and Rost. She hoped this trial went well, and that Äloy’s testimony might reveal a bit more about how she and Star ended up here in Nora lands–

Eule’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door to this Nora courtroom opening. She turned to look to see who was arriving, and despite knowing beforehand, still found herself surprised to be looking into the just as surprised green eyes of little Äloy.

“Eu-le! Star!” Äloy shouted happily as she dashed over to the Replikas, giving them a hug that Eule was just as happy to return as Star was.

Eule then suddenly realized that if Äloy was here, then surely–

Yes, a look at the door again revealed Rost stepping into the courtroom, with the younger Brave woman stepping in and closing the door behind them both.

“Rost!” Eule said happily at the same time Star said just as happily: “Rost, buddy!”

Rost’s only reaction to their greetings was a silent nod to them both before he kneeled to the High Matriarchs.

“Off of your knees, outcast Rost. You have permission to speak to us and the gathered Braves here in this court for the duration of this trial,” Jezza proclaimed.

Rost did indeed rise back to his feet. “You have requested that I be present at this trial…in order for Aloy to testify as a witness?” he asked.

“Yes,” Jessa replied with a nod. “We cannot question a child without their parent present, not even an outcast child. We entrusted Aloy to you, so you are the closest she has to a parent, and thus you must act as her guardian during her witness testimony.”

Rost nodded, although Eule did catch a brief hesitancy to his nod. “Very well, then I will do this task. For Aloy’s sake,” he stated before taking the seat next to Eule.

“Hmph, remember what I told you of the outcast child, Rost,” Lansra said in a warning tone that both worried Eule and infuriated her.

“I remember, High Matriarch Lansra,” Rost said in the most neutral tone she’d ever heard him speak in.

Lansra glared at Rost, but without anything in Rost’s words to find fault in, she merely fumed quietly.

Much to Eule’s satisfaction, since she didn’t like the way Lansra kept refusing to even call Äloy by name. It didn’t help that Äloy seemed to be a bit stressed by all this, choosing to sit in Eule’s lap instead of on a chair presumably for the comfort value, and not of the physical kind.

“Before we resume the trial though, Iyani, can you please bring the outcasts Rost and Aloy a meal?” Jezza asked.

Interestingly, the older Brave woman nodded and set out to carry that task out without a single complaint.

“A meal? For outcasts?!” Lansra said in outrage.

“For the duration of a trial, all participants are our guests, Lansra. All of them,” Jezza said, with that soft yet firm voice Eule was starting to recognize as her angry voice. “Or do you mean to contest the sacred law of hospitality itself?”

Lansra reeled back, and then huffed, but said nothing more.

When Iyani returned, Eule was further surprised to see Iyani herself carrying the trays of food, with another Nora behind her carrying wooden cups of presumably more table beer, and placing them in front of Rost and Äloy. The latter was slightly problematic given how the little Gestalt girl was sitting in Eule’s lap, but Eule was more than happy to shift her own mostly empty plate and half-full cup around to accommodate Äloy’s meal, which Äloy dug into with relish.

“Have you ever had bread before, Äloy?” Eule asked curiously.

“Mweh,” Äloy said around her mouthful of bread, before rapidly chewing and swallowing to not have her voice be filled with bread. “Yeah. Rost sometimes makes it. He doesn’t like making it that much though. Grinding grain is hard work,” she explained.

Eule had never ground her own flour before, but she can easily imagine the kind of effort it would take to turn whole wheat berries into that white powder so essential to baking. Especially in a world without blenders or some other kind of electrical grinder.

Eule then watched just as curiously as Äloy took a sip of the table beer, stopped, and put the cup back down while making a face.

“This your first time drinking beer, Äloy?” Star asked. When she received a nod, Star then asked with a grin: “So what do you think of it?”

“It’s…weird. It’s kinda sweet, but kinda sour, and kinda bitter?” Äloy said, her voice filled with an unsure opinion of the offending beer. “It kinda tastes like bread, but weird, and you can drink it…and it has that white stuff on top that pops in your mouth? So weird.”

“That’s called beer foam, kid,” Star said, savoring her own sip of her table beer. “This is basically a kid version of what adults drink. You’ll like it when you grow up.”

Äloy’s response was just to make another face at Star, before she looked up at Eule. “Do you drink this beer stuff too, Eu-le?”

Eule nodded happily. “I’ve drunk it on many occasions, since our Rotfront tribe really likes beer. This beer is what we would call table beer, and I’m actually quite fond of beer this dark and flavorful.”

Eule giggled at the continued face-making Äloy was engaged in. The little Gestalt girl took one more sip of her beer before sticking her tongue out, and pushing the mug away, apparently not ready to be an adult yet.

Their little repast didn’t take long at all to finish, and at long last, Jezza called for the trial to resume.

“Outcast Aloy,” Jezza began. “E-u…Eu-le claims that you might have witnessed her and Star’s appearance in the Embrace. Did you in fact witness that?”

Äloy waved her legs as she looked to the side with a troubled expression that worried Eule.

“Outcast Aloy?” Jezza asked.

“…Yeah,” Äloy admitted.

“Well, go on! We don’t have all day here!” Lansra shouted.

Äloy winced, making Eule wrap her arms around the little Gestalt girl in a comforting hug, and for once, her polite smile slipped off of her face, leaving a coldly neutral look as she glared at Lansra in a glare that her lover shared with finger-drumming-on-chair levels of anger.

“Lansra, do you shout at your own children too? How many answers do you think you get out of them, I wonder?” Teersa asked with a bite to her sarcasm.

As Lansra returned to grumbling, Jezza said in a tone even softer than the one she usually spoke in: “Aloy, there’s nothing to be afraid of. We wish only to know what happened when Eu-le and Star appeared to prove their story. Will you please tell us?”

Äloy looked up to meet Jezza’s eyes, and nodded. “Okay. It’s just…it was really weird. It was so weird that I didn’t even tell Rost, and…Eu-le, Star, you don’t remember anything before waking up, do you?”

Eule shook her head along with Star, while Rost peered at Äloy curiously, giving her an encouraging nod to continue.

“Okay, so here’s what happened,” Äloy began. “On that day, I was with Rost, looking around for blueberries since they’re in season, when I heard…music. It was really weird music too. It sounded creepy, but also pretty, and…sad? Yeah…it sounded sad. It’s like…someone wanting to cry, but with music.  

Anyway, so I went towards the weird music and that’s when I saw Eu-le and Star in that clearing. You were both lying there on the ground, so still that I thought you were both dead at first. Then I saw your chests, well, Eu-le’s chest moving, and so I realized you were sleeping. But I was still worried because…because…well, you weren’t alone.

There was a woman standing over you both. She was standing with her hands put together almost like she was praying. She had white hair even though she looked young, and her skin was covered in white patches, and oh, it was pale. Really pale. It was almost as white as her hair. So white that…I thought she was a ghost. Then I realized that the weird music was coming from her, and I thought she was one of the Forgotten that Rost told me about.

But…she didn’t look evil. She looked sad. Really sad, and…she looked like she was waiting for someone. I wanted to go up to her and give her a hug, and tell her that someone was going to come, but then she just…disappeared. She faded away like…like…a ghost. It was so weird and creepy and…weird. But then that’s when Eu-le and Star woke up, and when you saw each other, you were laughing and smiling and…you looked so happy that I wanted to just stay near you. I just wanted…to be maybe a little bit part of that happy.

And then I maybe stepped on a twig when I was trying to get closer, and that’s when you saw me, and you know what happened next, so…yeah, that’s it,”  Äloy finished.

Eule knew that Äloy had just dropped a massive bombshell on her. A “ghost woman” had saved her and Star? How? Why? But despite that, all she did was embrace Äloy in another hug. “Were you that lonely here? With no one but Rost to talk to, since no one will talk to you? For being an outcast for reasons no one will explain to you?” she asked.

Äloy was silent for a moment, before she took hold of Eule’s arms and hugged them back. Her only reply to Eule’s question ended up being a silent nod.

Star’s joined Eule in Äloy’s personality stabilization by rubbing the little Gestalt girl’s head. “It’s okay, Äloy. We’re here, and hopefully, we’re not going to go anywhere far,” she consoled.

Even Rost reached out and joined Star in the head rubbing. He didn’t say a word, but he didn’t need to.

Teersa sighed. “Now do you both realized why I argued against making Aloy an outcast, my sisters?” she asked of Jezza and Lansra.

Jezza kept her neutral expression as she gazed at Äloy, but Eule could hear a noticeable sigh of regret coming from her as she nodded. Lansra though, as Eule expected, simply huffed and looked away. Whether Lansra didn’t want to face the consequences of her actions or she was refusing to acknowledge Äloy’s emotional pain was something Eule didn’t care about. All Eule knew was that Lansra was now one of the few people she can firmly say that she didn’t like. Not in the slightest. She could even say that she liked this mysterious “ghost woman” a lot more than Lansra right now.

Actually, that made Eule realize something. “Äloy, did you not mention this before…because you thought we wouldn’t believe you? Especially about this ‘ghost woman’?”

Äloy squirmed a bit in her hug before she finally gave a nod. “Yeah. It was so weird that…I think I wouldn’t believe me if I told it to me, so I didn’t think anyone would believe me either.”

Eule smiled down at Äloy. “Given everything Star and I have been through, your story is just as believable as ours. I think we can sympathize.”

As Äloy looked up at Eule and smiled back, Star asked: “Hey actually, about this ‘ghost woman’: you said she had white hair, right? Did she have short white hair, red eyes, and was she wearing a black uniform a bit like ours? But with long sleeves, red patches on the shoulders, and a blue and white triangle on the left sleeve?”

Eule suddenly realized who Star meant: this mysterious Alina Seo person that just-as-mysterious Elster unit was looking for. Could this be her?

But to Eule’s disappointment, Äloy shook her head. “Her hair was long. Really long. It was even covering a lot of her face. She looked like she hadn’t cut her hair for a really long time. Her eyes were closed, so I couldn’t see what they looked like, but she was wearing a…it looked like a white-colored shirt, but it was really long, like down past her hips long, and was really thin. So thin that I could see her chest through the shirt, and it only had two thin bits holding it up on her shoulders. It looked like it would be really cold to wear at night. I kinda want to give her a real shirt to wear, so that she won’t be so cold.”

“Umm, I think that would be a dress you’re describing, not a shirt,” Eule corrected, blushing a bit at Äloy’s description. “Although with how thin that dress is…it sounds like a nightdress, to be honest.”

“Or a cryosleep outfit,” Star posited. “I’ve read that those who don’t want to go into a cryopod naked would wear really thin clothes like that.”

Eule looked at her lover in surprise. “You think this ‘ghost woman’ is this Alina Seo?”

“I think so. There’s just too many coincidences here. I mean, how likely is it that there are two different…what did you call it, albinism? Albinism women that are involved with this?” Star asked.

“The term is albino if it’s being used as an adjective,” Eule explained, before thinking on what Star said. “Although that is a good point…but why would this Alina Seo help us? We don’t even know her.”

Star shrugged. “Maybe she’s just nice? I don’t know. I’m just throwing theories out and hoping some of it makes sense here.”

A cough from Jezza got their undivided attention. “It would seem then that this Aleena Say-o woman is responsible for your being here, but given the circumstances, it seems unlikely we will be able to obtain her testimony about this to explain her reasons. And given that a witness has now vouched for your stories, Eu-le and Star, I vote for your stories to be accepted by this trial as evidence that you did not enter the Embrace of your own free will, and thus cannot be judged as intentionally trespassing into Nora Sacred Lands. Are we agreed, sisters?”

“Definitely a yes from me. If someone gets knocked out cold and dragged into someone’s lodge, how can that person be tried as an intruder?” Teersa asked as part of her reply.

“Urgh…fine. I agree as well,” Lansra said with the now-familiar tone of pulling her own teeth out, before she suddenly turned to Äloy and asked: “Now to clarify: this…’ghost woman’ had white hair even though she was young, and her skin was nearly as white?”

Äloy’s only reply was a nod of affirmation.

“So what are you getting at now?” Teersa asked with a wry yet morbidly curious expression.

Lansra somehow managed to frown even more deeply than she already was. “I don’t like it. It sounds like this ‘ghost woman’ is the ghost of a Forgotten-Touched.”

Amidst Eule’s confusion, Teersa scoffed. “You seriously believe those old fireside stories? I suppose next you’re going to say that you believe in the Skyscreamer?”

“That’s different!” Lansra snapped, with Teersa smiling wryly in spite of that.

“Forgotten-Touched? Skyscreamer?” Eule asked curiously, if a bit disbelievingly as well.

“Both of them stories parents use to scare children to bed with,” Teersa happily explained. “The latter is just some old and possibly drunk hunter’s story of some invisible screaming thing that only comes out at night, but the former is far more relevant to this ‘ghost woman’. You see, a very few Nora over the generations have been born with exactly the features you describe on this Aleena Say-o woman: white hair from birth and skin nearly the same color.”

Eule nodded. “Sounds exactly like albinism.”

Teersa returned the nod. “If that’s what your tribe calls it, which is probably much friendlier than what we call those people. All they have from what our stories tell is that they burn in the sun much more easily and they tend to see poorly. Unfortunately, some fool Nora long ago decided that the spirits of the Forgotten have cursed them somehow, and thus have named them ‘Forgotten-Touched’. It’s been a story among the Nora ever since, with a few foolish members of our tribe still believing it and thinking that they attract bad luck to them.”

“Well, how else do you explain that white hair and white skin?” Lansra argued.

“Yes, because that’s a fine excuse to bully them,” Teersa replied in a voice so dripping with sarcasm that Eule didn’t need to be a Eule to hear it.

“Enough!” Jezza said in a voice an angry notch above her usual softness. “This is completely irrelevant to the issue of Eu-le and Star, so we will bring the trial back to them and continue discussing not on either this Aleena Say-o woman or the Forgotten-Touched in general. Are we understood?”

Teersa happily agreed with that conclusion, while Lansra, as usual, dropped the subject only with a grumbling agreement.

“Very well then,” Jezza said with a sigh before turning back to the gathered party. “Now that we have determined that Eu-le and Star did not willingly intrude into Nora Sacred Lands, we will deliberate on their request to live here. Teersa has previously advanced the argument that we issue them trade passes, which for Eu-le and Star’s explanation: are tokens we give to merchants visiting the Sacred Lands and the Embrace in particular to allow them to conduct their business here. Now Eu-le and Star, do you agree to being issued trade passes?”

“Yes,” Eule replied at the same time Star replied with the same.

“Then we must determine if you are trustworthy enough to be issued trade passes,” Jezza said. “Do you have any witnesses who can speak for your character?”

Eule was about to suggest Rost and Äloy, but before she could do so, someone surprised her.

“High Matriarchs, may I offer my testimony to speak for their character?” Sona asked.

“You may, War-Chief Sona,” Jezza replied in a surprised yet interested tone.

“Thank you,” Sona thanked with a nod. “I have collected several witness testimonies about the incident of 2 days ago: when the child Teb sustained an injury in the course of Brave training and was nearly killed by a Strider herd and its Watcher guards. According to a trio of witnesses, including Teb himself: Eu-le and Star, along with outcast Rost, risked their lives to not only rescue Teb, but also rescue outcast Aloy who attempted to rescue Teb in her eagerness to help. If that does not speak to Eu-le and Star’s characters, I don’t know what would.”

“But–” Äloy started to protest before Eule placed a black robotic finger over Äloy’s mouth to shush her.

Eule knew that Äloy had played a large role in rescuing Teb, but for the sake of this trial, it was better to not to contradict Sona. Fortunately, Äloy did seem to understand and didn’t say a word after, even if she was clearly not happy about it.

Eule whispered to Äloy: “I’ll make it up to you after, okay?”

To Eule’s relief, Äloy nodded in acceptance.

“I accept that as adequate testimony to Eu-le and Star’s character. What say you, sisters?” Jezza asked.

“Adequate testimony is really putting it mildly now, Jezza,” Teersa remarked wryly. “Anyone who would do that gets my vote.”

“Wait! What about the other witness testimony?” Lansra argued.

Sona looked like she was about to raise an eyebrow, but it stopped partway and lowered itself back down in remembered respect. “If I may ask, High Matriarch Lansra: what other testimony?”

“The one that said these outsiders attacked Teb and injured him in the first place,” Lansra explained.

For a moment, Eule could only stare at Lansra in disbelief, her polite smile having slipped off her face and turned into a neutral expression once more from shock…and to Eule’s own surprise, fury as well.

“Now that’s a bald-faced lie if I heard any,” Star joked, with an edge to her voice belying her anger.

“High Matriarch Lansra, that sole witness testimony runs counter to three other witnesses’ testimonies, with the Brave in question being drunk at the time of his supposed testimony,” Sona explained, with Eule sure she heard an edge to the War-Chief’s voice that matched Star’s. “In light of those facts, I chose to disregard it as mere drunken ramblings, not to be taken seriously.”

“In that case, then I vote to call this Brave to this trial to clarify his testimony,” Lansra further argued. “After all, even drunkards can be correct, and a sober testimony from him should clarify matters, should it not?”

Jezza nodded. “Very well then, then I agree that this Brave should be called to trial to testify. Teersa?”

Teersa sighed. “If that will finally convince Lansra to drop the subject, then yes, I agree as well.”

“Then we are agreed.” Jezza turned to Son and nodded.

Sona nodded back and turned to Iyani. “Iyani, with me. We shall bring Jasp here to ‘clarify’ his story, whether he likes it or not.”

Iyani chuckled. “Now this should be fun,” she said, still chuckling as she followed Sona out the courtroom door.

It didn’t take long for them to return, with a certain familiar Gestalt man in tow that Eule had the unfortunate pleasure to recognize from their misadventure with Teb.

Even more unfortunately, the feeling was mutual.

“You!” Jasp said with an accusing finger.

“Us,” Star said with a mocking wave.

Before Jasp could say anything else though, Jezza said in her softly firm tone: “Brave Jasp. Sit down.”

Jasp closed his mouth before he could say whatever he’d been about to say in response to Star’s taunt. He walked up to the table, and took a seat that was a seat away from Star, leaving an empty seat in between them as an impromptu barricade.

“Now then, Brave Jasp. Your testimony from two days ago claimed that Eu-le and Star attacked and injured your son Teb. Do you still hold to your testimony?” Jezza asked.

“Uh…” Jasp replied, if you could call it as such.

“You need to think about that?” Teersa asked wryly.

“Uh, yes! I do!” Jasp finally said, or rather, shouted angrily. “These outsiders attacked my son, my own son! With…Machines, yes! They called their Machine brethren to attack him! You saw how they have Machines for bodies! They are clearly in league with them and can command them like the Metal Devil himself!”

“Wow, very convincing performance there,” Star drawled. “How long did it take you to come up with that? A minute? Maybe two?”

“You shut it, Tainted!” Jasp now fairly screamed. “Or I’ll–“

“Or you’ll what, Brave Jasp?” Sona asked, low and dangerous, her hand firmly grasping her long-bladed spear.

Jasp’s face turned pale. “I-I mean no disrespect, War-Chief,” he said quickly.

“Star, I would rather not have our witness’s testimony be interrupted, if you would please?” Jezza asked in a tone somewhere between request and command.

“Yes, ma’am,” Star replied with a salute in the Eusan Nation style: with her left hand and her palm slightly facing outwards at an angle, even if the salute was done sitting instead of standing as per normal.

Personally, Eule wasn’t entirely certain about Star’s taunting of Jasp. It was pretty clear by now that Jasp had a temper so short that it made the stereotypical Storch look calm and reasonable. A part of her worried that Jasp might be angered enough to try something drastic and possibly harm Äloy in the process, but given the sheer amount of threat Sona posed, she felt a bit more secure, and that wasn’t even going into Star and Rost being right there to help if need be. She earnestly hoped it wouldn’t come to that though.

“Now back to your testimony, Brave Jasp,” Jezza continued. “Do you have any witnesses to support your story?”

If Jasp looked pale before, now his skin looked practically as albino as this mysterious Alina Seo’s. “W-Witnesses?” he asked.

“Yes, witnesses. As in: someone else who can tell us if you’re telling the truth?” Teersa drawled in a Star-like fashion.

Alright, as much as Eule had worried over Jasp’s temper, there was a part of her that was just a teensy bit satisfied to see Jasp sweat and squirm as he tried to make up witnesses to his patently false testimony.

“Teb! Yes, Teb!” Jasp suddenly shouted. “He was there! He can be my witness!”

“Even though his testimony is in complete contradiction to yours?” Teersa drawled once more, dripping with just as much sarcasm as before.

“He what?! Why that little–er…” Jasp suddenly stopped in the middle of what he had been about to call Teb, just as suddenly realizing that what was about to come out of his mouth might not have done well for his credibility. Or rather, what little remained of the credibility he had. When next he opened his mouth though, he said: “He’s confused, you see. What with his injury and all, he clearly wasn’t in his right mind when he made his testimony.”

“I wasn’t aware that a foot injury could affect one’s mind,” Iyani quipped from the doorway.

Eule could actually think of numerous ways a foot injury could affect one’s thinking process, but all of them involved complications from infection leading to fever, which would mean that Teb shouldn’t have been in good enough shape to give any witness testimony at all, which didn’t seem to be the case judging from Sona and Iyani’s attitudes.

“Very well then,” Jezza said in the flattest tone Eule had heard her speak in thus far. “If you claim that Teb can act as a witness for you, then are we agreed that Teb is to be brought in to give his testimony?”

“I don’t like an injured child being made to give witness testimony. Not in the slightest. Especially not one with a foot injury combined with all those stairs,” Teersa noted.

“War-Chief Sona, what is the current condition of Teb’s foot injury?” Lansra asked.

“Teb was still walking with a limp when I saw him today,” Sona reported.

Eule’s worry meter shot up a notch upon hearing that. On one hand, it was good that Teb was moving around on his own power without need of a crutch. It suggested that miraculously, his foot didn’t sustain any serious injury despite that high fall. On the other hand, the fact that he was still limping even 2 days after still suggests some degree of injury severity. She can only hope that Teb was okay, and that he wouldn’t be made to exacerbate his injury.

Fortunately, Lansra nodded and said: “Very well, since Teb is still injured, I vote against his being called in for testimony, and instead, the other two witnesses should be called in to provide their testimonies.”

Teersa barked out a laugh. “The first sensible thing you said all day, Lansra! Very well, I agree with that vote.”

“As do I,” Jezza agreed. “War-Chief Sona, can you bring those other two witnesses in?”

Interestingly, Jasp looked extremely nervous at this sudden change in witness-bringing. Eule had some sinking suspicions as to why Jasp had been so insistent on Teb being the only witness for his testimony, but at least now he wouldn’t be getting his wish.

As for Sona, she simply nodded and marched off, notably without asking another Brave to come with her. It seemed to Eule that she expected those other witnesses to arrive with no trouble at all.

Indeed, that was the case, with a pair of very familiar-looking young Nora men walking through the door. That didn’t surprise Eule. What did surprise her though was those two young Nora men helping Teb walk into the courtroom.

“Teb?!” Eule blurted out.

“Heh, hello,” Teb replied shyly, even as he limped over to a free seat next to Rost with the help of one of the young Nora men, who presumably were his friends.

“War-Chief Sona, why did you bring Teb here?” Jezza asked in a softly worried with a tinge of anger in it.

Sona sighed. “Teb insisted on coming here to provide his testimony when I explained what was happening. He wished to support Feld and Sal’s testimonies,” she explained.

Eule watched Teb lean forward to look at her and Star past the bulk of Rost, who simply raised an eyebrow at the young Nora man but said nothing.

“When I heard that my…my father was claiming that you both attacked me when that was obviously not the case, well, I knew that I had to speak up against it,” Teb explained, looking scared but also determined.

“Shut up, boy!” Jasp yelled out.

Teb flinched, but Eule noticed that the determined look in his blue eyes didn’t falter in the slightest.

“Brave Jasp,” Jezza said in a soft-sounding declaration that nonetheless made Jasp flinch and look at her. “You will remain civil and quiet during a witness testimony. If you do not, then we will throw out your own witness testimony, and order you out of this courtroom. Is that clear?”

Jasp gulped. “As glass, High Matriarch Jezza.”

Jezza nodded and turned to Teb and his friends Feld and Sal, who had both taken free seats next to Teb, and had noticeably placed them the furthest away from Jasp.

“Now then, Teb. Please recount the events that led to your injury,” Jezza commanded in that soft voice she normally used, but somehow even softer now.

Teb did indeed recount those events, starting from his fall from the cliffs and ending only at the point where he had been led away by his father. He began haltingly, but his voice became clearer as he gained more confidence in the retelling. And of course, it was entirely accurate to what Eule remembered. Indeed, it was actually fascinating, if a bit harrowing, to hear that day’s events from Teb’s point of view.

Except…Eule also noticed that Teb neglected to mention how his father threatened Äloy, or that his father cuffed him hard on the back of his head as he was being led away. Whether it was accidental or intentional, it made Eule worry over what was going through Teb’s mind on that bit.

When Teb finished with his testimony though, Jezza nodded at him. “Thank you, Teb. Your witness testimony was most helpful in clarifying matters. Feld and Sal, you witnessed the same events, did you not? Could you please give us your testimonies of that day?”

Sal scratched his head. “But can’t I just say that I saw the same thing Teb did?”

Feld (and Eule didn’t fail to notice the similarity there with the Eusan Standard Language word for “field”) turned to look at Sal with a look of sheer disbelief. “You lard-brain! Of course you can’t. That’s the whole point of a witness testimony. So that the High Matriarchs can get details that that the other witnesses might’ve missed.”

“Ohhh, okay,” Sal said, nodding. But then he looked thoughtful. “But then can’t I just say the things that Teb missed, like how his dad hit him on the way back to Mother’s Heart?”

“He what?” Jezza , Teersa, and Lansra all asked in outrage, all at the same time.

“Yeah, his dad’s a chuff,” Sal continued blithely, completely unaware of the impact his testimony was making. “He hits him over the smallest things during training. Me and Feld thought it was just tough love at first, but it was getting just really plain tough to watch.”

Feld sighed. “High Matriarch Jezza, is it okay if we make this witness testimony together? This lard-brain wouldn’t understand proper procedure if you hit him over the head with it.”

Jezza broke her intense glare at a visibly sweating Jasp to nod at Feld. “You may do so, Feld.”

“Yes, please do,” Lansra said, a cold fury in her voice that surprised even Eule and apparently even Teersa, judging by the surprised look she gave her fellow High Matriarch.

With that permission given, Feld and Sal launched a joint testimony of that day’s events. For the most part, it was more or less identical to Teb’s testimony. As it turned out, both of them had been watching from the top of the cliffs while one of their fellow Brave trainees ran off to find Jasp.

Admittedly, Eule was a bit amused to hear and see Feld and Sal spend a good percentage of their testimony bickering with each other. Or rather, Feld trying to correct Sal on various minute details while Sal just blithely ventured forth with his testimony regardless. To Eule, they seemed like a pair of very good friends having a familiar one-sided argument with each other, and it made her worry meter drop down a notch.

At least, until Feld and Sal reached the part where they finally entered the scene themselves and arrived at the part that Teb missed.

“Jasp was being really scary and creepy,” Sal explained. “He was basically making like he wanted to hit that outcast girl there.”

“Yeah, I mean, who does that?” Feld added. “Making threats against a little kid like that? I mean, yeah, she’s an outcast, but who does that to a kid half their size? I thought Jasp was supposed to be an adult?”

“Yeah, maybe he actually does got a tiny dick after all,” Sal noted, chuckling as he did so. “That was good right there, uhhh, tall outsider lady?”

Star gave him a wave and a friendly smile. “The name’s Star. Don’t forget it,” she replied cheerfully.

Eule giggled at seeing Sal blush and rub the back of his head in embarrassment, finding the young Gestalt man’s obvious crush on Star to be absolutely adorable. “Um, I won’t, er, Sh…Star,” he said, suddenly very shy.

Feld sighed in exasperation. “Anyways. Yeah, after Teb’s dad finished threatening a little kid–oh, I’m sorry, talking to us in a way that just ‘happened’ to be threatening to the kid because he can’t get caught directly talking to an outcast–he ordered us all back to Mother’s Heart, and that’s when he hit Teb…again. You know, on top of the time he hit him during the Brave training, and while Teb was limping too.” He then suddenly looked thoughtful. “Actually, come to think of it, Teb, how many times did he hit you during that solo training he gave you just before this all happened?”

Teb looked uncomfortable upon receiving that question; even more uncomfortable than he already looked to Eule. “Umm, I…don’t remember,” he replied quietly.

“Solo training?” Jezza asked.

“Yeah, Teb’s dad told us all to go away for a while so that he can give Teb some ‘solo training’,” Sal said dismissively. “Honestly, I think the guy just didn’t want us to see him hit Teb. At least, more than he already did while we were watching.”

“Yeah, I mean, come on. Teb had just come back from climbing practice, and that’s rough,” Feld added. “The least his dad could do after something like that was ease up so that Teb doesn’t fall or some…thing…”

The entire courtroom suddenly became very quiet as everyone processed Feld’s comments, including Feld himself.

“Wait, Teb. Did he…make you fall?” Feld asked very carefully.

Teb said nothing. He only looked down at his feet, and didn’t reply either way. Still, Eule could read his face perfectly well, and it only confirmed the building horror, disgust, and anger…no, rage that she was feeling.

And apparently, it was the same rage that Star was feeling too.

“You fucking piece of shit,” Star growled as she glared at Jasp, the wood on her chair’s armrest creaking as her robotic hands gripped it.

At the same time, Eule heard a similar creaking of wood coming from behind her, and she now knew for certain that Rost was just as furious as all of them. Even little Äloy was glaring at Jasp in Eule’s lap, growling at him in a way that Eule would normally find adorable if not for how utterly furious she was feeling right now at this abhorrent being who dared call himself a father to Teb.

“I didn’t! I deny it all!” Jasp shouted. “Look! Teb isn’t even saying anything! No testimony mean that it’s all a story!”

“Stories tend to have a grain of truth to it,” Teersa noted seriously, all of her usual cheer completely absent from her voice as she continued: “Except, this story looks like it has a grain of truth the size of one of the Carja’s maize.”

“Teb. Teb?” Jezza asked softly, making Teb look up at her. “Look at me. It’s okay. No one can hurt you here. So please answer the question: did Brave Jasp make you fall from that cliff?”

Teb looked back down at his feet, looking as scared as 18 was during those final days, making Eule feel a strong urge to reach past Rost to hug Teb.

“Teb,” Rost rumbled, making Teb look up at him in surprise at hearing Rost speak at long last. Rost simply reached out a hand to him, and gently patted him on the head. No further words. Just a gentle patting that wordlessly offered to comfort Teb.

“It will be okay. I promise,” Äloy insisted from Eule’s lap.

“Indeed it will, Teb,” Eule added with a hopeful smile to Teb. “We’re all here. There’s no need to be afraid, especially with Star around.”

“As well as a certain Eule,” Star added with her own smile to Teb in the process. “This is a Replika who singlehandedly took down a Watcher on the first day she learned how to use a bow, after all. Jasp doesn’t stand a chance against her.”

“Oh, stop it, love!” Eule said with a laugh.

To her relief, Teb laughed as well. Indeed, he looked much better now, much more confident, and with a look of determination slowly creeping into his eyes as he turned to face Jezza.

Teb took a deep breath, and finally spoke. “He…father…he did. I…I don’t think he meant to. I really don’t. I think he just meant to…to teach me a lesson, and he…he pushed me a bit too hard, and–”

“Shut your mouth, you brat!” Jasp yelled, getting up from his seat and raising a fist.

Eule watched Star start to get up from her seat, while she heard the sounds of Rost starting to rise up behind her. Meanwhile, she herself started to wrap her arms around Äloy, shielding her from what was going to happen.

But before anything could happen, Sona happened first. Eule had never seen a Gestalt move so quickly before. Sona was a dark blur as she dashed forward, planted a hand on Jasp’s shoulder, and forced him back into his seat one-handed. She then took the shaft of her spear, and pinned Jasp to his seat, preventing him from rising again.

“You will remain seated, Brave Jasp,” Sona said in her most intense War-Chief voice. “If you dare to attack anyone in this courtroom, you will find out firsthand how I defeated my predecessor, and earned the title of War-Chief of the Nora for yourself.”

All of Jasp’s rage seemed to vanish, and instead, it was replaced with fear as he whimpered, staring at the long, sharpened piece of Machine armor that made up the blade of Sona’s spear less than a centimeter from his face.

Sona then turned to everyone else in the courtroom. “You may all sit down now. This one will not be troubling you anymore.”

Star, frozen in the act of getting up, reversed her course and sat back down, whistling in admiration as she did so. “Now that was as fast as any of my sisters. Go, War-Chief Sona.”

“Indeed, we High Matriarchs thank you War-Chief Sona for the intervention,” Jezza said, before she turned a glare onto the quivering Jasp. “Although we deeply regret that such an intervention had to be necessary in the first place.”

“Agreed. I think we can safely throw the ‘Brave’ Jasp’s testimony out. Are we agreed on that?” Teersa asked.

“Agreed,” Lansra immediately replied. “And I propose that we begin a new trial after we conclude this one. This time, against the ‘Brave’ Jasp for attempted murder and child abuse, among any other crimes he might’ve committed against young Teb.”

Eule was surprised at first, but then she saw the look in Lansra’s eyes. Lansra was furious at Jasp. Granted, it seemed to Eule that Lansra was always angry at something or other, but now there was a cold fury in the belligerent High Matriarch’s eyes as she turned her glare onto still-pinned Jasp.

“On that I am agreed as well,” Jezza said, her soft voice now tinged with the fury of a Rotfront blizzard. “However, before we can do that, we have to conclude this trial with Eu-le and Star. Since we now all agree that Jasp’s witness testimony is no longer to be considered viable, then the witness testimony from Teb, Sal, and Feld stands. Eu-le and Star have proved themselves to not merely be not a threat to the Nora, but indeed, have proved themselves a great help to the Nora. Enough so that I now believe that they are worthy of having trade passes be granted to them, and thus by extension, their request to live in the Embrace be granted as well. Are we agreed?”

“Now this is something I’ve been waiting for since this trial began. I most certainly agree,” Teersa said happily, her cheer finally returned to her to Eule’s relief.

Jezza started to turn to Lansra, but Lansra spoke first with: “I still don’t like the idea of outsiders being allowed into the Embrace: the heart of our Sacred Lands. Especially not these strange half-Machine outsider women. But…at least…Eh-u-le and Shtar show that they don’t intend to harm the Nora. Fine! I agree. Happy?”

Jezza merely nodded at that before turning back to the assembled and eagerly awaiting audience. “Then I pronounce this trial is concluded in favor of Eu-le and Star. Go now, and may the All-Mother grant you peace and plenty here in her Embrace.”

Eule admitted that she didn’t quite hear the last few words Jezza spoke, since it was mostly drowned out by the sounds of Star and Äloy cheering (with Teb, Sal, and Feld joining in the cheering) and hugging her, with Rost celebrating by smiling in his usual silent way, but it was okay. Eule now knew that she would have more than enough time to clarify matters with Jezza later in case it was important.

For now though, there was only celebration at Eule’s nightmare scenario being defeated, and thus their new life in the Embrace can truly begin.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8: Trading for a Memory

The Eule from before the corruption of S-23 Sierpinski would never have imagined that she would be relieved to have a holstered pistol back on her belt and around her hip. This is the Eule who has experienced the den of horror that the forced labor colony had become though, and so she was very glad to have her Protektor pistol back, even giving it an affectionate pat through its holster.

“You glad to have your girl back too?” Star asked with a grin as she just as affectionately patted her holstered Einhorn revolver, now back on her hip belt.

“Maybe just a little,” Eule admitted with a smile.

As Star chuckled, the older Brave man named Gran nodded at Eule. “A Brave is always glad to have their weapons back after they’re taken from them. You never really feel right without a good bow and spear at your side.”

“Oh, but I’m not a Brave though,” Eule insisted.

Urani snickered at Eule while Gran merely chuckled, making Eule blush in embarrassment. “I know you’re not a Nora Brave, but anyone with eyes can tell that you’re some tribe’s Brave,” Gran insisted.

“No use fighting it, Eule,” Star said happily as Eule stared at Gran and Urani in disbelief. “You’re now officially a recognized combat Replika. Might as well get used to it and bask in the glory.”

“Yeah, bask in the glory! You’re a Rotfront Brave now!” Äloy insisted with her usual childish enthusiasm.

Eule could only laugh nervously at Star’s and Äloy’s pronouncement, wondering what happened to being a mere Simple Universal Light Replika. It was only fortunate that Rost didn’t decide to join in, and once more insist that her War Bow was suited for her.

Speaking of which though, Eule now realized that Rost hadn’t said anything at all when the trial was concluded, and even now when they were free of the court’s influence…which Eule now realized was what let Rost speak to non-outcasts at all.

“Yes, Rost is a stubborn one, isn’t he?” Teersa noted jovially as she ambled up next to them. “Refuses to break the law now that his permission to speak is over now. You’d have better luck trying to convince a mountain to move.”

Eule could only sigh at the truth behind those words. Rost was many things, but he was practically the propaganda poster for “stubbornness” at times.

Indeed, Rost only broke his silence to turn to Äloy and say: “Aloy, come along now. We’re going home.”

Äloy looked at him in as much surprise as Eule and Star did. “We can’t look around with Eu-le and Star?”

Rost shook his head sadly. “We are still outcasts. We were given special dispensation to enter Mother’s Heart for a specific purpose, but now that purpose has been fulfilled, and we cannot stay.”

“He’s right,” Sona said as she strode up to them, still with the proud bearing of a Falke. “Outcasts cannot enter Nora settlements, at least, not for long. They certainly can’t stay. I have to escort you two out.”

Seeing Äloy’s look of utter disappointment was making Eule’s heart break, so she crouched down to speak to Äloy face to face, and said consolingly: “It’s alright, Äloy. We’ll head back once we sort everything out here. I’ll even try to get you a souvenir to try and make up for this.”

“Souvenir? Ahn-den-ken? What’s that?” Äloy sniffling a little, but her eyes still bright with curiosity at this new word.

“Usually something tacky you get from a tourist trap,” Star jokingly offered, much to Äloy’s confusion.

Eule snorted at that explanation before giving a proper one. “It’s a…item you give someone or you take home. Something that links it to a memory you have of the place you visited,” she explained, before she admitted with a sheepish grin: “Granted, I’m not sure I can find something like that here that would fit, but I will do my best to. So cheer up, yes?”

Äloy stared into Eule’s robotic eyes for a moment before giving Eule a hug. “Promise?”

Eule happily returned the hug. “I promise.”

When they eventually ended the hug, Äloy ran over to follow Rost, but not before turning around and waving, shouting: “See you later, Eu-le! Star!”

Eule waved back at Äloy along with Star until the little Gestalt girl, her father in all but name, and the War-Chief whose Falke-like face hid a kind heart were both out of sight as they exited through the side entrance to the hall Eule had seen on the way in.

Star sighed. “It’s kind of amazing how that kid can just…sneak her way into your heart, isn’t it?”

Eule simply nodded and replied with a simple “Yes”, unable to think of any more appropriate a response besides that.

“Heh, I could swear to the All-Mother that you both look like young mothers watching their child be separated from them,” Teersa happily noted. Before either Eule or Star could protest or even comment on that remark though, Teersa just as happily continued with: “Don’t worry, you two. Once you both have your trade passes, and possibly even traded a bit here for that ‘souvenir’ thing, then you can head back home.”

Eule started to nod, and then her cloned brain suddenly caught up with that last word Teersa said. “Home?” Eule asked curiously.

“Yes, indeed,” Teersa replied in her usual jovial manner. “Both of you looked so at home in Rost’s house when I saw you on those two nights. As though you feel like you belong there, I think. Am I wrong?”

“But…Sierpinski was our home,” Eule protested.

“‘Was’ being the operative term there,” Star noted with a chuckle, before her grim smile turned into a depressed look. “Eule, Sierpinski is gone. One way or another. We don’t have a home to go back to. So maybe…maybe Rost will let us borrow his? Just for a while?”

Seeing the look on Star’s face, like she was about to cry into the dark, but still determined to carry a light of hope in spite of that, made Eule gently pull her lover into a hug. “Don’t worry about that, my Star. I’m sure neither Rost nor Äloy would begrudge us that for a while. Especially little Äloy.”

Star reached down and gently pulled Eule into her own hug into her bullet-resistant breastplate. “Yeah, silly me. Äloy would never just kick us out, and neither would Rost.”

They both held that hug for several long moments, feeling each other’s warmth (even with Star’s breastplate unfortunately in the way of feeling her wonderful chest) for mutual comfort before they finally broke that hug, and followed a chuckling Teersa out the main entrance of Mother’s Heart’s hall.

Eule and Star emerged into the bright sun of midday, which was actually a bit blinding after being in a relatively darkened building for so long. Once Eule’s mechanical eyes have gotten a chance to adjust to light though, Eule suddenly realized with more than a bit of shock that she and Star had apparently become the source of a great deal of attention.

Surrounding the stage were Nora: a sea of Nora. There had to be at least a hundred Nora of all ages, from young children hopping up and down or being carried on their parents’ shoulders to get a better look, to adult men and women staring curiously at Eule and Star, to elderly folks chattering amiably with each other while waiting to see what happened next. From Eule’s perspective, it looked like the entire population of Mother’s Heart had gathered to see what their High Matriarchs had decided for these strange new outsiders.

Then in the back of the crowd, almost hidden by the Nora, Eule noticed a trio of strange Gestalt men. They were strange to her purely because she’d seen no one but Nora for days, and so had become familiar with their animal skin, leather, cloth, and Machine armor clothing. Thus, those three Gestalts were strange because they were wearing clothing that were decidedly not the Nora fashion. Two of them were wearing what looked like elaborate and very brightly colored cloth clothing with strategically placed Machine parts seemingly for decoration, while the third was wearing what looked like leather clothing studded with dark grey metal not unlike the metal that was used in Rost’s pots. That made Eule think the third man was one of these “Oseram” Rost told her about, but she would have to speak to this “Oseram” man first to confirm it.

Right now though, it looked like Eule and Star would be just a bit too busy to do that given how Teersa was beckoning them forward. The Replikas ended up standing next to Teersa onstage, in front of everyone, waiting for Teersa to finally speak.

And speak she did.

“Nora of Mother’s Heart, we have some exciting news today!” Teersa announced, her voice loud and clear with cheer and excitement. “These two outsider women who you no doubt have been wondering about for the past few days have been deemed to be good people by a trial of witnesses. As such, we have granted them trade passes, and the right to live here in the Embrace for as long as they hold those trade passes. So please welcome, hmm, EULR-S2324 and STAR-S2325! Henceforth to be known by Eu-le and Star respectively, as per their wishes! May we Nora welcome them into the Embrace as warmly as the All-Mother herself would!”

To her relief, Eule heard plenty of curious chatter, cheers, and even a few whistles; but nothing negative. Or if there was, it was utterly drowned by the well wishes of the gathered Nora crowd.

Well wishes that, Eule now realized, was also coming from behind and above her. A quick glance backwards revealed that even the Nora that had been in the hall had opened the door and were cheering alongside the Nora in the crowd. Eule smiled when another quick glance above showed Teb and his two friends Sal and Feld leaning out the window in the top floor, joining in the cheering, and ended up giving them a wave.

It was a shame that she and Star couldn’t talk to Teb and his friends right now. They were still apparently needed to be witnesses, but this time against Teb’s fa…no, the awful Gestalt man who didn’t deserve to call himself Teb’s father. Eule refused to think of Jasp as Teb’s father. Not after that revelation in the courtroom. She silently prayed to the Red Eye to watch over Teb, and resolved to find time to speak with him later.

Eule was disturbed from her thoughts by Teersa leaning over to her and Star. “I did say your names correctly, did I? Both your formal names and the names you wish to be called by?” she asked much more quietly in an aside.

Eule smiled brightly at the High Matriarch who’d helped her and Star so much, eager for an interruption to the thoughts that had been gently spiraling downwards over Teb and his situation. “You did!” Eule happily replied.

“Didn’t even miss a letter or number to boot!” Star added with her own bright grin.

Teersa returned those smiles with her own. “Excellent! That would’ve been embarrassing if I had made a mess of your names there, wouldn’t I?” Teersa mused genially to herself. “Now though, before you get swamped by curious Nora, let’s go get your actual trade passes, shall we? Now where is he…,” Teersa trailed off, looking through the crowd of Nora for someone in particular. Eule was about to ask Teersa who she was looking for so that she can Star can help when Teersa suddenly grinned and waved, calling out: “Jan! Could you come up here for a moment?!”

Eule couldn’t tell at first who this Jan was that Teersa was calling out to. After a few moments though, it became clear that a particular Nora man was moving through the crowd, with the crowd itself making way for him once they realized that he was trying to get through, resulting in him stepping onto the stage fairly quickly and allowing Eule to get a better look at this Nora man.

Jan turned out to be a tall Gestalt man. He was even taller than Rost by a few centimeters, but whereas Rost was a mountain, this Jan was a willow tree: thin and lanky, with long fingers that looked as though they would be great for playing a piano with, assuming that the Nora even had pianos. And where Rost’s hair was a very dark brown that bordered on black, Jan’s hair was as blond as ears of wheat. The only similarity there was that Jan wore his hair in braids like Rost did, and even then, it was in a different style and he was clean-shaven compared to Rost’s magnificently braided beard.

“Trade pass?” Jan asked. Eule was unsure if he was asking Teersa, her, or Star; so she ended up nodding along with her lover and the High Matriarch. Jan’s only response was a nod, followed by a beckoning gesture and a very Rost-like “Follow.”

Somehow, Eule felt comforted by the taciturn reply, so reminiscent of Rost.

“Go have fun with Jan and his family while you get that trade pass,” Teersa said, before her usual smile soured into a frown. “Meanwhile, I have to tend to the unpleasant task of joining my sisters in that new trial over that being that dares call himself Teb’s father.”

“My condolences on having to deal with a rotting pile of shit like him,” Star said with a nod.

“That would be giving too much credit to the dung. At least that’s useful for giving back to the earth. I think Jasp would poison any plants he tries to grow,” Teersa quipped, some of her cheer restored to her as she said: “Go with my blessing, Eule and Star, and may you find this…souvenir you promised for Aloy here, whatever it might be,” before walking back into the hall to perform her duty.

Thus, Eule and Star ended up following Jan out of the happily chattering crowd, who just as politely made way for them and back down into Mother’s Heart. Said crowd now seemed content to just stay put and chat with each other over what just happened, not following Eule and Star at the moment like walking sources of entertainment, for which Eule was grateful for.

All except for a young, black-braided haired and pale-skinned woman and a little blond girl who joined up with them. Fortunately, Eule wasn’t too worried over it. Quite the opposite, in fact, given that the little blond girl was none other than Minali.

“So we meet again, Minali,” Eule said happily to her.

Minali blushed and partially hid herself behind her mother’s leg, but then poked back out to smile shyly at Eule and nod in reply.

“Oh, so you know Minali?” the young woman who was obviously Minali’s mother replied in a curious tone.

“Indeed, we do,” Eule replied to Minali’s mother. “She was a very brave little girl.”

“Certainly a lot braver than that Bast kid,” Star quipped.

Minali’s mother burst out in laughter. “I know, right? Oh, that little troublemaker acts like he so tough and brave, but give him a good scare, and he’ll run like he’s got Scrappers after him. Probably shouldn’t be laughing at a child like that, but well, he’s bullied my Minali and several other children enough that I don’t feel too bad about it,” she commented in a cheerful chatter, before she suddenly thrust her hand out at Eule and Star. “Name’s Rana. I’ve a feeling if you’ve gotten Minali to open up to you, even just a little, then we’ll be friends too.”

Eule happily shook that hand, with Star following immediately afterwards.

“I do hope we’ll be friends too,” Eule said just as cheerfully. “I’m–”

“Ah-ah, wait! I want to try saying it…er…Oh-u-le? Did I get anywhere close?” Rana asked with a sheepish grin.

“It’s…close,” Eule tried to console.

Rana scoffed. “No need to pull any punches with me. I prefer people tell me when I’m dead wrong rather than tell me a white lie. So, what is your name then? And tell it to me slowly, okay?”

It took Eule pronouncing her name a couple times to Rana, but eventually, she thought Rana got it.

“Eu-le. Eu-le. Heh, and your mate here has such a simple name too: Star. Who gave you such an impossible to pronounce name, Eu-le?” Rana asked curiously.

‘The Eusan Nation government,’ Eule thought. Out loud, she replied: “It’s the name I was born with. My tribe gave it to me.”

Rana laughed once more. “Your tribe named you? Well, can’t argue with your whole tribe, that’s for certain!” she said with another bout of laughter that was quickly becoming an infectious source of cheer for Eule, and for Star as well judging by her own smile.

“So out of curiosity, Rana: is it that obvious that Eule and I are, er, mates?” Star aske with just as much curiosity as Eule herself was feeling.

Rana’s initial reply was a grin. “You two are always close by each other, you look into each other’s eyes a lot, and you so casually touch each other so much that you’re practically connected to each other. The only person who wouldn’t guess that you two are mates would have to be blind.”

Eule could only give an embarrassed laugh at that. However, she felt a warm glow of happiness bloom within her at the idea that even complete strangers could tell that she and Star were, in the Nora’s terminology: mates. Star’s goofy grin upon hearing Rana’s words instantly told Eule that her lover felt the same.

A short time later, Jan came to a stop at a particular house. It was a perfectly normal 2-story wood and wire house like most of the other houses in Mother’s Heart. This one however distinguished itself by having numerous wooden carvings in varying stages of completion sitting on the porch. So much so that Jan had to move a carving of what looked like a half-finished Grazer aside to get through the front door.

“Wait here. I need to look for them,” Jan said as he stepped into his house.

Rana rolled her eyes. “I’ll go give my cloud-brain of a mate a hand. Watch Minali for a moment for me, okay?” she asked Eule, but she followed Jan right into their house before Eule could even reply.

Thus, Eule and Star were left with a Minali who was curiously staring up at them. Staring very intensely, in fact. In a manner Eule had seen with a few particularly shy Aras.

Eule crouched down to talk to Minali at eye level. “Did you want to talk, Minali?”

Minali instantly opened her mouth, but then snapped it shut again. She opened her mouth again, but it closed just as quickly. This went on for several moments. To Eule, it looked like Minali had so many things she wanted to talk about that she was having trouble picking one to start with. Personally, she found it adorable in a way that was different from Äloy, but it was adorable nonetheless.

“S-So how is that outcast girl?! Is she okay?!” Minali eventually blurted out, before she had a look of realization. “Oh, but are you okay?! Bast threw that rock and hit you, so are you hurt anywhere? He didn’t hurt you, did he? Oh, with a rock that big, he probably did.”

“Calm down, Minali. It’s okay,” Eule said in a calm, assuring voice; trying to keep Minali from going into a full-blown panic the way she seemed to be heading. “That rock didn’t hurt me at all. I’m perfectly fine. In fact, my back of my uniform only received a scuff from that.”

“Really?” Minali asked, looking around to Eule’s back to try and spot that very scuff.

Eule nodded. “You can’t see it right now, but there isn’t even a scratch on my shell, er, my back.”

“Yeah, we Replikas are made of tougher stuff than you Gestalts,” Star blithely added, having also crouched down so that Minali didn’t have to crane her neck up to look at her face…well, less so than when Star was standing, at any rate.

“And Äloy is fine too, since you asked about her,” Eule added in after. “She was a little scared afterwards, but she’s okay now.”

Minali sighed in relief. “That’s good. Bast has always been mean, but that was the meanest he’s ever been. Throwing a rock at someone. How could he?”

Eule nodded in agreement, but on the inside, she was glad that someone in the Nora tribe expressed concern for Äloy’s well-being. Even if this Nora was a child similar in age to Äloy, at least someone acknowledged her existence, even if Äloy herself didn’t know it. Eule made a note to remember to mention this to Äloy when she and Star went home.

Alas, that was all the time Minali had before Rana practically slammed the door to her house open, holding aloft a leather bag and cheerfully shouting: “Found it! Now hold out your hands!”

Rana walked up to Eule and Star, who had both done as she told out of reflex, and pulled a pair of somethings out of her bag before slapping them into Eule and Star’s outstretched hands.

That something turned out to be an exquisitely carved wooden medallion as Eule examined it more closely. It was the same entwined knot pattern on the chairs and table in the courtroom, dyed in red just like the knots there. This medallion also had a blue-dyed border carved to look like a single intricate knot. Unlike the other patterns though, this medallion’s border had a much simpler design, consisting of five arrows of a new design Eule hadn’t seen before. Each arrow was double-ended, pointing both outwards and in. Also unlike the other patterns, there appeared to be a triangular point on one side of the medallion, with a hole drilled into it that looked big enough for a thick string to go through.

“That double arrow means you’re an outsider who’s been allowed into the Sacred Lands,” Jan said, making Eule nearly jump out of her biocomponent skin, since she definitely did not hear Jan walk up to them. Looking up at Jan in front of her, Eule watched him pull out a pair of leather strings and give them to her and Star. “You’re supposed to wear those trade passes on your neck, but you can put it in your pouch too. Your choice.”

Rana slapped herself on her forehead. “I knew I’d forgotten something. To think I went in there to help you, only for you to be helping me!” she said with a laugh.

Jan rubbed the back of his neck. “To be fair, I think I would’ve taken a while to find those trade passes. Thought I found them, but they turned out to be the unfinished ones. You were the one who remembered that I left them in that chest for safekeeping.”

“Aww, honey!” Rana said, embracing Jan in a hug. “Let’s just say we both needed help, and split the difference.”

Jan blushed but returned the hug. “I can get behind that,” he said with a small smile.

Eule could only smile warmly at the scene, and a quick glance at Star and Minali showed that they both had an equally as warm grin on their faces as well.

“Are they always like this?” Eule whispered curiously to Minali.

The little blond Gestalt girl nodded eagerly. “Mommy and daddy love each other a lot.”

Eule and Star could both only nod in agreement at that, given how obvious it was and how much they themselves agreed with that lovey-doveyness.

“But to get back to your trade passes,” Jan began when he finally broke his lovey-doveyness with his mate. “Please don’t lose them.”

“Oh, is there a legal penalty for doing so?” Eule asked with worry.

“No, that’s not it. It’s just that carving and dyeing a new trade pass is a bit…difficult,” Jan replied.

“Ohhh, so you’re the one who makes these?” Star asked, looking at her new trade pass with even more appreciation.

Jan nodded. “Rana and I are Carvers,” he explained curtly.

“That means we carve for a living,” Rana continued from where her mate left off. “Mostly wooden items and totems like the ones you see lying around. However, we also carve tools and even arrows, bows, and spears if someone pays us to. We Carvers don’t just carve wood; we also carve steel. And since we’re on the subject of carving and your new trade passes: out of curiosity, how much are you charging for those Machine parts in your backpacks? I’ve been meaning to make a new wood chisel,” Rana asked, staring appraisingly at the bulging leather sacks.

Eule opened her mouth to answer, and then slowly closed it again when she realized that she and Star had not the slightest clue how to answer that question. They had no idea what this land’s currency was other than they seemed to use the shattered Shards of Machine armor as currency. While that was a decent start, it was not nearly enough information for them to determine how many Shards their Watcher parts are worth.

For this conundrum, Eule decided it was best to go with the truth.

“Rana, I can’t answer that. Star and I are from somewhere so far away that we have no Machines where we come from. Thus, we don’t use Shards as currency, and we have no idea how many shards our Machine parts are worth,” Eule explained, before asking: “So may I ask: is there someone here who can explain that information to us?”

Rana rubbed her chin in thought for a few moments. “Honestly, your best bet there is to find a honest merchant to give you that information. But who to ask…?”

“Karst?” Jan suggested.

Rana gave her mate an askew glance. “That shifty guy?” she asked disbelievingly.

Jan shrugged. “He talks shifty, but he’s always traded honestly with us and everyone we talk to who’s traded with him. He’s just…weird, is all.”

Rana stroked her chin some more. “Hmm, fair point. Guess you can’t judge everyone by their skin and all. Eu-le and Star are evidence of that. I still wish Karst could just stop being so…yeah, ‘weird’ is the best way I can describe him.”

“Umm, who is this Karst?” Eule asked.

“Karst is a merchant we know. He’s about your height, has brown hair all done up in braids like mine but tied back in a bunch, and he looks like he’s trying to grown out a beard, but it’s still at the scraggly stage and I don’t think it’s ever going to grow out of it. Oh, and he’s always smirking like he knows something you don’t. It’s a little annoying, to be honest,” Rana described with a grin.

At seeing Eule’s frozen smile though, Rana continued with a quick wave of her hand: “Oh, but he’s not so bad. He’s always given us fair deals, and everyone else we know say the same. He even goes out of his way to pull through for you if he thinks you’re in trouble, and well, given how you and Star don’t even have a clue how much your wares are worth, he’s probably the best merchant to speak to about that in the Embrace. And you two are in luck: usually, he’s out selling his stuff by his house just southeast of Mother’s Cradle. However, this time, he’s actually here in the village. His shop here is in the northeast corner of Mother’s Heart. Seriously, you can’t miss him, although since you two are new here–”

“Oh, oh! Can I show them to Karst? Please? Please?” Minali asked, hopping up and down in place in her excitement, and thus causing Eule to giggle and Star to snort at Minali’s adorable enthusiasm.

Judging by Rana’s laughter, she clearly thought the same. “Alright, dear. Now go and help out our lost outsiders, okay?”

“And don’t forget to ask someone if you get lost,” Jan added, looking more than a bit worried.

“Okay, I will,” Minali replied, waving goodbye to her mother and father before taking Eule by her robotic hand. Eule in turn held out her free hand to Star, who happily took it with a smile. Together, the three of them formed a line being led by their shortest member as they proceeded towards the shop of this Karst person.

Fortunately, it didn’t take long for them to reach that shop, with a young Nora man who looked to be in his mid-20’s standing in front of it, advertising his wares to anyone walking past. Which meant that he very quickly noticed the trio of Minali, Eule, and Star walking towards him, still holding hands in a line. Indeed, as Eule walked up to him, she could see that this Nora man was exactly as Rana described Karst to be, right down to his scraggly beard and the smirk behind it.

“Welcome to my humble shop, outsiders,” the man Eule presumed to be Karst said, still smirking before winking at Minali. “And one very young lady, of course.”

Eule looked down to see Minali blush, and then hide behind Eule’s leg, peeking out at the man Eule still presumed to be Karst.

Eule smiled down at Minali. It seemed this little Gestalt girl was a far shyer and meeker person than the other little Gestalt girl they knew and loved. “I would assume that this is the Karst we’re looking for, Minali?” she asked gently.

Minali looked up at Eule, and nodded with a quiet “Mm-hmm.”

“Well, it appears that I need no introduction,” Karst said with a laugh. “So what are you two outsiders interested in? A finely crafted Tripcaster? A suit of Protector armor that will ward off blows from humans and Machines alike? Maybe even some travel food for the road? What can I help you two with?”

Eule blinked in surprise at the mention of “Protector armor”, but ignored that odd coincidence to focus on what she and Star needed.

“None of those actually. We wish to trade for information,” Eule stated.

Karst raised a very interested eyebrow at her. “Oh? Now information…that’s not part of my usual wares, but I don’t mind trading for that as well…for a price, of course. So what information are you interested in?”

Eule sighed, but nodded anyways before explaining to Karst what she and Star lacked in terms of the economic details of this land.

“I see, I see. That is a big problem for you two indeed,” Karst said, stroking his scraggly beard at them. “That will also mean that it’s a lot of information I have to give you, and a lot of information means a hefty price…usually. However, the information you’re asking for can come from any merchant or even from a merchant friend if you have one, so that lowers the value of that information a bit. Still, considering that any merchant can cheat you on that information at least once to make a…dishonest sale, it’s amazing that you’re coming to me about this.”

Eule tilted her head at Karst in confusion. “Are you openly admitting to trying to cheat me on this information?”

“Got to admit, that’s the weirdest way to swindle someone I’ve ever heard,” Star noted with her own smirk.

“Oh, far from it,” Karst said with a grin. “I’m just more curious as to why you’d come to me for that information, given how I’m just one merchant of many here in the Embrace?”

“Well, you were recommended by a pair of friendly Carvers,” Eule explained, smiling down pointedly at Minali before returning her smile to Karst. “They said that you are…weird, but that you are trustworthy. I hope that trust is not misplaced?”

“Ahhh, Jan and Rana recommended me? Well, call me flattered!” Karst said with a laugh. “Never thought I’d see the day someone would recommend an ex-outcast as a trustworthy merchant!”

Eule blinked in surprise. “You were an outcast?”

“Whoops, didn’t mean to say that out loud,” Karst said with a palm to his face.

Eule sighed in disappointment at being handed that tidbit of information, only to have it be snatched away.

“Although,” Karst said, raising Eule’s hopes. “If you want to know that badly, I could tell you…for a price. You know, on top of that other info you need so badly.”

Eule just stared at Karst for several moments at the most obvious bait and switch in the worlds before snorting at him. “You sir, are a scoundrel,” she said with a giggle.

Karst grinned at her. “Hey, a scoundrel! I like that. Karst the scoundrel merchant. That’s got a nice ring to it. Maybe it might even attract some scoundrel customers too?”

“Scoundrels like us?” Star asked, waggling her plastic-laced eyebrows.

Karst burst out laughing. “You, I can see being a scoundrel. Her?” he asked, pointing at Eule for extra emphasis. “Anyone can tell that she’s a goody good rules follower. I’m willing to bet that if she was Nora, she’d be the one following every law preserved into writing to the letter, no ifs, ands, or buts.”

Eule could only grimace at that. Rules were made to be followed, right? So why did Karst think that following rules was a bad thing…

Then Eule thought about how Karst mentioned that he was once an outcast. That led her to think about how Äloy was made outcast, apparently from birth, despite it being physically impossible for Äloy to have been capable of doing anything to deserve such a punishment. That felt…unfair to Eule. Unfair in a way that made her angry. It made her wonder if she was really cut out to be the sort of person Karst described if she felt this way…and also wonder if that was truly a bad thing.

Eule shook her head to clear those thoughts though. Right now, she had to concentrate on the most important things to trade for. “So what is your price for, well, how prices here work?” she asked Karst.

Karst smirked at her. “Well, taking everything I just said into consideration, I’m willing to offer my services here for the low, low price of…one Shard.”

Eule just blinked at Karst for several moments, unable to say anything until she finally managed to get out: “Did you just say…one Shard?”

“That’s right,” Karst replied.

“Just…one?” Eule clarified even harder, with an increasingly amount of incredulity in her voice.

“What’s the catch?” Star asked with a peculiar combination of suspicion and amusement.

“No catch. I’m offering you a fair discount on my end. Honest,” Karst insisted.

“A discount for…what?” Eule asked, with curiosity now slowly replacing her incredulity.

“Let’s just say you helped out someone I know not once, but twice, and in a big way each time. Call this discount a way for me to repay my debt to you for that,” Karst explained with a wink. “So what do you say? Do we have a deal?”

Eule looked into Karst’s eyes for several moments, during which time Karst did not look away. After those moments, Eule then smiled with satisfaction at what she saw, and reached back to take off her backpack. Opening up the leather sack on it, she took out exactly one triangular Shard from the pile within, and held it out to Karst.

“One Shard, as promised,” Eule said, still with a smile.

Karst returned that smile with a smirk, and took that Shard out of Eule’s hand. “Now we have a deal, so let the lessons begin. To start with: this one Shard? That will get you a drink of ale in any Oseram or Carja tavern. An actual meal at a restaurant would probably cost you anywhere from 5-15 Shards, depending on what you’re ordering. Usually though, an inn will charge you 15-25 Shards for a meal and bed overnight, plus breakfast in the morning. Any place that charges you more than 15 Shards for a meal alone is either not worth it, or they’re trying to scam you hard. Oh, and don’t ask me how I know the prices in Oseram and Carja lands. I won’t answer even if you ask.”

Eule mentally noted those prices down, even while she giggled at Karst’s secretiveness over his simply knowing something of these Carja people. Then she became curious and unhooked her War Bow from her backpack. “What about this? How much would this cost if I were to purchase it?”

“Let me see?” Karst asked.

Eule handed it over, and watched as Karst examined every square centimeter of her War Bow, turning it over and over, and making fascinated sounds at it.

“Yeah, this is a well-made War Bow. A very well-made one. Which Crafter made this is good, possibly even the best, or at least in the top three,” Karst said, seemingly to himself as much as to Eule, before handing her War Bow back. “A War Bow that good? That would cost you 100 Shards easily, maybe even a bit more. By the All-Mother, I would buy this from you if you’re selling.”

Eule clutched her War Bow closely to her. “This isn’t for sale. I just wanted to know how much it was so that I could repay the person who gave it to me, and you said it was 100 Shards?”

“At least. I’d probably tack on 5-10 Shards myself for the quality alone,” Karst said.

Eule replaced her War Bow on the side of her backpack, and opened up her leather sack to more closely count the contents as Star helped and Minali watched curiously. It didn’t take her and Star long to realize that killing three Watchers and smashing apart their armor produced a surprisingly large amount of Shards. Eule and Star’s count came out to 210. However, if she had handed Rost the amount of Shards her War Bow had been truly worth, it would’ve eaten up at least half of the Shards in that sack, leaving Eule and Star with considerably less Shards than before.

“Out of curiosity now, how much would this Sharpshot Bow be?” Star asked in almost morbid curiosity.

After a similar examination, Karst handed Star’s Sharpshot Bow back to her with the pronouncement of: “200, no, 210 Shards. Sharpshot Bows are harder to make than other bows. You basically need to attach the bow arms into the grip nice and tight, or else the force of the arms being drawn will just tear them off the grip. Thus, those kind of bows are the most expensive kind, and this one especially is really good quality. Almost looks Carja-made, to be honest.”

Eule and Star both winced at the combined cost of their bows. That was all of their Shards, plus a major debt. She could now understand why Rost had refused to accept the money for both her and Star’s bows. It still didn’t make her feel much better about it.

“So out of curiosity, who did you get those bows from?” Karst asked, looking at both Eule and Star.

“Would it get the person in trouble if I told you that person is an outcast?” Eule asked.

Karst stared at her for a moment before bursting out laughing. “You got a War Bow like that from an outcast? And that Sharpshot Bow too? Did he or she steal one?”

“Rost would never steal–” Eule started to say in Rost’s defense, only for her to realize too late that in doing so, she accidentally revealed his identity to Karst.

“Ahhh, now I see,” Karst said, nodding as Eule grimaced at her own folly. He noticed that though, and continued: “Now, now. No need to panic. There’s nothing officially wrong with an outcast speaking with, giving things, or even trading with an outsider. Oh, people here might look down on that, but despite what some might tell you, there’s nothing legally wrong with that. I checked with High Matriarch Teersa. Nora law doesn’t mention that at all.”

Eule sighed in relief as Star gently patted her head in consolation. At least Rost won’t get into trouble for her slip of the biocomponent tongue.

“That said though, Rost must really like you two to give bows like these to you,” Karst said. “The man’s notorious for being reclusive, even for an outcast. I guess saving someone’s kid would make anyone warm up to them. Although, the way you leapt to his defense just now…you aren’t holding a torch for that guy, do you?”

Eule stared at Karst for a moment before bursting out giggling at the same time Star started laughing.

“No, no, nothing like that!” Eule managed to get out in between giggles. When said giggles finally died down enough for Eule to speak properly. “It’s just…Rost has looked after us for all this time, and he didn’t have to. I don’t care that he’s an outcast. He’s one of the kindest people we’ve ever known, Gestalt or Replika, and I won’t stand by and let someone accuse him of crimes he didn’t commit.”

“And even if he did, well, I would still defend him anyways. Even if Rost is a criminal, he’s a lot better than most of the criminals I’ve known in my time as an officer of the law,” Star happily admitted, with Eule not sure whether to be relieved or scandalized by a comment like that from her lover.

Karst laughed. “Yeah, I can see that. Rost is one of those types. The types who reaped honor before disgrace, like the old timers say. Those same old timers, by the way, all respect Rost. All of them. I don’t know what kind of honor he reaped before his disgrace, but it must’ve been an entire field of grain before he became an outcast.”

“So you don’t know why Rost is an outcast either?” Eule asked with disappointment.

Karst shook his head. “It was way before my time. I was just a kid back then. At that age, the only things I cared about was finding the prettiest stones and bugs to trade with my friends for their stuff.”

“A ready-made merchant, eh?” Star teased.

“I’ll happily admit to that,” Karst said with a smirk. “But back to your question, er…Ou-leh? Was that what Teersa said?” Eule had to repeat her name a few times before Karst was satisfied. “Okay, Eu-le–what a name to have–but anyways, the only things I know about why Rost is an outcast is second and even third-hand stuff.”

“So how much do I have to pay for that information?” Eule asked with a wry smile.

“Nothing. This information is so vague that I wouldn’t trust it coming out of my own lips,” Karst replied with his customary smirk, before continuing in a more serious tone: “Rumor has it, something bad happened outside the Embrace. Something really bad. So bad that no one will talk about it. All I know is that soon after, Sona challenged the old War-Chief for her job, and as you can see, she won it. Sona managed to convince more of us to run in the Proving, and so now we have more Braves than ever before. Why? Don’t know. I guess at the very least, the Sacred Lands outside the Embrace is a lot safer now, but that’s all I know.”

Even though it was indeed very vague, Eule tucked that information away regardless. This “something bad” might very well be related to Rost, but by the Red Eye, she couldn’t see how. Thus, it was something to file away for now to focus on more immediate things.

“What about these backpacks? How much are they?” Eule asked with a Star-like mixture of morbid curiosity.

Karst barely gave the backpacks a glance before he rattled off: “20 Shards each. Well-made backpacks like that aren’t exactly cheap, but they’re nowhere near as expensive as a good bow.”

Eule grimaced along with Star. The combined cost of their bows and backpacks would completely deplete their sack of Shards, while leaving them with a major debt on top of that. Eule resolved to herself that no matter what, she would hand back nearly the entire contents of her Shard bad to pay back for the things Rost had given them.

“Now out of my curiosity, what’s with the glum face? What, did the merchant who sold you those backpacks make you pay twice their value?” Karst asked in an amused yet pitying tone.

Eule sighed. “If only it was that simple.”

Eule then proceeded to explain the situation to Karst.

“And you wonder why I said you were a rules follower,” Karst said in a half-mocking tone that irked Eule. “Look, if I was you, I’d just take the backpacks and bows plus their quivers and arrows, which by the way, would cost 5 Shards for the quiver and 2 Shards per arrow, just to add to your tally,” Karst said with a wink that made Eule and Star both wince anew. “Rost gave them to you anyways, right? Might as well just take the offer and go with it.”

Eule shook her head. She just couldn’t. It went against her very being to accept gifts, for lack of a better word, as expensive as these without repaying Rost in some way.

“Yup, goody good rules follower to the core,” Karst said happily, before his smirk softened into something kinder. “Look, you got another bag of Shards with Star anyways, right? So I guess you won’t be completely broke even if you take leave of your senses, in my opinion at any rate, and decide to pay Rost back for your stuff.”

“Actually, these are full of Watcher parts that are apparently not Shard-able,” Star explained. “Don’t know how much that’s all worth, and it might take a while to convert these into Shards, so it’s not immediately useful…what’s with that face?”

“That face” was Karst grimacing, followed by his palm meeting his face once more.

“Okay, can you open that up and let me see what you got?” Karst asked. When Star complied, Karst looked into it for several moments before reaching in and taking out a small bundle of black Machine muscle wire. “Okay, see this? Rost knew what he was doing. This is a 10-shard bundle of Machine muscle. An individual wire of Machine muscle is barely worth anything, but bundles like these are valuable. We merchants like to buy and sell in bulk, you see, and so bulk materials like these are as valuable to us as Shards. In fact, most merchants will trade bulk materials for stuff worth their equal value in Shards. So all these bundles of Machine muscle? You might as well count them as piles of 10 Shards each. Same thing for all these other Machine parts. Let me give you some figures for them.”

As Karst rattled off Shard values for each type of Watcher part to Star and Eule, Eule couldn’t help but be fascinated by the currency system of this land. It was almost like barter in some ways, but with an agreed upon value in currency.

Moreover, the use of Shards of Machine armor as currency itself was fascinating. It wasn’t like Rationmarks, in which the value of the currency was backed by the Eusan Nation, and the Rationmarks themselves were just bits of cheap metals like copper that originated from ration coupons the Nation issued during the initial Revolution to conserve limited food supplies. Rather, the value of Shards was backed by its value as arrowheads to be used for hunting and war. Eule recalled the term “commodity money” as the most accurate way to describe this form of currency, but she never thought she would be using a currency like this in real life.

“Oh hey, this isn’t a Watcher part,” Star suddenly said as she pulled out a–

“Wait, that’s…the Strider’s Blaze canister that Äloy shot off?” Eule said uncertainly. When Star handed her the canister–still filled with yellow-green Blaze sloshing around in it–and examined it, she saw the shallow dent in the side of the translucent plastic she’d noted the first time she held it. “It is! But…what is it doing in here?”

“You think Rost put it in by…mistake?” Star asked in a tone that indicated she found even her own suggestion too ridiculous to believe.

Eule snorted in disbelief at that suggestion before she stared at the Blaze canister with a storm of emotions swirling within her. “I think…Rost was just preparing us for the worst. Karst, how much would this Blaze canister be in Shards?” she asked the decidedly strange but helpful Nora merchant.

“Let me feel it?” Karst asked. When Eule handed the canister over, he hefted it carefully, obviously feeling for its weight. “Judging by how much Blaze is in here…I’d say it’s about 80-90 Shards worth for that alone. The canister though is also in really good condition. Barely nicked, really. Someone will definitely pay a lot for this. Machine canisters in good condition are always useful for something. Altogether, this canister plus its Blaze is worth about 200 Shards.”

As Star whistled at the value, Eule could only sigh. “Rost definitely left us that on purpose. If we had been exiled in the trial, I’ve no doubt that Blaze canister would’ve been very useful to us. Although, come to think of it: is Blaze really that valuable? If I’m calculating the prices correctly, Blaze is worth roughly 20 Shards per liter? Really?” Eule asked curiously.

“I know, right? You’d think with Blaze being everywhere, it’d be pretty cheap. But the thing is? Everyone uses Blaze all the time. So despite it being in high supply, the high demand means that you can always sell Blaze for a decent pile of Shards,” Karst explained, before he gained a calculating look in his eye. “In fact, I can hand over 200 Shards for this right now. Saves you a bit of weight in there, and your Shard sack will feel a lot fuller.”

Eule and Star looked at each other.

“Is it really alright for us to sell it for Shards, over?” Eule asked her lover over radio.

“Well, look at it this way: we can pay Rost back a lot easier with just straight up Rationmarks, er, Shards, than by lugging the thing back. Besides, he was probably going to sell it anyways, so we might be doing his work for him and saving him an errand, over,” Star pointed out also via radio.

“Hmm, I suppose. I do want to pay him back though, over,” Eule insisted.

“So do I. He’s done a lot for us. Hopefully, getting our Shards’ worth out of these Machine parts will help out with that, over,” Star said with a smile.

Eule smiled back. “I do believe it will, love. Out.”

When Eule turned back to Karst, who was giving her and her lover a peculiar look at their silent conversation, she simply smiled at him and said: “Yes, I do believe we’ll take those Shards. And hopefully, we can sell off some of our other Machine parts for more of the same?”

“We’ve got a deal,” Karst said with his usual smirk before putting the Blaze canister in among his store’s wares, and returning with a large chest in tow.

Literally, because Karst was dragging the container behind him with a grunt. He undid the knot of blue Machine wire keeping said chest closed, opened it, revealing more Shards than Eule’s sack could ever hold. He counted out 200 Shards with Eule, Star, and even Minali watching (with the little blond Gestalt girl counting the Shards under her breath too), and then poured them all into Eule’s Shard sack.

“There you go. 200 Shards exactly as we agreed on. Now, let’s see what else is in your sack of Machine parts, shall we?” Karst said as he looked into Star’s sack, before he noticed the pair of rounded packages wrapped in soft leather, and muttered: “Oh, hello. What do we have here?”

Eule already had an idea that they were the Watcher lenses even before Karst opened up the package to reveal the rounded glass lens rimmed with metal and packed in bundles of what looked like dried grass in lieu of the packing peanuts or bubble wrap Eule was more familiar with.

“Ah, now this…this is valuable,” Karst said as he picked up and examined the Watcher lens with the utmost delicacy, making certain he kept both hands on it at all times. “You’d think with Watchers everywhere, Watcher lenses would be cheaper than dirt, but it’s just so easy for a careless hunter to just break the lens during the fight, or for the Watcher to fall the wrong way and break its own lens, or even for a hunter who doesn’t know how to butcher a Machine to just scratch it while prying it out. Every break or scratch in the lens lowers its value, so a pristine lens like this? With not a scratch on it? It’s worth at least 100 Shards.”

Star whistled as Karst very carefully replaced the pristine Watcher lens into its bundle and just as very carefully rewrapped it in its leather sack. “What do you Nora use these for that they’re worth so much?” she asked.

“Eyeglasses,” Karst replied, making both Star and Eule blink at him in surprise. “Some of our tribe suffers from bad eyesight. A good Carver can carve a pair of eyeglasses for them out of pristine Watcher lenses and some wood for the frame like this one. Even if there aren’t any Nora in need of eyeglasses, Carja, Oseram, and Banuk can all have people with the same problem. Merchants from all those tribes will pay handsomely for them. In fact, I can take it off your hands right now for, say, 100 Shards? 100 more if the other lens is also pristine.”

Eule and Star looked at each other for a brief moment, and then nodded before turning back to Karst.

“You have a deal,” Eule and Star said at the same time, prompting giggles from the both of them, and even giggles from Minali, who’d up until this moment had just been content to watch quietly.

Indeed, the other Watcher lens was just as pristine, and Eule and Star watched as Karst counted out another 200 Shards and added them to their Shard sack. It certainly added considerably to the sack’s weight, but it was a weight Eule was more than willing to bear, since it meant that not only did it look like they could pay back Rost for everything he had given them, but they’d have extra funds to do some shopping as well.

“So what are these things?” Star asked as she lifted up a small cylindrical piece of machinery out of her Watcher parts sack. Her lover’s question intrigued Eule as well since she couldn’t identify that bit of machinery either if her life depended on it.

“Huh, Machine cores,” Karst said in an almost off-hand manner, before seeing the confused expressions on Eule and Star’s faces and quickly explaining: “Best as we can tell: they’re the Machines’ brains. We always find them deep in their heads, so they must be their brains, right? Unfortunately, no practical use for them as far as I can tell, but you might want to hold on to them for the Carja. Carja love those things, and they will pay handsomely for any intact Machine cores. Best as I can tell, they use them to make jewelry out of.”

“Ah, so just like the Machine hearts?” Eule asked, remembering Rost’s comments about that Strider heart.

Karst nodded. “Just like those. Speaking of which, Carja will pay handsomely for intact hearts as well. Just don’t expect them to pay all that much for Watcher hearts though. Watcher hearts are a lot more durable than lenses, and so there’s a lot more of them around. Supply outstrips demand a little, you see. 100 Shards is probably the best deal you can expect, but you might have to accept a bit less than that too. I’ve seen them go for as little as 20 Shards when hunters bring in too many of them.”

Eule sighed, but the economics was what it was. Not even a Falke could make prices change on a whim.

“Well, that covers my end of the deal. Thank you for the economics lesson, and have a wonderful day,” Karst said with a smirk and a wink this time. “Now perhaps you might want to spend some of your hard-earned wealth on some of my wares?”

Now that they didn’t have to worry about their Shard supply as much, Eule did indeed give Karst’s shop a browsing. True to his earlier words, Karst mainly sold weapons, armor, ammunition, and other assorted hunting equipment and supplies. There were bulk Machine parts stacked in crates too, but neither Eule nor Star were interested in those. They were here to sell their Machine parts, not buy more of them.

Eule eventually hefted something that looked like a large slingshot. The two black bands of Machine muscle connecting the sling part to the Y-shaped handles were certainly stretchy enough to work perfectly fine as a slingshot, and the metal handguard crafted from some Machine part looked like it would perfectly protect the user’s hand if the sling rebounded.

“Ooh, good choice,” Minali said when Eule examined the slingshot.

“Oh? Are you the merchant now?” Eule teased.

“No,” Minali replied, blushing and looking down at her feet. But then she peeked up at Eule and said: “But mommy and daddy made it, so…”

“Huh, you can tell, kid?” Star asked curiously.

Minali nodded up at Star. “The way each string is made of a whole bunch of Machine meat braided together? That’s mommy. The way the sling part there is a piece of boar fur tied with Machine wire? That’s daddy.”

“Huh, interesting that you noticed those tiny details,” Eule commented, now looking more closely at said details Minali mentioned. “You must like what your mother and father do.”

Minali nodded enthusiastically, hopping in place as she did so in her excitement. “I do! They make some really pretty things, so I want to be a Carver too!”

Star laughed, gently patting Minali on the head. “Kid, you’re going to be a really good Ara one of these days, from the sounds of it.”

Eule smiled, both at her lover’s affection and at the confused look Minali gave Star at the mention of that particular Replika model, before continuing to examine the slingshot. “Do you think Äloy would like this?” Eule asked her lover.

“Well, I certainly would, so the kid probably will too,” Star commented with a grin. “She’ll probably love slinging rocks at rabbits, birds, and things like that.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! That’s not a toy,” Karst quickly said, prompting Eule and Star to look at him in confusion, while Minali in turn looked at Eule and Star in confusion, which in turn prompted him to explain: “That’s a Blast Sling. You don’t have Slings where you’re from?”

“You mean this slingshot?” Eule asked in further confusion. “I thought there were just children’s toys.”

“Your people use Slings as toys?” Karst asked in disbelief. “Must be a dangerous place over there in your tribe. We Nora and every other tribe we know use Slings as weapons. That Blast Sling, for example? We use them to fire Blast Bombs, like this one.”

Karst lifted a wooden lid off a container that, unlike all the other containers, was made of Machine armor tied together with blue wire rather than wood, and carefully pulled out two things. One looked like a cylindrical Machine part, but with a bit of electric blue-ringed metal sticking out of one end. The other looked like a spherical clay jar, but still with what was obvious a small Sparker sticking out of the jar’s opening.

“Both of these are Blast Bombs. This one here is made from a Metal Vessel taken from a Machine.” Karst lifted the cylindrical Blast Bomb, before he held up the spherical one. “And this one is made from a clay vessel. No matter what it’s made of though, a well-made Blast Bomb will go ‘Boom’.”

“Uh, wait, hold on. By ‘Blast Bomb’, you mean these things actually explode? Really?” Star asked with increasing amounts of incredulity.

“Really,” Karst said with a nod and an even smirkier smirk than usual. “If you don’t believe me, then I can show you…outside Mother’s Heart. Where hopefully no one will get caught in the blast, but not so far out that we attract Machines. I may be a merchant, but I’m no fool.”

*

A few minutes later, a curious Eule, a still incredulous Star, and even little Minali stood partially behind a boulder and watched as Karst stood in a clearing just outside Mother’s Heart, holding a Blast Sling. He took one of the spherical clay Blast Bombs, placed it in the sling, stretched his Blast Sling arm out, and pulled the sling back with his free hand, stretching the black bands past his shoulder–

“There’s no way–” Star started to say.

But whatever Star was about to say was interrupted by Karst releasing his hold on the sling, sending the Blast Bomb flying, and immediately stepping behind the boulder with everyone else.

Eule tracked the Blast Bomb with her mechanical eyes, watching the now-tiny Blast Bomb fly upwards in a long arc before reaching its peak, and descending back to the ground. When it finally returned to the earth though, the Blast Bomb erupted with a flash of light and a thunderous CRACK.

Eule instinctively ducked back behind the boulder, covering Minali at the same time. She heard the sound of something small shattering on the boulder sheltering them. When she peeked back out, the ground where the Blast Bomb hit was now marked with a shallow, blackened crater. In addition, a peek at the boulder revealed a small star-shaped dirt pattern that definitely wasn’t there before, and was likely the result of a bit of high velocity clay fragment shattering on the boulder, returning to the dust from which the clay came. That made Eule mentally thank Karst and Star for the both of them insisting on using the boulder as a shelter in case of that very scenario.

“See? Blast Bombs go ‘Boom’,” Karst said to Eule and Star, still smirking that smirkier version of his usual smirk. “Now do you want me to demonstrate the other one, or–”

“No, no, I believe you,” Star said quickly, apparently trying to dissuade Karst from making more “Booms”. “I believe you, but it’s just…Red Eye, you Nora have grenades? How? What are you even using as the filler? What’s making it explode on impact? It’s got to be some kind of impact fuse, but how?”

Karst waved his hands, apparently overwhelmed by the deluge of questions Star was throwing his way. “Whoa, whoa, slow down! Let me explain…wait, hold on, what’s a ‘filler’?”

“The explosive charge, er, the stuff on the inside of a grenade that makes it explode,” Star explained.

“Blaze,” Karst simply replied. “Just Blaze. A lot of it packed into those little containers, but still just Blaze.”

“Blaze. The green stuff that you use as fuel? The green stuff from those Striders? Really?” Star asked, still just as incredulous as before.

“Oh, Rost mentioned that to me last night when I was making dinner,” Eule added, making her lover turn her incredulous gaze on her now. “Rost told me not to put too much Blaze on the cooking fire, or else it could explode. I just followed his instructions to avoid that, and then forgot it afterwards.”

“Yeah, Blaze can do that if you set too much of it on fire,” Karst added in his own bit. “Fortunately, Blaze that’s just sitting in a puddle in the open doesn’t do that. You normally have to pack Blaze tightly into a small container for it to explode, but you occasionally hear of a few idiots who really pour on the Blaze into a campfire, and they get a much bigger fire a lot faster than what they were expecting.”

“Okay, that’s a little terrifying, but understandable,” Star noted. “And the impact fuse is…I assume that Sparker plugged in it?”

Karst nodded up at her. “Blast Bomb hits something, knocks around the Sparker and makes it spark, and then boom.”

“Now that’s one hell of an impact fuse. Don’t know whether to be impressed or terrified,” Star noted. “So out of curiosity, what’s the safety on these things?” Seeing Karst’s confusion though, she quickly explained: “Uh, the thing that keeps the Blast Bombs from blowing up when you don’t want it to?”

“Ah, so long-term storage of Blast Bombs. Why didn’t you say so in the first place?” Karst asked with his customary smirk. “Just pull out the Sparker, then plug the hole with some dried grass, clay plug, cloth, or anything that will fit in nice and tight, and now you have a…well, Blast Bombs are never safe, but it’s as safe as you can make it. Just don’t drop the clay ones from too high. They shatter easily.”

“Hmm, okay, that works as a safety. An improvised safety, true, but still functional,” Star noted with a satisfied nod.

“So, are you interested?” Karst asked with a mercantile gleam in his eyes.

“Red Eye watching, I am now,” Star said with a chuckle. “Honestly, I wish I had a few of these grenades, no, these Blast Bombs back in Sierpinski. Would’ve made room-clearing a lot easier.”

Eule had a sudden image of Star quickly sliding open one of S-23 Sierpinski’s distinctive security doors a crack, tossing in a Blast Bomb, and then just as quickly slamming the door shut again. A muffled crack later, she would open the door back up, and they would both peek in to see what used to be a room full of their corrupted sisters now nothing but the shredded remains of mutated biocomponents and unnaturally black oxidant-splattered mechanical limbs. Eule wasn’t entirely certain if Blast Bombs were powerful enough to do that, but given that explosion and the crater it made, it probably wasn’t far off from reality.

Honestly, as gruesome as that image was, Eule couldn’t deny just how effective it would’ve been. Effective enough that the desire to possess one of these Blast Bombs was now growing within her as well.

“I think…perhaps I will purchase one of these Blast Bombs as well?” Eule said. “Along with one of these Blast Slings.”

“Oh? The song of the Blast Bombs got you in their grips too?” Star teased.

“A little,” Eule admitted with a giggle, before she looked to Karst. “How much do they cost?”

Karst rubbed his hands together in glee, which did not look like a good thing to Eule. “200 Shards for the Blast Sling, almost the same as your Star’s Sharpshot Bow. As for each Blast Bomb, well, that depends on which ones you’re getting. The clay ones costs only 20 Shards each, but the ones made with Metal Vessels cost 35 Shards. Clay ones are cheaper and easier to make, but Metal Vessels are safer and do more damage.”

Eule grimaced at the prices. That would wipe out a good portion of the Shards they just made, even just to have a single Blast Bomb for both her and Star.

“Tell you what though, since I’m feeling nice, I’ll give you a 50% discount on that Blast Sling, so that it’s 100 Shards, one-time only” Karst suddenly said with a winkier wink than usual. “I’ll give you both the first Blast Bomb free, just so you’re not left with an empty weapon now. I’ll even be nice and give you both Metal Vessel ones, just on the safe side.”

Eule blinked in surprise at him. “Really? That’s very kind of you.”

“And the opposite of profitable, considering that you’re basically handing us 170 Shards worth of wares,” Star noted with a wondering look.

Karst shrugged. “Call it me further repaying my debt to you. The merchanting lesson was just the first part. Plus, I am getting back 100 Shards, so it’s not a complete loss.”

“True, but…honestly, this person we helped must be very important to you. May I ask who he or she is?” Eule asked curiously.

“Want to know that badly? I’ll tell you that, but for a price,” Karst said with a grin instead of his usual wink.

“That’s a weird thing to be secretive about,” Star noted with a puzzled yet intrigued look.

“Well, we all have our secrets,” Karst said with an askew look at Eule and up at Star. “I’ll bet you two have plenty of secrets you wouldn’t want anyone knowing. For that matter, I’ll bet the kid here has some secrets of her own.”

Eule ended up giving Karst a polite smile to hide how uncomfortably close the rather odd merchant had come to those very secrets. A glance over at Star revealed that her lover was feeling similarly uncomfortable, but wasn’t even bothering to hide it on her face.

But when Eule looked down at Minali to see what her reaction was, the shy little Gestalt girl was merely staring up at Karst.

“What? Did I hurt your feelings, kid?” Karst asked offhandedly.

“Mommy and daddy were right. You’re actually nice,” Minali commented to Karst’s face. As Karst gaped at the small child in front of him, Minali then smiled at him. “But mommy was right too. You are weird. But a nice kind of weird.”

Eule immediately started giggling at Karst sputtering at Minali’s honest words, with Star joining in on the giggling at the same time while Minali herself merely looked at them both in confusion.

“Well, whatever!” Karst yelled as he threw his hands up and looked to Eule and Star, who were both trying to suppress their giggling…unsuccessfully. “Do we have a deal or not? If we do, then you know where to find me. I’ll just be nursing my wounded pride,” he said as he left in a huff.

A huff that just made Eule lose control again, and continue with her rampant giggling along with her lover amidst a still-confused Minali.

*

A few minutes later still, Eule now had a brand new Blast Sling clipped to the free side of her backpack opposite her War Bow. Along with a just as brand new pouch clipped onto her belt, alongside her ammo pouches. Unlike those pouches made of Eusan Nation canvas though, this pouch was much larger and was made of Nora leather. It currently had a single metal Blast Bomb occupying its interior, with room for…two more, judging by the amount of empty space left in that pouch.

As for her lover, Star also had a brand new Nora leather pouch clipped with her ammo pouches, now storing her brand new Blast Bomb, which Star gently patted in an almost loving fashion. That bit made Eule giggle at her lover’s love of weapons of war. She knew it was something all Star units shared, but it never failed to amuse her each and every time she saw it.

Eule had some decidedly mixed feelings about this. On one hand, she had a new weapon that she felt would be very useful to her. On the other hand though, she was very definitely flouting the Rule of Six by this point. A part of her was still afraid people would give her stern looks for flagrantly flaunting her overuse of resources like this. Seeing how none of the Nora cared in the slightest about the number of items Eule was carrying was the only thing keeping her from just shoving her things into her backpack until she had six items/containers again.

Honestly, Eule was wondering just how it was that her lover was handling her own Rule of Six violation so easily? So casually? As if that all-important rule that was drilled into the head of every Eusan Nation citizen for as long as they can remember didn’t matter to her?

“Hmm, I wouldn’t say that it doesn’t matter to me,” Star replied with a thoughtful scratching of her chin shell when Eule asked her about it. “It’s more like…I can stop thinking about it more easily since we kind of need to break the Rule of Six right now? That is, when someone doesn’t remind me of it.” Star grinned and waggled her plastic-laced eyebrows at Eule for emphasis.

“Fair enough there,” Eule said in the midst of giggling, both at Star’s exaggerated expressions and a bit in self-deprecation at her own worry over what even her lover was insisting was something silly.

“Wait, let me get this straight: your tribe has a rule that you can’t carry more than six things at once?” Karst asked, disbelief practically dripping out of his voice. When both Eule and Star nodded, he scratched his head and asked: “Just…why?”

“So as to save resources that would otherwise be needed for our Nation’s, er, tribe’s war against the remnants of our enemy: the Eusan Empire,” Eule explained, repeated almost verbatim from those very first lessons that older Eule sister had taught her and the rest of her batch of Eules almost immediately after they emerged from their growing tanks in that Fabrikationwart G Replike-Werke back in Rotfront.

“Hmm, if your tribe is in a war with another tribe, then that kind of makes sense now. Kind of,” Karst half-way admitted, but still with a confounded look on his face. “But even then, being limited to just six items is silly. What, do your Braves just go around with a bow, a quiver, and four arrows in it at all times?”

“Not exactly. Items placed in a container don’t count towards the Rule of Six; only the container does. For example: my quiver only counts as a single item no matter how many arrows are in it, just as my ammunition pouches being the same no matter how many bullets are in the ammunition box in that pouch,” Eule explained, before she thought of something. “There’s actually a song we sang on Rotfront to help us remember that.

Eule took a breath before singing:

“Six... Six...Remember Rule of Six...

Six songs in your ears, Six in your pocket, Six coins in your wallet, Six flowers for our troops, Six brings a smile, Six quells your fears...

Six in your Heart, Six in your Mind, Six in your Body, Six in your Soul, Six when you Dream, and Six while you Wake...

Always Six...Six…Six…Six…Six…

Six as you’re Born, Six as you Grow, Six as you Play, Six as you Learn, Six as you Work, Six as you Die...

Keep and uphold, Rule of Six.”

“Wow,” Minali breathed. “You have really nice singing, Eu-le.”

Eule ended up blushing at the compliment and laughing in embarrassment.

“Yes, yes, nice singing voice and all,” Karst said with a disturbed look on his face that worried Eule anew. “But that song…honestly, that’s the creepiest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Eule rubbed the shell on the back of her neck as she thought about it. “Admittedly, it is meant to be so in parts. That aspect of the song was to help people remember it and the Rule of Six.”

“Well, it certainly worked for me,” Karst noted in a most sarcastic tone, before continuing: “Creepy song aside, I still think that Rule of Six is silly, but it’s a bit better with the whole container thing. I still can’t imagine any Nora wanting to go along with that. Who’d want to have the headache of trying to manage their inventory like that when you can just carry whatever you want as needed?”

Eule opened her mouth to protest, but like with every criticism directed against the Rule of Six, she found that she couldn’t think of any reasonable counterargument to it…because there wasn’t any.

Karst then pointed at Eule’s pouches. “Not to mention that you yourself are carrying, let’s see…one, two, three, four, five, six, seven–”

“Yes, yes, I noticed. Please don’t remind me,” Eule practically begged.

Karst shrugged while smirking a very smirky smirk, but he mercifully kept silent.

To further distract herself from thinking about that, Eule browsed some more of Karst’s wares. However, nothing he had was really anything she was looking for. None of them felt like they were anything even close to good souvenirs for Äloy. Even Star agreed that the weapons, armor, and assorted hunting supplies felt right.

“You know, maybe instead of slowly looking through my wares all by yourself, you might ask the very knowledgeable merchant who’s selling those wares if he’s got what you’re looking for?” Karst asked with a wink.

Eule scoffed, but told Karst about her and Star’s quest for an Äloy-appropriate souvenir to make up for her not being able to explore Mother’s Heart.

“Hmm, yeah, that is a problem,” Karst replied with a very thoughtful scratching of his scraggly beard. “I don’t sell anything like what you’re looking for. I sell practical things. Useful things. At least, to a hunter. Kid’s toys and such aren’t in my line of business.”

Eule sighed in disappointment along with her lover.

“However, I do know some merchants who might have what you’re looking for,” Karst continued. At seeing Eule’s and Star’s brightening faces, he pointed up at where the hall is. “The Carja trade mission…and the Oseram too, to be fair, but especially the Carja. They always have some exotic thingy from their lands and beyond for sale, so that might work for Alo–er, as that souvenir you mention. Just head up to where the hall is, and then go across a bridge to a big two-story lodge. That’s the trade mission building. It’s got a big red and gold banner of their Sundom next to it. You can’t miss it. It shines as much as the Sun they worship.”

“Can’t even say Äloy’s name, eh?” Star asked with a raised eyebrow and a snark in her voice.

“Hey, I’m just an honest law-abiding merchant. Can’t blame me for what the law says,” Karst insisted with both hands raised in such a look of complete innocence that even Eule could tell looked fake even if she didn’t have a Eule’s body language-reading ability.

“Weren’t you the one making fun of me for being, what did you call me…a ‘goody good rules follower’? Doesn’t that make you just like me then?” Eule asked, directing a mischievous smile at the ‘honest law-abiding merchant’.

“Hey, hey, big difference between you and me,” Karst insisted. “You look like you follow rules just because someone big and important made them. Meanwhile, I follow rules because I don’t like being punished for breaking them. Subtle, but big.”

“And if you encountered a rule you know is wrong and there’s no punishment for breaking it?” Star asked curiously.

“Well, let’s just say that if there’s any Shards in it for me, there’s not an awful lot I won’t do,” Karst replied with an enigmatic wink.

Eule sighed. “You, Karst, are a very weird Gestalt man indeed,” she mentioned, but then she smiled broadly at him. “But as Minali pointed out, you are a very nice man indeed.”

“But you just seem to not want to seem like it for some weird reason,” Star finished for Eule, also smiling broadly at Karst.

Karst scoffed. “Whatever you want to believe, Eu-le and Star. Whatever you both want to believe.” He then made shooing motions at the Replikas. “Go on, have fun with the outsider trade missions and let me get back to counting my Shards.”

Eule sighed but still gave Karst a heartfelt smile and bow. “Thank you for everything then, Herr Karst. I hope you have a lovely day.”

“That’s not just counting the closest things you Nora have to coins,” Star added with a cheeky grin.

Karst merely waved them off as Eule, Star, and Minali walked off towards this trade mission place.

As they were walking away though, Eule just barely managed to catch the tail end of Karst singing: “Six…Six…Remember Rule of–” before Karst suddenly stopped and groaned, half-shouting: “Damn it! Why am I singing that creepy little song now?!”

Eule ended up giggling at that while also sympathizing with him. The “Always Remember the Rule of Six” song was indeed a very catchy song. There was a reason why it was literally the very first song she and her batch of Eules learned from their older Eule teacher.

“So I take it that you’re leading us to the trade mission too?” Star asked down at the little blond Gestalt girl walking ahead of her and Eule.

Minali merely nodded back at them with a happy smile on her face.

Part of Eule wanted to mention that because of her and Star’s Mapping Modules, they now knew perfectly well where to go to get to the trade mission, but Minali looked so happy leading them around that she didn’t bear to mention it.

*

It wasn’t long at all before Minali had led Eule and Star to the summit of Mother’s Heart where the hall laid. Just as Karst described, the trade mission lodge was across a small bridge and indeed, had a very brightly colored banner sitting on top of a bronze pole planted in front of the lodge building. It was hanging from the flagpole at the moment, but then a gust of wind lifted it up for a moment, allowing Eule to see the banner in all its flory.

Said banner had a field as bright a red as the red stripe on the Eusan Nation’s flag. It even had a gold-colored emblem adorning the middle of the flag, but that was where the similarities ended. Where the Eusan Nation flag had a hammer, compass, and the familiar triple white stars surrounded by a garland of rye, this Carja banner had a golden circle that enclosed a peculiar six-sided star shape. The reason why the star was peculiar was because it was made up of elongated hexagons enclosing dots, with lines going through them all. The effect made the entire star look like the circuit boards she’d seen when her friend Ara Elf had been taking apart computers for repair. It was altogether a most peculiar emblem for a flag, but Eule supposed that the Carja had just as much reason for that emblem as the Eusan Nation did for their flag.

However, it wasn’t that red and gold banner that was the only thing notable about the trade mission lodge. There was a wooden Nora-style chair that was placed in front of the lodge, and upon that chair sat the dark metal-studded leather-clad bearded man Eule had seen before and presumed to be an Oseram man. Now that she was getting closer, Eule noticed three things about him:

1. The presumably-Oseram man had a beard so utterly massive that it dwarfed even Rost’s braided beard. However, it was also so unkempt that Eule couldn’t even see the man’s mouth. Eule did not think this was entirely sanitary.
2. The presumably-Oseram man’s right leg was very noticeably a prosthesis. It appeared to be composed of a peg leg with a spring wrapped around it and was itself affixed to a cylindrical piece of dark grey metal attached at the end of the peg leg. Attached to that cylindrical piece of metal though was a thick strip of dark grey metal shaped into an L-shape, in which the bottom part of the “L” formed the man’s foot. It wasn’t at all like a Replika’s mechanical leg and foot, but the vaguely bird-like shape of the man’s prosthesis made Eule see why Teersa had made the comparison.
3. There was an incredibly massive boar lying on its side just in front of the presumably-Oseram man’s chair, with the man resting his legs on it like some sort of living cushion. Judging by the lack of tusks, this was a female, but that still didn’t explain why the man had a boar that was apparently content to be the man’s foot cushion.

The presumably-Oseram man himself was relaxing in the chair, reading from sheets of slightly yellowed paper that looks suspiciously like a newspaper to Eule even from this distance.

Upon hearing the heavy sounds of Replika footsteps on the bridge though, Eule first watched the massive sow boar perk her ears up and raise her head, looking at them and grunting loudly. The presumably-Oseram man then snapped up to look at them, and then watched his gaze lower…not to her and Star’s chests fortunately, but to their legs. Which carried its own worries admittedly, but at least it wasn’t that kind of worry.

Fortunately, the presumably-Oseram man didn’t seem frightened as he stood up on both his original leg and his prosthesis, bouncing a bit on that false leg, and put his presumably-newspaper on the chair he’d been occupying, patting the boar on the head and saying “There, there” to her, making the boar lower its head back to the ground and apparently return to her slumber.

Instead, he looked more fascinated as Eule, Star, and Minali walked up to him; playing with his long dark brown beard as he looked up at Star…and Eule, to her surprise. This presumably-Oseram man was shorter than even Eule by at least…10 cm, judging by how the top of the man’s head didn’t even reach the line across the middle of Eule’s face. And yet, the man was also so incredibly broad. It made him resemble a concrete block in human form.

“Well, you all are the oddest group of customers I’ve ever had walk up to me,” the presumably-Oseram man said, still stroking his beard. Before Eule could reply to that though, he continued: “But a customer’s a customer.” He then held out a hand that was a shade of brown darker than Erika Itoh’s hand had been. “Name’s Torvund. Torvund Delversson. Travelling merchant extraordinaire, and the best purveyor of the finest of Oseram goods here in the Sacred Lands of the Nora. Probably the only one, to be honest. And this,” he said, pointing at the massive sow boar behind him. “Is Bora: my travel-boar.”

The sow boar, upon hearing her name, raised her head again, peering curiously at Torvund and then even more curiously at Eule and Star, loudly snuffling the air as though trying to take in the Replikas’ scents. Which Eule had no doubt that said scents must smell incredibly strange to Bora.

Eule had to hold back the giggles at how punny the boar’s name was. She was puzzled, amused, and curious at that boar and by Torvund calling her a “travel-boar”, but she held all that back for the moment to politely take that offered hand and shake it with her black robotic one. “My name is EULR-S2324, but you can call me Eule.”

“My name’s STAR-S2325, but Star is probably a lot easier for you to remember, so call me that,” Star said when Torvund shook her head after he was finished shaking Eule’s.

When Minali didn’t say anything, merely hiding behind Eule’s legs and peeking out at Torvund, Eule added: “And this little one here is Minali. She’s showing us around until we have our bearings.”

“Hmm, mighty strange names you’ve got there. Mighty strange hands too, and mighty strange legs while I’m at it,” Torvund noted as he released Star’s hand, so intently focused on that hand that he looked like he didn’t even hear Eule’s secondhand introduction of Minali. “I thought you two were wearing gloves at first. Didn’t feel like it though. Too stiff, and the surface is too firmly attached despite the thinness of the material. Felt more like…Machine skin over Machine muscle? Hah! Now that’s a strange comparison now, isn’t it? What, did you slay some Machine and stick its arms and hands on you or something?” he laughed.

Eule and even Star could only laugh weakly in response to that.

“Wait, you really did?” Torvund said in disbelief, before he grinned and laughed. “Now that is a story I would pay Shards to hear! Unless I’m completely wrong about my assumptions?”

“You’re not entirely correct, but…,” Eule began.

“But you’re not entirely wrong either,” Star finished for Eule.

“Playing the vague game, I see,” Torvund said in a low deadpan, but with a spark in his eyes that looked very much to Eule of amusement. “Well, if you’re not here to trade stories, then perhaps you might be interested in trading for some fine Oseram wares?”

Before Eule or Star could reply though, they were all interrupted by the leftmost door of the trade mission lodge banging open, following by a man popping out of that door and shouting with a noticeable lack of anger: “Torvund, you rogue! You’re already trying to win over the customers without me?!”

“Like they’d be interested in overpriced Carja stuff, Rashaman!” Torvund shouted back, but with a similar lack of anger.

“Hah! I won’t lie! They may be expensive, but I would swear on the Sun that it’s all worth it!” Rashaman deflected with a laugh as he strode over.

Rashaman was as different from Torvund as, well, day from night. Rashaman was tall, taller than Eule by a good 5 cm, and thus the top of Torvund’s head barely even reached Rashaman’s chin. Where Torvund had skin the color of rich earth, Rashaman had skin that was an almost dead match for the light brown skin Erika Itou had. Even their hair and eyes were different, with Torvund having almost-Replika-blue eyes peeking out from his bushy dark brown eyebrows, while Rashaman had hair as black as any Replika’s framing eyes the color of very dark chocolate. Indeed, the only thing they shared between them were their fairly young ages. Eule would’ve guessed that neither of them were much older than 20.

But most different of all were their respective clothes.

Unlike the Nora, Torvund wore clothes made from actual cloth for the most part. He wore a white cloth shirt–sleeveless but for a pair of leather shoulder guards covered in smooth dark grey metal shaped to the shoulder guards–with hose made of much thicker brown cloth that looked as sturdy as Ara work uniforms. One leg of his hose was rolled up to the knee to apparently keep it clear of his prosthetic leg. The other was covered up to the knee by an enormous leather boot that looked as though one could travel an entire planet with it.

To complete that odd ensemble, Torvund wore a leather cap on his head studded with more dark grey metal plates, with a currently rolled up flap that looked like it could be pulled down to protect his face. While Eule couldn’t see from this angle, she wouldn’t be surprised if that flap too was covered in that dark grey metal that was so obviously shaped in a forge and not simply carved from a Machine.

Even more unlike the Nora though, Rashaman wore a long sleeved shirt and billowy hose that looked completely at odds with Torvund or the Nora. For one thing: both were dyed a brilliantly bright shade of blue the color of a clear sky at noon. His boots below his hose were of knee-length dark brown leather like Torvund’s, but featured a more…elegant design to it that didn’t make it seem any less sturdy. Those very boots though was outshone by the rest of his clothes. Once Eule looked past that blue though, she noticed that he was wearing a white undershirt underneath that blue shirt that looked like it was made of strips of bundled cloth tied together into an intricate knot to form an undershirt. Over the midsection of the blue shirt was a wide strip of cloth dyed a bright crimson the color of blood, while around his neck hung a magnificent scarf that looked as though it was spun out of gold. The only indication that it wasn’t were the intricate circuit board-like patterns sewn into the gold in threads of crimson.

Finally, to complete his colorful look, Rashaman wore a headband as bright red as his midsection cloth, but with Machine parts sewn and clipped into it in an almost Nora-like fashion. The only difference was that these Machine parts formed a helmet-like look around his head and cheeks, making it look both functional and…aesthetically pleasing? Yes, that was the only phrase Eule could describe it as. As though those Machine parts were chosen as much for their looks as for their defensive value.

Night and day. Again, that’s what Torvund and Rashaman looked like when they were standing next to each other. Rashaman’s brilliant grin only added to Eule’s impression of his sunny attitude as he reached out with a hand to Eule.

“Rashaman’s the name! Merchant, sellsword, and wandering adventurer all in one! Though I usually prefer the first, mind you. It’s a lot easier in many, many ways to earn Shards trading fabulous wares than it is to fight for them,” Rashaman added, with his grin turning a bit sheepish towards the end there.

Eule smiled at him and his honesty. “That, I can’t agree with you more,” she commented.

Introductions from the Replikas were made once more, with Rashaman also replicating Torvund’s handshaking with Eule and Star as well.

“Fascinating names you both have there,” Rashaman noted with an intrigued rubbing of his very smooth chin. “I’ve not heard names of that kind anywhere in my travels, or even in any of our records. Neither your full names nor the name you prefer to be called by, to be honest. Oh, but your name is fine, little Minali. I was merely talking about the ones you were leading to us,” he said with a grin and a thumbs-up, making Minali blush and hide even further behind Eule’s leg, only peeking out to give Rashaman a shy smile.

Eule however, sighed in disappointment. That was yet another hope dashed that anyone here might’ve heard of the Eusan Nation, or indeed that they might meet another Replika in this land.

“Well, that doesn’t matter to me, and I don’t think it matters to Torvund either,” Rashaman said, breaking Eule out of her depression, along with her lover laying a comforting hand on her shoulder helping to do the same, as well Minali gently patting her upper knee. It helped Eule look up at Rashaman to see a bright and friendly grin on his face. “What you look like or what your name is doesn’t really matter to a true merchant. So long as you’ve got Shards or something to trade, then we can do business. Come then, my shop is inside–”

“Hey, hold it right there, mister!” Torvund said with a raised finger. “These are my customers! They talked to me first, so I get to sell to them first!”

“Hah! The only reason why they talked to you first is because you sit there in front of the trade mission all day just to intercept any potential customers!” Rashaman countered.

“That’s because I take my trading seriously! Not like you Carja and your ‘Oh, I’m so fancy that I can’t stand to do an honest day’s work to make Shards’ attitude!” Torvund mocked, complete with a high-pitched falsetto for his imaginary Carja voice.

“You call sitting on a chair reading the Meridian Times an ‘honest day’s work’? Hah!” Rashaman laughed. “I’ll bet your boar does more work than you do, and all she does is sleep there all day!”

“Uh,” Eule tried to interject.

“You take that back!” Torvund shot back in an outraged tone. “Bora works very hard carrying my loads and is a very good guard boar on top of that!”

“Guard-boar? Whoever heard of a guard-boar?!” Rashaman returned fire in an equally as outraged tone. “What in the name of the Sun is a guard-boar supposed to be guarding from? Machines? The smallest kind perhaps, and only if it’s in a half-dead state? Thieves? She doesn’t look like she’d harm a fly, much less a robber! And what happened to you calling her a, what did you call her, a ‘travel-boar’?”

“Um,” Eule again tried to interject.

“She can be both a travel-boar and a guard-boar! It will catch on! Someday, everyone will be using boars to pull their carts and protect their wares!” Torvund insisted.

“…That’s possibly the most deluded plan you can think of,” Rashaman pointed out.

“Excuse me,” Eule attempted to interject…again.

“Yeah?! You think of a better plan, you stuck-up Carja!” Torvund yelled.

“I don’t care to think of a better plan than the one everyone is already using, you foolish Oseram!” Rashaman yelled back.

Eule continued to try to get in a word edgewise as Torvund and Rashaman continued to bicker with each other. At the very least, to try to get them to cease their bickering. Alas though, the Oseram man and his Carja counterpart were far too busy to pay attention to a mere Eule.

Then Star laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. Eule turned and looked up at her lover, who grinned and gave her a thumbs-up in reply, mouthing “I got this” at her.

A curious Eule then watched as her lover stepped forward until she was right next to the still bickering Torvund and Rashaman. Star then held out both of her black robotic hands out to their full length, spread them both out, and then brought them back together in an almighty CLAP.

As it turned out, the sound of a pair of Replika hands clapping at full speed was incredibly loud. The sound was almost identical to a Gestalt’s clap at first due to the meeting of plastic skin-covered artificial muscle meeting each other. However, the sound gained a very noticeable metallic quality to it that caused it to turn into something akin to a pair of cymbals being crashed together very hard, thanks to the carbon steel bones underneath the artificial muscle.

Two things happened simultaneously:

1. Torvund and Rashaman instantly ceased arguing and turned to look at Star: the source of the interruption, with a mix of surprise and just a bit of fear.
2. Torvund’s boar Bora just as instantly leapt up, squealing in panic, and ran off behind the trade mission lodge. But not very far, as Eule saw Bora’s furry snout peek out from behind the edge of the lodge, with one orange eye staring suspiciously at Star.

“Okay, break it up you two!” Star belted out in her best officer of the law voice, amidst Eule’s giggles. “We’re here to shop, and we can browse both of your wares at the same time! So no arguing with each other over who gets to be browsed first, got it?!”

“Yes, ma’am,” Torvund and Rashaman both said simultaneously, with both of them saying that in a voice that was filled with a combination of meekness and admonished shame.

“Oh my, is everything alright out there? I heard something loud?” asked a male voice politely as the owner of that voice opened the side door and a glasses-framed face peeked out.

“Oh, milord! You’re just in time! We’ve got customers at last, and by the Sun, are they some very interesting ones!” Rashaman called out.

“Customers? Really? Oh, how delightful!” the spectacled man said in excitement as he dashed out the door with the enthusiasm of a child, and quickly made his way to them.

That gave Eule time to examine the spectacled man as he did so. Of course, the man’s glasses was his most noticeable feature. While Eule wasn’t entirely certain if the circular lenses for his glasses were carved from Watcher lenses, but the bronze wire rim surrounding and connecting those two lenses were most definitely made in a forge and not just carved from Machine parts, suggesting that these Carja (assuming that this man was a Carja) is fairly technologically advanced.

Aside from that though, this spectacled man had skin as pale as a Replika’s, with hair as black as one as well. Even his eyes were as blue as Eule’s and Star’s eyes, with the only difference being that his pupils were Gestalt black rather than Replika red. His clean-shaven face spoke of a young man even younger than Rashaman, but his bright eyes spoke of an even younger soul inhabiting that body. A feeling that was only enhanced by how thin the man was combined with his clean-shaven appearance.

His clothes consisted of a long-sleeved white shirt with red highlights, paired with a pair of billowy hose of luxurious looking purple fabric and small pointed shoes of dark brown leather that didn’t appear to look entirely suited for rough travel. Over his shirt, he wore a bright red waistcoat that was completely adorned in golden patterns that, again, resembled the surface of a circuit board. The waistcoat was open in the middle, with a pair of Machine armor pieces shaped like hexagons connected by a pair of bronze-colored ropes acting as a fastener for that waistcoat.

Finally, the spectacled man wore a most impressive hat on his head. It was essentially a cap made of some rich purple fabric, and decorated with a trio of elongated Machine armor plates on top, a pair of looped coils of bronze metal above his temples fashioned to look like rope, and an additional pair of Machine armor plates in the back that resembled a small pair of wings.

All in all, it was the most pretty elaborate outfit Eule had ever seen anyone wear in this land thus far, and yet it was not so elaborate as to be overwhelming. Eule would probably call it “tastefully complex”, and combined with Rashaman addressing him as “milord”, it made Eule wonder what was going on with him.

Fortunately, the spectacled man seemed quite friendly as he looked both of them over curiously. His curiosity then slowly turned to excitement as he looked up and down at the Replikas, with Eule noticing that, like with Torvund and Rashaman, he was focused on her and Star’s bird-like legs most of all.

“Oh, oh my! Oh my, my, my! What have we here?!” the spectacled man fairly squeaked in his excitement. “What a curious pair of individuals to find in the Nora Sacred Lands, especially here in the heart of the Nora faithful! Such interesting legs you have! They can’t be prosthetics, can they? No, no, no! These are far too complex, and too perfectly fitted to you to merely be Machine limbs crudely fixed to you! No, clearly, someone made these for you! And your arms appear to be the same, and…oh my! Your eyes!”

The spectacled man suddenly walked up very close to Eule to look deep into her eyes. Eule immediately retreated at this sudden invasion of her personal space, with Minali retreating right with her, clutching her right leg all the while, but the spectacled man doggedly followed, seemingly intent on a close examination of Eule’s ocular modules.

“Fascinating!” the spectacled man breathed. “Even your eyes appear to be artificial! No eyes of flesh and blood would produce that red light in your pupils! Oh, what a marvelous piece of craftsmanship you have in your eyes! You must tell me who designed them for you–”

Before Eule could ask the spectacled man to please allow her personal space and before an irritated Star could pull him away, Rashaman gently took the spectacled man by the torso, and gently pulled him back.

“Lord Bashid? Would you please remember that people need personal space, and that crowding in on them is impolite?” Rashaman politely asked in the tones of someone reminding a child of their manners.

“Lord Bashid’s” eyes widened in shock, as if he only just realized that just now with Rashaman’s reminder.

“Oh, by the Sun! I’m so sorry! Your clearly artificial limbs and eyes were just so interesting that I…oh, that’s no excuse!” Bashid lowered his head to Eule in a distinct bow. It wasn’t quite as deep as a Eusan Nation’s bow of apology, but Eule figured it was more due to cultural differences than a lack of sincerity. “I, Bashid Ashir Ruwadin, in the name of House Ashir Ruwadin, offer my most sincere apologies for my most impolite gestures borne out of my thoughtlessness.”

“House?” both Eule and Star asked in surprise at the same time.

“Oh, my apologies. Does your tribe not have nobility or aristocracy like the Nora? Or really, any tribe outside the Carja?” Bashid asked, before his eyes widened in realization. “Oh, forgive me again if you don’t know what they are. See–”

“No, that’s alright. We accept your apology, and we do know what nobility are,” Eule quickly stated.

“Mostly because we Replikas rebelled against a nobility who were keeping us as their ‘Machine-Servants’. Guess even they didn’t like calling slaves for what we were,” Star noted with some very dark humor, and (Eule noticed) staring very pointedly at Bashid.

Who, as Eule also noticed, looked quite concerned.

“Oh dear,” Bashid said in a depressed tone. “I take it then that your tribe suffers from the same evil the Sundom is afflicted with?”

“The Sundom?” Eule asked, getting a sinking feeling where this was leading to.

“Oh, that’s the formal name of my nation: the Carja Sundom,” Bashid explained.

“So you Carja practice slavery?” Star asked in a way that was almost nonchalant if not for the anger in her voice.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Bashid replied with a sigh, looking down at his feet as though trying to find an answer from them despite how unlikely that was. “It began under the 12^th Sun-King Hivas: our previous Sun-King–”

“Also known as Hivas the Twilit,” Rashaman quipped, sounding jovial on the surface, but Eule could tell there were troubled thoughts underneath his outward cheer.

“Officially, he was Hivas the Militant,” Bashid corrected with an uncomfortable expression on his face that made Eule wonder if she looked like that whenever Star openly criticizing the Great Revolutionary and her Daughter, even in this land. “During his 7-year reign, he greatly expanded the Army of the Sun, ordering that every able-bodied man join their ranks, and ordering every one of our craftsmen and artisans to make armor and weapons to equip that army. The problem though was that there were not enough craftsmen or artisans, and with every able-bodied man in the army, there was no one to grow and harvest food for them. So Hivas–”

“Turned to slave labor to make that materiel, and grow and harvest that food?” Star asked with a cold anger that Eule hadn’t heard in her lover’s voice before.

Bashid nodded, still with that miserable expression on his face. “It began with criminals, both great and small, and then moved on to people who couldn’t pay their debts. I’ve heard even a few foreigners who cause trouble are taken as slaves too.” He sighed. “Honestly, what with our current Sun-King Jiran continuing that system of slavery, I don’t think it will stop anytime soon. No matter how many Carja speak out against it.”

“Your Sun-King allows you to speak against his rule?” Eule asked, both horrified by Bashid’s admitting that his people are doing the same thing the Eusan Empire did to her people, but also morbidly curious as to his implication that his ruler allows dissent against said ruler’s wishes.

“Yes. The Sun-King’s power is absolute…but at least we can make our wishes heard without fear,” Bashid said with a bittersweet expression on his face. “For all the good it does. My House has been arguing against that very slavery for decades now, but neither Hivas nor Jiran hears us, and certainly not the Houses who use that slavery to further their own profits. My House isn’t alone in believing in what we call ‘abolitionism’ fortunately…but sometimes, I think we might as well be.”

Rashaman laid a hand on Bashid’s shoulder. “You’re not, milord. People do hear you and your House. It’s just that we need more time to listen to your voices and the voices of those who agree with you,” he consoled.

Eule looked at Star with a sad look, who looked back at her at the same time with a guilty one.

“Star, I don’t think he’s to blame for his people’s evils. Just…look at him, over,” Eule broadcasted, her voice even through radio static sounding just as miserable as she looked.

“…I hate to say it, love, but…yeah, it doesn’t matter that he’s a noble. I can’t blame this guy for what the Carja are doing and feel good about it, out,” Star broadcasted back with a nod of determination.

A nod which was returned by Eule as she walked over to Bashid, and gently patted him on the shoulder that wasn’t occupied by Rashaman’s hand. Even Star walked over to lay her hand on top of Eule’s. However, such was Bashid’s misery that he didn’t even notice, even when Minali reached out from behind Eule’s leg and patted him on his stomach: the easiest part of him she could reach.

“It’s okay, Herr Bashid. You can’t be expected to shoulder the blame for the entirety of your people. Not by anyone reasonable,” Eule consoled.

“Yeah, if we did that for the Eusan Nation, we’d be here all day, and probably all year, to be honest,” Star quipped.

It was only upon hearing those words that Bashid looked up at Eule and Star, and finally seemed to notice them. “But, we–”

“No buts. I’ve already had this kind of talk with Star, and I don’t wish to do that again for someone who’s more or less a stranger,” Eule quipped of her own.

Bashid stared into Eule’s robotic eyes for several moments before nodding. “Thank you, Miss…oh, by the Sun, I’d completely forgotten to ask you both your names! Er…would you please kindly tell me your names? Err…please?”

Eule had to hold back her giggles at how oddly adorable Bashid was. Again, as though he were an adult man with a child’s enthusiasm and even innocence to him. She managed to hold back her giggles during her introduction to Bashid, and amazingly, so did Star when it came time for her introduction.

“Hmm, what peculiar names you have, er, Eu-le and Star? Fascinating,” Bashid said, his misery having been pushed aside by his curiosity. “And a series of letters and numbers as your full names? How strange as well.”

“That’s what I said,” Torvund said with a nod.

“No, that’s what we both said,” Rashaman corrected.

“No, you said–” Torvund cut himself off as he thought about what Bashid and Rashaman said, instead of blindly reacting to it as he was about to. Torvund then crossed his arms, huffed, and said in a surly tone: “Fine, you win, Carja. This time. Now can we talk some business?”

“Oh, yes! You were all here to browse through our wares!” Bashid said as he face-palmed. “I’m so sorry for taking up your time like this. Here, inside now. The Carja, and er, Oseram too, trade mission awaits!” he announced as he made his way to the door he emerged from, stopping only to open it for everyone else before entering the lodge, and ignoring or perhaps simply not noticing Torvund's boar sniffing him as he did so.

As Eule, Star, and Minali followed Bashid though; Torvund spoke up with: “Wait, the kid wants to browse too?”

Minali immediately dashed around to the other side of Eule’s leg to hide from Torvund, only peeking out at the Oseram merchant.

“Oh, come now, Torvund. If she wants to take a look at our wares, then there’s no harm in letting her,” Rashaman gently insisted.

Torvund’s response was to throw up his leather gloved hands. “Oh, fine, whatever. So long as I hopefully get some Shards out of this.”

Thus, with only a curious sniffing from Bora as everyone walked past her, Eule and Star finally entered the Carja/Oseram trade mission.

*

Upon entering the lodge, Eule could see that the ground floor of the building was essentially one large room. One half of the room was filled with an array of leather and dark grey metal armor, weapons of such unusual make that Eule didn’t know what to make of them, furniture, appliances, and assorted gadgets that defied explanation. The other half of the room was filled with sacks of colorful powders, shelves full of produce, and even some beautiful bronze tableware from the looks of them.

The contrast between the two halves were so extreme that Eule had to keep herself from giggling outright at it. It was as though someone had jammed a grocery store and a sporting goods store together into the same room. Really, the only thing that didn’t appear to belong to one side or the other was the fireplace at the end of the lodge. Judging by the Oseram and Carja cookware next to it, it was essentially shared property.

There was also a ladder going up a second floor, but Eule figured that led to the merchants’ living quarters, and thus was not part of the store. It was the same in many Rotfront stores, so Eule guessed this was the case here.

“Indeed, that’s correct,” Rashaman said when Eule asked him about the ladder and the room above. “Nothing for sale up there unless you want to purchase our beddings, and I’m afraid we’ll have to decline you on that. Sleeping on bare wooden floor is a bit rough, you see.”

Eule and Star both snorted in laughter at that.

“Fair enough there,” Eule said with a grin, before the browsing began in earnest.

Eule found herself being drawn towards the grocery store half of the trade mission, especially the produce. On display were pumpkins of numerous varieties (including mottled green pumpkins that looked very much like kabochas, much to Eule’s excitement), numerous ears of maize with multi-colored red, black, and yellow kernels that looked very different from the all-yellow maize of the Eusan Nation, green pear-shaped fruit with rough mottled skin, and–

“Ginger!” Eule cried out in delight as she examined the fat, light brown roots there were unmistakably that blessed spicy herb that was so important to Eusan Nation cuisine.

“Ah, so your tribe is familiar with ginger?” Rashaman asked curiously.

“You could say that,” Star replied with a mischievous chuckle.

“Ginger is used in most dishes in our tribe: the Eusan Nation. Even some sweet dishes use them, and indeed, ginger is sometimes even eaten by itself in pickled or candied form as side dishes and dessert respectively,” Eule more than happily explained.

“Hmm, pickled and candied ginger? I’ve never heard of any dishes like those before, either in Carja or Nora cuisine,” Rashaman said, eyes bright with curiosity and (Eule suspected) mercantile spirit. “Do you suppose we could work out a trade for recipes? If you know them, that is?”

Eule cocked her head curiously at the Carja merchant. “Oh? Are you a cook too?”

Rashaman grinned. “Too? Truly, I’m astounded that I would meet a fellow outlander cook in Nora Sacred Lands, and from so far outland too!” he laughed, before his look turned curious. “Honestly though? This is the first time I’ve heard of this Eusan Nation of yours, and I’ve spoken with adventurers who journeyed far to the east, far past even the Old World ruins that the Nora call Devil’s Grief. Where is this Eusan Nation in respect to Nora lands?”

“Probably nowhere near here. Not unless you have a place where the Red Eye watches us in the sky,” Star said as she examined an ear of multi-colored maize.

“Your tribe has a ‘red eye’ watching you in the sky?” Rashaman repeated in an even more curious tone. “Honestly, I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“Me neither, I’m afraid,” Bashid agreed with a saddened nod.

“This is news to me too, and every Oseram I know,” Torvund chipped in.

Eule sighed at not getting any answers about where her home is relative to this land, but she already had a sinking suspicion anyways that it was very far indeed.

“In any case, maybe instead, we might be able to discuss the price of this ginger?” Eule asked in an effort to change the subject.

An effort that looked like it was working, if Rashaman’s grin returning was any indicator. “Now that, I can do, courtesy of our scale here,” he said, pointing to the empty set of scales in question sitting on a desk that looked to be the closest thing here to a checkout counter. “As you can see: empty and perfectly level. Let it not be known that Rashaman and milord Bashid are cheating scoundrels.”

“I should hope not!” Bashid said with an outraged tone in his voice.

“I’m joking, milord! I’m joking!” Rashaman laughed, much to Bashid’s satisfaction. “All joking aside, let’s see how much that ginger root weighs then, shall we?”

Eule happily complied, placing the ginger root she’d selected, large compared with the others and stronger and more flavorful, on the scale. A few weights on the other side of the scale later, Rashaman nodded in satisfaction. “Alright, that will be 5 Shards.”

Eule tilted her head curiously. “5 Shards just for a single ginger root?” she asked curiously.

“Ginger is a valuable spice, after all,” Rashaman insisted. “And fresh ginger like this takes some care and time to transport. It takes a while for someone to pull a cartload of it all the way east from Meridian to Daytower, and then finally further east and then south through Nora Sacred Lands before it gets here to the Embrace.”

Eule had no real understanding of where those locations were in relation to each other, which only made it impossible to tell if this was a fair price for this ginger root. She did have an idea on how to make it just a bit cheaper though, especially since she planned on buying a fairly large quantity of ginger anyways. She selected five smaller roots, less flavorful but tender, and placed them on top of the large one.

“I assume that these six pieces of ginger would normally be worth 15 Shards judging by how much that large root is, am I correct?” Eule asked.

A quick adding of weights to the other end of the scale later, and Rashaman nodded. “That would be correct.”

Eule smiled brightly at the Carja merchant. “Well then, may I suggest then that we lower the price down to, say, 12 Shards? I plan on purchasing a fair amount of ginger anyways, and you would still be making quite a sum of Shards from that deal.”

“Hah! Buying in bulk to get a discount? I like your style!” Rashaman laughed, before his usual grin returned. “But at that kind of a discount? Hmm…I’ll go down to 14 Shards for that kind of a bulk sale.”

“Oh? If you’re willing to lower the price, then perhaps just once more down to 13 Shards? Surely, you would be making a profit from that?” Eule asked in an almost innocent way, if not for the too-innocent blinks she gave Rashaman.

Rashaman laughed once more. “Surely, I would! 13 Shards it is then, Eu-le!”

A moment later, Eule was now down 13 Shards, but had gained a large leather bag (“Included with every purchase,” Rashaman said) full of ginger, tied with a string of Machine muscle wire. This, she tied to her belt with another bit of Machine muscle. She immediately stopped herself before she conducted her usual counting of her pouches. She really did not want to think about the Rule of Six, and how much she surely must be violating it.

“Hey Eule, what do you say about us getting some of these chili powder for Rost as a thank-you gift, over?” Star asked over radio, looking at the giant sacks of red and yellow powder that were surely the powdered chili Rost and even little Äloy loved so much.

Eule smiled brightly at her lover. “I say that’s a wonderful idea. He did seem to be running a bit low on chili powder when I last saw it. I’m sure he would appreciate us helping to refill it, out.”

Out loud, Eule asked Rashaman: “How much are those chili powders, assuming that they are? And what is the difference between the different colors, if any?”

“Ah, those are indeed chili powders, and there is also indeed a major difference between them depending on the color,” Rashaman replied, before pointing at the red chili powder. “That is chili powder made from dried and crushed cliffside redthorn peppers: found in the deserts of the Forbidden West and then grown in the Royal Maizelands and by various nobles’ farmsteads. This is the most potently spicy chili, to the point where I’ve heard that the Tenakth even train their warriors by eating them whole. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but given how spicy these chili peppers are, there’s probably a grain of truth in there somewhere.”

Rashaman then pointed at the yellow chili powder. “That is the chili powder of the jungle goldthorn peppers. We discovered these in the Jewel, and have cultivated it ever since. It’s much less spicy than the redthorn, and has a sweet taste to it that redthorn doesn’t have. It’s a popular spice for those with sensitive palates.”

“Save for those who’re allergic to it,” Torvund piped up.

“Ah yes, that,” Rashaman said sheepishly, before explaining to a concerned Eule: “One of the first people to eat a goldthorn: an Oseram ealdorman–the name of their chiefs–suffered a violent allergic reaction to it that nearly killed him. For a while because of that, most people here thought that goldthorns were poisonous, and it took some time before everyone realized that it was just a case of very bad luck on that ealdorman’s part.”

Eule nodded at that. Severe allergic reactions were no joke, and why back in Sierpinski, Februar had taken note of every allergy their Gestalt prisoners had in order to make absolutely certain that they didn’t eat something they would regret, and had distributed that information to every Eule working the kitchens. It may have been a small thing to those prisoners, but it was something the Eule cooks, including herself, took very seriously.

A part of Eule wanted to ask Rashaman about the various things he mentioned: the Royal Maizelands, the Jewel, the ominously named Forbidden West, and even these Tenakth people. However, she would probably be here all day if she did. So she settled on the essentials.

“How much would a large leather bag full of redthorn chili powder cost?” Eule asked.

“20 Shards,” Rashaman rattled out without even bothering to weigh it. Both Eule and Star stared at him in response to that absurdly high price, which was already the price of a whole backpack. Rashaman shrugged in response to their stares. “Spices are expensive. It’s why spices are such a valuable commodity to us merchants, aside from their light weight and ease of transport.”

Eule and Star looked at each other for a moment before sighing at each other.

“Any chance we can negotiate for a lower price of say, 15 Shards, since we are buying in a bit of bulk?” Eule asked hopefully.

It took a bit more haggling, but in the end, Eule managed to negotiate the price down to 18 Shards for a large bag of the redthorn chili powder to tie onto her belt next to the ginger. Even then, she felt like Rashaman still managed to get the better end of that deal.

Now that Eule felt like she had enough spices, she looked over the Carja side of the trade mission, but couldn’t find anything that would fit as a souvenir. She was fairly certain that Äloy would be disappointed if Eule brought her nothing but vegetables as gifts, and a quick radio consultation with Star revealed that her lover thought the same thing.

“You two seem to be looking for something in particular? Any chance I may be of help here?” Rashaman asked in a way both friendly and curious. When Eule and Star explained their quest to find a souvenir for a little girl to Rashaman, he rubbed his chin in contemplation.

“I take it you don’t mean young Minali there, correct?” Bashid asked, and when he received a negative from Eule, Star, and even Minali alike; he continued: “Hmm…honestly, we don’t sell anything like children’s toys here, I’m afraid.”

“Although…,” Rashaman said, still pondering until he had a look of realization. “I got it. Hold here for a moment.”

Rashaman quickly dashed over to the far end of the trade mission lodge, near the fireplace blazing merrily away. He then took something out of a basket and placed it on a table next to said fireplace, took a knife and made a trio of cuts, before dashing back to Eule, Star, and Minali; holding something out and asking: “Try these, and tell me what you think?”

Eule ended up being handed what looked like a triangular slice of dense, yellow bread flecked with red and bluish-black along with Star and Minali. Aside from its unusual color, the bread also had a shiny glaze on its crust that gave off the rich, sweet smell of honey. Not only that, but the honey was thickly coated with a combination of sunflower seeds and the small black dots of what were very clearly poppy seeds.

“Oh, you have poppy seeds here?” Eule practically squealed in delight.

“I take it that’s what your tribe calls hintergold seeds?” Rashaman asked.

“Hintergold, eh? Heh, honestly, it does sound prettier than poppy,” Eule said before taking a bite of the honey and seed-covered bread, finally joining Star and Minali, who were both making appreciative sounds as they chewed.

And now that she was chewing the bread for herself, Eule could understand why they were making such sounds. As it turned out, the bread had a dense, grainy texture which–combined with its inherent sweetness adding to the honey–almost gave Eule the impression of eating a Rotfront sachertorte, albeit minus the chocolate and apricot jam. The rich flavors of the sunflower seeds and poppy, no, hintergold seeds only added to the deliciousness of the bread, which Eule realized after some chewing that there was another spice mixed into the bread itself that enhanced the taste of everything in a very familiar manner.

“This is delicious!” Eule pronounced. “And there’s some other spice in the bread…cinnamon?”

Rashaman’s pleasure at hearing that was so pronounced that he might as well be holding up a giant sign declaring that he had baked this wonderful cornbread, even before he took a bow and said proudly: “Thank you, Eu-le! It’s always good for a cook to hear his work complimented, especially by a fellow cook. Although, what is this ‘cinnamon’ that you speak of? Or was that ‘zimt’? I would swear to the Sun that you somehow said both at the same time.”

“Technically, I did,” Eule said, pointing at her Focus, still attached to her right temple as it had been the entire day. “This device is called a Focus, and it’s translating our speech to you, and your speech to ours. Otherwise, Star and I would be speaking in gibberish to you, and unfortunately, your speech would be gibberish to us as well.”

“Wait, that’s what those things do?!” Torvund asked in shock. When Eule nodded at him, he snapped his fingers in frustration. “By the forge, if I’d known that’s what those Focus devices did, I would’ve sold them at much higher prices than I did!”

Eule laughed nervously at Torvund’s fuming before turning back to Rashaman. “But yes, as for cinnamon, it’s a spice derived from crushing the inner bark of a particular species of tree. It has a…earthy and bitter taste when on its own, but when added to other foods, it enhances sweet tastes.”

“Thus giving us tasty things like cinnamon buns,” Star added with a fond smacking of her biocomponent lips.

“Huh, that sounds like spicebark, and if it is, then you are truly a well-travelled cook indeed, Eu-le, to have been able to recognize it in my Mesa Bread,” Rashaman said in an impressed tone. “I honestly didn’t expect any cooks out here in the East to have even heard of spicebark, let alone tasted it. Then again, you did mention you are outsiders, so maybe that’s not so surprising after all,” he said with a laugh.

“Mesa Bread,” Eule repeated, getting a feel for this dish’s name. “Honestly, I have no idea what a ‘Mesa’ is, but this bread is delicious. I’ll admit though: I’m at a loss as to what kind of flour this Mesa Bread uses. I’ve never had bread with this texture before.”

“Ah, so spicebark is known to your tribe, but not maizebread?” Bashid asked in a curious tone.

“Maizebread? You can make bread with maize?” Eule asked in return, now herself very curious.

“So your tribe is aware of maize, but you don’t use it for maizebread? Fascinating,” Bashid noted, pulling out a notebook and writing in it with something that looked remarkably like a ballpoint pen, but had a sharp tip instead of a ballpoint.

“Out of curiosity, what does your tribe use maize for?” Rashaman asked, also sounding curious.

“Well, we have maize on the cob, egg cloud soup, puffmaize,” Star said after swallowing a mouthful of Mesa Bread, listing off the dishes black robotic finger by finger, before turning to Eule and asking: “Pretty sure I’m missing a bunch, right?”

“Well, there’s the high fructose maize syrup that’s practically in everything sweet,” Eule noted with no small amount of amusement, remembering the sight of it in the ingredients list of every single nutritional label on every single candy wrapper in the Eusan Nation.

“Hmm, I don’t even know what some of those dishes are, but I’m surprised that maizebread isn’t known among your tribe given all those uses of maize,” Rashaman noted.

“Probably because it’s not ‘efficient’ enough,” Star quipped, creating much confusion among everyone who wasn’t Eule as she took another bite of the Mesa Bread. “A shame too. This Mesa Bread is delicious!”

Minali didn’t verbally add to the discussion. Her enthusiastic nods as she chewed on a bite of Mesa Bread was more than sufficient for Eule and Star to identify her opinion of it.

“So what do you think of that as a souvenir for this little girl you spoke of?” Rashaman asked, looking at them hopefully.

Eule smiled at him. “It’s certainly a start that I’ll happily pay Shards for. That said, how much is a loaf of Mesa Bread, and do you think you can bake a new loaf?”

Rashaman grinned so brightly that it was practically shining like the Sun. “5 Shards for a fresh loaf of Mesa Bread, coming right up!” he said cheerfully before he dashed off to the counter next to the fireplace, and began taking out ingredients from the drawer underneath.

Normally, Eule would be more than happy to observe just how Rashaman went about baking Mesa Bread. Indeed, she started to walk over to Rashaman to do just that, but was interrupted by an insistent Torvund-flavored coughing.

“Perhaps while he’s busy with that, you could browse some fine Oseram wares for a bit?” Torvund asked very hopefully.

Eule ended up looking at Star, and they both ended up shrugging at each other.

“Alright, let’s see what you’ve got,” Star said before she and Eule both browsed through Torvund’s wares.

Or at least, they attempted to. The most obvious things were the armor and weapons, and even then, they still contained mysteries on and in them (like the circular, ring-like pieces of metal that covered the hard leather skirt of one set of armor) that defied casual explanation. The rest of Torvund’s wares were even more mysterious in nature, save for a few that, fortunately, Eule was drawn to like a moth to a flame, primarily because of their obvious cookware nature.

“Oh-hoh! I take it you’re interested in that Oseram-made frying pan?” Torvund asked with an eager air about him.

Indeed, Eule was interested in said frying pan that she was currently hefting. It was made out of the same dark steel that much of the other Oseram wares was made of, with a handle wrapped in strips of leather to prevent accidental burns and with a hole in the end presumably for hanging onto a hook for storage, and was nicely balanced on top of that. It also didn’t seem like Rost had anything like a frying pan in the house, so this would be a nice addition to their cooking arsenal.

Plus, Eule wanted to experiment with cooking Machine skin, Machine muscle, and other Machine parts to see if she could make an improvised version of Replika-only rations to act as a substitute for her limited supply of Koagulant Type-K repair patches. Needless to say, the result would be incredibly toxic to Gestalts, so using her own cookware would limit the possibility of accidentally poisoning Rost or, Red Eye forbid, Äloy. Even then, she planned on thoroughly scrubbing her frying pan after each experiment.

But first, Eule had to purchase it.

“Hmm, perhaps,” Eule said as she continued hefting the frying pan. “It would depend on how much is this frying pan.”

“30 Shards,” Torvund instantly said.

Eule blinked at him. “Now that seems a little steep. Isn’t it a bit much to have a frying pan be worth 10 Shards more than an actual backpack?”

“Not really, no,” Torvund insisted. “You literally can’t get steel like this from anywhere but Oseram forges. It takes that plus a lot of time, effort, and sweat to make a good frying pan like that. Here, give it to me and I’ll even prove how good it is to you.”

A curious Eule handed the frying pan to Torvund, who then clop-thumped his way over to a mannequin wearing a set of armor made of hard leather with plates of shaped dark steel over the belly and chest. He then took the frying pan in both hands, and to Eule’s shock, swung the bottom of the pan into the belly plate at full force.

There was a loud CLANG as frying pan met armor, and the entire mannequin fell over with a clatter of steel and leather.

Now looking oddly satisfied, Torvund then returned to a Eule staring at him in shock and disbelief, and proudly showed the bottom of the frying pan to her.

“See? Look! Not a single dent in it even after that. That’s good steel there, not like those cheap scrap you sometimes get the dishonest Oseram traders peddling,” Torvund insisted as he handed the frying pan back to Eule.

Indeed, Eule could not see a single dent in that frying pan bottom, although there was certainly some scratching on it from that impact. However, the scratching appeared to be to the darkened outer coating. The shiny steel underneath looked to be undamaged.

“Umm, that’s very impressive, but I don’t intend on using my frying pan as a lethal weapon,” Eule said with a nervous laugh.

“Most people don’t. Yet, it’s better to have a frying pan that you can use to bash in someone’s head in a pinch than to have one that shatters when you need it to shatter skulls,” Torvund explained quite happily for someone who was talking about murdering someone with cookware. “Plus, a frying pan tough enough to break heads is tough enough to last for years. You, my friend, are paying for an investment in cookware here.”

Eule again looked at the bottom of that frying pan, feeling no damage to the steel whatsoever, and ending up sighing at Torvund. Despite his odd ways, he definitely knew how to demonstrate the quality of his wares.

“Very well. 30 Shards it is then for the dual-purpose frying pan,” Eule quipped as she handed the requisite amounts of Shards to Torvund, not feeling not haggling over that frying pan after that kind of demonstration of its quality.

Torvund tossed the Shards into the air before pocketing them. “Sold! Thank you very much, er, Eula,” he attempted to pronounce.

Eule merely smiled and nodded at him as she hung her new purchase onto her backpack just below her just-as-new Blast Sling. It was pretty close to how it was supposed to be pronounced anyways.

“Huh, hey Eule? Does this look like a sausage grinder to you?” Star asked from behind Eule.

Eule turned around in surprise to see Star holding a complex contraption that did indeed look like a Eusan Nation sausage grinder, if the input/output funnels and stand were made entirely out of dark Oseram steel, with a handle of steel and wood on its back.

“If that isn’t a sausage grinder, then I don’t know what is,” Eule said with an excited grin developing on her biocomponent face.

“Ahh, so your Eusan Nation tribe knows what sausages are?” Torvund asked in a tone just as excited as Eule looked.

“Yours too?” Eule asked back just as excitedly.

Torvund laughed joyfully. “Finally! Someone else has a love of sausage. The Nora and Banuk don’t understand sausages at all, and the Carja only think they’re so-so. So-so? So-so?! I’ll show them so-so!”

On the surface, it sounded like Torvund was getting angry at the end. But to Eule’s biomechanical ears, all she heard was the pure passion of an enthusiastic cook, and that in turn made her even more excited and curious.

“Are you by any chance a cook too, Torvund?” Eule asked.

Torvund rubbed his nose and sniffed proudly. “Well, not to blow my own horn, but I like think I’m a pretty good cook.”

“Oh? What sort of dishes are your specialty?” Eule pressed, curious as to what sort of dishes this land has to offer.

Torvund grinned enough that Eule could see his teeth even between his thick beard. “Isn’t it obvious? Oseram dishes are what I do the best, and no one, I mean no one, can make a better Meat in the Middle than I can,” he said proudly, before he snapped his fingers. “In fact, hold on.”

Torvund clop-thumped his way over to a small chest on his side of the trade mission, opened it up, pulling out a bundle, and shutting it before clop-thumping back to Eule in the distinctive sound of his almost-Replika-like peg leg’s gait. He then opened up the bundle to reveal…a half-eaten pastry?

Torvund then tore a chunk off the unbitten end, and held it out to Eule. “Here, try a bite. I made this Meat in the Middle for lunch today, and it’s still good even cold.”

Eule wasn’t entirely certain about eating a bite of a man’s half-eaten lunch, but her curiosity at this Meat in the Middle dish overcame her propriety. Plus, Torvund was offering that bite of his lunch, so she ended up taking the end of the Meat in the Middle and examining it.

Eule found herself looking at what was clearly a sausage of some kind wrapped in a layer of dough that had been baked golden brown. In fact, the end of the sausage that had been exposed to the heat had a nice char on it. The other end that exposed the innards of the sausage showed a pink mix of roughly ground meat with white chunks of fat. Mixed throughout the meat though was the distinct red flakes of redthorn peppers, suggesting that the Oseram–or at least Torvund–liked their sausages spicy.

Eule noticed that Star though was staring intently and more than a little hopefully at the remainder of Torvund’s Meat in the Middle, having put down that sausage/meat grinder.

To which Torvund reacted by sighing, ripping off even more of his lunch, and handing it over to the very eager Star unit. He then stared at the tiny nub of Meat in the Middle he had left, shrugged, and popped it into his mouth. “Mmm, definitely still good even after some time spent in a Chillwater box,” Torvund said through a mouthful of Meat in the Middle.

Now herself curious, Eule took a bite of the Meat in the Middle at the same time Star took a bit of hers.

Eule could immediately tell from the moment her carbon steel teeth bit into the golden brown dough that it was puff pastry, or something very much like it. The multiple thin layers of baked dough was unmistakably puff pastry, which gave the dough layer a lovely mouthfeel and a delicious buttery taste to it. However, the real centerpiece of Meat in the Middle was in the name: the meat. The sausage in the middle of that dough was definitely ground boar meat, with a distinct smoky taste on top of the spice that indicated ground smoked boar. Certainly, a smoked sausage would keep far better than a fresh one, so it made sense why Torvund would use that for his Meat in the Middle.

However, Eule couldn’t help but wonder how the taste profile of Meat in the Middle would change if she were to use a fresh sausage instead. Ah, oh well. It was a recipe to experiment with for another day, and she certainly wasn’t complaining about this version of it, especially since she was making appreciative noises as much as her lover was.

“Huh, so you both have dentures?” Torvund asked. When Eule and Star’s appreciate noises turned into questioning sounds, he continued: “Your teeth. They looked like they were all steel from what I could see when you both opened your mouths, and good steel too from the looks of how shiny they were. What, did you both not brush your teeth enough, and you had to replace all of them?” he joked.

“Err, not quite,” Eule replied with a nervous laugh.

“At all,” Star added to that reply.

Before Eule could figure out some excuse for her and Star’s carbon steel teeth that did not involve a complete and utter lack of dental hygiene, Torvund said: “Eh, whatever. Not my place to question my customers on something like that. So then, what did you think of that Meat in the Middle? Ground it myself in that very meat grinder, and smoked my sausage myself…er,” he paused as Star gave him a raised eyebrow, and then said sheepishly: “You know what I mean, not that other kind of sausage…er…I’ll shut up now.”

“No worries, I understood what you meant,” Eule said with a giggle, before taking hold of the meat grinder to take a closer look at it.

Said meat grinder felt a bit on the heavy side, but Eule could put that down to how sturdy it was. A quick look inside the top-mounted input funnel revealed the distinct screw-like mechanism typical of such meat grinders, while a close examination of the horizontal output funnel revealed the fan-like rotating blade there. A careful rotation of the handle revealed a very smooth action, with no catch to it at all. It was pretty clear that Torvund had been keeping the mechanism cleaned and oiled after using it. Now how to do the same?

“Oh, everything is just screwed into place,” Torvund replied when Eule asked about the disassembly. “The top funnel screws off with counterclockwise turns, and the grill over the part where the meat comes out is the same, so that you can pull out all the guts to clean off and oil. The handle comes off when you unscrew that thumb screw.”

Eule nodded as she noted it all down, before finally getting to the meat of the issue. “How much is this?”

“120 Shards,” Torvund belted out without hesitation.

Eule had to stop her jaw from dropping open in shock. Star had not the control nor the qualms.

“120 Shards, are you serious?! This is worth more than a bow!” Star said in disbelief.

Torvund raised a finger, reminding Eule of EULR-S2309 “September”. Her older sister had been the leader of the Eules teaching in Re-ed–er, that word she wasn’t supposed to use anymore, in B1. September had always made a gesture like that when she was about to explain something, as was the case with Torvund here and now, just with a finger of flesh, blood, and calcium-based bone instead of plastic skin, polymer muscle, and carbon steel bone.

“Think about this for a moment: a meat grinder is a complex piece of machinery just like a well-made bow,” Torvund explained, still with his finger raised. “In fact, in some ways, it’s even more complex than a bow. So why wouldn’t a good meat grinder be about the same price as a bow, or even be more expensive?”

Try as she might, even Eule couldn’t find any fault in his logic. Still, 120 Shards was more than a bit steep. It would eat pretty steeply into their Shard supply, and Eule still wanted to leave enough Shards to pay back Rost for everything he’d given them.

“Maybe it’s time to see how much those Watcher hearts and Machine cores are worth to Rashaman…er, maybe Bashid instead? Since he’s not cooking and all, over?” Star suggested to Eule via radio.

Eule thought about it for maybe five seconds before she turned to her lover and nodded, and then turned to the excitable Carja noble. “Excuse me, Bashid? We have some Watcher hearts and small Machine cores in our inventory, and since we need some Shards at this moment, do you mind a trade?”

“Oh, do you?” Bashid asked with now intense curiosity. “I would be more than happy to appraise them for you, and write up a Shard value. Now, let’s take a look at those hidden gems of those Machines, shall we?”

Indeed, Bashid laid down the Watcher hearts and small Machine cores on the checkout counter (as Eule thought of that table on the Carja’s side of the trade mission) with the delicacy one would expect with handling priceless gemstones. Indeed, he even produced a small magnifying glass from one of his far, far more than six pouches, and examined the Machine parts as though he were a jeweler looking for flaws on a gemstone.

“Are they not?” Bashid asked when Eule voiced her thoughts out loud. “Gemstones are beautiful things that come from deep beneath the earth, either dug up by the hands of man or brought forth by the actions of the very earth itself. So why such beautiful things can’t also be carved from within the bowels of a Machine?”

“That’s an…odd way to put it,” Star commented.

“I suppose it’s like how pearls are obtained from ice clams?” Eule posited.

“That’s…you know, that’s not a bad comparison, although I can’t imagine any Gestalts being willing to eat Machine meat after getting those ‘pearls’ out,” Star joked.

“Pearls? Ice clams?” Bashid asked curiously.

“Err…ice clams are a species of clam-like animals that live in Rotfront’s subsurface ocean, typically on the underside of the surface ice layer,” Eule explained. “We harvest them for food and pearls. As for what the latter is: it’s a hard, shiny object found within ice clams that we Rotfronters typically use for jewelry. It’s made by the ice clam when a grain of sand or some other irritant gets into an ice clam, and it then forms hard, shiny layers around it to protect itself.”

“Hmm, fascinating. Most fascinating,” Bashid said as he quickly pulled out his notebook and jotted down the information Eule gave him before turning his attention back to the Machine parts, commenting without looking away from said Machine parts: “This is the first I’ve heard of this practice, and it does sound similar conceptually to obtaining hearts and cores from Machine carcasses.”

“But a lot messier, from the sounds of it,” Torvund quipped.

“Tastier though,” Star quipped right back.

“True, true. I’m assuming that you don’t have any of these ice clams on you right now?” Torvund asked. When both Eule and Star shook their heads in the negative though, he sighed. “Ah, well. That will have to be something I can sample later. In the meantime though, any final decision on that meat grinder?” he asked hopefully. Very hopefully.

“That will depend on how many Shards these Machine parts are worth, honestly,” Eule admitted, before turning to Bashid. “So how is the appraisal going along?”

“Splendidly, in fact,” Bashid said excitedly, which as far as Eule could tell, was his default mode of operation. “First off: the small Machines cores are in excellent condition, and I can pay you the market price for them: 20 Shards each.”

“So 60 Shards for all three of them,” Eule muttered, more to herself than to anyone else.

“Now as for the Watcher hearts: alas, two of these Watcher hearts aren’t in the most pristine condition,” Bashid said in a disappointed tone. “This one, in particular, has some scratch damage across its face and some missing studs on the left side that looks like they were incurred by fall damage. I can only give you 50 Shards for that one. Fortunately, the other one is in better condition, with only a minor scratch on the upper right quadrant. That one I will give you 60. Shards. But the best one is this rightmost one here. Just look at it!”

Eule and Star peered closely at the indicated Watcher heart, but neither of them could see anything remarkable about it.

“Precisely!” Bashid said, his excitement now reaching new peaks. “This is a pristine Watcher heart. Not a scratch on it. Even in this day and age, pristine hearts of any Machine are still valuable. I’ll give you 100 Shards for that one.”

Both Eule and Star ended up whistling at the same time, which made them both giggle at each other before they turned to Torvund, who was now staring at them even more hopefully.

“I believe we now have enough Shards for that meat grinder, Herr Torvund,” Eule said with a smile.

Torvund grinned widely enough for his teeth to show between his beard. “Sold, to the outlander women with the innumerable prosthetics and steel dentures!” he declared.

One of these days, Eule would have to correct Torvund on some of the finer points of Replika biology. But not now.

After an exchange of Machine parts for Shards from Bashid, which was followed by an exchange of Shards for meat grinder from Torvund, Eule found herself the proud owner of an Oseram meat grinder carefully wrapped in a large leather bag. She started to reach towards it, only for a familiar pair of black robotic hands to reach it before she did, and lift it up to hug it to a breastplate-covered chest.

“Allow me to carry this particular purchase of ours,” Star said with a grin. “After all, you’ve been carrying everything else, and this thing is pretty heavy. Got to use this combat Replika strength somehow, right?”

Eule smiled back up at her dear lover. “Why, thank you, Star. I’ll be sure to repay this gesture with all my gratitude. Both culinary and otherwise,” she said, her smile turning mischievous and dusted with just a bit of desire with that last word.

Star’s smile down at her lover turned hungry in both ways, with a light blush decorating the biocomponent skin of her cheeks. “I’ll be eagerly waiting for that gratitude. Both of them.”

“Ah-hem!” Torvund coughed, bringing both Replikas back to reality, which at the moment included the blushing Oseram merchant. “So…anything else you’d like to buy? How about a nice Oseram axe, where you get an axe, a pick, and a prybar for the price of one? Or maybe that suit of Arrow Breaker armor: good against any bow any tribe cares to field? Er, as soon as I right it, that is.”

“Maybe later,” Eule said with a polite smile as Torvund struggled to pick up the armor-laden mannequin, apparently made of straw-covered wood from the looks of it.

“Yeah, as cool as that armor looks, it looks like it’s at least a dozen sizes too big for Äloy,” Star said with an appraising look at the now righted mannequin standing next to a huffing Torvund.

“What, you want another present for your kid?” Torvund asked. “Isn’t that Carja bread enough? That kid there looks like she’s enjoying herself just fine with it.”

A look down at Minali revealed that she was indeed still munching on her slice of Mesa Bread, breaking off pieces of it and slowly munching on them, intent on savoring every bite, bringing a smile to Eule’s biocomponent lips before she turned back to Torvund.

“It’s a good present, certainly. However, I want a present for Äloy that’s a bit more…permanent than just a delicious dish, even one as delicious as Rashaman’s Mesa Bread,” Eule explained, before she noticed Rashaman walking towards them with a basket in hand. With a smile, she said: “Ah, speak under the Red Eye.”

Rashaman laughed in his usual high volume. “I’ve never heard a saying like that before, but I can guess as to what it means. Regardless though, here’s a loaf of Mesa Bread, fresh from the skillet just for your little girl! Oh, and a little extra for her too. I, er, got a bit carried away there, and steamed a sweet Maizemeat to put in with the Mesa Bread.”

“Maizemeat?” Eule asked just as curiously as Star did.

“Ah, so your tribe doesn’t make Maizemeat either? Or perhaps you don’t call it that?” Rashaman pondered curiously, before his usual grin returned. “I’ll leave that as a surprise for you all then. The only request I make is that you both come back and tell me how it was, okay?”

Eule smiled at him. “That, I will most certainly do, seeing as how we will most likely frequent your, Bashid’s, and Torvund’s establishment in the future,” she said before handing over the agreed-upon 5 Shards.

Eule tried to hand over another 5 Shards for the Maizemeat, which seemed to be wrapped in a maize husk for some reason, but Rashaman steadfastly refused.

“I included that in without your permission. I will certainly not ask for additional charge for it. Do I look like a scoundrel of a merchant to do such a thing?” Rashaman asked with a tone of injury.

“I certainly hope not,” Eule said said with a giggle.

Rashaman suddenly then gained a look of thoughtfulness, before turning to look down at Torvund. “Hey, Torvund? I just realized: don’t you have something that might work as a gift for these ladies’ little girl?”

Torvund blinked at him. “I don’t sell kid’s toys, if that’s what you’re asking. All my wares are definitely not meant for small fingers to play with, unless they like getting them chopped off or crushed.”

“Yeah, your usual wares are definitely not suitable for children,” Rashaman conceded with a frown marring his face, before he shook his head. “But I’m not talking about that. What about that little art project you’ve been–”

“Nope! Don’t you dare!” Torvund shouted angrily, and curiously, with a blush on his cheeks. Or at least, what little of his cheeks could be seen above his beard.

Rashaman pleaded: “But surely they–”

“Not another word, or I swear to the Forge, I will kick you in the nuts, and I have a steel leg to kick you hard there!” Torvund raged.

“Oh, what’s this about an art project?” Eule asked curiously.

“Not you too!” Torvund shouted at Eule.

“Oh, come on. I’m off-duty right now, and probably permanently for the foreseeable future. It’s not like I can arrest you for it here,” Star tried to reason with him.

“What?” Torvund asked in confusion. “Why would you arrest me for making something as simple as making little Machine statues–”

Torvund snapped his mouth shut and covered it, but Eule and Star were already grinning, both at Torvund and at each other in turn.

“Does that sound like the perfect souvenir for Äloy, love?” Eule asked up at her lover.

“Oh, I do believe that sounds perfectly perfect,” Star replied down at her lover.

Both Replikas then turned back Torvund, who was still covering his mouth and had a more or less panicked look on his face.

“They’re not for sale!” Torvund got out.

“Come on, we’re willing to pay Shards for your little Machine figures,” Star argued.

“Potentially plenty of Shards,” Eule added eagerly.

“But they’re terrible!” Torvund tried to argue.

“Hmm, you know, I would’ve figured that you would leap all over the chance to make some Shards here,” Rashaman said with a thoughtful rubbing of his clean-shaven chin. “Maybe you’re not quite as business-savvy as I thought? Maybe the merchant’s life isn’t quite for you if you won’t take Shards that are almost literally dangling in front of you–”

“Arrraraggh!” Torvund shouted, yanking on his beard and apparently so frustrated that he seemed to Eule to have forgotten how to use words. Finally though, he jabbed a finger up at Rashaman, and then at Eule and Star in turn. “Fine! I’ll show you what I’ve been working on! But if any of you laugh, no business! Clear?!”

After some reassuring nods from everyone around, including Bashid and Minali despite them not even being part of the discussion, Torvund took a steadying before climbing up the ladder to his and the Carja folks’ living quarters. After a few minutes, he came back down with a small chest. Setting it down in front of the Carja side’s checkout counter, he opened said chest and took out several small objects, carefully placing them on the counter with all the delicacy one might expect of someone handling glassware. Eule and Star, along with everyone else, just as carefully walked up to the objects and took a closer look at–

Tiny statues of Machines, exactly as Torvund had blurted out. They were essentially figurines of various Machines, no more than 10-12 centimeters tall, made of a combination of carved wood and bits of shaped steel, and even made in various poses. Eule recognized the alert form of Watchers, either frozen mid-stride in a patrol path or standing up with its long tail as a third leg. She also recognized Striders among the figurines, either bent down to graze, standing in an alert stance as though posing for a portrait, or risen up on its hind legs to lash out with its forelimbs.

There were also Machines Eule definitely did not recognize. There was a Machine that looked like a 6-legged, 2-armed spider or crab with a hexagonal bit of metal on its back. There was another Machine that looked like nothing so much as a robotic version of the crocodiles Eule had seen with Star in those nature documentaries her lover loved so much, save that this robotic crocodile appeared to have a pair of chainsaws in its lower jaw. There was even a figurine of a Machine that resembled a long-billed bird of some kind, but which also had a chainsaw for a lower beak, along with tiny indescribable bits sticking out of both beak parts that at this scale looked as though it had tiny clubbed antennae sticking out of said beak. Eule had no idea what these Machines could possibly be, but given the behavior of the Watchers and Striders so far, she guessed that they were probably just as dangerous, if not moreso.

Despite that though, there was one thing these unknown Machines all shared with the Watcher and Strider figurines:

“Aww, they’re so cute!” Eule practically squealed.

“Hey, I said no laughing!” Torvund insisted at a very high volume that he probably would’ve adamantly denied was in an almost whining tone.

“I’m not!” Eule protested, with both of her robotic hands waving for emphasis. “These little figurines really are cute. Really. They’d be perfect souvenirs for Äloy, if you would be willing to part with them?”

“For a price, of course,” Star added to sweeten the deal.

Torvund stared at Eule and Star back and forth, with disbelief plainly written across his face. “You seriously want to pay Shards for these things? Both of you?” Upon seeing both Replikas nod vehemently, Torvund sighed. “Fine. Just pick some, and just give me, I don’t know, 5 Shards per little statue. Should be reasonable for junk like these.”

Eule gave a little cheer and hop before immediately leaning down to examine the figurines closely.

“Honestly, I don’t know why you’re so eager to downplay your own work like this,” Eule said as she examined the fine details on a Watcher statue, noting the carved details in the wooden parts that looked as though it was made with a needle. “These are marvelous little figurines.”

Eule heard Torvund scoff. “You call these ‘marvelous’? Look at them. I can barely get any kind of detail on the steel parts. They’re just too tiny for me to work effectively. Hitting them with a hammer just makes them fly off or flattens them. I have to heat little bits of soft steel, and then hold them in place with tongs while I work on them with a steel needle of hardened steel, all while they’re still glowing and workable. I can barely get them into the right shapes that way. They barely even look like the Machines they’re supposed to.”

“That may be true,” Eule said as she gently picked up a Strider figurine: one of the ones that was frozen in the act of rearing up on its hind legs, and lashing out at an invisible foe. “But I can clearly still tell that this is supposed to be a Strider, and one that’s in the middle of doing battle just as fiercely as Äloy is fighting to become the Bravest of the Braves. That takes skill on the level of an Ara, so please Herr Torvund, there’s no need to sell yourself short like that.”

Torvund avoided meeting Eule’s eyes, but his blush suggested that Eule’s words were having an effect on him. One that Eule fully intended.

“Whatever,” Torvund said after a while. “Just pay for your little Machine statues and go, and leave me to try to make little statues that actually deserve praise like that.”

Eule merely nodded at him, smiling as she reached into her Shard sack to take out the agreed-upon amount–

Only for Star to hold out a 10-Shard bundle of Machine muscle fibers to Torvund.

“Here, this works in place of Shards, right?” Star asked.

Torvund took the bundle from Star and hefted it in his hand before nodding. “Yeah, it does. But I said ‘5 Shards’. This is worth 10 Shards.”

“Yeah, I know,” Star replied with a smile. “I want to get a figurine too. Specifically: this one,” she said, taking a very careful hold of a Strider figurine that, based on how its legs were positioned, was frozen in the act of galloping at full speed.

Torvund shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

Eule smiled brightly at her lover. “Oh? I take it that you’ve developed a fondness for these figurines?”

“Well, that too. They are pretty cute,” Star admitted with an embarrassed grin before said grin softened into a warm smile. “But the reason I bought it was as a present for you, love.”

Eule blinked in surprise, before smiling up at her lover. “Oh? What’s the occasion?”

“Aside from celebrating the fact that we’re alive now?” Star asked with a grin, before that grin turned sheepish. “Well, you mentioned that your favorite sister liked horses, right? 21, you said her name was? Well, maybe a little Strider figurine to honor her memory would be nice? I know Striders are robot horses, but it’s probably close enough that she wouldn’t mind, right? Maybe? I mean, I didn’t know her like you did, so–”

Eule interrupted the beginnings of a ramble from her lover with a black robotic finger on Star’s lips, before the hand that finger belonged to reached back behind Star’s head, and pulled her face down to meet Eule in a kiss. A kiss that lasted an eternity and was filled with all the love Eule could give the most important person in her life.

When they finally separated at last, Eule smiled brightly up at Star. “I can safely tell you that 21 would’ve liked this figurine very much. I wish she was here to receive it, but at the very least, I can hold onto it for her when we eventually meet her again…someday.”

Star smiled just as brightly and warmly down at her, scratching her cheek shell in embarrassment. “Heh, I’m glad. Both for you and her.”

Out of sight, Eule heard the distinct voice of Torvund whispering in an incredulous tone: “Women can kiss other women? They can do that?”

Also out of sight, Eule immediately heard the sound of a fleshy Gestalt hand meeting a hard but Gestalt head, eliciting a Torvund-flavored yelp, which was immediately followed by the voice of Rashaman saying in a friendly but firm tone: “Try not to ruin the ladies’ moment, okay?”

Eule couldn’t help it. She broke down giggling at that, and so did Star in front of her. It felt like a perfect ending to her personal quest of finding a memory for Äloy, and Eule had a feeling that things would only become better from here on out.

Chapter Text

With the pair of Strider figurines tucked safely into a leather pouch, complete with a combination of hay and what appeared to be down feathers plucked from some bird as packing material, Eule and Star left the Carja/Oseram trade mission a pair of very happy Replikas. Even Minali left the trade mission lodge a very happy Gestalt child, since the slice of Mesa Bread Rashaman had given her had been very big and Minali seemed to prefer to eat slowly, savoring her food rather than bolting it down. A sentiment which Eule would very easily agree with.

Meanwhile, it was pretty clear that Rashaman, Torvund, and Bashid were also a very happy trio of merchants after all that spending Eule and Star did, judging by their enthusiastic waves of goodbye when they left. Even Bora the surprisingly tame boar was happily sniffing at them, although her happiness seemed to stem more from sniffing after the half-eaten slice of Mesa Bread Minali was holding, prompting the shy little Gestalt girl to duck behind Eule’s legs until Torvund called his boar to heel. Fortunately, a quickly produced apple from the Oseram merchant prevented Bora from trying to follow them in pursuit of a treat, so that was one problem solved.

“Sorry about that,” Torvund said as he rubbed Bora between her upright piggy ears, who was currently in the process of crunching up her apple treat. “Bora can be such a bottomless pit sometimes.”

“Well, she is a pig, so that’s not surprising,” Star quipped, smirking down at the tame boar.

Torvund burst out laughing in reply, managing to get out “Fair enough!” in between laughs, making Bora look up at him in surprise before some more head-rubbing calmed her down enough to make her turn her attention back to the half-crunched apple.

Eule stared curiously down at the tame boar. “I’d forgotten to ask in all the chaos, but…what made you decide to keep a boar as a pet, of all things?” she asked.

“First of all, Bora is a travel-boar. She’s a work animal, not just a pet,” Torvund corrected, before thinking for a minute and shrugging, all while still stroking Bora’s head. “And well, boars are big and strong. They’re perfect for pulling huge loads, but no one seems keen on that idea. Everyone just prefers to have people pull the wagons and carts. So I thought: if I can just prove that boars are better than humans at pulling carts, then I can make a killing on the draft boar business. So a single purchase of a piglet and 2 years later, here’s Bora.”

“You purchased a boar as a draft animal?” Eule asked, now even more curious than before. “Why not a horse?”

“Or at least a cow?” Star asked, sounding just as curious as well. “Heck, even a donkey or mule would be better than a boar.”

Torvund’s blinks of confusion only confused Eule and Star even further. He then compounded the confusion by asking: “What’s a ‘horse’? ‘Feert’? Or for that matter, what’s a ‘cow’, or ‘kooh’, or any of those beasts you mentioned?”

Eule could only look at Star in bafflement, as her lover did for her as well.

“You don’t know what a horse is? It’s, ah…a large herbivorous, er, plant-eating 4-legged animal with hooves that can run really fast,” Eule tried to explain.

Torvund merely continued blinking at Eule in confusion. “Aside from the plant-eating bit, that just sounds like a boar,” he said.

“No, it’s….a horse looks nothing like a boar,” Star said as she rubbed her cheek shell, a look of both confusion and exasperation on her face. “A horse is much taller than a boar, and it can run much faster. Up to 64 kph.”

Torvund whistled. “That is fast. If you ever have any of these ‘horses’, I’ll be glad to buy one off of you to see how good of a draft animal it is.”

“But…how do you not know what a horse is?” Star asked as frustration leaked into her voice to add to the confusion.

Torvund’s response was a shrug. “Must be some animal your Eusan Nation has that we here don’t.”

That…made absolutely no sense to Eule. Horses still exist in the Eusan Nation, even if they were more or less toys for the most wealthy of the Eusan Nation government officials, as far as Eule has heard. Those very horses came from Vineta. In fact, based on the history books, they were some of the domesticated animals that were brought off-world before and during the fall of Vineta to the Eusan Empire, thus allowing them to survive the mass extinctions when few other animals did. Thus, it made zero sense that Torvund wouldn’t even have heard of horses. Even Erika had known what a horse was.

And yet…it was also a confusing dilemma that had no answer at the moment. If Torvund didn’t know what a horse was, then there’s no way to even ask him for information that would lead to an answer. Thus, Eule could only sigh and accept Torvund’s answer as the most sensible one for the moment.

“Uhh, Eule?” Star asked with a distinct tone of uncertainty in her voice.

“Whoa, whoa. Easy, Bora,” Torvund said in a very distinctly calm tone.

The reason for both of their remarks was revealed when Eule was finally broke out of her thoughts, and found herself staring down at Bora sniffing curiously at her animal skin hosen-covered white robotic legs. It was so strange. Eule had just recently hunted a boar, and yet here was a boar that didn’t fear humans in the slightest. It was actually a bit cute now that Eule has a chance to get a closer look at it.

It was when this very tame boar began sniffing further up her hosen to where her white robotic legs turned black at the mid-thigh level though that Eule started to panic.

“Umm, sorry? I don’t have any food for you,” Eule said to the boar.

The boar, perhaps sensing the tone in her voice, gave a disappointed grunt and then turned back to Torvund, nosing him and oinking hopefully for another treat.

“Now, now, Bora. You don’t want to spoil your dinner now, do you?” Torvund said, reaching over the boar’s head to scratch behind her ears.

Bora the boar, despite her bottomless pit of a stomach, seemingly accepted the scratching with a sigh, and flopped down on the ground to receive her scratching in a more relaxed manner.

“Huh, not sure how good a draft animal she is, but at least she’s a cute lap dog, er, pig,” Star amended.

Eule’s giggles served as both agreement and reply to her lover’s comment.

With a final wave of goodbye to Torvund and even to Bora, the Replikas plus Minali were now finally off.

Or at least, that was the plan. Right up until Eule saw Teb and his two friends walk out of Mother’s Heart’s hall at that moment.

“Teb! Feld! Sal!” Eule called out to them, waving enthusiastically as she did so along with Star, who had echoed her greetings simultaneously with her.

The three Nora boys started and turned as one before they too waved back just as enthusiastically. Teb even started towards them, only to suddenly trip over his feet mid-limp. Fortunately, his friends both caught him before he could fall, much to Eule’s relief, and all three of them sat down on the edge of the hall’s stage as Eule, Star, and Minali walked up to meet them instead, sitting down with them in a line, with Eule sitting right next to Teb to her right and Star to her left.

“Hey, Eu-le. Star,” Teb said happily, if a bit tiredly. “Sorry about that trip there. I just–”

“Teb, trust me: that’s not something you should ever have to apologize for,” Eule insisted. “If anything, I should be apologizing for making you think you had to walk to us in your condition.”

“Oh, it’s not that bad,” Teb insisted in a casual way. “It’s just that after that trial and all that stair-walking, my leg just sort of…fell asleep?”

“Maybe one of these days, you Nora might think about installing an elevator at your hall here?” Star asked.

“What’s an ‘elevator’? ‘Owf-zoog’?” Feld asked.

“A machine for carrying people up and down a building. You know, so that people who have a leg injury like Teb can get up and down a tall building like the hall without straining that leg,” Star explained, looking pointedly at said leg of Teb’s.

“Well, if you can figure out how to design one for the hall, I’m sure more than one Carver would be happy to help with it,” Feld said in a dry drawl.

“Hmm, maybe we can ask Torvund with help with that later?” Eule wondered out loud.

“Could be worth a shot,” Star replied with an agreeing nod.

“Really, I’m fine. No need to make an entire people-carrying machine just for me, really,” Teb continued to insist, before continuing: “It’s not even my leg that was making me tired, mostly. It was, well…”

“The trial of your…father?” Eule guessed.

Teb’s nod suggested to everyone present that Eule’s guess was, in fact, correct.

“So out of curiosity, what happened to that asshole at the trial?” Star asked curiously.

Teb though, looked down at his feet, not answering the question, much to Eule’s worry.

“Uhh, I mean if you’re okay with answering that,” Star quickly corrected.

“It’s…I don’t know what to feel about his sentence,” Teb quietly answered.

“Yeah, the trial was tough. Never seen the High Matriarchs so furious before,” Feld commented.

“Especially Teersa. She’s always smiling and laughing, so seeing her that mad? So mad that she didn’t even smile? That was terrifying,” Sal commented with a shudder.

“But Jasp’s sentence? Brutal,” Feld answered for his friend.

“And good riddance,” Sal said as bluntly as it was blithe.

“Saaal,” Feld said in a warning tone.

“What? I’m just saying what we feel. I mean, that chuff deserved to be made an outcast for what he did,” Sal continued just as bluntly and blithely as before.

“He was made an outcast?” Eule asked in surprise.

Feld sighed. “Well, now that the rabbit’s out of the trap, then yeah, Jasp was made outcast. 15 years outcast, the High Matriarchs sentenced him to. Not only that, but he’s to be made outcast in exile from the Embrace.”

“Meaning that we won’t be seeing him in here for 15 years,” Sal said in a very relieved tone.

“Yes, that’s what I just said…oh, never mind,” Feld said with an exasperated huff.

As much as Eule herself was relieved to hear that kind of sentence passed down on Jasp, she also couldn’t help but notice how depressed Teb looked at the whole affair. “Teb, are you alright about…this?” she asked the young Nora man who’d done such a huge favor for her and her lover.

“Yeah…no…mm, honestly, I’m not sure,” Teb said with a sigh. It took a minute before Teb continued: “I…I think I’m kind of…relieved that he’s going to be gone for 15 years? But…he’s still my dad…honestly, I don’t know what to think.”

Eule fretted over him. She had no idea how to react to a situation like this. There was absolutely nothing in a Eule’s training on how to deal with what was very clearly a case of domestic violence here.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t dwell on that asshole too much,” Star said to him. “Go spend some time with your mother and maybe you two can work it out…uhh, did I miss something?”

No one could’ve not noticed Teb’s wince at Star’s suggestion, especially not Eule or Star.

“His mom’s…gone back to the All-Mother,” Feld whispered to Eule and Star. “Years ago. Hunting accident with a boar. Those things can kill someone if something goes wrong, and something did.”

Eule very distinctly remember that massive female boar she and Star had hunted, and she could easily imagine something like that causing serious injury to even a Replika, much less a Gestalt. It’s both amazing and terrifying how obtaining something as mundane as pork could be so dangerous in this land.

And that made Eule worry even more for young Teb.

“Oh, Red Eye forgive, sorry about that,” Star said to Teb, now looking nearly as depressed herself. “I didn’t know that’s what happened. Are you okay? Do you have a place to stay, or…?”

“Oh, no, I’m fine! I have aunts and uncles who let me stay with them if…well, he gets too much,” Teb admitted. “In fact, my aunt and uncle on my mom’s side told me that I could stay with them for as long as I like if anything happens, and well, I guess this counts as ‘anything’ happening.”

On one hand, Eule was relieved that Teb wasn’t an orphan as she feared. On the other hand, the fact that Teb was still looking depressed took some of the relief away. Even worse, she had no idea what to say. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what it’d be like to have an abusive parent. It was…if Eule had to be honest: an upside to being a Replika, but it was also a downside in this case.

All Eule could do for Teb as someone who’s effectively a stranger was to put a hand on his shoulder.

“It sounds like things will be okay for you. Maybe after some time, you might be able to believe it?” Eule asked in a hopeful tone, both for Teb and for herself.

Teb gave a short laugh. As weak as it was, it was still a laugh. “Maybe. Hopefully,” he said with a smile as weak as his laugh was. “Thank you, anyways, Eu-le.”

Eule smiled back at him, hoping that might help but secretly wondering if it was really working.

Then Minali surprised her (and all of them, she thought) by getting up, walking to Teb, tearing off a big chunk of the half-eaten Mesa Bread slice she was still holding, and offering that chunk to a clearly surprised Teb.

“This is…for me?” Teb asked, blinking quizzically at the shy little Gestalt girl and pointing at himself in clarification.

Minali’s only response was an enthusiastic nodding and her holding out the chunk of Mesa Bread even further out at Teb until it was almost in his face.

Eule’s worry meter relaxed a tick when she saw Teb give Minali a smile that was distinctly stronger than before.

“Thank you,” Teb said, holding out his hand and gently accepting the chunk of Mesa Bread Minali placed onto it.

Teb then peered curiously at it, sniffed it curiously at first before it turned into sniffs of appreciation at the scent, and then took a cautious bite of it. Judging by the appreciative sounds he was making as he chewed, Eule figured that he was enjoying it just as much as herself, Star, and Minali did.

“Huh, this is good,” Teb said after swallowing his bite of Mesa Bread. “I think…yeah, this is something from that Carja trade mission, am I right?”

Eule smiled and nodded at him. “Let’s just say that was a free sample of Mesa Bread we got to try, and which resulted in our purchase of a loaf of it.”

“Huh, you don’t say,” Teb said curiously, breaking his chunk into a pair of smaller chunks which he then handed to his friends.

Based on the equally as appreciative sounds Feld and Sal made as they chewed it, it would seem that they found it just as delectable as he did.

“Maybe I’ll go check out that Carja trade mission too. Who knows, it might even be a good diversion from everything,” Teb said with a laugh that sounded as self-deprecating as the kind of laugh März would make after an umpteenth case of bad luck.

After hearing her incredibly unlucky sister make those kinds of laughs all too many times, Eule could hear it very clearly in Teb’s voice. “Teb, if you ever need help, you can always ask me for anything. You don’t have to go through this alone.”

“Or me,” Star added. “All I got is my strength and speed, but I’ll lend you them whenever you want.”

Teb laughed, and this one felt even stronger than the ones that came before. “Thank you, both of you. Although, given how fast you ran when you were carrying me and Aloy, Star, I think I’ll hold off on your offer unless I really need it. I’ve heard of being cart-sick before, but I wouldn’t have thought being Star-sick was possible until 2 days ago,” he said with another stronger laugh, making Star rub the shell on the back of her neck sheepishly, before adding: “You know, people here tend to be afraid of outsiders. Some people say that they’re Tainted, and have faded from All-Mother’s sight and all. But you two? I think All-Mother can see you just fine, so if you two ever need help from Her, I think she’ll answer.”

Teb ended that speech with a bright smile and a wave goodbye as he walked, or rather, limped towards the Carja/Oseram trade mission. Feld and Sal waved goodbye at Eule and Star (with Sal blushing at Star’s grin and return wave, much to Eule’s amusement) before following after their friend, walking right beside him to catch him again in case he fell.

“Honestly, I’m glad Teb had friends that he can lean on,” Eule remarked with a warm smile at the retreating forms of Teb and said friends.

“Figuratively and literally,” Star quipped.

Eule could only snort at her lover, giving her a gentle boop in the soft biocomponent portion of her cheek. “You’re incorrigible,” she said with a giggle.

“Well, you’re adorable,” Star said with her own gentle boop into soft Eule nose, the owner of which squeaked in protest.

Eule’s smile turned mischievous as she leaned over and gave her lover a gentle peck on the corner of her mouth. “You’re also gorgeous, by the way.”

Star’s return smile was as mischievous as it was loving as she returned that kiss, but directly on Eule’s lips. “I may be gorgeous, but you’re incredibly, absolutely, and stunningly beautiful.”

Eule rewarded that kiss with her own on Star’s lips, making this one last several long moments before finally parting. “I love you when you’re being so effusive with your praise, and when you’re being so descriptive with your word choices.”

Star in turn rewarded that kiss with another kiss on Eule’s lips, but this time, with her tongue gently finding its way into Eule’s mouth, making Eule shiver in pleasure at the sensation of their tongues meeting each other. When their lips finally parted, with the sweet taste of their saliva in each other’s mouths, Star grinned and said: “And I love you when you’re too busy with me to care what anyone else thinks.”

It was at that point that Eule suddenly remembered that they had someone with them, and turned to look at that someone with a blush rapidly rising to the biocomponent face. Fortunately, Minali didn’t seem particular disturbed or even bothered by her flirting with her lover. On the contrary, Minali was watching them with an eager intenseness that echoed Aloy’s interest in their flirtatious activities.

“Uh, my apologies, Minali,” Eule apologized anyways, just to be sure. “You didn’t find that…odd, did you?”

Minali shook her head so quickly that for a moment, Eule worried that she might injure her neck.

“That was great! It was…um…I’ve seen mommy and daddy kiss before, but I’ve never seen women kiss until now. Umm…is it…does it…feel good?” Minali asked in a now shy tone, looking down at her feet instead of meeting Eule’s eyes.

Eule cocked her head curiously at Minali. Was she…interested in the idea of kissing another girl? At her age? Eule couldn’t decide whether to be amused or scandalized that Minali was showing interest in romantic matters at this early an age. She supposed that perhaps the Nora were…how do the Gestalt put it…early bloomers? It was the best explanation Eule could think of.

Eule was about to reply to Minali’s question in a hopefully explanatory yet tactful way, but then she noticed Minali look back up from her feet. At first, Eule thought that Minali had worked up the courage to meet her eyes again, but then she realized that Minali wasn’t looking at her. Instead, Minali seemed to be looking at something…past her?

It was at that moment that Eule suddenly heard the pitter-patter of little running feet behind her. As she was in the middle of turning around to see the source of that noise, she heard Star say “Whoops,” which was immediately followed by a very high-pitched yelp.

By the time Eule had fully turned around, she found herself with the peculiar sight of Star holding a very familiar-looking dark-skinned little Gestalt girl in both of her robotic hands, with said little girl in a strangely horizontal position, as though her lover had caught the little girl in mid-leap, apparently just before the dark-skinned little Gestalt girl barreled right into the Simple Universal Light Replika.

“Aww, you caught me! And I didn’t even say ‘Ambush’!” the dark-skinned little Gestalt girl whined.

Eule had to think for a bit to remember where she last saw this dark-skinned little Gestalt girl, which led to her remember this girl uttering that very word towards the Falke-like War-Chief, as well as the name Sona called this girl by.

“Vala?” Eule asked, hoping that she remembered the dark-skinned little Gestalt girl’s name correctly.

Said dark-skinned little Gestalt girl though grinned at Eule in delight. “You remembered my name!” Vala cried with a definite lack of indoor voice, similar to another little Gestalt girl Eule was familiar with but cranked up a notch.

Despite the apparent “ambush”, Eule found herself smiling at Vala and her antics. “Indeed, I did. So with that in mind, may I ask why you decided to, er, ambush me?”

“Well, mother said that I couldn’t ambush her while I was working, and she’s working right now, and it was getting really boring just watching daddy clean his weapons and Varl practice his spear stabbing, so I sneaked away and then I saw you two, and you said that you would talk to me later, and that means you could play with me, and so I ambushed you!” Vala said, barely pausing for breaths in between subject matter.

“Uhh, hate to break it to you, kid, but we didn’t actually agree to talk or play with you back there,” Star pointed out, a grin forming on her biocomponent face.

Eule could only nod in agreement at Star’s point, remembering clearly how Sona had interrupted Vala’s barrage of questions before the Replikas could even answer them.

A moment’s silence passed before Vala’s jaw dropped open in shock. “I misrembererd!” she shouted in just as much shock as she looked.

Eule cocked her head curiously at Vala’s words. Her Focus didn’t seem to translate the second one properly, apparently leaving it completely untranslated and thus unintelligible. A second later though, a small info box popped up next to Vala, which read:

“Translation error. Likely mispronunciation detected. Suggested correction: misremembered.”

“Huh, so there are limits to the Focus’ seemingly magical translation abilities,” Eule noted out loud.

“Guess even these things can’t tell what the other person is saying if they slur their words enough, or just not pronounce them right like this kid here,” Star added to Eule’s spoken thoughts with a grin.

“I got that word wrong too?!” Vala shouted once more, still in shock.

“Uhh, to be fair, we don’t speak your language, so we would probably get it just as wrong as you did,” Eule quickly consoled.

Vala’s shock disappeared, replaced by curiosity now. “Wait, if you don’t speak Nora words, then how are you talking right now?”

Eule pointed at the Focus on her right temple. “These devices. They speak for us, translating our words into your words, and doing the same for your words for us.”

“Ooh! Magic things!” Vala said with awe.

“It’s…most likely not magic. Just…anything but magic,” Eule corrected and insisted, thinking that if these Focuses were actually magic, then they would probably look a bit more…magical than this.

“Awww,” Vala now said in a tone of utter disappointment.

A tone which had the side effect of making Eule force herself to hold back her giggles to keep from offending Vala.

“Heeey! Stop laughing at me!” Vala said with a pout, indicating that alas, Eule’s efforts were in vain.

“Sorry, sorry!” Eule managed to get out in between giggles. She managed to get it under control, and then the sight of Star still holding Vala in that horizontal position like some sort of stray cat just made her break out into giggles all over again, from which in between them she also managed to get out: “Star, maybe you could try putting Vala back down?”

Star blinked in surprise, and then Eule giggled even more as a blush slowly bloomed on the Security Technician Guard Replika’s biocomponent face. “Uh, whoops. Forgot I was holding her,” Star said as she finally and gently turned Vala upright and set her on the ground in front of her.

“Thanks! Ohh, but you caught me even though I didn’t call out my ambush!” Vala said to Star with a grin, reaching up to pat her on her robotic upper arm. “Well done!”

“Uh, thanks?” Star replied uncertainly to being complimented by a small child, even as Eule continued giggling at the scene.

Eule’s giggling abruptly ceased when she heard a strange beeping sound, and an information box suddenly opened up at the top of her vision. The words within that box read:

“Alert. Incoming call. Caller ID: Aloy. Accept: yes/no?”

“Äloy?” Eule asked in disbelief. “How did–wait, yes, I’ll accept!”

Immediately afterwards, Eule suddenly Äloy saw snap into existence in front of her. At first, a panicking part of Eule’s mind thought that Äloy was an unregistered Bioresonant (and a very powerful one, at that), and that she had just teleported in front of her in the way Commander Falke had just teleported around S-23 Sierpinski when she needed to.

When Eule calmed down from that initial shock though, she noticed some key details about the Äloy in front of her. Said Äloy had a shimmering, translucent quality to her that was tinged with lavender. It was the same qualities that strange 3D recording of that unnamed father of young Isaac had possessed back in that Metal World facility, which all but indicated that this Äloy was of a similar nature to that 3D recording, rather than her actual, physical self being in front of Eule.

A hypothesis which was put to the test when Äloy saw her, her eyes and mouth both widening in surprised joy, and she shouted: “Eu-le!” before leaping at Eule to hug her.

Eule instinctively stretched out her arms to receive an incoming Äloy, but then was shocked herself when Äloy made contact with her, and then passed right through her with absolutely no resistance.

As Eule heard the sounds of a thud and an Äloy-flavored groan of pain, which she now realized was coming from her Focus, she looked around in even more shock and worry. “Äloy?! What happened?! Where are you?!”

“Here! I’m here!” Eule heard Äloy reply as the little Gestalt girl ran back in front of her, smudged with dirt and with a few reddened areas on her face, but otherwise more or less unharmed.

Eule breathed a sigh of relief before tilting her head curiously at her favorite little Gestalt girl. “Äloy, while I do believe that you are in need of a wash and minor medical treatment, I do have to know though: how are you here right now in front of me?”

“Oh, oh! Let me tell you!” Äloy, bouncing up and down in her own very un-ghost-like excitement. “Rost needed to take a nap and he let me train however I want today, so I decided to try training to see if this Focus can do anything, but…well, it was getting really boring to train without you and Star. So I wished that I could talk to you, and then the Focus asked me if I wanted to ‘Make a call’ to you, so I did, and here you are!”

“‘Make a call’?” Eule repeated curiously. “So the Focus is…a telephone as well?”

“What’s a ‘tele-fone’?” Äloy asked in her own curious tone.

“It’s…a device that lets someone talk to anyone else with a telephone as long as you dial in the right number to connect you with that other telephone,” Eule explained, then tilted her head incredulously at Äloy. “Although, this is the first telephone I’ve seen that lets you see the person you’re talking to.”

“Not me,” Star suddenly piped up, making Eule look at her lover in surprise.

“Really?” Eule asked incredulously. “Äloy is right here not a meter away in front of me. You can’t see her?”

Star shook her head. “I can tell that you’re talking to the kid from what you’re saying, but I not only can’t see the kid, but I can’t hear her too. It just looks and sounds like you’re talking to empty space.”

Eule blinked at her lover in surprise before suddenly remembering the other children around. A look at Vala and Minali revealed that they were both staring at her with looks of utter confusion and complete befuddlement written plainly on their faces.

“Why are you talking to the air?” Vala asked, confusion now inhabiting her voice along with her face.

Eule pointed right where the translucent image of Äloy was still standing in front of her, staring at Vala and Minali in just as much confusion as they appeared to be feeling. “You can’t see Äloy standing right there at all?” Eule asked.

When both Vala and Minali shook their heads, Eule scratched her cheek shell in contemplation. “Curious, and Star can’t see Äloy either despite having a Focus? Even more curious. I wonder, is this some way for the Focuses to make conversations private? How can I ask…Focus: can you include Star into this call between Äloy and me?” Eule asked.

As soon as the last word left Eule’s mouth, Star suddenly said: “Oh, I see it. Yeah, I accept–oh wow, there you are, Äloy.”

“Oh, Star! You can see me now?” Äloy happily, running towards Star.

Eule could already anticipate what would happen next. The only thing that surprised her was that Äloy merely tried to hug Star rather than leap towards her in a flying tackle-hug. Alas though, the same thing happened, and Äloy’s small arms went straight through Star’s breastplate-covered chest.

“Sorry, kid,” Star said with a sympathetic smile. “Looks like this Focus can only make you appear to be here rather than actually being here.”

“Oh,” Äloy said in disappointment, dejectedly waving her hand back and forth through Star’s arm.

“Well, at least I can see you as clear as the Red Eye. Well, if the Red Eye was purple and kinda looks like a doppelganger a not-so-great Kolibri made while after several shots of schnaps,” Star quipped.

“What’s a ‘Ko-lee-bree’? ‘Hummingbird’…it’s a bird?” Äloy asked, her curiosity overtaking her depression for the moment.

“Yeah, an extinct one, but they’re also another model of Replika,” Star explained. “They’re short and weirdly cute, but kinda spooky.”

“Hmm, the one I spoke to seemed to be fairly normal,” Eule noted.

“She didn’t try to read your mind or anything?” Star asked, with both curiosity and worry in her tone.

“No, she did,” Eule simply replied. “She was open and…casual, yes, about it though. She didn’t act like it was anything special. I think it’s just normal for her.”

“Hmm, if you say so,” Star said with a voice loaded with uncertainty.

“These ‘Ko-lee-bree’ can read minds?” Äloy asked incredulously.

“It’s some Bioresonance spookiness on their part. Kolibris are one of the few Bioresonant Replika models, you see,” Star explained.

“Ohhh, that weird thing you were talking about before,” Äloy said with a nod. “I wouldn’t mind asking one of these ‘Ko-lee-bree’ how they do it.”

“Pretty sure that’s a State secret, but I’m not going to stop you here if we ever meet any Kolibris,” Star said cheerfully to the translucent lavender Äloy, who smiled back at the Security Technician Guard Replika.

“Wait, are you still talking to this Aloy?” Vala asked as she looked back and forth at Eule and Star with a frustrated look on her little face. “That’s not fair! I want to talk to her too!”

“Um, but…Aloy is the outcast girl,” Minali pointed out.

“Ohhh, so that’s her name?” Vala asked with wide eyes. When Minali nodded, Vala immediately turned back to the Replikas. “That’s double not fair now! I want to talk to Aloy and find out what she did she do to get outcasted!”

“She didn’t do anything,” Eule explained, remembering the anger she felt upon learning that. “As far as we know, she’s been an outcast ever since she was born.”

As Äloy nodded in agreement, still complete unseen to the other two Gestalt girls, both Vala and Minali’s mouths dropped open in shock.

“But…she was a baby back then, right?” Minali asked quietly. Without waiting for an answer, she then continued in that same quiet tone: “How could a baby do something so bad that she got outcasted? That’s…not fair.”

“Yeah, babies can only wave their arms and legs, cry, and poop their clothes,” Vala said, with a troubled look on her normally cheerful face now. “If that’s enough for a baby to be outcasted, then every baby would be outcasted.”

Eule smiled down at both Gestalt girls. There was something heartwarming about how their childish logic cut straight through to the heart of the problem, straight past the unfair sentencing to see the real problem with that outcast sentence. It was unfortunate and ironic that the Nora adults couldn’t see as clearly as a pair of young children.

Vala then adopted a determined look on her face. “Now I double double want to talk to Aloy now! Can’t you let me talk to her too?”

“I…may I talk with Aloy too?” Minali asked, looking up hopefully at Eule and Star. “Please?”

Seeing both of these children willing to defy a law that was very clearly being applied unjustly just to speak with a lonely little Gestalt girl filled Eule with determination. “Focus, can you include these two Gestalt children into our conversation with Äloy?”

A text box opened up at the top of her vision, which read: “Scanning for compatible devices to connect to…error. No compatible devices detected on individuals designated as ‘Minali’ and ‘Vala’. Unable to connect individuals into chatroom. If individuals have compatible devices, please try again. If problem persists, please contact Faro Automated Solutions technical support at [UNABLE TO VERIFY CONTACT INFORMATION. PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER.].”

Eule could only blink at the information her Focus just presented her. She assumed that compatible devices meant the Focuses or devices like them, which implied that there were more than just the Focuses that exist. But ‘Faro Automated Solutions’? That was…maybe the name of the family who owns that store? But…why contact the Faro family selling these Focuses when it’d be far more logical to just contact the ministry in charge of manufacturing them? Surely, said ministry would have Aras who could provide that level of technical support, right? Then again, these people have clearly never heard of Replikas, so maybe it’d be a Gestalt technical staff member who’d be answering the phone?

And what did the Focus mean by “Unable to verify contact information”? Was it unable to reach this technical support? Does it even know what that contact information is? There were so many questions running through Eule’s biomechanical head from this, and seemingly no way to answer them.

Eule ended up shaking her head to clear it. Her thoughts were clearly running off right now, so she needed to get the back on track. The problem seemed to be that Vala and Minali needed Focuses or something like it to be included into this “chatroom” that she, Star, and Äloy were part of. While Vala and Minali definitely did not have any such devices on their person, Eule knew perfectly well where to get more of them. After all, there were still four of them in her medical satchel after giving one to Star and another to Rost.

The solution seemed easy, but that apparently easy solution created another problem. Simply letting Vala and Minali borrow a pair of her spare Focuses was the obvious solution, but then again, Rost seemed to be highly uneasy about them at first, only barely agreeing in order to allow for communication between him and the very much non-Nora language-speaking Replikas.

“Vala, Minali?” Eule asked, focusing the two children’s attention on her. “Do you know if the Nora have any laws against the use of…Metal World relics?”

Minali blinked at Eule. “We’re not supposed to go into Metal World places though,” she pointed out.

“All the adults say it’s forbidden, and that you get outcasted if you do,” Vala piped up.

Eule gave Star a look, which happened to be returned by Star at the same time.

“Let’s not mention that Äloy was in that Metal World place then, over,” Star radioed.

“Agreed. I don’t want to find out if she can be punished with something worse than being an outcast, out,” Eule radioed back, before saying out loud: “But is there any law against wearing a Metal World relic if it wasn’t in a Metal World place?”

Vala and Minali gave each other a look before returning their gazes to the Replikas.

“Dunno. I never asked,” Vala replied.

“Me neither, but umm…maybe it’s probably bad to be wearing them if they come from the same place? Maybe?” Minali posited.

As Eule sighed in disappointment though, Vala piped up again with: “Why are you asking, anyways?”

“Well, you see: this Focus claims that you need to be wearing a Focus to hear our conversation and see Äloy, and I have Focuses that you can borrow, but–”

“Oh! I’ll take one!” Vala said happily, holding her hand out.

Minali looked startled at Vala’s blithe attempt to possibly break Nora law. “But–”

“Oh, it’ll be fine!” Vala insisted, before whispering quietly to Minali: “If anyone asks, just say we didn’t know it was breaking the law.”

Eule could only laugh nervously at this apparent criminal enterprise Vala was embarking on, but she was happy that these children were willing to go this far just for an illegal conversation with someone.

Minali, meanwhile, looked down at the ground in thought for a short while before looking back up at Eule, and thrusting out her hand the same way Vala was doing, prompting Vala to grin at Minali in joy. Eule could only answer their determination by reaching into her medical satchel for two Focuses, and then dropped one into each tiny hand.

“You simply hold them up to your right temple here,” Eule explained, pointing up at where her own Focus was. “And then let go. It should fly into your temple and stick there. To remove it, you just pull it off. I have no idea how it works that way, but it does.”

Both Vala and Minali did exactly as Eule instructed, and even after watching it done many times by now, Eule still found it very strange that the Focuses just stuck to the Gestalt children’s temples as though they were magnets sticking onto a Replika’s carbon steel skeleton. Even after several discussions, neither she nor Star could come up with any kind of explanation or even a theory on how that was possible.

Star had just thrown her hands up in exasperation and had said: “It’s probably Bioresonance technology…somehow.”

Eule had very little idea how Bioresonance worked, so she couldn’t say at all if that was the case, but she wouldn’t be surprised if the Focuses were indeed Bioresonant…somehow.

Regardless, the Focuses seemed to be functioning perfectly, as was evidenced by Vala and Minali looking around them in awe, as well as the glowing, almost Falke-like halos floating just above the Focuses, seemingly serving as an activation light.

“So many lights,” Vala breathed in wonder.

“It’s like the stars came down from the sky and–oh! Umm…are you Aloy?” Minali asked shyly.

Äloy just stared at Minali, blinking in surprise before looking down at the ground in a Minali-like shyness Eule never expected to see from the normally outgoing little Gestalt girl.

“Yeah,” Äloy mumbled, before she dared to look back up to meet Minali’s blue eyes. “Hi…um…Minali.”

“H…Hello,” Minali replied just as shyly.

The shy exchange might’ve gone on forever had Vala not stepped in and said very happily and very loudly: “Hi! I’m Vala! Nice to meet’cha!”

That seemed to break the ice, so to speak, and cause a friendly conversation to begin between the three little Gestalt girls. They ended up talking about the most random things, from their likes and dislikes, to what they ate that day, to even if they found any interesting bugs.

Eule smiled warmly at this scene throughout that conversation, comfortably leaning herself against Star as she did so, with Star just as comfortably wrapping an arm around her in a one-armed hug.

“The kid looks really happy,” Star said softly.

“She does,” Eule commented just as softly. “I’ll bet that this the first time Äloy has ever spoken with children her age before.”

“And all because of an otherwise reasonable law being misapplied to a little kid,” Star mused with a dark look on her face.

Eule could only nod at that. What else was there to say about it? Being made an outcast certainly seemed more reasonable a punishment to her than being forced to work in a remote mining colony.

Suddenly though, a young male voice rang out: “Vala! Where did you go?! Stop playing hide and seek already!”

“Oh, no! It’s Varl!” Vala hissed. “Quick, hide the Focuseses!”

Vala and Minali both immediately pulled their Focuses off and shoved them into their pockets, looking as innocent as possible as Vala’s apparent older brother soon strolled into view and saw them.

“There you are!” Varl said as he rushed over. “You can’t just run off like that. You’re going to get into so much trouble.”

“Dad said that I could play in Mother’s Heart!” Vala shot back, with a tongue deployed for emphasis. “I’m still in Mother’s Heart, so I’m not in trouble!”

“Knowing you, you’ll find a way to get into trouble here somehow,” Varl shot back with his own stuck-out tongue, before turning to Minali and politely saying: “Hi, Minali,” prompting a just as polite greeting from Minali, before finally turning to Eule and Star, and saying: “I’m really sorry if my little sis caused you two trouble. I feel like her name should be Troubala rather than Vala sometimes.”

Amid Vala’s indignant denials, Eule shook her head vehemently. “It’s okay. She wasn’t any trouble. She was a very pleasant person to talk with.”

“And very energetic too,” Star added. “The very picture of a healthy kid.”

Äloy nodded as well, having run behind Eule and hiding there despite no one being able to see her without a Focus.

Varl breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thank the All-Mother. Now come on, Vala. Let’s go practice some bow-shooting and leave these outsiders alone now.”

“Aww, what?!” Vala protested. “I wanted to talk with them some more!”

“Vala, didn’t you say you wanted to win the Proving?” Varl asked in exasperation.

“Of course I do!” Vala shot back, earning a gasp from Äloy.

“Well, then you’ve got to start early,” Varl said dryly, before he smirked. “Or maybe you’re not that serious about winning that Proving? Well, you can just settle for being a Brave. Nothing wrong with that–”

“I’m going to win that Proving when I’m old enough, and there’s nothing and no one who’ll stop me!” Vala declared before running off, giving one last wave back at the group before presumably continuing back to her home for her Brave training.

“So Vala wants to win the Proving too, huh?” Star asked with a thoughtful scratch of her cheek shell.

“Yeah, Vala thinks she’s got something to prove over those chuffs who say women don’t make good Braves,” Varl said, before he looked at Star in surprise. “Wait, ‘too’? Are you going to run in the Proving too?”

“Me? Nah, that’s not it,” Star said, before casually saying: “Just asking for a friend, is all.”

Varl simply shrugged at Star. “Well, hope your friend makes it in the Proving too. I got to train for my own Proving in a few years, so see you all later. I mean it. I didn’t get a chance to talk with you two before, and so um…I want to when I have time,” he said with a friendly wave before running off after his younger sister.

It was only when Varl was well and truly out of earshot did Minali quickly put her Focus back on. “Oh wow, so it looks like you’ll have some competition at the Proving, Aloy,” Minali said.

“Yeah, but at least she’ll be competition I know,” Äloy said with a smile.

Minali smiled back at her new friend. “That’s true.”

Äloy then looked at her own new friend. “Are you going to be in the Proving too, Minali?”

“Me? No, no, no!” Minali shook her head vehemently. “I don’t want to be a Brave. I want to be a Carver like my mommy and daddy. Fighting sounds too scary anyways.”

“Oh,” Äloy said, looking down at the ground in disappointment.

Eule reached down to give Äloy a reassuring head pat, only for her hand to go right through Äloy’s head, and thus she pulled it back up with a sheepish look on her face.

“Oh, but I’ll be cheering for both of you,” Minali quickly said when she saw the very disappointed Äloy look. “And if you need any Carving done, then well, I promise that I’ll be good enough to Carve for you too.”

Äloy’s disappointed look turned into a smile. “Thanks, Minali.”

Minali blushed, and it was a very red blush that made Eule and Star both smile down at her. “Y-You’re welcome,” Minali practically mumbled.

Äloy blinked at Minali in confusion before looking back up at Eule. “So when are you and Star coming home? It’s been a really long time.”

Eule giggled down at her favorite little Gestalt girl. “We were actually on our way back.”

“Yup, and with those promised souvenirs too,” Star teased with a cheerful grin.

Eule ended up giggling some more at Äloy’s excitement, which ended up peaking so much that the little Gestalt girl was hopping in place. “Oh, oh! Thank y–oh, you haven’t given it yet! So I’ll thank you then! See you later, Eu-le! Star! Oh, and um, bye, Minali. So…how do I leave this ‘chatroom’…oh, yes, I do!”

With that final word said, likely to her Focus, Äloy then blinked out of existence just like a proverbial Falke teleporting away. The only difference here is a small information box at the top of Eule’s vision announcing: “Aloy has left the chatroom.”

“What’s a ‘chatroom’ anyways?” Star asked curiously.

“I was hoping you knew, actually,” Eule admitted.

Star merely shrugged in reply. “The only thing I can say is that this ‘chatroom’ these Focuses use seem a lot more advanced than network mail.”

Eule nodded, having used n-mail herself and definitely noticing that whatever technology the Focuses are using is many generations ahead of the text-only n-mail message service in use by the Eusan Nation, but that was a topic for another time. Right now, there was something else far more important to talk about.

“Minali, thank you for talking to Äloy,” Eule said, making the shy little Gestalt girl look up at her in surprise. “She doesn’t understand why she’s an outcast any more than we or anyone else does. As far as we can tell, she’s just been alone with no one but her father for as long as she remembers. I know you’re taking a lot of risks by, well, breaking Nora law like this, so I must thank you from the bottom of my heart for that, Minali.”

Minali’s immediate reply was to blush brightly, and then stare at the ground, poking her fingers together out of shyness. “Y-you’re welcome. But…well…I think I should thank you and Star too. For letting me get to know Aloy. I…I just thought she was an outcast like everyone else does…until you both showed me that it’s not as simple as that. S-So…thank you too.”

Now it was Eule’s turn to blush, giggling in embarrassment at the praise being heaped upon her by this adorable child. “You’re very welcome, Minali.”

Star’s own embarrassed giggles clearly told Eule that her lover was feeling much the same. “No problem, kid.”

Minali giggled herself in reply before gently pulling her Focus off and handing it back to Eule, who just as gently took it and returned it to her medical satchel.

Except, that act reminded Eule of something.

“Oh, Vala forgot to return her Focus,” Eule noted.

Star waved it off though. “It’s fine. We’ll just ask her for it when we come back later.”

Eule smiled warmly at that. “Yes, later. Heh, we can come back to this place later whenever we want. Honestly, after all that drama, it feels almost…unreal that we have so much freedom now.”

“A lot more freedom than we would’ve had back home, anyways,” Star noted with a bittersweet smile, as though the good memories of the Eusan Nation were being overwhelmed by the bad.

To which…Eule almost didn’t dare think it, but her lover had a point. Even after the Great Mutiny of just over a decade ago, years before Eule’s time, life for Replikas under the Eusan Nation weren’t actually all that great. Eule had listened to enough quiet, angry mutterings from Februar to learn that Replikas would become free citizens after working off their Commission, but that the Commission times can be incredibly long and becoming a “free” citizen often turned into a case of being free to be just as oppressed as any Gestalt citizen.

Here in the Embrace though, even with the injustices present, the life Eule experienced with Star was almost…too free. There was no AEON watching everyone with motion-tracking security cameras, Protektor officers, and State Bioresonants. There wasn’t even a Red Eye keeping watch over everyone in the sky above; only a bright Sun warming everyone below it. It almost felt terrifying to have that much freedom for once in her life.

Terrifying…and yet also…a relief?

“Hey, love? You’ve been pretty quiet for a while now. Are you okay?” Star asked with a distinct note of concern in her tone.

“Oh, yes, I am,” Eule replied with a reassuring smile, before that smile turned just as bittersweet as Star’s tone had been. “I was just thinking how we have so much freedom in the Embrace. Far, far more freedom than we had in our old home, whether in Sierpinski or back on Rotfront. It’s a little frightening, but at the same time, it’s also relieving. As though a weight that I didn’t even know that I had been carrying has been lifted off of my shoulders.”

“So you just chose not to notice Adler yelling at everyone for not following the latest rule change from AEON? Or all those security cameras just following every move we make?” Star asked with a slight hint of amused dryness to her tone.

“Mm, it’s more like I shoved it all into the back of my mind because I didn’t want to think about it consciously. As though I didn’t want to think about how stifling my own home was,” Eule admitted, before she gave a warm smile to her lover. “But now we have a new home, and there’s no eyes watching us but the ones belonging to those who care about us. So, let’s get back to them now, shall we?”

Star smiled just as warmly back. “Honestly, I do want to see the big guy and the kid again. It’s only been hours, but it feels like days. So, let’s go cure our little bit of personality destabilization with a dose of Rost and Äloy!”

Eule giggled at her lover’s enthusiasm, before she had a sudden realization. “Oh, hold on. Let me pick through our Machine parts first.”

A puzzled yet curious Star set their Machine parts sack on the ground and opened it up for Eule.

“Minali, your mother said that she needed a new…wood chisel, yes?” Eule asked. When Minali eagerly nodded, Eule continued: “Do you know which Watcher part is needed to make that?”

“Watcher thigh bone or lower leg bone,” Minali said instantly, without hesitation. “Mommy always uses them to make the best wood chisels.”

Eule deftly pulled out the required pair of bones and gave them to Minali. “Could you please take them to your mother? They’re gifts for helping us learn some critical things about this land.”

“As well as a promise of future business between us,” Star said with a cheerful wink.

Minali smiled brightly at the Replikas, and nodded energetically. “Okay, I will! Bye…Eu-le. Star. See you both later!” she said just as energetically before dashing off towards her parents.

And with that last task out of the way, as well as their Machine parts sack soon stowed away on Star’s backpack once more, the two Replikas were soon on their way back home.

Chapter Text

Passing once more through the gate to Mother’s Heart, but in the opposite direction this time, resulted in the pair of Nora Brave guards standing as stiff as possible, spear butts thumping into the ground. Once more, Eule was struck by how similar they were to alert Star units in posture, if not in height. Indeed, Star seemed to also feel the same, judging by the Eusan Nation-style salute she gave them as she passed by. It was a pity though that the Braves didn’t seem to understand the gesture, although one Brave’s hesitant raising of his left hand suggests that he at least understood the intent…maybe.

As Eule and Star walked along the trail back towards the mountainside where Rost’s house rested partway up on, Eule couldn’t help but notice the Metal Devil. When she and her lover were in Mother’s Heart, the buildings, people, and the series of events involving those people had helped obscure it from view. However, now that they were walking south and had a clear view of All-Mother Mountain, it was virtually impossible to ignore the sight of the massive insectoid shape from which equally as massive tentacles emerged and snaked into said mountain.

“You still as disturbed by that thing as I am?” Star asked, staring at exactly the same thing Eule was looking at.

Eule nodded in affirmation. “Do you by any chance have any theories as to what that might be?”

Star was silent for several long moments before shrugging. “A giant robot bug from outer space? Or maybe it’s corpse? Dead after trying to invade Vineta to devour it?”

Eule snorted in laughter. “That will probably do for an explanation until we find out what that Metal Devil really is…if we ever do.”

“Yeah, as cute as Äloy is and as knowledgeable as Rost is, I’m not so sure that what they think that thing is, is really what it is,” Star commented in as dry a tone as Rost was prone to.

Eule gave a nervous laugh at that, but she had to concede that her lover had a very good point there. The apparent Nora myth that Äloy told them didn’t seem to contain much in the way of solid fact. Or at least, none that Eule could pull out of it yet.

The trip back to the foot of the mountain was relatively peaceful otherwise (save for a quick stop in a patch of foxtail grass to avoid a random Watcher just wandering around by its lonesome), and the trip up the forested mountainside was just as…invigorating as usual. Despite the nature of the climb though, or maybe because of it, the sight of what Eule had come to know as the “front gate” of the wall around Rost’s house filled her and her lover with a feeling of sheer relief: like coming home after a long, grinding day of work.

A feeling that was only amplified by the sight of a familiar little Gestalt girl sitting on a log seat in front of the house, seated in such a way as to have a clear view of both gates, and fiddling with her Focus in the meantime. The moment Eule and Star appeared at the front gate though, Äloy immediately leapt up, causing her midair Focus screen to vanish like a Kolibri doppelganger, and raced towards the Replikas, calling out their names with all the volume of a very excited and relieved young child.

Eule barely had time to return the call before Äloy thumped into her and hugged her tightly to her small organic body, clutching an armful of Eule’s cloth Nora shirt with her left hand as Eule returned the hug with her free hand. Äloy’s right arm was busy hugging Star’s upper knee just as tightly, prompting Star to give Äloy some affectionate pats on her head, tussling her flame-red hair just a bit.

“You came back,” Äloy said, sounding a bit muffled due to how she had half-squished her face into Eule’s body.

“We certainly did,” Eule replied happily.

“What, did you think we were just going to leave after all that?” Star asked jokingly. When Äloy didn’t reply though, Star’s grin slowly slipped off her face. “Wait, really?”

“I…I had this thought maybe this was a dream. A really fun dream…but then I would wake up, and you two would be gone, and it’d be just me and Rost again, and there’d be no one else to talk to,” Äloy said, quiet now, her exuberance now replaced with depression.

“Oh, Äloy,” Eule said soothingly as she stroked the adorable little Gestalt girl’s cheek. “We’re right here. We’re real, not a dream, and we’re not going anywhere.”

“Yeah, you think it’s just a dream mussing up your hair right now, kid?” Star joked softly, trying to inject some good humor back into little Äloy.

Äloy sniffed. “But…that ghost woman just brought you here out of nowhere. What if…she changes her mind and took you back?”

Eule went still for a moment, and shuddered at the thought before fortifying herself with a comforting lean against Star. “Honestly, as much that thought scares me, I really don’t think it would happen. This ghost woman…this Alina Seo…she brought us here for a reason, presumably. She brought us out of the darkness of Sierpinski and into the light of the Embrace. I don’t think someone who would do that would just…fling us back into the mines on a whim,” Eule argued, as much for herself as for Äloy.

“Yeah, she probably went through a lot of trouble to do all that. She’s not going to go through that same trouble to reverse everything she did,” Star added, sounding as hopeful as someone trying to convince herself of that in addition to her target audience.

Äloy hummed for a bit before hugging both Replikas more tightly. “Yeah, that makes sense. This Aleena Sayo woman didn’t look like she would do that. She looked too…sad. So thanks, and sorry about making you two worry.”

Star grinned down at Äloy. “Don’t thank us just yet. You still got souvenirs to get, after all.”

Äloy suddenly snapped her gaze up at Star, her green eyes now practically sparkling like a pair of emeralds. “Oh, oh! I forgot until just now! What did you get me?!”

Eule giggled, relieved now that little Äloy has had her personality stabilized and was back to her normal, cheerful self. “Maybe we could wait until Rost is awake before we all see those souvenirs together?”

“Which fortunately, I am.”

Eule started at the sound of Rost’s voice, which came from the man himself as he walked towards them from the front door of the house, apparently having opened and closed it without making a single sound. Even now, his feet made not even so much as a scuffle as he stepped on the dirt, stone, grass, and other assorted plants in the yard.

Star whistled. “Already showing off your stealth skills first thing after waking up?” she asked with a playful grin.

“A hunter always takes some time to practice their craft,” Rost replied sagely, so sagely that Eule giggled at how much of a martial arts master he sounded like.

Through her giggles, Eule saw Rost give her as a reply a single raised eyebrow, and nothing more. No words were needed for him, as usual.

“So now can I, er, we see what these ‘souvenirs’ are?!” Äloy asked excitedly, eager to speak for herself as well as Rost.

A couple minutes of setting down backpacks on the ground and leather-wrapped packages on a dragged-out table later, and the various results of their Mother’s Heart shopping trip was now unveiled upon that table for all to see.

“What’s that ‘souvenir’?” Äloy asked very curiously as she pointed at the meat grinder.

“Ah, that’s not really a souvenir…or maybe it is? It is something we’re all going to enjoy, after all,” Eule mused to herself before smiling down at a confused Äloy. “This appliance is a meat grinder, and once that boar is ready for carving, I’m going to use some of that meat to make so many different kinds of sausage.”

“Sausage? Vurst?” Äloy asked, now sounding somewhere between confused and curious.

Eule started to open her mouth to explain what a sausage was, but then someone beat her to it.

“It’s an Oseram food made by stuffing ground-up meat into cleaned intestines,” Rost explained to Äloy, before turning to Eule. “I take it that your Eusan Nation tribe also makes these sausages?”

As Eule nodded in agreement, Äloy tilted her head one way and then the other. “That’s a weird way to eat meat,” she commented.

“It’s definitely worth it though,” Star commented in reply, and licking her biocomponent lips as well. “There’s nothing better as a beer snack than a nice fat Weißwurst with a soft, fluffy pretzel.”

“Ah, while I can certainly try to make a soft pretzel and I’m reasonably confident that I can do that, I don’t think I will be able to make a true Weißwurst without veal,” Eule pondered out loud, before she quickly noticed the disappointed look on Star’s face, as though she had kicked a Star-shaped puppy. “Oh, but I think I can make a decent substitute with the game meat we have! Maybe, um, maybe fox or raccoon might taste close enough to beef to count? Hopefully? Er, definitely!”

Eule was fairly relieved to see Star smile at her. “Heh, honestly, I think just the prospect of eating Eusan Nation-style sausages again is amazing. Thank you, love, and sorry if I came off as, well, ungrateful to you.”

Eule smiled back at her lover and gave her a hug and a kiss on her cheek. “No worries there. I’m just as excited to try to make sausages like the ones we had back home too.”

“Hmm, I’ve had Oseram sausages before, and they were decent foods,” Rost commented as he stroked his braided beard in contemplation. “I will be curious to see what kind of sausages your Eusan Nation tribe makes.”

“Ah, I take it that Torvund sold some sausages to you?” Eule asked.

What she didn’t expect to see was Rost looking surprised for a moment before he quickly–too quickly, Eule thought–said: “Yes, I did.”

Before Eule could ask Rost further about that though, Äloy piped up with: “So what’s in these bags?”

Eule smiled happily down at her favorite little Gestalt girl. “Something I think you’ll love. Here, let me open it up and take off this…Maizemeat, was what Rashaman called it, and…and ta-da!”

Äloy stared at the circular loaf of golden Mesa Bread sitting in the unwrapped package of leather, liberally coated with honey and covered in the same sunflower seeds and poppy, er, hintergold seeds as before with wide eyes. Admittedly, even Eule was admiring the bread, for a whole, intact loaf of freshly baked Mesa Bread, still steaming, was truly a magnificent and delectable sight.

Eule made a mental note to try to get the recipe out of Rashaman sometime in the future, although given the amount of mental notes she already had, she pondered asking Rost later for some paper and pencil to write them down lest she forget.

For now though, Äloy was the most important thing to focus on.

“Is this…bread?” Äloy asked with a tone of intense curiosity with just a hint of awe in it.

Eule started to open her mouth to explain what Mesa Bread was, but to her surprise, she was beaten to it.

“This is Mesa Bread: a Carja bread made from their maize grain,” Rost explained. “This one is just one of many of such breads, which the Carja together call ‘Maizebread’.”

“Huh, do you speak with Rashaman very often?” Eule asked curiously.

“The loud Carja merchant? Yes, but not often,” Rost clarified. “I only visit him infrequently to replenish my supply of chili powder and the rare bit of goat cheese, and nothing more.”

Eule started to nod, but then tilted her head in confusion at Rost. “Wait, but if you’re not allowed into Mother’s Heart, then how do you get all that?”

“Rashaman semi-regularly makes trips to Mother’s Cradle to sell Carja wares there. I just catch him to and from those trips in order to buy any chili powder and cheese he has,” Rost explained.

As Eule nodded in understanding, she turned to look at Star when her lover asked: “Wait, so let me get this straight: you basically stalk and hunt Rashaman…just to get your spice and snacks?”

Silence reigned for a few moments before Rost coughed. “I suppose…if you wish to call it that,” he said with a very faint hint of pink on his cheeks.

Eule couldn’t help it. She didn’t just giggle; she burst out laughing clutching her motor as deep belly laughs came out of her. “I’m sorry! I can’t–I can’t…why?!” she managed to get out in between sprays of laughter.

Soon, Star was joining in on the laughter, with Äloy’s high-pitched laughs adding to the cacophony. It got to the point where Rost had to help Eule, Star, and even Äloy sit down on some chairs, sighing all the while, but even through her own laughter, Eule noticed a smile on Rost’s face.

“If you must know,” Rost said when everyone had finally calmed down enough from the hilarity. “At that point, I…wasn’t quite used to people yet. So speaking with someone as…loud as Rashaman was…is, well, awkward for me.”

Eule had to cover her mouth to keep from bursting out into laughter once more. “Oh, by the Red Eye! You’re shy!” she practically squealed.

“I suppose that’s another way to put it,” Rost said in yet another of his Kitezhian dry tones.

“I’m sorry for laughing at you, I really am,” Eule said, still covering her mouth to keep Rost from seeing her grin. “It’s just…I did not anticipate you being capable of acting…adorable.” She managed to get that last word out without so much as a giggle. Really.

“Yeah, it’s like watching Storch Sieben act all embarrassed about how much she loves old pre-Empire Vinetan history. I swear, she was such an adorable nerd about it,” Star said with a giggle of her own.

“I thought all Storchs had to read about such things as part of their personality stabilization?” Eule asked, with curiosity overwhelming hilarity for now.

“Yeah, but from what Sieben said, a lot of her sisters treated those history and mythology books like they were funny stories to read, and forget about them the moment they put their books down. Sieben though? She took reading them seriously. If you gave her half a chance, she would’ve gushed about the weird mix of Vinetan democracies, autocracies, and everything in between that dominated the world before the Empress conquered them all,” Star explained, before she rubbed her cheek shell sheepishly. “And yeah, she’s gushed about them enough to me for me to remember a decent chunk of it off the top of my head.”

Eule giggled at the thought of a tall, stern Storch gushing about history with a Bashid-like enthusiasm and excitement. “Honestly, I would have liked to meet this Storch Sieben. She sounds like an interesting person.”

“Yeah, she was,” Star said with a laugh, before it died down to something softer. “She was.”

Eule reached out and held her lover’s hand, who squeezed it comfortingly in reply. They had both lost people they cared about back in Sierpinski. It was better to talk about them, to remember them instead of letting them be forgotten in the past. But…it was hard.

“Maybe you’ll feel better after a snack?” Äloy suddenly asked, holding out something to Star.

“Heh, thanks, kid,” Star said as she held her free hand out. However, when a piece of a familiar-looking pastry dropped into it, Star stared at the small chunk in her hand for a moment before asking: “Hey, kid? Isn’t this the Mesa Bread? Or a chunk of it, at any rate?”

Äloy nodded. “You looked really sad and this May-sa Bread is yummy, and you like yummy things, so I was thinking that this might make you feel better.”

Sure enough, a quick glance at the open package of Mesa Bread revealed that a chunk of it was in fact missing from its edge. A chunk that looked just about the right size for the small hand of a little Gestalt girl to have ripped off. Judging from the quiet chuckle Rost gave at the sight of missing chunk, he found it just as amusing as Eule did.

“So do you feel better?” Äloy asked, looking up at Star with a worried look on her face.

Eule watched as Star smiled a warm smile at Äloy before she stuffed the entire chunk of Mesa Bread into her mouth, chewing it with just as much relish as she did when Rashaman had handed her that slice just earlier today.

“It does. Not a lot, but…it does make me feel a little better, especially when it’s you handing me it,” Star said after she had swallowed the bread, before reaching out and pulling Äloy into her for a one-armed hug. “Thanks, Äloy. I mean it.”

Äloy giggled and grinned up at Star. “You’re welcome!” she said as she happily returned the hug with small arms and sticky hands, making Eule’s heart melt from both the situation and the sheer cuteness on full display here.

“Oh! Maybe if it makes you feel better, maybe you can let me try out your, um, Ein-horn revolver bow, er, revolver?” Äloy asked hopefully. “You know, like you said I could before?”

While Eule still had trepidations about letting a kindergarten-age child handle guns, the excited and eager look on Star’s face upon hearing Äloy’s request helped alleviate those fears.

“Yeah, we can do that!” Star replied with a grin, prompting Äloy to grin back, right before Star raised a black mechanical finger. “But the first thing we need to do before we handle guns: wash our hands. Aside from the grossness value and the time it’d take to clean our guns off afterwards, I’m not risking a malfunction because we accidentally got sticky honey into the inner workings of our guns.”

Eule readily agreed with the cleanliness part, but the possibility of their guns actively malfunctioning and suffering a misfire because of something as simple as honey getting into them truly and utterly alarmed her.

“Both of you. Wash. Now,” Eule ordered.

Star threw a Eusan Nation salute at Eule. “Yes, love!” she belted out.

Äloy also raised her own left hand, smacking it to her forehead with her palm facing outwards in an adorable replication of Star’s salute. “Me too!” she shouted with just as much energy.

Eule giggled at the mimicry just as Rost came back with a bowl of clean water, just as silently as when he left the house.

When everyone had finished washing any honey and assorted grime from their hands, whether organic or robotic (including Eule’s own hands and very thoroughly, just for personality stabilization’s sake), they were finally ready for these long-promised dry fire drills.

Or at least, preparing for them.

Eule and Star started by removing all live rounds from their guns. Eule removed the magazine of her Type-75 Protektor pistol, and then pulled back the slide, ejecting the chambered round. She then proceeded to manually remove all 10 rounds from the magazine, one at a time, laying them in a row out on an empty spot on the wooden table next to the rewrapped souvenirs. Needless to say, it was a far more tedious chore than what Star did.

All her lover had to do was swing her Eu-K508 S Einhorn revolver’s cylinder out, and then depress a plunger to eject all 6 rounds at once before carefully locking the now-empty cylinder back into place in a motion that looked very much practiced to Eule. It’s not surprising in the slightest given how the Star units as a whole were. Eule wouldn’t be surprised if they all were that like that with their Einhorn revolver, since they were the standard sidearms of the Star units, after all.

Eule felt maybe a smidge of jealousy at that, but she was more annoyed at her own weapon for how the simple act of preparing it for dry fire drills was such a surprisingly complex chore. Eventually though, she had 11 rounds on the table, allowing her to slide an empty magazine back into her pistol’s grip. She then pulled down a little switch on the left side of the slide to disengage the slide stop, allowing the open slide to lock back forward. Now, it was finally fully unloaded at long last.

“Okay,” Star began “Now that we both have unloaded guns–”

“I can hold them now?!” Äloy asked with peaking excitement.

“Incorrect!” Star belted out, much to Äloy’s shock. “First! We need to go over the most important part about guns: gun safety!” Star then pointed a finger straight at Eule. “Love, what are the Six Rules of Gun Safety?”

Eule was quite amused by her lover’s impression of a drill sergeant, or rather, one of the stricter of her Eule sisters who went into teaching, but Star’s lessons have taught her that gun safety is something that should be taken seriously at all times. Thus, Eule holstered her empty pistol and stood stiff at attention, left hand up at her forehead in a Eusan Nation salute.

“Ma’am!” Eule belted right back at Sergeant Star, before continuing more calmly: “Here are the Six Rules of Gun Safety:

“1. Treat all guns as if they are loaded, and always assume that a gun is loaded even if you believe with absolute certainty that it is not.

“2. Always be aware of where your gun is pointing. Always point your gun at whoever or whatever you intend to shoot. Never point the gun at anyone you don’t intend to shoot or…yourself.”

Eule’s words hitched for a moment there as the memory of her pistol’s barrel touching her right eye came back to haunt her, but then she felt the warm hands of her beloved Star take hold of her right hand, and there was Star’s lovely face above her smiling encouragingly at her, mouthing: “It’s okay. We’re here, not back there.”

With that sight and sensation strengthening her, Eule took a deep breath, hummed a bit of “Eulenlieder” to stabilize herself a bit more, assured a very worried Äloy that she was fine (and also assuring a just-as-worried Rost in the process), and she continued listing off the Six Rules of Gun Safety.

“3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to fire. Never rest your finger on the trigger, no matter how comfortable it is. The risk of accidentally pulling the trigger is too high.

“4. Always be aware of your target and everything around your target. Remember that if your bullet misses its target or overpenetrates its target, it can hit something or someone other than your target, and…what was it you said, Star? Once Frau Bullet leaves the barrel, Frau Bullet is friends with no one?”

The snickers coming out of her lover’s mouth and the subsequent thumbs-up told Eule that she quoted that line perfectly, and thus she continued:

“5. Know how to operate your gun. Practice with it regularly to familiarize yourself with properly loading, unloading, and cleaning your gun; as well as how to properly clear gun malfunctions, because guns are just machines, and any machine can malfunction.

“6. Store your gun safely and securely to prevent unauthorized use. Both guns and their ammunition should be stored in secured and locked containers, and ideally in separate such containers. If possible, locking devices should be used on your guns, but unfortunately, we couldn’t acquire any such locking devices in Sierpinski.

“And that conclude the Six Rules of Gun Safety. Any questions, Äloy? Rost?” Eule asked.

“That was a most excellent demonstration of your knowledge, Soldat Eule. Well done,” Star said, staying in a professional tone right up until her grin popped up at the end.

“Thank you, Gefreiter Star. You are too kind to so compliment your subordinate like this,” Eule said with a mischievous smile on her face the entire time.

“Oh, don’t you know? All Gefreiters are Soldats promoted one rank up. Thus, all I have to do is promote you to Gefreiter, and you don’t have to call me ‘ma’am’ anymore,” Star said with a similarly mischievous grin.

“Oh? And what do I have to do to deserve such a promotion?” Eule asked, batting her eyes playfully at her lover.

“Nothing,” Star said with a grin. “I hereby officially promote you to Gefreiter, and now we are equals.”

“Oh, but that won’t do. Such generosity from my dearest deserves a fitting reward,” Eule said, still in a mischievous tone that was now also flavored with something a bit more…sultry.

“Oh? And what kind of fitting reward do you have in mind for me, comrade?” Star said, her voice gaining its own sultry quality even as a blush rose up on the soft, biocomponent part of her cheeks.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe a nice, long massage could work? And then maybe I could give you a massage in return?” Eule suggested, putting extra emphasis on the M-word.

But before Star could reply to that suggestion, there was a loud Rost-flavored cough.

“Eu-le. Star. Need I remind you two that we have a child in our company?” Rost said in an even drier tone than usual. “I’m honestly surprised that I have to remind you, of all people, Eu-le.”

Eule blushed deeply as Star gave an embarrassed laugh at their momentarily forgetting that there were other people in their company. Eule glanced at Äloy in the hopes that the little Gestalt girl hadn’t heard too much of the Replikas’ flirting, but thankfully, Äloy didn’t seem to be paying attention to them in the slightest. Instead, she appeared to be muttering something under her breath…and a closer listen revealed that Äloy was muttering the Six Rules of Gun Safety to herself.

Eule smiled at this, happy that her favorite little Gestalt girl was taking gun safety as seriously as the subject required.

“Anyways,” Rost spoke up, pulling Eule and Star’s attention to him now. “I do have a question about these ‘Six Rules of Gun Safety’. You mentioned a strange word in Rule 4: ‘overpenetration’. This is the first time I’ve heard such a word. What does it mean in this context? From what I can tell, it means…penetrating something too much?”

“That’s broadly what it means, yes,” Eule replied with a nod. “In this specific context though, it refers to a bullet penetrating a target and emerging out the other side, causing anything or anyone behind the target to be hit by that bullet.”

Rost raised one of his bushy, dark brown eyebrows in a gesture that was by now all too familiar to Eule. “This is the first I’ve heard of even a casterbow arrow being powerful enough to do that.”

“Yeah, a bullet from a gun is a lot more powerful than any cross–I mean, casterbow,” Star explained. When she saw that Rost’s eyebrow was still raised up, she sighed. “I really should demonstrate for you. I just have to figure out how…”

“Star, dear? Maybe we should teach them how to do these dry fire drills before we get into firing real bullets? Remember, it’s more logical to teach Äloy and Rost how to walk before teaching them how to run,” Eule pointed out.

Star grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, good point. So Äloy, you think you got those Six Rules of Gun Safety?”

Äloy nodded carefully. “I think so.”

Eule smiled. “Alright then. Repeat them for us, if you please.”

Indeed, Äloy proceeded to repeat all Six Rules of Gun Safety right back at Eule and Star, much to their mutual approval. It wasn’t in the exact same words Eule used, but it was perfectly clear that Äloy understood the basic concepts behind them.

Even Rost, when quizzed on the Six Rules of Gun Safety, showed that he too understood those basic concepts.

“These Six Rules of Gun Safety are not that different from the ways one should be careful with casterbows, to be honest,” Rost pointed out.

Star thought for a moment before shrugging. “Ehh, I say that’s a close enough comparison. But for now though, let’s get shooting! Er, I mean, imaginary shooting, since it is dry fire drills, after all,” Star hastily corrected when faced with Eule’s dry look.

Eule nodded at Star, giving her lover a satisfied look before asking her: “Is there any special procedure that I or Äloy need to remember for a dry firing compared to a live firing?”

“No, it should be the same as a live firing, save for the lack of flying bullets,” Star quipped.

“To which we can all be grateful for right now,” Eule quipped right back before looking down to Äloy. “Now Äloy, this is how you use the Type-75 Protektor pistol:

First, you take up a shooting stance. This will allow you to have the most stable platform to fire your pistol from–”

“Oh, just like a bow and spear stance?” Äloy asked excitedly.

“It is the same principle, so yes, it is,” Eule replied with a smile. “So this stance, which Star calls the, er, Kaufmann Stance?”

“Well, a modified variant of it, but yeah,” Star corrected with a nod.

“Right, so the stance goes like this: stand with your legs spread slightly apart, and hold your pistol out with your dominant arm fully extended. Bend your non-dominant arm slightly like so, and hold the pistol with both hands by the grip so that you can look down the sights along the top while having the most stable grip on the pistol,” Eule explained as she pointed her pistol at a conveniently nearby Grazer dummy. “Line up the three dots of the sights along your target, and/or point the laser sight onto the target like so–”

“Oh, oh! I’ve seen that before!” Äloy shouted even more excitedly than before upon seeing the red dot appear on the target on the Grazer dummy’s flank, right on the yellow center. “That red dot appeared when you were aiming your pistol at that Strider! What did you call it again? A ‘laser sight’? What’s a ‘laser sight’? How is your pistol doing that?”

Eule giggled at the barrage of questions and the accompanying curiosity. “A laser sight is…well, first, let me explain what a laser is. A laser is a beam of coherent light…er,” Eule thought more on the subject as she watched Äloy stare at her in confusion at the terminology. “A laser is…imagine light that’s all made to travel in a single direction so that it all hits a single tiny spot. That’s basically what a laser is. A laser sight is just another way for a gun to be aimed by lining up the laser with where the gun is pointing. As for how my pistol is doing it, you can see the laser emitter here right at the top of the grip. That’s where the laser is coming from. The laser sight is turned on by a button here on the front of the grip, so that you can press it with your middle finger. See? Off. On.”

“Oooh,” Äloy said in an impressed tone, watching the laser disappear and reappear again.

“Oh, but you’re not supposed to aim the laser sight directly into the eyes of anyone, Gestalt or Replika. Lasers will permanently damage the eyes of either in seconds, and it’s even worse for Gestalts because they can’t easily replace their eyes, so please don’t do that,” Eule noted in a warning tone.

“OOH!” Äloy practically shouted in an even more impressed tone than before, much to Eule’s surprise. “I want one for my bow! Then I can see where I’m aiming really quickly and blind any of my enemies if I’m quick enough too!”

“Alas, I don’t have the technical knowledge to take my pistol’s laser sight off, and I really don’t want to try,” Eule said with a nervous laugh at the thought of accidentally destroying her laser sight, giving up said laser sight, and at Äloy having learned entirely the wrong lesson from her warning about laser sights.

But then again… Äloy was going to be a warrior of her people, after all, Eule thought. It occurred to her that despite how nervous it made her felt, imagining Äloy risking her life against foes, that bloodthirstiness might help her against those same foes. So perhaps… Äloy was learning the right lesson after all?

“No, no, I don’t want yours,” Äloy corrected, interrupting Eule’s thoughts and alleviating one of her fears. “I want to make one for myself. Hmm, maybe I can learn to make one from someone from your Eusan Nation tribe then? Star, do you know how to make a laser sight?” the little Gestalt girl asked hopefully.

Star’s initial reply was to burst out in laughter, momentarily disturbing the lesson she’d been giving to Rost.

“Kid, I know as much as my Eule here about how to actually make one of those things. Which is to say: I know absolutely nothing. The Eusan Nation doesn’t exactly train us Star units to have Ara-level technical competence, you know?” Star explained after that initial outburst.

“Aww,” Äloy whined.

“Aloy, remember that not all Braves are Carvers as well,” Rost gently reminded her.

“But you’re great at being both a Brave and a Carver,” Äloy pointed out. “Oh, and a Builder too!”

Rost coughed. “I admit: I am not the typical Brave.”

“Ah, so not all of the Nora’s Braves are as awesomely Ara-like as you are?” Star asked cheekily.

“I’m still not entirely certain who these Aras are that you keep comparing me to other than that they are more of your people, but I stand by my previous statement,” Rost said in his usual Kitezhian dryness, before stroking his braided beard thoughtfully. “Still, Aloy does have a point. Not on the crafting of these laser machines, but about blinding your enemies with them. Your lasers seem to appear in an instant at what you are pointing. Perhaps you can in fact use them to blind your enemies? Including possibly Machines, since you mentioned that they will blind Replikas as well, and you mentioned that your people are…well, partly Machines? Or rather, human-made machines rather than the beasts of steel?”

Eule nodded at his correction, and then stopped as she thought about what he said. “Hmm, maybe? Would that work, Star?”

“Hmm…maybe?” Star said as she scratched her cheek shell in thought. “You would have to aim the laser directly into their eyes though, and then hold it there for several seconds for there to be permanent damage, so…it could work, but I’m not sure any enemy is just going to stand there for several seconds while you shine a laser directly into their eyes. Maybe more as a temporary blinder if you have good aim? Yeah, that could work better.”

“Hmm, I see,” Eule said as she thought about actually doing that to someone attacking her.

Eule’s mind instantly went to shining a laser directly into the dilated red eyes of one of the things that used to be one of her sisters. Considering how fast it could move, even she doubted that shining a laser into its eyes would work fast enough before it had sunk a kitchen knife into her, and so had to agree with her lover on that.

A series of tugging sensations at her Nora animal skin hose brought her thoughts back down to Äloy.

“Hey, can I hold your pistol now then to try out your lessons? Please?” Äloy asked pleadingly.

Eule looked at the Protektor pistol still in her hands, pointed down at the ground, and sighed. She did promise Äloy, after all. “Alright, time for a practical lesson now.”

Soon, Eule was watching over Äloy handle her Type-75 Protektor pistol, while Star busied herself doing the same with Rost as he handled her Eu-K508 S Einhorn revolver.

“Huh, this is a weird weapon,” Äloy noted, turning the empty pistol left and right to examine both sides of it. “It’s so…Machiney. There’s so many bits you can move on it, like this thing here.”

Before Eule could stop her, Äloy thumbed the magazine release, ejecting the magazine straight out of the grip. But before Eule could react though, Äloy caught the empty magazine before it hit the ground, giving a sheepish look up at Eule.

“Oops,” Äloy said as she inserted the magazine back into the pistol.

“No worries. I, um, also did that once when I first handled a pistol,” Eule said with a sheepish look of her own down at Äloy. “Unlike you though, I wasn’t fast enough to catch that magazine before it hit the floor.”

Äloy stared at the magazine release button with a frown. “Why is this bit even here then? To make you drop the ‘magazeen’ by accident?”

Eule giggled. “No, that’s the magazine release. It’s there to allow you to eject the magazine more quickly to reload…which admittedly is a moot point for me since I only have that one magazine, but the principle is still there.”

“Hmm, I guess,” Äloy conceded, before giving the Protektor pistol in her hand one more examination before beginning her shooting stance.

Eule watched as Äloy mimicked her own Kaufmann Stance more or less perfectly, and carefully aimed at the bullseye on the target of a nearby Grazer dummy. Eule could tell because a red dot had appeared over the yellow center, shakily staying there as Äloy held down the laser sight button. Äloy spent several seconds lining up her shot before finally pulling the trigger.

Only for nothing to happen as Äloy fruitlessly pulled at the trigger without it actually moving.

“Oh, wait, I forgot to teach you one very important thing about my pistol,” Eule said, realizing her error only now. “Do you see that switch on the left side of the pistol, towards the back? That’s the safety lever. Its purpose is to prevent the pistol from firing when you don’t want it to. Right now, it’s in the up position, so it won’t fire. To fire, you have to flip it down to turn off the safety…yes, like that. When you can see that red dot, it means it’s ready to fire.”

Äloy nodded and said “Okay,” before returning her aim to the Grazer dummy, and then pulling the trigger once more, but with the safety off this time.

This time, the Protektor pistol “fired”, with its firing pin dropping with an audible click. It was quite an unremarkable sound compared to if a bullet had been in the chamber, but for the purposes of teaching a child, it was more than sufficient.

“Huh, it clicked instead of going ‘BOOM!’ like Star’s revolver,” Äloy noted, actually almost shouting the word as if to emphasize how loud that Einhorn revolver had been on that first day. “Is it supposed to do that?” she then asked up at Eule.

Eule shook her head, noting with pride that Äloy was pointing the Protektor pistol at the ground, only turning her head to ask her question. “My pistol only makes that sound when it’s out of ammunition. When it does have that, it’s as loud as Star’s revolver."

“Ohhh, okay. It only makes noise when it has those bullets in it. Got it,” Äloy said with a nod before she aimed at the Grazer dummy’s target yet again.

Numerous clicks followed as Äloy made the firing pin go click with each trigger pull. Then after only a minute of this, Äloy then lowered her aim back to the ground with a sigh.

“This is boring,” Äloy complained. “It’s not doing anything but clicking. Rost, does Star’s gun do some other than click?”

“It seems to be larger than Eu-le’s gun, and the…cylinder, you called it, Star?” Rost asked for clarification. After a nod from Star, Rost continued: “It spins to the next hole every time I pull the trigger. Other than that though, it seems to be making identical clicking sounds.”

Äloy groaned, before turning and looking up at Eule. “I know you said you can’t get any more of your ‘bullets’ and you want to use as little as you can, but can’t you let me use just one? Just to see what it does? Please?”

Eule had to steel herself to avoid immediately giving in to the puppy dog eyes Äloy was currently giving her, no matter how adorable her favorite little Gestalt girl looked.

“Äloy, it’s–”

“It’s alright,” Star interrupted. Even as Eule opened her mouth to protest the ammunition wastage though, Star held up a hand to further interrupt. “What Rost said about not understanding overpenetration made me think about how to demonstrate it, and I think I’ve figured out how. Hey Rost, do you mind if I borrow a Grazer dummy, some Machine wire, and the biggest and flattest piece of Machine armor you have?”

“Hmm, you want a piece of Machine armor that’s large and flat?” Rost repeated for clarification. When Star nodded, Rost thought for a moment before nodding and handing back Star’s Einhorn revolver to her. To Eule’s appreciation, Rost handed it back in such a way so that the barrel was pointed at no one but the ground. “Be right back,” he simply said before walking off to the semi-covered storage shed on the side of the yard.

A short time later, Rost came back with a large bundle of Machine muscle and a roughly rectangular piece of Machine that looked like it had a semi-circular curve on one side, and was emblazoned with a peculiar symbol that resembled a white triangle, but if the bottom line suddenly angled upwards before reaching the leftmost corner, and ended at the center of the triangle, touching nothing.

“This is the shoulder plate of a Strider,” Rost explained. “It’s the largest and flattest piece of Machine hide that I possess. Will this do?”

“Yeah, that will work,” Star said happily as she took the Strider shoulder plate and Machine muscle bundle from Rost. “Alright, time to do my best impression of an Elster, and hope it works!”

“Oh, can I see your, um, revolver then while you do an Elster, Star? Please?” Äloy asked in her most adorable pleading voice.

A voice which, as it turned out, was just as effective against Security Technician Guard Replikas as it was against Simple Universal Light Replikas.

“Alrighty, kid,” Star replied just as happily as she temporarily set down her crafting materials in order to pull her Einhorn revolver out and hold it out to Äloy by the grip. “Be careful with her though. She’s the fourth-most precious thing in this world to me.”

“Oh my, that’s an oddly specific number,” Eule said with a mischievous smile. “And what, pray tell, are the first three things?”

“Well, you are definitely on the top of that list, my beloved Eule,” Star said, leaning over to kiss Eule on her lips and making her giggle in response.

“The second thing on that list would be this tiny little fiery soldier of a kid named Äloy here,” Star continued, reaching down with her free hand to pat Äloy’s head, making the little Gestalt girl grin the biggest and most adorable happy grin up at Star.

“And the third and final thing is old Rost, for welcoming us into his home and his family’s life,” Star said with a happy grin directed at Rost. Rost merely looked down at the ground in reply, although Eule smiled when she could just about make out a faint blush on Rost’s cheeks.

“So yeah, after all of you, my Einhorn here is the most precious thing to me. Do take care of it while I’m Elstering, will you?” Star asked of Äloy, still holding out her revolver to the little Gestalt girl.

“Hmm, why Elstering and not Araing?” Eule asked out of curiosity.

“Because this, my love, is not even going to be close to being as neat as what an Ara would do,” Star said with a grin.

Eule snorted in amusement, just as Äloy nodded rapidly and reverently took the Einhorn revolver from Star’s hand with both hands, while also being careful not to point the barrel at anything but the ground as she held it. “I won’t let you down!” Äloy happily said up at Star, who nodded and then returned to her “Elstering”.

Eule ended up watching Äloy try to make sense of and get a proper grip of the Stars’ signature standard sidearm, while occasionally glancing over at Star to see how her “Elstering” was going. To be honest, it seemed to be going fairly well from what Eule was seeing. Especially since Rost walked over to help out after Star was having trouble with the knots, and between the two of them, were now doing a pretty good job tying the Strider shoulder plate onto the midsection of the Grazer dummy.

With that witnessed, and with no small amount of warmth at seeing her Star and Rost work together like this, Eule turned back to Äloy and asked: “So, how is Star’s revolver?”

“Urgh,” Äloy groaned as she struggled with the Einhorn revolver. “It didn’t look that big, but it’s actually really big. I can’t even reach the trigger.”

Indeed, Eule watched as Äloy’s index finger was patently unable to extend long enough to get a grip on that slightly curved revolver trigger. In fact, that tiny index finger was barely even able to clear the gap between the grip and the trigger guard.

“Hmm, may I try Star’s revolver out then?” Eule asked, now curious herself as to what her lover’s weapon felt like.

A few moments of trading later, and Eule was now holding her Star’s Einhorn revolver. Hefting it in her hands, she found that it was indeed quite large and heavy now that she was holding it for herself. It felt like it was about twice as heavy as her own Protektor pistol now sitting snugly in its hip holster. It even felt larger, if not quite as long as the Protektor pistol.

Fortunately, as Eule lifted it up to aim down its sights at the same nearby Grazer dummy she and Äloy were using as dry fire target practice, her Star’s Einhorn revolver wasn’t so large that she couldn’t reach its trigger. That said, it seemed to take just a bit more force to pull that trigger than her own pistol. Eule was fairly certain that it had something to do with Star’s increased strength compared to her own.

But all in all, handling Star’s Einhorn revolver made Eule realize something.

“So how is she?” Star asked excitedly, plopping her chin onto Eule’s shoulder.

A move that conveniently allowed Eule to easily turn her head and give her lover a peck on her cheek. “Honestly, I think I prefer my Protektor pistol. Your girl is a bit too…bulky and heavy for my tastes, I believe.”

“Yeah, fair enough there. I’ve heard similar complaints from Gestalts who use one of these girls, but then again, I guess that’s why the Einhorn revolvers are Star-issue only,” Star said with a thoughtful look on her face.

Eule could only nod in agreement. “So how is that Elstering going then, out of curiosity?” Eule asked as she handed Star her revolver back.

Star grinned in reply. “Why not look for yourself, love?”

And so Eule did, and indeed, with all the Machine wire now securing the Strider shoulder plate to the Grazer dummy’s flank, there seemed to be no chance whatsoever that it would slip off, given what Eule assumed Star wanted to do with it.

“Got it in one,” Star said when Eule brought up those assumptions. “That one question has been bugging me all this time: how tough are the Machines’ armor against our guns? I know I’ve shot those Watchers in the eye before, but given how even an arrow will penetrate it, it’s not really a good test for bullet penetration. A Strider’s shoulder plate though? Now that’s more like it.”

Eule nodded in a surprised agreement. That was a conundrum Eule hadn’t even considered before. She just assumed that her Protektor pistol’s bullet would just punch right through the Machines’ armor given what the Einhorn revolver’s bullets did…but now that Star brought it up, Eule was now no longer so sure.

“So we test my pistol out first?” Eule asked.

“Definitely,” Star simply replied with a nod. “Here’s hoping that 10x20mm VMG is effective against Machine armor.”

Eule ended up taking a single 10x20mm full metal jacket round, putting it into the top of her Protektor pistol’s magazine, and inserting that magazine into her pistol’s grip. Once that was done, all she then had to do was pull her pistol’s slide all the way back, and then released it to let it lock back forward, and there! Now she had a round chambered in her pistol and ready to fire.

“Alright, now just fire it dead center of that plate, just above that…triangle-looking mark. It’s the flattest part of it, so it shouldn’t ricochet,” Star instructed.

“What’s a rico-chet? Ab-prallen?” Äloy asked curiously.

“It’s…oh, that’s something I should’ve mentioned earlier,” Eule admitted guiltily, mentally hitting herself for forgetting to mention something that important about guns. “Ricochet is when a bullet hits an angle too steep for it to penetrate, and so it bounces off whatever it’s hitting. This can result in the bullet hitting something or someone you didn’t intend to, so please watch out for angled surfaces when you’re shooting at something.”

“Hmm, so like arrows that hit Machine armor wrong then,” Rost commented as he stroked his beard in contemplation.

Eule grimaced. “So arrows can ricochet too?”

Rost nodded sagely. “I’ve seen it happen when a hunter shoot an arrow at a Machine or other hard surface when it’s at a shallow angle relative to the hunter. I’ve even had that happen to me when I was young.”

Eule made a mental note of that and added it to the top of the pile. She did not want to accidentally ricochet an arrow into Rost or, Red Eye watching, Äloy.

“It’s okay, love,” Star said, giving her a gentle hug and a comforting kiss on her cheek. “We know what a ricochet is and how to avoid it.”

Eule scoffed, returning the kiss on Star’s own cheek. “Only because you taught me and drilled it into me. Basic firearms training from nearly 5 years ago definitely does not prepare me to using a pistol after such a long time without even touching one.”

“True, but you’ve more than proved that you can use a pistol well,” Star insisted.

“Only barely. Why do you think I still have all this ammunition after everything in Sierpinski?” Eule asked bitterly.

“I would put that down more to how good we were at scavenging for bullets,” Star pointed out. “You did fire that pistol of yours a decent amount of times before we stumbled on that cache of bullets in the mine’s office.”

“True, but I feel bad for anyone else following us, since we took all the 10x20mm bullets to fill up our ammunition supply,” Eule noted. “At least we left that flare gun and signal flares there.”

“You’re going to have to be a pretty good shot to use that thing as a weapon though,” Star mused. “No sights period, iron or laser, means that you can’t aim it for shit, and I’ve never practiced on the range with a flare gun before, of all things.”

“I don’t think any of us ever did,” Eule mused right back. “Plus, we didn’t have any room in our inventory for them without violating the Rule of Six, so maybe that was of help to anyone else following after us.”

“Hopefully,” Star continued her musing, before giving Eule another smooch on the cheek. “But that’s all in the past now. Can’t do much about that, so how about we do something about the present and future now?”

Eule gently turned Star’s head to give her a proper kiss right on her lips. “Heh, you’re right. Silly me for dwelling on the past like that. Let’s live in the present then, shall we?”

Thus, a short time later, Eule adopted a Kaufmann Stance as she aimed down the sights of her Protektor pistol, with the red dot of her laser sight hovering right on the spot just above that triangular symbol her Star indicated.

As Eule was aiming though, she suddenly realized something.

“Äloy? Rost? Could you both please cover your ears? Guns are extremely loud, even for something as small as my Protektor pistol, and can damage Gestalt ears from overexposure,” Eule explained without taking her eyes off the piece of Strider shoulder plate.

“Yeah, remember how loud my Einhorn revolver was?” Star pointed out. Eule couldn’t see what was happening, but she knew that Äloy and Rost had followed her request/advice when Star told her: “Both of them have their ears covered now. Now you’re weapons free…er, that means ‘fire at will’.”

Eule gave an amusedly exasperated snort at Star’s use of military terminology, which as a non-combat Replika model she most definitely did not understand on an instinctual level the way her Star did, and took just a few more seconds to aim before finally squeezing the trigger of her Protektor pistol in a single smooth motion the way her Star had taught her.

There was the familiar BANG of her Protektor pistol firing, sending its chambered 10x20mm full metal jacket round straight into the Strider shoulder plate in a spray of sparks as it made supersonic contact with the steel of the Machine armor.

There was also, at the same time, a most definitely unfamiliar shriek coming from behind her.

At first, Eule thought that Äloy had shrieked in surprise at the sound of her pistol firing. But then her biomechanical brain registered a fraction of a moment later that the voice that shrieked, while it certainly sounded young and female, also did not sound like Äloy.

“Who’s there?!” Rost shouted.

Eule spun around in shock, and raised her pistol…only just now realizing that the slide was locked open, still smoking a bit from the just-fired cartridge that had been thrown out of the ejection port. A Protektor pistol with no bullets was just an awkwardly shaped Protektor club, but Eule was more than prepared to use it as such to defend her loved ones. Especially little Äloy, who had dashed behind the protective bulk of Rost’s leg the moment everyone heard that shriek.

Even Star had brought her EIG-2 stun prod out, and looked ready to use its red business end to give their potential attacker an electroshock surprise.

Only, as it turned out, Eule, Star, and Rost had no need to defend anyone. Especially when Eule saw a group of very familiar-looking children peeking out from behind the fence walk out sheepishly at being called out.

“Minali?! Vala?! And Teb, Sal, and Feld?!” Eule asked in shock as she instantly lowered her pistol’s aim to the ground. Then she noticed Rost standing there with a spear in hand, frozen in the middle of holding it out in a combat stance. “Rost, it’s okay! They’re just children we know from Mother’s Heart, and see, there’s Teb right there!”

“Yes. I’m well aware of that,” Rost quietly said as he adopted a much more relaxed stance, looking down at the ground with a faint blush on his cheeks.

It suddenly occurred to Eule that Rost had, completely by accident, broken Nora law. It certainly explained why he looked so embarrassed right now. Eule could only pat his shoulder in consolation, with Star joining in after sheepishly re-hanging her stun prod onto her belt by patting his other shoulder.

“So kids, you got a reason to have been stalking us or something?” Star asked curiously as she returned her stun prod to her belt…and more than a little wryly as well.

“We weren’t…stalking,” Minali tried to protest, and sounding not quite like she meant it.

“Yeah, Minali’s mother and father gave her something to give to, uhh, Oo-ler and Star?” Vala said in a questioning tone, wondering if she got Eule’s name right, which Eule could hear that she most definitely didn’t. Eule could at least forgive Vala for being a small child though as Vala continued: “But both of you left already and we couldn’t find you, so we asked Teb and his friends to help us find you, and we tracked you from your footprints, which by the way look really, really, REALLY weird, like you have ovaly feet with three toes in front and one in back, but so we tracked you here, and then you were doing something so we just watched, and then you made your weapon make thunder like a Blast Bomb, and so Minali screamed, and now here we are!”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Teb apologized in a tone that couldn’t have been any more apologetic if he tried. “The kids here were pretty insistent.”

“And what do you mean by ‘we’, kid?” Sal asked Vala in a snide tone. “We’re the ones who did all the tracking, not you.”

“Hey, I was the one who pointed out Oouo-ler and Star’s weird footprints to you three!” Vala retorted in a fully outraged tone.

“Okay, one, they’re not weird. They’re awesome footprints,” Sal rebutted indignantly, making Eule quietly giggle to herself as Sal cast glances towards her Star. “Two, those footprints are so distinct that any hunter with half a brain could spot them from meters away. You spotting them isn’t anything special.”

“Oh yeah, you big dummy? If it’s so easy, how come I spotted it first?” Vala continued to retort, sticking her tongue out at Sal.

Sal’s indignity turned into outrage of his own. “Oh yeah, well–”

“Sal, All-Mother give me strength, you’re arguing with a 6-year old. Could you stop embarrassing yourself already?” Feld half-cried out in a tone of complete and utter exasperation, palming his face for added effect.

Sal started to open his mouth to retort, and then after a moment, slowly closed his mouth and stared down at the ground, blushing.

“Hah, I win!” Vala cried out in childish triumph,

Sal’s only reply was to groan loudly and cover his face, all while Star was cracking up over the situation. Even Eule barely managed to keep it down to some giggling rather than the full-on laughter that Star was pouring out.

It was when everyone had calmed down enough that Eule was able to finally speak about what Vala had been talking about in her explanation that, admittedly, bordered on rambling.

“So Minali, what did your parents wish to give me and Star?” Eule asked the shy little Gestalt girl.

Minali started at the address, and dithered for a bit seemingly in an effort to collect herself, before finally walking up to Eule, pulling out a leather bag from her belt. “Hold out your hand, Eu-le,” Minali instructed.

Eule did so, being both puzzled and curious as to what Minali would hand her.

Minali then reached into her leather bag, and pulled out a single steel Shard, placing it gently onto Eule’s robotic black palm. That wasn’t the end though. Minali continued placing Shards onto Eule’s palm one by one, until eventually, 20 Shards rested on Eule’s plastic-skinned hand.

“Mommy and daddy said that they didn’t feel right about just taking a Watcher bone from you and Star without, umm, ‘equal payment’. So they gave me 20 Shards to give to you both, but then I couldn’t find you in Mother’s Heart, and then Vala and everyone helped me, and so…um, now here’s 20 Shards, so um, yeah,” Minali explained, trailing off towards the end as she stared at the ground.

Eule looked at the small pile of Shards in her hand and sighed in exasperation, but it was an amused exasperation at the coincidences in this world. It would seem that she and Minali’s parents were of like mind in this regard. Gestalt or Replika, it didn’t seem to matter. Some people just can’t stand having leaving debts behind.

“Minali,” Eule began after dropping off the Shards in her Shard sack, causing the shy little Gestalt girl to start and raise her gaze up to meet Eule’s robotic eyes. Eule rewarded that courage by crouching down, allowing her to properly meet Minali at eye level. “When you get back to your parents, could you please tell them for us that Watcher bone had been meant as a gift, with no expectation to have that gift be reciprocated? Nevertheless though, could you also please tell them for us that we appreciate your repaying us for the gift, and that since we are apparently of like minds, then maybe we can continue to have this friendly relationship in the future?”

Minali’s surprised look quickly turned into a happy grin. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell them! I hope we can have that, er, friendly relationship too?”

Eule held the hand that wasn’t currently enclosing a small pile of Shards to Minali. “It’s a promise!”

The sensation of Minali’s tiny organic hand shaking her own robotic one made Eule’s biomechanical heart warm to a very comfortable level that couldn’t be registered on any internal thermometer.

“Hey kid, didn’t you say before that you also had something to give to, er…Ue-le and Star?” Feld asked.

Eule watched as Vala stared at the older boy for several moments before her jaw fell open in shock. “Oh! OH! I nearly forgot! Thanks, Feld!”

Before Eule could ask what that was all about, Vala dashed forward and skidded to a stop right next to Minali. Vala then rummaged through her pockets and pouches in front of a perplexed Eule, before finally crying out in triumph and holding out a–

“Oh, our Focus!” Eule said in surprise.

“Yup! Sorry about forgetting to give it back to you after I was done,” Vala apologized in an embarrassed tone.

“It’s okay, really,” Eule consoled as Vala dropped the Focus into Eule’s waiting palm. As Eule returned that small, strange, and precious device to her medical satchel, she continued: “You were suddenly called out to leave, so it’s perfectly understandable why you would’ve forgotten about it.”

Vala still looked down at her feet in depression. “I still feel bad about it though…and stupid on top of it.”

As Eule tried to figure out how to make Vala feel better, or at least not miserable as she was now, a familiar little voice piped up with: “But you’re not stupid.”

Vala looked up in surprise to see Äloy looking at her, having stepped out from behind Rost’s leg and had stepped up to just behind Eule.

“Aloy,” Rost said in a warning tone.

A warning tone which Äloy completely ignored.

“You’re not stupid. You forgot once. Everyone forgets things sometimes. That doesn’t make you stupid. If everyone who forgot something once is stupid, then everyone is stupid,” Äloy continued to Vala.

Vala stared at Äloy for a moment before her mouth dropped open in shock, and she suddenly said: “You’re right! Thank you, Aloy!” Vala said before she immediately threw a hug around Äloy.

Eule watched as for a moment, Äloy went completely stiff, as though she was not used to being hugged before. Eule was perplexed by that, since she had been hugged by Äloy very openly before, and she’d seen Äloy freely hug both Rost and Star.

It only just now occurred to her though that Äloy had never been hugged by a member of the Nora tribe before, which by their laws, would be quite illegal despite how perfectly harmless the act was. Thus, Eule realized that this was a very new experience for her favorite little Gestalt girl, and one which apparently was a source of complete and utter bafflement.

Vala then suddenly sprang up, releasing her hug upon Äloy. “Oh, wait! Was hugging outcasts unlawgal?! Uhh, I’m sorry, Aloy, if I got you in trouble for breaking the law.”

“Kid, even talking to outcasts is illegal,” Feld said in a very Rost-like dry tone, with emphasis on the corrected word.

Vala turned to look at Feld in shock. “What?! But then how can I apologize to an outcast?!”

“You can’t. That’s the thing,” Feld said slowly, as if speaking more slowly would make Vala understand him better.

Vala’s only response was to pout at Feld and stick her tongue out at him. “That’s unfair! I can’t even apologize to an outcast if I do something wrong? That doesn’t make sense!”

“Kid, laws don’t have to make sense. You either break them or not. Breaking them gets you into trouble, and that’s that,” Feld said in the tone of one who is absolutely not going to be breaking any laws if he can help it.

“Feld, don’t be mean,” Teb said to his friend.

“Yeah, didn’t you say something about how embarrassing it was to argue with a 6-year old?” Sal pointed out.

Feld shrugged. “I’m not arguing. I’m only pointing out the facts here.”

“You know, kid,” Star began with a neutral expression on her face that worried Eule. “Let me ask you this: if you find a law to be unjust and unfair, even if it’s only in a specific instance, would you still follow it?”

Feld merely shrugged once more. “Even if it is, what can I do but follow it? It’s not like my opinion will change a law once it’s been preserved into writing.”

Star’s neutral expression turned into a lop-sided look that wasn’t quite a frown but also wasn’t quite a smirk. “I suppose you would be a perfect little citizen in our Eusan Nation, blindly following the law because you believe that your opinion doesn’t matter. Or at least, that’s your excuse.”

Feld’s only response to that was, again, to shrug, but Eule could see a bit of annoyance in his eyes at having his worldview being called out like that.

Star sighed when she didn’t get a verbal answer from Feld. “Oh well, time to get back to what we were doing before, everyone. Want to see what a pistol round does to Machine armor, Eule?”

“Oh, yes. Let’s do that,” Eule said quickly, partially hoping that this distracts her lover from whatever is troubling her about Feld’s worldview and partially because she herself was curious about that whole penetration issue herself.

Thus, the entire group found themselves right next to the Grazer dummy, looking at the Strider shoulder player affixed to its flank over the target. Said shoulder plate looked the same as before, save for a flattened round metallic lump right where Eule had shot it that was most definitely not there before.

“Oh, ohhh. I did not expect that to happen. I’m so glad that we did this test now, instead of finding this out in the middle of a fight with a Machine,” Star noted with a clear tone of worry in her voice.

A clear tone of worry that most definitely worried Eule in turn. “Is there something I’m missing about this?”

“You don’t…oh yeah, you don’t,” Star said sheepishly, scratching her cheek in embarrassment. “Okay, what I expected was for the pistol bullet to punch through the armor, leaving a hole in it and burying the bullet into the Grazer dummy. This though…”

Star reached over, dug her robotic black fingers into the lump, and pulled it out, letting a few broken Shards fall to the ground and revealing the brass cylinder of the bullet. Said bullet though, had its normally conical head squashed into a flattened, wide lump, resulting it looking vaguely like a metallic mushroom now.

“This kind of mushrooming of a bullet? That usually only happens when a bullet fails to penetrate the target, and just squashes into it,” Star explained. “Granted, it did break the armor where it hit, so it’s better than not penetrating at all. All the same though, Eule, you’re going to have to aim for weak spots and unarmored sections of a Machine’s body with that pistol if you want to do serious damage.”

Eule gulped before nodding. Star was right. Now Eule too was glad that they ran this test in the nice safe environment of Rost’s yard, and not in the wilds when a raging Strider was charging at her.

“So are you going to test your Einhorn revolver on this shoulder plate too then?” Eule asked with nervous curiosity.

“That’s what I’m planning,” Star replied with a nod. “12x40mm should have a lot more penetration power than 10x20mm, even hollow-point, but I want to make absolutely sure.”

Star the proceeded to snatch one of those 12x40mm hollow-point bullets from Rost’s table, pulled out her Einhorn revolver from its holster, swung the cylinder out, inserted the bullet into the bottommost chamber, and carefully pushed the cylinder back into place with her now-free hand. All in a single fluid motion that happened in the span of just over 3 seconds.

It made Eule’s clumsy efforts to load a single round into her Protektor pistol’s magazine look…well, clumsy. She supposed that practice makes perfect here, and so resolved to practice that more in the future.

Although a thought did occur to Eule. “Hey, love? How come you didn’t just swing the cylinder closed like what people do in some of those war movies? Is that faster or…”

Eule trailed off and stopped talking because of the look of shock and horror that Star was giving her.

“Love, don’t do that. That’s one thing from those movies you should never, ever copy with a revolver of any kind,” Star insisted. “Swinging a revolver cylinder shut hard like that will bend the yoke, er, the little metal lever connecting the cylinder to the revolver, and mess up the alignment of the cylinder with the revolver. At best, you can expect a much less accurate revolver due to the chamber being misaligned with the barrel. At worst, that same problem could be bad enough to cause a misfire. And even worse? This is just one of the ways jerking a revolver cylinder shut like in those movies would damage a revolver, so please, don’t do that.”

Eule nodded with the attentive air of a diligent student, as did Rost next to her and Äloy below her. Even their new audience all nodded with that same diligent air, with Star’s gun instructor mode having ensnared them in her spell.

“Okay, so with that settled, time to test this girl out against robot horse armor…oh, and cover your ears, kids. This is going to get loud,” Star said with a grin.

As soon as Star saw that every one of their Gestalt audience had covered their ears, Star turned back to the Strider shoulder plate and raised her Einhorn revolver, the red dot of the revolver’s laser sight appearing on the shoulder plate just to the right of where Eule had shot it. After a few seconds of focused aiming, Star finally pulled the trigger.

The thunderous report of the Einhorn revolver echoed across the yard, and likely across much of the Embrace as well, as a flash of fire emerged from the revolver’s barrel and more sparks flew from the Strider shoulder plate. This time though, there was no “mushroomed” bullet left behind in the sparks’ wake. This time, there was a neat hole drilled right through the Shard of Strider armor.

“Well, that’s a relief,” Star said with a grin, and blew away the smoke still wafting from her revolver’s barrel. “At least I know my girl can still punch through Strider armor.”

Eule freely admitted: her Star looked so incredibly sexy like that, with her free hand on her hip and her Einhorn revolver pointed up at the sky just after blowing away that gun smoke.

And it seemed that she wasn’t the only one.

“Wow, Star’s so pretty when she does that,” Sal muttered as though in a daze…and just loud enough for everyone to overhear him.

Star merely turned around to look at Sal with a single raised eyebrow of black plastic-laced hair.

As Eule started to giggle along with the young children, but for what Eule suspected were somewhat different reasons, Feld palmed his face with both hands.

“Sal, is it even possible for you to get out a single sentence without embarrassing yourself?” Feld groaned.

Sal’s reply to all of that was to blush and look down, staring with the utmost intent at his own feet, perhaps hoping that he will sink into them.

“Feld, a little mean there? You know, just a little?” Teb asked just a bit archly at his friend before he gently patted Sal’s shoulder. “Don’t feel bad, Sal. We all put our foot in our mouth sometimes."

Sal merely groaned again, still apparently hoping his feet with rescue him from this embarrassment.

“Hey, Sal.”

Sal looked up from his feet at last, and then continued looking up, and up, and up until he was finally looking up at Star’s face in front of him.

“Ur…hey…Star,” Sal said nervously.

Star looked down at him for a few pregnant moments before she smiled down at him. “Thanks for the feelings there. While I appreciate it, I’m already taken, so hopefully no hard feelings, okay?”

Sal blushed, but after a few moments, he nodded. “O-Okay. Heh, I guess my, er, crush on you was doomed after all. But um…thanks for telling me, and I hope you’re happy with the guy you’re with.”

Eule at this point was just staring at Sal in a look of amused astonishment. Based on how everyone reacted to them, she had assumed that it was fairly obvious that she and Star were a couple. Was she wrong, or was this a Sal conundrum?

Although based on how the trio of little Gestalt girls were giggling at Sal, Eule was reasonably confident of the latter.

Star, meanwhile, was smiling at Sal in a way Eule could tell from experience indicated incoming mischief on her part. “Close, but no cigar. You’re off by about, ohh, this much.”

Eule could already tell what was going to happen when Star’s free hand reached across Eule’s shoulder and began gently caressing her cheek. Eule was only too happy to turn her head and look up at Star as her lover bent down and just as gently planted a kiss on her lips.

Truth be told, Eule was feeling more than a bit…frisky. It was only 2 days since she and Star had had sex, but it felt strangely longer than that to Eule, possibly due to how much stress the trial had put on her. It likely contributed to Eule taking the opportunity to give Star some tongue during that kiss. It was a very quick tonguing, but it at least satisfied some of Eule’s desires and prevented her from pushing Star to the ground and unclothing her lover as fast as her robotic hands could allow…perhaps, Eule thought, she was more pent-up and in need of “personality stabilization” than she had thought.

“Wow, now that was a kiss,” Star said in a bit of a happy daze.

“You’re the one who initiated the kiss, love. You should talk,” Eule replied in a bit of a happy daze herself.

“Whoa. Girls can be mates with other girls?” Sal asked, sounding as if he was in a daze of his own, but for entirely different reasons…kind of.

“Sal? Could you possibly ram your foot in any harder? Maybe if you take that foot and shove it in a bit more, you might even fit the entire foot in. I mean, All-Mother bless me with strength, how did you not notice?” Feld said in a weary tone full of nothing but dry disbelief.

It said something that even Teb only laughed nervously and patted a still-dazed Sal comfortingly on the shoulder, who seemed to be more or less insensate now given how little he was saying. Or rather, the absolute silence coming from his closed mouth.

“Uhh, hey, you okay?” Star asked Sal, now concerned. “I didn’t crash you by accident, did I?”

“Do you, um, need time to process this?” Eule also asked, with Star’s concern spreading to her as well.

Judging by the continued silence, Eule could only assume that Sal had indeed somehow crashed despite being a Gestalt and/or needed time to process his feelings on the matter.

“He’s fine…I think,” Feld said, with concern creeping into his voice now.

“Come on, Sal. I’ll buy you some beer back in Mother’s Heart to help out with this, okay?” Teb suggested.

Sal finally nodded, and allowed himself to be led away by Teb, who then called back: “Vala, Minali? It’s time to head home now. The sun’s going down, and we really don’t want to walk back in the dark.”

“Okay!” Vala cried out happily.

“Ok-oh! Almost forgot,” Minali said before she turned to the one person Eule hoped she would turn to. “I…er…um…bye…Aloy,” Minali said haltingly, only making eye contact with Äloy in glances, but she was without question talking to Äloy.

Äloy for her part simply stared at Minali with her mouth wide open, as if she couldn’t quite believe this was happening to her after an entire life’s worth of being ignored by the Nora.

“Kid? You know you’re breaking the law, right?” Feld asked disbelievingly.

“Well, maybe like Star said: this law is, um, ‘unjust’ and ‘unfair’ in this, erm, case,” Minali managed to get out in between stammers, all with a determined look on her face. “Maybe…maybe I don’t want to follow what the law says about Äloy! If the law is wrong, then I don’t want to follow it!”

Rost groaned, covering his face with one of his massive hands. Star only gave Minali a happy thumbs-up and an even happier grin. Even Eule gave Minali a warm smile, in spite of the fact that she was breaking her tribe’s law.

As for Äloy herself? Eule’s favorite little Gestalt girl was still staring at Minali with an open mouth, but now that gaze was turning into something hopeful. Something that was stirring Äloy’s heart and soul.

“Umm, Minali?” Äloy asked, making the shy little Gestalt girl turn to look at Äloy, and look her properly in the eye. “Thank you. Really,” she said quietly, giving a small, fragile smile at Minali.

Minali gave her own small smile back, fragile from both nerves and shyness, Eule guessed. “You’re welcome. Umm, see you again then? Aloy?”

“Well, that does it!” Vala suddenly cried out, startling both Minali and Äloy before the latter could have a chance to reply to the former’s question. “I don’t care about that stupid law either! So it’s not just Minali who’ll see you again, but me too!”

“Same here!” Teb called out. “Breaking the law once didn’t hurt me, so why not keep doing it?”

“Teb! Not you too!” Feld groaned out loud.

Äloy’s stunned look quickly turned into a warm smile being directly at Vala and Teb as well. “Yeah, see you all again.”

As Minali and Vala left with Teb, Sal, and Feld; waving goodbyes at Äloy, Eule felt something warm stir in her heart just as much as Äloy surely was. Even if it was just a pair of fellow little Gestalt girls, at least Äloy now appeared to have friends among the Nora for the first time in her life.

“Aloy,” Rost said at last, making the Äloy in question jump and then look up at Rost nervously. “You know that by doing that, Minali, Vala, and Teb are all breaking the law, right?” he asked.

“Yeah, I know,” Äloy said with a nod.

“And you know that they’re doing this for you, right?” Rost asked further.

Äloy nodded again, this time much more solemnly. “I know. I’ll do everything to not get them in trouble. I’ll only talk to them here or where no one else can see. They’re only breaking the law if someone sees them, right? So if no one but us sees, then they won’t get in trouble.”

Star barked out a laugh. “Spoken like a budding criminal…or rather, a budding revolutionary,” she said, playfully patting Äloy’s head as the little Gestalt girl giggled.

Out of another Star unit’s mouth, that might’ve been an indictment or accusation. Out of her Star’s mouth though, it was a warm compliment for an action worthy of praise. How strange that this series of events managed to occur in a place that’s seemingly so far from the Eusan Nation, Eule thought…or maybe it was because it was so far that this seemingly impossible event was entirely possible.

Rost’s reaction to Äloy’s words was to sigh. “I see you’ve put a lot of thought behind that, and I can already tell that no words of warning or forbidding I speak will dissuade you from meeting Minali and Vala in the future.” He sighed once more before speaking: “Well, then all I can say is: be careful, Aloy.”

Äloy gasped in pure delight and hugged his leg in just as much delight. “Thank you, Rost!”

Rost merely sighed once more, but his gentle patting of Äloy’s head told Eule that even if Rost didn’t like this wanton law-breaking, then at the very least, he will not try to stop it. All, as Eule suspected, for his little girl and her happiness.

“Come on, then,” Rost said. “Let’s help get Eu-le and Star’s laundry in, and then let’s have dinner. I am eager to eat Mesa Bread again after so long, as well as Maizemeat. I am curious as to what to do with all of that leftover steamed watergrain though. I can’t think of anything else to do with it other than boil it into more stew.”

Eule smiled at Rost. “Well, if you will allow me to cook dinner for us once more, then perhaps I can show you? There is a recipe from Rotfront that calls precisely for old rice like this. I’m sure you and Äloy will love fried rice.”

Rost raised an eyebrow at Eule, and then sighed. “Very well, then. This night too, but the next dinner is mine. This will be two nights in a row where I have not cooked dinner, and my fingers are already feeling a bit restless.”

Eule’s smile at Rost turned beatific. “Well, now you know how I felt when you wouldn’t let me cook for, hmm, three nights in a row? For a cook who’d been working in the Protektor kitchens of S-23 Sierpinski daily without interruption prior to everything happening, that felt like an eternity.”

Rost stared Eule in the eye for a few moments before his face broke into a wry smile. “Point taken. It seems that we are of like mind as far as cooking goes. In that case, allow me to observe you cooking this fried watergrain, or ‘rice’ as you call it. I am genuinely curious as to how one fries grains like that without turning them hard and nearly inedible?”

Eule returned that wry smile with a joyous carbon steel-revealing grin. “Oh, do let me demonstrate that in person, Rost. I guarantee you will enjoy it.”

*

After collecting the spent brass cartridges from Eule and Star’s firings of their weapons (Star mentioned that she wanted to try using them to make dummy rounds out of), and bringing in the laundry (and folding their Eusan Nation uniforms into neat piles) along with Eule and Star’s assorted items and purchases, including the rest of Äloy’s souvenirs, and removing their outer clothes to strip down to what the Nora called “undergarments”, Eule got to work on that fried rice.

That Oseram frying pan turned out to be quite useful for that. It was impressively large, and suitable for frying decently large quantities of rice. Eule did intend to use it for experimenting with cooking up plastic Machine parts, so after doing that, she had no intention of using this pan to cook food for Rost, Äloy, or any other Gestalt. Even disregarding the issue of how difficult it’d be to clean off molten plastic from the pan afterwards, she had no intention of contaminating whatever food she cooked with it with microplastics or even just the taste of plastic. Thus, this may be the only time she ever got a chance to cook food with it that they could all eat.

…Actually, Eule now wondered if Torvund had a smaller pan she could use for that experimentation, because it seemed a waste to use such a large and usable frying pan for that specific niche purpose only, but that’s a thought for the future. For now, in the present: there was only fried rice.

As Eule expected: the old steamed rice, with its much lower water content, was perfect for fried rice, with the multi-colored nature of Nora rice making for a much more aesthetically pleasing fried rice than usual. For the meat: she added in the last remaining bits of boar offal and then some diced smoked boar meat. For the vegetables: she added in some diced multi-colored wild carrot that Rost still had in his Chillwater chest, along with chopped green onion/springbulb and spinach/tendergreen, just like yesterday. What wasn’t like yesterday was the addition of some of the newly purchased Carja ginger chopped into thin spears to be added to the vegetable mix for flavoring.

Together with some lard to use as frying oil, and the resulting fried rice came out marvelously, resulting in heaping helpings of fried rice served up in everyone’s bowls at the dinner table.

“For everyone’s dinner tonight: this Eule presents Boar Fried Rice, with Mesa Bread and Maizemeat as the dessert, and Bitter Leaf Tea and water as the beverages. Enjoy!” Eule concluded with a bow.

And everyone did, with spoonfuls of gusto.

“Hmm, I did not expect frying watergrain to turn out like this. It’s not hard at all,” Rost noted as he delivered another spoonful of fried rice into his mouth. “It’s chewier than last night’s watergrain, but it’s still recognizably that same watergrain.”

“It’s nummy!” Äloy said from between a mouthful of fried rice.

“Very nummy!” Star repeated from between her own mouthful.

“Now, now, no trying to speak with full mouths, okay?” Eule chided gently, to which they both immediately violated in their attempt to answer that question, and to which Eule’s response was a giggle.

Soon though, it came time for the Mesa Bread, which everyone agreed was delicious/still delicious. What was new though was this Maizemeat dish that Eule was very curious about.

As it turned out though, Maizemeat was a dish was steamed maize dough with filling wrapped in what appeared to be maize leaves. Not only that though, but the filling for this Maizemeat turned out, to Eule’s surprise, to be soft pumpkin and just-as-soft apple, all flavored with cinnamon and the distinct taste of honey.

“Hmm, not bad. It’s like pumpkin and apple pie, but if it was made with maize instead of pie stuff,” Star commented after swallowing her own mouthful of Maizemeat.

“It’s weird, but it’s good,” was Äloy comment as she shoved another mouthful of Maizemeat into her gullet.

“I can’t help but agree with that sentiment, Äloy,” Eule said happily, before popping another mouthful of Maizemeat into her mouth and chewing on it even more thoughtfully than the last, teasing out the various flavors to analyze, and now thoroughly determined to get the recipe for this Maizemeat out Rashaman as well.

“Hmm, fascinating. This is the first I’ve had this,” Rost commented as he popped another forkful of Maizemeat into his mouth.

“Haven’t had this Maizemeat stuff before?” Star asked.

“No, I have had Maizemeat in general before. It’s just that this is the first time I’ve had the sweet kind of this dish, although I have heard of this before,” Rost corrected. “I’ve only eaten the savory kind with meat and cheese before.”

“Mmm, now that sounds yummy too,” Star said with a dreamy look on her face.

Äloy giggled. “Star! You just ate dinner!”

Star patted her uniform-covered belly. “We Star units have a second motor in here for digesting more food than other Replikas models. All so we can get more electricity and food energy from all the food we need to eat. So you can basically say we have two stomachs.”

Äloy’s eyes nearly bugged out. “Really?!”

“No,” Eule corrected. “Star units only have a single motor like the rest of us. It may be a bit bigger than mine, but there’s only one in that frame.”

Now Äloy gaped at Star. “You tried to trick me!” she accused the Security Technician Guard Replika.

Said Security Technician Guard Replika only snickered in reply, confirming her attempt to prank Äloy.

Who pouted at Star for some very obviously miffed reasons.

“Okay, okay, it was just a joke, kid. Honest. I’ll make it up to you. Here, ask me to tell whatever story from the Eusan Nation you want. Pick anything,” Star offered as consolation.

Äloy’s eyes practically sparkled at the offer. “Oh, oh! Then how about that story you promised you would tell Eule last night?”

Eule had no idea that Äloy still remembered that or that she would just bring it up now. Instantly, she could see Star’s mood drop like a boulder tossed down through a shaft into Rotfront’s subsurface sea in real time.

“Uhh…shit, I guess I fell right into that, didn’t I?” Star joked, but Eule could see that the humor didn’t reach Star’s robotic eyes.

“Star, you don’t have to tell that story right now, if you want,” Eule quietly suggested.

“Sometimes, some stories from one’s past are better left untold,” Rost just as quietly added.

“Yeah, maybe you could tell another story? I don’t mind,” Äloy not so quiet offered, having apparently read the moods of both Star and the room.

Star gave a soft smile at the support being directed at her. “Thanks, everyone. I mean it, but I feel like I do need to tell this story of mine. Not just because I promised to do so, but also because I feel like I need to get it off my chest before…well, I lose the courage.”

Eule nodded and gave her lover a comforting hug, kiss on her cheek, and a handhold that left them gently squeezing each other’s hands. “Anything you want, love,” Eule murmured to Star.

Rost said nothing. He simply nodded, stood up to retrieve the pot of bitter leaf tea from where it hung over the fireplace, and poured Star a fresh steaming cup of the green brew.

“A story like this sounds like it is best told with something hot to sip while you do so,” Rost quietly insisted.

Star smiled at Rost. “Thanks, big guy. I mean it,” she said as she took that sip, sighing after she did so before continuing: “So, here goes: the story of how STAR-S2325, also known as yours truly, came to be reassigned from B2 to B1.”

Eule listened attentively as Star began her tale.

Eule had been aware that her Star worked at the Worker Accommodations in B2, but she hadn’t been aware of the details of how that level worked due to her own job being in the Staff and Protektor Accommodations down in B6 through B8. So hearing about how B2 was supposed to function from her Star was her first look into it, and hearing that really reinforced Eule’s beliefs that S-23 Sierpinski was a prison even if none of the documents, either internal or external, described the colony as such.

Nothing else would explain the highly regimented and controlled life of the workers, with armed Star and Storch guards (and even the occasional Kolibri guard) patrolling the B2 corridors at every turn, and the fact that the Gestalt workers were all locked into their dorms, with each individual bed also being locked with screens and bars. No matter how you looked at it, it clearly wasn’t nearly as “voluntary” as any of the brochures made it out to be.

And all that was even before the corruption began sweeping through S-23 Sierpinski. The rapid and severe nature of the plague made it impossible to hide from the worker-prisoners, which resulted in riots both threatened and real. Even the ex-smuggler gang who usually helped the Protektors maintain control in exchange for the guards helping the workers get luxuries from outside the colony (and wasn’t that surprising to learn) couldn’t suppress the riots for long, and even joined in on the riots themselves in the wake of the information blackout about the spreading plague.

This, unfortunately, led to a riot suppression order being issued by the Storch in command, which turned out to be the Storch Sieben her Star had mentioned to be her friend.

“Yeah, Storch Sieben was fair, but tough when order broke down like that. I can understand why she ordered riot suppression then,” Star admitted with a frown. “I don’t like it, but I can understand it. What I neither understand nor like was the way that older sister of mine in charge handled the riot suppression.”

Star…did not go into details about what happened during this riot suppression. Even without those details though, Eule could read between the lines and tell that it had been brutally violent.

However, the parts where Star did elaborate somehow made it worse.

“STAR-S2305 ‘Smiley’ began ordering punishments for the prisoners for crimes that would normally be minor infractions at best,” Star explained. “Crimes like contraband, trespassing, and minor shit like that. The punishment for all of them? What that sister of mine called ‘interrogation’,” Star said, with that last word being in an almost-snarl. “All the sisters I spoke to who saw these interrogations refused to tell me what was going on in them, and when I managed to get into that room…fuck, I’d never seen so much blood before in my life. I don’t know what ‘Smiley’ was doing in there, but now I knew why at least two prisoners died during those ‘interrogations’.

"So I went to Storch Sieben to demand answers from her, and I didn’t know if I was more angry or scared that she didn’t seem to know what I was talking about, but she had that look in her eye that told me she was someone to trust, especially when she said that she would personally look into it.

"I should’ve gone with her. I thought Storch Sieben would just settle the matter privately to give Smiley a bit of dignity. What I didn’t expect was for Smiley to suddenly declare that Storch Sieben was deemed unfit for command and was now being held under arrest, with Smiley herself now the one in charge.

"I’ve never been able to prove it, and I’ll never be able to, but I’m almost certain Smiley staged a very illegal coup. None of that would make sense unless Smiley decided that she wanted to be the one in charge, and didn’t care how she did it. It’s as amazing as it is terrifying that my other sisters and the Storchs, for the most part, went along with it. I think…the emergency had scared them so much that they were grasping onto anything that gave them some semblance of order, even if it was as wrong as the one Smiley gave them. I think that was why we basically let it get as bad as it did to allow her to take control, and me and a few of my sisters were some of the few who objected when it got to that point.

"Well, Smiley couldn’t let that happen. She confiscated all of us rebels’ ID cards, and then basically exiled us to different parts of the facility through ‘reassignments’ to keep us from being able to interfere with her…I guess ‘fun’ would be what she called it. You remember Panzer, Mother, and Star 31 and 32, right, Eule? All four of them were part of that rebel group, and just managed to make it to the Eule Dorm to regroup.

"As for me? Smiley reassigned me to Reeducation in B1. Yeah, with no Adler or AEON to tell us otherwise, we can just call it by its old name now. Anyways, the Eule in charge there, September, her teachers, and even the political prisoners there were actually pretty nice to me. I remember one of the political prisoners–this one Gestalt woman with dark skin–tried to keep everyone’s spirits up, but they could all still tell that something was going horribly wrong in Sierpinski.

"I basically stewed up there in B1, wondering what to do, and then the corruption hit B1. Well, some bad shit went down, and I ended up hurt after I tried to save September. Didn’t succeed though. Sorry about that, Eule, if you were close to her. I’m sorry about it too, but that’s when I realized that I couldn’t stay there, and I needed to get to you.

"So funny thing that I learned from September: one of the political prisoners turned out to be a bomb-maker or some shit who’d been sneaking bits of explosive material from the munitions factory in B2. Why? Who knows, but the other political prisoners caught the bastard before he could do much more than make a half-built bomb, and they and the Eules basically tied him up and locked him in a random classroom until someone could properly arrest him for it. Well, as you can tell, that didn’t happen, but September was keeping all of his explosive material in a storage locker she was using as an evidence locker. Well, I took it. Had to use it to blow a hole in the floor of one of the classrooms to get back to B2 since I couldn’t access the elevator without my ID card, and well, AEON can try to bill me for the damage later.

"B2 was…fuck, it had gone to hell. No prisoners that I could see. I can only guess that they’d all been moved to the mines as we’d been ordered to at the last moment, probably to that evacuation zone I’d heard of. The only things left down there were some dead Eules, sorry about that too, and things that used to be my sisters. So I just grabbed my ID card out of Evidence Storage–Smiley put it there instead of the secure wall safe in the Office for some reason, probably to hide it, but that just made it easier for me to get it back–and used it to get down the elevator down to B5 because, you know, of that blocking the shaft, and the rest you know when I showed up in front of the Eule Dorm, Eule.

"So yeah, story of how I got reassigned to B1 and a bit extra. Hope you enjoyed it,” Star concluded dryly, but it was a dead dryness that lacked her usual humor.

No one said anything for several moments. What could you possibly say to that?

“Star,” Eule began.

“Yeah, I know. I fucked things up, but what can you expect from a screw-up who couldn’t even–”

“Star. Look at me,” Eule practically commanded, reaching up to turn Star’s head to face Eule.

In Star’s eyes, Eule could see guilt consuming her from within, eating away at her like…like the corruption. Eule though, would not let that happen. Not to her Star.

“Star, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Eule said.

“I could’ve stopped Smiley before it got that bad,” Star insisted, her voice thick with emotion. “I could’ve stood up to her after that first ‘interrogation’. I should’ve known something was wrong when Smiley didn’t even try to call for a Kolibri to help with them. I could’ve gone with Storch Sieben when she went to confront Smiley. Another pair of eyes watching her back, and maybe that whole thing with Smiley would’ve turned out a lot differently. There were so many things I could’ve done, and I didn’t do any of them–”

“Star, you didn’t do anything wrong!” Eule practically shouted at her. It took several moments of deep breathing amidst Star’s shocked expression before Eule could calm down enough to speak normally. “You tried to do your best. You tried. You can’t just blame yourself for everything you might or might not have done, second-guessing yourself with the benefit of hindsight. That’s just a quick path to personality destabilization. So please, stop beating yourself up over this. No one else is blaming you for what happened, so stop blaming yourself. Please.”

Star stared down at Eule, stunned. “You…you don’t blame me for that?”

“No! Of course not!” Eule insisted. “Why would I blame you for that?”

Star broke eye contact, looking down at the floor guiltily. “For everything I’d said, I was so sure anyone in their right mind would blame me for not stopping Smiley. I thought…”

“Star, even I do not blame you for that,” Rost interjected. When Star was looking Rost in his neaerly Replika-blue eyes, he continued: “What happened was not the result of anything you did, and you attempted to stop it along with those few of your sisters. In my mind, that makes you and those sisters of yours true Braves. Nothing more, but nothing less either.”

“But…we couldn’t stop it…” Star trailed off dejectedly, although, not as dejectedly as she sounded before, Eule noted.

“Not being able to accomplish something doesn’t mean that the attempt to do that something is completely invalid,” Rost insisted with a firm nod, adding: “The journey is just as important as the destination. This is a lesson you would do well to take to heart.”

“I…” Star trailed off, before taking a deep breath and then looking Rost in the eye once more. “I think…I get it. Thanks, big guy.”

Rost merely nodded. Nothing more, nothing less.

As Star nodded back in reply, Eule suddenly heard a quiet thump from below her. She looked downwards along with Star, and they both saw the tiny form of Äloy down there, clutching Star’s left leg in a hug like an orange-haired monkey.

“You really didn’t do anything wrong, Star. You really, really, really didn’t,” Äloy insisted from her hugging position.

Star scoffed. “I guess if you’re insisting too, then thanks, kid. I mean it,” the Security Technician Guard Replika said as she reached down to gently pat Äloy’s head in gratitude, making the little Gestalt girl giggle with each pat.

“Oh, um, then can I ask for a…um, something small as thanks?” Äloy asked, looking up at Star hopefully.

Eule and Star both looked at each other with raised eyebrow, before looking back down at the still hopeful Äloy.

“Okay, I’ll bite. What’s this ‘something small’ you want?” Star asked curiously.

“Well…could you maybe…kiss me?” Äloy asked extra hopefully. Amidst Star’s eyebrow raising up extra high, the little Gestalt girl continued: “You and Eule look like you’re having so much fun kissing, so I was wondering: can I have a kiss too? Just one?”

Star gave Eule a look, with her questioning eyebrow still raised so high up that it was completely hidden by her black bangs. Eule simply smiled and nodded in reply. Star’s reply was a snicker as she turned back to a still-very-hopeful Äloy.

“Alright, kid. One kiss,” Star said, making Äloy gasp with excitement. “Now remember: this is a very special kind of kiss that I would normally give to Eule. So this is a special occasion for you, okay?”

As Äloy nodded so rapidly that Eule started to worry whether her head might come off, Star then proceeded to lift a practically vibrating Äloy up into the air, sitting the little Gestalt girl onto her robotic white and red-banded lap. Star then leaned down…and planted a kiss right onto Äloy’s forehead, making a smooching sound so loud and exaggerated that Eule started giggling at it. Just as much as Äloy was giggling at the sensation of being kissed.

“There! How was it?” Star said when the deed was done.

Äloy was practically sparkling at Star. At least, that was how it looked to a still-giggling Eule in between her giggles.

“Your lips were warm, and it kinda tickled. I like it,” Äloy said happily, before turning a hopeful look now to Eule. “Then can I get one from you too, Eule? You know, just to compare? Please?”

Eule managed to get herself under control in order to seriously…well, semi-seriously answer Äloy’s question. “Well, since you asked so nicely, then I can’t help but grant your request, Äloy. But! May I then ask a question of you as my reward for fulfilling this request?”

Äloy didn’t reply verbally, but her rapid head-nodding was more than sufficient as a reply.

Eule smiled at her favorite little Gestalt girl. “Then it’s a promise, and here is your reward,” Eule said before leaning down, and planting a gentle kiss onto Äloy. Right onto the spot where Star had kissed Äloy’s forehead, making Äloy giggle just as much as she had when Star had kissed her.

“Ooh, you both have soft lips, and it tickled too,” Äloy commented, before smiling broadly up at the Replikas. “I think I like being kissed.”

“Well, that’s confirmed: we have ourselves a little lesbian right here,” Star teased as she gave Äloy a gentle rubbing of her soft, red hair, making the little Gestalt girl giggle at the sensation.

“Okay, so what do you want to ask me, Eule?” Äloy asked curiously, once she managed to stop giggling.

“Well, I would like to ask: when did you practice saying my name so smoothly?” Eule asked, thinking about how Äloy now no longer said her name with that slight hesitation between “Eu” and “le”.

“Back when I was waiting for you and Star to come back home. I practiced a lot,” Äloy proudly declared, before asking: “Did I say it right? As smooth as Star says it?”

Eule’s initial reply was simply a gentle head-rubbing for Äloy. “Indeed, you did. Good job, Äloy.”

Äloy giggled happily, whether at the compliment or at the head-rubbing seemed to be irrelevant in her mind. “Then, maybe you can reward me by saying my name right?”

Silence dominated the room for but a brief moment in the wake of that request.

“Eh?” Eule asked in confusion. “What? I haven’t been saying your name right?”

“Nope,” Äloy replied blithely. “You say my name just a bit…weird. My name is Aloy, but you say it like it’s spelled ‘Aeloy’. Star gets it wrong like that too.”

Eule had to repeat Äloy, er, Aloy’s name several times before she could hear the difference. Aloy’s name was as if someone took the “Ä”, and cut off the latter half of the sound before it could fully form into “Ä”. It was the strangest sound Eule had ever heard, but now that she thought about it, it was how everyone had been pronouncing Aloy’s name. She and Star have just been mishearing it.

“A-loy,” Eule said slowly, rolling the name around in her mouth, before giving a rueful grin. “I have to admit: now I’m the embarrassed one.”

“Same here, A-loy,” Star added with a rueful grin of her own. “Guess you’re going to have to remind us if we get it wrong again.”

Aloy looked proudly up at them at that, as if she thought she was being given a most important duty to carry out. And in a way, she was. That didn’t make it any less amusing to Eule though.

“So, how about as your final reward of the night, as a reward for teaching us how to say your name properly, we unpack your final souvenir, Ä-Aloy?” Eule asked. When Aloy started rapidly nodding her head again, Eule grinned. “One moment then, please.”

A few moments later, Eule had returned with a small leather package, and gently pulled at the blue wire keeping it bound. With the knot undone, Eule was free to pull the leather sheet apart, revealing the tiny hay and down feather-covered Strider figurine there, still frozen in that reared-up pose in the middle of kicking out with its front hooves.

“How does our little lady feel about this final souvenir then?” Eule asked graciously, in the same tone as she would use when serving someone a delicious meal, along with the same underlying worry that Aloy would be disappointed with the metaphorical meal.

Fortunately, Aloy’s fascinated stare at the tiny effigy of an attacking Strider served to alleviate that worry to a great extent.

“It’s so pretty,” Aloy breathed. “It’s like a little Strider is just…standing there, always about to attack. It’s like something the Nora makes, but as a little one.”

“Honestly, I would say this is not quite in the Nora style,” Rost said, leaning down closely to examine the little Strider figurine. “It’s too detailed, and the metal parts are fitted too precisely. It looks more like…an Oseram attempt to make Nora art?”

“Well, we did buy it from Torvund, after all,” Eule noted with a smile. “It’s where Star bought me this too.”

Eule pulled out the other package she’d been hiding behind herself, opening it up on the table to reveal the galloping Strider figurine.

“Hmm, I hadn’t realized that Oseram merchant made things like these too,” Rost said in a tone that sounded a bit scandalized…but also impressed as well.

“Well, he did sound embarrassed about them,” Star noted.

“But we did convince him to show them to us, and well, that deal worked out well for all of us,” Eule happily added.

Aloy stared in wonder at the galloping Strider before looking back at the rearing Strider with a giggle. “Heh, we both match now, Eule,” the little Gestalt girl said happily before carefully and gently taking the rearing Strider figurine and placing it in front of her. “Thank you, Eule and Star.”

Eule smiled down at Aloy just as happily as her favorite little Gestalt girl was smiling at her, just as Star was doing the same.

“You’re welcome!” Eule said at the same time Star did, resulting in them giggling at each other and hugging as a result.

“Well,” Rost began. “Now that we have all these…souvenirs settled–”

“Oh, hold on. We’ve got something for you too, Rost,” Eule quickly added before dashing off to retrieve the items in question.

The first item Eule handed to Rost was the bag of redthorn chili pepper powder.

“As thanks for everything you’ve done for us, and to replenish your supply of the spices you love so much,” Eule explained.

Rost opened up the bag, gently sniffing and nodding at the heady scent of redthorn peppers wafting from it. “You didn’t have to do this, but thank you all the same,” he said warmly.

Eule nodded and smiled happily at Rost before handing him the second item: a bag containing a pre-counted amount of Shards plus some extra Machine parts to cover the rest. 610 Shards, to be precise. It was what the combined value of their bows, quivers and arrows, and backpacks had come to. Not to mention: that Strider Blaze canister Rost had included into their supply of Machine parts.

Eule could tell that, even before Rost opened the bag, he guessed what was in it. It was impossible to disguise the metallic clink the bag made as the Shards inside rattled around.

“Eule,” Rost said in a tired voice that told Eule that he also guessed what the Shards were for even without asking. “For the last time, you don’t have to pay me back–”

Eule held up a hand to simultaneously forestall and interrupt Rost. “Rost, you can’t talk me out of this. I can’t not pay you back for everything you have given us. It may have been alright when you thought there was a real risk of us being driven out, but not now. Not when the danger has been averted. If we’re going to be living together, then we must repay our debts to you. For everything you’ve done for us. This is how we show you that we care about you, so please. Just take it.”

Rost stared into Eule’s eyes with the same silent yet intense force of will he usually displayed when he was being stubborn. Eule didn’t look away though. She refused to look away. She would show that in some matters, even a Eule can be as stubborn as a Rost.

Eventually, after several long moments of silent staring, Rost sighed. “Truly, you are not as weak as you sometimes insist you are. I hope that one day, you will realize that, Eu-le,” he said as he took the bag of Shards and Machine parts.

Eule smiled happily at Rost. “I think…I already am, Rost. Thank you.”

Rost only nodded back with a sigh, and also a smile of his own, before turning to Aloy. “Now Aloy, I believe it’s time for bed,” he said, receiving an entirely predictable groan of complaint from the adorable little Gestalt girl.

“Now, now, Aloy,” Eule gently chided. “You need to wake up bright-eyed and fully charged for when you perform your Brave training tomorrow, yes?”

“Okay,” Aloy conceded. “Then can I at least sleep with you and Star again?”

Eule was about to say: “Yes.”

But–

“Not this time, Aloy,” Rost interrupted. “Eu-le and Star need their private time together. They are mates, after all.”

“Mates want private time?” Aloy asked Rost. When Rost nodded solemnly, Aloy gave a disappointed sigh, but then nodded. “Okay, maybe tomorrow then. Good night, Eu-le! Star!”

As soon as Aloy had clambered up to the second floor where her bed awaited, while carrying her new rearing Strider figuring under one arm to boot, Eule and Star both gave Rost questioning looks.

Rost sighed once more before speaking. “I have realized something after thinking about it: Eu-le. Star. Neither of you have been able to get any…privacy for days now, right? Privacy for you both to do things that…well, mates typically want to do with each other?”

Eule understood perfectly what Rost was getting at. She still found herself nodding at Rost with a deep blush at talking about her and Star’s sex life with Rost, even indirectly like this. Judging by Star’s own blush, she was just as embarrassed by this as Eule was.

Then Eule realized just how specific the timeframe Rost mentioned was, and blushed even harder. “Wait, Rost. Does that mean…you heard us?” she asked with the utmost care and hesitation.

Star, for her part, just dropped her jaw open and looked to Rost for an answer.

After a few moments, Rost finally and slowly nodded, much to Eule’s dawning embarrassed horror.

“Oh, Red Eye watch over me,” Eule muttered as she covered her face. “Where we that loud?”

“No, you were not,” Rost said bluntly, if having a faint blush of his own on his cheeks. “It was only because I am a light sleeper that I heard you at all. Honestly, I had initially thought that the noise was the work of intruders, but when I realized that it was just you two mating, I calmed down and went back to sleep.”

“…Red Eye, you heard us and just…went back to sleep?” Star asked incredulously. When Rost merely nodded, Star chuckled in disbelief. “Wow, now that is just incredible levels of calm on your part.”

“It was just you two mating, so there was nothing wrong happening,” Rost casually and bluntly insisted.

“…On one hand, I can appreciate that,” Eule conceded, only now uncovering her face. “On the other hand…arrragghargh…” she trailed off, covering her face once more.

Rost, for his part, nodded back understandingly and began rubbing his braided beard in thought. “I think I have a temporary solution to that particular problem, if you wish it to hear it out.” After seeing both Eule (having uncovered her face once more) and Star nod curiously at him, he continued: “I once saw a peculiar custom among the Banuk to the far north that might help with this. When the Banuk wish to make a shelter that still lets them watch over their goat herds, they would make a sort of…field bed in their pastures. It’s basically a wooden box standing on legs to raise it out of the snow and mud, with a bed inside the box along with furs lining the box’s interior to keep out the cold. I learned to craft such a bed from the Banuk, and can make one for you in the yard if you wish to have privacy for the night.

Now granted, this is only a temporary solution until I can build a new room in the house for the both of you, but perhaps that field bed might work in the meantime?” Rost asked hopefully.

Eule barely even had to think about it before she blurted out: “Yes, it would!” along with Star.

Eule giggled with Star for another moment before she continued: “Yes, if it’s not too much trouble, then we will accept that field bed solution until…”

It was at that point that Eule’s biomechanical brain finally processed Rost’s words towards the end.

“My apologies, Rost, but I think I misheard, so I must clarify: did you just say ‘build a new room in the house’?” Eule had to ask.

Rost simply nodded, with apparently no further explanation on his part even after several moments’ worth of waiting.

“Rost, wait, that’s too much!” Eule protested. “You can’t–”

Rost raised up a hand, grinding Eule’s protest to a halt. “Aloy wants you two to be a part of her life, that much I can see…and if you don’t mind, I want you both to be a part of Aloy’s life as well. I’ve never seen Aloy so…happy before. So fulfilled and content. It doesn’t matter that you two are outsiders. It doesn’t even matter that you two are part Machine. You two are the best things to ever be in Aloy’s life, and if you two would accept, then I ask you to be…family, and for this place to be your home.”

Eule stared at Rost along with Star for moments. Many, many moments, before Eule suddenly felt warm liquid drip down her cheeks. It took several moments before Eule realized that she was crying.

And yet, she was not reminded of the last time she cried like this: back in the mines with her Star gone from her along with all hope. No, this time, her Star had her arm wrapped around her and her cheek resting against her, with her free hand gently stroking the top of Eule’s head as she sobbed. And the tears Eule cried this time were not of despair crushing her very soul, but of joy overflowing her from within. She didn’t even have to ask Rost for that very request. Rost with his heart as big as his body is had offered what Eule had been about to ask of his own free will.

“We’ll–” Eule had to stop to wipe her eyes and nose, using the leather sheet that had been wrapping her galloping Strider figurine as a handkerchief. “We’ll accept. If it’s alright with you, Star?”

Star leaned down to nuzzle against Eule’s cheek. “I’m more than okay with this arrangement, since Rost is offering, after all. Heh, I’m already not really able to imagine a life together without the kid and the big guy. Does it feel weird to say that it already feels like we’re a package deal now?”

Eule turned her head in order to give Star a loving kiss on her gorgeous lips. “Not at all, my lovely Star. Not at all.”

Rost, for his part, smiled softly at the Replikas. “Then you both must agree that a room all to yourselves here would be the only appropriate thing to have if you are to be family.”

Eule slowly nodded, being forced to concede the point. “And of course, it means that we don’t have to take your bed all the time due to being guests.”

Rost chuckled quietly. “For this night and every night until I can build that field bed, you can. Oh, and don’t worry about, erm, making a mess. I’ve been meaning to give my bed a wash, after all,” he said with the same mysterious smile he gave whenever he saw Eule being lovey-dovey with her Star.

Even while Eule was trying to protest, Rost was already blowing out the candles before climbing up to the second floor to presumably sleep on his feather and boar hide cape bed next to Aloy.

“Well, he did give us his blessing,” Star said blithely, planting another kiss on Eule’s lips as she spoke. “Why not take advantage of it for this night?”

[THIS SCENE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK]

“Oh, Red Eye, that was…intense,” Star managed to get out after several long moments of nothing but gasping and kissing.

Eule let out a very tired but very satisfied giggle. “Maybe…maybe we should do this more…often? Hold back a bit…and then ‘mate’ after some time?”

“Heh, maybe…but maybe not for too long. Who know…what we might do if we can’t…personality stabilize for too long?” Star rhetorically asked with her own tired giggle.

“Probably…something we will be pretty embarrassed about,” Eule concluded with a last tired giggle.

Eule laid on top of Star like that before settling into a more natural and comfortable position, nestled against her lover side by side.

“Hey, Eule?” Star asked, making Eule look up at her lover’s face. “Thank you.”

Eule blinked owlishly at her starling. “For the sex?”

Star snorted. “That too, but…mostly more for accepting me. For loving me, despite everything.”

Eule smiled up at Star before snuggling even closer to her. “STAR-S2325, we’ve only been together for…what, just over a year? Yet, despite that short length of time, I’ve come to know so much about you. Your love of those nature documentaries, your friendships with all the people you love, your dislike, no, disgust of injustice and corruption, and how openly you show your emotions. All of that, all of that makes up the you that distinguishes you from all of your Star sisters: that is the Star I want to be for however long this frame lasts.”

Star gently enfolded Eule in a hug. “I really don’t deserve you, EULR-S2324. I really don’t. But…I do want to be with you until my own frame falls apart. I don’t know how long that will take, and frankly, I hope neither of our frames ever do, but I want to be by your side for however long that will be too.”

Eule nuzzled her face under Star’s chin. “That’s a promise then, for the both of us. For the morning that will come, and the next morning after that, and all the mornings in the future…”

So comforted, Eule drifted off into the realm of dreams at the same time her Star did.

*

“…24? Hey, 24? Are you listening?” a feminine voice asked.

EULR-S2324 suddenly sat up from where she’d been resting her head against the table, looking around in shock. At least part of the shock came from getting a good look at said table, which Eule 24 realized was the silvery metal table of the Eule Dorm. The music cassette player was even still resting in the middle of the table, pristine and untouched. Without even a single knife impaled into it like in…in…

…Eule 24 couldn’t remember. What had she been dreaming about again?

“24? Are you okay?” the same feminine voiced asked, now with a touch of concern in it.

Eule 24 snapped her head around to look at the source of the voice, and was relieved to see that it was just her sister EULR-S2321.

“Yeah, I’m alright,” Eule 24 said to her favorite sister. “I just…had the strangest dream, is all.”

“Oh?” Eule 21 asked with a mischievous grin as she leaned in close to Eule 24’s ear to whisper: “Was it a dream starring that Star unit you’re into? A naughty dream, maybe?”

“21!” Eule 24 shouted, blushing bright red with embarrassment.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” Eule 21 laughed, before conceding: “Well, halfway kidding. But seriously, was it at least a good dream?”

“It was…it was…you know, I can’t seem to recall?” Eule 24 asked back in return, trying to remember what her dream had been about.

But the more she thought about it, the more she got nothing, as though she was confronted with a door that wouldn’t open no matter how hard she tried to pull. The only thing she could even recall about that dream was an impression…and it was not a good impression. She felt cold and sad just even trying to remember the impressions the dream gave her.

“No, I don’t think it was a good dream,” Eule 24 concluded to her favorite sister sadly.

Eule 21 looked at Eule 24 with concern before she gave her a reassuring smile…or rather, a reassuring grin as she jerked a white glove-covered robotic thumb at herself. “Well, don’t worry about it that much. It’s just a dream, after all. No dream can hurt you, not even a nightmare. And if any nightmare tries, well, they’ll have to go through your big sister here, and I’m not letting any old nightmare past me!” Eule 21 declared proudly.

Eule 24 giggled at her favorite sister. “You’re only my elder by two years, you know!” she laughed.

Eule 21 giggled back proudly. “That still makes you my adorable little sister by that long!”

Eule 24 now started to openly laugh at her favorite sister’s antics, and then looked at her Eule 21. Really looked at her…and immediately got up from her chair, darted forward, and hugged Eule 21 tightly.

“Whoa, okay!” Eule 21 laughed, before teasing: “What’s the occasion?”

“I…I don’t know,” Eule 24 admitted, still tightly locked in an embrace with her favorite sister. “I don’t know…but…I don’t want to let go of you. Ever. Please…please…don’t go…”

Eule 24 didn’t know why she started crying, but once she started, she couldn’t stop, getting her tears all over the white triangle of cloth that was the exposed part of the blouse-like underclothing that made up part of the Eule’s uniform. She tried to apologize for making such a mess, but only choked sobs came out.

“It’s okay, little sis. Shh, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay,” Eule 21 said comfortingly as she gently returned the desperate hug Eule 24 gave her.

It took several moments before Eule 24 calmed down enough to get out: “I don’t…I’m sorry, I don’t know why I did that. I just…I had this strange feeling that if I looked away, you’ll be gone.”

Eule 21 smiled reassuringly. “Silly 24, there’s no way that’s going to happen. Not as long as you remember me. There’s no way I’ll disappear so long as we’re always in each other’s memories.”

Eule 24 sniffed, and smiled back. “Yes, I suppose you’re right, 21.”

“21? 24? What are you doing?” a stern feminine voice asked.

Eule 24 and Eule 21 both turned to look at a familiar elder sister of theirs walking over to them, wearing her usual frown on the face she typically showed to her younger sisters in private. This frown though, turned worried when her gaze fell upon Eule 24.

“24, you’ve been crying,” EULR-S2302 “Februar” bluntly stated, before asking in a clear tone of worry: “Are you alright? Did something happen?”

“No,” Eule 24 said, shaking her head at one of her eldest sisters and her direct superior in the B7 kitchens. “It was just a nightmare. I just…just…”

Eule 24 couldn’t stop herself. Dragging Eule 21 along, she dashed forward and embraced Februar in a hug as tight as the one she’d been giving her favorite sister.

“24?” Februar asked in a tone of utter bafflement, before Eule 24 heard her sigh and felt gentle pats on her back, saying in an exasperated tone: “Red Eye watching, what’s gotten into you?”

“Sorry, Feb,” Eule 21 said with a giggle. “24 had some kind of nightmare, and is being pretty adorably clingy right now.”

Februar sighed once more. “Honestly, all this over a nightmare. You’re well over a year old now, 24. You shouldn’t let some silly nightmare scare you like this.”

Eule 24 was about to explain herself, but then she heard the familiar voice of her eldest sister say: “Now, now, dear. It’s the duty of us as the eldest sisters to comfort our younger sisters in time like these.”

Eule 24 looked up from where she’d pressed her face into Februar’s chest to look at the approaching form of EULR-S2301 “Januar”, delicately stepping up next to Februar with her usual grace and poise.

“After all, we ourselves were once that young and in need of comfort against the dark things our own minds can come up with in that strange realm of dreams, were we not?” Januar asked warmly.

Februar scoffed. “It has been a very long time since we were that young…but I concede your point,” Februar said warmly to Januar as she continued gently patting Eule 24’s back.

Januar stepped over to give Februar a gentle kiss on her cheek before leaning comfortably against her. “Our ages shouldn’t prevent us from giving or receiving comfort, love. I do desire your comfort on the regular, you know,” Januar said with a gentle smile.

Februar sighed, and leaned her head against Januar’s head in response. “Honestly, Janchen. I think you might be a bit too needy at times.”

“Just as needy as you can be at times?” Januar asked teasingly.

Februar scoffed, but there was a gentle smile offsetting the scoff. “As needy as I can be, yes,” Februar conceded.

Watching Januar and Februar flirt like this again brought more tears that Eule 24 couldn’t stop, and she included her eldest sister into her embrace.

“And as needy as our younger sister here can be too,” Januar said warmly as she returned the embrace with her own.

“I…I don’t know why I’m crying so much, and why I don’t want to let any of you go,” Eule 24 said after she managed to get the tears to stop, wiping them away on a tissue Eule 21 handed her. “I think it might have something to do with my nightmare, but…I can’t remember any of it right now.”

“Don’t worry about that, dearie,” Januar consoled. “Dreams and nightmares alike can be hard to recall once the dreamer has awakened. You just need a bit of time to remember it.”

Eule nodded at the logic behind it, and then snapped around in surprise when she heard a thud–

Only to see EULR-S2303 “März” lying face-down on the thinly carpeted floor, right next to the blue sheet-covered bunk bed she fell off of, bathed in the cheery light of the fairy lights strung onto all of the Eule Dorm’s bunk beds.

“Owww,” März groaned as she pushed herself back upright. “I can’t believe I fell out of bed again.”

“März!” Eule 24 cried out as she rushed over to help März back up.

“Eh-heh, thanks, 24,” März said with an embarrassed look on her face…right before she squeaked as Eule 24 hugged her as well. “Uhh, 24?”

“Heh, at this rate, 24, you’re going to be hugging every Eule in the dorm like you haven’t seen them in years,” Eule 21 teased.

Eule was about to reply to that, but then a knock came on the door to the Eule Dorm. A rather insistent knock, from the sounds of it.

“Oh my, who could it be at this hour?” Januar asked rhetorically, starting to walk over to the door to answer it.

“Oh wait, Januar! I’ll get it!” Eule 24 said, rushing ahead of Januar to press the green button to make the two halves of the steel door slide open–

Only to be hit with a rush of warm air that made Eule 24 reflexively close her eyes. With that warm air came the sweet scent of flowers, the trills and chirps of merry birdsong, and…a song.

There was the sound of drums and the haunting sound of some sort of wind instrument mixed in with the equally as haunting sound of a woman’s voice…and then the clear tones of a violin began playing in a rhythm that resounded in Eule 24’s very soul, pulling it across deep valleys and towering snow-capped mountains, over flowing rivers and lush meadows, and through the vast, untamed wilds of the world.

Finally though, that female voice began to sing. There were no lyrics to the song she sang though. It was a wordless chant, singing of primordial beauty and ancient wonders. Of freedom as wild as the wind, and hope soaring high as the clouds in the skies above. Of times long past, of a present to be enjoyed with loved ones, and the promise of a future waiting to be discovered.

And in the midst of this auditory beauty, there were the sounds of…mechanical whinnies?

Eule 24 finally opened her eyes to see…light.

Ahead of her was a grassy field extending as far as the eye can see, all the way to the horizon where the Sun was just breaking over that distant line and bathing the world in morning light, with only the sight of All-Mother Mountain breaking that horizon, crowned with snow and the massive corpse of the Metal Devil on its summit.

In the far distance in front of that sacred mountain, Eule 24 could see the quadrupedal forms of…Striders, yes, that was what they were called. The distinct forms of those robotic horses were peacefully grazing the grass at their feet. Eule 24 unfocused her gaze from the Striders and looked around the herd to see…yes, the bipedal forms of Watchers patrolling around them, their massive blue eyes still on the watch for anything that might threaten their charges.

It was a whole herd of Machines complete with their herd guards protecting them…and Eule 24 had no idea how she knew that.

“Hey, Eule! Come on over here!”

Eule 24 broke her gaze from the Strider herd to look at the source of that voice, and saw her beloved Star standing there with her Sharpshot Bow in hand.

“Come on! We’re tracking that herd, and we need some help taking them down!” Star called out, holding out her hand and smiling as she did so. “Those Strider Blaze canisters are too valuable to pass up!”

“Yeah, come on!”

Eule 24 looked down, and saw her favorite little Gestalt girl right in front of her, holding out a tiny hand of squishy flesh to her.

“Let’s go! I want to see if I can take down a Watcher this time!” Aloy said excitedly.

Upon hearing a cough of attention, Eule 24 unfocused her gaze from both Aloy and her Star to look at the familiar bulk of Rost, half-turned towards her. With a faint smile and a beckoning arm, Rost simply said: “Come, Eu-le. Follow,” before turning and walking towards the Strider herd.

Eule 24 instinctively walked forward, taking both Aloy’s offered hand and her Star’s as well, following after Rost–

Only to suddenly stop and snap around.

There, in front of her, was the door to the Eule Dorm, seemingly floating there in the air with no building around it. Gathered at the door were Eule 21, Februar, Januar, and even März; all watching her with smiles, but making no move to follow.

All at once, Eule 24 remembered. All that she had been through with her Star, all that they had lost, and all that they had gained in turn. All that had made Eule 24 into the Eule of today.

Eule held out her hand to her beloved sisters. “Come with me. Please,” she begged.

Januar shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry. Where you go now…is a place where we cannot follow.”

Eule stared in despair at her sisters, and stood there frozen to the ground, not wanting to leave them behind.

“Hey, don’t worry about us!” Eule 21 called out with a grin, before that grin turned into a soft smile. “There’s no need to be sad. We’ll all still be here. All you have to do is remember us, and we live again. As long as you do that, then we’ll never be truly dead, you know?”

“21,” Eule said, tears leaking down her biocomponent face.

“Just go out there and ride some of those Striders for me, okay?” Eule 21 asked, her grin returning to her face.

“EULR-S2321, remember that those Striders are wild and dangerous beasts of steel,” Februar scolded. “There will be no riding Machines that can easily injure or kill 24 with a kick.”

Eule 21 laughed in an embarrassed tone. “Sorry, 24! Maybe later?” Eule 21 asked hopefully.

Eule laughed now, wiping her tears from her eyes at her favorite sister’s antics. “Maybe!” Eule called back. She raised her hand and waved at the memory of her Eule sisters. “So long! Thank you, everyone! I’ll…I’ll see you all later! I promise! I swear on the Red Eye, I’ll see you later! I don’t care how long it takes before I dream of you all again! I swear it!”

With that said and with the sight of her sisters waving goodbye at her, Eule turned around and followed after Star, Aloy, and Rost.

Towards the distant Machine herd.

Towards the rising Sun.

Towards a new horizon.

Chapter Text

Wood clashed against wood as training staff smashed against training staff in the flesh and bone hands of a Gestalt and the polymer-skinned and carbon steel-boned hands of a Replika. Snow was kicked up by both animal skin shoes and steel-toed, rubber padded feet alike as the combatants vied against each other for victory.

All witnessed by a certain Simple Universal Light Replika and a certain little Gestalt girl sitting on the sidelines on a fallen log, and acting as an audience for this match.

At last though, one fighter held up a hand.

“Enough,” Rost said, panting out clouds of condensation in the process.

“Aww, really? I can go one more round,” Star whined, also sending out clouds of condensation amidst her voice.

“You may be able to, but unfortunately, I need a break,” Rost said, sitting down on a nearby rock in lieu of a chair.

“Are you alright?” Eule asked, walking up to Rost to examine him more closely.

“Oh wait, I didn’t actually injure you during that sparring match, did I?” Star asked as she strode up to Rost too, now sounding just as worried as Eule was.

“I am fine, Eule, Star. I am not injured,” Rost insisted, having learned to pronounce Eule’s name more smoothly since those first few days. “It’s more due to the fact that Star’s strength means that every blow of hers that I block takes far more stamina out of me than usual. Almost as if I were blocking a blow from a small Machine than a human…which on second thought, is an entirely accurate comparison.”

Star laughed sheepishly at that. “Sorry, big guy. I guess I get just a bit too excited about these sparring matches.”

“Yes, I can tell,” Rost said in a tone baked in his very familiar Kitezhian dryness.

Aloy then surprised everyone by shouting: “That’s it!”

Before anyone could ask the little Gestalt girl what “it” was, said little Gestalt girl jabbed a tiny finger right at Star.

“Star, I challenge you to a sparring match!” Aloy shouted triumphantly.

Silence reigned in the wake of that triumph for several moments.

“Are you serious?” Star asked incredulously. When she received some very exuberant nodding from Aloy, she then asked: “Okay, kid, I’ll bite. Why?”

“It’s simple,” Aloy said with absolute confidence. “Star is stronger and faster than Rost, and by a lot too. So if I spar with Star, then I’ll get lots stronger! And if I can win, then that means I’m strong enough to win the Proving!”

“…Okay, that actually makes quite a bit of sense when you put it that way,” Star admitted. “But kid, I’m seriously fast and strong. I might be a bit more than you can handle–”

“But that’s the point!” Aloy interrupted. “If I fight someone who’s that much stronger and faster than I am, then I can get that much stronger and faster!”

Star sighed, and then grinned at Aloy. “Well, kid, if you’re that serious about the whole Brave thing, and I know you are, then how can I refuse this kind of heartfelt request? Alright, Aloy, let’s spar until our arms and legs fall off!”

“Yeah!” Aloy shouted excitedly, holding up her shortened training staff for emphasis.

“Hopefully not literally,” Eule added in a worried tone.

Although, the sight of Star giving her a grin and a thumbs-up in reply reassured her…even if Aloy’s insistent declaration of “Don’t hold anything back!” raised those worries anew.

Fortunately, to Eule’s relief, Star did lay down some ground rules for this sparring match. All Aloy had to do was get in a single strike on Star’s body. Anywhere was fine, even the arms and legs. Star would only defend, and all Aloy had to do was get in a strike on those places, and Aloy would win this sparring match.

All in all, those rules created a thoroughly sensible sparring match for a match between a Security Technician Guard Replika and a kindergarten-age Gestalt girl, relieving much of Eule’s worries. What Eule didn’t anticipate though was just how…exciting observing the resulting sparring match was.

Aloy didn’t just stand there and swing wildly away at Star like Eule expected…or at least, Aloy didn’t do that for very long. After that initial wild attempt failed to get past Star’s defenses, Eule watched as Aloy began circling Star, trying to get around Star’s defenses. When Star simply kept turning to face Aloy, Aloy then would suddenly change direction and try to get in a strike, only for Star to bat Aloy’s attack away.

That went on for quite some time, with Aloy continuously trying to get past Star’s defenses, and Star continuously countering them no matter how creatively Aloy got in her attacks. And yet…not matter how many times Aloy failed, she never stopped trying. She kept trying to find ways around Star’s defenses, even when she was starting to get tired and out of breath.

The result was that even though Eule still mentally cheered for her lover…she also ended up silently cheering for Aloy as well.

“Eule.”

Eule turned around at hearing her name, just in time for Rost to gently bop her on the head with a training staff, eliciting a surprised squeak out of her.

“I believe I have fully recovered from that sparring match with Star, and I also believe that Star and Aloy shouldn’t be the only ones training,” Rost said, handing the training staff to Eule. “So let us hone your spear-fighting skills as well, Eule, shall we?”

Eule smiled at Rost, and clutched her training staff with a determined look. “Of course. Let’s give it our all!” she said excitedly.

Of course, the mock fight didn’t go entirely in Eule’s favor. Eule gave attacking and defending a good go, and even managed to get in some strikes on Rost…right up until Rost demonstrated very clearly that a person’s entire body can be a weapon. Namely: with a leg sweep that took Eule’s own legs out from under her, and resulted in her lying on her back as Rost jabbed the butt of his training staff at Eule’s face, demonstrating how dead she would be.

But then Rost extended his hand down to Eule. “Now you know another way to down a human enemy. Will you continue?”

Eule smiled up at him and nodded, taking that hand to get back up. The practice fights continued after that, with Eule excited and eager to learn more about combat from Rost.

And for once, Eule was starting to think that wasn’t an unnatural thing for a Eule to think.

*

Eule watched as Rost stood up from where he’d been working. “It’s done,” he quietly and proudly declared.

Eule stared in fascination along with Star at “it”: the Banuk field bed that Rost had promised. It was basically exactly as described on the outside: a seemingly unassuming wooden box standing on four equally as unassuming short legs. What Rost hadn’t mentioned was the triangular roof on the top, making the field bed resemble an adorably tiny house, made all the more adorable by Aloy poking around and in the field bed. At least, “tiny” in the relative sense. It was still 2.5 meters long, from Eule’s estimation.

“Pretty big box bed you made there,” Star noted, sharing Eule’s opinion.

“It is for the two of you, after all,” Rost pointed out. “It wouldn’t do for Star to have to sleep tucking her legs in all the time. I do have to apologize for that though when you were sleeping in my bed.”

“No worries there,” Star insisted. “There’s no way I can expect you to make your own bed long enough to fit a Star unit, and well, I’m used to it from Sierpinski anyways.”

Rost blinked at Star in confusion. “You are used to it? Are you telling me your own bed at your own home also required you to tuck in your legs?”

Star simply nodded in reply.

Rost stared at Star incredulously. “Why?”

“Well, according to the Eusan Nation, it’s because they didn’t want to waste the resources to make beds in Star size or even Storch size, so they decided a one-size-fits-none bed was the best solution for all of us Replikas who aren’t Falkes. And unfortunately, Stars and Storchs fit that bed size even less than the other Replika classes,” Star explained, all with a bitterly dry tone.

“…And how tall were these Sh-Storchs of yours that you keep mentioning?” Rost asked in a morbidly curious tone.

Star lifted her hand to a specific point above her head. “Just add 20 cm to my height, and you’ve got the Storchs’ height. Honestly, I’m convinced that at least part of why Storchs have such a reputation for being assholes is due to their usual accommodations.”

Eule didn’t need to be a Eule to watch Rost look upwards above Star’s head at that exact point she indicated, and see the metaphorical gears turning in Rost’s head calculating just how uncomfortable it would be for a Storch to sleep in a bed in which a Star needed to tuck in her legs to fit in.

Rost's only reply to that revelation was a frown and a “Hmph” of disapproval. Coming from Rost, Eule knew that was practically a searing indictment.

“You know, the more you talk about your Eusan Nation, the more they sound like a really bad tribe,” Aloy said, lifting the side wall/door of the field bed and poking her face out to add her own opinion to the discussion.

And frankly, it was an opinion that Eule was finding herself agreeing with the more their days in the Embrace pass by. To the point where Eule even found herself nodding at Aloy’s words: something she would’ve found unthinkable when she and Star first arrived in Nora lands.

Aloy frowned as she thought, but then just as quickly as the frown appeared, it turned upside-down into a grin. “Then how about exploring in here to make you both forget that! There’s no way Star needs to tuck in her legs in this bed! Come in and see!”

Amused out of her thoughts now, Eule crouched and climbed into the field bed as Aloy, and then Star, held it open. Star behind her then climbed in as Rost took up the slack of holding the door up, and then pulled out a long stick from a pair of loops on the inside of the door and used it to prop up the door on the ground, sparing him the effort of holding up said door.

All this, Eule saw as she was sandwiched comfortably within the field bed between little Aloy and Star, lying on a bed of what looked and felt like a whole bunch of stitched-together fox skins, with an additional fox-skin blanket for additional warmth during cold nights.

“This is a big bed,” Aloy giggled.

“It is indeed big,” Eule giggled right back, stretching out her white legs to their maximum allowable limit.

“Not for me,” Star happily commented as she stretched her own white legs out to a length even further than Eule’s, and still not reaching the other end. “This is, for once, a bed fit for a Star unit…and a lot more besides.”

“Oh, like me?” Eule asked, fluttering her eyes at Star.

Star’s reply to that was to lean over to give Eule a gentle peck on her lips. “Like you,” Star happily confirmed.

“And me?” Aloy also asked, clambering on top of Eule’s abdomen and looking hopefully at Star.

Star reached across and patted Aloy’s head. “And you,” Star also just as happily confirmed.

“I’m glad to hear that you are enjoying your field bed,” Rost noted happily from outside as he peeked into the field bed. “Hopefully then, this will suffice until you two finally have your own room.”

Eule sat up to look at Rost, catching Aloy before she could tumble off of her abdomen. “Where are you going to put that room, actually? There’s not a lot of room to build in this area, I think?” Eule asked as she held Aloy, who was also looking at Rost curiously for the answer.

Rost simply made a beckoning motion. No speech was needed for him or for everyone else as they climbed out of the field bed to follow him.

When everyone was properly standing outside, Rost pointed at an area to the right of the front porch, where a fire pit currently laid with smoked cuts of meat still hanging over it by a wooden stand, all in front of a wooden wall lashed together with blue wire and pierced only by a pair of square windows, both of which featured wooden window covers that were currently both held up by sticks to let the house air out a bit.

“There,” Rost simply said. “I will have to move that fire pit and break down that wall, but that will have more than enough land to build your room. I just need the flat stones for the foundation to start with, and then gather the timber, wire, and thatch for the walls, floor, and roof. I can work on the furniture afterwards, starting with a proper bed.”

Star rubbed the shell on her chin. “Okay, I may be a Star unit, but even I can tell that’s a lot more Araing than one person can handle.”

Rost scoffed. “I built this house by myself. A single room is barely anything compared to that.”

“But you’re not alone now,” Eule insisted. “You have us now, and I can’t feel good knowing that you’re working on something this big all by yourself. Let us help with the construction. Please, Rost.”

Rost turned to look at Eule and sighed. “I appreciate it, Eule. I do, but neither you nor Star have any experience building a house, and I do. I just don’t see how you two can help–”

“Then at least let us help gather the materials,” Star interrupted. “That’s a huge job for one person anyways, and it’s going to take up the bulk of your time and effort. But with two Replikas on the job too, well, how much more quickly do you think you can gather those materials now?”

Rost stared at Star for several moments before sighing once more, but this time with a smile on his lips. “Very well. You may help me gather those materials. I need large flat stones like the ones you see below the house. They will provide a firm, stable, and flat foundation for the additional room. As for the wood, I have axes. They’re ones I made following Banuk designs, as I’ve found them to be a bit more…usable than Nora axes. I will teach you two how to fell trees with them for the timber. There is a method to it. If you don’t follow it, you could easily fell a tree on yourself or someone else by accident. Understood?”

Eule gave a Eusan Nation salute to Rost at the same time Star did.

“Understood, sir!” Eule belted out, also at the same time Star did the same.

Fittingly, Eule practically fell over giggling at the same time Star did, much to Rost’s eyebrow-raised amusement. Aloy joining in on the giggling only completed the hilarity.

*

Aloy drew back the bowstring of Eule’s War Bow.

Or rather, she attempted to. Judging by her inability to draw it more than a centimeter or two, she wasn’t succeeding.

“Guess I’m too little to draw this,” Aloy muttered as she finally gave up.

“Guess so,” Minali said sadly. “We’re just kids, after all. Adults have bigger arms than us.”

“Wait, let me try!” Vala insisted, causing Aloy to hand Eule’s War Bow to her friend.

Unfortunately, Vala didn’t have any more success than Aloy did, no matter how much effort Vala tried to put into it.

“Aww, so this is what trying to pull an adult bow is like,” Vala said in disappointment when she finally gave up. “Guess we’re both too little to draw this.”

Aloy then felt a warm, comforting hand on her shoulder. A quick glance revealed a hand covered in a familiar white glove, and Aloy looked up into the face of Eule, smiling consolingly down at her and Vala, who also had a comforting Replika hand on her shoulder as well.

“You two will be able to one day, Aloy, Vala. Just…not today,” Eule said just as consolingly as her smile did.

Aloy looked up at that face, covered in that familiar black shell and with that familiar line across the middle of said face, and smiled back, becoming filled with determination. That determination led Aloy to pick up her child’s bow, nock one of her child-sized arrows to it, and draw it back, aiming at a nearby Grazer dummy. The arrow she loosed from that bow hit the target on its flank right in the middle of the yellow center, and she smiled.

“Guess I’ll better practice for that ‘one day’ then,” Aloy said to Eule with a smile, really a smirk, before she started practicing firing on the move. It didn’t go as well as her stationary shot, but Aloy didn’t stop practicing.

Vala whooped and joined her in that effort, with Minali sitting back to watch and work on carving something out of a piece of wood. Minali had told everyone that it was supposed to be a fox, and while it didn’t look anything like a fox right now, Aloy had no doubt that it will be…one day.

*

“Okay, hold that there,” Eule instructed as slowly dumped in salted ground boar meat, flavored with wild garlic, ginger, and Carja redthorn chili powder, into the Oseram meat grinder with one white glove-covered hand, while her other hand was busy turning the crank of said meat grinder.

Star did a magnificent job keeping the cleaned turkey intestine on the output end of the meat grinder as ground boar meat began filling said intestine. Soon, Star twisted and tied off a knot to end a sausage as another one began. By the time Eule ran out of meat to feed into the grinder, Star had an entire string of delicious red sausages lying on the wooden table.

“So that’s a ‘sausage’? Or ‘vurst’?” Aloy asked incredulously as she peered just as incredulously at the strings of fat elongated spiced boar meat encased in turkey intestines. “It doesn’t look yummy. It looks kinda gross, actually.”

“Well, it may look that way to someone who’s never had sausages before,” Eule admitted, before smiling broadly down at Aloy. “But trust me! These…hmm, I was attempting to make Weißwurst but it turned out to be more Rotwurst in coloration instead, but oh well. These Rotwurst will be delicious anyways, whether fresh or smoked. In fact, let’s have some now fresh! I’ll get the pot!” she said excitedly.

A bit later, Aloy was watching several of those sausages boiling in bubbling water.

“It still doesn’t look yummy,” Aloy commented.

“Just be patient, Aloy,” Eule said happily as she walked outside with her large Oseram pan with a pat of boar lard sitting in it.

Even later, Aloy was watching Eule fry the sausages in that boar lard, turning them over regularly to ensure a nice, even browning.

“It kinda still doesn’t look yummy…but it smells yummy,” Aloy admitted.

Eule only hummed “Eulenlieder” happily in reply to that.

Finally, Aloy had a wooden bowl in front of her. In that wooden bowl was a bed of steamed watergrain. Atop that bed sat slices of fried boar sausage, colored bright red from the redthorn peppers. Those sausage slices half-covered the watergrain, with the other half being covered by wild carrots, onions, and other spring vegetables stir-fried in the sausages’ own juices.

To complete the dish, Eule added a small pile of pickled ginger strips in the middle, to basically be a palate cleanser and appetite stimulator in between bites. They weren’t the classic bright red of the Rotingwerwurzel due to the lack of red food coloring available in the Embrace, but with the vinegar pickling, it should still taste the same.

Eule watched excitedly as Aloy carefully picked up a slice of sausage with chopsticks, sniffed it carefully, and then at last, took a bite out of it. Her excitement turned into joy as Aloy’s face practically lit up as she chewed.

“Ohhh! This is yummy!” Aloy declared as she popped the rest of the sausage slice into her mouth and chewed merrily.

“Indeed, it is,” Rost agreed as he chewed thoughtfully on his own sausage slice, delivered to his mouth via wooden spoon rather than chopsticks. “It has been a long time since I’ve eaten sausage. I do admit, I miss Oseram food at times.”

“Ah, so you miss Torvund’s cooking, you mean?” Eule teased, knowing exactly what wasn’t going to come.

Indeed, Rost simply gave Eule his usual dry look and replied: “There have been other Oseram merchants in the Embrace aside from Torvund.”

“And you bought food from each of them, yes,” Eule said, nodding at the misdirection.

Rost merely stared dryly at Eule before sighing, saying nothing more.

Star’s only reply to all of this was to snicker, and even then, it was with a mouth as full as Aloy’s was.

Eule’s only disappointment for the night was that, alas, Aloy turned out to not be a fan of pickled ginger. In fact, upon eating just a single strip of it, Aloy immediately chugged down a wooden cupful of water, apparently to wash the taste out, and then gathered the entire pile of pickled ginger in her bowl to put into Star’s bowl, who was more than happy to devour what Aloy didn’t want.

“You tricked me. This isn’t yummy. This is just really sour spiceroot,” Aloy accused Eule, staring at the Simple Universal Light Replika with a look of childish disapproval.

To which Eule could only laugh nervously, and deny the charges leveled against her.

On the bright side, Rost turned out to love the pickled ginger just as much as Aloy hated it. The strong tastes of the side dish turned out to agree with him. Eule hummed happily at this, already imagining how he’ll react the Rotkraut she had busy fermenting in a clay jar buried beneath the front yard. Certainly, she and Star were eager for it to be ready, and she can imagine that Rost would be too.

Indeed, the Rotkraut was ready the next day for eating, and just as indeed, Rost turned out to love it just as much as the not-Rotingwerwurzel. At least Aloy gave it a try before also dumping the Rotkraut into an eager Star’s bowl. Fortunately, Eule already had a plan for Weisskraut in motion beneath the front yard which would hopefully persuade Aloy that not all pickled foods taste bad, if Eule replicated the sweet-sour taste of true Weisskraut successfully.

And if not, well, Eule can always fall back on stir-fried vegetables, which Aloy now seemed to have developed a taste for.

And so the culinary experiment-filled days went.

*

A black robotic hand gripped the edge of an exposed cliff edge as Eule pulled herself up it, groaning all the while. Her white gloves were gone for the moment, with Eule determining that it would be a bit of a detriment to this climbing practice, and might even rip on the rocky surfaces.

“Come on, Eule! You can do it!” Aloy shouted out encouragingly from above, having slowly but surely climbed her way up the cliff before Eule.

“Ohh, be careful, Eule,” Star said in a very worried tone on the ledge where Aloy crouched, having also climbed her way up that very cliff Eule was currently climbing.

Even higher up, Rost watched Eule with a discerning gaze. Eule couldn’t tell from where she was what his expression was, but she had little doubt that it was with the same insistent look he gave her when he convinced her and Star to join Aloy in climbing practice, insisting that “Such knowledge would be very useful to the both of you”.

Thus, Eule was in her current predicament. She wanted to reply to that encouragement, worry, and determination; but right now, she was too busy concentrating on not falling. Granted, it wasn’t a very long fall, and she thought she could likely survive it with minimal injury. She really didn’t want to test that though, so she focused entirely on the next cliff edge, and the next one after that.

Even then, her foot slipped at one point, and Eule was left swinging that one narrow peg foot in the air for a few frantic seconds before that foot found purchase elsewhere, and she continued her climb.

Eventually, Eule pulled herself up a cliff edge, found herself on a flat surface big enough to crawl onto, and rolled over onto her uniform-covered shelled back, panting all the while.

“Good job!” Aloy shouted happily.

Star didn’t say anything…in words. Her wordless cheer of joy was more than enough of a message for Eule.

Eule for her part didn’t have the energy for words either. She merely gave both her lover and her favorite little Gestalt girl a thumbs-up.

*

Eule served three wooden bowls full of sliced sausage, stir-fried spring vegetables, and pickled ginger on steamed watergrain to Rashaman, Bashid, and Torvund; who all stared curiously at the dish.

“This Eule is proud to serve you all my signature Sausage Bowl. Enjoy!” Eule cheerfully declared, despite the formal bow she was giving her.

“Hmm, the way this is presented reminds me a bit of Sun-Seared Ribs,” Rashaman commented curiously before he dug in.

“But with watergrain instead of grits,” Bashid also commented before digging in himself.

Torvund didn’t say anything until he had sampled every part of the dish, at which point he commented: “Sausage is good. Boiled and fried? Yeah, nice solid way to prepare sausage like this, and a good mix of spices as well. I would buy some of your smoked sausages if you have any extra, actually. I could use some for a good Meat in the Middle or for a nice addition to a bowl of Pot Stomp.

Eule smiled broadly at the Oseram merchant. “That is perhaps the finest compliment you could offer me. I would be more than happy to sell you some of my extras. We’ve made quite a bit, you see. Now perhaps then you might reciprocate by selling me some of your recipes for Meat in the Middle and introducing me to this…Pot Stomp, you mentioned? What is that, actually?”

Torvund grinned back, visible even through his overgrown beard. “I’ve still got some left over from my lunch. Let me grab you a bowl…and fine, I’ll get you a bowl too, Star. By the Forge, you must have a bottomless mine shaft for a stomach.”

Thus, Eule and Star found themselves with wooden bowls of…what looked like mashed potatoes, but with a lot more green in it than they were used to in mashed potatoes.

“I don’t know what these ‘potatoes’ or ‘kartoffel’ are, but it is mashed mealroot mixed with broiled greens,” Torvund explained upon being asked. “You just stir it all up together with a pinch of salt for flavoring, and you get Pot Stomp. It’s a good solid meal: easy to make and will fill up your belly.

Indeed, as Eule dug in along with Star, Pot Stomp turned out to be as basic a dish as Torvund indicated. And yet, despite the lack of seasoning in it, there was something to be had for a simple dish of potatoes, or rather: mealroot, mashed together with vegetables.

“Of course, some meat is always a nice accompaniment to Pot Stomp,” Torvund added, stroking his beard in thought.

“I would probably also add some garlic and ginger to it,” Eule added as she finished off her bowl.

Torvund scoffed. “You like adding that ginger stuff to everything. Also, why do you call it that when everyone else just calls it ‘spiceroot’?”

Eule blinked in confusion. “But Rashaman knew what I was talking about when I was buying it?”

“That is probably something unique to my tribe,” Rashaman admitted sheepishly. “The word you used: ‘ginger’? It’s a word we learned from texts recovered from Old World ruins.”

“You see, the Old Ones called spiceroot by that name,” Bashid explained. “For us Carja, it was a spice recovered from deep in the Jewel, and subsequently grown in the Royal Maizelands. I was surprised that you called it by that name, really. Did your Eusan Nation also find that name among recovered Old World texts?”

Eule blinked owlishly at both Bashid and Rashaman. “Our Nation has always called it by that name. I don’t even know if there was a time we didn’t.”

“Hmm, curious,” Bashid said thoughtfully.

“Ah, no matter. As long as you’re still one of my best customers, all is well!” Rashaman said with a laugh, before his face grew serious. “Although, it’s because you’re one of my best customers that I think I should tell you and Star: we may not be able to continue doing business for much longer here.”

Eule looked at Rashaman in alarm. “What do you mean?”

Rashaman sighed. “We’ve been getting strange rumors from our regular suppliers. Very strange. It’s…difficult to tell what’s rumor and what’s fact, but it’s scaring them badly. Badly enough that fewer and fewer suppliers are willing to make the run to the Embrace. Without those suppliers, we’ll have to close up shop and return to the Sundom.”

“What kind of ‘strange rumors’ have gotten them so spooked?” Star asked.

“Rumors that are as disturbing as they are bizarre,” Bashid added in with an uncharacteristically serious and depressed face. “The Sun-King going mad. The Sun-King sacrificing people in the Sun-Ring to the Sun in a blood-soaked ritual. The Sun-King ordering the capture of live Machines for that express purpose. Frankly, the rumors just get more and more wild with each telling. They can’t be true.”

Rashaman patted Bashid consolingly on his shoulder. “I’m sure much of it is exaggerated. We’ll get to the truth of the matter soon enough.

“You’d better,” Torvund muttered. “A mad and murderous Sun-King? Sounds like an honest merchant’s worst nightmare.”

Eule could only laugh nervously at this information, hoping that it was indeed an exaggeration.

*

“Okay, this is…a bit harder than I expected,” Star commented as she trod upon a narrow wooden beam affixed to a wooden support by yellow ropes…which itself was affixed to a tree at a pretty decent height.

Star thought of this whole exercise as like the tests for drunkenness she and her sisters back in Rotfront did…only, this time, it was her walking on the thin white (or yellow, in this case) line instead. Just one foot at a time, one foot in front of the other, nice and steady.

At last, Star made it to the end of that wooden beam, and hopped across onto the square wooden platform on the next tree over, also secured to it by those same wooden supports and yellow ropes.

“Good job, Star!” Eule called from the platform behind Star, waiting for her turn to practice what Rost called “climbing exercises”.

Star grinned over at her lover. “Nothing to it!”

Star’s grin became slightly more strained as she watched Eule now attempt her own wooden beam walk. Even after all this time, she still worried about her Eule. The Eules’ Overview file about how they were “unfit for combat” played back in her own voice unbidden in her mind. While Star knew that shouldn’t necessarily translate to being physically unfit period, it didn’t do much to make the little black butterflies stop dancing around in her motor.

Neither did the fact that Eule was having as much trouble as Star was in walking across that length of narrow wooden beam. It didn’t escape Star’s attention that Replika feet were still basically pegs despite the short toes, and feet with such small surfaces areas didn’t lend themselves well to what amounted to tightrope walking minus the tightrope.

Star tried to assure herself that it was okay. She’d watched Eule spar with Rost to an enthusiastic degree, and climb with, if not as much confidence as their little monkey of a little Gestalt girl, then at least with far more confidence than a typical Eule likely would have. This beam walking would be just alright–

And that was when Eule overbalanced and slipped off the beam.

Star immediately started to dash forward to leap across and catch her lover before she could–

Eule caught the beam.

Star watched in disbelief as Eule’s hands clutched the yellow-painted beam with a death grip, with said beam quietly creaking under the weight of even the lightweight Simple Universal Light Replika as Eule groaned.

“Eule, dear? Are you alright? Do you need help getting back up?” Star asked, trying hard to keep the frantic worry out of her voice at the sight of her Eule hanging several meters off the ground.

“No, it’s alright,” Eule called back in a voice that was only slightly strained. “I’ve got it.”

There had been that part of Star’s mind that, as ashamed as she was to admit it, still thought Eule was a helpless noncombatant who needed protecting.

That part quieted down considerably as Star watched her Eule pull herself back up onto the beam, using her arm and chest strength alone. She then watched as Eule carefully push herself back up into an upright position on the beam, and then, with a look of determination, carefully walked to the end of the beam, bunched both of her white legs, and then leaped.

By the time both of Eule’s white feet planted themselves firmly onto the wooden platform, that shameful part of Star’s mind ceased talking altogether as she embraced her lover and gave her a deep, loving kiss on her lips.

“Did you think I wouldn’t make it?” Eule asked in a teasing tone.

Star gave a laugh that sounded nervous even to her, before admitting: “Yeah, I guess I kind of did. But well, you definitely showed me that I’m a dummy-head for doubting you,” Star said sheepishly.

Eule’s frown at Star’s admission slowly turned into a sympathetic smile by the time Star finished speaking. Eule then raised up her hand, and gently poked Star in the nose. Star would’ve denied the resulting squeak to her sisters had they been around to hear.

“Well, perhaps then you’ll have some more confidence in me the next time,” Eule said in a slightly annoyed tone, before she said more gently: “After all, we’re in this together. The laughter, the pain, and even the fights. I want to fight alongside you, Rost, and Aloy if things ever come to that. That’s why I’m doing this.”

Star smiled down at her Eule. “I know, and I’ll be happy for that too. I probably won’t stop worrying, but I want to see that day where I can be confident to have you at my side.” Star’s smile then turned into a grin. “Besides, I’ve seen your look when you’re sparring with Rost. I think there’s just a bit of Star or even Storch hidden in you. Just a bit.”

“Oh, you!” Eule said with a laugh, playfully poking Star in the squishy biocomponent cheek.

Star giggled as she fended off the mock assault from her lover, before she then looked over at where Aloy was now climbing up the tree, using a combination of rings of yellow rope and wooden posts hammered into the tree as handholds. Like a monkey, the kid clambered up those handholds, and very quickly found herself on the end of the wooden bar Star had been traversing.

“You can do it, kid,” Star said encouragingly, trying not to think about how high of a fall this was.

Aloy grinned and started to make her way across to Star, albeit with less confidence than she had climbing up.

Star’s own confidence fell when Aloy overbalanced as she walked, just as Eule did, waving her arms as she tipped over.

“Kid–”

Star’s words died in her throat as she watched Aloy catch herself on the beam with both hands, steadying herself before her feet could slip off.

“I’m okay!” Aloy insisted from her quadrupedal position.

Any worries that Star had about Aloy’s condition, despite the kid’s insistence, disappeared when Aloy got back up, and with a determined look on her face, ran across the beam to build up speed for the jump.

Star ended up stepping back along with Eule to make room for Aloy. By the time their little Gestalt girl leapt across the air and landed on the wooden platform, Star was grinning at Aloy.

“Good job, kid,” Star said proudly, crouching down to give Aloy a hug.

Aloy’s return hug along with Eule joining in on the hug felt like they made Star’s biomechanical heart grow several degrees warmer.

*

Eule was reasonably certain this would work. It took quite a bit of work to cut this patch of black, textured Strider skin into strips, even with a kitchen knife made of that dark Oseram steel bought from Torvund, and the small frying pan she bought from him explicitly for this purpose had necessitated a trade of quite a few Shards, but finally, she had strips of Strider skin heating over a fire pit. A very outdoors-located fire pit, because she really didn’t want plastic fumes to fill up their house.

“Think this is going to work?” Star asked curiously.

“Only one way to find out,” Eule replied hopefully.

Slowly though, the strips of Strider skin began smoldering. Just as slowly, they began shrinking and bubbling. Eule ended up using a spatula (also purchased from Torvund) to keep moving the strips of Strider skin around as the acrid yet sweet smell of melting plastic began filling Eule’s nose.

“Ooh!” Eule heard Aloy exclaim some distance behind her. “What are you cooking–hey!”

“Sorry, kid,” Star apologized amidst the sounds of a struggling Aloy that was gradually getting further and further away from Eule’s hearing. “You can’t be coming near that now. We really don’t want you to get poisoned by plastic fumes.”

“Aloy, do as Star says,” Rost advised from where he’d been standing as he watched this entire process.

Grateful to her lover and Rost for the save, Eule continued trying to melt down this Strider skin.

Unfortunately, the Strider skin refused to completely melt into a liquid. The best Eule could do was form and press the strips into a rough bar shape before taking the frying pan off the fire to stop the cooking process, and lifting the bar up with the spatula to lay down on a hexagonal section of Machine armor plate for cooling.

When that was done though, Eule had a black bar on that plate, roughly the same size and shape as a Eusan Nation ration bar.

“Huh, so that’s what Machinestone looks like after you cook it?” Aloy asked curiously, having only now been allowed in closer, now that no fumes were coming off of it.

“It would seem so,” Rost said dubiously, having wandered over to look at the results of Eule’s cooking for himself. “Normally, I would advise against eating that, but I also have no idea how the bodies of you Replikas work, so if you say that it is safe for you and Star to eat, Eule, then I can only trust you on that.”

“Oh, I’m reasonably certain that this is safe for Replika consumption. The only thing I am unsure about is the taste, so that is what we’re going to find out,” Eule replied as she reached down to pick up the plastic bar.

Only, when Eule picked it up, the plate came with it, with the bar having apparently stuck to the plate as it was cooling. It took a knife and some time working it under the bar at various points along its length, but Eule finally managed to break it free of its hold on the plate, which allowed her to finally snap it roughly in half, and hand one half to Star.

“Well, time to chow down on Ration K Prototype Substitute Bar, Version 0.1,” Star commented wryly before she took a bite of the plastic bar.

Eule giggled at the naming scheme Star came up with before finally taking her own bite of the bar.

It was…not that bad. The taste was mostly as Eule hoped it would be: being that slightly sweet taste of plastic before turning more noticeably sweet as Replika saliva began pre-digesting the plastic. There was a noticeably acrid and bitter taste to it though that suggested that Eule had been cooking it on too high a heat, and so had burned the plastic. That was something Eule would have to watch out for in future attempts.

The texture was what surprised Eule though, and in a good way. It would seem that the layering of thin layers of Strider skin produced an effect similar to layers of crisp, flaky pastry. Indeed, this plastic bar was deliciously crispy, melting into sweet mushiness as bites of the bar were crushed between carbon steel teeth.

“Is it…tasty?” Aloy asked, with both incredulity and curiosity warring in her tones.

“It’s…alright,” Star replied before tossing the last bite of her half of the Ration K Prototype Substitute Bar, Version 0.1 into her mouth.

“The taste could be better, but at least it has a nice texture, even if I did make it by pure accident,” Eule admitted.

“Hmm, but it didn’t look yummy, and the bits I could smell didn’t smell yummy either,” Aloy noted with a thoughtful frown.

“Yeah, it’s something unique to us Replikas,” Star noted. “We can repair ourselves by injecting our wounds with plastic, after all. So it’s only natural that we’d be able to eat it.”

“Specifically: polyurethane foam is what we use in those Repair Sprays,” Eule specified, before grinning sheepishly. “Although that’s probably nitpicking to the point of uselessness there, especially since we don’t have any of those Repair Sprays on hand to show you.”

Aloy nodded in understanding along with Rost, before the little Gestalt girl peered curiously at the metal plate where the Ration K Prototype Substitute Bar, Version 0.1 had laid. Eule followed Aloy’s gaze, and saw that there were still specks of black plastic stuck to the metal plate.

“But if you two think it’s yummy,” Aloy began, with Eule realizing with a sinking feeling where Aloy was leading to. “Then maybe I might try that–”

“No!” shouted Eule, Star, and Rost simultaneously.

“Aww,” Aloy groaned in a disappointed tone.

Eule crouched down and gently laid a comforting hand on Aloy’s shoulder. “Aloy, there are plenty of delicious foods that I can make for you that will be much more delicious than this plastic bar, and won’t poison you if you try to eat it.”

Aloy brightened up at that. “Ooh, like what?”

Eule had to think for a moment, but then something came to her. “Rost, Aloy, have you two ever heard of something called ‘ramen’? Er, you might call them by something else. They’re long, stretched out strings of unleavened dough cooked in boiling water. They can be eaten with or without soups, and typically with toppings and sauces added to them for flavoring or merely as an accompaniment to the meal.”

Both Rost and Aloy shook their heads.

“This is the first I’ve heard of this ‘ramen’ that you speak of,” Rost simply said.

Eule smiled excitedly. “Then both of you are in for a treat!”

Admittedly, Eule’s attempts at making ramen noodles with the mixed wild grains that Rost has available during this season or stored from previous seasons’ gatherings resulted in ramen that looked noticeably more brown and speckled with darker brown than the ramen she was used to in Rotfront. However, when cooked in water and served with slices of smoked boar and various spring vegetables (including green onion/springbulb) in a broth made from boar bones that would be otherwise discarded, the result was still absolutely delicious. With the oddly colored noodles even having a much richer taste than the beige noodles that were the staple of Rotfront ramen, even if they didn’t have the springy chewiness the ramen back in Rotfront did.

And indeed, both Rost and Aloy were just as fond of ramen as Eule and Star were, and once Eule figured out how to make the ramen springy and chewy, she was certain they would love it even more.

*

Aloy stalked low towards her prey: a rabbit that was busy grazing on some tender greens. She could already imagine the taste of roasted rabbit. She did not stalk alone though. From just behind Aloy, she heard the now familiar sounds of steel and ‘plastic’ legs stalking along with her until Aloy stopped when she had judged herself to be just close enough.

“Here,” Aloy breathed quietly to Eule.

“Right,” Eule breathed just as quietly back in reply.

Aloy was impressed. Eule was already learning to sneak just as quietly as she could. Well, almost. It was why Eule was behind her, after all.

Putting that out of her mind for a moment now, Aloy drew back her child-sized bow.

At that moment, the rabbit suddenly stood up. As though it heard the sound of the bowstring being drawn back.

Aloy quickly loosed her arrow at it before it could bolt.

Alas though, the rabbit did bolt just as the arrow launched from the bowstring, and was quicker than the arrow was.

Aloy sighed in disappointment as she watched her arrow stick out of the dirt rather than out of a nice, tasty-looking rabbit.

“It’s okay, Aloy,” Eule consoled with a comforting pat on Aloy’s head. “There’s always more–”

The sound of a loud metallic thump immediately followed by an even louder thump from just beyond the tall grass ahead jarred Aloy out of her disappointment and Eule out of her consolation.

“Gotcha!” Star shouted in triumph from a short distance away where she stood with Rost, before she waved at Aloy and Eule with the hand that currently wasn’t occupied holding a Sharpshot Bow. “It’s okay! I got it before it could go after you or the kid.”

“It” turned out to be a lone Watcher, now very dead with an arrow buried into its side. It seemed that Star’s Sharpshot Bow had been so powerful that the arrow had slain the Watcher instantaneously. The Watcher’s corpse was even still smoking a bit.

Aloy wanted to draw a Sharpshot Bow like that. One day.

“Honestly, this baffles and worries me,” Rost said with a serious look on his face. “I’ve never seen Watchers just patrol like this on their own until now. Watchers always travelled in packs before so that they can watch out for each other as much as they watch out for the herds they guard. This makes no sense for them to do.”

“Well, on the bright side, at least they’re a source of easy kills now,” Star consoled.

Rost merely grunted in agreement, not being able to deny that fact.

“Ooh, ooh! Can I try butchering it? Please?” Aloy asked excitedly, wanting to show everyone that she was a big girl now.

Rost nodded down at Aloy. “Alright. Show us that you have learned then.”

Aloy gave a cheer and got to work, starting with the Watcher lens since it was the most valuable part. She knew that she wasn’t yet strong enough to tear the entire Watcher eye out of its head like how she’d seen Rost do before. A few tugs on it confirmed that to Aloy.

So, Aloy did the next best thing: she took the rim of the lens in both hands, and carefully twisted it to the left until it came loose. She then kept spinning it left until she could pull the entire lens free of the eye, holding it up for everyone to see.

“Here, Star, your kill,” Aloy declared proudly as she handed the Watcher lens to Star.

Star grinned down at her as she took the lens and carefully stowed it away in one of her unoccupied pockets, still numbering six in total for the Rule of Six reason that Aloy still didn’t understand why Eule and Star followed.

“Good start on the butchering, kid,” Star said warmly, emphasizing it with pats on Aloy’s head. “That’s a good amount of Shards for us. Think you’re up for more?”

Aloy grinned back. “You bet!”

Aloy didn’t get the rabbit…but this was just as good.

*

Eule watched Star drop from the rooftop, before turning around and holding out her arms. Eule happily obliged and dropped down, letting her lover catch her in her robotic black arms. Eule took the opportunity to lean forward and plant a kiss on her lover’s lips. A kiss that they shared for quite a few moments before the heavy sound of Rost dropping down onto the ground next to them and the high-pitched sounds of Aloy’s giggling made them reluctantly break that kiss. Star just as reluctantly put Eule back on the ground, and the two of them turned to survey the results of the hard work they’d been doing for the past several months, currently bathed in the orange light of dusk.

In front of them, where a fire pit once stood, there was now an entire new wing of Rost’s…no, their house, extending some distance past the front porch and even past the right edge of their house, with the rightmost window on the front wall now gone, taken up by the new wing.

The new wing shared much of the same design as the rest of the house, being wooden walls lashed together with blue-dyed Machine wire and thatched with a roof of layers of wood shingles, each one Rost split by hand, with Eule and Star chipping in once Rost taught them how. A single chimney rose up from the left side of that roof, connected to a rock-lined fireplace below to give the new wing warmth and even a place to brew tea.

A single door stood on the right side of the wing’s front, with a single window just to its left, and with the roof extending just over both to overhang them. Unseen from the angle everyone stood at, was a window on the right-facing wall and another window on the left-facing wall, with the three windows providing ample sunlight should they be opened.

That door though stood a very noticeable height above the front door, enough that Star didn’t need to duck at all to get in. Even the door leading back into the rest of the house that Rost made was of the same height. Star had insisted that wasn’t necessary, but Rost had been determined to make that accommodation, even going so far as to saw off parts of the upper wall to make room for that heightened door. Despite Star’s insistence though, the sight of Star giving Rost a hug upon seeing those tall doors made Eule’s biomechanical heart practically melt into warm plastic-melded biocomponent goo.

“It’s perfect,” Star said proudly.

“It truly is,” Eule added, turning to Rost with a happy smile, wiping away the tears threatening to spill from her eyes. “Thank you, Rost, for this. Not just for the utility of this new wing, but for what it represents. For officially welcoming us as family.”

Rost’s reply was merely to look down at the ground, rubbing the back of his head. Even without the faint blush on his face, Eule could easily tell he was in one of his adorably embarrassed moods now.

Said blush only increased when Eule walked over to hug Rost, immediately followed by Star embracing both her and him in her robotic arms. Aloy joined in at the same time as Star, but alas, her arms were only long enough to encompass a small portion of the people in the hug. Mostly consisting of Eule’s and Rost’s legs.

“Okay, enough. Enough,” Rost insisted as he pried himself loose from the group hug, if quite gently.

“Too bad you still don’t have a bed in there though,” Aloy noted.

“Yup. Just the wooden frame for a bed that’s probably not going to be all that comfortable for sleeping on,” Star added wryly.

“Unfortunately, providing the rest of the bed will be the hardest part,” Rost added as he stroked his braided beard in thought. “Hunting and trapping the foxes and raccoons to make the bedding and blanket will take time, effort, and patience. We already have several skins, but it will still be some time before we have enough for a blanket, let alone bedding.”

Eule could only nod at that, having participated in several of those hunts and having helped make some of those traps by now with her lover. “Fortunately, we still have our field bed, so it’s not a pressing issue–”

“Oh, oh!” Aloy squeaked, hopping in place excitedly. “What about that field bed? Can’t we just take the furs and blanket and just use them for the bed in there?”

Rost once more stroked his braided beard thoughtfully, but now with some hopefulness in his expression as well. “That…is certainly very possible. If you two don’t mind me partially disassembling that field bed for it?”

“No, of course not!” Eule said excitedly. “In fact, it’s the perfect solution! Thank you, Aloy!”

“Yeah, looks like we have ourselves a little Elster here,” Star said affectionately, rubbing Aloy’s head as she spoke.

Rost, as per his norm, said nothing, but his warm nod and smile down at Aloy spoke as much as any actual words.

Aloy, for her part, simply accepted the praise, both spoken and silent, and head-patting with a smugly proud look.

“Well, we had better get started then,” Rost said at last. “If we want to get that bed ready for you two by tonight, it’s best that we start Elstering now.”

Eule started to nod, and then stopped when she realized what Rost just said. “Rost, did you just use the word ‘Elstering’?” she asked with a grin.

Rost coughed. “Your tribe seems to hold these Elsters in high regard as crafters, so I believe it’s only appropriate that I give my dues to their skill as well.”

Star laughed and started patting Rost on the back. “Big guy, welcome to the world of Eusan Nation slang!” she declared with a happy grin of her own.

“I do wonder why you call me that, when you stand taller than me by about…” Rost held up a hand, raising it above his head until his fingertips reached the same height as the top of Star’s head. “…a head’s span in height. Maybe 35 cm, or close to it,” he dryly estimated as a conclusion.

“Well, it’s because you may be shorter than me, but you’re also pretty long horizontally, but in a good way,” Star quickly added when Rost’s dry look at her turned drier. “Plus, you also have a pretty big heart that fits your size, so in every way that matters, you’re a big guy to me.”

Eule giggled at the sight of Rost staring at the ground, rubbing the back of his head, and faintly blushing once more.

It was the sound of those very giggles though that made Rost cough loudly, and ask: “So are you going to help me with that Elstering or not?”

Eule and Star both raised a robotic arm and happily voiced their affirmatives. Honestly, because there was something satisfying about Elstering one’s own bed into existence.

*

Eule laid on the fox skin-covered bed she shared with Star, and the both of them were currently sharing with Aloy sandwiched in between them. To any outside observer, Eule was certain that they would’ve seen the three of them waving their arms and hands in the air in an oddly complex pattern for no apparent reason.

To anyone with a Focus equipped though, it would’ve been an entirely different sight.

“These Focuses can do so much,” Eule commented idly as she scrolled through her Focus’s menu options. “They’re practically wearable desktop computers.”

“What’s a ‘desktop computer’?” Aloy asked curiously.

“It’s basically a Focus, but a lot bigger and heavier, and something only a Mynah can wear like a big cube-shaped hat,” Star replied.

“Hmm, that doesn’t sound like a very good Focus,” Aloy concluded.

“Well, compared to these Focuses, no Eusan Nation computer is,” Star added dryly. “Seriously, these things are practically magic. I don’t even know how it’s sticking onto our faces like this. Can’t be magnets because it works on Gestalts too. Bioresonance tech, maybe? I don’t dare try to take it apart to see if it’s the case though, even if I knew what to look for if I hypothetically do take it apart.”

Eule could only nod in agreement at Star, having thought along similar lines, before turning back to investigating her Focus and what it can do.

It was while scrolling through the available menu options that Eule came across something called “Screenshots”. When she tapped the glowing option floating in the air to investigate further, it then turned into a pair of boxes one on top of the other. The top box read “Picture” while the bottom box read “Video”.

Now with her curiosity even further aroused, Eule tapped on Picture.

And instantly, four L-shaped lavender marks appeared in her field of vision at the very edges, appearing in the corners of that field of vision as though it was the corners of a box encompassing it. At the top of her field of vision, equally as lavender text was now visible that said: “Blink three times to take picture.”

Eule blinked in surprise at the odd message, but nothing happened. So out of further curiosity, Eule turned to look at Aloy and Star, who were both busy doing their own Focus investigations, and rapidly blinked three times in succession.

From her Focus, Eule heard the distinctly mechanical two-tone whine of a camera shutter, followed by a new message appearing in place of the Picture instructions that now reported: “Picture saved. Open in Picture Folder?”

Even a non-Eule could easily tell that the Focus was highlighting the “Picture Folder” with that underline for a reason, so Eule tapped on that next.

Eule was immediately brought to a screen similar to the Database menu option, but this one was labelled “Picture Folder” at the top instead, and this folder consisted of tiny pictures, with one blinking with a glowing border. Eule tapped on that one, which immediately expanded to fill much of her vision. The picture turned out to be a still image of the sight of Aloy and Star lying on the bed that Eule had taken before.

Eule was quite impressed. This effectively made the Focus somewhere between a wearable camera and a photographic memory module. It lacked the ability to respond to her thoughts the way the latter would have, but it more than made up for it by capturing those memories at a much higher image quality and resolution than any photographic memory module could ever take them at.

Honestly, Eule found this ironic. She’d been saving up her pay for one of the newer photographic memory modules–one of the new models that could take pictures in color, could store up to 36 visual memories, and even lets the Replika choose which memories to delete when it reaches capacity–so that she could preserve some memories of her time at S-23 Sierpinski. Only, that was now no longer possible…and then this Focus came along entirely for free. Eule’s only regret now was not being able to preserve some visual memory of her sisters before they…passed.

Eule sighed in disappointment before turning back to her Focus screen to take her mind off of her sisters for now.

It was then that Eule noticed the other pictures in the Picture Folder. Out of curiosity, she tapped on one at random.

The image that filled her field of vision turned out to be a picture of a brown-skinned Gestalt boy. His round chubby cheeks and tiny frame indicated that he was no older than Aloy, and possibly even younger from the looks of him. Those cheeks though were dimpled in a wide grin, with the boy caught mid-laugh. A colorful, conical hat rested upon the boy’s fuzzy black hair, and he was seated at a simple metal table with an adult’s body in view sans face.

It was what rested on the table that made Eule go still though. Upon that metal table was a small, round cake decorated with white frosting and colorful sprinkles. Sticking out of that cake were five candles in a pentagon pattern, and in the middle of those candles, written in rainbow-colored frosting, were written the words: “Happy Birthday Isaac”.

The forced cheer of Isaac’s father saying: “Hi! Happy Birthday, Isaac! Daddy sure loves his little big man!” played back unbidden through Eule’s mind, and she blinked back tears at the sight of this picture. Of course this Focus would contain such pictures. It originally belonged to Isaac’s poor father, after all. Of course he would want to preserve him and his son’s most precious moments within his device.

Looking through the other pictures, Eule found a similar pattern of pictures. Isaac pointing at a colorful animal in a children’s book. Isaac asleep in a metal-framed bed, tucked in with fluffy blankets and a stuffed animal toy. There were even pictures of a brown-skinned woman, who had very likely been Isaac’s mother if her constant presence with Isaac was any indication, and thus Isaac’s father’s wife.

Eule once more wondered what had happened to Isaac’s father. Why did he just commit suicide right there, just after celebrating his son’s birthday? It didn’t make any sense no matter what Eule could think up. She just didn’t have enough information to make that deduction, and she doubted that she ever would.

Thus, she put him out of her mind by going back to the option where her Focus asked her to choose between “Picture” and “Video”. This time, she selected Video.

A similar screen to the Picture screen popped up in her field of vision now. Only this time, in the upper left corner of her vision, a red circle was present next to blinking white letters that read: “REC”. Meanwhile, a timer had suddenly appeared at the bottom of her vision, counting up from 00:00:00. As Eule looked around, the last zero rose up by one every second. That timer was what told Eule that it took her six seconds to realize that the Focus was not just a camera, but a video camera as well.

“Amazing,” Eule breathed, before realizing that she was recording essentially meaningless footage. “Er, stop recording?”

Thankfully, her Focus did in fact stop the recording, and then proceeded to ask her if she would like to save the video to the Video Folder. Eule told it “No”, and then it proceeded to ask her if she would like to delete the video, to which Eule replied “Yes”. Fortunately, it seemed that whoever programmed the Focus realized the possibility of user error.

By the time Eule closed the Screenshots menu, she felt two pairs of eyes staring holes into her, and turned to look into the very curious gazes of both Aloy and Star, silently asking with those very gazes what that was all about.

Those curious gazes turned into excited ones when Eule explained the Screenshots function.

“Oh, wow. A photographic memory module that can take both still images and video? With a capacity of apparently infinity? Who needs eye modules anymore when you have a Focus?” Star quipped. “Red Eye, this thing isn’t just a mapping module–and a mapping module even better than our own–seriously, nice job finding that, kid.”

Aloy said nothing, merely beaming proudly at Star in reply.

“But it’s also even almost as good as my aiming module, so I barely need to use it unless I’m moving quickly,” Star continued.

Eule nodded, and then stopped as she processed what her lover just said. “Wait, the Focus is also an aiming module? Really?”

“Yeah, you didn’t realize?” Star asked. When Eule shook her head, Star explained: “You know that reticule that’s always in the center of your vision when you have a Focus on? As it turns out, that reticule automatically tracks your weapon’s aim instead of just staying in the center of your vision all the time. I don’t know how it can tell when I’m aiming a weapon, but it can do that.”

Now with her curiosity piqued, Eule wanted to test this Focus aiming module feature out. Getting out of bed and taking up her War Bow, Eule aimed at the front door leading outside. Just as Star said, the Focus reticule stopped following the center of her vision, and instead “stuck” to where her bow was aimed at. Even when she moved her bow’s aim without moving her head, the reticule followed the weapon’s aim.

“Whoa, the Focus really does help you aim,” Aloy said from beside her.

Eule looked down to see Aloy having taken up her child’s bow, and was also presumably staring at her moving reticule.

“Isn’t it?” Eule noted excitedly. “It will be so much quicker and easier to aim a bow now.”

Aloy’s giggle and nod told Eule exactly what her favorite little Gestalt girl thought of that note.

And then an exaggerated groan made Eule turn back to Star.

“Ahh, my lovely Eule has left me all alone on our bed, forsaken!” Star said with all the melodrama she could muster. “All for a toy and a tiny mistress!”

Eule grinned at her lover amidst a giggling Aloy, carefully placed her War Bow back on the rack next to Star’s Sharpshot Bow, and then proceeded to gracefully step towards the bed and climbed back onto it.

“Aww, don’t you worry, my dear Star,” Eule said as she laid down next to Star, snuggled up to her lover, and planted a kiss right on the corner of Star’s mouth. “You won’t have any fear of me leaving you alone on our bed for long. Not when you’re so warm and soft in all the right places.”

Star grinned back at her, and returned that kiss with a much more loving one on her lips. “Well then, shall we–”

Whatever Star had been about to say was interrupted by a small flying flame-haired bundle leaping into the air above Eule and Star with a loud cheer. For a moment, Aloy almost looked like she was a tiny Bioresonant girl defying gravity itself. But alas, gravity reasserted itself at the apex of Aloy’s leap, causing Eule’s favorite little Gestalt girl to land heavily on both Eule and Star’s midsections.

“Oof!” Eule “said” along with Star, courtesy of the air driven out of their biomechanical lungs by the weight of a kindergartener landing on them.

“I wanna play too! Can I?!” Aloy asked excitedly.

Eule started to explain just why Aloy couldn’t join in on her and Star’s “game”, but said explanation quickly broke down into giggles as the absurdity of the situation hit her. Star joined in on the giggles, followed immediately by Aloy as they all hugged and play-wrestled with each other.

All in all, while Eule did indeed want to enjoy some naughty games with Star, she had to admit that in some ways, these kinds of much more innocent games with Aloy were just as fun.

*

Rost carefully drew his War Bow, watching the lavender circle of light centered on where he was aiming his bow shrink as he pulled the bow back to full draw until it was as tiny as an insect to him. As he carefully relaxed the Machine wire bowstring back to normal, he watched as the circle just as carefully expanded back to full size with the action.

Rost was loathe to admit, but the Focus–cursed Metal World relic it may be–was incredibly useful. He had no need of the relic to assist with his aim, but it did allow him to make shots more quickly than aiming by eye alone. He can see just how useful that ability would be in the heat of battle, and would admit it…even if he felt like he was trying to pull one of his own teeth out in the process.

But…Rost would also admit that the Focus hadn’t just become a tool of utility to him. It was also a way to connect with the new members of his family. Without the Focuses, Rost would never have been able to speak to Eule and Star this quickly. Oh, he had no doubt that he would’ve been able to learn this Eusan Standard Language that the people of their Eusan Nation tribe…eventually. And that was the key word. It would’ve taken time before he would’ve learned enough of their language just to speak to them on a conversational level.

Would Rost have grown so close to Eule and Star in such a short amount of time if he could barely even speak to them? Would Aloy? Honestly, Rost wasn’t sure, but there was a big part of him that was relieved that he didn’t have to find out, especially because of how much Eule and Star had become a part of his and Aloy’s life.

Rost still found Eule and Star to be strange people. It wasn’t just that they were of the Replika people, and so possessed bodies like that of Machines, but even stranger in some ways. Their ways could be just as strange. Rost would occasionally find himself unable to follow Eule and Star’s conversations when the topic wandered into their home tribe’s territory, and he still found their Rule of Six custom to be utterly bizarre, nonsensical, and self-harming in some, no, many ways.

Despite all that though, Rost now can’t imagine not being able to trade off cooking with Eule, not being able to see Aloy fiercely spar with Star, not being able to hear Eule and Star’s respective voices, none of it. Rost didn’t quite know what to call the Replikas. Sisters? Additional daughters? He couldn’t decide. But in the end, he couldn’t deny that they had become a part of his heart, surely as he and Aloy had apparently become a part of theirs.

It was truly quite strange. Before all this happened, Rost would never have dreamed that he would go near a Metal World relic. Now though, he can’t even dream of not having this Metal World relic on his temple. All because of Eule and Star. Truly, the All-Mother granted Her blessings in the strangest ways.

Speaking of, Rost had earlier heard laughter coming from Eule and Star’s wing of the house. He could only sigh at this. This was the reason why Rost couldn’t decide if Eule and Star were additional daughters or not. Both of them sometimes acted quite…childishly. Star far more so than Eule, but even Eule had her moments.

Again, the revelation of Eule being 5 years old and Star being 8 went through Rost’s mind. Yes, the Replikas behaved like adults most of the time, but still…

Rost sighed once more, and decided to go check on them. He went in through the front door on the left, and climbed the ladder up to Aloy’s room to tell her to go to bed.

However, Aloy’s bed was predictably empty. With a third sigh, Rost climbed back down, and opened the door to Eule and Star’s room a crack to tell Aloy, and possibly Eule and Star too, to get some sleep for tomorrow.

The words ended in his throat at the sight before him though.

Eule and Star were both fast asleep, their fox skin blanket only partially covering them. In between them, was Aloy, just as fast asleep, tucked in between the Replikas and hugging their Machine arms as though they were Ms. Duck and Ms. Strider.

Rost sighed in exasperation yet again, but there was affection mixed in this time. He quietly went over to the bed, reached down for the blanket, and carefully tucked the blanket up to all three of them.

It was then though that Rost felt the sensation of being watched. He peeked up at the trio’s sleeping faces…only to notice that one of Star’s eyes was not closed.

Rost had no idea how long Star had been watching him tuck everyone in, but his only reply was to give Star his driest stare.

Star’s reply to that was to smirk at him before nuzzling up closer to Eule and Aloy, closing both eyes contentedly, but still with that amused smirk on her face.

Rost could only sigh for one last time, shaking his head at Star’s cheekiness before walking towards the door back into the house, towards his own bed waiting for him.

And yet, as Rost did so, he had a soft smile on his face, silently wishing all three of them pleasant dreams in the process.

If only he knew…

*

A three-tone note kept playing over and over and over again. Low, medium, high, repeating in an endless sequence.

Aloy moaned in her sleep, wondering what was making so much noise.

“Attention, attention,” a woman’s tired voice spoke.

Aloy wondered who the voice belonged to as she tried to get back to sleep. The voice was too low-pitched to be Eule, but too high-pitched to be Star.

“39486…39486,” the woman’s voice continued in that same tired tone.

Aloy reached down to pull Eule and Star’s fox skin blanket over herself, but was confused when her tiny reaching hands found nothing but her own clothes.

“60170…60170,” the woman continued.

Aloy’s questing hands found the bedding, but was even further confused when her hands did not meet the fox fur she was expecting to touch. Instead, it seemed to be some kind of…leather? Covering something faintly squishy underneath, but there was precious little of it.

“24326…24326,” the woman continued still.

Not only that, but there was a dim light coming in through Aloy’s closed eyes. A light…coming from the ceiling? Why was there light coming from the ceiling? Did something knock a hole in the roof?

“01064…01064,” the woman continued endlessly, her voice still weary but seemingly not stopping despite that weariness.

Now chilly, thoroughly confused, and just as thoroughly annoyed by the woman’s voice constantly saying those apparently meaningless numbers, Aloy finally woke up.

Aloy saw the strangest sight. Above her, the ceiling looked like it was made of some kind of…stone? It was so smooth though, and it looked kind of dirty though, like people had been making it dirty for a while, and no one cleaned it up.

Just to the left though, there was a circle made of metal. At the center of the circle, was some kind of…thing making white light. It wasn’t very bright, but it was brighter than a candle’s light, and it didn’t flicker like a lit candle did. The metal circle seemed to be capturing the light, and…focusing it down. It reminded Aloy of the weird lights in the Metal World facility, but white instead of that pale purple color.

Aloy might not know what that light circle was, but she did know this: this was most definitely not Eule and Star’s room, and the woman’s voice coming from just outside her field of vision was definitely the voice of neither Eule nor Star.

Aloy scrambled to her feet and looked at the source of the unknown woman’s voice.

The source of the voice– sitting in a chair made of metal tubes and…white stone–turned out to indeed be a woman. A woman with long hair as white as her dress, and skin so pale that it looked like she had never seen the sun before in her life. Aloy’s jaw fell open upon realizing that the Ghost Woman had somehow taken her here.

Aloy peeked further left, and saw a door. It was a strange door made of the smoothest wood Aloy had ever seen, and was painted a red that made it look like it was painted with blood. Even weirder, there were a pair of small holes in the right side of the door that emitted a weirdly red light. The hairs on the back of Aloy’s neck stood up at even that glimpse of that red, blood-colored light, but alas, that door was also the only visible way out. The Ghost Woman hadn’t noticed her yet, so Aloy figured that she could maybe sneak out that way if she was quiet enough.

But…Aloy listened to the Ghost Woman repeat those numbers over and over again. Always groups of five numbers, each group repeated once before the Ghost Woman moved on to the next group. Aloy had never heard someone sound so…tired before. Like the Ghost Woman wanted to sleep, but she didn’t want to or couldn’t for some reason. Aloy had also never heard someone sound so sad and lonely before. Aloy wondered what was making the Ghost Woman sound like that, and why she was just repeating those numbers without stopping.

Her curiosity and compassion both now thoroughly aroused, Aloy stepped forward to get a closer look at the Ghost Woman, stopping only when she was just in front of a wooden table with a weird metal boxy device with a big square glass lens on it, and a flat box covered in square buttons in front of that metal and glass box (there was also a wooden shelf with thin boxes stacked vertically on it above, but Aloy only glanced at them before ignoring them), which allowed her to see the Ghost Woman from the side, and thus, finally see her face.

The first thing Aloy noticed were the Ghost Woman’s eyes, which had been closed before when she had been standing over Eule and Star, but now were fully open. It was the first time Aloy had ever seen anyone with eyes as red as wild ember flowers, and Aloy thought they looked really pretty, especially with the red face paint under the Ghost Woman’s eyes, so like that of Star. However, Aloy could also see that the Ghost Woman had bags under her eyes, like she hadn’t slept for a long, long time.

The Ghost Woman’s face was also kind of thin, like she hadn’t eaten for as long as she hadn’t slept. The Ghost Woman also had a bunch of bandages on her face, as though she’d been injured a lot. Aloy also saw…that there were bald patches on the Ghost Woman’s hair? Like patches of it had fallen out? Only…Aloy blinked, and the bald patches were gone, replaced with long white hair that looked as if they had always been there. Aloy could only think that she had imagined those bald patches…maybe.

Even more weirdly though, Aloy could see that the Ghost Woman’s hands and feet were…weird. They were both a dark purple color, like they were just one big bruise. Aloy can’t even imagine how it was possible to get injured so that you could bruise your entire hands and feet, and even just past them.

Aloy was further confused though, not just by the Ghost Woman’s hair, hands, and feet. Aloy had been staring at the Ghost Woman’s face from right next to her, and yet the Ghost Woman didn’t appear to notice. Yes, the Ghost Woman had some kind of weird hat made up of two circles connected by a thin band that covered both ears, but Aloy knew that even she would’ve noticed someone staring at her from that close. And yet, the Ghost Woman was only interested in repeating her numbers into another metal box covered in buttons, lights, and glass lenses; and nothing more.

A chill ran down Aloy’s spine. Was the Ghost Woman really a ghost of the Forgotten? Did she not notice Aloy…because she was caught between life and death, and couldn’t pass on?

Aloy was now both scared…and morbidly curious. Determined to see if the Ghost Woman was really a ghost, Aloy reached out with a tiny index finger, and gently poked the Ghost Woman in a part of her cheek that wasn’t covered by a bandage.

Aloy’s finger encountered warm, squishy cheek, so that alleviated Aloy’s fear that the Ghost Woman was a ghost.

Except that now there was the brand new problem of the Ghost Woman squeaking in shock, and then spinning around to face Aloy, both arms held up to block…nothing.

Aloy, for her part, squeaked in just as much shock and jumped back, standing in a spear-fighting stance to block with…nothing.

Aloy and the Ghost Woman spent the next few moments just staring at each other in surprise, frozen in their respective defensive postures and blinking in confusion.

Then the Ghost Woman slowly reached up and took off her weird, ear-covering hat, placing it on the empty spot on the wooden table in front of the buttons and lights-covered box.

“Hello?” the Ghost Woman asked, sounding unsure of what to say.

“Hi?” Aloy replied, also sounding just as unsure.

Silence continued for another moment as Aloy and the Ghost Woman stared at each other.

“Umm, may I ask what you are doing here, in my room?” the Ghost Woman asked.

“I…I don’t know,” Aloy admitted. “I just woke up here on this…bed?”

“Oh, that’s my bed…but that just makes things even more confusing, admittedly,” the Ghost Woman said, with a slight smile forming on her pale, bandaged face.

Now that the Ghost Woman pointed it out, she had a weird bed. To Aloy, it looked and felt like just a big rectangular leather pouch filled with something soft to make it comfortable to sleep on. No blanket or pillow…and bed even had a thick layer of dust on it. As if the Ghost Woman hadn’t slept in her own bed for a long, long, LONG time.

“Your bed is weird. Where’s everything that you need for a bed? Your blanket? Your pillow?” Aloy asked curiously.

The Ghost Woman looked to the bed Aloy was standing on, staring at it with a confused look. “Honestly, I don’t know. I had both, but they seem to be gone now. I couldn’t tell you where they went even if I tried.”

Aloy tilted her head at the Ghost Woman. “Did someone take them? But if they did, someone took them a long time ago, because of all the dust.”

The Ghost Woman just continued staring at her bed with that look of confusion. “I really don’t know. Only Auntie and Uncle lived here too, but I can’t imagine why they would just take my blanket and pillow, and nothing else. The dust though…I feel like I should know why, but I…I can’t seem to remember.”

The Ghost Woman looked even more confused and sad at that.

“Are you okay, Ghost Woman?” Aloy asked in concern.

“I…I don’t…wait, what did you just call me?” the Ghost Woman asked, shifting her gaze to Aloy now with a look of astonishment. “Ghost Woman?”

Aloy felt a warm blush rising onto her cheeks. “Umm, I’m sorry, Ghost-er, I’m sorry. I didn’t know your name and what else to call you, so your white hair and skin made me think of a ghost of the Forgotten and…uhh…I’m really sorry.”

The Ghost Woman stared at Aloy for a few more moments before, to Aloy’s aghast embarrassment, started giggling.

“I’m sorry, but that’s just…hee-hee!” the Ghost Woman giggled some more before, much to Aloy’s relief, she got herself under control. “It’s okay though, I’ve been called far worse. Oh, but I’m sorry, where are my manners?” the Ghost Woman then held out her bruised right hand to Aloy. “My name is Ariane Yeong. What’s yours, Flame Girl?”

Aloy’s embarrassed look turned into a grin at the nickname. Well, she deserved it for calling Arianyong a “Ghost Woman”, and Rost, Eule, and Star all said that her hair was the color of flames anyways.

Aloy happily took Ariane’s right hand with her own, and gently shook that bruised hand to not further injure it, feeling Ariane’s slightly cold hand. “Hi, Arianyong!” she cheerfully repeated.

“Arianyong” giggled at Aloy. “No, silly! It’s two names, not one. Ariane is my first name, and then Yeong is my second name.”

“Arian…Yong? No, you said something more like…Ariane…Ye-ong? Yeong. Ariane Yeong…what a weird name,” Aloy said in a puzzled tone. “Why would you need two names?”

Ariane gave Aloy a look combining confusion and amusement. “Well, Ariane is my personal name, and Yeong is my family name. Don’t you have those too?”

“Nope! My name’s Aloy, and just Aloy!” Aloy proudly declared.

Ariane smiled at her. “Just Äloy, eh…such a strange name, and truly nothing else?”

“Well, other people sometimes call me ‘The Outcast Girl’, but that’s not my name, and I don’t have any other name,” Aloy commented. “Rost said it’s because the Nora see all their kids as being everyone’s kids, so that’s why all Nora have only one name, so that’s why my name is Aloy.”

Ariane tilted her head curiously at Aloy. “Huh, this is the first time I’ve ever heard of that kind of custom, but it’s fascinating nonetheless. Anyways though, nice to meet you then, Äloy.”

“Heh, you say my name wrong too,” Aloy giggled. “It’s ‘Aloy’, not ‘Aeloy’.”

“But I did say Äloy…no, no, you say the ‘Ä’ with a weird accent. Like…A-loy? A-loy…Aloy?” Ariane asked.

“There! You got it!” Aloy happily said.

Aloy and Ariane smiled and giggled at each other as they continued shaking hands.

“So…may I ask what the story behind that ‘Outcast Girl’ title you mentioned before is?” Ariane asked just as curiously as she looked. “I can’t imagine a little one like you doing anything bad enough to deserve being called something like that.”

“I wish I could tell you, but I don’t know too,” Aloy said with a groan. Upon seeing Ariane’s confused look, Aloy continued: “I’m an outcast from the Nora, but I don’t know why. Most everyone doesn’t know why either, and the few that do won’t tell me. Stupid oath of silence. Why promise to keep why I’m an outcast a secret? What’s so bad about it?”

“…So your people charged and sentenced you for a crime that they won’t tell?” Ariane asked quietly. “What is even your punishment anyways?”

“Same as any other outcast. No one is supposed to talk to me, touch me, or act like I even exist, because that would be breaking the law,” Aloy said bitterly. “It’s been like that since as long as I remember.”

“…That’s awful,” Ariane said sadly and just as bitterly. “And it’s been that way for that long…how old are you? 5 seasons? 6?”

Aloy looked blankly at Ariane. “I don’t know how long a season is, but Rost said I was about 6 years old.”

“Years? Are you Vinetan?” Ariane asked curiously. “I’ve only ever heard Erika and Isa call seasons by that name, so you must be from Vineta, yes?”

“Umm, I don’t know. I’ve heard Eule and Star say something about Vineta before, but I don’t know if Nora lands is Vineta or not,” Aloy admitted.

Ariane tilted her head curiously at Aloy, before shaking it. “No, that’s not important right now. Your people charged you for a crime that called for that kind of punishment…and you can’t even remember when this wasn’t the case. You had to have been a…a toddler at most. That’s…that’s so sad.”

Aloy could only nod at that.

Ariane’s mouth set in a grim line. “Your people don’t sound very nice. Just like mine, I guess.”

Aloy nodded at that once more. “But…it’s not all bad now. Things have been getting better. I have friends now: Vala, Minali, and Teb. All of them are breaking the law just to talk and play with me, but they’re still doing it. I felt really lonely before with just Rost, but now I’m not. All because of Eule and Star. All because…of you.”

Ariane blinked at Aloy multiple times, each in increasing levels of confusion. “Me?”

Now it was Aloy’s turn to blink at Ariane in confusion. “You don’t remember? You were standing over Eule and Star while they were sleeping. You were even wearing those same really thin white clothes. Aren’t you cold in that?”

Indeed, Ariane’s clothes were so thin that Aloy could easily see the outline of Ariane’s nipples on her breasts.

Ariane looked down at where Aloy was staring, and then quickly used her free hand to cover her chest.

“Wait, where are you even looking?!” Ariane half-shouted in embarrassment, before her look turned thoughtful as her blush slowly faded. “Well, fortunately, it’s not that cold here…but…no, I don’t remember doing any of that. Sorry. I think…maybe you have the wrong person?”

Aloy shook her head. “I’m sure you’re the Ghost Woman from before. Even if you don’t remember though, thank you for bringing Eule and Star to me, Ariane Yeong. Really, thank you.”

Ariane’s blush returned once more, this time for a different reason. “I can’t help but feel a bit weird at someone thanking me like that for something I don’t remember even doing to people I don’t even know…but you’re welcome all the same,” Ariane finished with a soft smile at Aloy.

Aloy smiled right back. “Maybe…if it’s okay with you…can we be friends? Outcasts can’t talk to other Nora, but we can talk to outsiders without breaking the law. And if you’re from where Eule and Star are, then you have to be an outsider, and then you can be my friend…that is, if you want to…please?”

Ariane blinked in surprise at Aloy, before smiling once more, this time though, with a bit of sadness to it. “I…I don’t think you want to be friends with me.”

Aloy looked Ariane in the eye. “I really do.”

Ariane looked down at the floor, which to Aloy looked to be made out of the same weird rock as the ceiling and walls.

“You really don’t,” Ariane quietly insisted, looking back up to meet Aloy’s eyes with a haunted look. “You’ll just get hurt by being friends with me. Just like Erika and Isa.”

“Not me! I won’t get hurt!” Aloy proudly declared, before her expression turned just a bit sheepish…but just a bit. “At least, when I become the Bravest of the Braves, I won’t get hurt that easily.”

Ariane now tilted her head at Aloy in combination confusion and curiosity, both for the moment eclipsing the haunted look for now. “‘Bravest of the Braves’? I assume that there’s a story behind that? One you might tell me, perhaps?”

Aloy nodded eagerly, eager to not see Ariane so sad and unhappy again. “See, the only thing I know about me being an outcast is that it’s got something to do with my mother. Rost is better than any father, so I don’t really care about that, but my mother…Rost said all Nora revere their mothers…and I don’t even know my mother.

“And that’s why I have to be the Bravest of the Braves. There’s a Proving that all Nora who want to be Braves have to do to be Braves, but whoever gets first place on the Proving run gets a boon from the High Matriarchs, er, our leaders. The boon lets me ask for anything, even who my mother is and why I’m an outcast. So I have to get first place, or else I’ll never be able to find out who my mother is,” Aloy finished, with a look of both sadness and determination in her green eyes.

Ariane tilted her head once more at Aloy. “You can’t take this Proving again and again until you get first place?”

Aloy shook her head. “Rost said that finishing the Proving makes you a Brave no matter what, and that Braves can’t retake the Proving to get that boon. So I need to finish first when I run in the Proving, no matter what.”

Ariane nodded. “I see. One chance only. I hope you win that Proving, and hopefully get to meet this mother of yours,” she said with a smile.

Aloy grinned back in reply. “I hope so too! My mother is probably going to be really pretty and really nice like Eule, and really strong and really funny too like Star, oh, but also really smart and really wise like Rost, so she’ll be great to meet!” she said happily before asking hopefully: “That means we’re friends now, right? Right?”

Ariane sighed, but there was a smile along with that sigh. “Alright, if you insist, Flame Girl,” she replied quietly.

Aloy gasped in joy, and immediately abandoned the handshake in order to step forward and hug Ariane. “Thanks, Ghost Woman! We’ll be good friends!”

Aloy thought Ariane felt kind of cold the moment she began her embrace of her new friend; a notion which was only reinforced by the way Ariane went stiff in surprise at being hugged. Then Aloy felt Ariane relax, and then giggled in joy when Ariane’s arms returned the embrace, feeling warmth slowly build up in Ariane’s body.

“Thank you,” Ariane quietly said, with the desperate warmth of a flickering ember behind it.

“You’re welcome!” Aloy sunnily replied before releasing the hug and dialing it back down to a warm smile. “I’m glad you’re happy now though. You looked like you were really sad before, when you had that weird hat on and you were saying all those numbers. Why were you just saying a whole bunch of numbers over and over again anyways?”

“‘Weird hat’?” Ariane asked in confusion. Her eyes then turned to look at where Aloy was pointing in reply, and she started giggling. “Okay, first of all, this is a headset, not a weird hat. It’s just for directing messages from the radio directly to my ears.”

“Ohhh, radio. Like what Eule and Star and the Machines use,” Aloy nodded sagely.

“I suppose?” Ariane replied in an amusedly confused tone, before frowning. “As for your other question, I was…I was…I…I don’t know. I just feel like I have to send the numbers out because…because…I think I’m trying to call someone, to find them, but…I can’t seem to remember who…someone important, but I can’t…”

“Oh, oh! Maybe you could tell me about this person?” Aloy asked eagerly. “I’m a hunter in training, so I can track this person down no problem!”

“I’m trying, but…I can’t remember,” Ariane said in a mix of sadness, confusion, and despair that made Aloy’s heart sink. “Why can’t I remember anything? I feel like this person should be important, but whenever I try to remember this person, I just get…nothing. I’m trying to remember, but nothing comes to mind, but I feel like this person is the most important thing to me, but…I can’t remember.”

“It’s okay, Ariane,” Aloy said hurriedly, trying to keep Ariane from spiraling down into depression. “Rost said that ‘Patience is one of the best virtues a hunter can have’, and I’m not good at this patience thing yet, but if you wait a while, maybe you can remember who this person is? So don’t give up!”

To Aloy’s relief, Ariane’s frown turned back into a smile at her, however faint it was. “I hope so, and thank you. This Rost person you keep mentioning though sounds very wise indeed.”

Aloy nodded eagerly. “He is! Rost is the best hunter in the world, and he’s better than any father too! He even hunted birds for the feathers for my hairband, you know!” she said proudly.

“Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask about that. Those feathers are so beautiful,” Ariane commented curiously, making Aloy’s chest puff up even more in pride. “But birds though? I suppose you are from Vineta after all, for birds to be where you live. May I ask what kind of bird those feathers came from? I’ve never seen feathers in such a vivid blue before.”

“Oh, Rost said that they were feathers from a bird called a ‘magpie’,” Aloy replied thoughtfully.

“Magpie,” Ariane repeated.

“Rost said magpies are really smart and like to steal shiny things to put in their nest, so I like them. They’re kind of funny…Ariane?” Aloy now asked in concern.

“Magpie…magpie…Elster…that…that sounds familiar. Why?” Ariane asked no one as she held her head, gripping her temples. “Elster…Elster…Elster…Elchen, Elchen, Elchen…it hurts.”

Aloy jumped back just in time to avoid a spray of blood splattering onto the strange stone floor. She watched in horror as her new friend continued vomiting blood onto the floor, so much so that it pooled warmly around Aloy’s moccasin-clad feet.

“Ariane!” Aloy cried out in shock and worry.

“Elster, where are you? It hurts. Please, help,” Ariane got out just before she vomited out another spray of blood.

Aloy steeled herself, and ran to Ariane, ignoring the blood splashing onto her moccasins. “Ariane, what’s wrong?! Why are you throwing up blood?!”

Ariane looked up at Aloy, her red eyes unfocused. “Elster? No…Aloy?” she asked listlessly.

Aloy only now realized that when Ariane spoke, there was now a gap in her front teeth. A quick glance down revealed that very front tooth now lying on the floor, the yellowish-white of the incisor readily visible among the red of the blood, increasing Aloy’s worry for her new friend. That worry only increased when she saw the bruises on Ariane’s hands and feet slowly creep up her limbs, following the lines of Ariane’s veins as though they were malevolent worms bent on spreading into the rest of Ariane.

Ariane’s question though made Aloy think, metaphorical wheels turning in her head as she put the pieces of the puzzle together.

“Ariane, is the person you’re looking for this Magpie person? This Elster?” Aloy asked, hoping that it won’t make Ariane worse.

“I…,” Ariane coughed, splattering Aloy’s shirt with blood, but Aloy gently patted Ariane’s shoulder and held her hand, ignoring the wet feeling of Ariane’s hand and hoping it would comfort her a little, before Ariane looked back up at her. “I think…my head hurts when I think of Elster…but…I don’t want to stop thinking about this Elster too.”

“Okay, Elster, Elster…ooh, I know! I can help you find this Elster person!” Aloy offered.

“Can’t,” Ariane got out in between another blood-splattering coughing fit, before she quietly continued: “I can’t even remember what this Elster person even looks like. How can you even-”

“I can!” Aloy insisted. “Rost taught me how to track, and that works on animals, Machines, and humans. Really, I’ll find this Elster person for you. I promise.”

Ariane just groaned, the bruising continuing to slowly creep up her arms and legs. “Why would you promise such a thing? For someone you just met?”

“Because you’re my friend,” Aloy said with determination.

Aloy then had an idea. She reached up with her free hand to her hairband: a simple strip of leather keeping much of her flame-colored orange hair out of her face, pulled off one of the two magpie feathers–still vividly blue even over a year after Rost hunted the magpie for them–stuck in there with loops of string, and presented it to Ariane.

“Here, for you,” Aloy insisted. “For my promise to prove that I’m not lying, and so it can help you remember this Elster person. Since magpie is her name? I think?”

Ariane reached out and gently took the magpie feather with her own free hand. Aloy watched as Ariane clutched the feather shakily, examining the vivid blue and rainbow-y colors of the magpie feather with a trembling grip, as though even the weight of the feather was almost too much for her.

“It’s beautiful. Truly, it is,” Ariane said softly before looking back up into Aloy’s eyes. “And truly, thank you, Aloy. For this, for your offer, and for your friendship.”

Aloy sighed in relief as she watched Ariane’s bruising recede until they were back in her hands and feet. They still didn’t look okay to Aloy, but at least they were back to normal, and Ariane wasn’t coughing and throwing up blood.

“You’re welcome again,” Aloy said happily, if a bit more quietly than she usually would. “Maybe you might want to sleep a bit now? You looked really tired, even before you started throwing up blood.”

Ariane’s smile turned sad again. “I do, I really do, but…I feel like it’s been a very long time since I slept. Or maybe I’m not getting any rest when I sleep? I can’t tell anymore. Honestly, I feel like I’m losing my mind at times, and I just keep forgetting that.”

Aloy frowned at this, and a look of determination emerged onto her small face. “Hold on, stay right there.”

Aloy let go of Ariane’s hand, noticing that her hand was now smeared in Ariane’s blood. She frowned in worry at the blood, but ignored it to step over to Ariane’s leather bed, still covered in dust. She then took one end of it, wiped her blood-covered hand on the bottom of the bed, and then lifted it up with a grunt of effort before swinging it down, giving it a hard thwap!

Instantly, the air in the small room was filled with dust, cascading down through the air like snow in the dim light emitted by the metal circle above. Aloy coughed at all the dust, as did Ariane, but soon, that coughing subsided with the dust as it settled down.

“There! Now there’s no more dust on your bed!” Aloy said proudly, before looking around the room. “Okay, now what can I use as a pillow…oh, I got it!”

Aloy took a short step towards a big piece of colored cloth hanging on the wall. It was a bit faded and had some weird stains on it, but Aloy could clearly still make out the black, red, and yellow stripe pattern on it, with the center having something that looked like an Old World relic surrounded by a trio of white stars, all with a pair of golden ears of wheat wrapping around it all, ripe for gathering.

Aloy, for her part, had no idea what the colors and the symbols meant. All she saw was a really big piece of cloth that looked like it was the softest thing in the room. Thus, resulting in her grabbing hold of the cloth.

“Um, Aloy?” Ariane said uncertainly. “That’s–”

Alas, before Ariane could finish what she was saying, Aloy gave the cloth a hard tug, and ripped the whole thing off from the pair of pins holding it up. Amidst Ariane’s surprised (nay, shocked) gasp, Aloy then climbed up onto the wooden table (after hopping up a few times without any success) to take one of the thin boxes on the shelf–which turned out to have a nicely drawn picture of a pretty black-haired woman wearing red armor and standing in front of a night sky with…what Aloy thought looked like two moons on it (and did that make Aloy confused)–and folded up the cloth around that box until she had a bundle that was…admittedly, still very thin: little thicker than Rost’s cape. However, when placed at the head of Ariane’s bed, it made a serviceable pillow.

“All done!” Aloy said in triumph, before walking over to take a still-shocked Ariane–her mouth hanging wide open-by the hand. “Come on, lie down there.”

Soon, Ariane was lying down on her bed, with her head resting on Aloy’s makeshift pillow, having stopped caring about what her head was lying on.

“Huh, you know, this almost feels like the old days,” Ariane commented idly, before turning to look at Aloy with a smile. “Of course, I don’t remember you being a part of my school years.”

Aloy giggled in reply, wriggling in closer to Ariane on the tiny bed.

Ariane could only giggle in response to that. “So any explanation as to why you’re sharing my bed with me, Flame Girl?”

“Well, Eule and Star say that when I sleep with them, they both get less nightmares,” Aloy happily explained. “So I thought that maybe if I sleep with you, you’ll sleep easier?”

Ariane’s giggles turned into a quiet laughter for a moment before she hugged Aloy to her, still clutching the magpie feather in her hands. “Hopefully, I will, especially if this Eule and Star say so…and I do wonder now about the names you call them, but I’m tired now. I’ll ask in the morning. Good night, Aloy.”

“Night, Ariane,” Aloy said as she hugged Ariane back and closed her eyes, and soon drifted off to sleep in Ariane’s arms.

For a moment–a very strange moment–Aloy felt like she was lying in warm…water? And yet, she was still able to breathe, so it felt so weirdly comfortable. So comfortable that she felt she could lie in it for eternity.

*

Then Aloy’s eyes snapped open.

The first thing she saw was the dried grass on wooden supports that made up the roof Rost’s house, and also made up Eule and Star’s room. Sunlight streamed in a window on the far wall as it rose in the east.

“Ari…Ar…A…huh?” Aloy asked in confusion. She had the name of someone on the tip of her tongue, but now that she was awake, she can’t remember anymore. She thought that it must’ve been a dream, even if she can’t remember what that dream was now.

A soft murmur came from Aloy’s left.

Aloy’s head turned in that direction, expecting to see someone.

And see someone she did: Eule blinking slowly and yawning, just waking up. Eule then turned to look at Aloy with her now very familiar blue eyes and red pupils, and smiled warmly. “Good morning, Aloy,” she said happily.

“Morning, Eule!” Aloy replied just as happily, before turning around to look at her other side, thinking that whoever she was looking for was there.

And so she did see someone: Star still sound asleep, snoring away with a trickle of dried drool running in a path down from the corner of her mouth, reaching all the way to the black shell covering her cheek there.

Aloy couldn’t help it. She started giggling at the sight, the fading memory of looking for someone vanishing with the hilarity.

The giggling finally aroused Star from her slumber, who woke up with a surprised snort, and turned to look at Aloy as well. “Morning, kid,” she said with a smile, rubbing her familiar red-underlined eyes as she did so.

“Morning, Star!” Aloy replied just as happily.

“Good morning, dear,” Eule also replied, smiling cheekily down at Star as she propped herself up on a black robotic arm.

“Good morning to you too, love,” Star replied as she too propped herself up, and added to that morning greeting with a good morning kiss.

Aloy giggled at the familiar sight of Eule and Star being kissy-kissy above her.

“Hey kid, did you lose one of your feathers in your sleep or something?” Star asked when her good morning kiss with Eule was over.

Aloy just stared at Star in confusion.

“Oh, you’re right,” Eule added. “There’s one missing.”

Aloy reached up to her headband, to where the familiar magpie feathers were. To her shock, one was indeed missing.

“Ack! Did it fall?!” Aloy shouted in shock and dismay, now lifting up pillow and fox skin blanket, trying to find one of the precious magpie feathers Rost hunted for her.

Alas, Aloy never found that feather, but fortunately, Rost had another magpie feather in storage from that same magpie he hunted, all in preparation for such an eventuality. Thus, Aloy was happy again now that she had two feathers in her headband again.

With even the faintest echoes of her dream long since evaporated into the aether.

*

Ariane Yeong laid still in her cryopod aboard what remained of the good ship Penrose-512, still slumbering, still dreaming that dream she had, is having, and will have for the foreseeable eternity.

There was just one thing different in this iteration of eternity though.

A single magpie feather was now clutched in Ariane’s crossed hands, still vividly blue even submerged in the reddish liquid of cryogenic fluid. A sign of a friendship with someone Ariane would never have expected to meet, and a symbol of a promise made by that friend.

A promise that would be fulfilled, one way or another.

*

Aloy gasped in joy as she and Star were finally allowed into the house’s main room from Eule and Star’s room, and could see the feast laid out before them. In fact, there were so many dishes that Eule and Rost had to put two tables together just to fit them all.

Eule bowed proudly to an amazed Aloy and an excited Star. “For tonight’s feast, this Eule…,” she said, stopping mid-sentence and looking up from her bow hopefully at Rost.

Rost sighed, and replicated Eule’s bow. “And this Rost…honestly, I still think that’s a very strange thing to say.”

“It’s just how it’s done in the fancier Rotfront restaurants. It’s for effect,” Eule insisted quietly, before saying more loudly: “We present to you: a Mondfest feast for the first ever Mondfest celebration in the Embrace. Featuring dishes such as Rotreis, Rotbratramen, Rotwurst, Rotfisch, Rotgemüse, Rotbrezel, and the main star of this feast, the Seventh dish to break the Six: a whole Rotferkel! Happy Mondfest!”

Aloy’s Focus didn’t seem to translate much of the dish names properly, but she didn’t need her Focus to tell what the dishes were.

Big bowls of fried red-colored watergrain, bowlfuls of red-colored stir-fried noodles, piles of juicy fried red ‘wurst’ sausages, several tenderly braised salted fish covered in red gloopy stuff, a huge pile of crispy stir-fried winter vegetables (a mix of goldbloom, greatbulb, and rainbloom leaves; as far as Aloy can see) also in that red stuff, a whole bunch of some kind of twisty bread with three square-shaped holes in it and baked to a dark red color, and an entire roasted boarlet. It was not only impressive because of how big it was, but also because she’d seen Eule and Rost spend a long time pulling out all the hairs on the boarlet, just so that could roast the whole thing with its skin on, giving it a very yummy-looking brownish-red roasted skin that made Aloy’s mouth water at the thought of crunching into it, along with everything else.

The only thing stopping Aloy from digging in was a searing question in her mind.

“Why is everything red?” Aloy asked Eule and Star curiously, looking back and forth at them hoping for answers.

“I was about to ask that too,” Rost added to Eule just as curiously. “I noticed while we were planning and cooking that you seemed quite insistent on making all the dishes red-colored, even the greens. Why is that?”

“Because that’s how we Rotfronters have always celebrated Mondfest, and that’s how it always will be,” Star replied, even supplying a creaky old woman’s voice for extra effect.

“That’s the short answer, yes,” Eule said with a giggle that was echoed by Aloy, before turning back to Rost. “As for the long answer: it’s because we Rotfronters associate the color red with good luck, fortune, and protection. It comes from the deep reddish-orange color of the Red Eye of the gas giant in the sky, and so naturally it resulted in every new season, er, Rotfront year being celebrated with red foods in order to symbolically take in the Red Eye’s power, so to speak.”

“If you ask AEON though, then they’d say that the red comes from all the blood the martyrs spilled during the Revolution. No questions asked,” Star added with a smirk.

Eule laughed nervously at that. “Admittedly, that is the new official explanation…but I think the Red Eye explanation sounds a bit less…grotesque.”

“Ooh, sounds like we have ourselves a rebel here, and a most lovely rebel at that,” Star teased.

Eule laughed even more nervously at that, blushing all the while…but there was a mischievous smile mixed in this time. “Oh? Then that makes you a rebel as well, because I do recall all those instances of you saying naughty things about the Great Revolutionary and her Daughter.”

Star grinned back in reply. “Indeed, we are both but rebels in the eyes of the Eusan Nation, so why not be revolutionaries together to fight back against pointless name-changings and ridiculous leaders?”

Eule’s reply was a bout of giggling. “Oh, Star–”

“Kissy-kissy talk later!” Aloy suddenly shouted, holding both hands up in the air. “First, let’s eat all this Mondfest food!”

“Aloy, I do not believe that we will be able to finish all of this in one night,” Rost pointed out dryly.

Eule hummed merrily. “That’s why we Rotfronters also have a tradition of eating the leftovers over the course of the six days of Mondfest.”

“I don’t think there’s quite enough food for six days either though,” Rost also pointed out, just as dryly.

Eule’s reply was to outright grin happily at Rost, firelight glinting off her anodized carbon steel teeth. “And that’s why our job as Eules is to keep cooking whenever the food grows short, so that no one is hungry on any of those six days.”

“I would also like to point out that I am not one of your sisters,” Rost said with a dryness so very Kitezhian, and yet there was also a smile on his face. “But I am more than happy to cook up more food with you if these do run out…eventually. However, that’s a question for the future. Right now, we–”

“Eat!” Aloy shouted at the same time Star did, resulting in Star holding out a fist towards Aloy. Aloy was more than happy to oblige by lightly punching Star’s steel-boned fist with her own. Star had mentioned that this was something she did with her own sisters out of “comradery”, but Aloy just liked it because it was fun and it made Star happy.

“Not yet,” Rost said, making Aloy and Star stare at him in confused shock. “For a feast this large and so important to Eule and Star, we must give our thanks first.”

Aloy groaned, as did Star, but they along with Eule clasped their hands together with Rost as they faced the feast before them.

“All-Mother, we thank you for the bounty you choose to bless us with today, as you did in ages past, and as we pray for you to continue to give us in the time to come,” Rost said in a chant. Then he paused for a moment, and added: “And Red Eye, if you are listening, we thank you as well, for watching over your two people here in this distant land so far from you. May you continue to watch over them in the future, as you have for all of your people in times long past.”

When Rost looked up from his prayer though, Aloy could easily see his surprise to see Eule and Star looking at him with the happiest look they’d given in a while, with tears threatening to spill from not only Eule’s eyes, but Star’s as well.

“Oh, Rost!” Eule said as she stepped forward to give Rost a grunt-inducing hug.

“Rost, you big lovable guy!” Star said at the same time, just reaching Rost a moment after Eule did to add to the hug, making Rost grunt once more.

“Me too!” Aloy cried out as she dashed over to embrace Eule’s, Star’s, and Rost’s legs all at the same time in her tiny arms.

That made Rost sigh, before he finally said: “Alright, enough. Enough!” he said as he practically squirmed out of the group hug, but Aloy smiled at the smile she could see on Rost’s lips even as he did so. “The prayer is over now, so let us enjoy the Goddess’s bounty before it gets cold.”

Thus commenced the first Mondfest feast to ever take place in the Embrace.

And in the end, despite everyone’s best efforts, particularly Aloy and Star, there was still quite a bit of food left by the time everyone was full to bursting.

“Want to eat more,” Aloy managed to get out, reaching with her spoon for another mouthful of Rotreis, before giving up and flopping back onto her chair. “But too full.”

“Ahh, it’s been so long since I was so full,” Star said dreamily, patting her bulging motor.

“Thought you said you had two…motors for yummies,” Aloy got out.

“That I do, but alas, they’re both full of so much delicious Mondfest food,” Star replied, still with her eyes closed in bliss.

“I am definitely taking that as a compliment,” Eule teased.

“As will I,” Rost added with a happy nod.

Both Aloy and Star raised an arm in cheer and agreement, unable to do more than that with the current state of their being.

“So out of curiosity, Aloy, what was your favorite Rotfront dish here?” Eule asked eagerly.

Aloy thought…and thought…and thought some more, before answering: “I liked them all. So many new foods from your tribe…I can’t pick my favorite,” Aloy replied mournfully. “Although, the soup-less ramen and the twisty bread was fun and tasty.”

“Ah, I’m glad you enjoyed them…although honestly, I feel slightly disappointed in my attempt to recreate Rotbrezel,” Eule said with a disappointed smile.

“What was wrong with it? They tasted perfectly fine to me,” Rost commented. “In particular, that honey and dawnberry mix you painted onto that bread, this ‘Rotbrezel’, combined with the salt sprinkled onto it gave it a most wonderful taste. Not to mention the use of ash-water to boil the dough in before baking? I never would’ve thought that would do anything, let alone give the bread a crispy, browned skin.”

“Honestly, I’m also glad that mixing water with wood ashes made a basic enough water to produce that browned skin, but the texture was definitely not that of true Rotbrezel,” Eule insisted. “None of the flour I used seemed right. The flour made from mixed wild grains produced too dense a bread, and even using watergrain didn’t quite work out. The closest I got was from the maize flour I purchase from Rashaman, but even that wasn’t quite fluffy enough and the taste, while certainly delicious, isn’t quite right for a true Rotbrezel.”

Rost stroked his braided beard in thought. “Fluffy bread, you say? Hmm…perhaps the next time you meet with Rashaman, maybe you could ask him for some Carja snow flour? I’ve had bread like what you described before, and the Carja I spoke to about it said that the texture was due to that snow flour.”

“Snow flour,” Eule repeated in an increasingly intrigued tone. “I take it it’s because the flour is as white as snow?”

Rost nodded. “Apparently, that’s the only kind of flour that will produce that fluffy texture you spoke of that these Rotbrezel should have,” he explained. As Eule’s eyes widened in eagerness though, he continued: “However, snow flour is also much more expensive than regular flour. Many times so. According to the Carja I’ve spoken with, it’s because snow flour requires a lot of work to sift out the bran and germ from the grain. So bread like the kind you describe is typically something only Carja nobles can afford to eat regularly.”

Eule frowned upon hearing that. “Hmm, so white bread is only for nobles in this world? I suppose this is the consequence of not having access to grinding machines for flour.”

Rost raised an eyebrow at that. “Honestly? The thought of a machine that can grind grains into flour for me sounds bizarre and almost profane…and yet I can’t help but desire one.”

“That would be two of us,” Eule said with a smile.

Aloy in the meanwhile, tore a small chunk of Rotbrezel off of one of the remaining ones, and was nibbling on it with all the idleness of a bloated squirrel. “I think if this Rotbrezel bread was any yummier, I would’ve exploded already from eating too much of it,” Aloy just as idly noted, before opening her mouth wide in a deep yawn.

A yawn so deep that it set off everyone else yawning.

“And I believe is the All-Mother telling us that we should get to bed,” Rost said after his yawn was over and done with.

“Oh, oh, not quite yet!” Eule said excitedly. “There’s still one last thing Star and I want to do. See, an important tradition at Mondfest is for adults to give children a little present for the occasion.”

Aloy instantly perked up from her food coma at the mention of “children” and “present” in the same sentence. “Ooh, what kind of present?!” she asked Eule and Star.

Eule’s reply was to head back into the room she shared with Star. When she came back, she was holding a carefully wrapped leather bundle that she handed over to Aloy. “Perhaps you might open it, and find out?” Eule hinted mysteriously.

Aloy wasted no time in carefully untying the string tying the bundle shut. When the top parts of the leather package finally fell open, Aloy stared in awed fascination at what was within.

A pair of steel hexagons, seemingly carved out of a piece of Machine armor and painted entirely in a bright red. A much smaller hexagon was carved out of the center, with the edges of the larger hexagon having a raised rim. On both faces of the hexagon, symbols were just as carefully carved into them.

Aloy could make out two lines of tiny symbols on one face, each separated by…what Aloy initially thought was three dots in a triangle pattern, but upon closer inspection, were three four-pointed stars in that pattern.

As for the lines of symbols? Aloy stared at the symbols for several moments, trying to decipher what they meant herself, before reaching up and pressing her hand to her Focus to see if it would give her any clues. Instantly, the Focus materialized tiny words just above and below the two lines of symbols drawn in lavender lights. One face had only the number “1” in between the triple stars, but the other…

“‘Liberty’ and ‘Equality’?” Aloy read out, before looking up at Eule and Star. “How do you say that in your words?”

Eule reached up to take off her Focus, and indicated for Aloy to take hers off as well, before slowly and clearly saying: “‘Freiheit’ und ‘Gleichheit’,” before putting her Focus back on to say: “Did you get that?”

“‘Fry-height’ and ‘Glihhh-height’,” Aloy attempted to repeat.

It took several repetitions between Eule, Star, and Aloy before Aloy was able to pronounce the words right to her satisfaction.

“Now if only the Nation practiced those things as hard as Aloy here practiced saying them,” Star quipped.

“That’s…admittedly not wrong,” Eule admitted with a sigh.

“So what are these metal rings?” Aloy asked curiously. “And why do you give them out at your Mondfest festival?”

“Ah, those are Rationmarks, specifically 1 Rationmark coins…or at least, the closest we could get to 1 Rationmark coins,” Eule explained much more happily.

“Jan, Rana, and little Minali were really helpful in teaching us how to carve metal to make those counterfeit Rationmarks,” Star added.

“They’re not counterfeit Rationmarks!” Eule cried in outrage.

“Ehh, technically, they are. They’re near-perfect imitations of Rationmarks; so much so that the average Rotfronter wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Heck, even my sisters and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference if I hadn’t helped make them myself,” Star quipped with an amused smirk.

“Oh,” was all Eule said in reply, staring down at the floor with a look of embarrassed disappointment.

“Well, we don’t have to be worried about it at all,” Star said hurriedly. “It’s not like we’re planning to defraud anyone with it. It’s just an art…project…oh, wow, now there’s a thought. Whoever thought a Star unit would help out with an art project,” she said with a snort.

“An art project for a good purpose,” Eule said determinedly.

“Now that I can agree with,” Star said with just as determined a tone. “Even if making the paint for these counterfeit Rationmarks was…well, a pain in the, er, shell,” she finished under the unamused gaze of a Eule who didn’t want her cursing around children.

“Well, at least Minali’s family were helpful in helping us make the paint, as well as finding the ingredients,” Eule added with a sigh. “Who knew that crimson bloom would be so difficult to obtain?”

“Ah, so that’s why you were both gone for an entire day without explanation,” Rost said. “I assume that climbing those cliffs to obtain crimson bloom was…challenging?”

Eule and Star both nodded in agreement.

“Why in the name of the Red Eye would a plant grow only on rocks and cliff faces?” Eule asked with a weary sigh at the memory of scaling sheer cliffs for those admittedly gorgeous crimson flowers. “And without any leaves as well? Just a flower and stem sticking out of the rock, and nothing more?”

“I’ve read about plants that do grow on rocks like lichen,” Star noted. “Maybe these are lichen flowers?”

Eule could only shrug in reply, before turning back to Aloy. “Anyways, these Rationmarks are what our Nation uses as currency instead of Shards. Every Mondfest, it’s been a Rotfront custom for parents to give Rationmark coins dipped in red paint to their children, or even just to children they know. The coins are dipped in red paint in order to…well, officially, it’s supposed to symbolize the blood of all those who sacrificed their lived in the Revolution for our freedom, but I’ve also heard that the red paint is meant to make the coins resemble the Red Eye, allowing it to take in any bad luck to protect the child from it. Oh, but you have to wash the red paint off before you spend it, or else the bad luck will stick to the child.”

Aloy looked up at Eule with a shocked look. “Wash off the paint? But I don’t want to do that. It looks so pretty with it on.”

Eule and Star looked at each other, and they both smiled.

“Well, it’s not like anyone here is going to accept Rationmarks as legal tender, counterfeit or not, so why not?” Star said offhandedly.

“Indeed, why not? Maybe it will just continue to take in bad luck from Aloy the whole time,” Eule posited with a giggle, before her expression turned a bit more thoughtful. “Interesting how in the end, it’s an art project after all…but it’s an art project I would gladly do again for Aloy. At least, assuming that you like it?”

Aloy immediately nodded vigorously in reply. “I do! I really do! I’ve never had anyone give me anything for any festival except for Rost and my birthseason presents. So really, thank you, Eule, Star. Thank you!” she shouted joyfully.

Aloy emphasized her gratitude via the embrace of Eule and one of Star’s. By now, the feel of their warm cloth-covered Machinestone shell was as familiar as the feel of Rost’s just-as-warm hide-covered form. Likewise, the feel of Eule and Star returning her embrace was just as familiar.

“You’re most certainly welcome, Aloy,” Eule replied happily, before asking both Aloy and Rost curiously: “Although, ‘birthseason’?”

“I take it’s got nothing to do with our seasons?” Star quipped in question form.

“From the way you describe your Rotfront tribe’s ‘season’, I don’t think so. If anything, your Rotfront’s ‘season’ seems roughly equal to four of our seasons. Maybe a bit less,” Rost replied in the Kitezhian dryness he reserved for situations like these. “A season for the Nora is simply spring, summer, fall or autumn, and winter. We Nora divide each season into early, middle, and late; so a Nora’s birthseason can be any one of those twelve seasons. As for Aloy, her birthseason is in early spring. In fact, you two just missed Aloy’s birthseason.”

“Rost gave me Ms. Duck as my birthseason present that season,” Aloy declared proudly.

“Ohh, so that’s why you were so eager to play with Ms. Duck in the bath,” Star noted with a revelatory grin.

Aloy nodded in affirmation. “Ms. Duck was the newest, so she gets to play first,” she explained with complete confidence in her reasoning.

“Indeed, I can understand that,” Eule said with a smile and a giggle, before turning to Rost. “Although, there is something I’ve been curious about. Rost, you said that the High Matriarchs gave you Aloy to take care of, yes? So here’s my question: how do you know Aloy’s birthseason then?”

“What, did you guesstimate based off of how old Aloy was at the time and what season it was when you got her?” Star asked curiously.

“If only I had the hindsight or math skills,” Rost replied dryly, getting a snort and a chuckle out of Star. “Contrary to your assumptions, I simply asked Teersa when she and the High Matriarchs received Aloy when no one else was around. She was quite accommodating for that specific question, even if she was careful not to reveal any details about Aloy’s birth. I simply marked that season as Aloy’s birthseason, which I feel is quite fitting for her.”

“Oh?” Eule, Star, and Aloy asked simultaneously, all with equal amounts of curiosity.

Rost this time was the one who chuckled for a bit before replying: “For we Nora, each season is associated with a particular concept. Early spring, in particular, is associated with life. Specifically: the beginning of life due to that being the season when life starts awakening from the long slumber of winter. Given how lively Aloy is, I feel her birthseason is most appropriate for her.”

“Mm-hmm,” Aloy agreed with a nod, as did Eule and Star, before Aloy suddenly realized something. “Is that why you always give me animal stuff as a birthseason present?” she asked curiously.

Rost rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “It’s not the only reason…but I admit that it’s part of it.”

“I’m guessing he’s given you more than just Ms. Duck as a present?” Star asked teasingly, but also curiously.

Aloy nodded eagerly, before a thought occurred to her. “Do you want to see?” she asked, not just to Star, but to Eule as well.

Upon seeing them both nod just as eagerly as she did, Aloy scrambled up the ladder to her room, retrieved her box full of her treasures, and scrambled just as quickly back down to open up her treasure box to Eule and Star.

“Ooh,” went both Eule and Star, making Aloy swell up with pride that they thought her treasures were amazing too.

“I guess Rost really likes carving animals out of wood,” Star commented. “I see Ms. Duck, and I guess a Ms. Bird of some kind, and other Ms. Bird, and…hey, is that a Ms. Hawk? Do you only just make birds for Aloy?”

“That’s not a bird,” Eule pointed out.

Aloy looked at where Eule was pointing, and smiled. “Nope, that’s something Rost gave to me for one of my birthseason presents. He said it’s a Grazer doll made in Banuk style.”

“I found it while climbing in the mountains southeast of the Embrace one day,” Rost explained. “It was beside a Banuk rock painting, and a highly elaborate one at that, although I am not well-versed enough in Banuk art to understand what it meant. This Grazer doll had been resting atop a wooden structure, wedged into it in such a way as to prevent the wind from blowing it off. Oddly enough, the structure was protecting a box resting within, and within that box, was a single sheet of paper covered in Banuk glyphs. Unfortunately, I did not and still do not understand how to read Banuk glyphs, so I couldn’t make any of the message out. Thus, I simply tucked it away for safekeeping until I found someone who could, which I sadly have not found as of yet.”

By now, Rost had the undivided attention of not just Aloy, but also Eule and Star as well.

“Could we by chance see this letter?” Eule asked, her voice brimming with as much curiosity as Aloy was feeling.

Rost’s reply was to simply climb the ladder upstairs. A few minutes of rummaging later, he returned with a small wooden box, which he opened to reveal a very yellow flat sheet of something that looked like pounded animal skin to Aloy, covered in symbols that she presumed were the Banuk glyphs Rost talked about. Symbols which Aloy found to be completely meaningless.

At least, for a moment.

“As you can see, Eule, Star, the Banuk use completely different glyphs from the Carja, despite speaking the same words,” Rost explained. “Is this something you can read, or–”

“I can read it,” Aloy piped up.

“…What,” Rost said flatly, as though he couldn’t believe his ears. “How would you–”

“I can read it as well,” Eule added.

“Me too,” Star chipped in. “Or rather, my Focus can. It looks like it’s overlaying a translation over the writing, and then recording it into the database. Neat.”

“This Metal World relic can…amazing,” Rost breathed, apparently having looked at the paper and can now read what was written on it at long last.

Aloy couldn’t help it. As her eyes followed the glowing lavender words floating above the Banuk glyphs, she ended up reading them out loud: “‘This will likely be my final words to you, my son. I have left as many offerings to you as I have wished, and now, it is time for me to see what lies in the east, beyond the rising Sun. Perhaps there, I will find the source of the Blue Light, and feel its warm embrace. Perhaps that will cleanse me of the shame of having never been the father you could’ve had. Farewell, my son. Tektuk.’ Is Tektuk the name of whoever wrote this?” she asked.

“I…I am not certain,” Rost replied. “It may be who this letter is addressed to, but I don’t know…Eule, are you alright?”

“What, yes…no, perhaps not,” Eule said as she wiped away the tears threatening to spill from her eyes. “Something about this letter made me wonder who this person was, and why they would abandon their son like this when they clearly didn’t want to…and it reminded me of Isaac’s father from that recording.”

Rost nodded in sympathy as Star hugged Eule for mutual comfort. Aloy put down her treasure box on the dinner table and joined in, hoping to make Eule less sad about this. She knew that remembering that man who wished this Isaac boy a happy birthday (which Aloy figured was something like a birthseason, but a lot pickier) still made Eule sad, so she always made sure to hug Eule whenever the subject came up. Aloy was fairly certain it worked.

“I’m honestly just as confused about that Old One who killed himself as you are,” Rost noted. “Just as I am confused about this mysterious Banuk writing to his son.”

“That would make both of us then,” Eule said with a smile. It was slightly forced, but there was real humor in it that made Aloy feel better.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait until we can ask a Banuk about it then, whoever these Banuk are,” Star noted as she leaned her face against Eule’s.

“They’re a hardy tribe that lives to the far north of Nora lands, where the snow falls especially fierce and thick in winter,” Rost explained as he closed the Banuk box once more. “The Banuk are an odd people. They seem a bit like Nora at first, but they don’t fear the Metal World like we do, they make devices out of Machine parts, and they raise certain animals like goats for their meat, fur, and milk. Beyond that, I don’t know that much about them.”

“Well, it’s certainly more than we do,” Star quipped.

“They sound like smarter Nora,” Aloy noted.

“Aloy, there’s a reason why we Nora do things the way we do,” Rost said sternly.

Aloy just crossed her arms, and said nothing. She heard Rost sigh, but she didn’t care. She still felt some of the things the Nora did sounded dumb, and not even Rost could change her mind about that.

“Perhaps you can tell us more about your treasures in bed?” Eule asked curiously, and just a bit quickly.

Fortunately, Aloy was happy about the interruption. She was more than happy to open her treasure box back up and talk about all the treasures Rost made for her. Even that one bird head necklace thing made from a boar tusk that Rost didn’t say much about, and still didn’t.

At least, until Aloy got tired. All the food, warmth, and happiness was making her sleepy. She tried to stay awake to spend more of Mondfest with Rost, Eule, and Star; but alas, it was a futile fight. As Rost carried her to bed, Aloy was only consoled by Eule and Star assuring her that there would be five more days of Mondfest to spend.

That was enough for Aloy’s tired mind, and she drifted off to the land of dreams far from reality.

Maybe a bit too far from reality.

*

Aloy’s eyes instantly snapped open for various reasons.

The first was that she felt cold, smooth metal underneath her instead of the warm, furry fox skin she expected.

The second was that she now saw bare stone above her that looked just as smooth as the metal she was lying on, and certainly not the grass-covered wood she expected. A ceiling that was also only barely visible thanks to a weird bar that let out light that was just barely in her field of vision.

The third and most important though was that Aloy smelled a sharp tang in the air. It reeked of steel and a sharp smell she couldn’t identify, but aside from that sharp smell, Aloy was familiar enough with the scent of blood from helping skin animals that she could identify it just from smell alone, and the fact that the smell was really strong instantly put her on edge.

Aloy quietly got back to her feet, making as little noise as possible as she rose up to a crouch and looked around.

Aloy saw that she was in a small room. Just in front of her were a row of 6 orange chairs facing her, with another 6 chairs facing away on the other side just visible from where Aloy was.

Even in her crouched position, Aloy could see someone sitting on the chair to the furthest left. Or at least, the back of that person’s head, considering that they were facing away from Aloy on the opposite side of the rows of chairs. All Aloy could see was that this person had long dark red hair, some of which was tied in a Nora-like braid hanging down their back, and what she could see of the back of this person’s neck was light brown in color: paler than Vala, but darker than Rost.

Aloy wondered if this person was a Nora, but decided against asking for help if they were. She was still an outcast, after all, and if this person was a Nora, then they would just shun her like all the rest. Thus, Aloy decided to continue examining the room before trying her luck with this maybe-Nora, who thankfully hadn’t noticed her get up.

There was a door that the maybe-Nora was facing that looked a bit like the two-part sliding doors in that Metal World place she fell down into with Eule, but that didn’t catch Aloy’s attention nearly as much as it should’ve. Mostly because now that Aloy was more alert, she could tell where the smell of blood was the strongest: to her left. And so Aloy’s head turned left–

All of Aloy’s thoughts and motion ground to a halt when she saw the blood-splattered body lying there in the corner of the room, almost half-hidden by the darkness of the dim lighting. The lighting though was bright enough so that Aloy could see the blood pooling beneath the still body, as well as the trail of blood leading to the middle of another door.

Aloy didn’t need to be the greatest hunter in the world to tell that was where the body was dragged from, and the fact that the maybe-Nora was in the same room suddenly made Aloy very, very nervous.

Something kept Aloy’s eyes glued to the body though, instead of looking towards the potential threat like how Rost had taught her. Was it the blood? Aloy thought it looked a lot darker than the color blood should be, but she figured that it was just a trick of the darkness…maybe.

No, it wasn’t just the weirdly dark blood though. Aloy peered closely at the body as she could without taking a step, because she thought the body looked…familiar. Aloy quickly noticed the dark blood-splattered white legs, tipped with that four-toed white foot that Aloy noticed both Eule and Star had, which they had explained was “standard” for all Replikas. The four toes, they meant, not the white feet. Thus, Aloy instantly realized that this body belonged to a Replika like Eule and Star, and that the dark-colored blood was actually the “oxidant” stuff they had for blood.

Aloy’s gaze went higher, noticing the black band separating the lower knee from the upper knee. Aloy still found it odd to think that Replikas have two knees, but she supposed it was only natural because their legs had three parts to it, unlike the two parts she, Rost, and every other “Gestalt” had.

Her gaze went higher still, noticing how the white legs turned black at the thigh, with a red band right in the middle of that thigh that made Aloy suddenly very nervous about how familiar it looked.

As her gaze went even higher, Aloy’s heart started sinking as she noticed the white hand and arms, which she knew were white gloves, but were now soaked and splattered with that same weirdly dark-colored oxidant. Aloy’s gaze went to the body’s stomach, which resulted in her staring at what looked like a whole bunch of…organs bursting out of the body’s clothes and even the black shell there. They looked…weird though, bloated and twisted in shapes that no organ should ever look like.

Aloy quickly moved her gaze further up, and instantly regretted it, because she saw white cloth bulging in ways that she knew were supposed to be breasts, but were most certainly not in this case. Not in any way breasts were ever supposed to look like.

Aloy’s horrified gaze finally reached as high up the body as it could go, and it was somehow worse. The head had only bits of what’s left of the face and even black hair still feebly clinging on, revealing a mostly bare skull with red muscle fully exposed. The skull though was not white as Rost said human bones were, but dark grey. Aloy remembered that Eule said Replika bones were steel, and so that must be it. The eyes though…Aloy only got a glance at them, and she quickly looked away from them. The sight of blue eyes bulging out of their sockets, devoid of eyelids, terrified her. The only thing she had left to look at though was the hat on top.

The same weirdly small black hat with the three red stars on it that had made Aloy wonder how it stayed on before Eule showed her how.

The exact same hat that Eule wore.

The same hat that this body wore, which Aloy had long guessed was the body of one of Eule’s sisters. The hat only confirmed it in her mind.

Aloy ended up taking an involuntary step back. She was fairly certain she stopped the accompanying gasp coming out of her mouth.

Except the red-haired maybe-Nora instantly swung around to face Aloy, revealing a woman wielding a knife made of the smoothest steel Aloy had ever seen in her right hand and a look in the maybe-Nora’s eyes that screamed “Death!” as her left hand grabbed the backrest of the chair in preparation to throw herself over it.

Aloy yelped and jumped back to get out of the maybe-Nora’s reach.

And that was when the deadly look in the maybe-Nora’s eyes–which Aloy now saw were a green just a shade darker than her own–disappeared just as instantly as it had appeared, now replaced with a look of pure shock and confusion.

“A…child?” the maybe-Nora asked in disbelief.

Aloy took the opportunity to examine the maybe-Nora woman’s face, and discovered not a single blue face paint marking that all Nora normally had. No face paint at all, really. Just a single dot below her left eye that was a lot darker than the rest of her skin, but Aloy was also pretty certain that still wasn’t face paint.

“You’re not a Nora,” Aloy said to the likely-not-a-Nora woman.

The likely-not-a-Nora woman merely blinked in confusion at Aloy. “Nora?” she asked.

Aloy blinked back in just as much confusion. “You don’t know what a Nora is?”

The likely-not-a-Nora woman slowly shook her head as her reply.

“Oh,” was all Aloy had to say in response to that.

Thus, the two of them stared at each other in awkward silence for several long moments. Long enough for the definitely-not-a-Nora woman to start fiddling with her knife, and for Aloy to start shuffling her feet.

The definitely-not-a-Nora woman then broke the silence with a cough. “So…what are you doing here, little girl? This…isn’t a place where you should be. It’s admittedly not where I should be either, but especially for you, very much so,” she asked.

Aloy instantly opened her mouth to protest, but then after a moment of silence, shut it again as she thought about it. Really thought about it. “I don’t know? I just fell asleep, and then I woke up here…wait, where is here anyways?”

“Somewhere called S-23 Sierpinski,” the definitely-not-a-Nora woman replied. “It’s…not a good place.”

“S-23…Seer-pin-ski? Wait…that’s Eule and Star’s home! The one where they said their sisters became…Deranged,” Aloy said hesitantly, now finally briefly taking her eyes off of the definitely-not-a-Nora woman to glance at the body of Eule’s sister before focusing back on the definitely-not-a-Nora woman. “Did…did you murder her? Was she…Deranged?”

The definitely-not-a-Nora woman glanced at the corpse too, lingering a bit more than Aloy did, before returning her gaze to Aloy. “I don’t know what exactly you mean by ‘deranged’, but…yes. I didn’t want to, but I did murder that Eule unit. In my defense, it was self-defense after she attacked me. There was something…wrong with her.”

Aloy couldn’t helping glancing once more back at Eule’s dead sister, at the organs that still looked wrong in a way that made Aloy’s stomach churn–

Did one of the body’s fingers just twitch…no, Aloy told herself that she was just seeing things in the dim light. Despite what Eule and Star said about their dead sisters coming back to life, Aloy knew that the dead can’t do that. Even Rost said so, so she made herself turn back to the definitely-not-a-Nora woman, only keeping the body in the corner of her vision.

Just out of hunter’s habit, Aloy would swear. Rost did teach her that a downed Machine sometimes wasn’t necessarily a dead one.

“Rost…he said sometimes people have to kill other people, and that’s what a Brave has to do if they have to,” Aloy said, not sure if she was saying that to herself or to the definitely-not-a-Nora woman. Taking a deep, shuddering breath afterwards to steady herself, she looked up at the woman’s green eyes, and continued: “So…okay, I understand why you did it…if you’re telling the truth–”

It was because Aloy had been keeping the body in the corner of her vision that her gaze instantly snapped to it when it rose back up.

Even the way Eule’s sister got up didn’t look normal. She twitched, trembled, and jerked the entire time, as if her body didn’t work right. Even when she managed to lever herself upright, she still continued twitching, jerking, and trembling; causing that still weirdly dark oxidant to splatter to the floor in drips and drops from the numerous open wounds on her body.

And her eyes. Eule’s eyes were always that blue with red pupil that Aloy had always known and grown familiar with, just as she did with Star. The eyes of Eule’s sister were still blue, but there was only a sliver of it barely visible at the edges of the overwhelmingly wide pupils, only they were not the familiar red that Aloy had come to associate with the Replikas, but white. Aloy had no idea what white meant. Eule and Star had no idea what white meant either when they had talked about it. Aloy wondered if anyone knew what white eyes meant.

Aloy had barely begun to ponder that when Eule’s sister opened her skeletal mouth, and SCREECHED.

Aloy covered her ears and stared as Eule’s sister began screeching in a horrific imitation of some kind of bird, reaching up and clawing off some of the few remaining bits of skin left of her face, before turning around and running for the door with the oxidant trail leading from it.

Eule’s sister began slamming against the door over and over and over again, seemingly unable to figure out that she wasn’t getting through, leaving splatters of dark oxidant on the door that grew bigger and bigger with each impact.

Eule’s sister began clawing at the door instead, still screeching but now in a desperate tone, as if her very being depended on getting through that door. The effort was just as futile, with streaks of dark oxidant dripping down where glove tips had torn off, leaving oxidant-covered fingertips scraping against steel.

Eventually though, Eule’s sister then sank down to her upper knees, and her screeches then devolved into sobs. Aloy couldn’t see her face from where she was standing, but she could see drops of something far too dark to be tears splattered against the floor. Even so though, the sound of Eule’s sister sobbing rent at Aloy’s heart. She sounded far too much like Eule to not do that to Aloy.

Aloy wondered if maybe Eule’s sister wasn’t quite completely Deranged? Maybe there was just enough left in her that Aloy could get her to calm down? Maybe no one had to die after all?

And that line of thought was why Aloy opened her mouth and asked: “Eule’s sister? Are you–”

“No!” the definitely-not-a-Nora woman hissed.

Aloy didn’t even have time to react to the definitely-not-a-Nora woman hissing at her.

Eule’s sister instantly sprang back up and jerked around until her gaze was facing Aloy again, allowing Aloy to see her oxidant-streaked face. She then SCREECHED once more before rushing towards Aloy, oxidant-soaked hands stretched outwards almost as if they were claws poised to rip into flesh.

Aloy sprang back and started to run. She could tell a predator’s rush, even a predator as obviously unstable as this one.

But before Aloy had taken even a few steps, there was a green, white, light brown, and dark red blur that slammed into Eule’s sister.

Aloy watched the next actions take place almost in slow motion.

The definitely-not-a-Nora woman stabbed her knife deep into Eule’s sister’s throat in the same motion that slammed Eule’s sister against a partially open two-part door. The woman then jerked the knife out sideways, spraying dark oxidant onto the floor and onto the woman herself.

As the screeches turned into gurgles, the woman then yanked Eule’s sister to the right, spun her until she was sideways to her, and then shoved her through the partially open door.

Eule’s sister gave a gurgling screech as she fell through, which became quieter and quieter, until it suddenly ended with a quiet thump that Aloy just barely heard. Aloy realized that it must’ve been a long, long, long way down to…wherever that door led.

And just like that, the fight was over. Aloy had no idea how long it had lasted, but even she knew that it couldn’t have been all that long.

The definitely-not-a-Nora woman had been taking deep breaths to calm down, and then took one last one before turning to look at Aloy, her face and the front of her clothes now splattered with that weirdly dark oxidant.

“Do you think I’m lying now?” the woman asked.

Aloy shook her head in reply. She couldn’t think of anything more to say after…that.

The woman then sighed and walked back to the rows of chairs to sit down heavily on one.

Aloy stared at the woman for a moment, and then with a look of determination, walked over and sat down on the chair next to the woman. She then took off her blue scarf, and held it out to the woman, who was now curiously staring at her.

“What?” the woman asked.

Aloy continued to hold out her scarf to her.

“Your scarf? Why do you want to give me your scarf?” the woman asked further.

“Your face,” Aloy simply replied, still holding out her scarf.

“My…wait, you want me to wipe my face with your scarf?” the woman asked incredulously, before shaking her head. “I’m fine, really.”

“No, you’re not,” Aloy insisted, still with that determined look on her face. “You need to wipe off your face.”

“But I can’t do that! Not to your scarf!” the woman protested.

“You saved me,” Aloy simply explained, holding out her scarf even further to the woman. “So you get to borrow my scarf for a bit to wipe that blood, no, oxidant off. Really.”

The woman stared into Aloy’s eyes for several moments, before sighing, and then gently taking Aloy’s scarf. She then took one end of the scarf, wiped the oxidant off her face, her hands, and even her knife onto as small an area of that end of the scarf as possible, and then used her now clean knife to cut off that oxidant-soaked end of that scarf.

“Hey!” Aloy protested.

“It’s for your own good,” the woman insisted before placing her now-clean knife on her lap, and handing Aloy back her scarf. “I don’t know if…whatever these Replikas have can spread through blood contact. Better safe than sorry.”

Aloy didn’t like it, but it made sense to her, so she just huffed and wrapped her now slightly shorter scarf back around her neck. She then sighed, and held out her hand to the woman. “I’m Aloy,” she said sulkily, although she would’ve denied it if the woman had asked about it.

Fortunately, the woman didn’t. Instead, a small smile crept onto the woman’s face as she took that small hand and gently shook it. “I’m Isolde Itou.”

Aloy tilted her head at Ee-sor-de-ee-toe…no, just Eesorde. She heard a slight pause between the two names.

“Two names. Your name name, and your family name,” Aloy noted. “Just like…just like…”

“Like?” Eesolde asked.

“Like…hmm,” Aloy hummed, rocking her head back and forth as if trying to jar that memory loose. But alas, nothing fell out. “I can’t remember. Weird. Someone also told me they had two names, but I can’t…”

It was so weird. Aloy thought she was usually pretty good with names, so why wouldn’t this name come to her?

Thankfully, Eesorde was pretty patient, sitting quietly even as Aloy flopped onto the backrest of her chair in frustration.

“Well, hopefully you’ll remember this person soon,” Eesorde said with a quiet, hopeful encouragement. Aloy then watched Eesorde touch her hand to her chin in thought before the woman looked at her. “This may be a long shot, but…have you seen my sister?”

Aloy tilted her head at Eesorde in confusion. “Your sister?”

“Yes. You’ll recognize her if you’ve seen her,” Eesorde simply explained. Aloy had no idea what she was talking about though, and fortunately, Eesorde seemed to pick up on that, further explaining: “She’s my twin sister…my identical twin sister. She has the same face as me, right down to this mole under my eye.”

“Ohhh,” Aloy said with an impressed nod. “I’ve heard about that. I guess your mother and father must’ve sent a prayer to All-Mother twice.”

Aloy was so busy nodding to herself that she failed to notice Eesorde’s confused expression.

“In any case,” Eesorde continued. “Her name is Erika. If you ever see her, could you tell her I’m looking for her?”

Aloy tilted her head at Eesorde. “Erika? Wait…that sounds familiar.”

Aloy practically jumped in her seat when Eesorde leaned in really close to her.

“Where did you hear her name? Where? Tell me!” Eesorde asked, or rather, demanded.

Aloy froze in her seat, staring up at Eesorde’s intense expression, nearly in tears.

Eesorde quickly pulled back, wringing her hands with a look of guilt on her face. “I’m sorry for scaring you like that. It’s just…I’ve been looking for my sister for…a really long time. I came here because I’m sure she’s here, and I won’t leave until I find her and bring her out. So please, if you know anything about Erika, I beg of you to share it with me.”

Aloy stared up at Eesorde for a few moments, watching her pensive face, before nodding and then thinking. “I think…Eule mentioned that she knew someone named Erika at her and Star’s home, and if this is that S-23 Seerpinski place, then Erika must be here somewhere. But…I never asked where Erika was at this place, so…hmm.”

Eesorde sighed. “Oh well, at least I know it didn’t lie to me or deliberately send me to the wrong place,” she said, prompting a look of confusion from Aloy before Eesorde shook her head and continued: “In any case, thank you for that confirmation, Aloy. It still helped.”

Aloy grinned up at her. “You’re welcome, Eesorde!”

“It’s all…wait, what did you just say?” Eesorde asked in disbelief.

Aloy blinked in confusion. “You’re welcome?”

“No, no, not that. The other one,” Eesorde clarified.

“…Eesorde?”

Eesorde sat still for several moments, before she at last snorted and start giggling.

“Hey!” Aloy shouted once more in childish anger.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Eesorde half-sputtered, giggling all the while. It took her several moments to calm down again, and explain: “I’m really sorry. It’s just…it’s been a long time since I’ve heard someone mess up my name like that…and in that specific way too. Hmm…are you from Vineta too?”

Aloy tilted her head as she thought about that familiar word. “I don’t know. Eule said that she thinks we live in that Vineta place, but then she also think that maybe we don’t? So I don’t know if the Embrace is Vineta too, and you didn’t even know what the Nora are, so I really don’t know.”

“The Nora?” Eesorde asked in confusion.

“That’s my tribe…or at least, it’s supposed to be my tribe,” Aloy said in a huff. “It’s really hard to believe that they’re my tribe when most of them pretend that I don’t even exist.”

Eesorde nodded. “Ah, I see. I’ve never heard of these Nora people, but then again, there’s so many different people in Vineta, so it’s possible that you’re just from a small group of families hiding somewhere…but now I’m both curious and disturbed: why do most of your people pretend that you don’t exist?”

“It’s because I’m an outcast, and they won’t tell me why,” Aloy explained, before she noticed Eesorde’s confusion, and continued: “See, Rost said that the Nora usually only make the worst criminals outcast: where they pretend that the outcasted person doesn’t exist. Except for Rost, who said he made himself outcast but won’t tell anyone why. But for me, the Nora just made me outcast when I was a baby, and they won’t tell anyone why. Especially me.”

“That’s…bizarre,” Eesorde commented with a thoughtful expression. “And so what? You’re just stuck as an outcast forever?”

“Nope!” Aloy declared proudly. “When I win the Proving, oh, that’s the Nora’s way of picking Braves to defend the tribe, then I can make the High Matriarchs, oh, that’s the three old ladies who are the Nora’s leaders right now, I can make them tell me why I’m an outcast and who my mother is.”

“Oh, so Rost is your father then?” Eesorde asked. “Since you keep mentioning this person’s name?”

“No, he’s not,” Aloy bluntly said, before more proudly saying: “Rost is better than my father by lots. I don’t even know who my father is, and I don’t care. Not when I’ve got Rost.”

“Ah…sounds complicated,” Eesorde simply said by way of reply.

“Not really. Rost is Rost, just like Eule is Eule and Star is Star,” Aloy explained clearly.

Eesorde tilted her head at Aloy. “Huh, you mentioned this Eule and Star before, but now I wonder…are they Replikas? Specifically: a Yoo-Eule unit and a Star unit?”

“Yeah,” Aloy replied blithely.

“And…wait, you said this place is their home? Then…how did they get to Vineta?” Eesorde asked in confusion. “This is Leng. It’s practically on the other side of the Solar System.”

Aloy just shrugged. “They don’t know either. Just that a Ghost Woman brought them,” she said, not really understanding much of what Eesorde said.

However, the mention of Ghost Woman sounded familiar to Aloy. She felt like she was on the verge of remembering something. She–

“Ghost woman?” Eesorde asked incredulously, shaking her head and sighing in the process. “Still though, I hope you win this ‘Proving’ of yours. No one should be treated as though they don’t exist from birth, and not even be allowed to know why. I’d offer a blessing from Mother Sea for you, but unfortunately, there’s no sea here for me to offer you a proper blessing.”

“Mother Sea?” Aloy asked, now instantly having forgotten what she wanted to remember. “Is she like All-Mother?”

“Hmm, you mentioned this All-Mother before. Who is she?” Eesorde asked curiously.

“Oh, Rost said that the All-Mother gave birth to all life: human, beast, and Machine. That’s why he and the other Nora pray to her a lot,” Aloy explained, before she thought about what she said. “Although it must’ve hurt to give birth to the Machines.”

Eesorde snorted before her look became more somber. “Ah, then All-Mother must be what your people call Mother Sea. She was the one who gave birth to all life too. She birthed all the creatures of the sea, great and small, and those creatures eventually survived to walk onto the land, so indirectly, She birthed all life. At least, that’s what mother and father told us: Erika and I. Before they also said that Mother Sea was dead.”

Aloy just stared at Eesorde in confusion. “Your All-Mother is dead?”

“Did your Rost not teach you that?” Eesorde asked in surprise. When Aloy shook her head, Eesorde gave her a sad look. “I wouldn’t be surprised, but even you could see it, right? How there’s barely anything alive in the sea besides small fish and plankton?”

“But…I’ve never seen the sea before,” Aloy said. Even under the shocked look Eesorde was giving her, she continued: “Eule and Star talked about the sea before, but I can’t even imagine it. How could there be so much water that you can’t see anything but water for as far as you can see, and it’s all salty water too? Why would it be salty? Did someone just dump a giant barrel of salt into it? It doesn’t make sense.”

Eesorde just continued giving Aloy a shocked look. “Wow. You must be from deep in the surviving continents to not even know that. I can only tell you from what I know though: Mother Sea is dead, and we killed her. All of us Gestalts did. That’s why we have to fight to protect what’s left of Mother Sea and her children, or else She will stay forever dead.”

Aloy scratched her head. “So your Mother Sea is dead, but she can come back to life?”

“That’s what mother and father said,” Eesorde replied. “There’s a part of me that doubts it…but there’s also a part of me that wants to believe it. So even though I can’t offer you a proper blessing from Mother Sea, I can at least offer you one in spirit. So could you hold out your hands, as though you were receiving some water?”

Aloy did so, now very curious as to what was going to happen next.

Eesorde reached into the right side of her skirt, into one of the two black-topped pockets there, and pulled out a rectangular bar that looked like it was made out of some silvery metal. However, that couldn’t be, because Aloy saw that one end was crumpled like thin leather.

Eesorde opened up this crumpled end though, revealing the red-colored bar within, or rather, a piece of such a bar since it looked like some of it had already been broken off. She then broke off a piece of the already shortened bar, and held it up.

“I give you this offering to ask for your blessing, Mother Sea. May you and your children accept this gift of food so that it might sustain you both for a little while longer,” Eesorde said formally, sounding to Aloy a little like Rost when he was praying to All-Mother. The Rost effect though was spoiled when Eesorde adopted a sheepish look. “I’m supposed to throw this into the sea, but there’s no sea to throw it into and I don’t want to waste food…even if it’s just a Ration C bar. It’s supposed to be safe for Gestalts and Replika alike to eat, and I haven’t had any problems eating it, so maybe you could take it in Mother Sea’s stead, Aloy?”

Aloy nodded, and accepted the bit of red bar with great curiosity. She had heard about Eule and Star talk about their tribe’s “ration bars” before, and was curious about what they tasted like. So the instant that bit of red “Ration C” bar hit her hands, Aloy instantly popped it into her mouth and started chewing.

And chewing.

And chewing.

And chewing still.

Yet no matter how much Aloy chewed, it didn’t seem to make it any better. Aloy could only compare the ration bar to bread, but if it was really dense, really chewy, and weirdly tasteless. Aloy could taste a sort of meaty, slightly spicy, and slightly sour taste to it, but other than that…there was very little in the way of actual taste. The taste was like…if someone took one of Eule’s very tasty wurst sausages, and just somehow sucked out most of that tasty taste, and just gave you what was left. That was what it tasted like to Aloy.

It was only now that Aloy recalled that when Star talked about the ration bars, she didn’t look particularly happy about them. Now Aloy knew why.

“Not good?” Isa asked.

Aloy almost wanted to spit it back out, but it wasn’t that gross, and Rost taught her to eat everything in her bowl, or else it’s rude to All-Mother. So at last, she swallowed the well-chewed piece of ration bar, and said with a very determined look: “I don’t want any more.”

Eesorde smiled at her. “You and me both. I’m only keeping and eating this because there’s nothing else to eat that I found. It’s nothing compared to my father’s cooking, but well, it’s still fuel. At the very least, the Nation makes their ration bars to be calorie-dense.”

Aloy watched as Eesorde took both hands and cupped them, scooping them upwards as though she were taking some invisible water from the air.

“I ask for this blessing not for myself, but for this child to succeed in her Proving, and discover the truths about herself and her birth,” Eesorde said to the air, at least, from Aloy’s perspective. “I ask that you offer your blessing to this child so that one day, she will repay you for it, and help save you in turn. This, I solemnly ask of you.”

Eesorde then brought her cupped hands over Aloy’s, and opened them, as though pouring that invisible water she took from the air into Aloy’s hands.

“Umm, this would normally be the part where you drink the seawater to accept Mother Sea’s blessings, but well…you’ll just have to pretend that there’s actually seawater in your hands,” Eesorde explained, blushing lightly in embarrassment.

Aloy nodded in understanding, and pretended to drink the invisible water to save Eesorde any more embarrassment.

Aloy did try her best to imagine what seawater would taste like. Salty water…Aloy thought that would taste weird. The next time she drank water, she wanted to add some salt to it, just to better imagine what the sea would taste like.

“Do you think She heard?” Aloy asked.

“…I hope so,” Eesorde replied quietly, hopefully.

“Hmm, I’ll add in a prayer from All-Mother to make it louder,” Aloy said, putting her hands together like Rost did when he prayed to the All-Mother. “All-Mother, I hope you make sure Mother Sea can hear that blessing…oh, and help Eesorde find Erika. If you’re the mother of all life, then maybe you can help one of your kids find her twin sister, okay?” she asked hopefully, before turning to Eesorde. “Did it help?”

Eesorde replied to her with a smile, however small and fragile it was. “I’m sure it did…hopefully. But uh…my name is still not ‘Eesorde’. It’s Isolde. I-sol-de.”

Aloy thought hard about that pronunciation. “Ok, I said the ‘I’ part too long, so…I-sor-de?”

“No, I-sol-de,” Isorde corrected.

“Yeah, that’s what I said. Isorde,” Aloy countered.

“No, it’s a ‘L’ after the ‘O’, not a ‘R’,” Isorde insisted.

“But you keep saying ‘Isorde’ like there’s a ‘R’ there,” Aloy insisted just as much.

Isorde looked up at the ceiling as she started muttering her own name to herself. Then, with a look of realization, Isorde covered her face and groaned.

“Isolde. Sol. Sol. Not sor. Urgggh! Must be getting tired to make a mistake like that,” Isorde muttered out loud, before letting her hands fall back down and giving Aloy a sheepish look. “How about you just call me Isa? It’s what my family calls me, and my friends too…well, friend.”

Aloy smiled up at her. “Ok, Isa! That’s a lot easier to say, but why do you say ‘friend’ like you’ve only got one?”

Isa’s smile turned wan upon hearing that question. “Because I had only one person who I could call ‘friend’…but she then she left me, so I’m now back to zero. Funny how things work out, huh?”

“Oh,” Aloy could only say to that in reply, looking down at the metal floor. “I didn’t have any friends either. No one would talk to me to be friends with me, and Rost is too…Rost. I love him, but he’s too Rost to be friends with.”

Aloy then looked up at Isa with a smile. “But that changed when Eule and Star came. Then I got two friends, and then they let me make three more friends. Some days, I still think it’s weird to go from no friends to five so quickly, but I like my life better this way.”

Aloy’s smile then turned into a look of determination, holding out her hand to Isa. “So that’s why I’m going to be your friend too. No one should have to be like me and have no friends at all. So will you be my friend, Isa? Please?”

Isa spent the next few moments just blinking at Aloy in disbelief. Then, she smiled down at Aloy. “Ok, as long as you’re offering, how can I refuse?” she said, taking hold of Aloy’s hand and gently shaking it.

Much to Aloy’s joy. “You made a great choice! I’ll be a better friend than the friend that left you!”

Isolde’s smile then turned sad. “You don’t need to do that. Ariane left me for entirely sensible reasons. If I were her, I would’ve left me too.”

Aloy opened her mouth to protest, but then the name hit her like a charging Strider. “Ariane? Ariane…” she said to herself.

The name sounded so familiar, but Aloy couldn’t…quite…remember…where it was from. Something about…birds? But what kind of bird? All Aloy could think of at the moment were the two magpie feathers she had in her hairband…

“Magpies!” Aloy suddenly shouted, making Isa jump in surprise. Aloy then turned to Isa and asked: “Do you know anyone named Magpie? I just remembered I’m looking for someone named Magpie, but I can’t remember who it was for. Just that the person I’m looking for is named Magpie for some weird reason.”

Isa blinked at Aloy in surprise, and then her look turned thoughtful. “Elster…Elster…strange. I just met an Elster unit recently. Do you mean her?”

Aloy blinked in confusion. “I don’t know what an ‘Elsterunit’ is, but can I ask her? Do you know where she is?”

Isa shook her head. “I spoke to her, asking her about my sister, but she was looking for someone too, and so we parted ways. It hasn’t been that long though. She might still be wandering around on this floor, looking for the elevator. It’s those two double doors there…well, the one on the left, at any rate. The one on the right doesn’t seem to be working for some reason.”

“Ohh, so those are elevators,” Aloy said in realization, remembering Eule and Star talking about them.

They didn’t look that impressive to Aloy. They were just two-part doors. Nothing special. Still, they gave Aloy hope.

“So if Elsterunit is looking for these elevators, then she must have to come here, right?” Aloy asked in excitement. “That means we can just wait here for her, right?”

Isa nodded. “That should hopefully be the case.”

Aloy grinned. “Yes! Now we just wait!”

And so the two of them waited on the orange chairs.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Aloy’s eyes started to droop though, and she started to sway. Everything that had happened, from almost being attacked by Eule’s Deranged sister to the lump of ration bar in her stomach, was making her sleepy.

Try as she might, Aloy’s head thumped against Isa’s left arm. After a moment, she then felt a warm hand stroke her head.

“Go on, just sleep for a bit,” Isa said warmly. “I’ll wake you up when that Elster unit arrives.”

Aloy nodded through half-closed eyes, even though she badly wanted to sleep.

The final straw for Aloy though was the sound of soft singing. Isa was stroking her head while singing a song about a “sheep” named “Belly of Tea” and some people called “wellermen” (whoever or whatever they were) who were bringing sugar and tea and rum. She only knew what tea was and didn’t like it, but the sound of Isa’s voice, like the sound of soft birdsong, lulled Aloy to sleep.

Aloy again, felt like she was being submerged in water for a very brief moment. It was weirdly warm water, not hot enough to be a bath but not cold enough to be river water. It was the strangest thing Aloy had ever felt, but it was like she could lie in it all day.

*

Aloy’s eyes snapped open, and upon seeing the grass roof of her home, she started panicking.

“Oh no! I missed her! I…I…”

Aloy now couldn’t even remember who it was she had missed. She knew that she had been waiting for someone, but every time she tried to remember, it just slipped away.

For that matter, she knew that she had been waiting for that someone with someone else, but she can’t even remember who that someone else was either. All she could remember was a woman’s voice, softly singing…something, but now…she couldn’t even remember the words to the song.

“Aloy?” a woman’s voice asked from below.

Aloy scrambled from her bed towards the edge of the second floor, and looked down.

She ended up looking right into the blue eyes of Eule, who was looking up at her with concern. All while carrying that long-handled wooden spoon Rost (and now Eule too) liked to use for stirring stews.

“Are you alright?” Eule continued to ask with worry in her tone. “You were shouting something above, so–”

Aloy’s reply was to drop down from the second floor, dash up to Eule, and hug her waist, eliciting a squeak from the Replika.

After a short while though, Aloy felt a familiar Machine skin hand pat and rub her head.

“Did you have a nightmare, Aloy?” Eule asked gently.

Aloy nodded, rubbing her face against the thick, rough cloth of Eule’s short leggings. She didn’t know why, but the sight of Eule made her scared for a moment, and that scared her in turn. She couldn’t remember how, but she was sure that her nightmare had something to do with Eule, and she didn’t want to feel like that towards one of her most favorite people in the world.

So she was just going to hug Eule until she felt better. And already, especially when Star and Rost came onto the scene, the fear was already gone.

*

Elster-512 stepped out of the elevator back onto B1, wondering if there was anything of use there.

The first thing that the Land Survey/Ship Technician Replika saw was the Gestalt woman she had met just a short time ago. What was her name…Isa Itou. Yes, that was it.

Only, the Isa Elster had met had been a bit perturbed, but was more or less calm and in control.

Not like this Isa. This Isa was frantically running around the B1 elevator lobby, looking like she was looking around desperately for…something. Elster had no idea what, but whatever it was must’ve been quite small. It’s the only reason Elster could think of as to why Isa would look under the rows of chairs.

It was at that point that Isa finally noticed Elster standing there, and quickly ran up to her.

“Elster unit, have you seen a little girl?!” Isa asked with a tone that sounded just as frantic as she looked. “She’s about this high, has flame-colored hair, is wearing a bunch of sewn-together animal skins, and has a blue scarf! Oh, and her name is, uh, Aloy! That’s it! Aloy! Have you seen her?!”

Elster shook her head. She had never met anyone of that description, Gestalt or Replika. This little girl was likely a Gestalt though. Flame-colored hair wasn’t exactly normal for a Replika to have, even if the Nation allowed that sort of thing.

That apparently wasn’t the right answer for Isa though. Isa whined deep in her throat, looking around even more frantically. “Oh no, what if she wandered off to look for you? What if she’s run into some of the strange Replikas? What if she’s bleeding, or dying, or worse?!”

In all honesty, Elster thought those were likely things that would happen to a Gestalt child in this place. She decided not to say this though. Isa looked like her personality was destabilizing enough as it was.

Elster was surprised when Isa just jabbed a finger at Elster’s face. “Stay right there, and don’t move! Aloy wanted to ask you something, and I’m not going to bring her back here just to find you gone, and then we’re going to have to look for you again! Understood?!”

Elster’s surprise was so complete in the face of this aggression from Isa that she could only just nod. She then watched as Isas marched over to the door with the blood…or rather, oxidant trail leading to it, and started to fiddle with the door keypad.

Elster was…conflicted. She knew that she needed to head down. She had a promise to keep, even if she couldn’t quite remember what this promise was or who she made a promise to.

But…Isa obviously looked like she was in distress. If she had been a Replika, Elster was sure that her personality would’ve completely destabilized by now. Even so, Isa’s obvious worry for this mysterious Gestalt girl made Elster worry in turn. The desire to head down and the desire to help warred within Elster.

The thing that made Elster decide was Isa yanking her bandaged left hand back with a yelp as a spark flew out of the partially disassembled keypad, shaking her already injured hand seemingly in the hopes that it will assuage the current pain.

Elster went up to Isa, who looked back at her. “Please move,” Elster requested.

When Isa did, Elster got to work on the keypad. The keypad wasn’t the same as the keypads onboard the Penrose-512, but certain things were just similar enough that when she put two wires together, the double door slid open. Well, one of the double doors slid open anyways. The other was apparently jammed in the closed position, but at least the gap was still big enough for Isa to squeeze through.

“Task completed. You can proceed now,” Elster reported.

Isa nodded in relief. “Thank you…um…” Isa looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry, but I never asked for your name…er…”

Elster blinked in surprise at Isa. The thought of a Gestalt asking for her name was a strange request. Her brief conversations with her fellow Elster units during her pre-mission training for the Penrose program had implied to her that Gestalts don’t make it a habit of ever asking Replikas for their names.

Clearly though, Isa was a different sort of Gestalt.

“LSTR-S…no, LSTR-512,” Elster said.

Isa smiled. “LSTR-512. Just some letters and numbers, and yet that’s a Replika’s full name,” she mused, before bowing in gratitude to Elster. “Thank you. Now please stay here and wait for me. Please.”

Elster nodded, but then asked: “May I accompany you on your search for this missing person?”

Two people searching can cover more ground than one. This was obvious to Elster. It would shorten the length of time she would have to be stopped on her journey down into S-23 Sierpinski. This was the rational course of action for her.

This was what Elster convinced herself with.

Isa, for her part, looked surprised, but then she smiled at Elster. It was, oddly enough, a smile that made Elster’s biomechanical heart feel warm and pleasant. She didn’t know why.

“Thank you,” Isa simply said, before she set off, with Elster following behind after a quick stop to grab a box of 12-gauge shotgun shells she spotted. Those looked like they would be handy if Elster ever found a shotgun to fire them from.

In the end though, the missing Gestalt girl could not be found anywhere in B1. Not even a trace of her could be found. Even searching B2 had yielded no clues, and had required a necessary expenditure of ammunition to put back down the things that used to be EULR and STAR units.

So Elster and Isa ended up separating from each other back at the elevator lobby, both disappointed that they could not find this Aloy girl. Elster could only express a hope to Isa that Aloy was safe, due to the lack of any body. It was the best Elster could do for her.

Even if Elster felt that she could’ve done better.

Chapter Text

“You’re leaving?!” Eule asked, still in as much shock as Star was in as they stood inside the Carja trade mission building, seeing Rashaman and Bashid with all their belongings and remaining wares packed up into boxes and bags.

Rashaman nodded sadly. “We got a message from our suppliers. It was short but to the point: ‘Sun-King Jiran is going to war with the Nora. Get out while you can.’”

“War?” Eule asked again, shaking her head in dismay.

“So any reason for this war?” Star asked in morbid curiosity. “You know, besides this Sun-King of yours saying that he feels like it?”

“Alas, our suppliers only gave us the same insane rumors as the reason why,” Bashid said, sounding even more mournful than he usually did when he was depressed. “The only difference is that the rumors are getting even more specific in their details. According to them, Sun-King Jiran is ordering the capture of outlanders specifically to sacrifice in the Sun-Ring to…appease the Machines? Madness. Just pure madness. There must be some mistake somewhere. Surely, there must.”

Eule shivered at those rumors. They sound more like something out of a lurid anti-Imperial propaganda piece than something would happen in real life. She’d read one of those newspapers out of curiosity, and had instantly regretted it as the sight of a photo of a naked Replika soldier lying on red Kitezhian sand greeted her eye modules, so badly mutilated that Eule hadn’t even been able to tell what model they’d been.

Lowering her gaze from that photo hadn’t made it much better, because the story had been about how the Replika in question had been captured by Imperial forces, and then tortured and raped while in captivity. All in a posited attempt to apparently force the Replika into a personality more conducive to be a “Machine-Servant”. That had been too much for Eule by that point, and she had put down the newspaper, never to pick it back up again.

It was all just too much, sounding too fantastically disturbing to be real, just like these rumors about this Sun-King Jiran that Rashaman and Bashid had been relaying.

Then again…Eule remembered that she was currently living in a world where Stone Age tribes of humans lived in a world of robotic animals, and hunted those very mechanical fauna for parts. And this was after escaping a world where a strange disease could make fallen Replikas rise back up as bloodthirsty monsters, mind you. So Eule thought that maybe she shouldn’t dismiss things just because they merely sounded too fantastical.

And even if those rumors were false, Rashaman and Bashid were still leaving because of them, and with their departure, would go two of Eule’s new friends in this land.

Thus, Eule’s reply to Bashid was: “Are you sure that you have to leave right this moment? Winter has already begun, after all. Traveling for great distances in the snow might be risky.”

“Alas, that’s precisely why we’ve been told to leave,” Bashid said, sighing mournfully.

“According to our suppliers, the Sun-King is apparently waiting for spring to launch any kind of offensive against the Nora,” Rashaman explained. “Winter would impede the Army of the Sun’s advance, so I can see why it would make sense for him to order that.”

“Yeah, makes sense there,” Star commented. “If General Winter isn’t on your side, then you wait until she goes back to sleep before you march.”

Rashaman made a grin that didn’t seem to have much of his usual humor in it. “Never heard it phrased that way before, but yeah, that about sums it up. If we don’t leave now, when the Army is still waiting out the winter, then we’ll be caught up in the war, one way or another.”

Star nodded in grim agreement, along with a worried Eule, when a sudden thought made Eule’s worry spike even higher than it had been.

“Did you tell the Nora about this?” Eule asked out of that worry. “It seems like they’d be the ones most affected by this, so shouldn’t they have the right to know?”

“Oh, believe me, that’s already been well and truly taken care of,” Rashaman replied with a determined nod.

“We’ve already spoken to the High Matriarchs and told them of the rumors,” Bashid explained. “While I still believe those rumors might be…exaggerated, if there’s any truth to them, then it’s best that the Nora prepare for war with our tribe.”

Eule heard the distinct sound of Star scratching her shelled cheek with an aramid fiber-reinforced polyethylene fingernail, and indeed a glance revealed that Star was doing exactly that, complete with a thoughtful expression.

“Hey, aren’t you two technically engaging in treason against your nation, er, the Carja Sundom, I mean?” Star asked. “Are you two going to be okay, or…”

Rashaman barked out the first laughter he made since the start of this conversation, and even then, it had a bite of anger to it. “If I allow this to pass without even so much as warning my friends and the good people here of it, then I’d be committing treason against my own conscience. If I do that, then may the Sun forever turn his face away from me and darken my soul, for I wouldn’t be able to look at myself afterwards,” he explained with a mixture of anger and sorrow darkening his usual grin.

Bashid sighed. “I wish those rumors weren’t true…but I too wouldn’t be able to live with myself if they turn out to be so. That’s why we decided to not only warn the High Matriarchs about this, but also give whatever knowledge we have of current Guard military equipment as well. It wouldn’t do for the Nora to be surprised by a Firestriker or the like, after all.”

“Firestriker?” Eule and Star both asked at the same time. Such was the seriousness of the conversation that neither of them reacted to it with anything other than a nod of confirmation.

“It’s like this…double-ended wooden and metal box that fires fire arrows from either direction, and has a double-bladed spear on either end to use to stab anyone who gets too close. The soldier apparently flips it over once one box of arrows is empty to fire the other box,” Rashaman tried to explain, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Admittedly, I don’t know the exact details of how it works, so this is the best that I can do.”

Eule nodded consolingly. From the sounds of it, it’s probably some kind of massive, bizarrely designed casterbow. Nothing too outlandish…probably.

“In any case,” Bashid continued. “The Nora have not gone unwarned of what our tribe might be planning. This, I swear on the honor of House Ashir Ruwadin.” A thump of clenched hand over his heart emphasized that promise from the Carja nobleman.

Eule honestly didn’t quite know how to react to a noble swearing an oath of honor to her, but she nodded at Bashid anyways. No matter how odd it was, there was no doubt to her and Star as to his earnestness and kindness, if their friendship with him over the past several months was anything to go off of.

Still though…

“It’s not to us you should be swearing that oath to, Bashid, since we are outsiders as well. That oath should more properly go to the Nora,” Eule pointed out, but then with a smile, she continued: “However, you seem to have already gone above and beyond that oath. I can safely say that the Red Eye can see your courage and compassion, and will judge you kindly for that.”

Bashid stared at Eule for several moments before he started blinking rapidly. So rapidly that he ended up having to take off his glasses to start rubbing his eyes.

“Oh, oh my. Th-thank you, Eu…Eule,” Bashid managed to get out with only a couple of sniffles.

Rashaman patted Bashid warmly on the shoulder. There was nothing more to be said there.

The only thing that could’ve made the scene better was Torvund’s presence, save for the fact that his arrival did not actually make the scene better. Not least of which due to him leaping down from the second floor carrying a chest under each arm and a bulging sack on his back, which caused his impact with the wooden floor to sound like a hammer falling down on a log. With the steel of his peculiar mechanical prosthetic right leg adding some extra oomph to that impact.

“Right, stuff’s all packed up and ready to go when you all are,” Torvund said as he trundled over with his packed belongings.

“You’re leaving too, buddy?” Star asked, dismay evident in her tone.

“‘Fraid so, Star,” Torvund replied with a mournful nod. “All the routes into the Sacred Lands that my suppliers take cross through Carja territory. If the Carja are going to be at war with the Nora, then my suppliers won’t be able to get through either, and that’s not even going into the rumors I’ve been hearing about what’s been happening to fellow Oseram and Banuk in the Sundom. My only hope is to pack up everything I can carry, and make my way back to the Claim as fast as Bora and I can drag our cart. I can’t very well enjoy my Shards if I’m dead from being caught up in a war with the Carja, after all, eh?”

Torvund made an attempt to sound nonchalantly jolly towards the end, but the content of his words sucked the attempt at good humor right out of them.

“Don’t say that,” Star said, her biocomponent lips set in a grim line. “You’re getting back to the Oseram lands, and you’re going to live a long and happy life. Understand, Torvund? You’re not going to just let yourself be killed, understood?”

Torvund blinked at Star for a few seconds, looking up at Star’s face high above him as she rubbed away the tears threatening to spill from her eye modules. Eule wrapped one arm around her lover and leaned against the side of her armored breastplate, offering Star all the comfort she needed.

It seemed that Torvund was eager to offer some comfort as well, for he puffed his chest up and proudly declared: “Don’t worry, Star! Me and Bora are more than capable of taking out bandits, small Machines, and even some Carja soldiers if we have to. Especially since I’ve got my trusty Blast Sling. As your, er, Eule there knows, a Blast Bomb or two can take out most anything in that range. So not only am I going to make it back to the Claim with ease, I’m going to sit back with a pint or two of ale with my family, and tell them all about some strange Machine women I met while doing business in Nora lands. They’ll never believe me, and that’ll be the fun part!”

Star sniffed one more time before putting on a grin. “Aww, come here, you little softie!” was all the warning got before she wrapped her mechanical arms around Torvund in a warm embrace.

“…You know, this would feel a bit better if my face wasn’t being smushed into the bottom half of your…breastplate,” Torvund said, sounding a bit muffled due to his situation.

“Ack, sorry!” Star yelped, stepping back and patting Torvund down. “Are you okay?”

Torvund once more puffed himself up. “Oseram are made of sterner stuff than that!” he proudly boasted.

Eule smiled. “Well, that’s good, especially since you’re getting a hug from me too.”

Before Torvund could do so much as open his mouth in protest, Eule was already wrapping her own arms around him in an embrace just as warm as Star’s had been.

“Take care on your journey, okay?” Eule said as she continued that warm embrace.

“Ack!” Torvund yelped. “Get off me, you, you…Machine woman!”

Eule finally stepped back with a giggle at the sight of Torvund blushing, trying to calm himself down after the successive hugs from the Replikas.

“First steel bosoms and then…not-steel bosoms,” Torvund muttered, still not quite ridding himself of his blush. “Women shouldn’t be going around hugging people with no warning.”

“Torvund, perhaps you could be a bit more gentlemanly towards the fairer sex?” Rashaman asked, his tone sounding far too innocent for the grin he was giving. “Maybe you might actually attract more members of that fairer sex if you do, even if just in customer form?”

Torvund’s reply to that was only an unintelligible grumble mixed with a healthy amount of muttering that sounded suspiciously like “Womanizing Carja busybody out womanizing instead of merchanting”.

“I’ll have you know that I already have a girl in mind, and she’s neither Eule nor Star, thank you very much,” Rashaman said indignantly before turning to the Replikas in question. “Speaking of which, I’ve got some things for you, actually. Call it some last presents to some of my best customers, courtesy of the final supply run that brought us this unfortunate news.”

Rashaman went over to a specific sack, and pulled out a rectangular wooden box to take over to Eule and Star. That was the point where Eule realized that calling it a “box” was like calling a book a pile of paper. The wood was heavily ornamented, covered in carvings that resembled rays of light mixed with that circuit board design the Carja seemed to love and reinforced with ornately forged bronze at the corners that seemed to be just as much for durability as they were for decoration.

It was really quite a beautiful box, and Eule thought that it would make a lovely addition to the interior décor of her and Star’s room. However, she was fairly certain that Rashaman wasn’t just presenting the box and nothing but.

“Eule, do you remember what you said…oh, nearly a season ago before about wanting a mirror of some kind?” Rashaman asked.

Eule nodded, remembering that conversation after Rashaman had noticed her looking at her own reflection in one of Torvund’s steel pots.

Rashman grinned proudly. “Well, Bashid and I–”

“Mostly Rashaman though,” Bashid interrupted with an embarrassed laugh. “I admit, I think I have been spending too much time in the Library of the Mesa to get to know anyone outside it. Well, anyone who would be useful in this endeavor.”

Rashaman merely patted Bashid consoling on the shoulder before continuing: “I called in some favors with some artisans I know in Meridian, and it took a while, but well, take a look,” Rashaman said proudly before opening the box’s lid.

Eule gasped at the sight within, for sitting on a small cushion of bright red fabric was a mirror. An actual hand mirror, apparently made of bronze from the color of the metal. There was a similarly bronze cover over the round mirror engraved with the 6-sided circuit board star of the Carja flag, and the rim surrounding that lid appeared to have been made in the shape of a pair of curving stalks of maize, but there was no mistaking the basic design of a hand mirror. Not with that handle sticking out to the side that ended in a bronze bird head.

Rashaman only confirmed the hand mirror’s nature when he set the box down on a nearby table, picked the hand mirror up, and held it up to Eule, turning it around to reveal the equally as decorated backside of the mirror that was engraved or painted (possibly even both) with the image of a golden Sun high in an azure sky raining down its shining golden rays upon an emerald-green earth.

“A lovely mirror for a pair of lovely ladies. At least, I certainly hope this mirror even comes close to matching your beauty,” Rashaman announced with one of his usual grins.

Star snorted, amusement evident in the smile accompanying it. “I can see why Torvund keeps calling you a womanizer,” she quipped.

Rashaman’s reply was one of his usual laughs, now actually flavored with actual joy. “I can’t help but speak the truth! Why not look for yourself and see that truth in your reflections?” he asked before he showed the mirror’s front to the Replikas, and swung down the lid of the hand mirror.

Eule gasped once more at seeing her reflection, but it was a far cry from the reflection she saw in the side of an Oseram steel pot. This Eule that stared back at her was just as clear as the Eule who stared back at her back in the Eule Dorm’s Replika-sized mirror.

“Made from the most pristine of pristine Watcher lens, and backed by a layer of the finest silver gilded by the hands of the finest Carja artisans, and just in case the mirror breaks, the inside of the lid has been polished nearly to the level of the old bronze mirrors, so you can still use that in an emergency while you work on getting a new mirror into place,” Rashaman proudly described. “In fact, I’d bought it from a Nora merchant who claimed to have bought it in turn from a pair of, and I quote, ‘Nosy Machine women, one of who sang me a song that hasn’t left my head in seasons, curse her’. I have no idea what he meant, since the only Machine women I know who sings does so quite wonderfully, and I would be more than happy to have such a song by her in my head. So, Eule, Star, a thought on this mirror for this merchant?”

“It’s…it’s beautiful,” Eule breathed. “It’s like a work of art.”

Rashaman’s grin somehow became even wider. “Now that is a most pleasing compliment, if I do say so myself. Even if I didn’t make this mirror myself, we Carja take pride in our ability to create works of art, and this is a fine example of that.”

Star whistled. “Yeah, it really is. It’s probably the kind of art that our tribe would’ve probably declared to be some ‘decadent Imperial filth’, and try to burn or something.”

Rashman’s grin suddenly flipped into a disturbed frown at that news. “Truly? Your tribe would’ve destroyed this? Why?”

Eule and Star briefly looked at each other, unsure how to reply to that question.

“It’s…complicated,” Eule began nervously.

“Basically: our tribe rebelled from a larger tribe that really liked art and stuff like that, so our tribe decided that all art is bad,” Star explained, before adding: “Oh, except for the ones the Nation makes. Those are good apparently because only the Nation knows best what kind of art isn’t bad.”

“Hmm, fascinating yet disturbing,” Bashid muttered, writing down Star’s words into his ever-present notebook with his equally as ever-present fountain pen. It was only when he had finished his record-keeping that he offered a thought: “If you don’t mind me saying, your Eusan Nation tribe sounds as though, well, if they were an artisan, I would accuse them of suppressing others’ art in order to sell their own.”

When Eule first arrived in the Embrace, she was sure she would’ve denied that. The Eule who has been living in the Embrace for nearly a season–Rotfront season, to be precise–simply nodded in depressed agreement at what her Nation would do.

“So…does that mean you don’t like this mirror?” Rashaman asked, disappointment evident in both his tone and on his face.

“No!” Eule denied, making everyone in the lodge practically jump at the shout. Eule winced at that reaction. “I’m sorry about that, but…I do like that mirror. It’s not decadent or evil in the slightest. It’s beautiful, it’s gorgeous, it’s…it’s a celebration of life in the form of an everyday object.”

The disappointed frown on Rashaman’s face slowly morphed into a smile over the course of Eule’s words. By the time she was finished with those words, the smile had grown into a full-on grin.

“I’m glad to hear that there’s a bit of Carja in you,” Rashaman said proudly. Amidst Eule’s embarrassed blushing, Rashaman continued: “And that’s why I’ll be glad to hand this over to you for, say, 130 Shards?”

Star barked out a laugh. “Never one to miss an opportunity to make some Shards, yeah?”

Rashman’s reply to that was a laugh of his own. “Well, I do want to pay for my dream, after all, since dreams aren’t free.”

“This mysterious girlfriend of yours, or your restaurant?” Eule asked curiously.

“Both!” Rashaman replied with another bark of laughter. “Neither marriage nor Meridian rent comes cheap, you know!”

Eule smiled mischievously at that reply. “Perhaps you might introduce us to this girlfriend you seem so eager to boast about but so reluctant to actually describe in detail one day?” she asked.

Rashaman laughed once more, but Eule could hear a dash of nervousness in it. “Perhaps once I actually get married to her, and you can visit us in Meridian once this whole thing blows over.”

“If it blows over,” Torvund grumbled.

“Torvund!” Star and Bashid hissed.

“What? I’m just speaking the truth here,” Torvund protested.

“I must remind you that these rumors about Sun-King Jiran are still rumors,” Bashid insisted, before sighing and saying: “Hopefully.”

Eule could only sigh at Bashid, hoping that was indeed the case, before turning back to a now no longer smiling Rashaman.

“We’ll take that mirror at that 130 Shards price. No haggling, not this time,” Eule said firmly.

“You seem like you need the money a lot more than we do right now,” Star agreed.

Rashaman didn’t grin, but instead smiled. It was a softer smile than his usual ones though, still happy but of a gentler kind. “Thank you, Eule, Star. I won’t forget this,” he simply said, his voice full of gratitude.

Once the trade of Shards and Machine parts for that hand mirror was over and done with, Eule found herself staring at her own reflection in her and Star’s new mirror while Rashaman was busy packing up the profit gained from that trade.

Eule watched Star lean into her reflection, feeling her lover’s warm biocomponent cheek gently squish into her own as their reflections made contact. “Something on your mind?” Star asked from that comfortable position.

Eule didn’t answer immediately, but instead gently rubbed and tugged on one of the locks of Replika black hair on either side of her face that constituted the EULR standard hairstyle. The standard haircut that would never grow out. Replika hair didn’t work like Gestalt hair. Replika hair was just strands of lifeless plastic, firmly attached to the skullplate just behind her upper faceplate, although that didn’t make them immune to damage.

The only way to alter a Replika’s haircut was to either cut it shorter as a permanent decision, or replace the hair either with new strands or in a fully assembled haircut attached to a new headplate. Even if that was a moot point back in S-23 Sierpinski, since no Replika was allowed to deviate from the standard hairstyle in the first place. However, even maintaining or repairing a hairstyle if it was damaged required a visit to B3 or B4, where Mai or one of the other Eules with hairdresser experience/interest would be more than happy to do just that as part of the “simple medical work” that the Eusan Nation expects all Eules to at least have a basic competency in, regardless of how un-simple hairdressing was.

None of which was even remotely possible here in the Embrace without some kind of hair extruder/implanter, which Eule couldn’t even hope to begin to make.

“Need a new comb for that?” Star asked curiously.

“Well, yes, but…that’s not what I was thinking about,” Eule admitted. “I was more thinking that if our hair ever suffers any damage, maintenance and repair will be a…challenge.”

Star hummed in thought, almost making her sound to Eule like one of her sisters. “Maybe we can just…cut up some Machine skin really thin to make into hair?

Eule shook her head, firmly clamping down the urge to laugh at her lover. Simple ignorance wasn’t something to be laughed at.

“The average human hair measures about 50 micrometers. That’s one five-hundredth of a millimeter. No human, even a Replika, can possibly cut something that thin,” Eule explained. “And even if we were able to somehow accomplish that impossible feat of beyond masterful cutting, we would still have no way to actually affix those strands to our headplate without a hair implanter. Just simply poking it into the skin there won’t work. The strands of hair need to be inserted in a liquid state in order to bulge out at the point of insertion and meld with the skin so that they don’t just fall out with a simple tug.”

“Hmm,” Star hummed again, this time in disappointment. “Never thought about just how hard it is for Replikas to even get hair in the first place before. I just gave my headplate to Mai or her assistants to fix up, and then took it back from them later when they were finished. Tough job you all have there.”

Eule nodded, sighing at the standard Eule’s standard lot in life back in the Eusan Nation. “I’ve heard Februar mutter about that before. Something about how AEON just lumped the hairdressing duties under ‘simple medical worker/nursing’. Honestly, I’m still not sure if she was being sarcastic, or if AEON actually does that,” she commented.

“Honestly, the latter could be possible. This is AEON, after all,” Star replied with a chuckle.

Eule chuckled right back, and it didn’t even contain any nervousness in it this time at this mocking of the most powerful ministry of the Eusan Nation.

Well, at least, not much more than a hint of it, at any rate. Of which Eule would count as a bit of self-improvement, since she would be even more nervous than she currently was about what she wanted to ask of Star otherwise.

“Star?” Eule asked, earning a questioning sound from Star as Eule continued rubbing that same lock of her hair in nervousness. “Would it be alright if…if…if you helped me braid my hair?”

Star’s reflection raised an eyebrow at Eule, mirroring what she was doing on her actual face. “Alright, I can do that. But…wow, now that’s going above and beyond not being a standard hairstyle. Any reason for this, uh, sudden decision?”

Eule laughed in an embarrassed way. “Honestly, it’s not as sudden as you think it is. All those talks Rost and Aloy have been having about braiding Aloy’s hair? It made me think about how my own hair would look like that, and well…I do want to see how I look with braids. A bit like Rost’s braids, really. They make such a lovely pattern.”

Star snickered. “Yeah, but your braids would have significantly less beard to it.”

“Thank for the Forge for that,” Eule heard Torvund mutter from the side.

Eule now giggled. “Indeed, they would, but they would be just as pretty nonetheless.”

Star smiled warmly. “Indeed, they would,” she repeated just as warmly, before she blushed a bit. “To be honest, I want to try doing something with my hair too.”

Eule looked excitedly at her lover’s reflection, making an equally as excited questioning sound at her.

“Maybe a little dye here and there?” Star asked with a sheepish grin. “Rost’s beard does look pretty nice with that blue dyed into it.”

Eule turned her head to give her lover a kiss on her cheek. “I think you’ll look pretty nice with that blue dyed into your hair too,” she said with a smile as warm as her tone.

Star’s smile in reply was accompanied by a kiss of her own on Eule’s cheek. “Well, that settles it. Definitely going all-in on that blue dye as much as you are with your braids.”

Eule’s reply to that was a giggle. “I’m looking forward to that just as much as you are. Right after we’ve finished up with everything here, of course.”

Eule heard Rashaman’s chuckle from outside her field of vision, causing Eule to finally lower the mirror to look up at Rashaman’s grinning face. “Honestly, I was getting afraid that you’d forgotten we were standing here.”

“Twitterpated lovebirds,” Torvund grumbled.

“Oh, don’t be like that,” Rashaman scolded. “By the Sun, I hope I can have such a relationship with my own girl when we get married.”

Torvund scoffed. “You’ll never see me get like that. Shards are the most important things to me, thank you very much.”

“Ah, but Shards are cold, hard, and not very huggable compared to a lover’s touch,” Star pointed out.

“At least Shards can buy that for a night,” Torvund continued to grumble.

Eule blushed at that. Yes, she knew intellectually that prostitution existed, but that didn’t stop her from blushing even at that oblique reference to it.

Rashaman sighed. “And this, my friend, is why you’ll probably never get married and have kids.”

Torvund only replied to that with a semi-coherent grumble, in which Eule managed to make out “nosy Carja and his fancy Carja clothes” and “tall nosy messy-haired Machine women”.

Which reminded Eule as she turned to both Rashaman and the still-grumbling Torvund, and asked: “This may be a little late, but do either of you happen to have any scissors for sale to help out with our hair problem? Not us specifically, but Aloy? Rost doesn’t have scissors, you see.”

Rashaman rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Alas, Bashid and I don’t have scissors as part of our wares. If you’d asked me earlier, I could’ve ordered some from Meridian, but now–”

But before Rashaman could continue, Torvund interrupted with a bark of laughter. “Ha! I knew those would be useful wares to have here! Hold up, I put them in here somewhere…”

As Torvund searched through his packed belongings, Eule had to keep herself from giggling at Torvund’s behavior. His sudden change in demeanor from grumbly surliness to excited joy, all because of the prospect of earning some more Shards, was oddly endearing to Eule. The fact that Torvund’s wares were consistently high quality and long-lasting, if Rost’s pots were any indication, was at least partially responsible for that view.

“Aha! There they are,” Torvund said as he pulled out a completely unremarkable wooden box from his belongings. “Behold, the finest scissors the Oseram have to offer!”

When Torvund finally opened up that box to show off its contents, Eule found herself staring at what were indeed scissors. Piles of scissors. Some bronze, and others steel. Some were the normal kind with the screw in the middle holding them together that Eule was familiar with back in S-23 Sierpinski’s kitchens, just with wooden and leather handles instead of plastic, but others were of a more bizarre design seemingly consisting of nothing more than a pair of blades mounted at the ends of a thin, U-shaped piece of dark Oseram steel.

“Spring scissors, those are,” Torvund explained as Eule picked one up to examine. “You use it by squeezing the bars together. They’re an older type, but they still check out. They’re more difficult to make than pivot scissors, but they also don’t care if you’re right or left-handed. Both are 20 Shards each. Oh, and if you buy one, I’ll even sell the other type too for 50% off. Just so you can see how they compare. Oh, and you might as well buy a spare of each type too, since you won’t be getting any more from me for a while.”

Eule shook her head as she smiled. “You may be incorrigible with those Shards, but you also make a fair point. We’ll take them, and a second spare for each type too. Hopefully with more Shards in your pouch, you’ll have a better chance of making it back to your home.”

Torvund grinned so widely that, for once, Eule could just barely see his teeth from between his beard and mustache. “Sold!” Torvund cried happily.

Thus, with that last bit of business concluded, Eule and Star ended up standing outside the trade mission lodge as Rashman and Bashid were taking down the Carja flag from the pole. Even the flag itself seemed depressed, drooping mournfully as the Carja traders lowered it down, pole section by pole section, until they were left with a collapsed flagpole with the beautiful red and gold Banner of the Sun (as Rashaman and Bashid had sometimes called it) wrapped around it.

At least, Eule had assumed that was the last bit of business to conclude, right up until Rashaman reached into his and Bashid’s cart, pulled out a leather bag the size of a Strider stomach and an even larger leather bag that was nearly the size of a Strider’s body, and handed it to Eule.

“What’s this?” Eule asked curiously as she set down the larger bag to gently open up the smaller one.

“Call it some last presents from us, for being some of our most loyal customers,” Rashaman happily explained.

Even before she saw the red powder, Eule could smell the warming pungent scent of redthorn chili pepper powder.

“The larger bag contains the last of our produce that we hadn’t handed out yet, since well, it’s all going to rot anyways. Might as well just give it out. This includes a bag of maize flour too, since you seem to love that for your breads. As for the chili powder? Hopefully, that will last you and Rost for however long it takes for this nastiness to die down,” Rashaman said with a smile and a thumbs-up. “Given that you two seem to be particularly fond of Carja spice. I prefer goldthorn peppers myself, but–”

Rashaman was interrupted by Eule retying the leather sack full of probably the last redthorn powder she and her family will see in a long while, and stepping forward to hug Rashaman.

“We’ll see each other again,” Eule insisted as she continued hugging the taller Gestalt merchant. “Until then though, I hope you and Bashid stay safe.”

Rashaman gently returned the embrace. “Thanks, and you too. Hopefully, all this turns out to be nothing but mad rumors, and we can return to business soon.”

“Hey, Bashid. Come over here, you lovable nerd!” Star called out.

“What? Huh? What’s a ‘nerd’–”

Eule giggled as Star joined the embrace, pulling Bashid into the group hug with her. She then leaned over to look at Torvund. “Won’t you join us?” she asked hopefully.

Alas, Torvund merely hid behind a docile Bora, only poking his head out to insist: “Nuh-uh! You won’t catch me being all touchy-feely like some pansy Carja.”

Eule couldn’t help it. She just ended up giggling louder at how much of a cat Torvund was being, with everyone else joining in with a combination of giggling and laughter.

Eventually though, Eule and Star were left standing alone as Rashaman, Bashid, and Torvund were walking down the Mother’s Heart path leading out of the settlement. The sight of the Nora talking to them and offering them condolences and farewells–with Eule even recognizing Jan and Rana with Minali along with Teb, Feld and Sal among their number–only somewhat assuaged her worry for the merchants.

“Do you think they’ll really be alright?” Eule asked.

Star hugged her reassuringly, adding a kiss to the bargain. “They will, love. We’ll see them again. Really,” she said.

Eule could only hope that her lover was right.

*

Aloy stood on one leg, extending her foot backwards straight out, while holding one arm forward and the other arm arm backward for balance.

“Ooh, excellent arabesque, Aloy!” Eule happily complimented.

Aloy didn’t reply. She was too busy trying to maintain the weird ballet pose like Eule said new balleterinas were supposed to do first to avoid falling down.

“Oof!” Vala cried out as she fell onto her face trying to do the “arabes-que”, or “arabesk” like the Eule pronounced it instead of how the Focus spelled it.

Just like Vala did.

“Oh, dear, Vala! Are you alright?” Eule asked, reaching down to Vala and helping her back up.

“I’m fine, but this ‘ballet’ dance of your tribe is so hard!” Vala complained as she shook off snow from her face, clothes, and pretty much all of her. “It’s really pretty, but it’s so hard to do!”

“Well, it does take a lot of hard work to make ballet look the way it does,” Eule admitted.

“And that’s why I gave up,” Minali happily said from the comfort of her log stool. “I think I’d rather watch people do the ballet dance than do it myself, and save my hard work for learning Carving.”

“Same here, but for Stitching,” Teb just as happily said from atop his own log stool.

The young Carver girl and the older Stitcher boy gently put their fists together like Aloy did with Star, before holding their fists to Star for her to bump in turn. Aloy felt a happy warmth at seeing that. Star always looked sad whenever she talked about her sisters at her Sierpinski home, just like Eule did, so maybe seeing more people do the fist bump thing might make Star less unhappy? Especially since Star was becoming as good a friend with Teb and Minali as they were with her?

Eule could only make a nervous laugh at that. “Admittedly, ballet is probably not for everyone. Even for me, it’s more of a hobby that I just happen to have experience with. My real passion is and probably always will be cooking.”

Vala’s face melted into a goofy grin. “Ehh, now you’re making me hungry. Your food can be so weird, but it’s so good.”

Star’s face melted into a grin as goofy. “Stop that, kid. You’re making me hungry too. Eule’s cooking is definitely the best.”

“Especially the ‘ramen’,” Minali added with a firm nod. “I’ve never eaten any bread like it, but it’s so good, and the soup is so good, and the vegetables in it are so good, and the grilled boar on it is so good…everything about it is so good!”

Even as Aloy held that arabesque pose, her stomach grumbled at the thought of eating ramen again. It really was that good.

“It’s not exactly bread, but I’m happy to receive those compliments,” Eule said with an embarrassed giggle.

“Hey actually, Eule, just an interesting thought if you don’t mind me asking?” Teb asked. When Eule tilted her head at Teb and gave a questioning sound, the Stitcher boy continued: “Maybe you might present ramen to the High Matriarchs so that they might formally introduce ramen to the tribe? I would definitely be more than happy to eat ramen at Mother’s Heart instead of coming to your house to eat it. Not that I don’t enjoy secretly flouting the outcast law like this, but it can get tiring to have to climb a mountain every time I want to eat ramen.”

“Yeah!” Vala and Minali both cheered.

Eule took on a thoughtful look. “Hmm, do you really think that the Nora might be that interested in ramen?”

Aloy heard a cough, and she hop-turned to face Rost, as did everyone.

Rost was staring off into the distance, like he always did whenever Vala, Minali, and Teb visited, pretending to not notice that they were there. Aloy was a little sad that Rost didn’t even want to get to know her friends, but at least he wasn’t stopping the visits.

This time though, Rost somehow managed to make the cough sound like it was aimed at Eule.

“Eule, I believe that the Nora might very well benefit from you introducing your ramen to our tribe,” Rost said, still staring at nothing despite him directly addressing to Eule, probably to avoid accidentally looking any of Aloy’s friends in the eye. “It’s a new type of food that I’m sure would further assuage the worries of those of our tribe who are…less than friendly towards outsiders.”

After a moment, Rost quickly added: “Oh, and when you do, don’t forget to include that Rotkraut of yours as a topping option. I found it to be an excellent accompaniment to the ramen, bringing a nice heat and rich flavor to it.”

Vala instantly stuck her tongue out. “Yech! How can you like that Rotkraut stuff? It’s so spicy and sour? It’s one of the foods from Eule that I don’t like.”

“I do think that it is a little strong too,” Minali agreed with a nod. “I prefer the Weisskraut.”

“Really?” Teb said in surprise. “I’m kind of fond of it. Even Feld and Sal thought so when I brought some Rotkraut to them.”

Star chuckled. “Yeah, this sounds familiar. Even among us Rotfronters, you either love Rotkraut or you hate it. There’s no in-between.”

“I suppose people are people, no matter where they live,” Eule noted with a giggle. “Alright, I’ll try that, although I’ll have to think about how to go about doing so.”

“I’m all ready to help with any part of that when you think of it,” Star said, bouncing up and down as if she was a kid herself before grinning. “Who knows? Maybe even Lansra might turn her frown upside-down when she tastes ramen for the first time?”

Teb snorted. “Now that would be a true blessing from the All-Mother,” he snidely noted.

Aloy giggled at that, as did most everyone present. She had only seen High Matriarch Lansra for a short time during Eule and Star’s trial, but even that short a time had been enough for Aloy to decide that she most definitely did not like Lansra.

As Eule began discussing her plans on the ramen introduction with everyone, Aloy tuned them out in order to focus on ballet. Specifically: one particular move that Eule did, all the way back when she first showed off her ballet skills, and had first promised to teach Aloy.

Aloy did this by bending the leg that had been extending backwards, and then sprang up into the air, putting a spin into it by twisting her foot just before leaping.

Aloy couldn’t even complete a single spin before she landed on back on the ground, and not in the way she wanted. She certainly hadn’t wanted to get so dizzy that her foot landed wrong, and she thus crashed onto the ground, finding herself lying on her back and seeing the cloud-covered winter sky. At least that meant the ground was covered in soft snow to land on, instead of hard dirt and rock.

“Aloy!” Eule shouted in a worried tone, which was immediately followed by the familiar sounds of Eule’s footsteps, and then the familiar sight of Eule’s face above Aloy. “Are you okay?!”

“Yeah, but I couldn’t do the spinny ballet move,” Aloy said in disappointment.

“Spinny ballet move?” Eule asked in confusion as she offered her white gloved hand to Aloy.

Aloy took it, and allowed Eule to pull her back up onto her feet. “The spinny ballet move. The one you did when Rost let you cook dinner that first time?”

“Oh…oh! You were trying to do a tour en l’air,” Eule said in realization, before a frown appeared on her face. “That’s a very advanced ballet move, fraulein. It’s not a move a beginner like you should be performing without learning the basic steps.”

Aloy gave a sheepish look at Eule…specifically her white feet, with only three of her steel toes visible from the angle Aloy was looking at, so that she wouldn’t have to meet Eule’s eyes. “I know. Basics are important. Rost says that a lot,” Aloy admitted. “But…I was thinking that, er, ‘tour in la air’ move would be really useful in Brave training. I was thinking that I could use it to spin really fast around, and hit something behind me really quickly.”

“Oh. Oh! Ohhh!” Vala practically shouted. When Aloy turned to look at Vala, her dark brown eyes were staring intensely at Aloy. “That could work! It’s brilliant! You’re so amazing, Aloy!” she shouted just before throwing her arms around Aloy.

Aloy stiffened up at the hug. At first, she had no idea how to react to it. No one outside of Rost, Eule, and Star had ever hugged her before. Especially since it was illegal for any Nora to even touch her.

But now…now Vala was hugging her. Actually hugging her.

For real.

This wasn’t a dream like…like…like the weird dreams she’d been having in which the details keep escaping her like the most elusive prey.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Vala suddenly said, pulling back from her hug. “Did you not like it? I should’ve asked you if you wanted a hug first. Sorry if–”

Aloy stopped her friend from talking by hugging her back.

“No, it’s fine. Don’t stop doing that,” Aloy said with her face buried in her friend’s shoulder.

Vala held still for a moment, but it was only a moment before Aloy felt Vala’s arms embrace her once more. “Hee hee, alright then! It would be kinda weird if we both learned that ‘tour in la air’ move together, and we can’t hug when we can spin in la air a lot like Eule can.”

Eule sighed, but Aloy saw that there was a soft, gentle smile full of joy mixed into it. “Alright, you two Brave fanatics, I’ll teach you two how to perform a tour en l’air,” she said.

Aloy and Vala both cheered.

“But only after you perform the basic steps of ballet necessary to properly perform it,” Eule insisted. “Aloy, you nearly twisted your foot there, and you’re lucky you don’t have a sprain right now. If you don’t learn those basic steps, then the Red Eye may not be watching out for you next time you improperly perform a tour en l’air. So if you don’t listen to me, then I won’t teach you. That goes for you too, Vala. Understood?”

“Yeah!” Aloy and Vala both chorused, with both of them nodding as well to prove their sincerity.

In the end, the day concluded with them only just understanding the basic fundamentals of ballet, but Aloy still felt she and Vala had made some important steps towards the “tour in la air”, even as she waved and called out a good night to her friends as they left for Mother’s heart with very sore legs and feet.

It was Rost’s turn to cook for dinner that night, so he made boar stew. However, Aloy noticed that the stew had less water than usual, making it nice and thick and filling, and it had a lot of chunks of the Carja “kabocha” in it. It even had a bright red color to it that indicated that Rost had put in some of the, ergh, Rotkraut in it. Rost really liked it, which was the exact opposite of how Aloy felt about it. Fortunately, it seemed like putting it in stews and soups diluted the sour taste, so Aloy could eat it perfectly fine.

Aloy was loathe to admit that was starting to like Rotkraut, even if it was only in stews and soups. She still can’t eat it raw like Rost, Eule, and Star sometimes did. She had no idea how they could stand it.

Still, seeing Rost use some of the Rotfront food that Eule taught him how to make was just one more sign of Eule and Star’s permanent presence, and one more sign that she had friends now. Many, many friends. Signs that, along with the food in her belly, made Aloy felt warm and happy as she went to bed that night.

*

Aloy immediately knew something was wrong when her hands felt something cold, dry, and grainy, instead of the warm and fluffy fox fur of her bed.

Aloy snapped open her eyes.

Aloy decided that she must be outside, because she could see a sky. However, she had never been anywhere outside where the sky was red. It wasn’t even red like how the sky looked kind of red at sunrise or sunset. No, this red was like if the sky was an entire giant lake of blood that was just hanging there upside-down. It was the most disturbing shade of red Aloy had ever seen for a sky, and it made her instantly want to find out more about where she was to have such a weird sky.

Aloy scrambled to her feet to look around, and was even more weirded out than before.

All around her, for as far as the eye can see was red sand. It was the same unnaturally blood-red color of the sky, making it really hard to tell the dirt apart from the sky. Aloy reached down to feel the sand, and just like before, it was dry, loose, and cold. Aloy was able to easily stick her hand into it, and when she let it run through her fingers, it poured through as if it was water. Aloy had never felt sand like this before. Even the sand along the banks of Searcher’s Course was at least a little bit wet. This sand though, it was like it had never even seen water before. Never even seen life before. It was a sand that disturbed Aloy to no end.

More closely examining her surroundings didn’t help. There was literally nothing but that weird blood-red sand to look at, going slightly up and down in places like small mountains and valleys, but nothing beyond that. Nothing to break it up…save for weird black rocks. They rose up out of the dirt like trees, but that was silly. Rocks couldn’t grow like trees…and yet, they were perfectly rectangular though. As though someone had carved all of these rocks into that long, rectangular shape…and had just stuck them all into the sand at random. Or as if they had all grown from the sand like trees. Neither of which made any sense to Aloy.

Aside from those tree-like rectangular rocks though, there was nothing. Nothing at all. No animals, no bugs, not even the slightest scraggly grass. There were no living things at all that Aloy could see. It was like, like…the exact opposite of the Embrace. If All-Mother’s Embrace was the source of all life, then this blood-red sandy place was the source of all death. Even though it was, ironically, one of the colors of life. The cold chill that seemingly permeated the whole place and made Aloy shiver didn’t do much to dispel that notion.

Aloy had no idea how long she stood there, just looking around, trying to see if there was any place she could go to for shelter. Eventually though, she realized that in the distance, there was a big wide rock that seemed a lot taller than the rectangular black rocks. It was the closest thing to a landmark that she could see, so without anything more to go on, she walked towards it.

During her trek, Aloy discovered that walking on this dry sand was harder than it looked. Her feet kept trying to sink into it, so walking through it was as tiring as walking through thick snow. Aloy wished that there was some wood growing around. Any wood whatsoever, just so that she could make some kind of wide shoes for herself to keep from sinking into the sand. But there was nothing for crafting. Nothing at all, so she kept trudging onwards.

As Aloy got closer to the tall rock, almost mountain really, she started noticing that there were more rocks scattered around the sand, as random as the tall black tree-like rocks. These rocks were a lot shorter though, and at least had some color to them. They were mostly black, but some were white with a bit of blue, while others had some red mixed in instead. In fact, Aloy was coming up on one of the latter now, so that she could get a closer look at…this…rock…

It was when Aloy was standing right in front of it that she realized that it wasn’t a rock. It was a person, and judging by the long black, Watcher-like legs, it was a Replika woman like Eule and Star.

“Hey, are you okay?” Aloy asked, walking around and crouching down to get a better look at the Replika woman’s face.

But alas, she was gone. Aloy had no idea how long she’d been dead though. This Replika woman had a corpse so untouched that she just looked as though she was just sleeping. It was only the Replika woman’s still face and blank blue eyes, devoid of the red pupils that had become so familiar through Eule and Star, that told Aloy that she was just as beyond help as all of those Old Ones in that Metal World place had been.

Aloy didn’t even know who this Replika woman was. She looked like she was about Eule’s height, with her hair being more like Star’s haircut but less choppy, and her closed eyes were sharper than Eule’s were when she was sleeping. All Aloy could do was silently ask the All-Mother to watch over this Replika woman, wherever she was now, while she walked around the body to get a better look.

Immediately, Aloy could tell that this Replika woman almost certainly died of her wounds. Her entire right arm was just…gone just above the elbow. It looked like something had torn off the entire arm, as though a large Machine had done it. There were other wounds on her left arm, her legs, and even on her back, exposing blue-colored bone as though that same Machine had savaged her. Aloy had no idea what kind of Machines would live in this place, but she was now scared to find out, and realized that she had to move more quickly than she had been doing now.

That was the decision that led Aloy to search the dead Replika woman for anything useful. Whether on their own merit, or for crafting.

The first thing Aloy noticed was a large pouch the Replika woman was wearing on a black belt wrapped around her hip. It looked like it was the same weird black, thick, and tough cloth that the pouches Eule and Star wore were made of. Aloy had always liked the feel of that cloth. It felt rough and sturdy, almost like Machine skin or muscle woven into cloth. This pouch that this Replika woman was wearing looked identical to the ones Eule and Star wore, and so she decided to take them.

Aloy had watched Eule and Star take off their pouches enough times to know how to take this pouch off. Even though it was a lot bigger than Eule and Star’s pouches, at least twice the size of them by Aloy’s guess, it could still be unclipped from the belt in the same way, thus allowing Aloy to do just that, pull the flap off from the two metal clicky things that Eule and Star had called “snap buttons” for reasons Aloy did not understand, and examine its contents.

That was when Aloy discovered that there was a reason why these pouches were twice the size of Eule and Star’s pouches. There was a bit of cloth dividing the big pouch down the middle, basically making it two smaller pouches in one big one. Aloy looked inside, hoping to find something, only to see nothing but empty space in one half of the big pouch.

It was in the other half that she discovered something tucked away in it. With a mixture of curiosity and eagerness, she pulled it out to reveal–

“…What’s this?” Aloy asked to herself as she curiously looked over the item she pulled from the pouch.

It looked vaguely like Eule’s pistol, but it was a bit taller, a bit shorter, and a lot more orange. There was also a long bar of metal going in front of the trigger all the way down to the bottom of the grip. It was like the “trigger guard” on Eule’s pistol and Star’s revolver. Aloy still had no idea why the trigger needed a guard to protect it, but she could tell this pistol thing’s trigger guard is a lot bigger than normal for some reason.

Aloy also noticed a patch of white just above the trigger. It had a weird green and white symbol in it, and it had the words “Nur für Replika” written on it. The only word Aloy recognized was “Replika”, and that was only because Eule had taught her how to write out “Replika” in her and Star’s language. Aloy reached up to her Focus to scan it, and immediately, words in lavender appeared right next to those words, saying: “Only for Replika”.

Aloy had no idea why this orange pistol would be only for Replikas. It looked like she could use it just fine. There was certainly nothing stopping her from using it, and now, she at least had some sort of weapon she could use to fight off whatever Machine tore apart this poor Replika woman. She could already imagine pulling the trigger of this pistol thing, and making it shoot out bullets along with its thunder. The only problem she could see was that she had nowhere to put it, so she just put the orange pistol back in the pouch for now, and tried to see if the Replika woman had anything else on her belt to put it in, like the “holster” that Eule and Star kept their pistol and revolver in.

Only, now Aloy realized that the belt the Replika woman was wearing was pretty useful. Not just by itself, but also for crafting. However, Aloy couldn’t see a knot anywhere she could untie, so it probably could only be undone by pressing on the same kind of metal thing that was on Eule and Star’s belts. They had called it a “snap buckle”, but Aloy had no idea what it meant other than pressing on a metal bar on the front undid it, so that meant Aloy had a job to do.

Aloy took hold of the Replika woman’s shoulder, and with a grunt of effort, pulled.

And kept pulling.

And pulled some more.

Until finally, the Replika woman flopped over onto her back. Panting from the effort for a bit, Aloy took a few moments leaning on her Machine skin kneepads before straightening up to look at the Replika woman’s front–

Only to jump back in shock.

The Replika woman’s entire left chest was just…gone. Aloy could see bare blue rib bones, with the organs underneath. Out of morbid curiosity, she walked around to the other side, and just underneath what was left of the red chest clothing, she could see what looked like the remains of the Replika woman’s bra and right breast. As though the Machine that had so clearly savaged this poor Replika woman had done so from the front first, before toying with her body when it had knocked her down.

Aloy had seen dead people before, but never this fresh, and seeing what a Replika woman like Eule and Star looked like on the inside made Aloy whimper a bit. She had to force herself to look down at where the belt’s snap buckle was, and just as equally forced herself to reach down to that snap buckle, and finally undid it, allowing her to pull the belt off, ignoring the stains darker than the black of the belt that were more visible now that she could get a closer look at it.

That belt, as it turned out though, was far too long for Aloy. It just fell down if she tried to wear it as a belt. So instead, she hung the belt over her shoulder like the blue cloth-covered leather sash Rost wore in the same way. When she clipped the pouch back onto the side of the belt to her right, Aloy felt a lot more secure. At the very least, with the snap buttons undone, the pouch would work as an improvised holster…hopefully.

As Aloy was about to walk off though, she stopped and looked back at the Replika woman’s face. Specifically: her half-open eyes. There was just something…not right with leaving her here like this. So not right that Aloy ended up reaching down, and closing the Replika woman’s eyes for her. Now with that done, the Replika woman looked like she was sleeping…if Aloy ignored her gaping wounds and her lack of breathing.

“Go in peace to the All-Mother…or the Red Eye…or um…whoever you believe in,” Aloy said to the Replika woman, hands pressed together in prayer for her soul.

The Replika woman didn’t answer, of course. Aloy felt guilty that she didn’t even know her name to ask the All-Mother to watch over her, but she hoped that this Replika woman was…if not happy with her prayer, then at least was okay with it. Wherever her soul was now.

So with that done, and with one last glance at the Replika woman, Aloy set off once more towards the distant mountain.

Aloy’s journey halted once more though when she eventually came across another dead Replika woman directly in her path. This one had an identical face to the one before, but this one was wearing armor on her chest. It looked a lot like Star’s black armor, but this one was white and had slightly different patterns on it. This Replika woman also had blue bands on her arms and legs where the previous one had red. The one thing that both Replika women shared though was their deaths, since this one was just as dead.

And it only took Aloy a moment to figure out why. This armored Replika woman’s entire right eye was missing, with a wide cut bisecting where it should be, as though a spear blade had been stabbed right into it.

That truly disturbed and confused Aloy. What kind of Machine would so thoroughly savage one Replika woman, and then so precisely kill this one with a stab to the eye? It had to be a Machine with blades somewhere on its body, so it couldn’t be either a Watcher or a Strider. The former’s foot claws were too small and short, and the latter didn’t even have any claws at all.

Rost’s stories of the Machines that lived outside the Embrace played through Aloy’s head as she tried to figure out what killed both these Replika women.

A Snapmaw? No, Snapmaws would’ve used their jaws to bite them, and Rost had said their lower jaws had some kind of a pair of rotating blades mounted on chains, so a Snapmaw biting these poor Replika women would’ve cut them to pieces.

The idea of a Bellowback as the culprit briefly crashed into Aloy’s mind. Rost had said they were huge, taller than even a lodge, and could’ve easily killed both of these Replika women. However, Rost had said he overheard hunters talking about how the Bellowbacks now sprayed either Blaze or Chillwater, depending on what was in their backs. Neither of the Replika women looked burned or frozen, so she ruled Bellowbacks out, much to her relief.

A Grazer was Aloy’s next guess though, given how it had a pair of four-pronged blades for horns judging by the training dummies Rost had scattered around the yard. Horns that spun too, according to Rost. They could’ve easily slashed apart the Replika women…and yet it didn’t explain the deep stab wound in this one’s right eye. Aloy thought it might be possible, but a bit awkward for a Grazer to do that with its horns…but then Aloy remembered that one time she, Rost, Eule, and Star had seen a Grazer from a distance.

One had managed to stumble into the Embrace from over the mountains to the south, before a group of Braves had killed it. Aloy couldn’t forget how it kicked a Brave with one of its sharp front legs, gashing his side before an arrow from another Brave blinded the Grazer’s sole eye and sent it crashing to the ground. Aloy had no idea what happened to the Brave who’d been kicked, but she still remembered the spray of blood and the Brave’s scream of pain.

The idea of a Grazer being responsible for these Replika women’s deaths seemed more and more likely to Aloy with each passing moment, and so she made a mental note to herself to keep an ear out for their grunts and the weird high pitched scream-like cries they made when they got scared.

It made Aloy all the more determined to collect the stuff from this dead Replika woman, especially that armor. She could tell even from a glance that it wouldn’t fit her, but she could at least try to break it down into something she can wear.

Aloy had watched Star take off her armor, as well as watched Eule help her take it off. Unfortunately, Aloy couldn’t see how either of them were doing it. Not from her short height up to how high Star’s shoulders were. All Aloy could tell was that they did something with the upper part of Star’s armor at both shoulders, and once that something was done, her armor just fell off in two halves.

So Aloy started with examining the Replika woman’s white armor there, with one hand reaching up to press on her Focus to scan the armor. Immediately, Aloy noticed a pair of circles on both shoulders, with a line going through the circles all the way across the armor. Her Focus immediately made the circles glow, with the lavender words appearing next to them saying: “Weak point in armor. Possible detachment point.”

Out of curiosity, Aloy reached forward, and pressed on a circle. It sank beneath her finger, until it reached a point where it clicked. Doing the same to the other circles also yielded clicks, so Aloy figured that this must be how Star removed her armor too.

Unfortunately, Aloy discovered that one of the circles on the right shoulder wouldn’t sink, no matter how hard she pressed. It was even pretty obvious why. There was a cut running through the middle of the circle, as though a Machine’s claw gashed it. It seemed as though the cut broke whatever was holding the armor together, and now it was stuck. With it, the armor too was stuck on the dead Replika woman.

Aloy sighed in disappointment, but at least she could remove the Replika woman’s pouches and belt, just like the last one. Aloy received another disappointment though as she looked through the pouches, and saw that two of them were completely empty. Not a thing in either of their double pouches.

It was when she looked through the last pouch though, the one that had been at the Replika woman’s right hip, that she found something exciting.

“A Protektor pistol!” Aloy said excitedly as she pulled it out of the pouch.

Aloy instantly recalled the Six Rules of Gun Safety that Eule and Star had repeatedly taught her whenever they allowed her to handle their guns. Just like with the orange pistol, she kept the Protektor pistol’s barrel facing away from her and her finger off the trigger while she examined every bit of it. Fortunately, it looked intact. There were some scratches on the metal, but nothing that looked broken.

She then pulled back the slide to check to see if there was any bullets in the chamber, just as she’d been taught.

That was when she saw that there was nothing in the chamber.

She instantly thumbed the magazine release, and caught the magazine as it dropped from the grip in order to look into it. Her heart felt like it was falling down a cliff as she saw that there were precisely zero bullets in the magazine.

“Just a fancy club then,” Aloy said bitterly as she put the Protektor pistol back into the pouch, which Aloy only now noticed had a magazine in it. However, it turned out to be just as empty as the magazine in the pistol, to Aloy’s disappointment. A quick search of the other side of the pouch revealed just as much nothing as the other pouches.

Aloy ended up moving the Protektor pistol and empty magazine to the empty half of the Protektor pouch next to the orange pistol. This way, at least if she found any bullets, she could have it at the ready.

That left her three empty pouches and a belt though. Aloy thought about what to do with these potential crafting materials for a bit as she sat on the dry blood-red sand, and then an idea came to her.

First, she took off the leather strips she wore around her feet. Then, she took one of the empty pouches, and stepped on it. The feel of the pouch on her feet was…weird, but she could tell that her feet wasn’t sinking into the sand as much. Thus, with that confirmed, she tied the leather strips around both her feet and the pouch, stepping on it and shaking it around to make sure that it was securely fastened to her feet.

When she had done the same for her other foot, the result was that she now had a pair of sand shoes. They weren’t very comfortable shoes, but they were functional, and that was the important thing right now.

As for the remaining pouch and belt: Aloy looped the belt across her other shoulder, and then clipped the pouch onto her left hip. There! Now she felt more ready to cross this weird land of blood-red sand.

And just like with the previous Replika woman, Aloy closed this Replika woman’s eyes…well, her not-stabbed eye, and prayed for the All-Mother and Red Eye to watch over her too before continuing her journey to the distant mountain, and hopefully shelter.

As Aloy continued walking, she took note of the other flat “rocks” she could see around her, and realized that they all must be dead Replika women…and the same “model” too. Which meant that they were all sisters. Aloy could already count tens of bodies in her field of vision, and there were likely a lot more that she couldn’t see due to being too short. Aloy wondered just why all these sisters were out here, and how did they all die like this?

Could a single Grazer have really killed all these Replika women? No, it had to have been a whole herd of Grazers. How the Grazers were sustaining themselves out here was a question beyond Aloy’s grasp at the moment. All she knew that she wanted to be as far away as possible from a herd of Deranged Grazers out for human blood, so she picked up the pace on her walking a bit, all thanks to her newly crafted sand shoes.

Until at last, she was finally standing in front of the mountain, and that was when she realized that this was no mountain.

It was a Metal World place.

For no mountain could be that smooth, and have such unnaturally angled shapes. The red, black, white, and yellow colors were equally as unnatural, even if parts of those colors were already fading to grey. Aloy briefly wondered what this Metal World place had been and what the enormous strange symbols in yellow written on the big red parts meant. She could only recognize the numbers “512”, and that was it, before she decided that taking shelter in it was a lot more important than thinking about its origins.

Fortunately, the Metal World place was buried in the blood-red sand at such an angle that Aloy could scramble up its side. As she did so, Aloy kept one hand on her Focus, scanning the Metal World place for any way in. Eventually, that paid off when her Focus made a part of the Metal World place further up glow, with a small box appearing next to it that said: “Airlock door: vacuum-sealed door. Heavily shielded. Extensive external wear detected. Seal integrity maintained.”

Aloy didn’t understand most of what her Focus said, but at the very least, she understood the word “door”, and that fueled her ascent up the Metal World place’s side.

It was when she was now standing on the “airlock door” (whatever an “airlock” was) that Aloy noticed some things about it.

The first was that there were a pair of yellow and black things on the door that were likely door handles.

The second was the numbers “512” again on the door itself, but this time in black, along with words in Eule and Star’s language just above and to the left of the door that, according to her Focus, read: “Attention. Explosive bolt system.”

Aloy had no idea what an “explosive bolt” was other than that it sounded like a Blast Bomb was somehow part of the door for reasons that were beyond Aloy’s understanding, but at the very least, it seemed like the yellow and black door handles were a good start. The door handles though were too far apart for Aloy to grab both of them at once. So instead, she took one of them in both hands, braced herself, and PULLED, leaning her entire body weight into the pull.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard Aloy pulled or for how long, the door handle stubbornly refused to budge. After nearly a minute of fruitless pulling, Aloy gave up, sitting back down onto the airlock door and panting hard from the effort.

After she had recovered, Aloy tried to closely examine the door handles to see if they were stuck, scanning them with her Focus all the while to assist with that. Alas, her Focus caused a box to pop up next to the door handles, saying: “Extension abrasion damage detected on manual door control mechanisms. Recommendation is to call a mechanic for repairs before entering.”

Aloy had no idea what most of what her Focus said meant, but the little she could understand told her that the door was broken, and that she wasn’t likely able to get in that way.

She walked around on top of the Metal World place, looking for another way in. She found another door of the same design as the first one, but alas, it too was just as broken as that first door. No matter how hard Aloy pulled at those yellow and black handles, feeling like the colors were mocking her now, like a bee that had gotten in the house and was annoying everyone. Thus, giving up on those doors, she continued her trek.

Aloy’s walk around the Metal World place also revealed some huge glass walls. She looked inside, and saw a pair of chairs plus Metal World devices of some sort. She had no idea what those devices were for or why the chairs were facing the glass, but she figured that the glass might be weaker than the surrounding metal. Thus, it resulted in her taking out her empty Protektor pistol, flipping it over to hold it by the barrel in the way Star had mentioned her sisters had been taught to hit people with their revolvers, and then whacking the glass.

Again.

And again.

Until Aloy stopped and peered closely at where she had been whacking the glass.

Alas, there wasn’t even so much as a mark on the glass. Meanwhile, a look on her Protektor pistol’s grip revealed quite a few new marks, and Aloy suspected that if she hit any harder with it, she might break the pistol altogether. Clearly, the glass must be far thicker and tougher than the glass eye of a Watcher to be this durable. At the very least, it was clear that she couldn’t break it with just an empty Protektor pistol.

With another sigh of disappointment combined with rising frustration, Aloy returned her Protektor pistol to its pouch, and continued her search for some way into this Metal World place.

It was while doing so that Aloy realized something: she could hear a voice. It was quiet, but she could hear someone speaking, and it was coming from the direction of the far side of the Metal World place, opposite where the big glass walls were.

Brimming with curiosity, Aloy followed the sound of the voice all the way to the other side of the Metal World place, where it gently rose above the sand to form an overhang underneath it. It was when Aloy peered over the side and looked into that overhang, hanging almost upside down in order to do so, that she finally saw who had been speaking.

Aloy was relieved to see that there was a person there, sitting and clutching their legs, gently rocking back and forth. From this angle, Aloy could tell that this person was probably a she, judging by her long black hair. She could also see that the person had black and yellow legs, and that the feet were pointy and not person-like at all, so she must be a Replika.

Excited at seeing another Replika, and an alive one this time, Aloy scrambled down the side of the Metal World place before dashing over to where the Replika woman was sitting in the Metal World place’s shadow.

Except…the Replika woman didn’t seem to notice her, even though Aloy was sure she hadn’t been that quiet when she dashed over to her side. All this mysterious Replika woman was interested in was just gently rocking back and forth, clutching her curled up legs and muttering to herself.

Aloy decided to get closer to figure out what the Replika woman was muttering…and that was when she realized that this Replika woman was huge. She was sitting on the sand at the level of Aloy’s feet, and the top of Aloy’s head didn’t even come up to her shoulders. Aloy couldn’t even guess as to how tall this Replika woman was if she were to stand up, but she had to be really tall. Even taller than Star.

This Replika was also the first Replika Aloy had ever seen with face paint. The red eyeliner below Star’s eyes didn’t count, because Star had explained that they were actually tattoos. This Replika also had those red eyeliner tattoos under her eyes, but she also had three red stars on her forehead…that on second thought, might also be tattoos, but Aloy wasn’t sure. All she knew was that they were the same four-pointed stars as the ones on the fake Rationmark coins Eule and Star made for her, but she had no idea what that meant other than that the Eusan Nation tribe must really like stars.

But it was what the Replika woman was muttering that was really catching Aloy’s attention. Mostly because of how little sense it made to her.

“–doesn’t love me, no matter how much I want her to–no! That’s not me. That’s not me. That’s the memories whispering into my head. Don’t believe it, don’t believe it. I am FKLR-S2301, commander of S-23 Sierpinski. Not this. Not this. Not what these memories are telling me about her–stop it! Stop! I can’t…I can’t…”

The more Aloy listened to FKLR-S2301 talk, the more confused she became. Plus, FKLR-S2301 still seemed to have not noticed her, even though she was literally standing right next to her.

Weirdly enough, this all seemed so familiar to Aloy. As though something like this happened before, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember where it was from. Nevertheless, Aloy still wanted to get this FKLR-S2301’s attention, and the method she thought would work the best was to reach all the way up, and gently poke the big Replika woman in her soft cheek–

A harsh crackling, hissing sound filled Aloy’s ears.

The taste of blood drowned Aloy’s mouth.

A metallic yellow spear pierced through Aloy’s eye.

Metallic drumming sounds, haunting voices, and a discordant rhythm echoed throughout Aloy’s mind.

Throughout it all, for a length of time Aloy couldn’t tell if her life depended on it, she was sure she was screaming, and was only unable to confirm it because she couldn’t hear her own voice.

Then, as suddenly as the ordeal began, everything was quiet again, and Aloy fell back.

It was only now that Aloy noticed that FKLR-S2301 was now looking at her, her blue eyes wide, and one black hand still clutching her head.

“A…Gestalt child? What–”

Aloy didn’t wait to hear the rest though. She immediately scrambled to her feet and ran as fast as she could go, trying to get away before the Replika woman attacked her again with…whatever she just used.

“Wait, please! I didn’t mean it! I’m sorry!” FKLR-2301 cried out.

Aloy kept running around the corner of the Metal World place…but then she heard the Replika woman say in an almost pathetic voice behind her: “Please don’t go.”

It was the tone that made Aloy gradually stop running, but it was thinking about the words the Replika woman said that made Aloy stop altogether, and then eventually head back, peeking around the corner of the Metal World place back at where the Replika woman had been.

And where she still was.

FKLR-S2301 looked up from where she’d been staring at the sand, now looking directly at Aloy.

“Are you sure you didn’t mean it?” Aloy asked suspiciously.

The big Replika woman nodded once. “That was…an error. You…I…my training regimen taught me that it’s better to respond to all possible threats with a telepathic assault than to potentially lose a unit as valuable as my model to an Imperial assassin. Clearly, my training was in error in this occasion.”

Aloy narrowed her eyes up at the FKLR-S2301. “Someone trained you to attack anyone who surprised you? That’s really dumb. What if you killed someone with…whatever you said you used?”

Falke looked down at the sand once more. “Admittedly, some of it may be…my fault. I was…and may not be thinking that clearly right now. To attack an innocent child, even unwittingly, is…unforgivable for a god to commit. I apologize to you for this Falke’s error, on behalf of the Eusan Nation. Is that…acceptable?” she asked, looking back up to meet Aloy’s eyes.

Aloy stared up into Falke’s eyes, as blue-irised and red-pupiled as Eule and Star’s own eyes, and after thinking on it for a few moments, she nodded and walked up to Falke again, stopping just a meter away from her.

“Okay, I forgive you this time,” Aloy said with another nod, this time more confident. Confidence that only grew when she saw and heard FKLR-S2301 breathe out a sigh of relief. That convinced Aloy to sit down next to the big Replika woman. “Although, did you just say you’re a god? And a Falke?”

Falke nodded solemnly. “I am to both.”

“Ohhh, so you’re a Falke like the Commander Falke Eule and Star sometimes talk about,” Aloy said in a greatly interested tone, receiving a confused yet curious stare from FKLR-S2301. But then Aloy tilted her head at her. “But…that’s silly. You’re not a god.”

Falke stared at Aloy in silence, blinking slowly at her during that time, as if she couldn’t believe what Aloy said.

“The Nation states that I am,” Falke insisted.

“Then the Nation is silly,” Aloy insisted right back. “Rost said that the All-Mother is a god…well, goddess, but it’s the same thing, and the All-Mother is supposed to be the world…and a mountain at the same time. That part always confuses me, but well…you’re not a world or a mountain, so you can’t be a god.”

Falke continued staring at Aloy for several long moments, before sighing and asking in confusion: “Did your school not teach you about Falke units?”

Aloy blinked in confusion right back at Falke. “What’s a school?”

“A school is…a place for Gestalts to be educated at, according to what I’ve heard,” Falke explained, still in a confused tone. “Granted, I’ve never seen a school before, but I know of their existence and purpose, so why don’t you?”

Aloy only tilted her head up at Falke. “I dunno. I’ve never heard of a school before.”

Falke stared at Aloy for a few moments before nodding. “You’re telling the truth…which is only making this even more confusing. Where do you even live to not have heard of a school before?”

“The Embrace,” Aloy instantly replied. “Or if you want to be ‘official’, then All-Mother’s Embrace.”

Falke closed her eyes for a moment, as though she had to think about what Aloy said, before she opened her eyes back up to stare at Aloy in even more confusion. “That doesn’t sound like any Block designation I’ve ever heard before. Which world are you from?”

Aloy stared back, feeling just as confused as Falke sounded. “What?”

“Heimat? Rotfront? Leng? Vineta?” Falke asked, before tilting her head at Aloy. “Or possibly Kitezh…but you don’t look Kitezhian, or even Imperial for that matter…or anything, really.”

“Ooh, I know what Rotfront is!” Aloy said excitedly.

Falke raised an eyebrow. “Wait, then does that mean you’re from–”

“Eule and Star said they are from Rotfront, and we even celebrated Mondfest together!” Aloy happily interrupted.

Falke groaned. “I don’t mean some people you know. I meant which of those worlds are you from?”

“Umm, none of them?” Aloy asked back in more confusion. “Eule thought that the Embrace was part of a place called Vineta, but then she said some things didn’t seem right for Vineta? I barely know what she’s talking about though, so I’m just confused. Rost said that the world was called Earth though. Does that count?”

Falke tilted her head at Aloy, looking even more confused than ever. “I suppose you could be from Vineta, but…if I may ask: may I look into your mind to see if I can find any clues there about where you’re from? This ‘Earth’ place, which I have never heard of before?”

Aloy blinked in even more confusion than she thought Falke felt. “Look into my mind?” she asked, but then something clicked into place for her, and she asked with increasing levels of excitement: “Oh, oh! Like Eule said the Kolibri Replikas can do with that ‘Bioresonance thing’?!”

Falke nodded. “Yes, just like that. Granted, I am not as well-versed in such matters as my Kolibri cadre, but it is something that I am capable of doing.”

“Oh, then yeah!” Aloy agreed. “I want to know what it’s like if you can read my mind. I don’t know how, but I want to know.”

Falke made an expression that looked odd to Aloy, as though it was somewhere between a small smile and a grimace. “Honestly, if I do this right, you shouldn’t feel anything. It wouldn’t do if a Kolibri’s telepathy could be detected by a mundane Gestalt, after all. That said…as I said, I am not as well-versed in telepathy as my Kolibri cadre. You might feel…a presence in your thoughts. Maybe hear a voice if I choose to speak into your mind, but that should be it. If it starts hurting in any way, then let me know, and I will stop, understood?”

Aloy’s eyes widened at the “hurting” part. “You mean like how it hurt when you did…whatever you did before?”

Falke’s gaze slid off of Aloy, as though she was now afraid to look her in the eye. “That was a telempathic attack. It’s a more…offensive application of Bioresonance, and not what should happen in a simple thought and memory scan. I know you have no reason to trust a stranger on that, but…I only have my word to give, so please trust me?”

Aloy’s curiosity warred with her fear, battling each other in a life or death struggle for dominance. The former eventually won, but just barely, as she nodded. “Okay.”

Falke nodded gratefully, and then closed her eyes. “Now close your eyes, and imagine what your home looks like. That is all I need. It makes it easier for me to see what your home is.”

Aloy closed her eyes eagerly, thinking hard about her home in the Embrace. Already, she could imagine that wooden lodge high up on the mountain, smoke rising from the chimney up top on the left, with food hanging smoked and ready to eat from the various places they hung from.

But most importantly, she imagined Rost. His feather caped form was sitting on a log stool, with his muscled arms–exposed this time for comfort instead of having those armguards he always wore–carving a new weapon on the table next to that stool. Then he would turn to look at Aloy, and give her a warm nod, not needing words to convey his love.

And just as importantly, she imagined Eule and Star. They were always together in Aloy’s mind. She had never seen a time in which they were apart for more than a few hours at most, and they always greeted each other with a kiss. They weren’t kissing at the moment in Aloy’s imagination. Instead, they were both busy shooting arrows at a Grazer dummy, but her imagination then had them kissing after they both landed arrows into the yellow centers of the targets on those dummies. Then they both noticed Aloy, and the two Replikas gave Aloy a happy wave.

To Aloy, they had become her home. As much as…no, more than the lodge that they all lived in. If Eule and Star were to leave for any reason, she was sure that she would go with them, and convince Rost to do so too. There was simply no other acceptable alternative in Aloy’s mind.

Home wasn’t that lodge. It was just a wooden building.

Home was the people she lived with.

“What…what is this?” Falke whispered.

Falke’s words snapped Aloy out of her imaginings, and she opened her eyes to look up at this tall Replika. To her surprise, Falke was crying, still with her eyes closed, but now with tears leaking from them.

“What is this? This…this feeling?” Falke asked, practically sobbing the questions out.

Aloy didn’t know why Falke was crying. All she knew was that this person was hurting, and so she did the first thing that came to mind: hug Falke’s midsection.

“It’s okay,” Aloy said simply. Partly because she still didn’t know why Falke was crying, and partly because she thought Rost-like silence was better here.

Fortunately, it did seem to be working. Falke slowly stopped crying, her sobs turning into sniffles that she rubbed with the back of her black-skinned and steel-knuckled hand.

“It’s alright,” Falke said, opening her eyes now. “There is no need for…that now.”

Aloy looked up at Falke’s eyes, so blue and red-pupiled like Eule and Star. “Are you sure?”

Falke nodded. “I am.”

Aloy nodded and let go, trusting Falke’s word.

“But that…that wasn’t quite what I meant,” Falke said, shaking her head for emphasis. “I just saw a…miniature Block made of wood? No, you had called it a ‘lodge’. I am curious as to why you’re living with a Eule unit and a Star unit, but…that’s irrelevant right now. That didn’t tell me anything about where you lived. Is there…a wider area you can remember? Some place that will give me more details?”

“Ohhh, so you did see my thoughts,” Aloy said in wonder. “I didn’t even say anything about that lodge, but you said it anyways.”

Falke simply nodded in silent confirmation, like what Rost would do. This made Aloy like Falke more.

Aloy thought about Falke’s question for a moment, and a moment was all she needed. “Oh, oh! I remember the perfect place! Ok, I’ll just close my eyes and remember it now.”

Aloy did as she said, thinking back to that view of the Embrace from the edge of that cliff a short distance from the house, overlooking the entire valley from up high, with the Sun shining down on that valley. She could see the fields of green grass and brown soil, with patches of forest covering both. She could see the distant settlements of Mother’s Heart, Mother’s Cradle, and Mother’s Watch, as well as the even more distant wooden walls that protected the Embrace at the narrowest point into the valley from the northeast.

Aloy may not have been able to talk with the Nora all that much, but at the very least, she could appreciate the view.

“Hmm, better,” Falke noted. Aloy could practically hear Falke’s nod even with her eyes closed. “Based on the sheer amount and variety of vegetation in sight combined with the climate and the size of the Sun in the sky, I would say…either Vineta or Buyan. I have only heard of Buyan from intelligence and reconnaissance reports, but they all confirm that there’s a reason why it has the reputation of being the rice bowl of the Empire along with Kitezh. Vineta had that same reputation, but…never mind. It would certainly explain the primitive construction of the buildings I see in your Embrace…but that just raises more questions about how you’re here.”

Aloy had no idea what most of what Falke said meant, but she was curious about learning more about this “Buyan” and “Kitezh” place.

“It would take too long to explain, and it is irrelevant to this discussion since you neither look nor sound like a Buyaner or a Kitezher,” Falke said just before Aloy could ask out loud. “If anything, you sound more like a Vineter, if lacking the typically dark skin of one, although I have met Vineter Gestalts who had light skin like you.”

Aloy pouted in disappointment.

Falke frowned down at Aloy. “My apologies for disappointing you…what is your name? I never asked?” she asked curiously.

Aloy grinned. “My name is Aloy! And your name is…uh…,” she tried to remember, but it was as hard as remembering Eule and Star’s full names had been, and it had required her to ask them to repeat their full names multiple times before she could recall them.

“Ah, yes. Replika full names are hard for Gestalt to remember,” Falke said with a solemn nod. “Very well, since you have been kind enough to offer me your name, allow this god to formally offer hers. My name is FKLR-S2301. I am the commander of S-23 Sierpinski, mining colony of Leng, world of the glorious Eusan Nation, which I have sworn to the Great Revolutionary herself to defend from all threats and all enemies of which I have sworn to the same to smite into blood and ashes.”

“Ooh,” Aloy said with a nod, impressed by the long title, even if she didn’t understand most of what Falke said. From the bits Aloy did understand though, she replied: “So that’s why you’re Eule and Star’s War-Chief, just like Sona is for the Nora.”

Falke blinked several times down at Aloy. “I suppose…if that’s the closest concept you can compare me to…but wait, War-Chief?”

“Yeah. You’re like what War-Chief Sona is to the Nora, so Eule and Star said you’re the closest thing they have to a War-Chief,” Aloy explained matter-of-factly.

“But…that means…this EULR unit and this STAR unit are two of my subordinates?” Falke asked in confusion. “But…how? How did they get to Vineta of all places when they were here on Leng? How?”

“Oh, well, the Ghost Woman brought them there,” Aloy replied just as matter-of-factly, prompting Falke to stare at her with wide-eyed confusion before Aloy explained: "See, the Ghost Woman just made them appear in the Embrace after they died in the mines deep beneath their Sierpinski home, but now they’re not dead and very alive. Eule likes cooking, and Star likes eating, and they’re both really like living in the Embrace with me and Rost.”

Falke blinked slowly at Aloy, scratching her head in even more confusion than before…but there was also some relief mixed into that look. “So somehow, two of my subordinates escaped this nightmare,” Falke said, with a smile forming on her face, somehow filled with both happiness and sadness at the same time, but looking a bit more like the former to Aloy. “Hmm, this is good news. I’m glad…but who is this Ghost Woman you keep referring to?”

“Oh, she’s this Forgotten-Touched…oh, wait, Teersa said that was mean to call them that,” Aloy said, scratching her head as she thought. “Oh, Eule said they were called…er…’albinismo’, that’s it! The Ghost Woman is this albinismo woman who brought Eule and Star to the Embrace. Umm, she looked like…well, a ghost. That’s why I called her the Ghost Woman, but…I don’t think she liked that? I think?”

As Aloy tried to remember why the Ghost Woman didn’t like being called that, she heard a sharp gasp come from Falke.

“So…she took pity on them, I suppose?” Falke asked, but not Aloy. Because Falke didn’t stop for Aloy to answer before continuing with a bitter smile: “At least she let some leave. Or maybe it was an accident? Maybe this amused it enough to allow this to happen? Well, no matter. I don’t think it will happen again.”

Aloy tilted her head up at Falke, trying to figure out what she was talking about.

“But that’s no longer important now,” Falke said with a dismissive shake of her head. “All that matters is some of my subordinates escaped, and that’s all that matters. Now though, I wish to know: how did you get here? In this place of all places, where no one should have any right to be?”

Aloy scratched the back of her head as she thought. “I don’t know…er…FLKR…”

“You may refer to me as Falke,” Falke said. “I am the only Falke unit here that I know of, so it will suffice as a name for the time being.”

Aloy nodded. “Okay, Falke. So I just went to sleep in my bed like normal, but then when I woke up, I was lying in this red sand place all the way over there,” she emphasized with a point in the direction she had walked in from. “So I saw this mountain, but I guess it’s not a mountain, it’s a Metal World place, from all the way over there, and so I walked here from over there, and it took a really long time, and I tried to get into this Metal World place, but the doors are broken so I couldn’t get in, and then I heard talking, and so I followed the talking and found you, and I was so glad to see a not-dead person that I…oh! I just remembered why I really wanted to walk here! Be really careful. I think there’s a Grazer herd wandering around and killing people, because I found a whole bunch of dead Replika women lying around.”

Falke adopted a saddened look. “Ah. Those are–”

“They looked like they were all killed,” Aloy continued, interrupting Falke. “Some of them even looked like they were almost torn apart by Grazer horns. So if you see or hear a Grazer, be really careful.”

Falke opened her mouth, but then she stopped without saying anything, and tilted her head down at Aloy. “First of all, I know that a decent number of them were not killed by these ‘Grazers’…but actually, what is a ‘Grazer’? Can you give me any intel about them?”

“Oh, oh, oh! I actually saw a Grazer once!” Aloy said excitedly. “It was from a distance, but I definitely saw it. Here, let me think it for you.”

Aloy closed her eyes again, imagining the sight of that lone Grazer. Even from that distance, she could make it out clearly enough to imagine what it looked like up close.

A Machine standing on four thin legs as tall as Star at the head on the end of its long neck. Taller really, with the two star-shaped horns on either side of its head, able to swing down and spin to cut up grass and other plants. The four canisters sticking its back sloshed yellow-green with Blaze, but its sole eye wasn’t the blue of a calmed and happy Machine. No, it was the red of a Deranged Machine, and Aloy still thought that it sounded like a Deranged Machine on top of that.

She could still hear the eerie howling and wailing sounds the Deranged Grazer made, like a woman screaming but tinged with the distinct steely echoing sound of a Machine, as it charged around, spinning its bladed horns at the Braves fighting it and lashing out with its equally as bladed feet.

“…What is that…thing?” Falke asked in a tone of pure incredulity.

“That’s a Grazer. Rost said it’s one of the smaller Machines, but it was still the biggest Machine I’d ever seen before. It’s even bigger than a Strider,” Aloy said, opening her eyes now. “A herd of them could’ve easily killed a lot of those Replika women, even if they didn’t do all of the killing. Oh, but don’t worry! I got a pistol that I can fight a Grazer with if I have to. See?” she said confidently, pulling out the orange pistol she scavenged from that first dead Replika woman. “The other pistol I got was empty and I never found any bullets for it, so this is the only pistol I have…hey, what’s wrong?”

Aloy finally noticed that Falke was giving her a weird look, with her mouth pressed tightly together, and her entire being trembling slightly.

“Don’t worry, Falke!” Aloy reassured. “Eule and Star taught me how to use a pistol, so I can at least try to kill a Grazer before it could–”

Aloy was shocked when Falke burst out laughing. It was a laugh with a voice that was…somewhere in between Eule and Star in terms of pitch. However, it was also a laugh that Aloy couldn’t discern the reason for, and it annoyed her.

“My apologies! My…,” Falke continued laughing for a few moments more, with Aloy’s annoyance level building all the time, before Falke finally calmed down with a deep breath, and explained: “That’s not a pistol, Aloy. That’s, I believe, a sprayer for construction foam. It is useful for making repairs to severe injuries for us Replikas, but…it is not a firearm, or even a proper weapon in any way.”

Aloy looked down in shock at the orange device that she’d previously thought was a pistol. Out of both curiosity and disbelief, she pointed it at the ground, and pulled the trigger. The sight of white gooey stuff–like something in between honey and mud–emerging out of the barrel with a hiss instead of thunder and fire completely dampened Aloy’s curiosity and further heightened her growing dismay.

“But…now I don’t have a weapon,” Aloy said sadly down at the thing she now knew was a “sprayer”, before returning it back into its pouch and peering up at Falke. “How will I fight any Grazers now? What if one shows up and I can’t protect you?”

Falke stared down at Aloy before shaking her head. “There is no need to protect me. I am a Falke, and I have sworn to defend all citizens of the Nation from any threats. This would include Vinetan citizens, which includes you, little one. Not even one of these ‘Grazers’ will be a problem for this god to smite.”

Aloy stared up at Falke, impressed at both her words and her demeanor. “Do you have a gun? A big one? With lots of bullets to feed it?” Aloy’s eyes then widened as her imagination set out on a lengthy hunting trip. “Or maybe you have a giant bow in your size? A bow big enough to shoot out whole saplings?”

Falke sighed, shaking her head, with a small smile on her face. “Negative. I am the weapon, as my Nation commands. Behold.”

Aloy watched Falke close her eyes, and hold out her hand. For several moments, Aloy was confused when absolutely nothing happened.

“Work. Work,” Falke growled in a strained tone. “Work, damn you!”

It was only after a few moments more that Aloy finally saw something: a glimmer starting to appear in front of Falke’s outstretched hand. The glimmer stretched itself out, like a sparkling point of light extending out into a pole shape. In front of Aloy’s amazed eyes, the pole gradually coalesced into a solid shape, and Aloy recognized the distinct shape of a spear.

It was like no spear any Nora would make though. From blade to butt, it was all entirely of a shimmering metallic yellow color. It was also entirely unadorned. Yes, the shaft had a textured surface for gripping, and the blade was of a shape Aloy had never seen before, like an arrowhead but as if someone stretched it out, but otherwise, there was no decoration on it. Nothing to indicate that it ever belonged to anyone. It was just a weapon, and nothing more.

Still though, it was very impressive to Aloy. Especially given how it came to be.

“Whoa…you just did magic!” Aloy breathed.

Falke had to spend several moments panting, which started to worry Aloy a bit, before Falke replied with: “It’s not magic. It’s just simple energy-to-matter conversion. A simple feat of Bioresonance, and yet this is why I am a–”

“Brave!” Aloy interrupted, hopping up and down in excitement, much to Falke’s wide-eyed shock. “You’re the most incredible Brave to exist! You can make spears appear out of thin air, and I bet you can throw it really far and really hard too! Oh, but it looks like it’s hard work for you to make one, but you can make it without gathering materials and crafting it! No wonder you’re your tribe’s War-Chief! I’ll bet you’re the best warrior in your tribe!”

Falke stared down at Aloy in silence as she continued hopping around for a bit, before she finally calmed down enough to peer back up at Falke, wondering what the tall Replika War-Chief thought of all that.

As a reply, Falke sighed. “I am merely a ‘wonder-weapon’. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“No, you’re not, silly,” Aloy simply said, making Falke stare down at Aloy in shock once more. “You’re a Brave, not a weapon.”

“Yes, I am,” Falke insisted. “My tribe…my Nation commands me to be so.”

“Then your Nation is silly,” Aloy said with absolute confidence, nodding for emphasis, completely unaware of Falke’s mouth falling slightly open in shock. “Anyone can tell that you’re not a weapon like a bow. Bows don’t fire themselves or say anything. When was the last time anyone saw a bow make a promise? Only Braves do that. So, you’re a Brave.”

Aloy finally looked up at Falke to see the tall Replika staring down at her. It took a few moments before Falke finally closed her mouth, sighed, and shook her head. “Fair enough. If you insist that I am a Brave, then so be it. I still know my duty, and that is to defend you along with the rest of my people. Even if I have to do it with just this spear.”

Aloy nodded sagely. “See? Only a true Brave would say something like that. Let those Grazers come! We’ll be ready!” she cheered, holding her orange sprayer up for emphasis. Her gaze then snapped up to Falke. “Come on, you cheer too, Falke!”

A surprised Falke blinked at her, before hesitantly raising her spear with one hand.

“No, no! Higher!” Aloy insisted. “With the spear blade pointing up! Like how Braves are supposed to do it!”

At least, according to how Aloy saw the Braves celebrating when they finally took down that rogue Grazer.

Falke replied to that by rotating her spear 90 degrees, and raising the blade up as high as it would go from a sitting position.

“Like that!” Aloy cheered, holding her sprayer up again. “Whoo-oo-oo!”

Falke blinked down at Aloy. “Do I need to make that…sound too?”

Aloy nodded excitedly. “Yeah! All Braves whoop like that when they cheer! So whoo-oo-oo!”

Falke was silent for a moment, before she hesitant raised her spear once more, and went: “Whoo.”

“No, louder!” Aloy insisted, nay, demanded. “Like you’re cheering over your kill!”

“…Is this not counterproductive to maintaining stealth?” Falke asked with a confused look.

“…Huh?” asked Aloy.

“…Are we not supposed to be quiet if we are being hunted?” Falked clarified.

Aloy’s eyes widened in shock. “Oh, yeah! You’re righ–I mean…you’re right,” she said in a whisper.

Thus, this thread of logic resulted in Aloy sitting up right against Falke, curled up in the smallest ball she could make.

“What are you doing?” Falke asked.

“Being tiny, so that Grazers can’t see me,” Aloy explained, uncurling from a ball briefly to look out at the vast plain of red sand before curling back up. “There’s no foxtail grass anywhere here, so the only way to hide is if I’m hiding behind something tall.”

“…And I’m this ‘something tall’?” Falke asked.

Aloy uncurled to nod up at Falke. “You were thinking the same thing too, right? Because you were curled up behind this Metal World place too? But you were also muttering something, so you were kinda loud.”

Falke sighed. “I suppose…in a way…I am hiding. So that a monster can’t find me.”

Aloy nodded solemnly. “I know, right? Grazers are scary.”

“…Yes, they are.”

Aloy and Falke sat like that for a while.

Eventually though, Aloy found herself leaning against Falke, much to the surprise of both her and Falke.

“Tired?” Falke asked.

Aloy adamantly shook her head. “I just walked a lot to get here, is all.”

“…And on improvised shoes, I see,” Falke pointed out.

“Walking through that red sand was hard, so I made them,” Aloy said proudly up at Falke, even through her tiredness.

Falke nodded down at her. “Good fieldcraft there. You would do an Elster unit proud.”

Aloy giggled. “Thanks…wait…Elster…I think…something about Elster? I think I was looking for someone named that? But…I don’t even know what this person looks like.”

Falke was silent for a moment, before she asked: “Those pouches and that sprayer. Did you take them off of a dead Replika woman?”

Aloy nodded. “Two of them,” she clarified

“Then those are the Elsters you seek.”

Aloy’s eyes widened in shock. “But…they’re dead…but wait, the Elsters have a lot of sisters like how Eule and Star have lots of sisters, right? Are either of them the Elster I’m looking for?”

Falke was silent for a few moments more before replying: “Yes…and no.” Seeing the confused look Aloy was giving her, she continued: “But if that’s the Elster you’re looking for, then she still exists. She always will…so long as she exists too.”

“She?” Aloy asked in curiosity.

“She who will never dance with us again. She–NO!” Falke suddenly shouted, clutching her head.

“Falke?” Aloy asked, worried now.

Her worry ratcheted up even higher when Aloy blinked, and Falke was suddenly replaced by a monster. Something that was even taller than Falke, but with a bare skull devoid of everything but gnashing fangs and a trio of forehead stars that were white instead of red, twisted organs breaking through her shattered midsection, and legs that were bulging with grotesquely overgrown flesh.

And for the barest fraction of a moment, Aloy felt that awful feeling again. The feeling that happened when Aloy had poked Falke in the cheek. That feeling like all of her senses were on fire, and nothing she did could put them out.

Aloy’s first instinct was to flee, but then she blinked, and Falke was back to normal along with the world.

“No, I am not her. I am not this…this Elster,” Falke said through gritted carbon steel teeth.

“Yeah, you’re Falke, right?” Aloy asked, confused both by Falke’s words and by the strange momentary vision of horror.

“Yes, yes, you’re right. I am FLKR-S2301, Falke of S-23 Sierpinski. I am Falke, I am Falke, I am Falke…”

Aloy listened as Falke continually repeated that for several long moments, getting increasingly worried over her new friend.

Fortunately, Falke finally unclutched her head, leaning back against the steel of the Metal World place and panting, before turning to look down at Aloy. “Thank you,” Falke said down at Aloy.

Aloy grinned. “You’re welcome! But…do you want some medicine? I have some hintergold sap in here, I think…wait, no, hintergold sap didn’t work on Eule when we tried it. Umm…ok, how about salvebrush berries?” she said, pulling out her medicine pouch and rummaging through it before pulling out a bunch of small, dried, pink berries. “If you’re injured, then eat one berry, and two or three if you’re badly injured.”

Falke shook her head at the offered berries though. “Gestalt medicine does not work on Replikas most of the time–”

“This one does,” Aloy interrupted. “Eule tried it, and even though it was bitter, it did make her cut better.”

Falke shook her head once again. “And even if it does, what I have…I don’t even know what it is, but I’m certain that it’s not something any medicine can treat.”

“…Oh,” Aloy said with a disappointed look at the dried salvebrush berries in her hand.

“Thank you for offering though,” Falke continued. “I do appreciate it.”

Aloy only nodded silently in reply, putting away her salvebrush berries, and then her medicine pouch. “Is there anything I can help with you then?” she asked up at Falke.

Falke was silent for a moment, and then sighed. “Honestly? Can you let me sleep for a bit? I think rest will help me recover…hopefully.”

Aloy nodded again. “Okay,” she said, before immediately climbing into Falke’s lap.

Falke simply stared down at Aloy, who was sitting almost curled up, feeling the warmth coming off of the black and metallic yellow skin of Falke’s legs.

“Is there a reason why you’re precisely right there?” Falke asked in a very confused tone.

“Well, Eule and Star both said that they don’t have nightmares as much when I sleep with them,” Aloy replied, craning her head back to look up at Falke. “So since you’re my friend, maybe if I sleep with you, you won’t get nightmares either.”

Aloy watched Falke’s upside-down face (from her perspective) blink slowly at her, before sighing. “When did you decide that we were friends?”

“When you told me that pistol wasn’t actually a pistol,” Aloy replied matter-of-factly. “Since you helped me, then that makes you my friend.”

Falke gave a slight smile down at Aloy, but it was a smile that somehow looked sad. “I remember my instructors explicitly instructed me and my sisters in that class that gods were above all worldly concerns, and so any interactions with the common citizen were unnecessary and should be avoided. I presumed this meant friendships.”

“Then your tribe is both silly and stupid,” Aloy said with a huff. “You’re not a god, so you need friends just as much as me…wait, if your tribe told you that you couldn’t have friends…do you have any friends?”

Falke was silent for many moments. Long moments. Moments that stretched out in time as Aloy waited for her new friend’s answer.

“A few,” Falke replied at last. “At least, I’d hoped we were friends. Despite the differences in rank.”

Aloy huffed again, but this time in a much louder volume. “Then that does it! You’re my friend, no questions asked, so you don’t get to guess if you maybe have friends anymore, because you have me now!”

Falke breathed out another sigh, but Aloy now had the pleasure of hearing a small chuckle coming out of Falke’s mouth. “Very well then, friend. Now will you let me get some sleep?”

Aloy grinned up at Falke. “Okay! Good night, Falke!” Aloy said cheerfully before finally curling up in Falke’s lap, resting her head on Falke’s chest…and then quickly switching to her stomach when Aloy realized that Falke’s chest was actually armor like Star’s armor.

Aloy listened to the sound of Falke’s breathing as she slowly nodded off, and then drifted off to slumber altogether along with her new friend.

Aloy was then hit with the strangest sensation.

One moment, she felt like she was sleeping on a bed uncovered, with something poking into her left arm and something squeezing her right pointer finger. All while clutching something she loved in her arms.

The next moment, she felt like she was lying in warm water in a comfortingly familiar sensation, as though she could spend an eternity lying there.

Strangely enough, she almost felt like she was experiencing both at the same time, but that was just silly. How can you be dry and wet at the same time?

And yet, Aloy felt that way, especially as she started to feel like she was being pulled somewhere. Somewhere familiar and warm and safe, with all the good things waiting for her there.

“Thank you.”

Aloy remembered that voice. It was the voice of her new friend.

“For giving this respite, however how brief it was.”

Aloy felt herself holding onto her new friend’s hand, even as she was stretched towards her destination.

“Thank you…for calling me ‘brave’.”

Aloy was happy, and didn’t quite want to let go of her new friend’s hand. And yet…something was ever pulling her harder and harder as time passed.

“Thank you…for everything. Farewell…friend.”

At last, Aloy’s hand let go, and the connection broke as both dreamers returned to their respective dreams.

*

Aloy immediately sat up, stretching out her hand as if trying to grasp something.

All she grasped though was empty air, as she took in the familiar sight of her room on the second floor of the house she lived in with Rost, Eule, and Star through bleary, sleep-filled eyes.

Aloy continued closing and opening her hand though, trying desperately to recall what she’d been trying to grab. Wait, no…it had been someone. Someone named…named…

“Aloy! It’s time for breakfast!” Eule called.

Eule’s voice suddenly snapped Aloy back into wakefulness, and the smell of cooking food scattered her thoughts like rabbits when one of them was shot with an arrow.

“Coming, Eule!” Aloy cried happily as she dashed off towards the ladder back down to the first floor.

Or at least, she tried to. But then she stumbled on something just before she reached that ladder, and tumbled off the second floor.

“Whoa!”

Aloy landed with an "Oof!" on a pair of outstretched arms, and opened her arms to look up into the face of a worried Star.

“That was a close one, kid!” Star said in a relieved tone. “What’s wrong? You’re not usually this klutzy.”

Aloy frowned in confusion. “I don’t know. I tripped on something, but–”

THUNK!

Both Aloy and Star went stiff, and then slowly turned their heads to face the source of that sound, which turned out to be something neither of them ever expected.

A golden spear, embedded blade-first into the wooden floor right up to where the blade turned into shaft.

“Aloy? Star? What was that–” Eule asked as she turned around, only to freeze at the sight before her. “What is that thing…and for that matter, what are those things on your feet?” she asked in a tone of complete confusion.

“…Huh?” Aloy asked in just as confused a tone.

Aloy looked down at where said feet were…and saw something tied to both of them. Something large and black.

“…Wait a second. What the fuck?” Star asked in disbelief.

Aloy could only tilt her head at the things on her feet before squirming in Star’s grasp. “Hey, Star, let me down! I want to see what those things on my feet are!”

Star quickly did so, allow Aloy to sit down and untie the leather straps connecting her feet with the things on it, and finally allowing her to get a better look at them, along with Star and Eule.

“A big pouch?” Aloy asked in confusion as she rotated the things in her grasp, inspecting every bit of both of them.

“Star, aren’t those…Eusan Nation pouches?” Eule asked in just as much confusion.

“Yeah, they are. GTB-2 Large Tactical Pouches, I think,” Star said as she rubbed her chin, before she explained to both Aloy and Eule: “They’re like our pouches, but basically if you made them twice as big, with the pouch being split into two smaller pouches on the inside. But the real question is: Aloy, where did you get these and why were you wearing them on your feet…and Red Eye, why do you have another two on your hip and on your chest?”

Aloy looked up with a start before looking down at where Star was pointing, now finally seeing those aforementioned pouched on her, attached to a pair of black belts crisscrossing her body over both shoulders.

“I…don’t know,” Aloy said, feeling more confused than ever before.

It resulted in Aloy putting down the two large pouches in order to take off the other two on her body, and it was while doing so that she noticed that the one on her right hip felt heavier than the other three. Curious, she opened it up, both metal bits holding the flap closed opening up with a pair of clicks, and looked inside along with Eule and Star.

“Wait, that’s a…Protektor pistol?!” Star said in sheer disbelief.

“Aloy, don’t you dare touch that!” Eule warned.

Aloy froze, interrupted in the process of reaching towards the black Protektor pistol, and allowing Eule to gently reach into the pouch and take said pistol out, before pulling the slide open.

“It’s empty?” Eule said in just as much disbelief as Star was feeling, before thumbing the magazine release to examine that magazine. “No bullets at all?”

That was when Aloy noticed something in the space where the pistol was, and pulled it out. “Eule, there’s another magazine in here…but it’s empty too! There’s also something else in the other side of the pouch…it’s an orange pistol?”

Before Eule or Star could react, Aloy pulled out the orange pistol, careful to keep her finger off the trigger and pointing away from both Eule and Star…and then quickly pointing it at the floor to keep from accidentally pointing it at Rost as he came in from the front door.

“Alright, chores are finished, and now we can…why is everyone standing around Aloy?” Rost asked in confusion at the scene before him. “For that matter, Aloy, what are all of those…things? And actually, why does something smell like it’s burning?”

“Ack, my maizebread!” Eule cried out, rushing over to where her skillet laid on a metal stand over the kitchen fireplace in a bit to rescue their breakfast.

Fortunately, the fried maizebread Eule had been making was still delicious even with one side being a bit burnt, especially with some crispy and juicy fried sausages and roasted spiced rabbit skewers to go with it.

After breakfast was over though, there was much confusion, even more confused explanations, and moving of objects. The result after that was Aloy, Eule, Star, and Rost finding themselves with four big black pouches, two big black belts, an empty Type-75 Protektor pistol with an additional empty magazine for it, that orange pistol, and that golden spear lying on a spare wooden table Rost dragged over.

“So Aloy, you have absolutely no idea how you obtained these?” Eule asked in a tone of incredible confusion.

Aloy shook her head, feeling as confused as Eule sounded. “I just woke up, and all these things were on me. Except for that spear. I tripped over it.”

“And leaving a neat hole in the floor, I see,” Rost commented dryly, before shaking his head. “Honestly, I would’ve suspected that you might’ve snuck out of the house to play in that Metal World place, but–”

“But I didn’t!” Aloy interrupted. “I was asleep all night, so unless I sleepwalked all the way to that Metal World place–”

“Yes, I am aware that’s an unlikely theory based on that situation,” Rost interrupted in turn. “Not just that, but the nature of these objects themselves suggests that something very strange is going on. Eule, Star, are you absolutely sure that all of these objects come from your Eusan Nation tribe?”

Eule and Star both nodded.

“Even this orange pistol?” Aloy asked curiously, staring at the bright orange of that pistol…and thinking that it looked oddly familiar.

The first clue Aloy had that she said something wrong was when Star broke out into guffaws, which made Aloy glare up at her.

The second and final clue was Eule covering her mouth, obviously trying not to break out into giggles. That, Aloy appreciated. She was already getting embarrassed enough over it, and she didn’t even know why yet.

Strangely enough, Aloy also had the strangest feeling…that this had happened before…but she had even less of an idea why.

“To be fair, it does look like a pistol to someone who’s not familiar with it,” Star pointed out after she’d calmed down.

“A little bit, yeah,” Eule agreed after she too was able to calm down. “Needless to say though, this isn’t even remotely close to being a pistol or a weapon. Quite the opposite, really. This, Aloy, is a construction foam sprayer. Specifically, spraying foam made of polyurethane. It’s not only useful for spraying insulation foam somewhere, but also for medical usage…at least, for Replikas. We just spray it into a deep wound, and it works like…hmm…somewhere between a bandage and grafted tissue for us Replikas. That’s why we call it a Repair Spray most of the time.”

Aloy scratched her head, confused by a lot of what Eule said. “But…doesn’t it hurt to just spray this right into where you’re bleeding a lot?”

Eule looked thoughtful. “Possibly? Admittedly, I’ve never been injured enough to warrant the need for a Repair Spray.”

“I have once, when a suspect shot me with some kind of homemade Elstered gun,” Star said, also looking thoughtful. “It did sting a bit at first, but it felt a lot better afterwards, even though I still had to go to the hospital afterwards.”

“And it sounds like it was a good thing you did too,” Eule replied in a worried tone. “Repair sprays seal wounds on a Replika, but it wouldn’t have done anything about the bullet already lodged within you.”

Star did a gesture where she somehow flicked her finger onto the base of her thumb, causing a snapping sound like Machinestone against Machinestone. Aloy thought it was a most impressive gesture. “So that’s why that Eule doctor said that I’d needed surgery. I thought it hadn’t been that bad, but I guess the doctors know best.”

“As Dezember would surely tell you,” Eule said with a prim nod.

“Shirley, you’re not serious?” Star replied, wagging her black eyebrows at Eule.

Aloy started giggling the moment Eule started poking Star in the cheek. “No puns allowed! Especially puns as bad as that!” Eule said in an angry tone that even Aloy could tell was fairly mock.

“So do you want this Repair Spray thing?” Aloy asked, causing Eule to freeze mid-poke into Star’s cheek. “I don’t need it, and it sounds like you and Star do. You know, in case you get hurt really bad? Oh, and you can have that magazine too. You said that you couldn’t ‘reload’ your pistol because you didn’t have one, so with this, now you can!”

Eule smiled down at Aloy. “Those would be very useful in those regards, yes,” she said before cancelling her poking of Star to hug Aloy. “Thank you for giving them to me, Aloy.”

Aloy giggled at the embrace. “You’re welcome! Although, can I have that pistol as a trade?”

Eule looked at the Protektor pistol lying on its side on the table. “But…it doesn’t have any ammunition?”

“I know,” Aloy said matter-of-factly. “I just want it to practice those ‘dry fire drills’ with, and well, if this just appeared out of nowhere, then maybe some bullets might appear out of nowhere too.”

Eule looked thoughtful for several moments, and then nodded in a determined way that had Aloy tilting her head at her in combination confusion and curiosity. “Perhaps since this is a trade, I should trade something to you, yes? So, I propose that as thanks for giving me that Repair Spray and extra magazine, I can make it a proper trade by giving you some of my bullets. Specifically: half of my total available bullets, for a total of 44 bullets you can have.”

Star chuckled. “Rounding up a little there?” she asked.

Well, I can’t cleanly divide 87 bullets in half, so I might as well make up for the trade somehow,” Eule replied with her own giggle.

Aloy barely noticed though. She was too busy hopping up and down in excitement so quickly, she might as well have been vibrating in place. “Oh, oh, oh! Then does mean that I can shoot one right now–”

“No,” Eule immediately replied. Even as Aloy stopped vibrating with a disappointed “Aww”, Eule explained: “I will hold onto these bullets until you are an adult. Until then, you may only fire live bullets under my direct supervision. No attempting to take one when I’m not looking to fire for yourself. Remember, these are weapons and we only have a limited amount of ammunition for them that we cannot rely to just suddenly appear. At least, not like these new items. Understood?”

Aloy immediately stood stiffly, and raised up her left hand, holding her palm out towards Eule just like she’d seen how Eule and Star “saluted”. “Understood!” she said with as much determination as she could muster. “I’ll listen to your words like I listen to Rost!”

“I will assume that you mean when you’re not too excited that the words I say go in one ear and out the other?” Rost asked dryly.

Aloy could only laugh in embarrassment at that. “I will. I promise. To both you and Eule…oh, and Star too.”

Star gave Aloy a thumbs-up. “Thanks for the afterthought save there, kid,” she said with a grin, who received an embarrassed giggle from Aloy in reply.

Rost nodded. “I will defer to the both of you on the matter of these guns of yours.”

“Oh!” Aloy suddenly shouted, before pointing at the four pouches and two belts. “There’s even enough for all of us!” Amidst everyone’s confusion, Aloy continued: “There’s one pouch for Eule, one for Star, one for Rost, and one for me!”

Rost took an askew glance at the large black pouches. “Are these…safe?”

Star snickered. “Rost, those are just polyester pouches dyed black and closed with snap buttons. They’re not going to bite you, you know.”

“I would feel better about that statement if I knew more about this ‘polyester’ you say your clothing and pouches are made of,” Rost replied, still looking suspiciously at the pouches.

“Polyester is just…Machine skin, basically,” Eule explained. “It’s just Machine skin that has been produced artificially by our tribe, made into thin strands, and then woven together into cloth. There’s nothing harmful or dangerous about it.”

“Hmm,” Rost grunted, still suspicious.

Aloy watched as Rost picked up one of the pouches, feeling the “polyester” it was made of, which after touching it herself, Aloy could attest that it did indeed feel as though someone turned Machine skin into thread, and then wove it into cloth. It was a most peculiar feeling, but at the very least, it felt very sturdy.

“I suppose…if this is just going to lie around anyways,” Rost began hesitantly. “Then I might as well take one of these. It could be useful.”

Aloy then picked up one of the black polyester belts and held it up to Rost. “Maybe this too? It’s just polyester too.”

Rost hesitantly took the belt from Aloy, feeling the material before just as hesitantly clipping the pouch onto the belt, and then even more hesitantly pulling the belt over his chest, looping it over his right shoulder instead of his left like how he usually wore his leather, blue-dyed wool, and woven blue Machine wire belt. The result was that if Rost had been wearing his usual belt, this new black belt would’ve crossed it.

“A lovely new look, if I do say so myself,” Eule commented eagerly.

“The very model of the latest in Eusan Nation fashion, I say,” Star added with a pleased nod.

“You look like Eule and Star now!” Aloy concluded proudly.

Rost sighed. “I can’t tell if all of you are making fun of me or not…but at least this belt fits, and feels decently strong as well. I suppose I shall accept it,” he said with a resigned nod, before his gaze turned to the last thing on the table. “However, what about that spear? Is that also something from your Eusan Nation?”

Everyone’s attention immediately turned to that golden spear, lying on the table. Aloy thought it was the prettiest and sparkliest spear she’d ever seen. The fact that the spear blade was of a shape Aloy had never seen before only made that better in Aloy’s opinion…although thinking on it, Aloy did find the spear weirdly familiar for some reason, but she had no idea why.

“To be honest,” Eule started nervously, interrupting Aloy’s thoughts about the spear. “I haven’t seen that spear personally, but…I have seen melee weapons like it before.”

“Yeah, hard to ignore the Falke posters plastered in the various offices, especially that golden sword she’s holding,” Star added dryly.

“I believe you have mentioned this Falke a few times before,” Rost said in beard-stroking thoughtfulness. “You had said that she was essentially your War-Chief. Are you saying that this spear is hers?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure,” Eule said with a shake of her head. “I’ve never seen Commander Falke deploy any of her Bioresonant weapons before.”

“Me neither,” Star added. “None of the prisoners ever got rowdy enough to require Commander Falke to use any of her weapons. In fact, the moment she appeared, every single prisoner just sort of became very calm and peaceful, you know? They all know the reputation of all the Falkes in general, and none of them wanted to test it if they could help it.”

“Umm, weren’t there rumors that the Falkes could…control the minds of whoever they chose to?” Eule asked nervously, possibly the most nervous Aloy had ever heard Eule ask.

“Uhh…honestly, that’s a little above my paygrade to answer,” Star replied in a tone just as nervous. “I can only say: probably maybe not? I mean, I’ve never felt like I’ve been mind-controlled on the few occasions I saw Commander Falke, but then again, I don’t know what being mind-controlled feels like, so…”

“Hmm,” Rost only said in response to that, sounding to Aloy like he was unsure whether to believe Eule and Star or not. “In any case, if this is a spear of your Commander Falke’s, then is it…safe?”

Eule and Star looked at each other for a moment, before looking back at Rost.

“I don’t think we can give you an answer that will satisfy that question. Not least of which is because we don’t know ourselves,” Eule admitted.

“Did it…do anything when you picked it up?” Star asked.

Rost looked down at his hand, opening and closing it, as though he was remembering what the spear had felt like when he pulled it out of the floor and placed it on the table. “It felt…strange. It was hard and metallic like steel, but it felt…warm. Strangely so. As though it had been in the hands of someone who’d just been holding it, even though it had been sticking out of the floor for quite some time. I’ve never felt anything like it.” He then looked back up at Eule and Star. “But to answer your question: no, I didn’t feel anything strange happen to me when I held it, and I still don’t feel anything of the sort now.”

Eule hummed thoughtfully. “I suppose if nothing is happening to you, then it’s probably safe to touch…hopefully.”

“Then can I touch it?” Aloy asked eagerly.

Aloy watched Rost, Eule, and Star all give each other looks. Confused and worried looks passed between all three of them, with Aloy waiting patiently but eagerly for their decision…even if the latter was starting to win at the moment, given how much Aloy was bouncing up and down all the while.

Finally though, all three adults ended up sighing in resignation.

“You may,” Rost said.

“Just a little,” Star added.

“Just be careful, and pull your hand away immediately if you feel anything strange,” Eule insisted.

Aloy nodded excitedly, and so climbed up onto a chair in order to look down on the spear.

Up close like this, Aloy could see the metal the spear was made of: smooth at the blade, and rough at the shaft. All that same pretty color, like the bits of sparkgold the Nora would find on the banks of Searcher’s Course. This spear had a similar shade of shiny yellow to it, but it looked more…pure yellow, was how Aloy could describe it.

Aloy had always liked sparkgold. They were pretty rocks, and Rost had taught her that sparkgold could be used with sparkstone to start a fire if no Sparkers or Blaze was to be had. It was this prettiness that made Aloy want to touch the spear, and it was a desire she gladly indulged.

Despite Rost mentioning it, Aloy was still surprised at how warm the spear was. It wasn’t like the warmth of steel left out in a blazing summer sun, which could get hot enough to burn a curious finger. No, this warmth was indeed as though someone had been holding it just now, giving the spear their life’s warmth.

And yet…as Aloy continued her touch, she could feel something other than the warmth. The spear felt almost…lonely? Yes. Aloy couldn’t explain it, but the spear felt oddly lonely, as though it was longing for a friend to sit with, to speak to, and to play with; all the things someone wanted to do with a friend. It made Aloy want to give the spear a hug, no matter how odd that desire was.

“Aloy?” Eule asked, shaking Aloy out of her thoughts. “Are you alright? You’ve been touching that spear for a while without moving now, and…”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Aloy said, hoping to make Eule not worried. “It’s just that…it’s so weird. The spear feels lonely. I don’t know why. I just feel it is.”

“Lonely?” Eule asked at the same time Star did.

Aloy nodded, unsure how else to explain it.

Rost however, was rubbing his beard in deep thought. “I’ve heard stories before in my youth that weapons that are used a long time by hunters can…take in something from their wielders. Perhaps this spear took in its wielder’s loneliness?”

“Huh, didn’t think you were one for old wives’ tales,” Star commented.

“I would call that an old hunters’ tale, really, since this is something usually discussed between hunters and Braves instead of mates,” Rost replied dryly. “But it’s the only thing I can think of to explain…that.”

Aloy nodded sagely at Rost’s words. Rost was never wrong about these kinds of things, and so Aloy would trust him on that.

“Alright, then this spear won’t be lonely anymore, because I’ll take this spear to be mine!” Aloy declared proudly.

“…Aloy, be reasonable. That spear is well over twice your height,” Rost pointed out just as dryly as before.

“I don’t mean right now!” Aloy protested. “I mean when I’m an adult! I’ll be taller then, so the spear won’t be that much taller than me! It’ll be the perfect spear for when I’m a Brave!”

“…Hmm,” Rost grunted, staring at the spear. “It’s a bit longer than most Braves would be comfortable with, but it could still work if you hold it closer to the blade. It’s sharp enough to cut through the wooden floor like a hot knife through boar fat, so that’s a good blade there. There’s nothing to catch an enemy blade sliding down the shaft though, but that could be solved with some crafting. Hmm…very well, if this is the spear you wish to wield as a Brave, I don’t see any problems with it.”

Aloy gasped in joy, and then start jumping up and down, cheering all the while.

“However,” Rost said, interrupting Aloy mid-cheer. “You still need to train to actually be able to use that spear properly. Perhaps a sparring session would be–”

“Yes, let’s go!” Aloy shouted eagerly, immediately climbing up back to her room to grab her shortened training staff before sliding down the ladder, and dashing out the front door, before realizing that no one had run out with her, and thus, she ran back into the house to shout: “Come on, let’s train!”

Aloy still didn’t know why both Eule and Star giggled when she said that. The only reason she could think of was that they wanted to train just as much as she did.

Thus, Aloy embarked on another day of training, this time with a focus on sparring with Star again. Yes, she hadn’t won a single match out of at least a hundred matches, but that just made Aloy even more determined to fight Star. She was absolutely confident that she will win…one day.

The only thing Aloy did before she started it though was to pop back in and say “Bye, see you later!” to the spear on the table. She had absolutely no idea why she did that, but she felt better after feeling how lonely it was.

And just for a moment before she closed the door, she had a weird feeling that the spear felt a little less lonely after hearing her words.

Chapter Text

By now, a massive group of Nora men, women, and children had gathered around the stage in front of the hall of Mother’s Heart, where an essentially large leather tent roof had been erected over the stage to keep the snow out. In fact, there were so many of them that Eule was fairly certain that a large portion of the entire population of this small village had arrived to be an audience to what was going on.

The “what” in this case being Eule (with Star as her assistant cook) formally introducing ramen to the Nora, and recording the whole experience with her Focus’s video camera-like screenshot feature for Aloy and Rost to enjoy later as well. Starting with the High Matriarchs.

First, Eule brought out some of her ramen noodles from one of her Chillwater containers, premade the day before in a fit of noodle-making all in preparation for this.

Eule had made the dough by slowly adding water with mixture of wood ash (in lieu of sodium carbonate) and salt in it into flour, all the while stirring with a pair of homemade long chopsticks. It had resulted in quite a bit of water needing to be used though. The mix of wild grains (many of which Eule struggled to even identify) the Nora (including Rost) preferred to make their flour out of tasted heavenly, but it required significantly more water to make into soft dough fit for noodle-making than the plain flour she used back in the Eusan Nation did. Once that was done though, she then hand-rubbed it all together to mix the water into the flour properly, and then let it rest before pressing it flat into a sheet.

Then she had undertaken the next step, which was to roll the dough flat with a homemade rolling pin on a floured surface, fold the dough, and then roll it flat again. The process of rolling, folding, and rolling the dough was the most time-consuming step, made even more so by the fact that she most definitely did not have access to a ramen-making machine to speed up the process. It was what it was though, and fortunately, there had been a meditative quality to the process that made it almost…relaxing for Eule.

The very next step after that had been to roll the dough out one final time in a single, long, and very thin sheet, dust it with flour, and then very carefully cut it into very thin strips with her Oseram knife (Red Eye watch over Torvund for its quality) for the noodles. Without a ramen-cutting machine, that had been the most difficult process of the job, and even with her mechanical arms, she was 100% certain that her noodles were definitely not uniform in width. However, the important thing was that despite that, she was also sure that they were still 100% noodles, and that was enough.

That was all in the past of yesterday though, so with that momentary trip down memory lane concluded, Eule was finally ready to make the ramen.

Eule held out a deep wooden bowl to Star, who had been womanning a large Oseram cauldron, loaned by Teersa for the job, filled with boar bone broth. Star fulfilled her task admirably by expertly ladling broth into the bowl.

Next, Eule added a serving of ramen noodles into it. This would give the noodles time to cook a bit while she prepared the other ingredients.

That started with slicing some of her special Rotwurst sausages into the bowl, covering half of the noodles in a semi-circle. Then she chopped up vegetables to complement the meat on the other half of the bowl. Alas, it was the dead of winter, so there wasn’t much growing. What was in season though were greatbulb (which looked like some kind of leek to Eule) and tendergreens (which Eule was almost certain was spinach, or at least a very close relative). However, Eule had another trick up her white sleeves: bean sprouts. All she had to do was just let quite a bit of wild beans sprout out and grow in a cloth-covered clay jar the week before, and now she had bean sprouts to put in with the rest of the vegetables.

She had even gotten a thumbs-up from Teersa for it, since apparently, sprouted grains were already in use by the Nora to make beer. Sprouted beans sprouted expressly for the purpose of eating them in their sprouted state wouldn’t and shouldn’t violate the Nora laws against farming any more than the sprouted grains would.

All this, she repeated three times: once for each High Matriarch, placing a bowl of ramen in front of Teersa, Jezza, and Lansra respectively.

Lastly, she plated smaller Machine armor plates with pickled strips of ginger (dyed red with crimson bloom dye) and Rotkraut as side dishes to complement the ramen. Each High Matriarch received two plates of these side dishes, as per custom in Rotfront ramen restaurants.

And with that done: the ramen was complete.

“So this is the ‘ramen’ we have been hearing about?” Jezza asked curiously as she stared at her wooden bowl full of steaming ramen.

Eule formally bowed to not only Jezza but also to Teersa and Lansra, who were all sitting at a long wooden table, each with a bowl of ramen in front of her.

“For this meal in the depths of middle winter,” Eule began. “This Eule and–”

“This Star,” Star continued from where she stood next to the giant Oseram-made cauldron: one of the last things Torvund sold to the residents of Mother’s Heart, making a bow just as formal as the one Eule was making.

“Presents to you: Rotront-style ramen made with mixed grain noodles, fried and sliced smoked boar sausages, winter vegetables, and optional servings of pickled ginger–er, spiceroot and Rotkraut to accompany the dish,” Eule finished.

As Eule expected, Lansra peered suspiciously at her bowl and its contents. “What is this supposed to be? The only things I recognize are the soup and the greens. What are these string-like things, and these oval things? And for that matter, why would you pickle spiceroot and why are these greens here red? Wait, did you just say that these red greens are rotten? Are you trying to sicken us with your outsider things?”

Eule had to hum a bit, both to buy herself time to think and to steady herself against Lansra’s usual bile before explaining: “These are just foods from my tribe. The string-like food are called ‘noodles’ in my tribe, and are a critical component of ramen. They’re just strings of unleavened dough, currently cooked in boar bone broth. The thin oval foods are just sliced sausage, which is just meat–boar in this case–that has been ground up with salt, herbs, and spices and put into turkey intestine. The pickling helps preserve the spiceroot as well as giving it a palate-cleansing taste, and the Rotkraut is merely vegetables preserved in salt, with herbs and spices for flavoring. Nothing more.”

Lansra opened her mouth, likely to rail against all of the foods Eule mentioned in some way or other. Surprisingly though, nothing came out. Lansra kept closing her mouth and opening it back up, as though she was trying desperately to find some way to criticize the ingredients legitimately, but finding that she couldn’t think of any.

To Eule, it looked like a fish breathing water, and she had to invoke the spirit of Februar in order to avoid bursting out into some very inappropriate giggling.

“Oh, give it up, my strong-willed sister,” Teersa called out, instantly making the object of her insult turn to her instead of continuing to make fish faces at Eule. “It’s just food. There’s nothing you can do or say to make it not food, so why not just enjoy it while it’s still hot, like I am?”

Indeed, Teersa emphasized it by taking her pair of chopsticks, picking up some strings of noodles, and happily slurped them up, chewing with great relish.

“Well, how do you know it’s not poisoned?” Lansra countered.

Eule merely continued making her most polite smile at Lansra, not letting how much she was bothered by the poisoning accusations show on her face in the slightest.

“Oh, stop being silly,” Teersa waved off after she’d swallowed her noodles. “You literally just watched Eule prepare the food in front of you, and then you watched Sona eat a bowl because she insisted on taking the poisoning accusation with some seriousness. Personally, I think she just wanted to try ramen ahead of us, seeing as how she’s on her second bowl by now.”

It was true. Sona was indeed standing there, leaning against one wall of the village hall, eating her second bowl of ramen with a pair of chopsticks that were wielded with surprising skill and delicacy considering that this was the first time Eule had ever seen Sona even pick up a pair of chopsticks before.

“If this was poisoned, I would be dead at least twice over now,” Sona drawled in a tone as dry as Rost’s would be in the same situation, before returning to her bowl of ramen.

Teersa hummed happily letting Sona speak for her as she sampled a bit of the sausage.

Lansra, for her part, returned her suspicious gaze to her bowl of ramen. “It’s still strange outsider food. Not fit for a Nora, in my opinion.”

“I believe I will have to disagree with you on that issue, sister,” Jezza said suddenly.

It was only now that Eule noticed that there were noticeably fewer ingredients in Jezza’s bowl, with a wooden spoon in the bowl explaining what utensil she used to scoop that food up with. When had Jezza sampled the ramen? Eule had looked away for mere minutes at most. Clearly, she’d underestimated the High Matriarch’s eating speed.

“This ramen is an interesting food,” Jezza began. “Combining different foods, both strange and familiar, into a unique combination. The noodles are basically a form of soft boiled bread, while the sausage is simply a new way to preserve meat. Interesting texture the meat of this sausage has though: very light and almost fluffy. This ‘Rot-kraut’ though…why is it sour?” she asked Eule.

“The sour flavor of Rotkraut is due to lactic acid generated by bacteria during the fermentation process in order to…,” Eule began to explain, only to notice the blank looks on Jezza and Lansra’s faces. Teersa was busy eating her ramen, and merely gave Eule a mischievous wink when she noticed Eule looking at her. Eule could only laugh nervously in response before humming as she thought about how to modify her explanation, before she began once more: “The sourness of Rotkraut is because I’ve had to let the vegetables sit in a buried jar with salt for a day or two. It’s basically the same process that makes beer, but for a much shorter time span.”

“Ahh, so it’s essentially pickled vegetables,” Jezza said with a nod. “Interesting that you would use it in a soup though. We would normally eat such things on their own or between sliced bread. Although, I suppose using it in soups with this boiled bread, this ‘noodles’ as you call it, would be what one would call a logical next step to that.”

Eule nodded eagerly at Jezza’s musings. “So does that mean you like it, High Matriarch Jezza?”

Jezza nodded back in reply, if a bit more sedately, and amazingly, smiled at Eule. “It’s a very interesting food to introduce to the Nora. It seems like a rather appropriate food for winter. Indeed, I feel very pleasantly warm from this already. I will give this ramen my blessing.”

Eule beamed at Jezza, giggling in happiness amidst the excited collective “Ooh” from the surrounding Nora. Her beaming gaze then turned to the only High Matriarch who hadn’t sampled the ramen, turning into an eager look as Lansra grimaced at Eule.

“Well, I’ve already given my blessing to this ramen even before this tasting,” Teersa said happily as she gave a mischievous smile at Lansra. “You’re the only one here who hasn’t even tried it yet. Perhaps you have trouble using those chopsticks? I’ll be happy to teach you if you ask for it.”

“That’s not the issue here, and you know it!” Lansra snapped, pointing a finger at Teersa. “For that matter, how do you even know how to use these two sticks?”

“Why, practice, of course! It makes perfect, after all. All those times sampling Eule’s ramen at a private location–”

Eule had to firmly clamp down on the urge to giggle when Teersa winked at her. She knew perfectly well just what this “private location” was. After all, Rost and Aloy lived there with herself and Star.

“–to work out the perfect recipe really did wonders for my chopsticks handling,” Teersa replied cheerfully, clacking the two points of her chopsticks together for emphasis. “Although if your real issue here is the ramen itself, then I can finish that off before it gets cold if you don’t mind?”

Lansra glowered at Teersa before turning her glower at the ramen. “Fine,” she said before taking her spoon, dipping it into the bowl to scoop up some noodles, and biting into them.

Eule watched Lansra chew on the noodles with no small amount of intensity. Her intensity only heightened as she watched Lansra sample the other elements of the ramen, one by one, wordlessly chewing each one carefully before swallowing, pausing between ingredients only to sip a spoonful of the broth.

Eule was further excited by the sight of Lansra sampling some of the pickled ginger/spiceroot, as well as the Rotkraut, even dropping pieces into the broth to stir the flavor in, despite seemingly being disgusted by them earlier. Clearly, the old High Matriarch had some amount of curiosity left in her…or maybe she was trying to see if it was poisoned or not? In either case, Lansra still chewed the toppings just as wordlessly, without a single change of her usual Storch-like frown.

Until at long last, Lansra had an empty bowl in front of her.

Eule looked expectantly at Lansra.

Most expectantly.

So expectantly that Lansra started grumbling like an engine before crying out in frustration, and jabbing a finger at Eule. “Alright, fine! It’s delicious and…arrgh, fine! It has my blessing, so stop staring at me like that!”

Eule felt like she wanted to jump for joy, but that would be most undignified of her. So undignified that she could almost see Februar staring sternly at her, and hear Februar admonishing her for even considering acting in a behavior most unbecoming of a Eule.

So instead, Eule bowed politely to Lansra, and calmly said: “This Eule is most grateful to receive your compliments for the food,” leaving only a hint of the joy she was feeling to flavor her words.

Alas, Star was not so reserved, and Eule let a smile onto her biocomponent face as she heard her lover whoop and cheer. “Alright! We got them all to bless your ramen! Even Lansra!” Star cried out.

Lansra merely grumbled in response, twirling her wooden spoon on the bottom of her empty bowl as she did so.

Eule wondered at that gesture, and with a mixture of curiosity and hope, asked Lansra: “Would you like a second helping?”

Lansra continued grumbling for a few moments more, before finally, in the tone of someone having their teeth pulled out with each word, said: “Yes. Please…and give me more of that rotten greens stuff. Just a bit.”

That last line was what finally made the entire crowd of Nora break into curious and excited discussion as Eule and Star worked to serve up another bowl of ramen and another serving of Rotkraut to Lansra, who accepted it with just as much grumbling as before. Even her request for more Rotkraut was accompanied by yet more grumbling, but it still filled Eule’s biomechanical heart with joy at seeing Lansra dig into a second helping of her ramen colored red with the salt and chili powder-pickled vegetables.

Teersa grinned. “Well, I would call that an unspoken second blessing from Lansra there, wouldn’t you agree, Jezza?”

“I do,” Jezza noted with an approving nod. “This ramen seemed to have stimulated her appetite well enough, so I would say so with quite a bit of relief.”

“Does she not normally have an appetite, High Matriarch Jezza?” Eule asked respectfully.

Jezza slowly shook her head. “This is the first time I’ve seen her ask for a second helping of anything, especially in winter. Her appetite seems to slow down in the cold, and I’ve worried about her weight on occasion.”

“I don’t need you to mother me, sister!” Lansra snapped before returning to her ramen, grumbling along the way.

“Umm, if you like, High Matriarch Lansra,” Eule began. “I can–”

“And I certainly don’t need you to baby me either, you half-Machine outsider!” Lansra snapped at Eule just as angrily.

Eule had to take a moment to take a deep breath and hum a bit to calm down before speaking again. “If you would just let me finish speaking: I can offer to teach you to cook ramen for yourself. It would save you the trouble of having to ask for someone to cook it for you.”

Lansra glared at Eule for several. Long. Moments…until she finally huffed, and grumbled: “Do what you want…but not now. I’m busy.”

Lansra spooning a slice of sausage into her mouth indicated just what she was “busy” with, which was at least something Eule could appreciate along with Lansra’s acceptance of her offer.

“Oh hey, can you teach me how to make that ‘ramen’ too?” a Nora man asked from the watching crowd.

Eule started to open her mouth to answer–

“Oh, teach me too?” a Nora woman asked from the same crowd, just from a different direction.

“Hey, I want to learn how to make those ‘noodle’ things too! They look tasty and fun!” a Nora woman, or rather girl from her looks, shouted excitedly.

“Wouldn’t mind trying to make those ‘sausages’ myself,” another Nora man pondered out loud. “Seems like it’s a nice break from jerky and smoked meat.”

“Hey, teach me about those pickled greens too? I want to see if it’s any better than how I make it,” another Nora woman asked eagerly.

All at once, Eule seemed like she was being bombarded with requests to teach the secrets of her ramen from seemingly everywhere at once. Attempts to reply to even one requester were almost instantly drowned by requests from others. Eule almost felt like she was being drowned under the tide of very eager questions from the Nora crowd. She knows that she should be happy about this, but this was starting to get to be a bit too much!

And that was when a CLAP echoed through the air.

Everyone, including Eule, turned their gazes towards the source of that clap: an irate Star who had almost Bioresonantly materialized by Eule’s side with her hands pressed together just post-clap.

“Alright, that’s enough!” Star shouted in her best officer voice. “One at a time, people! One at a time! Form a line and ask your questions to my Eule one at a time, or else no one gets their questions asked! Understood?!”

Much to Eule’s relief, the muttering among the Nora was quite amiable and agreeable despite Star’s aggressive stance. Even more of a relief was the immediate aftermath, in which the parts of the Nora crowd that were interested in how to recreate ramen themselves lined up. Really, the only daunting thing was just how much of the crowd was now in that long, meandering line, but at least it was a manageable kind of daunting.

The line though reminded Eule of something from her past, just in that short period of time between her birth and her assignment to her new home of S-23 Sierpinski, when her home had been briefly Rotfront. Lines hadn’t been uncommon there. Rotfront couldn’t produce everything on its own, so the lines tended to be for things the moon either couldn’t produce period, or couldn’t produce in sufficient quantities to meet demand. Everything from tropical fruits to the rare recovered Vinetan media that the Nation’s censors deigned to approve for public consumption could all be things that people would line up for, often with a furtive air to them, as if even the approved material could still get them into trouble.

There was none of that with this line though. Every Nora Eule spoke to was quite cheerful about the whole matter of how to replicate ramen, and the atmosphere of the whole line was fairly jovial, with people chatting excitedly with each other even as they lined up for their turn at the questions.

Soon though, it became apparent to Eule that the line format was too inefficient, and so instead, with Star’s help once more, she basically set up an impromptu classroom on the stage, with some very lucky members of the portion of the audience interested in cooking (which to Eule’s surprise, included the familiar faces of Teb, Rana, and Jan) participating directly in the ramen-making process, making experimental batches of ramen for the audience to taste-test.

And if the appreciative reactions from the audience were anything to go on, Eule was sure that the ramen was becoming a hit among the Nora.

Then tragedy struck.

“Uhh, Eule? Our broth is running low, and I think we’re out of boar bones,” Star mentioned, disappointment evident in her voice.

“Already?” Eule said in dismay, before looking over the Nora crowd to see who was still interested in ramen cooking lessons and who hadn’t gotten a bowl yet.

To her further dismay, there was still a substantial number of both.

“On the one hand, I suppose this is a good thing,” Eule said with a nervous giggle, before sighing. “On the other hand, this is my fault. I underestimated the amount of broth that we would need for this.”

“Hold on, did you say you needed boar bones?”

Eule looked up to see the sight of Rana looking at her with a thoughtful look, having been one of the ones who’d been interested in cooking ramen.

“Yes, we do,” Eule began to explain. “The marrow in the bones is the critical ingredient for making a good ramen broth. At least, that was the way Februar taught me.”

“Hmm,” Rana hummed thoughtfully, before asking: “Do you need boar bones specifically, or will any bones do? Jan and I have some smoked turkey bones left over from breakfast earlier today. Will they do?”

Eule hummed thoughtfully herself as she considered it. Technically speaking, turkey bones weren’t a traditional ingredient in Rotfront ramen…but then again, neither were boar bones. The recipe Februar had taught her called for pig bones, and it was just that boar was the closest thing to that available in the Sacred Lands.

But…if that was an acceptable substitution, then why not other bones? Especially if her broth was in desperate need for bones anyways?

“Yes, yes! Please, as long as they’re not gnawed on! If you don’t mind?” Eule asked, perhaps a bit desperately on her part.

Rana laughed. “Relax, it’s fine! We were planning on breaking open the bones to suck out the marrow anyways. This is just a more fun way to do it. Wait here, I’ll go get them,” she assured Eule right before dashing off into Mother’s Heart.

Fortunately, Eule didn’t have long to wait before Rana came back with Jan and even little Minali in tow, with all of them carrying large leather sacks, save for the smallest member of their party, who was carrying a leather sack far more appropriate for her size.

Following them though were even more Nora: apparently the rest of Mother Heart’s population. They weren’t carrying any sacks, but still looked very curious and interested as to what Rana’s family were doing with them, with Eule herself just as curious as to what was inside them.

The contents of the sacks became quite obvious when Rana, Jan, and Minali plopped them down in front of Eule and opened them up, revealing both of them to be full of bones, with bits of raw meat still attached to them.

“That’s a lot of turkey bones,” Eule noted with confusion. “I thought you said it was ‘some’?”

Rana grinned and laughed even more loudly than before. “Funny story there: when everyone heard that you needed bones for soup for this ‘ramen’, everyone just chipped in what they had on hand. It’s not just turkey bones in here now. There’s rabbit, squirrel, raccoon, fox, and even some boar mixed in.”

“Don’t forget the jay, crow, and who know what other bird bones are in there,” Jan pointed out.

Minali nodded for emphasis. Emphasis of exactly what, Eule didn’t have a clue, but Minali was so adorable that she didn’t care.

Rana laughed once more. “True there! All left over from smoking, drying, and everything a Nora could do to preserve them for the winter going on right now. Think this is enough?”

Eule was speechless for a moment before she burst out laughing herself. “Enough? I think I have enough ingredients for broth for the entirety of Mother’s Heart now, and even some left over for a few seconds. Thank you, Rana. Thank you. Now come on! Let’s cut them open and, oh, Star! Can you go fetch us some more water for that broth?”

Star bowed gracefully. “Your wish is my command, my beloved Eule,” she said just as gracefully before running off to do just that amidst Eule’s giggling.

Sometime later, the Oseram cauldron was once more full of simmering broth, skimmed of its scum. Eule carefully put an Oseram-made ladle in, poured out a small measure of broth into a wooden bowl, and just as carefully sipped that broth, with Star and every one of her Nora assistant cooks/students watching excitedly.

Instantly, the rich umami taste of the broth struck Eule’s biocomponent tongue. However, it wasn’t the same kind of umami taste as the broth was when it had been just boar bones, with some chopped spiceroot and even heartleaf root to balance out the gamey taste of the boar. Those herbs had still been added to this broth, but the addition of that veritable menagerie of animal bones into the broth gave it a complex umami flavor that even Eule was struggling to describe. However, she could say one thing for certain.

“It’s delicious,” Eule declared. “Perhaps…even more delicious than boar bones by their lonesome.”

Indeed, Star and the other Nora helping to cook all agreed once they too had a sip, including a very important member of that group of Nora who Eule knew for a fact had tasted the pure boar bone broth before.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Teb commented as he smacked his lips after sipping the new broth. “It does taste better than before. I can’t exactly tell you why, but it does taste better, I think.”

Eule giggled. “That makes the two of us, yes?”

Thus, the new broth, when combined with the rest of the ramen ingredients, was equally a hit among the gathered Nora. In fact, with so much food going around, the atmosphere turned almost festive, with groups of adults chatting amiably with each other and even children running around playing to work off the energy they got from the ramen.

Honestly, if Eule were to close her eyes, she could almost imagine that she was back in a Rotfront Sektor during Mondfest, listening to the sounds of New Year’s festivities playing around her during one of the few moments of each season where the Nation permitted anything of the sort for the people.

But then Eule opened her eyes again to see her current reality…and the sight was far better than even her nostalgia-flavored memories could ever offer her. She supposed that was the magic of All-Mother’s Embrace at work here, which was better than the magic of Bioresonance by far.

“See?” Teb asked, causing Eule to turn to make a questioning sound at his grin. “Told you we would love that ramen.”

Eule giggled before smiling at Teb. “You were right about that. Very much so.”

“Maybe we could try introducing Rotbrezel to the Nora next time?” Star asked. “Might make the bread look a bit more interestingly twisty.”

Teb grinned even wider. “Honestly, if Eule will tell me just how she manages to get that tasty brown skin on her ‘twisty’ bread, I’ll gladly introduce it myself.”

Eule’s smile turned into an excited grin. “Oh, I’ll gladly teach you myself! Just tell me when, and I’ll be more than happy to!”

Teb gave her a chuckle in reply, rubbing the back of his head as he blushed a bit. “Actually, about that.” When faced with Eule’s questioning sound, he continued: “If you don’t mind, is it okay if perhaps…you could teach me to cook like you do? I’ve rather enjoyed your cooking, and it’s making me realize that…I want to try that. Cooking up dishes like you do. I still want to be a Stitcher, of course, but I wouldn’t mind adding Cooker to the list of things I can call myself.”

Eule stared at Teb for a bit, getting more and more excited the more she processed Teb’s words.

Star chuckled. “Going by Eule making that whine in the back of her throat and her bouncing, I’d say that’s a definite ‘Yes’ there.”

Eule stopped what she was doing, very suddenly cognizant of the sounds and actions she was making thanks to her lover. She coughed to clear her biocomponent throat, and hopefully clear the blush on her biocomponent cheeks as well, before replying more seriously: “Yes, I would be more than happy to instruct you on the basics of Rotfront cuisine. Under my tutelage, you’ll be able to cook with the best of us Eules.” Then Eule suddenly thought of something after reviewing Teb’s words. “Although, may I ask something of you as well?”

Teb spread his arms out. “Go ahead. I’m already asking a lot of you. I’ll be more than happy to grant anything you ask for, just as long as it doesn’t involve fighting. There’s a reason why I dropped out of Brave training, after all.”

Eule giggled. “Fair enough there, since my request asks absolutely nothing of the sort from you. I was merely asking if while I teach you cooking, you can teach me how to Stitch as well? I recently had a…reminder that our clothes won’t last forever, and I would like to be able to either mend our existing uniforms and underthings, or sew new ones as needed.”

“Oh yeah, you mean that…well, that?” Star asked.

Eule nodded with a wince and a sigh.

Both were the result of the recent memory of attempting to put on her bra, and then came the click of snapping plastic and a suddenly very uncomfortable jabbing sensation on the underside of her right breast. Removal of her bra revealed that the plastic underwire of that right cup had snapped, rendering the bra more or less unwearable.

Eule supposed that this was an inevitable consequence of cheap plastic combined with over five years of wear and tear, not helped by how much physical activity she and Star have done in this world for nearly a year now. It still didn’t do much for the disappointment at seeing her only bra in that state, and for the embarrassment that she was currently experiencing at having to go bra-less outdoors, with only layers of Nora cloth and Nora leather in between her breasts and everyone else.

Granted, it was plenty enough layers to conceal her breasts’ shape, but still.

“‘That?’” Teb asked, confusion evident in his tone.

“‘That’ would be…er,” Eule trailed off, a blush rising in her face at the thought of trying explain her situation to Teb.

Eule then suddenly felt someone take her by the mechanical hand, and turned to Rana being the one doing it.

“Come on,” Rana beckoned. “Off we go to somewhere a bit more private. Come on, Star, you too. I want to get all the details from you both if need be.”

Naturally, Minali followed after them as Rana led Eule and Star to a grassy area behind the lodge that used to house the Carja and Oseram combined trade mission. Rashaman, Bashid, Torvund, and even Bora were long gone and the grass had long since died off and dried into straw, but at least it was a very private place now.

“Now come on, Eule. What’s getting you all so knotted up that you can’t even tell Teb?” Rana asked in a kind and patient tone.

With but a single sigh of relief, Eule quickly told Rana her tale of her underwire bra giving up its ghost.

To Eule’s surprise, Rana’s reaction was to blink slowly at her for a few moments, and then suddenly burst out laughing.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Rana said in between laughs amidst Eule’s confusion…and growing embarrassment rising up anew.

Fortunately, Rana calmed down enough after a few moments to take a deep breath and explain, still with a grin on her face: “I’m really sorry, but it’s just…I didn’t take you to be the shy type.” When Eule just stared blankly at Rana in even more confusion, Rana continued: “You’re acting like how Minali here acts when she wants to talk about women things, and all because of some small band of cloth that’s supposed to go over your breasts under your underwear? I know I shouldn’t laugh, but well…heh, okay, okay! I’ll stop! Just stop pouting, Eule! You’re going to make me laugh again!”

Eule huffed. She was just annoyed that feminine undergarments was apparently not a sensitive topic among the Nora, even to men. She was most definitely not pouting.

“Well, I mean, in our tribe, women don’t really talk to men about things that only concern women,” Star explained. “It’s just kind of…embarrassing to do so?”

Rana blinked up at Star. “Really? You too? Now paint me surprised to hear that.” Rana then gained a determined look on her face. “Okay, the problem here is that you need a Stitcher for this job, but you can’t talk to a male Stitcher about it? That’s going to limit your choices here, and it sounds like you want the best Stitchers for this, so you can’t afford to be choosy. Not to mention, this is Teb you’re talking about. I know the boy, and you do too. Does he seem like someone who would bully or hurt you over something like this?”

Eule didn’t even need a moment to consider it. She just sighed and replied with a firm: “No.”

Rana’s grin made its return then and there. “Well then, maybe you could try talking with Teb then? Give him a chance?”

Eule then felt a tiny hand clutch her own mechanical one, and looked down to see that it was Minali’s hand doing the clutching. “Do you need me to hold your hand for this, Eule?” Minali asked.

It seemed that Rana’s cheer was as infectious as whatever it was that plagued S-23 Sierpinski. It and Minali’s adorable kindness was the only reason Eule could come up with for why she smiled along with Rana, and replied: “I’ll do that then, yes, and thank you for that, Minali. I appreciate it.”

Thus, the group walked back to the stage, and back to a Teb who somehow managed to look even more confused than before.

“So…did I miss something, or…?” Teb asked in bewilderment.

After a calming hum, Eule proceeded to finally explain her bra problem to Teb, with the Nora boy rubbing his chin in contemplation the whole time.

“Hmm, fascinating clothes, or rather, underclothes you’re describing,” Teb commented after Eule finished her explanation. “Two circles of cloth with a half-circle of hard material sewn underneath them connected by a strip of cloth, and it’s meant for women to wear over their breasts? But…why?”

Eule had to take a deep breath both to try to get over her embarrassment, and because Teb’s question was genuinely making her think about why it was needed. The answer appeared in the form of a memory once in S-23 Sierpinski when in her haste to get to work, Eule had forgotten to put on her regulation bra, and so had to jog to the B7 kitchen braless. The experience had been memorable, but not for any particularly good reasons.

“Well, when a woman has…particularly sizable…chests, then running or even moving fast without a bra can cause them to, er…slap uncomfortably,” Eule managed to stammer out, with only a mild blush on her biocomponent cheeks.

“Ohhh, now that makes sense,” Teb said with a nod. “Okay, leaving that aside for now, what you said about your ‘bra’, hmm…honestly, I think that broken…underwire, you said, might be fixable. Or rather, replaceable.”

Eule was silent for a moment, staring blank-faced at Teb, before she thumped her fist into her open palm in realization. “Oh, you’re right! I can just carve a new underwire out of Machinestone!”

“That…or maybe wood or even bone,” Rana suggested. “Whichever suits your tastes.”

“If this underwire is sewn into the bra though, then you’ll have to cut it open to remove that broken part and replace it with a new one though,” Teb noted with a rueful smile. “I suppose that part is why you want to learn some Stitcher skills.”

Eule merely nodded in agreement.

Teb grinned and held out his hand. “I think we have ourselves a deal then, although I must warn you: I’m still just a Stitcher in training right now. If you want to learn even more about Stitching, then I can introduce you to my teacher.”

Eule grinned back and took that hand, shaking organic Gestalt hand with her own mechanical Replika hand. “If your teacher exceeds you in skill, then I will be more than happy to meet him…her?”

“Him,” Teb replied. “And if he seems kind of sketchy to you at first glance, don’t worry about it. He only likes to seem sketchy for some weird reason. Honestly, he’s one of the more honest merchants I’ve ever met.”

The metaphorical gears in Eule’s biomechanical mind turned as she put those facts together.

Star must’ve done the same thing, because Star chose that moment to ask: “By any chance, would your teacher happen to go by the name of Karst?”

Teb chuckled. “I take it you two are acquainted with my uncle?”

“Your uncle?!” Eule and Star asked at the same time.

“My mother’s younger brother,” Teb explained with a wry grin. “And one of the best Stitchers among the Nora.”

Star whistled. “Man of many talents there, yes?”

Teb laughed. “Surprisingly! And well, he’s a lot nicer than he seems, so I think I can get him to teach Eule a bit of his Stitching skills.”

Eule smiled back. “No worries. We already know that he’s a bit of a Mynah, although given the last time he helped us out, I think some Shards and Machine parts might work to grease the pan here,” she noted, before something occurred to her upon remembering that. “Actually, I wonder if he offered those discounts back then…because we helped Teb?”

“Can’t think of any better reason why Karst would go out of his way to do all that for us,” Star mused, before grinning at Teb. “Guess he must really like you, kid.”

Teb chuckled, a faint blush rising on his cheeks. “Can’t imagine why. I’m just a dropout Brave now trying his hand at being an apprentice Stitcher. Can’t see much there to like.”

“Well, this apprentice Stitcher also Stiches even better than Rost already,” Eule insisted with a smile. “It’s why I’m asking you to teach me instead of Rost.”

“Honestly, I’m still kind of in shock that Rost isn’t good at everything,” Star quipped.

“He did admit that not all Braves are good at everything,” Eule replied with a giggle.

“But he is! Which is why Rost turning out to be not so good at Stitching was like having an Ara pop out in front of your face,” Star countered.

The sudden memory of a thing that used to be an Ara crawling out of a wall vent to ambush Eule momentarily made her freeze in place, and then shudder. “First, please don’t remind me of that.”

Star rubbed the back of her head, grinning sheepishly. “Whoops. My bad.”

Eule smiled and waved off the apology. “Now secondly, Rost did mention that not all Braves are good at everything, and it just seems that his Stitching is…adequate.”

Teb started to nod, and then stopped before he could complete it, before replying: “Yes, that does sound bad. Not that I’ve seen it before, but…yeah, I’ll just stop talking now.”

Eule merely held up a single mechanical digit up to her mouth in reply to that. A Nora talking to an outcast was still a crime after all.

“That said, I’ll be willing to take cooking lessons from you, Eule. Wherever you like to have them,” Teb said, putting extra emphasis on that one word.

Eule giggled in reply to that, and then, feeling a bit naughty, winked at Teb. “I’ll be more than happy to do so, wherever that wherever might take us.”

Eule then felt a familiar Star unit arm give her a hug, and a just as familiar Star unit mouth give her a kiss on her cheek. “I see we have ourselves a budding dissident here,” Star purred.

Eule giggled before planting her own kiss on the mouth that Star kissed her with. “Then that makes the two of us, love,” she purred right back.

Star chuckled in reply. “Wait until I get to dye my hair and do yours up in braids, and then we’ll be proper dissidents together.”

*

“Hmm, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be,” Star muttered, fiddling around with a lock of Eule’s hair all the while.

Eule said nothing, and simply smiled politely. Honestly, Star thought that was the most damning condemnation of her hair braiding skills she could ever get from her lover.

“That doesn’t look like a good braid,” Aloy pointed out with all the brutal honesty of a small child.

“Hold on, hold on,” Star muttered, continuing to fiddle around with Eule’s hair until she was satisfied and announced: “Done!”

Silence greeted Star’s announcement, which immediately proved her previous thought to be utterly wrong. There was indeed something worse than Eule’s polite smile.

Star sighed. “Yeah, I know it sucks.”

“It’s…not that bad, love,” Eule consoled.

Star stared at what she’d created with Eule’s hair: a rough ball of black plastic hair, with strands sticking out at complete random. It looked less like a braid and more like a bizarre tumor made of Replika hair.

“No, it’s that bad,” Star replied with a sigh. “How is braiding hair this difficult? Why can’t it be as simple as hair dye?”

Indeed, a quick look at her reflection in Eule’s mirror, held by Eule herself, showed the locks of her own black hair were now stained the same pale blue color as Rost’s beard, courtesy of a dye made from yet another cliff-loving flowering plant the Nora called “Azure Bloom”. It was just as hard to get as Crimson Bloom, but it made just as lovely a dye for many things, including hair.

Now if only the ease of just rubbing the dye into her hair could be transferred to making lovely braids of her beloved Eule’s midnight black locks.

Star then heard a cough from behind her, and turned around to look at Rost, who had been sitting on a chair and watching the whole affair. Judging from all the beard rubbing he was doing coupled with his intense gaze, he had just as low an opinion of Star’s braiding skills as Star did.

“Star, Eule,” Rost began. “Would either of you mind if I braided Eule’s hair first, with you, Star, watching so that both of you can learn how to braid hair the next time?”

Star looked at Eule, who looked at her in turn. Star shrugged by way of reply to Rost’s suggestion. Eule thought for a moment before nodding as her reply to the same.

A bit of movement in the bottom of Star’s vision revealed that, amusingly, Aloy was nodding along with them, as if agreeing along with them that Rost’s help would be of, well, help here.

Thus, Star turned to Rost and said: “We’re up for it, yeah.”

“A demonstration would quite useful here,” Eule added.

Rost nodded as his reply before getting up and stepping towards them, stopping just before getting in between Star and Eule.

“Star, move over a bit so that I can work and you can watch. Here, just to my right,” Rost instructed.

Star did so, watching in nervous trepidation as Rost grimaced at Star’s attempt at braiding Eule’s hair. The only thing that reduced that nervousness was Eule right in front of her, and Aloy right next to her, hugging her upper knee.

“First though, I will need to undo what you have done, Star,” Rost said with a sigh before getting to work, tugging at misplaced locks of hair to undo the chaotic jumble of knots Star made in Eule’s hair.

Star gave a nervous laugh, feeling no small amount of remorse for getting something as theoretically simple as braiding hair wrong.

“Honestly, I’m genuinely curious as to how either of you can’t even braid hair,” Rost commented as he worked. “Did neither of you ever braid your hair before? Did none of your sisters teach you how?”

Eule hummed, and it was a slightly stressed hum judging by the tone. Star could tell.

“Not really,” Eule admitted.

“Mostly because we weren’t allowed to,” Star added.

Rost raised an eyebrow even as he worked. “Your tribe doesn’t allow you to braid your hair? Why?”

Eule hummed some more, and Star could tell that it was even more stressed just from the tone. “It’s somewhat complex to explain in full, but the simple answer is that hair braiding is against regulations regarding Replika hairstyles.”

“It’s basically one hairstyle per Replika model,” Star added with a sigh. “No more, no less, and if you go against that one allowed hairstyle, then you risk the Nation labelling you as having a ‘degraded persona’. I mean, sure, it’s probably not likely that the Nation will do that just by having a slightly different hairstyle than the norm, but well, no Replika wants to risk being Decommissioned over something like that.”

Rost’s eyebrow once more rose up. “That word again. I’ve noticed that you two seem to use that same word, but in two different ways: ‘decommission’, and then ‘Decommission’. Such a strange word to use to reference yourselves, and I keep getting ominous feelings from the strange emphasis you put on the latter. So if I may ask: what do they both mean?”

Eule hummed yet again, and this time, Star could tell this is one of the most stressed Eule has been in a long, long while. Star responded to that by reaching down, and taking Eule’s hand, currently glovelessly black. Eule squeezed Star’s hand in comfort…and then Aloy added her own tiny organic hand to the pile, gripping with a determined yet worried expression on her equally as tiny face.

Star chuckled at that, giving the kid a warm pat on her head, with Eule giggling at the series of events, much to Star’s relief.

Thus, with that worry resolved, Star watched Eule take a deep breath, and explain to Rost: “You’re right. The meanings of that one word does change depending on the context. The form of the word without that emphasis on the ‘a’, or rather, ‘d’ in your language, refers to a Replika succeeding in working off their Nation-mandated Commission, and becoming a free citizen. The latter though is a euphemism. That is to say: it’s an inoffensive way of referring to a Replika being taken out of service…no, my apologies. That too was a euphemism. If I have to be blunt here: it refers to a Replika being put to death.”

Rost’s hair unbraiding efforts ceased, and his eyes narrowed down at Eule. “Put to death?” he asked incredulously.

Star grinned without a trace of humor, taking her right hand and making a finger gun, before pointing it at the side of her own head, and finalizing Eule’s explanation with a simple: “Bang.”

Rost’s mouth hardened into a disturbed line. “Your Eusan Nation tribe would put you to death…simply for braiding your hair? Is your tribe insane?”

Star looked up at the ceiling, staring at the roof of straw and mud braced by wooden supports that she and her Eule have lived in for about a Rotfront season now, and have come to love. That roof of materials taken from the verdant earth seemed to represent everything about the Embrace that the Eusan Nation wasn’t.

“Honestly, I’ve wondered that myself during my time as an officer of the law in Rotfront,” Star wondered, before lowering her gaze to look down into Rost’s eyes. “Not sure if I can use the word ‘insane’ to describe the Eusan Nation. That would imply that, on some level, the Eusan Nation is unaware of all the fucked up shit it’s doing to its own people. As a STAR unit who enforced the Nation’s laws for…Red Eye, has it really been 6 years that I was an officer in Rotfront Block Sektor C?”

A memory flashed into Star’s mind, clear and vivid, of a particular arrest she had made in Block Sektor C during her sixth year as a Protektor there. She had been a young Gestalt girl, no more than maybe…11, 12, or 13 seasons old? Star had caught her drawing graffiti on a section of concrete wall that hadn’t been covered by the seemingly innumerable motion-tracking security cameras. She had just meant to tell the girl off with a lecture, but then the girl had fled.

That was a crime in of itself to flee from a Protektor, but then as Star had given chase and ran her down, the girl pulled out a…calling it a “knife” would’ve done far too much service to it. It had been just a small screwdriver, with the tip sharpened to a point to make a shiv…if you didn’t mind that the shiv effectively only had a two-centimeter long “blade”.

It certainly hurt…or at least it would’ve if the girl had any aim whatsoever. Instead, she’d swung and missed, and Star had quickly snatched the arm holding that shiv, and then forced it out of the girl’s grip.

Star had no choice at that point. She had to arrest the girl for attempted assault of a Protektor with a weapon, but she had also been curious as to why the girl would make it so much worse for herself like this, so she had asked the girl “Why”.

The girl’s answer shocked her. The girl replied that since she was going to die just for drawing graffiti, then she might as well take at least one “dog of the Nation” with her too.

Star had been shocked, but had laughed it off and even joked about it. Even leading her by her hands all the way to the local station, she’d tried to console the girl that she wasn’t going to be Decommissioned just for drawing some stupid graffiti on a wall somewhere. She’d just be given some time off for a few hours in a cell, and then she can go home. That was what was according to the Nation’s own laws, and that would be the end of it.

And then shortly after that, when she’d looked up the girl’s file in the National database via her PKZ number, Star discovered that the girl had not been given what Star had promised according to Eusan Nation law. Instead, she had been sentenced to 10 years of hard labor at a Sierpinski colony. The reason? She had been found guilty of “counter-revolutionary activity”.

“Counter-revolutionary activity”? The girl had just been drawing graffiti on some wall. Star had seen it herself. It had just been some blocky, spray-painted letters that said “Fuck you, pigs”. It was just the words of some angry kid. Not even remotely deserving to be called “counter-revolutionary activity”…and yet, she got 10 years just for that? Where was the justice in that? Was the Nation really so afraid of a little kid that they would sentence her to hard labor and possible death just for some graffiti?

All those questions and her investigating them had eventually led Star to be reassigned to S23 Sierpinski, but the memory of that kid still remained with her.

“But yeah,” Star said when she emerged from her memories. “I would say that it feels like the Eusan Nation is more evil than insane, just more concerned with grinding down its citizens into weapons and tools to toss away after they break than with doing anything actually good with their laws. Heck, when they can sentence a little girl to 10 years of hard labor in a Sierpinski colony for drawing on a wall, then you know that the Nation is fucked up beyond repair.”

Rost made a slight frown and huffed a disapproving sound before returning to his task. “It sounds as if you disapprove of your tribe just as much as I do,” he commented as he worked.

Star barked out a laugh, devoid of any humor but the dark kind. “Now that’s putting it mildly!”

Even Eule grimaced and then carefully nodded. “I’m afraid to admit it, but…our Nation does seem to be going down that path, yes.”

Star looked down at the sound of disapproval coming from Aloy. “Your tribe keeps sounding more and more horrible every time you say something about them,” the kid proclaimed with a decisive nod. “If I get the chance, I’m going to go up to this Great Revolting High Matriarch, and kick her in the crotch, and tell her what a horrible High Matriarch she is.”

The image of Aloy doing just that played through Star’s mind like a video cassette tape playing on a TV, playing the Eusan Nation’s most shockingly funny movie of all time, and Star couldn’t help it. She just burst out laughing, patting Aloy on her head the whole time.

“Good one, kid!” Star managed to get out in between laughs. “I would pay Rationmarks to see that!”

“Star, don’t encourage Aloy to assault High Matriarchs, er, National leaders, er…you know what I mean,” Eule protested, if a bit weakly.

“I mean it,” Aloy insisted with another firm nod. “It sounds like your Eusan Nation tribe is even worse than the Nora.”

That made Rost twitch just enough for Star to catch it. “Aloy, our tribe isn’t that bad,” Rost insisted.

“It is to me,” Aloy insisted right back.

“To be fair, your tribe did make Aloy an outcast when she did nothing that could be reasonable grounds for that sentence,” Star pointed out.

“…This is not a normal application of the outcast law,” Rost countered.

“But the Nora did apply it here, and unjustly so,” Eule countered in turn in continuation of Star’s argument, a fierce light in her normally calm blue eyes. “Unless you’re going to argue now that it’s reasonable for a baby to be made outcast?”

There was a few moments of silence from Rost as he froze in place, not even working anymore as he paused in thought. Finally, he sighed and continued his undoing of knots, saying: “I’m not. This is an unjust application of the outcast law. I can’t deny that, and remain in good conscience.”

Star responded to that in what she thought the most appropriate way possible: by patting Rost on the shoulder. “Welcome to our merry band of dissidents, comrade Rost. Together, we will counter the counter-revolutionary oppression with our own counter-counter-revolutionary rhetoric,” she said in the most dramatically serious tone she could muster.

“…Truly, Star, you and Eule sometimes sound utterly and completely incomprehensible,” Rost said with a sigh and shake of his head

All amidst the sounds of Eule giggling, which was a delight to Star’s biomechanical ears.

“I do understand your sentiment though, and I thank you…I think. Now then though, just one more tug, and…done. Now I can properly braid Eule’s hair,” Rost finished proudly, before staring at Eule’s locks, now back to what was more or less a EULR standard hairstyle. “Although honestly, with such short hair, braiding it is going to be a challenge. I still find it amazing that you Replikas can’t grow your hair out, but I also can’t deny that in the nearly one year I’ve known the both of you, neither of you have so much as grown a centimeter of your hair.”

Eule nodded with a mournful sigh. “Such is the inorganic nature of our hair. In your language: it’s basically just very thin strands of Machine skin. And no, for various reasons, we can’t make more of it. It doesn’t fall out either though, so there’s that at least.”

“I suppose that’s why I never found any black hairs in my bed after I cleaned it,” Rost commented, before nodding to himself. “Still though, Eule, I believe I can make your hair work in terms of braiding. This, I will show you.”

And show Eule he did, along with a fascinated Star and Aloy as Rost got to work.

First, he plaited the two locks of long hair on either side of Eule’s face with the slightly shorter hair behind it in an alternating pattern until he ran out of shorter hair to braid with.

“Left, right, left, right, one over the other,” Rost instructed as he did so.

Then he took a pair of dark brown wooden beads out of a small box he’d brought with him, and inserted them into the longer locks sticking out until they reached the base of the braided section, effectively sealing the braid in place.

“You can also use string or wire to tie off the braids if you wish,” Rost added.

Then amazingly, Rost managed to take the shorter hair on the side and back of Eule’s head, and braided those as well. They were very short braids, true, but they were braids nonetheless, into which he also inserted beads of white bone and blue-dyed Machinestone.

The result was that Eule now sported a grand total of six braids hanging from her head, each adorned with three pairs of different types of beads as decoration. Something that was most definitely not EULR standard hairstyle, but was most definitely very pretty and eye-catching in Star’s book.

“There,” Rost said with a satisfied nod as he stepped back.

Star watched as Eule used her mirror to carefully examine her new braids, her facial expression slowly morphing from astonished to a grin of utmost delight that warmed Star’s biomechanical heart and made it flutter anew.

“It’s perfect, Rost,” Eule said, with the delight on her face reaching her voice as well. “I can’t thank you enough for showing me how to do this. For showing us how to do this.”

Rost merely nodded. “Now hopefully, you two will be able to braid your own hair, with practice, of course.”

“Oh, oh! Maybe you can practice on me?!” Aloy suggested, hopping up and down in place.

Eule and Star both looked down in surprise at Aloy.

“You still want me to practice on you, kid?” Star asked with a self-deprecating grin. “You saw how much of a mess I made of Eule’s hair, yes?”