Pushing her mount to the limits, it only took Aloy a few minutes to leave the greenery behind and return to the wasteland. Part of her still held curiosity about what Brin and Kryse had said about the ancients poisoning the area, but she didn't have the brain space to wonder about it; with more herbs in her medicine pouch, there was nothing to distract her from the incredible, almost unthinkable idea that she would soon find her mother. As dead dirt kicked up under the hooves of her Broadhead, the wind tossing her hair, all she could think was, Sobeck Ranch. Elisabet, are you really there? Am I about to find you?
Unfortunately, the encounter with the Deima had taken up more time than she'd thought, and soon, it was getting dark. She tried to ignore the fading light, and protested when Nil called to her that they needed to find shelter and sleep, but as desperate as she was to see her mother's home, she knew she couldn't be foolish about it. A river ran north through the wastes without a scrap of greenery along its banks, but she gave Nil the cloaking module after setting it to "HIDE" when he took watch; between that and her armor, they didn't need shelter quite so desperately, beyond their Broadheads.
Dawn had her on her feet again, after maybe two hours' rest; Nil didn't even have to wake her, she was up as soon as there was light in the sky. Half of the time she had been supposed to be sleeping while Nil was on watch had been spent playing and replaying that audio log she'd found in Elisabet's room in GAIA Prime anyway, going over and over Elisabet's wishes for her hypothetical daughter. She couldn't help it - sleep couldn't come easy, not when her mother was so close. Turning her mount north once more, she kicked and kicked, driving it to go as fast as it could and wishing it could go faster, single-minded in her drive to see the woman she'd been created from. It was all she could do to tap her Focus every now and then to make sure they weren't charging into a Deima ambush, but luckily, she managed to check right before cresting a rise and plunging straight into a herd of Machines. Noting the blue lines illuminated by her Focus, she pulled her Broadhead to a stop, her breath coming hard.
"What is it?" Nil asked from beside her.
"Machines," she replied. "Sawtooths, and Watchers." She looked left, to the dead river, then right, towards some spindly trees. "No going around them, not if Sobeck Ranch is straight ahead…Guess there's nothing for it."
"You can count on my support," Nil assured her.
Aloy nodded at him, took a breath, then kicked her mount, sending it charging over the rise, already drawing her spear.
Immediately, the Watchers and Sawtooths turned on her, maybe five Machines in total, but she'd faced worse. Timing herself carefully, she leapt from her mount to plunge her spear into a Sawtooth's back, hitting it where it hurt, not enough to take it out but getting a fair amount of work out of the way. Dodging back around the Watcher she'd passed, she swung her spear at it; it didn't go down in one hit, meaning it was a Redeye Watcher, but that was no real obstacle. Arrows flew into the battlefield from behind her as she dove out of the way of two Sawtooths coming for her at once, and two of the Machines were already on their last legs; it looked like the battle would be relatively quick.
Suddenly, a bolt of energy hit her hard, enough to completely knock out her armor. Confused, she looked around quickly as she drew her Blast Sling, and an incongruous glow caught her eye, informing her that she'd miscalculated.
"Stalkers!" she shouted as she dove out of the way of the next shot. "Nil, be careful!"
Whether or not he heard her wasn't something she could take a moment to be sure of; the fight had just gotten a lot harder.
Spear, bow, Blast Sling, Icerail, Forgefire; Aloy attacked with what she could, trying to keep out of harm's way given that she didn't have medicine to spare, though with Stalkers and Sawtooths charging her from all sides, that was almost a fool's errand. Not wanting to deplete her herbs, she took shots of animal extract when needed, healing her body quickly but messily. It was impossible to keep track of what was going on, and she didn't try; she just focused on blasting the Machines around her with everything she had. There were two dead Watchers, two dead Sawtooths, and a dead Stalker on the field when she realized her Broadhead had been felled as well, and when she had a split second to catch her breath and glance at Nil, she saw he was on his feet, firing at what she had to assume was a Stalker, his own Broadhead likewise destroyed. Gritting her teeth, she lobbed a bomb at the last Sawtooth, and it collapsed, leaving her to focus on the elusive bastards she hadn't known were there from a distance. The way they ran around while virtually invisible frustrated her, but she wasn't going to stop here, not when they'd almost broken through.
A few more blasts from her Forgefire, and the second Stalker was down. Nil was still contending with his enemy, but the sparks that flew out of thin air told Aloy he'd almost felled the beast. Drawing her bow, she nocked two precision arrows, took a moment to aim, and let fly; with a roar and an explosion of lightning, the Stalker keeled over, finished.
Then there was silence, save for the sparking of the carcasses littering the dead land.
Panting hard, Aloy put her weapon away, taking a few more shots of animal extract as her armor finished recharging. "You alright?" she called to Nil.
"I'm fine," he assured her, though he sounded equally winded. "That…could have gone better."
"It could have gone worse, too," she pointed out, jogging over to him and handing him a bottle of potent animal extract. "Here, use this."
"Thanks," he told her, taking the healing potion gratefully. After he drank it, he added, "But you need to stop wasting your medicine on me."
"There are animals out here, these are easier to replace than herbs," she responded, but she was already turning away from him to assess the battlefield, her mind catching up with what had just happened. Curious about something, she tapped her Focus and brought up her map; they were outside the range of the Tallneck's data, but even with what it had detected in her immediate vicinity, the nearest Machine site it knew of appeared to be a little ways away.
"…Something wrong?" Nil questioned after a moment.
"Stalkers, Sawtooths, and Redeye Watchers, but no Machine sites here according to my Focus," she said softly, only partially speaking to her companion. "I've seen this mix of Machines before…on the way to the ruins of GAIA Prime. Sylens said they'd converged there to protect it…" She shook her head. "Were these Machines…protecting Sobeck Ranch? If the Machines know to protect the remains of GAIA, then…maybe they know to protect Elisabet's remains, too…"
"I'd say you're attributing too much significance to a cluster of Machines," Nil shrugged. "But, you're the expert."
Aloy shook her head again. "I guess it doesn't matter," she admitted; "we already knew we were getting close. The only problem now is that we don't have mounts anymore."
"We can go on foot," he pointed out.
"I'd rather not, out here," Aloy responded. "Not in Deima territory; we want to get in and out of this region as quickly as possible." Hoping against hope, she tapped her Focus and brought up her map again - even beyond the Tallneck's range, sometimes her Focus was able to sense possibilities of nearby Machine sites before she found them, and to her relief, when she checked the icon in the direction of the spindly trees she'd noticed earlier, her display told her it marked a Strider site. "Striders," she sighed. "Not ideal, but they'll do." Dismissing her display, she turned to Nil. "Start stripping these Machines for parts, I'll go get us new mounts," she told him.
"I'm on it," he nodded, already turning for the destroyed Stalker to his right.
Aloy jogged around the shattered Machines in the direction her Focus indicated. The little copse of dead trees was edged on the far side by tall grass, the kind she was used to hiding in; just beyond that, she could barely make out the sight of blue lights: Striders, and two Watchers.
Watchers, she thought, diving into the tall grass. Damn…last thing I needed right now, if I want to override two of these Striders. Eyeing the herd carefully, she tried to calculate her strategy. The Watchers had to go, that much she was sure of; she tapped her Focus and scanned them to find out if they were Redeye Watchers, but they weren't, which was a small relief. Nocking a precision arrow carefully, she took aim, concentrating hard, and fired; it fell almost silently.
"Sorry," she told it softly; "couldn't let you call for help."
The other one went down just as quickly; by now, the Striders were suspicious, but Aloy kept her breathing calm as she waited for the yellow lights to turn back to blue. Once the herd was passively grazing again, she let out a low whistle, drawing the attention of the nearest one. It walked over to her curiously, and once it was close enough that she could override it without breaking cover, she drew her spear and jammed the module against its chest, quickly taking control of it, the blue cables of the override process snaking along its neck. When it was hers, she took one of those cables and led it through the grass, away from the herd, before the hostile Machines could register that something was amiss. Hiding her quarry away among the near-dead trees, she went back to the herd and drew another out, overriding it easily, and this one she climbed onto before riding it over to the other, taking hold of a cable, and leading both back to where Nil was still harvesting the small army they'd had to deal with.
"Any trouble?" he asked when he saw her approaching.
"None," she replied, dismounting; "I was able to get these without a fight. There are a couple of dead Watchers, but they're not worth the risk of harvesting when I can still avoid having to kill the rest of the herd."
"I'm almost done here," he informed her. "You need to teach me how to be more efficient at this, though; I've done my best to be careful not to break anything we could use, but it's taken a while."
"Another time," she told him, crouching down beside a Sawtooth he hadn't gotten to yet. Only practice kept her from making a mistake, her hands were shaking so hard as she started gutting the dead Machine.
Were you protecting Sobeck Ranch? Are we really close?
When they'd taken as much as they could, Aloy got back on her Strider, and Nil took the other one, following her as she kicked her mount into a trot, then a sprint, headed north. A few minutes later, they crested a hill, and were met with the distant sight of a patch of trees, living trees, among sand and old ruins.
Her heart pounding in her chest, Aloy pulled her mount to a stop. Kryse had said Sobeck Ranch was a patch of life in the wasteland…
"Is that it?" Nil asked.
"Must be," she breathed, feeling dizzy.
For a moment, she just sat there, staring at the place that could very well have been the home Elisabet wanted to return to after sacrificing herself to ensure Zero Dawn wouldn't fail, her breath coming hard through the constriction in her chest. Could Elisabet have really made it this far? Was there even a chance she was actually there? It was overwhelming, for Aloy to think she'd really found her mother, her entire being a confused, painful mix of terror and desperate longing at the sight.
"Go on," Nil said at last. "I'll wait here for you."
Blinking, she turned to him, unable to ask.
He flashed his teeth at her. "Family reunions aren't really my scene," he shrugged. "Between the cloaking module, the bottles of night bloom, and that coat you bought off Kryse, I'll be okay even if the Deima come for us…in fact," he added, his grin widening, "so much the better if they do. I'll make sure they don't interrupt, so take your time."
Aloy swallowed hard around a hard lump that had formed in her throat.
"Go on," he urged her again, gently, and his expression went oddly soft. "Go be with your mother."
Unable to speak, Aloy nodded, and kicked her mount once, sending it into a slow walk - she thought she might pass out at any moment, and she didn't want to fall off a running Machine if she did. Every step the Strider took made her more and more tense as slowly, slowly, she approached the patch of life in the middle of the wasteland.
By the time she got there, it was almost dusk, but she couldn't make herself go faster. Tall, leafy trees surrounded a little cluster of ruins, and as she got closer, she noticed an archway emblazoned with an old metal sign that stood right on the edge, like an entrance. Swallowing hard, she approached it, until she was close enough to make out the remains of words in ancient glyphs where the sign hadn't rusted into oblivion.
"_ECK R_"
There could be no doubt.
Drawing the deepest breath she could manage, she slid off her mount, unable to walk for a moment as she stared at the sign. Then, slowly, slowly, she walked across the threshold. On the other side, the land was covered in thick, vibrant grass, butterflies flitting about here and there, the sound of birds and insects welcoming her out of the nothingness. It felt like…a special place, a shrine of sorts. Aloy almost felt like she was intruding, and yet she knew this place was hers. Home, in another life.
After taking a minute, she kept walking, venturing further, and she noticed a line of purple flowers, like the ones that usually surrounded the metal flowers created by the awakened DEMETER. These were in a triangle as well, and they surrounded a bench, the back of which was to Aloy…and over which poked a profile she half-recognized.
Dizzy, unable to draw a good breath, she walked around the bench, and there, covered in vines, she found the same suit Elisabet had been wearing in her last transmission, when she'd told the Alphas she wanted to go home.
Mother? Is it…really you? She couldn't speak the words.
Approaching the body, Aloy's eyes burned, and she placed a hand on the old suit, pushing away some of the vines, examining it. Touching her fingers to the left of where a person's sternum would be on the figure, she suddenly triggered a display of light, visible only thanks to her Focus:
"DR. E SOBECK"
Her breath, already coming hard, stuck fast in her throat. Lifting her gaze to the helmet, she put a hand to her Focus, needing to know if there was in fact a body in there, the body.
Slowly, her Focus constructed an image of the face behind the shield…a face that looked a lot like her own, but older. Elisabet's eyes were closed, her expression peaceful.
It was really her.
Aloy's eyes blurred, and she pursed her lips against the urge to sob, overwhelmed. She made it home. She really made it home, just like she wanted.
Straightening up, Aloy caught sight of something cradled loosely in the body's right hand. Carefully, she grasped the little object and lifted it up to her eyes, examining it. It was a small globe, patterned with green and blue, a thick metal ring around it; Aloy couldn't be sure, but the patterns looked familiar. It looked like…a map of the world, as seen from far away.
A totem of everything Elisabet had stood for, loved, given her life for.
Clasping the little globe in both hands, Aloy brought it to her heart, clutching it tightly, turning her face to the sky, which was just turning pink, before allowing her eyelids to slide shut. For a long minute, she just stood there, letting all the emotions wash over her, unable to do anything but feel. After everything that had happened, Elisabet had made it home, and now the world itself was honoring everything she'd done to save it. HEPHAESTUS guarded her, DEMETER and ARTEMIS surrounded her with the life she'd given everything to ensure would one day blossom…it was a perfect crypt and monument to the woman who saved the world.
The woman Aloy had been born to reflect.
Eventually, she managed to open her eyes again and look to Elisabet. She couldn't go without speaking, saying something. It was like being at Rost's grave; Elisabet was here, and she deserved to know.
"Mother," she rasped softly.
A warm breeze stirred the tranquil patch of land.
"You…you did it," Aloy managed, choking slightly, and she cleared her throat. "It worked, it really worked. Zero Dawn was a success; the world is full of life, of people. You…you didn't die in vain. The world is alive…because of you." She swallowed hard. "But, um…so, you remember how Ted Faro seemed so uncomfortable the last time you saw him, like he couldn't look you in the eye? It was because…he thought the knowledge contained in APOLLO was a disease. One he didn't want the children of Zero Dawn to suffer from. He…he destroyed APOLLO, Elisabet. And then he killed the Alphas, so they couldn't rebuild it. The people of this world…they know almost nothing of your world, your time." She shook her head. "But the rest worked! Everything Ted Faro didn't destroy, it all worked, Elisabet. And…we make do. Some of us even…find ways to recover bits of the past without APOLLO."
The stinging in her eyes grew stronger, and she released one hand to swipe at them.
"Something else…happened," she managed. "I…don't know what, or how. It wasn't something you could have prepared for. Something…woke, GAIA's subordinates, gave them their own independent consciousnesses…including HADES. When that happened, GAIA sacrificed herself so HADES's extinction protocol wouldn't destroy everything you worked so hard to build, but she knew that without her, it would all fall apart, so…um…Do you remember the Lightkeeper protocol, the one you, uh, shot down? GAIA used it to make…me. I'm…you, Elisabet. I was made from your genetic material, whatever that means. I'm the only one who can open old doors, GAIA made me so I could get the Master Override and purge HADES. And I did! Life on Earth is safe, for now, and…I know someone who can help me rebuild her, so things can go back to the way they're supposed to be. And…I will. Maybe it's just because I'm a copy of you, but…I don't want this world to die. So I'll bring GAIA back. Whatever happened, it won't destroy this world. I won't let it."
An urge to sob welled up in her chest again, and she clutched the globe harder against her breast.
"What am I?" she whispered. "Would you know, if you were here? Am I really just…you? Or am I a person, something…else? I don't know…I don't understand. Can you just…be my mother? I never had a mother. I don't…" She shook her head, her lip trembling. "I don't know what I am. If I'm a copy of you, what does that mean for me? Once I've done what GAIA created me to do, what purpose do I have left? I…"
Words failed her. And yet, the setting here was so peaceful, so serene, she couldn't help but feel for a moment like maybe there was an answer, a point to it all. Birds sang, insects buzzed, flowers gave off their sweet aroma…life, surrounded her, her and Elisabet. And somehow, Aloy didn't feel like she was talking to a reflection of herself.
"I'm…My name is Aloy," she told Elisabet at last. "GAIA thought I'd be named the same as you, but…I've always gone by Aloy. And…um…I've always…sort of been what you said you wanted your daughter to be like. Remember? Curious, unstoppable…compassionate. All three of those things have irritated people about me, so I must have them, right?" She cracked a smile she didn't really feel. "I'm…your daughter. Even if you'll never know me. But I…" Her smile fell. "I want to know me. I need to know me, before I go back and get to work rebuilding GAIA, so I can face her and tell her what it was she made, whether I'm you or…something else. I hope that's okay. You gave so much for the world, and I will too, I have and I will again, but…I need some time. Can you forgive me, for taking this time? Please, mother?"
She wasn't really expecting an answer, and the dead body sitting before her certainly didn't sit up and speak to give her one. The world around them was calm, filled only with the singing of birds and insects, the scent of flowers and the rustling of grass and trees. No direct answer came…but again, Aloy felt that sense of peace, the tranquility that enveloped this place, and she couldn't shake the sense that judgment and condemnation had no home here. Do what you must, the surroundings seemed to say. Everyone deserves peace in the end.
Elisabet had had peace. After everything she'd been through, she'd come here, and found peace in her death. Aloy tapped her Focus again, bringing back the reconstruction of the dead woman's face, and yes, Elisabet looked peaceful. For all her struggle, and all the horror, she had had peace. And there would be no peace for Aloy until she knew who she was, so…surely her mother couldn't begrudge her for this.
"I, uh…I should get going," Aloy whispered. "If I'm going to find out who I am, I need to…go. I'll, um…I'll try to come back. Tell you what's going on, what I find out."
The globe weighed in her hand.
"May I keep this?" she asked her mother. "It must have…stood as a reminder, for you, of everything you fought for, so…I'd like to keep it, to remind myself why I'm here, why anyone is here. I fight for this world too, just like you did, I always have and I always will…I've already taken up your mantle, your work. So…this will be to me what it was to you. And more. It's…a piece of you, mother. May I have it? Please?"
Again, she didn't feel judged, or like she was being forbidden to do as she'd asked.
Spurred on by a sudden inspiration, Aloy drew Rost's pendant out of her armor, then reached into her bag for a wire. Looping the metal strand around the globe a few times, she tied it between two of the beads to the left of the pendant: a keepsake of her mother and a keepsake of her father on the same necklace.
"I'll come back," she told Elisabet. "And…I'll try to find myself soon, so I can go back and rebuild GAIA. For you." Tears came to her eyes again, and this time, she allowed a single one to fall, tracking down her cheek as she sniffed. "For everyone. And…for everyone and everything living right now, I want to say…thank you. Thank you for giving this world a second chance. It won't go to waste."
Another breeze ruffled the grass and Aloy's hair, and she wrenched her boots from where she stood and walked back around the bench, slowly, headed for where she'd left her Strider. She walked carefully, aware of the grass and maybe the insects she was crushing under her feet with every step, the crunch of the plant life almost an offense to the calm of this place. Looking back at where she'd walked, though, she saw the grass rise again, butterflies flitting across her footsteps as though nothing had ever been wrong. Sobeck Ranch was a monument, not just to Elisabet, or even to life itself, but to the fact that life always found a way.
When she finally crossed back out of the patch of green, she half expected the harshness of the world to come crashing down on her, but instead, it was as though a bit of that peaceful place had taken up residence in her chest, a talisman against the confusion and pain that life so often held. Feeling light, dizzy, and more hopeful than she had any right to be, Aloy got on her mount and kicked it into a trot, leaving Sobeck Ranch behind…for now.
~o~
Nil was waiting right where she'd left him. The sun had almost finished setting by the time she reached him, but there was enough light that when Nil met her eyes, she knew he could tell she'd been crying.
"You found her, I take it?" he asked calmly.
Aloy nodded. "She made it home," she told him. "Just…like she wanted." One hand was still on the new addition to her necklace, and she looked back at Sobeck Ranch. "It was so peaceful there…and…my Focus reconstructed what her face looked like in her last moments. She looked…at peace. Like she was just resting, after all her hard work."
"So, do you understand now?" Nil questioned.
"Huh?" Aloy whipped her head back around to look at him.
"That you're not her," he clarified.
"I…" She blinked.
"Come now," he said, "you just saw her yourself. She's there, resting peacefully; and you're here, far from peaceful. How can there be any doubt left in your mind that you're not her?"
"I mean…you said it yourself, a person's spirit leaves them when they die," Aloy pointed out softly. "Her spirit isn't there, really."
"A person's memories are part of their spirit," Nil countered gently. "And you don't have those. So if you don't have her body, and you don't have her spirit, then you're not her. You're someone else. You're Aloy. Aloy Khane Sobeck, maybe, but you're not Elisabet."
"Don't use the word 'Khane'," Aloy told him, unable to help but chuckle slightly. "I'm not Carja."
"But you are Khane Sobeck," he shrugged. "You're Aloy of the house of Sobeck. Her daughter. But you're your own person."
"I'm…" She looked back again. "I'm still…not sure…"
"Let me put it another way," he offered: "You say it looks like she found peaceful rest in the end. Do you feel as though you were torn from a peaceful rest?"
"…No," Aloy replied slowly. "I don't…think so. I don't think I ever felt…like that, exactly…"
"Then the woman who's resting at Sobeck Ranch is a different person from you," Nil stated. When she looked at him again, his head was tilted, eyes narrowed slightly as though in confusion. "I really don't understand how this is still a question for you. You are no one other than you."
He looked and sounded so absolutely certain, and a bit of that peace that had lain over Sobeck Ranch like a warm blanket still radiated in her chest. For the first time since viewing GAIA's last message, Aloy started to believe that maybe…maybe she really was someone else, someone all her own, whether GAIA or anyone else understood it or not.
Gripping the little globe tighter, she closed her eyes, cherishing this moment, a moment when she felt truly real for the first time in months. She knew it wouldn't last, there were still too many questions, but for what it was, the moment was worth savoring.
Silence reigned all around, as Aloy felt everything. There was a peace to it, even here, even now…and it was time to let the dead rest.
"I…I should bury her," she said at last, opening her eyes again.
"I'm surprised there's anything to bury; would've figured the birds had taken care of that," Nil remarked.
"She was wearing a suit," Aloy explained. "An environmental suit, it was the only way she could breathe outside of facilities by the time she had to…sacrifice herself to make sure GAIA wouldn't be destroyed by the Faro Plague. The birds had no way of getting to her." She glanced back again. "Still…she's my mother. I should bury her. I shouldn't move her, the place is already a perfect monument to her, but…she shouldn't just be lying out in the open like that, suit or no suit."
"Well, I don't have a shovel," Nil shrugged.
"Me either," Aloy sighed. "Maybe we should ask Kryse for one next time we see him - he did say his people like digging holes to bury their valuables."
"You're really committed to this, huh?" he asked.
"Yeah." She gripped the globe tighter. "It's…the least I can do, for the woman who gave the world a second chance…for my mother."
"What's that?" Nil asked, gesturing to her closed fist. "A new addition to your necklace?"
Aloy opened her palm, showing him Elisabet's globe. "She was holding it," she told him. "It's a map of the world, as seen from far away, I'm pretty sure. A little representation of what she fought and died for. I…wanted to keep it with me. A keepsake of my mother and a keepsake of my father, or as close to either one as I'll ever have, on the same necklace."
"A map of the world?" he repeated, his brow furrowing. "Why is it a sphere?"
"Nil…the Earth is round," Aloy said, eyeing him. "You know that, don't you?"
"Is it?" he asked. "It's always seemed flat to me."
"Nil…" She shook her head, the corners of her mouth lifting. "During an eclipse, the shadow cast on the moon is round."
"Huh…so it is," he mused. "Guess I never really gave it much thought; it doesn't make much of a difference to me either way."
"Of course," Aloy groaned. "What does it matter what shape the planet is as long as there are people on it for you to kill?"
"Exactly!" he said, flashing his teeth at her in the fading sunlight.
"Ugh." The profoundness of the moment had completely shattered, and things were back to normal. Tucking her necklace back into her armor, Aloy straightened on the back of her Strider. "Come on," she told him, "we should get out of Deima territory as quickly as we can. HEPHAESTUS has probably replaced that army of Machines we took down getting here, so we'll have to go around, but…let's get as far south as we can before we stop for the night."
"Lead the way," he nodded, turning his mount to face the same direction as hers, and they took off at a sprint, leaving Sobeck Ranch, and her mother, to their peaceful rest.
As soon as the empty river was in sight again, Aloy turned for it, forcing her Strider to plunge into the rushing water. Behind her, Nil gave a confused exclamation, but she ignored him; across the river, they'd be relatively safe from that Machine army, and she really didn't want to have to fight it a second time, especially not when they were protecting her mother. Her Strider swam across easily, the water flowing through its mesh of wires and cables and plating, and once they were across, she turned south and urged her mount onwards; they wouldn't get far before it became too dark to see, but the closer they were to leaving Deima territory by the time they stopped, the better. After all, it was too much to hope for that the Deima would forgive the intrusion, that they would even let Aloy explain what this meant to her and why. She wasn't entirely sure she could.
More than ever before, though, she was determined to figure out exactly who and what she was, even if she was now without a particular destination in mind. With every step of her mount, the new sensation of the globe pressed between her armor and her clothes, reminding her of her mother's grave, the absolute tranquility of Sobeck Ranch, and the hope she'd found today, hope that would spur her on through whatever came next. There's a lot to see out here, she reminded herself. I'm away from Faro Automated Solutions, away from Zero Dawn, away from the tribes…and I'll stay out here as long as I need to. If Nil could find my answer so quickly, it can't be that difficult. And the Roller blood, the 'ocean' Kryse talked about…there are things to see besides Sobeck Ranch, questions to answer, and if I explore enough, I'll find myself, too. I have to.
Night quickly fell, and when they were well past the site of the Machine army, Aloy called a stop to their mad dash through the wasteland. They were out of food, and the river held no fish, so Aloy gave Nil the cloaking module and let him explore while invisible, designing a little holster for the device made of a couple loops of wire so he could hunt while staying cloaked. It took a while for him to return, and all he had to show for it when he came back a single raccoon, which he insisted was all he'd been able to find. Still, it was better than nothing, and they made do with the morsels and the spare waterskeins in their packs.
"So," Nil said, "how is it that Elisabet ended up way out here? I thought you said Ted Faro killed the Alphas…did he poison them so they'd have time to find a good place to die?"
"No, Elisabet had left GAIA Prime before Ted Faro purged APOLLO," Aloy replied.
"Why?"
The knowledge of what had happened caused a twinge of pain in Aloy's chest, pain she didn't particularly want to exacerbate after what she'd found at her mother's resting place. Still, she wanted to talk about Elisabet, so… "Tell me your secrets and I'll tell you mine," she said slyly.
He huffed a laugh. "Well, I'm not asking for one of your secrets," he pointed out. "Elisabet's death has nothing to do with you." He raised his eyebrows at her pointedly, as though she might miss the subtext of this statement.
"Well, a story for a story, then," she shrugged.
"What do you want to know?" he asked. "It can't be a story about me personally, mind you."
She thought for a second, then seized on the first random Carja-related subject that came to mind. "Did you…know Ersa?" she questioned.
"Ersa?" Nil chuckled. "Of course I knew her. Not personally, but anyone who served under Jiran knows the name." He nodded. "She was considered fierce enough to be pitted against Machines despite being a woman, but as the kestrels led her out into the Sun-Ring, she disarmed one and killed him, and when another came to help, she killed that one too. Jiran called a halt to the proceedings, declaring that the Sun had seen fit to spare the Oseram woman's life, and that she be escorted out of the Sun-Ring, to be assigned other duties."
"As Avad's personal servant," Aloy finished. "They got close, he helped her escape, and when he fled after his older brother was sacrificed, he turned to her for help, and they built the rebellion together."
"That's right." Nil gave her an odd look.
"I read about it in a document I found in the Sundom," she explained.
Nil nodded. "Stefan was always jumpy after the incident with Ersa," he said, "nervous about going into the Ring and spilling helpless blood - 'What if one of those women turn out to be fighters and we just don't know it?' he used to say to me. Having raided the Nora a couple of times by then, I knew full well that he had every right to be afraid, but I didn't say so." He sighed. "Really, I should have known he was a coward even before the rebellion."
"Hm." Aloy couldn't help but smile slightly, knowing that Ersa was remembered for her accomplishments even by a tribeless murderer - it was another instance of someone who died for what they believed in leaving an impact, and she thought maybe Ersa and Elisabet would have made good friends. "I'm glad her legacy lives on."
"And quite a legacy," Nil remarked. "No one else who was sent into the Sun-Ring for sacrifice made it out alive."
"Well, besides me," Aloy shrugged.
He looked at her then, a spark lighting in his eyes. "So it's true," he said softly, and it didn't sound like a question. "Helis put you in the Sun-Ring to be sacrificed, and you fought your way out. I heard stories…and didn't doubt them, but…"
"Hey, if Helis hadn't wanted me to fight my way out, he shouldn't have put all my equipment in a box on a platform that was being held up by pillars I could lure that corrupted Behemoth into," Aloy stated.
"So you out-muscled him and outsmarted him," Nil laughed. "He was probably too caught up in his ideas of destiny to think of that…the man was even more single-minded than me."
"Yeah…"Aloy swallowed; memories of the Terror of the Sun were starting to surface in her mind, clawing at the sense of comfort she'd found today…
"So, Elisabet?" Nil prompted, abruptly jolting her out of that line of thinking.
Grateful, now, to be asked about even a painful aspect of this subject, Aloy took a breath and started explaining how Elisabet had had to make one final sacrifice to ensure Zero Dawn wouldn't fail, reliving her mother's last great act of heroism until the campfire burned low.