Horizon: Echoes

by Wandergirl108

Months after the battle for the Spire, Aloy is still struggling with her identity. Desperate to find herself, and maybe her mother, she leaves for a new quest, unaware of the new threats she'll find…and, begrudgingly, she lets herself be accompanied by the only person she knows who understands what it is to not belong. Canon now, will be AU when HFW happens. M-rated as of Ch.20.

32. A Life Worth Living

Aloy woke up feeling groggy, the inside of her mouth coated in a thick, yucky slime. Yawning and groaning, she forced herself up, cracking her eyes to see that the sun was alarmingly high - it was still morning, but not by much.

"What happened?" she murmured, rubbing her eyes. "I feel…weak…"

Beside her, she heard laugher, and she glanced over to see Nil sitting up, flashing his teeth at her.

"Not used to sweets, are you?" he teased, already rising.

"No," Aloy grumbled. "Is that why my mouth tastes awful, too?"

In response, Nil just gave another chuckle. "Can you disable these traps for me?" he asked, gesturing outside their camp. "I'd like to wash up."

"Sure," Aloy sighed, dragging her way to the parameter, Tripcaster and Blast Sling in hand, and she started deactivating and removing everything she'd set up.

Once the way was clear, Nil walked past her and to the edge of the sea. Still a little bleary, Aloy watched as he bent down and started scooping up wet sand and rubbing it into his mouth, then joined him and imitated his actions, scrubbing the slime off her teeth and tongue with the grit and then cleansing it all with the salty seawater. Feeling a bit better, she rinsed off her hands, shook them dry, and stood up, rubbing her face until she felt fully awake.

"Alright," she sighed at last, "I have to freshen up, but then let's get back to the festival. We've already missed several hours of daylight…" Shaking her head, she turned and headed into the ruins, looking for means to tend herself, then returned to her things and picked up the dozen sacks of 'money' she still had to find some way to spend, as well as her pack of valuables for safekeeping, choosing to leave the rest of her bags behind. After thinking for a minute, she decided to also bring her Sharpshot Bow, quivers, and spear - even with Orns's assurances, she just didn't feel comfortable without at least one bow and her blade.

Again, she felt that heavy sensation in her chest, a wish that she could know what it was like to not have to go armed wherever she went, but she set it aside and left the camp, headed for the gap in the wall. Nil followed behind her, having presumably tended his own needs elsewhere.

"Should we go to the arena?" she asked. "Orns said there would be competitions there all day long, and I don't want to miss the contest between the deputies, if we haven't already."

"Might as well," Nil shrugged. "Unless there's something else you want to buy."

"…Maybe we should look at their supply, too," Aloy decided. "For hunting gear, I mean. If we're lucky, they'll have more limberweed - we shouldn't try to approach the Deima without countermeasures."

"Is that why we came here?" Nil chuckled. "To prepare to face the Deima?"

Aloy didn't answer; the words hit her like a punch to the gut, but she couldn't think why.

Moments later, they were back inside the wall, throngs of Corsair men, women, and children all rushing about. The crowd did seem to be less dense today than it had been before, and Aloy guessed it was because a lot of people were watching whatever was going on in the arena. She wondered how she would have felt if there had been spectators at the Proving - the braves guiding the path, like Resh, had been bad enough, but if the whole tribe had been watching her, judging her… It wouldn't have made a difference, she decided after a moment. I trained my whole life to win the Proving, and I would have done it whether I had an audience or not. The Nora's judgment was always something I had to deal with…and it always will be…

Forcing back the bitter thoughts, Aloy forged ahead, searching the stalls for anyone who might be selling something remotely useful. One merchant was selling guns of all sizes, and ammunition for each of them - cannons like Ravager guns caught Aloy's eye, and she stopped to inquire how anyone was supposed to own one of these. It turned out that they were human-made guns, not unlike the Oseram cannons, with their own types of ammunition and even holsters with which to carry them. Aloy debated for a minute, but ultimately chose not to buy any of them - she didn't need the extra weight in battle. Still, the vendor was willing to point her towards a supply shop, and Aloy followed the directions she was given.

A stall covered in plants gave off the heavy aroma of medicine, and Aloy gladly took the chance to restock her frost, shock and fire resist potions, as well as buy the makings for more, though there were of course no healing herbs; she was doubly relieved that this emptied the first of her money bags and took a chunk out of a second. At a much higher price, there were a few death bloom berries, but Aloy chose to focus on the sprigs of limberweed: there were only three, and Aloy bought them all, almost emptying her second sack of coins. Delighted by how much Aloy was spending, the woman peddling the herbs gave the outlanders a free bottle of brewed night bloom as a bonus.

Satisfied that they were as prepared to parlay with the Deima in a few days as they could be, Aloy thanked the merchant and turned for the arena, slowly making her way through the crowd towards the ancient metal structure.

"Miss? Excuse me, miss? With the red hair?"

Surrounded by voices as she was, Aloy was able to ignore the call from behind her for a few steps, but the mention of her hair color got her attention. Already bristling, she turned, prepared for a fight, only to see a portly woman shuffling over to her.

"Howdy!" said the woman. "Pardon me, sorry to stop ye…" She blinked, glancing at Nil, then smiled at Aloy. "Oh, you must be the outlander girl!"

"I'm Aloy," Aloy said guardedly.

"Rhoda," responded the Corsair woman, slapping her broad chest. "Pleasure to meetcha."

"Can I…help you with something?" Aloy inquired, still on guard.

"I reckon so!" Rhoda grinned. "Just yesterday, I managed to get my hands on the finest bolt of cloth I've ever seen - Erit's weavers really outdid themselves this year, I guarantee ye've never seen anything like it. It cost me every last coin I had to my name, and I was afraid I'd have to sell it to some ugly mug with deep pockets just to make it worth the price…" Her smile widened. "But you…I see ya got the coin, and more importantly, it'd look right fetching on ye. Yer eyes, yer hair, yer skin…ye're a perfect model! So, whaddaya say? Might I have the honor of fitting a dress for ye?"

"A dress?" Aloy repeated. "Um…"

"Aloy doesn't need your finery," Nil stated, and Aloy was surprised to hear how cold his tone was - the way he said 'finery' sounded like a curse. She glanced at him, and saw that he was scowling, almost contemptuously. "Offer her better armor than the Old Ones' shielding technology, or leave her alone."

"Hold on," Aloy exclaimed, bristling with indignation. "Since when do you speak for me, Nil?"

"Since you were too polite to just say no yourself," he answered calmly.

"Polite?" Aloy repeated, raising her eyebrows. "I thought you knew me better than that."

"I can't think of another reason why you wouldn't just walk away," he spat. "Let's go."

He turned to keep walking, but Aloy hesitated. It was true, she really didn't need a dress, but the yearning she'd been struggling with ever since things had been settled with the Corsair kept her from following her partner…as did her rebellious streak. "This dress…how much would it cost?" she inquired of Rhoda.

"Aloy?" she heard Nil ask, his tone one of shock, but she ignored him.

"A pretty penny, to be sure," Rhoda answered. "A few thousand coins. If ya got those sacks ye're carrying at the trading post, they each contain a thousand, so…six full bags oughta cover it. Maybe more, depending on the specifics we decide on."

It's the best chance I have to get rid of all these useless coins, Aloy told herself, but what she said next might have been her answer regardless of the number Rhoda gave her. "Yes," she said. "I'll let you stitch a dress for me, if you like."

"Lovely!" Rhoda exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "Come on now, right this way, let's get yer measurements…"

"Aloy," Nil called, but Aloy chose to ignore him again, instead following Rhoda's directions as the heavyset woman urged her into a nearby tent. Garments hung on racks around the entrance, but Rhoda all but pushed Aloy past that and into the cloth shelter. Inside, Aloy found several tables, mannequins, and cloth-tailoring supplies; a few curtains partitioned off separate almost-rooms.

"Right then," Rhoda said, shooing her past another curtain into a space that contained only a bench and another table, along with some slits in the ceiling to admit sunlight, "into the fitting room with ye, come on. Take off all that chunky armor so I can get good measurements."

This gave Aloy pause, and she looked at Rhoda uncertainly.

"Come on, now," Rhoda urged impatiently, "I can't fit the dress to yer figure if I can't measure yer actual figure." Eyeing Aloy's attire, she added, "That is some mighty strange armor, I must say. But, it's gotta come off fer now, and the weapons too."

Aloy eyed Rhoda a moment longer. The woman seemed earnest, and Aloy guessed she could take her in a fistfight even without armor.

"…Not a trusting one, are ya?" Rhoda finally remarked with a chuckle. "Ye're safe here, no men or Machines are gonna come after ye; and as fer me, I'm no brawler, miss. I wouldn't pose a threat to ye."

"I can see that," Aloy stated, though she still felt uncomfortable about letting down her guard in front of anyone other than Nil. Reminding herself that she'd taken off her armor in the hostility of Mother's Heart the night before the Proving - though she hadn't really had armor to speak of back then, Teb's gift had been fresh and unfamiliar to her - she drew her bow and spear, then set them down before finally working on the ties and fastenings of her shield. With the memory on her mind, she said, "So…you're a Stitcher, then?"

"A seamstress, if it's all the same to you, miss," Rhoda corrected.

"Do you make armor, too?" Aloy inquired.

"Nay," Rhoda answered, shaking her head, "I'm no good with metal. Still, the measurements I record fer the tribe are used by the armor forgers, so we're connected, at least."

"Hmm." Still working her way out of her armor, Aloy said, "I have a friend back east named Teb, he's a Stitcher, he makes garments and armor for the tribe. He made my first set of armor for me when I came of age."

"He?" Rhoda laughed. "What's a man doing making clothes?!"

"He didn't turn out to be much of a hunter," Aloy explained, sitting down to get her armored pants off. "Stitching was the best way he could serve his tribe."

"Well, if a man's making the clothes, what do the women in yer tribe do?" Rhoda inquired.

"Everything," Aloy answered, smiling despite herself. "Among the Nora, women are in charge."

"That so?" Rhoda mused. Eyeing Aloy's leathers, she pursed her lips. "Now, what's with these little rat tails?" she asked, walking over and tugging at the hanging bit of leather at the front of Aloy's tunic. "What sorta purpose does that serve? It looks dreadful." She shook her head. "I'm hoping yer friend doesn't make outfits like this, or he should be right shamed of himself."

"Actually, I made this," Aloy said icily. "On purpose, for practical reasons. Weaving the tails into the belt of my armor keeps my underclothes secure when I fight."

"Well," Rhoda huffed, "ya won't find any need fer that here, and I suppose fer underclothes it don't matter all that much. But with all these beads and bumps…a proper dress won't fit over this. Ya wearing anything under that tunic?"

"Just a…binding for my chest," Aloy replied.

"That'll do," Rhoda nodded. "Tunic off, now."

"What? No!" Aloy exclaimed, stepping back.

"Then no dress," Rhoda stated. "I won't sew a garment that won't be worn properly, little lady, and it'd be ruined with all these extra bits underneath it. The leggings are fine," she added, eyeing the rest of Aloy's attire, "the skirt'll cover it all nicely, but the tunic and necklaces have to go."

The only people in the world who had ever seen Aloy without her tunic on were Rost and Nil. "Do you ask all your clients to take off their clothes?" Aloy asked coldly.

"Aye," Rhoda nodded, "as needed." She smiled. "Whatcha worried about? We're both women here, aye? No one else can see ya."

She had a point. Rost had even mentioned that Aloy might have to bathe with other women once she was accepted by the tribe, and while that had never had a chance to happen, surely it would have been a lot worse than this. Scowling, Aloy tugged off her tunic, quickly extracting her necklace of keepsakes from her other necklaces as she did so and pulling it back over her head, leaving it to rest against the leather binding around her chest - the others meant nothing, they were just traditional Nora garb, but Rost's gift, and Elisabet's globe, she would not shed, not for this seamstress.

"Right," Rhoda nodded, shuffling forward with some lengths of rope. Aloy tensed and stepped back, but the Corsair woman laughed. "I'm just getting yer measurements!" she chortled. "Calm down, little lady, I'm not gonna strangle ye."

"You'll regret it if you try," Aloy warned her.

"Oh, aye, I'm sure I would," Rhoda assured her, waving a hand. "Just relax, would ye? Arms out, now, like so." She spread her arms so they jutted straight out from her sides.

Aloy copied the movement, all her muscles tensed and prepared to leap into action should the need arise.

"Now, hold still," Rhoda said, and she finished coming close. Bit by bit, she started holding lengths of rope against various parts of Aloy's figure - shoulder to wrist, shoulder to waist, shoulder to ground, around her waist, around the peak of her chest, and so on. Each time, she'd mark the spots on the rope she was holding with a piece of charcoal, then toss the marked rope aside and reach for a fresh one. "So," she said as she worked, "ye come from a tribe where women are in charge?"

"Yeah," Aloy answered, still not relaxing. "The Matriarchs are women who can speak for two generations - grandmothers - and the High Matriarchs are great-grandmothers who can speak for three generations or more. I…guess the Matriarchs are our equivalent of your captains and deputies, and the High Matriarchs are like your Sheriff - the High Matriarchs' word is absolute law, and they can do whatever they please."

"Well, ain't that just a nifty little system?" Rhoda chuckled. "What of yer men, can they call the shots?"

"Not as far as I know," Aloy answered. "I mean, a man can be the War-Chief, but I'm not sure how much power they have, and I'm pretty sure that's the highest position a man can achieve in the Nora tribe. Right now, our War-Chief is a woman named Sona…a man tried taking over for her once, but he wasn't very good at it." She smirked.

"Hah!" Rhoda laughed. "Y'know, the Old Ones had stories of a tribe of warrior-women - Amazons, they were called." She stepped back and met Aloy's eyes with a grin. "Guess y'all are the real-life Amazons, in that case."

"I know it's rare for women to run things," Aloy admitted. "Nil's tribe, the Carja, can only be led by men - they believe the Sun is inherently masculine, and so would only choose a man to be its vessel, the Sun-King."

"The sun?" Rhoda asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah, they worship the Sun as a god," Aloy told her. "Still, they were the first to decipher the Old Ones' glyphs and develop writing, at least back east, so they're the most advanced tribe we have…if not necessarily the most powerful," she added, unable to help smiling.

"Sounds like a whole other world," Rhoda remarked, but she was already hurrying away; the curtain swished, and Aloy was alone. "But it might not be too strange for much longer, if Lanida wins her way to the top," the Corsair woman called from somewhere else in the tent.

"Are you going to watch the contest?" Aloy asked.

"Nay," Rhoda answered, shuffling back inside; in her arms, she held a large piece of fabric wrapped around a plank of wood. "I'm not one fer all that hootin' and hollerin'. Long as I have good fabric and good tools to make something with it, I'm happy."

Flashing a smile at Aloy, she unwound a bit of the cloth she carried and held it up against Aloy's shoulder. The cloth, Aloy saw, was a vibrant green color, but where the light caught it just right, it shimmered gold; it was thin, and clearly wouldn't offer any sort of protection against weapons or the elements, but even not being used to such things, Aloy could see it was pretty.

"Ahh, yes," Rhoda said in a satisfied tone, "I knew it'd be perfect on ya. Really brings out yer eyes." Her smile dimmed, and she added, "But that necklace ye wear-"

"I'm not taking this off," Aloy said quickly, her hand going to clutch her keepsakes.

"It won't match with the fabric," Rhoda stated, "and if ye wear it under the dress, it'll just leave an ugly lump."

"I'm not taking it off," Aloy repeated firmly, unconsciously shifting as though readying for an attack. "My…My father gave me this necklace, and this globe belonged to my mother."

"Ah," Rhoda sighed, and her expression softened. "All ye have of yer family, aye?"

"Something like that," Aloy admitted.

"Hmm…" The Corsair woman pursed her lips in a thoughtful frown. "Let me see? I won't touch."

Begrudgingly, Aloy opened her hand, fighting the urge to hide her keepsakes from Rhoda's intense gaze.

"Red, blue, brown, and white," she murmured, eyeing the necklace. "I suppose I could try sewing some beads onto the cloth so it won't clash quite so bad. It'll cost ya, though."

"That's fine," Aloy told her.

"Alrighty then," Rhoda nodded, taking back the cloth. "Now, just a few more specs. What kinda neckline ya want? Something to show off a bit o' chest, or would ya rather cover yer scars?"

"Uh…" Aloy swallowed.

"Can't make it too high, it'd look silly on a fitted dress," Rhoda went on without waiting for Aloy to answer. "Can't make it too low, either, not without showing the leather…although, I suppose that could work as a look…" Her head tilted, eyes fixated much too intently on Aloy's chest for Aloy's liking.

"I'd rather this not be showing," Aloy said, putting a hand to her binding.

"If ye say so," Rhoda nodded. "I think I got a good vision in my head." She looked down to Aloy's legs. "Gotta make it long enough to cover all this rough-n-tumble stitching, but I'm guessing ye'd rather not be able to trip on the hem."

"I don't want to wear something it would be easy to trip in," Aloy said.

"Aye," Rhoda nodded, "that's fair. I suppose…" Frowning, she set the fabric aside, grabbed another rope, and bent down, reaching for Aloy's foot.

"What are you doing?!" Aloy exclaimed.

"Gonna get yer shoe size," Rhoda answered. "I'll have the cobbler fit some boots for ye."

"I have boots," Aloy protested.

"Not that go with the dress," Rhoda responded stubbornly. "Every piece of an outfit's gotta match, miss. Ye wouldn't mix 'n' match different pieces of armor, would ye?"

"I mean…" Aloy began uncertainly.

Not waiting for more, Rhoda reached for Aloy's foot again, quickly holding the rope up against the length and then the width, marking it both times, before grabbing another piece of rope and doing the same with Aloy's other foot.

"Right," the portly woman said, heaving her way to her feet, "I'll get that all taken care of. Ye can get dressed, it'll be a while before yer dress is ready."

Relieved, Aloy grabbed her tunic and donned it, then started strapping her armor back on, glad to be shielded again. "So how much do I owe you?" she asked.

"At the moment? Not a penny," Rhoda answered. "I won't ask fer payment until ye see the final results."

Before Aloy could respond, a voice boomed across the settlement.

"Attention, Corsair tribe: The showdown between deputies will be starting soon. Those of you who wish to see your future Sheriff claim their place as first mate of the royal ship, please make your ways to the arena now. Remember, seats are first come, first serve; you'd best hurry if you want a spot."

"Just gotta make it a huge affair, don't he?" Rhoda grumbled as Aloy emerged from the cloth room to where the Corsair seamstress was already starting to work on the shimmering fabric. "Well, I suppose fair's fair." She glanced up at Aloy. "I assume ya wanna watch the show?"

"Yeah…I'll be cheering for Lanida," Aloy said.

Rhoda smiled. "Aye," she nodded, "my heart's with her, too. You go on ahead; I promise ye I'll be hard at work, yer dress should be ready by sundown."

"Thank you," Aloy nodded, and she ducked out of the tent, nearly running headfirst into Nil.

"Aloy," her partner said in a neutral tone. "Where's your dress?"

"Rhoda's making it," Aloy replied, immediately on guard again. "It'll be ready by sundown, she said."

Nil grumbled, his face twisted into a disgusted scowl.

"What's the matter?" Aloy asked bitingly. "Why should it bother you what I wear?"

"You don't belong in a dress, Aloy," Nil stated gruffly.

"Well, I'm going to try it anyway," Aloy said, and she stepped around him. "Come on, I want to see if Lanida wins the contest."

Whether or not Nil continued to scowl, Aloy didn't know; she made her way through the crowd towards the arena, trying not to think of her mad dash to the same place the previous day, and as always, Nil followed her. As they walked, Aloy kept an eye out for a flash of purple, hoping to see Orns, though she wouldn't go so far as to try to connect to his Focus. None of the bold colors marking one of the Corsair elite flashed through the crowd, but as Aloy and Nil reached the wall of the arena, a voice cut through the hubbub.

"Aloy! Nil! Howdy there!"

"Kryse!" Aloy greeted, turning a smile on the black-cloaked Corsair who fell into step beside her. "It's good to see you."

Kryse's beard and hair were now smooth and well-groomed, and his posture was relaxed, all of which rendered him almost unrecognizable; being among his tribe clearly did him good. "And you," he grinned back. "How's the festival treating y'all?"

"It's been…interesting," Aloy answered carefully. "Pleasant."

"Aye?" Kryse chuckled. "I heard our honored outlander guests dined with the Sheriff at the banquet last night."

"We did," Aloy nodded, finally able to smile back sincerely. "Orns told us about the history of your tribe, cleared up a lot of questions I had about how things work around here. And…I was able to do the same for him, too. He insisted we register each other's Focuses as contacts."

"I hear things might be about to change for the seadogs," Kryse remarked. "'Course, that don't mean much for me, now, does it?"

"You seem happy to be with your tribe," Aloy said. "You look…Well, it just looks like being here is good for you."

"Everyone needs a home," Kryse sighed. "A place to call their own, and a time to take a break from the hardships of the world. But I don't belong on a ship; once the festival's over, I'll part ways with my tribesmen."

By now, they were nearly to the stands, and Aloy chose to take that as an excuse not to comment on this statement, holding her whirl of emotions within her chest until they quieted. Her case might be unique, but there were other people in this world who didn't belong…How many, she wondered? How many people walked this Earth feeling as though they didn't have a place, for whatever reason?

It wasn't easy to find three seats in a group - the stands were already packed, and more people were coming in by the minute. When Aloy looked down at the arena proper, she saw that it had been transformed: for Nil's fight with Shands, the entire space had been empty, but now it was covered in complex contraptions and structures that Aloy could only guess at the purpose of. Along the far side, she saw nearly two dozen blue coats lined up against the wall, and in the stands just above and behind them was a spot of purple that had to be Sheriff Orns. Eventually, Kryse managed to find a place where the three friends could sit together, and Aloy sat between him and Nil, glad that her mate was by her side instead of risking his life down below.

"So, what is all this?" she asked Kryse.

"An obstacle course," Kryse answered.

"I can see that," Aloy told him. "I was hoping for more specifics…?"

"It's not like we have any regularly set courses," Kryse informed her. "Every one's different - that way it's every contender's first time, y'know? But the rules are simple enough: ya go through the obstacles to get from one end to the other, first one to press that button down there and launch the fireworks wins." He pointed to a small contraption across the arena from the line of blue shapes, though at this distance Aloy couldn't see anything about it at all, save for a red shape marking a captain standing beside it.

"Fireworks?" she repeated.

"The Oseram use those," Nil spoke up from her other side, and she turned to see him smile slightly. "They're just like everything else about the Oseram: a lot of noise and show to little real purpose."

"The Oseram developed the cannons that took back Meridian," Aloy reminded him.

Nil shrugged. "They've managed some impressive things with metal," he admitted, "but they're also loud, noisy, uncultured, and only capable of anything worthwhile once every few months."

"Carja elitist," Aloy teased.

He laughed at that, and Aloy felt her own smile widen. "In any case, get ready for some very loud and colorful explosions that aren't meant to cause any sort of damage," he told her. "Assuming the Corsair fireworks are anything like what the Oseram make…"

"Aye, that sounds about right," Kryse confirmed. "Funny, I thought y'all said ye don't know much about the Old Ones back east…"

"I don't know what's in Oseram territory," Aloy admitted. "I've never been to the Claim. Maybe they have thick ruins of their own. I don't think any of them use Focuses, but…maybe they found something else that would have led them to make something like that."

"I'll say it again," Nil said: "the Oseram simply enjoy being loud to no real end. It's lucky they even added the colors to the explosions, and they don't just set off regular bombs for the sake of blasting their own ears." He raised his eyebrows at both Aloy and Kryse. "Someone among the Old Ones had to be the first to come up with everything they had," he pointed out, "and that means modern humans are capable of coming up with those same things of their own accord. It doesn't have to be connected to the past."

"That may be true, but the fact that they use the same word as we use - as the Old Ones used - indicates a connection as far as I'm concerned," Kryse remarked.

"Yeah, I'm inclined to agree with Kryse on this one," Aloy nodded.

"'Fireworks'?" Nil asked. "It's not that difficult of a word to come up with." His silver eyes focused on Aloy as he added, "You'll see why not soon enough."

"Ladies and gentlemen!" boomed a voice, and Aloy looked up above the arena to where she expected to see the announcer projected. Instead, she saw only a set of names, each over empty bars, like those that marked the passage of time on audio data points - and the presence of "Lanida" among the names made it clear what this display was of. Looking around, she realized the speaker was the spot of red she'd noticed by the contraption Kryse had pointed out. "We're here to find out which of our noble deputies will be our next Sheriff!" called the captain. "This contest will test their strength, their endurance, their agility, and their cunning; the winner will be named first mate of the royal ship. You know the rules, you know the game; let's get ready! On my mark!"

As Aloy had by now expected, the captain drew a pistol. I need to go back to that gun shop and buy more pistol ammo myself, Aloy remembered suddenly. I only have the one bullet left, I need to get more so I can show them to both Petra and Varga.

"Get set!" the captain declared.

Frantically, Aloy scanned the line of blue figures, trying to pick out which one was Lanida. She'd seen Lanida once before, hadn't she? The woman in the blue coat who had come at Orns's call when Shands challenged Nil…what had she looked like? A slightly smaller blue figure that seemed to have long waves of light brown hair and a completely clean-shaven face caught her eye. That had to be Lanida, right?

The sound of gunfire started the contest, and all of the deputies charged forward into the mess of structures that lay between them and victory. Looking closer, Aloy could see that there were several stages, the first of which appeared to be just a mess of wires that the deputies had to push through.

"Why do Corsair always mark the start of contests by firing a gun?" she asked Kryse, raising her voice to be heard of the shouting of the crowd. "It seems like a waste of ammo - no, wait," she added suddenly, seeing the look on his face, "don't tell me; it's an old-world tradition, right?"

"Aye!" Kryse laughed. "Ye're catchin' on quick, missy!"

Chuckling herself, Aloy turned back to the arena, glancing up at the display to see the bars beside each name slowly filling - showing their progress, she guessed, how close they were to the end. Below, the deputies had made their ways through the webs of wires, no one clearly ahead or behind just yet. Now they were climbing thick poles, and Aloy was reminded of the brave trails she'd trained on growing up. Up top and ahead, some stands held up a series of hanging ropes, something Aloy had never seen, and the deputies took these differently: some grabbed one, swung themselves back and forth a few times until they got far enough, then grasped the next one and moved to it gently before swinging it in turn; others swung forward quickly from one to the next, using the backswing of the previous rope to give them enough momentum on the next one immediately. Lanida, if Aloy was right about which deputy was which, was one of the quicker ones, and Aloy carefully watched how she positioned her body to make the ropes swing far and fast, remembering Jill's memory about swinging from a tree as a child. Because she was watching so carefully, she was paying enough attention to notice when another fast-swinging deputy that Lanida swung close to reached out and yanked her next rope out of her hand, throwing her off just enough that she slipped and fell to the dusty ground - it wasn't too far of a drop, but the ropes were out of reach from where she ended up.

"No!" Aloy shouted, leaping to her feet, and hers wasn't the only voice that rose from the crowd as Lanida hit the dirt - whether or not everyone else had seen the sabotage, Aloy didn't know, but there was a roar from the audience all the same. Glancing up, Aloy saw Lanida's bar had stopped progressing, confirming that she'd been following the correct blue shape. "No," she repeated. "No, that's not fair!" She turned to Kryse. "Lanida was sabotaged just now," she said. "Isn't that against the rules?"

"Nope," Kryse replied, shaking his head. "Everyone wants to win, contenders have to stay on guard against each other as well as whatever challenge they're up against. And now she's gotta start that section over. Honestly, she might as well give up."

Sure enough, Lanida was running back to the pole she'd climbed up before; above her head, even the slower deputies were more than halfway through that part of the course. Aloy felt her heart sink.

"That's a shame," she barely heard Nil say beside her, and she glanced over to see his expression of disappointment.

"It's not over yet!" Aloy heard herself snap. "I was sabotaged at the start of the Proving and fell far behind, too, and I still won! It's not over until someone finishes the course!"

"I don't doubt you, Aloy," Nil stated, turning his silver eyes on her, "but Lanida isn't you."

"She doesn't have to be," Aloy hissed. "All she has to do is keep going, and make up lost time. Don't give up!" she shouted, turning back to the distant blue speck who almost certainly couldn't hear her. "You can do it! Come on, Lanida, take it back!"

There was no way the distant deputy could hear a single voice from the crowd, but to Aloy's relief, when Lanida got back to the pole she'd climbed before, she immediately leapt on and started climbing again. Some jeering from the stands reminded Aloy of Resh, and she couldn't sit down, her body burning with an urge to move that she couldn't act on, knowing that this was Lanida's fight, not hers.

By now, the other deputies had reached a gap with a single beam overhead and were swinging across; having been so focused on Lanida, Aloy wasn't sure how they ended up swinging, and was surprised when they grabbed onto poles that led up even higher only to turn around and shoot pistols of their own at where the ropes they'd swung from attached to the beam. Some fired more than once, while others were already climbing up towards what looked like thick bolts of cloth tied to the highest branches. It took a few long moments for Lanida to finally pass the hanging ropes, and Aloy watched closely as she drew a grapple not unlike the one Aloy used to rappel down from heights and threw it at the beam, grabbing her rope the moment the hook caught on the wood and swinging across. She only had to fire one shot to detach her grapple and take it back, and then she was climbing; she was definitely faster at several of these tasks than the other deputies, but not enough so to make up for the loss she'd suffered.

One by one, the rolls of cloth dropped to display what Aloy could only interpret as massive flags, each one unique to the deputy who rode it back down to the ground. Lanida was still climbing to hers, and the course was more than half-over. The other deputies came to gates blocked by what looked like typical holographic mechanisms, stopping to start tapping away at whatever displays their Focuses described before them, and suddenly, Aloy felt Kryse's hand on her arm.

"Sit down, little lady," he called to her. "We're gonna be here a while."

"What do you mean?" Aloy asked, though she did return to her seat.

"The puzzle they're doing," Kryse said, pointing at the deputies. "It's a tricky one. Orns didn't pull any punches."

"Puzzle?" Aloy repeated. She knew the word - Rost had compared the training dummies she'd helped him put together so she could practice her archery to 'puzzles', and Aloy had assumed the word referred to putting pieces together to build a whole. But here… "What are they putting together?"

"It's a matter of organizing patterns," Kryse told her. "A logic puzzle, y'know? I've heard of it, though I've never seen it…you get four sets of shapes, each of them in four different colors, and you have to arrange them in a grid so no color or shape is repeated in any row or column. We only have a few logic puzzles for use in these contests, but each one is only used every few generations, just so no one can ever go into a contest having already solved it, to keep things fair."

Aloy turned back to the arena, then glanced up at the display projected over the dome. The names were all listed, and only Lanida's bar was still progressing, but next to every name besides hers was a square made of smaller squares, four long and four wide - a 'grid', Aloy had to assume. As she watched, the squares lit up in green, only for entire rows or columns to turn red.

It took too long, but Lanida finally managed to release her flag and drop down to the ground, dashing for her own holographic display. For a minute, she stood still; then she shifted, lifted a hand, and started tapping. Beside her name, four squares lit up diagonally, one corner to the other, and then three more lit, one in the top three rows each. It was already the most green squares any of the displays were showing, and for a few moments, nothing else happened on Lanida's display, while more squares lit up and turned red on the others.

There was almost nothing to see for a while, and Aloy understood why Kryse had told her to sit down. Without a better idea of exactly what the deputies were trying and failing to do, Aloy could only watch and hope that what she was seeing was good. The crowd kept cheering and making other sorts of noise, but Aloy just sat and waited, pondering the idea of a 'logic puzzle'. It was an interesting sort of test, not just of physical capability but of cunning, and she appreciated it, even wondered how she would fare with one herself. In a way, it also reminded her of Dizzy Dash, but since it was to an end in this case, she couldn't dismiss it as pointless.

Red started flashing on Lanida's display, but she had more squares lit overall than anyone else, so Aloy had to assume she had managed to get ahead despite the sabotage. That assumption didn't seem quite so likely as more green began to appear on the other displays, though, with little progress for Lanida. Then, suddenly, her display stopped changing for a minute, followed by a few green flashes and-

"She's through!" Aloy exclaimed, leaping from her seat again as Lanida charged through the open gate, now far ahead of the other deputies.

"Sun and shadow!" Nil gasped at the same time Kryse exclaimed "Great Mother Ocean!" A similar sentiment erupted from the rest of the crowd, voices all exploding into the sky - and to Aloy's ear, a good number of them sounded far from happy. Lanida ignored it all and ran forward, past the gate that had opened for her once she'd finished the 'puzzle' and to a mound of heavy sacks, which for all Aloy knew held rocks. Heaving three of the enormous bags onto her back, the deputy all but stumbled forward, but though she was significantly slowed, she didn't stop, pushing through what appeared to be the final challenge. Another deputy made it through the 'puzzle' section a few moments later, lifting his three sacks with what looked like a bit more ease than Lanida had.

"Come on, Lanida!" Aloy yelled without meaning to. "Come on, come on! Faster!"

The woman deputy was halfway across the stretch she had to carry the bags through, and the man behind her was also badly slowed by his burden, but he was a tiny bit faster than she was, enough to make Aloy worry. Aloy continued shouting, her voice joining in the cacophony that surrounded her, and Nil started adding his own encouragements to the air a few moments later, to her surprise; when she glanced over at him, his silver eyes were unusually intense, not the brightest she'd ever seen but clearly invested.

Down below, two more deputies had entered the final hurdle, and the one closest to Lanida was gaining on her, but she was still pushing ahead. Either her pace had picked up or the man behind her was slowing, because the gap between them started to stabilize, at just a couple of paces' distance; it could go either way depending on what happened when they reached their goal, and Aloy's vocalizations lost all semblance of coherence, her body again burning with the urge to do something but unable to act.

At last, Lanida heaved her sacks onto what looked like a large plate. The final gate between her and the button Kryse had pointed out swung open, and she lunged forward, closely followed by the deputy who'd been hot on her heels. He was faster, but she still had her lead, and the two of them reached the waiting captain at what seemed like nearly the same moment - it wasn't as clear a victory as Aloy's had been. What looked like blasts from a Deathbringer cannon shot into the air and exploded against the dome, releasing bursts of sparks of all sorts of colors - fireworks, they must have been - and when Aloy looked up at the display overhead, she saw that Lanida's name was glowing green.

"The winner," called the captain, raising the hand of the woman who even from a distance looked like she was about to fall over, "and your next Sheriff: Deputy Lanida!"

The audience exploded into earsplitting noise, but instead of being bothered, Aloy found herself taking part, jumping and shouting with elation. Beside her, Nil clapped his hands together, and Kryse whooped and whistled with his fists over his head. It felt…right, somehow, to make noise, to be part of this crowd, to share in this with a tribe, and Aloy felt that the grin splitting her face wasn't just joy that Lanida had won.

Of course, not everyone was happy. The deputy who'd very nearly claimed victory was gesturing wildly enough to be seen from the stands, probably contesting the call - as Bast had, when Aloy had won the Proving. Between that and what happened earlier, she wondered if he was the same deputy who had tried to sabotage Lanida at the start. But the call wasn't taken back, and some of the other deputies who were just making their way to the finish line appeared to be offering Lanida their congratulations.

"That's the end of this contest," announced a deep voice that Aloy recognized as belonging to Orns, and she turned to the splotch of purple across the arena. "Lanida is now first mate of the royal ship, it is done. Captains, please begin setting up for the next contest."

And that was all. The deputies headed for the exit to the arena, spectators started leaving the stands, and Aloy wanted to go with them, though she was penned in by Kryse and Nil.

"You don't wanna watch the next show, little lady?" Kryse inquired as she started pushing past him.

"No thanks," Aloy replied. "I'd actually like to talk to Lanida, if I can."

"Reckon she'll be celebrating with a good drink," Kryse chuckled, getting to his own feet to follow behind her. "And I wouldn't say no to one myself. Let's all head to the watering hole, aye?"

"I'll pay," Aloy said quickly, again feeling the sacks of coins strapped to her armor.

"Hah! If you insist!" Kryse laughed.

Leaving was a trying experience - never had Aloy been so pressed together by people she didn't feel inclined to push against, and she started to feel trapped. Afraid of losing her companions, she reached over and gripped Nil's hand. It took too long before they were outside, and Aloy wanted to draw her weapons and start cutting her way through the crowd, but Nil's hand in hers helped her restrain herself, and once they were back under the midday sun, the packed swarm dispersed slightly, allowing her to breathe again.

"Where to?" she asked Kryse. "We'll follow you."

The Corsair loner nodded and headed towards the shore, the outlanders right behind him.

"Are you alright?" Nil murmured to Aloy.

"I'm fine," she said quickly, taking her hand back. "Just…not used to thick crowds, that's all."

Unfortunately, a lot of that thick crowd seemed to have the same idea she did, as most of the people emerging from the arena were headed in the same direction as Kryse. All around her, people were talking and laughing, the noise never stopped, but she pressed on, determined to congratulate Lanida in person, and eventually they came in sight of the structure where she'd found Nil the previous day. Looking closer, Aloy wondered if maybe this was one of few places that was intact even when the festival wasn't going - though it had no walls to speak of, it seemed too big and too solid to bother taking apart and putting back together again.

Flashes of blue told Aloy that the deputies that had run in the contest were already there, which hopefully meant Lanida was too. As with Nil, a particularly thick knot of people that had clustered a few paces under the thatched roof of the 'watering hole' probably indicated the location of the victor, and Aloy didn't have to follow Kryse to start pushing her way through the group to meet the lady deputy who would make history for her tribe.

Lanida sat at the long table, a large wooden mug in hand, but though people were continuously bombarding her with noise, she didn't seem to be engaging with anyone. Her light brown hair was loose and straight as an arrow down to the middle of her back, the kind of hair that didn't need to be bound to keep it from becoming matted because it just didn't like to twist. She was broader than Aloy, and significantly taller, but her hands were just as tough, and her brown eyes were guarded when she glanced around at everyone shouting at her. Aloy felt a sort of kinship with the Corsair woman, and that was enough for her to step forward, closer than anyone else seemed to be getting.

"Congratulations on winning," Aloy said. "How'd you do it?"

The deputy's eyes locked onto Aloy's, her lips twisting into a bitter scowl. "As I keep telling everyone else who accuses me of cheating, I've thought about it before," she growled, her voice so harsh Aloy wondered if she made it rough on purpose so men would take her more seriously.

"I wasn't accusing you of cheating," Aloy stated. "If anything, the deputy who made you fall at the ropes part was the cheater. I've run in a contest where no one wanted me to win, and someone sabotaged me at the start, too, but I managed to win regardless, just like you. I knew you could do it, and I'm glad you did."

Something in Lanida's expression shifted, though it didn't quite become more pleasant. Even so, she turned in her seat to face Aloy. "You're the outlander girl," she remarked.

"I'm Aloy," Aloy nodded.

"Hmph. What's it to me what you think?" she asked.

Aloy blinked. "I just wanted to say that I was cheering for you and I knew you could win even though no one wanted you to," she said; "if you don't want to accept it, that's your business."

Lanida tilted her head…then gave a slight half-smile. "Heh. I like ye," she said. "It's a man's world, girl; guessing you've had yer trouble with it too?"

"No," Aloy answered, shaking her head, "women run things where I come from. I was an outcast for entirely unrelated reasons."

"Do they, now?" Lanida chuckled. "What, we got some real-life Amazons in the east?"

"The Nora," Aloy explained. "Only women can lead the Nora tribe, women who speak for generations."

"And what's that mean?" Lanida asked.

"It means they have children," Aloy replied.

"Hah," Lanida snickered. "Yeah, men give us no credit, aye? We've always had to be stronger."

"As I said, women get credit where I come from," Aloy smiled.

"Hmm." Lanida smiled back. "The puzzle had no limits on the diagonals of the grid," she said. "I've thought about the puzzles that can crop up in contests ever since I was made first mate of my crew twenty years ago, knowing I'd have to set an example if I was going to be a captain, maybe even a deputy. For this one, I figured it'd be simpler to just pick one of the shapes and lay them out on a diagonal line, that way they'd be spaced easily. Picked the color that ended up on bottom and spaced it out along the other three lines, then figured I might as well do the same trick along the other diagonal. It was still tricky after that, but having at least four shapes in a spot I knew I didn't have to undo gave me an easier time than the meatheads, aye?"

"I…see," Aloy half-lied, having not seen the actual puzzle itself. "I've never seen a challenge like that, but I'm glad you knew what you were doing."

"Aye," Lanida nodded.

"So…what will you do now?" Aloy questioned.

"Work hard to be ready to lead my tribe right," Lanida answered, and her scowl returned. "Shands was a lunatic, he'd've driven us into a tempest if yer partner hadn't taken him down."

"He wanted to name you as his first mate," Aloy pointed out.

"I wouldn't've lived to don the purple coat if he had, no one would've," the deputy stated. "Orns has been a fine Sheriff, led our tribe firmly but fairly, and I aim to do the same. I may need to have a firmer hand on the wheel than most, seeing as how half these idiots won't take a woman's leadership seriously, but I'll see to it we all survive into the coming ages. The winds of change are a-blowing, little lady, and we need to adapt to survive."

"I'm sure you'll do a good job," Aloy said, smiling.

"Hmm…Care to have a drink?" Lanida asked abruptly. "Everyone gets one on the house, I'm paying."

"I can pay for my own," Aloy told her hurriedly, and she gestured to her sacks of money. "I need to find something to spend all this on before the festival's over."

"Hah!" Lanida laughed. "Well, best of luck to ye, with whatever ye're after. May your seas stay calm, and your horizon clear of storms."

"Yours too," Aloy nodded.

"Oh, they won't, little missy," Lanida chuckled. "You mark my words: they won't."

"Neither will mine," Aloy smirked.

"Then hold yer rudder firm," Lanida said. "Whatever storms are a'coming, don't let 'em sway you from yer course."

"I won't," Aloy promised, "and something tells me you won't, either."

With that, she turned to push back through the crowd, which parted for her much more readily this time. Just outside the wall of bodies, Nil and Kryse were standing by, apparently waiting for her.

"Say what you needed to?" Kryse inquired.

"Yeah," Aloy nodded, and she smiled. "She'll be a great Sheriff."

"Hah!" Kryse laughed. "Well, I don't know about you, but I could go for a drink or three. Care to join me?"

"I'll only have one, but sure," Aloy shrugged.

Together, the three of them moved to a much less raucous part of the building, then sat down at the long table that ran around a thick set of contraptions and bottles. Kryse called to the 'barkeep', and they ordered their drinks, Aloy choosing to get another piña colada so she could enjoy it properly. What followed was a strange situation that Aloy had to assume was normal for everyone but her: sitting and talking with friends about nothing in particular. Kryse had plenty of stories to tell about contests past, and those just of the ones he'd personally seen. Aloy soon offered comparisons to the Proving, while Nil eventually decided to start talking about the Sun-Ring under Jiran's reign. This reminder of his past, of the Carja war that had nearly led to the end of the world that only she had been able to stop, made Aloy more inclined to silently drink her sweetened ice while glancing around and trying not to listen. Most of the Corsair were still crowded around the end of the 'bar' where Lanida sat even a couple of hours later, and some of them stood back in pairs or small groups, muttering to each other. Nil's talk of the Sun-Ring…people standing back and muttering…

"Cinnabar Sands!" Aloy suddenly exclaimed, cutting Nil off from a telling of some Oseram facing off against Behemoths.

"What's that?" Kryse asked, but Aloy's eyes were focused on Nil.

"I've heard of Cinnabar Sands," she remembered out loud. "There were…no survivors."

The sparkle that had been in Nil's silver irises vanished, his smile dropping all at once, and he sighed heavily, turning to the table and away from his companions. "Yeah," he mumbled into his drink. "That's right. No survivors. Only one soul made it out of that battle alive, and you're looking at him."

"That…" Aloy frowned, leaning down to try to glimpse his expression where he was partly turned away from her. "You…don't sound proud of it," she said. "That sounds like something you'd be happy about…Why are you so grim?"

"I can never be proud of the slaughter at Cinnabar Sands," Nil stated. "It will forever be a stain on my honor." He drank deeply, seemingly not inclined to say more.

"Why?" Aloy asked softly.

Nil sighed again, then glanced over at her, and at Kryse.

"I think I'll be getting back to my post," Kryse said without any more prompting. "Good to talk to y'all, don't be strangers."

"Kryse," Aloy began, turning to their friend as he hopped down from his stool.

"No, it's fine, missy, I know private business when I see it," he assured her, giving her a smile. "We'll pick this up another time, aye?"

"Of course," Aloy promised, nodding. "Uh, may your seas stay calm and your horizon clear of storms, in the meantime."

"Hah! Yours too, little lady!" Kryse laughed, and he walked away, leaving Aloy alone with her partner.

"Right," Aloy said softly, and she turned back to Nil. "So. Cinnabar Sands. What happened?"

"Just ask Avad when we go back," Nil grumbled. "He knows enough of the story."

"I don't want to hear 'enough' of the story," Aloy stated; "I want to hear the whole story, and I want to hear it from you."

"The whole story…" Nil sighed, almost half-chuckling. Taking a deep breath, he finally lifted his head to meet her eyes. "Tell me your secrets and I'll tell you mine," he said; "that was our deal from the start. Tell me a secret of yours and I'll tell you what you're asking."

Something in his expression told Aloy he wasn't expecting her to have any more secrets to tell, but remembering how he'd dismissed her remark about blueberries the previous night, she set her jaw and nodded. "Okay then," she said, a bit scathingly. "When I was eight, my training wasn't going very well, and I was getting impatient and angry, at myself and at the Nora. The Nora grow blueberries, but the berries are for the tribe, and outcasts aren't allowed to harvest or trade anything with proper tribesmen. I was angry that I was going to have to wait until I was eighteen to even eat fruit, the only berries I'd ever eaten were salvebrush and those were disgusting, but Rost had told me the berries the tribe grew were sweet. So, one night in late summer, I snuck out of Rost's house and climbed down to the fields to try them." She swallowed, remembering, her irritation at Nil giving way to regret at the memory. "I was only going to eat one or two," she said, her voice softening, "I really was. I just wanted to know what they tasted like. But they were so sweet…I'd never eaten anything sweet before in my life, and I didn't want to stop eating them. I picked a bush clean, then moved on to the next, and then another, I didn't even think about how much I was eating or what might happen in the morning, I couldn't stop myself. Even when I started to feel sick, I ignored it and just kept gorging myself until I couldn't stand anymore. When I hit the ground, so wracked with pain that I could hardly move, that was when I realized I'd gone too far; I knew I couldn't risk being found in the bushes by the tribe the next day, I had to get home, but every step was painful, and I couldn't climb up the mountain the short way in front because I just didn't have the strength, I had to drag myself up the foot path around the back - just taking the slipwire to get to it was an ordeal, I vomited as soon as I hit the ground. I threw up twice more on the way, and by the time I finally got back, it was almost dawn, and Rost had noticed I was missing. I couldn't hide from him what I'd done, and he didn't do anything to comfort me. For two days, I was stuck lying in the dirt, unable to move, with my body purging by every possible means, and Rost did the bare minimum to keep me alive, lecturing me all the while. 'Remember this pain, Aloy,' he said, 'this is how All-Mother punishes thieves.' And now, to this day, I can't even imagine taking something that isn't mine without feeling sick…which is probably for the best. But I can't taste blueberries without feeling sick, either."

Nil stared at her for a long minute after she finished, his jaw slack.

"…Your turn," Aloy finally told him.

"I…" Nil shook his head. "Aloy…I can't imagine you doing something like that. Gorging yourself on fruit that isn't yours, stealing for the most selfish of reasons…that's not like you. You're too good of a person, too pure of a light."

"I'm starting to think no one in this world is purely good, Nil," Aloy said. "I think even the best people have some bad in them. But maybe even the worst people have some good in them, too…like you do."

"No," Nil shook his head. "There's no good in me, Aloy."

"Cinnabar Sands?" Aloy prompted.

He sighed heavily, drained his glass, then sighed again. "You want to know the whole story?" he asked.

"Yes," Aloy told him. "I want to know everything."

Another sigh. "Fine…" He sat up, facing her, his silver eyes distant and pained. "I haven't told HADES this story yet, but I guess I might as well get used to it by telling you…"

"You can tell us both," Aloy pointed out, taking off her Focus.

"No, no," Nil said, "it'll be a different sort of telling with him. For now…well…

"I'd been raiding the Utaru for almost a year," he began, and Aloy put her Focus back on. "Things had already gotten strained between me and Janeva, with me still pestering her, desperate for my idol to validate me. One day, we came back from a raid, and…I couldn't find her. I had her schedule memorized, I always knew where she was supposed to be, but suddenly, she wasn't anywhere. I asked around, first commoners, then my commanders, until eventually I found out that she'd requested a change in assignment. From what I could gather, her request essentially came down to, 'Please send me out whenever Aren is set to come back and don't ever station me anywhere he can find me.'" Closing his eyes, he pressed his lips together in pain. "Knowing her, I wouldn't be surprised if those were her exact words.

"I was heartbroken. For months, I'd worked to convince myself that if I just kept asking, someday she'd give me a different answer, that she and I were the same and she would validate me for how I felt about killing. I had no choice; I couldn't bear the thought that my sister, my idol, the person around whom I'd built my whole life, was incompatible with my identity. That day, I had to accept that she would never accept me. It burned me up inside, a wound to my core that I couldn't bear and that refused to heal.

"Not even a couple of hours after I found this out, we got word that a band of Tenakth were laying siege to Blazon Arch," he went on, blinking back his pain. "Blazon Arch isn't much of a settlement, if you've seen it, not many civilians live there, it's mostly a trading and military post, for ease of supply exchange between Sunfall and Brightmarket and keeping an eye out for the occasional bandits from the Forbidden West, or so I'm told. Still, without easy access to Sunfall, our secondary Sun-Ring, Jiran's plans would be more difficult to carry out, which is presumably why the Tenakth were trying to take it from us. There may have been some Oseram involved, too, I'm not sure…In any case, soldiers were sent out to deal with the invading army, and I was one of them. Since Blazon Arch is most defensible by water, the siege was on land, meaning we had to take the long route by land ourselves; while we marched, my confusion and longing over my sister festered, turning into resentment and rage, and when we got there…" He sighed heavily. "I don't remember much," he said. "I remember drawing my bow and my blade, and then…I don't know. There was the song of arrows piercing air and skin, the feel of blood on my hands and my face, the screams of the dying…and red. Not just the red of blood, it was like red was the only color I could see. I didn't come to until there was nothing left to kill." He stopped then, and the look in his eyes was tense, as though he was waiting for Aloy to strike him.

Aloy tilted her head. "I…don't understand," she said softly.

"I killed everyone there that day," Nil told her, his expression growing even more pointed, almost pleading, though still guarded as though waiting for an attack. "Everyone, Aloy."

"I'm sure you weren't the only person who killed in that fight," Aloy pointed out, still not following.

"Oh, I'm sure a few of them managed to kill each other," Nil shrugged impatiently, "but anyone near me died…including my own tribesmen. I killed my own men, Aloy, men who trusted me, even men I called my friends."

She blinked, her heart sinking into her stomach as she understood. He'd killed everyone…including the people he was supposed to be working with.

"I didn't mean to," he sighed, shaking his head. "I just…I lost control. I didn't know or care who I was killing, so lost in the need to slaughter that no one was safe from me. If there were any innocents at Blazon Arch that day, I killed them too - I killed the soldiers we were there to help, I killed the men I marched into battle with, I killed our enemies…everyone died, except me."

"I…I thought you said what you did was 'acceptable, under the circumstances'," Aloy managed, only able to add a bit of bite to her voice.

"We were at war," Nil shrugged. "It was a victory, and at the time, that was all that mattered."

"But you still lied to me," Aloy said. "Why did you dodge the question when I asked? I thought you didn't like playing games."

"I don't, but I can when I must," Nil stated, and Aloy remembered, with some bitterness, saying the same about him to Sylens a month earlier. "We barely knew each other back then; I didn't want you to think I wasn't honorable, especially not when I had hopes for how our partnership would end."

Aloy could only shake her head.

"When I realized what I'd done, I passed out," he went on after a moment. "Some runners found me later, the lack of messages or signals of any sort being sent from the outpost must have alarmed someone posted somewhere…but eventually, they found me, the only survivor of Cinnabar Sands. When they asked me what happened, I told them I wasn't entirely sure, but even if I don't remember what I did, I am sure what happened. But I didn't want to get thrown in the Sun-Ring, so I lied to everyone about it. I claimed that I didn't remember much, but that the Tenakth scum had already killed everyone when we got there and they were a lot tougher than we'd expected, that I was lucky to be alive."

"What happened to not seeing the point in evading blame?" Aloy interrupted pointedly. "I thought you didn't avoid reality."

"Keep in mind that this was before my time in Sunstone Rock, I had yet to come into my own," Nil sighed, though she hadn't missed him wince. "Lying for personal gain is a necessity for any Carja, it was far from the first time I deceived my superiors. Besides, it wasn't as though I tried very hard - I said what I said in a moment of panic, and no one questioned me further; I was nothing if not a good soldier, no one suspected at the time that I was capable of turning on my own tribesmen. Of course, whoever had to clean up the mess figured out pretty quickly that my story didn't make sense, it wasn't long before rumors were circulating Meridian that I'd killed everyone in a wild frenzy of shadowed madness, but by then, it was entirely in the hands of our Sun-King. I don't know if Jiran didn't hear the rumors, or if he just didn't care…Maybe the possibility that I was a murderer might have made him like me more - he wasn't the Mad Sun-King for nothing, after all, and a conversation I had with Helis once actually suggested that was the case. Either way, instead of being punished or even investigated, I was immediately promoted to raiding the Tenakth…a promotion I couldn't feel proud of, for a reason I didn't understand at the time.

"When Avad took the throne, he asked about the rumors, and since I had nothing to live for anymore, I decided to finally end the lie. I confessed everything readily, fully expecting to be executed, and I was fine with that; the life I wanted to live was over, without Jiran leading the tribe I wouldn't be sent out to keep killing anymore. But then…" Nil sighed, the sound ending in a sort of mirthless chuckle. "Then Avad asked if I regretted what I'd done. I was tired of lies, so I said yes."

"Yes?" Aloy asked, surprised. "You do regret it?"

"I do," Nil nodded, finally meeting her gaze again, and his silver eyes held a look that didn't suit him - not quite shame or remorse, not quite pain or horror, but something in between. Regret, Aloy supposed, was the only word that really described it. "Plenty of the people who died that day trusted me, wouldn't have thought to defend themselves against me; sometimes I still wonder what they might have been thinking when I cut their throats. It's as I said, the slaughter at Cinnabar Sands will forever be a stain on my honor. I didn't know that at the time, but I knew I wasn't proud of what I'd done, and when I told Avad as much, he sentenced me to prison time." He frowned. "I don't know if he was hoping to save me as he failed to save his father, but he seemed to think I could be rehabilitated."

"And you were," Aloy pointed out, if a bit faintly.

"That doesn't change what I did," Nil stated. "I'm a murderer." Then he shrugged. "Now you know. Now you know why Avad begged you not to trust me, and why you can't care about me."

Closing her eyes, Aloy took two deep breaths, then turned to the table and drank from her mostly-melted beverage until the tall glass cup was empty. It was a lot to process, and certainly meant Nil was a much worse person than she had assumed, but having also seen how much Janeva meant to him, she could sort of understand how it had happened. He'd snapped, and it certainly explained his look of horror last night when she'd mentioned losing control herself, but…maybe she would have done the same thing, in his place, even not loving bloodshed like he did. That was certainly a terrifying thought.

"…Aloy?" The question came after several long, tense minutes of silence between the tribeless partners.

"I…" Aloy took one more deep breath, then turned back to him. "I'm fine. And…well, it…the past doesn't really change anything."

He blinked. "You're not saying you forgive me?" he asked.

"I'm not going to say that what you did was okay," Aloy told him, "because it's not. Even in war, what you did was unacceptable. But…knowing why it happened, and knowing that you've been punished for it, and knowing that you've changed since then and would never do something like that again, I…I can't hold it against you now."

"Yes you can," he hissed.

"Not fairly," Aloy responded, shaking her head. "You weren't yourself that day, Nil."

"Wasn't I?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "I'd argue that I was at my purest that day, without reasons or thought or humanity-"

"Or honor," Aloy pointed out. "You had no honor in that fight, and your honor is such a fundamental part of who you are. I know you'd never do something like that again, I've seen the extent of your self-restraint even when you snap, I know how much you value your integrity and how committed you are to making the most of your identity. You're not a monster."

"Don't make excuses for me," he growled. "If there's one thing I'm less fond of than games, it's excuses."

"I'm not excusing it," Aloy repeated. "It's not okay. But you've been punished, and you're sorry."

"Not for the killing," Nil said. "Didn't you say the day we met that I do the right things for the wrong reasons? I still disagree, but in this case, I know I feel the right thing for the wrong reasons."

"They're the only reasons you can care about," Aloy said. "I know you're not a good person, Nil, and I'd never say you are…but for a bloodthirsty lunatic, you make the best of it. I know I can trust you, because everything we've shared since coming west proves it, and I know you wouldn't do something like that again, because you know who you are, and something like that isn't you." She shook her head again, harder. "I can't undo what you did that day," she said, "holding a grudge against you won't bring back the lives you took; and you can't undo what you did either, what's done is done. But I know that you would take it back if you could, and you've suffered your judgment already, the dead have had their justice, so…that's enough. It has to be."

"You give too much for me, Aloy," Nil sighed, eyeing his empty glass and clearly wishing he had more to drink.

"You've saved my life repeatedly out here," Aloy reminded him. "You've made me feel truly understood and supported and…and happy, like no one and nothing else ever has. You've given me more than I've ever had, so the least I can do is accept that you're not the same person you were at Cinnabar Sands, and let it go. You're not a monster - you might have the potential to be one, more so than most people, but you won't let yourself be that way, and part of that comes from having seen what happens when you do. You…did a horrible thing, Nil, but you learned from it and vowed never to do it again, and that's more than some people can claim."

"Hm," he grunted, not meeting her eyes.

"Something you did before we met doesn't change what we've shared since," Aloy told him, and she reached over and touched her fingers to his hand; she felt him jump, and he met her gaze again, silver eyes wide with shock. "You're not a good person, Nil, but there's good in you; I know there is, because I've seen it, and that's why you're my partner, my mate. This doesn't change any of that. And I know you've been punished for your crime - you lost your family, your home, your tribe, and your name, and as much as you can tell me you don't need any of those things, I know the loss hurt you. And you definitely deserve that, it was fair. But now it's over and done, all of it is. It's not my place to judge you for something you regret and have already paid for."

"It's your place to-" Nil suddenly cut off, shaking his head. "Do you really forgive me?" he asked instead.

"'Forgive' is a strong word," Aloy admitted. "It's not okay. But I'm willing to let it go, after everything we've shared, and I know I don't have to worry about you losing control and turning on me. That's…enough."

Silence hung heavy between them for a minute, but Aloy didn't pull her hand away, and neither did Nil.

Eventually, Aloy looked away to glance out from under the thatch roof that shielded them from the sun, checking the time and finding that it was surprisingly late - talking to Kryse must have taken a lot longer than it had seemed to, it would be dusk soon. With nothing else to be said about Nil's past, and the sense that to discuss something else wouldn't be appropriate, especially without Kryse, Aloy sighed.

"Well," she said, "I'm done with my drink, and I'm not going to buy another. Let's go visit Rhoda, see if my dress is ready."

She hopped off her stool, and Nil stood up too, giving a growl of disapproval. Ignoring him, Aloy headed back into the crowds of the festival, hoping to find the 'seamstress' without too much trouble. Knowing that Rhoda had stopped them in the northern section of the settlement, she began making her way towards the gap in the wall that led to their camp; before she could forget again, she sought out the gun shop she'd seen earlier and bought another pack of ammo for the pistol she'd used to finish off the first Annihilator, then followed the same path as before until she reached tent where Rhoda had taken her measurements, the cloth structure easy to locate among all the ramshackle wooden booths. The Corsair woman herself wasn't outside, and Aloy hesitated a moment at the entrance before choosing to knock on one of the wooden posts that held it up.

"Rhoda?" she called. "It's Aloy."

"One moment!" came a cheerful voice, and after a minute, the heavyset woman came bustling out to meet her customer. "Aloy," she greeted. "Good to see ya. I'm just about finished, come on in out of the hot sun and I'll have ya dolled up in no time."

Nodding, Aloy stepped inside the tent, though Nil didn't follow. Wondering what exactly his problem was, Aloy glanced back at him, then resignedly made her way to where she'd been measured earlier.

"Rub this on yer armpits," Rhoda told her, handing her a chunk of a strange, waxy substance. "It'll keep ye from sweating all over the cloth and ruining it." And she bustled away to elsewhere in the tent without waiting for a response.

"Did you hear Lanida won the contest?" Aloy asked the vanishing woman.

"Oh, aye!" the seamstress answered. "Delightful, ain't it? Our first lady leader. Times are a-changing, little lady."

"Yeah," Aloy said softly. Raising her voice, she added, "Should I take off my armor now?"

"Please do!" answered the hidden woman. "Get all ready, just the strap on yer chest and yer leggings, and that necklace - I managed to find some beads that fit in with it just fine, I'm hoping it'll work. Oh, I got the cobbler to fit some boots fer ya too, a full fair getup!"

"That's not…" Aloy shook her head but chose not to argue, unstrapping her packs and weapons before getting to work on the fastenings of her armor. It had already been a long day, and with a moment of relative peace, as she undressed and rubbed the strange chunk under her arms, she thought through some things. "Hey, Rhoda?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"You said earlier that…as long as you have good cloth to work with, you're happy," Aloy said.

"Aye!" chortled the seamstress. "Working with cloth is just where I belong."

"Did you…always feel that way?" Aloy inquired.

"Oh, goodness, no!" Rhoda laughed. "Sewing's an old family business, my mama was the best seamstress of the tribe before me, and when I was a girl, I wanted nothing to do with any of it - I wanted to be a deck hand, or a hunter, I wanted excitement and danger! But when I was eighteen, mama fell ill while she was hard at work on a wedding dress for a client from another crew, so she couldn't finish it; she begged me to get it done, said she'd never ask me to pick up a needle again so long as I got this one last piece finished for her. I didn't want to, but I loved my mama, so I made myself do it, and when it was done…well, the darnedest thing happened: I wished it wasn't." Another chuckle came from elsewhere in the tent. "I wanted to keep sewing. Getting all the cloth and the beading and embroidery just right, it felt…well, it felt right, y'know? I wanted to make more. I fought it a good couple o' years after that, too, but nothing else ever felt so good or so right as sewing, and when mama finally passed away, I gave up and took her place. It may not be the excitement I dreamed of as a girl, but I'm happier this way. And hey…" A shuffling nearby told Aloy that the seamstress was coming over. "I might never have known sewing felt right until I'd tried things that felt wrong, y'know? Some say ya just know when ya know, but I say ya can't know what's right until ye've felt the alternative firsthand."

With that, the portly woman came into the cloth room carrying a shimmering, beaded dress and a pair of leather boots with patterns all along the outsides.

"Go on now, missy, try it on!" she urged. "I'm itching to see how it looks on ya!"

A little nervously, Aloy took the dress. The fabric was so smooth and light, it was like nothing she'd ever seen or felt before, and the front was decorated with swirling designs of red, blue, and black beads that might just match her precious necklace. After struggling a moment to bunch up the skirt, Aloy slid her arms into the long, loose sleeves and drew the garment over her head, pulling it down and finally letting it fall until it reached her ankles. Shifting around, she tugged the cord around her neck so her necklace would rest among the beading, then just moved, trying to settle into the strange outfit. Compared to anything else she'd ever worn, it felt like it weighed nothing at all, and the looseness around her arms was strange, she was used to either tight armor or going completely sleeveless.

"Well, don't you look lovely?!" Rhoda exclaimed, clapping her hands together in apparent delight. "Like a princess out of the Old Ones' stories! I dare say I outdid myself! Go on, put on the boots too," she encouraged. "A look's not complete without the shoes!"

Still adjusting to the weightless cloth, Aloy sat down and started tugging on the ornate boots. They would only come halfway up her calves, and they were in a couple of pieces, with laces up the front that would hold them to her legs. Outside, they were tough and patterned with a filigree of flowers and leaves and whorls, but on the inside they were lined with rabbit fur, such softness that Aloy had never put on her feet, even through her leather wrappings she could feel the warm cushiness of the design. The heels were oddly thick, and when she tied the laces and stood again, she found herself pushed up, as though a couple of finger widths had been added to her height.

"Absolutely ravishing!" Rhoda beamed. "I knew that cloth was meant for ya! Oh, but don't take my word for it now…"

Before Aloy could even respond, Rhoda rushed out of the room. Aloy heard a shuffling, a thunking, a grunt of effort, and more shuffling as Rhoda came back, carrying a massive metal plank that was taller than Aloy.

"See fer yerself!" Rhoda finished, turning the strange structure she carried around and setting it down in front of Aloy.

Somehow, the surface Rhoda presented gave a perfect reflection, far clearer than any Aloy had seen in metal or water, it was as though Aloy was looking at herself from the outside. What she saw was…well, Aloy didn't quite know how to feel about it. The dress hugged her form and covered most of her scars, it shimmered and fluttered as she moved, her hair looked redder and her eyes looked greener, and she looked…strange, not at all like herself, but beautiful in a way she'd never thought of herself as. It looked good, and utterly foreign - like everything else she'd experienced in this festival, it was a form of luxury she'd never known and wasn't used to.

But, she realized after a moment's consideration, she liked it.

"Well?" Rhoda asked, and when Aloy glanced over, she saw the seamstress grinning ear to ear. "Whaddaya think?"

"It's…incredible," Aloy answered honestly. "I've never had anything like this. Thank you, Rhoda, I love it."

"I'm glad ye're pleased with my work, miss!" Rhoda preened. "Now, between the boots and the beading, on top o' the dress itself, that'll be seven thousand and five hundred coins."

"Each full bag is a thousand, right?" Aloy asked, moving to where she'd left her sacks of coins. Setting aside the one she'd gotten partway through, she counted out eight full sacks and set them aside. "You can have all of these," she told Rhoda. "It's eight thousand, but I really don't need all that money."

"Ya sure?" Rhoda asked. "That's quite a bonus, seven-thousand-five-hundred is a fair price."

"I'm sure," Aloy insisted, smiling at her as she reached for her packs.

"Well, in that case," Rhoda said, and she quickly left again, then came back just as Aloy was shouldering her weapons with a perfect sphere of the same waxy substance she'd instructed Aloy to use earlier. "Take this," she told Aloy. "It's fresh, and all yers. Wouldn't wanna ruin such a fine dress! That fabric ain't easy to wash."

"Thank you," Aloy said, taking the ball and wrapping it in a spare oilskin before tucking it into her pack, already cringing at the thought of giving such delicate cloth a vigorous scrubbing on a rock. "I'll try to keep it clean."

"See that ye do," Rhoda nodded. She smiled and added, "Shall we show yer man yer new threads?"

Aloy smirked back and nodded, already headed out of the tent. It was strange to walk with so little burdening her - her armor was stowed away in her pack, most of the sacks of metal coins were gone, and she only had two weapons on her - and even more so for the fabric swishing around her legs that made her feel like she couldn't run properly if the need arose, but she liked it, for reasons she couldn't quite articulate just yet.

Outside, in the late afternoon sun, Nil was waiting, and with a grin, Aloy stepped outside to show him her new finery. His silver eyes widened as she emerged, his jaw slackening with shock, before he took a step back, his expression morphing into something like…horror?

"What do you think?" Aloy asked cheerfully.

Nil shook his head; the horror was turning into what she could only interpret as disgust. "You look ridiculous," he scoffed. "Take that off, that's repulsive."

"Well, I never!" huffed Rhoda, who had just come out of the tent herself; when Aloy glanced at the seamstress, her hands were on her hips, lips pursed in a scowl. "I worked my ass off making that dress just right, and I think it looks positively lovely on her, you uncultured-"

"Oh, it's pretty, don't get me wrong," Nil said, his face still twisted with contempt as he shook his head. "You've put Carja royalty to shame with this finery, and it suits Aloy's figure perfectly, she looks fit to be one of the Sun-King's concubines." He turned his silver glare on Aloy. "And that's the problem," he growled. "You're a warrior, Aloy, not a wallflower. This frilly, glittery nonsense isn't you."

"Bold of you to judge me, considering what you just told me about yourself," Aloy told him coldly, resentment coiling in her gut.

"I'm not judging you," Nil said, "but everyone else will. Do you know how hard I worked after killing Shands, trying to convince everyone that you were the strong one and I was nothing compared to you? If anyone I talked to yesterday sees you in this, they'll laugh."

"At you or at me?" Aloy asked pointedly.

"At the idea that you're strong!" he responded, raising his voice. "You're dressed like…like a decoration, like property, something that exists to please men and nothing more! That's not who you are! Take that off this instant!"

"I'm pretty sure what I wear doesn't change who I am," Aloy said coolly. "And I happen to really like this dress, so I'm going to keep wearing it." Turning to the seamstress, she forced a smile. "Thank you for your work, Rhoda," she told her. "I'm happy I'll get to wear something like this for the rest of the festival."

Rhoda was still glaring at Nil, who had uttered a cry of disgust at this statement. Glancing at Aloy, she said, "Good luck with yer man, girl. He needs to learn a thing or two."

"I'll take care of him," Aloy assured the Corsair woman. "In the meantime, uh, may your seas stay calm, and your horizon clear of storms."

"Hah! Yers too, little lady," Rhoda nodded, cracking a half-smile.

"I'll leave you to your business," Aloy told her. "Thank you again."

"And thank you, miss, for being such a fine model," Rhoda told her. "I'm honored to have fitted a dress for ye."

"And I'm honored, too," Aloy nodded.

"Bye, now!" Rhoda called as Aloy started walking away.

"See you," Aloy said over her shoulder, and she walked away, not caring if Nil would follow her.

Of course, as always, he did.

As she made her way back into the crowd, Aloy felt light, her body almost floating like a feather. The way the loose fabric swished around her was foreign but pleasant, her lack of armor oddly liberating. Normally, every step she took was firm, pounding into the ground under the weight of all her burdens, but while her two weapons and pack of valuables were as heavy as before, she nonetheless somehow felt as though she could move with the same etherial grace as the Deima. Everything looked different, too, small though the change in her her height was - between the thickness of the soles of the fancy boots preventing her from feeling the earth beneath her feet and the softness of the rabbit fur lining the insides, she might as well have been walking on the clouds overhead. It wasn't just a physical sensation, either; wearing a dress and fine boots, her hand-stitched leather all either stowed away or covered, she felt less out of place in this festival, less like an outcast.

Glancing down, she saw her precious necklace nestled against the beaded designs that covered the front of her new garment, Rost's pendant clicking against the embellishments. What would you think of me now, Rost? she found herself wondering. Dressed in finery no Nora has ever dreamed of, so far from the Sacred Land, among a tribe who've built their entire society on stories the Old Ones told that even they know are mostly lies…?

Rost had been so infatuated with Nora tradition, as Varl was, it seemed unlikely the stoic man would have had any positive feelings about any of this. And yet, Aloy couldn't shake the feeling that Rost would have been happy to see her happy, feeling more at home and at ease among people than she ever had before, unfavorable as the precise circumstances might have been to him.

Smiling to herself, Aloy looked around, suddenly realizing she had no plans for what to do next - there were still a couple more hours in the day, and the festival would go well into the night, as it had before. When she glanced at Nil, she saw him scowling at the ground, as though he couldn't bear to look at her, and her own smile dimmed. Why he was being so grumpy about her change in attire, she didn't know, but it stung - he had always supported her unconditionally, but now that she was enjoying herself at this party, he was suddenly bitter?

Nil isn't my only friend, she thought, and she turned to the nearest passing Corsair: a man wearing the black coat and hat many Corsair men wore, who walked alongside a woman in a much bulkier dress. "Excuse me," she said. "Howdy."

"Howdy, miss," the Corsair man responded, tipping his hat.

"Um…Do you know where I can find Kryse?" Aloy asked.

"The sissy-boy?" the Corsair man laughed. "Never thought I'd see a lady asking for him…Aye." Stepping closer, he pointed south. "About three rows thataway, on the far western edge of the market section, he's selling his tales as always."

"Thanks," Aloy nodded, and she turned to follow the directions.

"Don't be a stranger!" the Corsair called after her.

Turning back to nod at him again, Aloy kept walking, pondering the man's strange reaction to Kryse's name. Orns had seemed perfectly understanding of how Kryse chose to live his life, but there had been a hint of judgment to this one's tone, and Aloy wondered at it.

As she walked down the path towards the sea, she felt people stare at her sometimes, but when she caught the looks, they seemed different still from any the Nora had given her. If anything, it seemed like they were admiring her dress, and Aloy offered smiles as she passed, though deep down, something felt off about accepting unspoken compliments just for what she was wearing. Eventually, she reached the far edge of the marketplace, and followed it south for three rows, until she found a stall that didn't seem to be displaying any wares; behind the table was the Corsair outlander she called a friend.

"Kryse!" Aloy called, jogging over to him. "Howdy!"

"Aloy?!" exclaimed Kryse as his dark eyes lit on her. "Well, fry my hide, don't you look lovely?!" He smiled broadly. "Rhoda's work, I take it?"

"Yeah," Aloy grinned, "she made this dress for me."

"It ain't for nothing that she's our finest seamstress, but I'll be damned if she didn't outdo herself with this one," Kryse told her. "Look at ye. Ya look to die for!"

"Stop encouraging her," came an irritated growl from behind Aloy, and she glanced back to see Nil, who was still scowling. "She shouldn't be wearing this sparkly nonsense. Aloy belongs in armor."

"Don't see how that's yer place to say, matey," Kryse remarked. "I think she looks right fetching, and there's no need for armor 'round here."

"Thank you," Aloy smiled. "Nil's been difficult about this all day. So, how's business?"

"Business this year's been booming!" Kryse beamed. "The stories you two gave me have earned me a pretty penny, I'll be more than able to buy all the stock I need for the next year walking the outlands thanks to ye, with a good cache to bury as backup to boot!" His smile softened. "Y'know, last year, there was a lotta despair," he reminisced. "The Derangement only getting worse, bigger and badder Machines stalking land and sea alike…folks were scared. But since y'all came around, I think we've started to get the sense that changes don't have to be all bad, y'know? You two've changed quite a bit about things 'round these parts, in yer own ways, and for the better I'd wager."

"I'm glad to hear it," Aloy told him, warmth blossoming in her chest. "Really, I'm glad we were able to bring hope to the west. And maybe we can bring more before too long."

"Hah!" Kryse laughed, slapping his stomach. "You never take a moment, do ye?"

"I am right now," Aloy pointed out. "So, um…what do people do here, exactly? I mean, when they're not shopping or drinking or watching contests in the arena?"

"Well, that makes up most of what people do the first two days of the festival," Kryse informed her. "Tomorrow'll be different - tomorrow's a day for partying more than anything else, music and dancing and performances, folks'll be putting on reenactments of the Old Ones' tales and providing all sorts of entertainment. Last night was the banquet, and today's mostly about competitions in the arena."

"Can we participate in those competitions?" Nil asked.

"At this point? Not likely," Kryse answered. "Sorry, mate. There'll only be a few more contests, and I'd guess the spots for 'em are all full."

"I wouldn't have wanted to anyway," Aloy said, and Nil gave a wordless grumble behind him. "So the banquet is only the first night?"

"Aye," Kryse nodded; "the first night's when everything's fully fresh, y'know? You wanna eat tonight, get yer own or pay at the food stalls just south of here." He tilted his head and added, "The area where the banquet was held is more of a communal space for now. If ye want to socialize or take a break, I'd suggest going there."

"Alright," Aloy said. "I will. Would you like to come with us?"

"Eh…" Kryse seemed to wince slightly. "I'd…naw, I'm not much of one for that crowd. They might be my tribe, but they're also not, y'know?"

"Yeah," Aloy sighed softly, "I kind of know what that's like." Taking a breath, she nodded. "Well, I hope business keeps going well for you. We'll see you later, right?"

"Aye!" Kryse answered, brightening up. "I'd be right happy to see y'all anytime!"

"And listen, I'm sorry about earlier," Aloy began, but Kryse raised a hand and waved her off.

"It's all right, little missy," he assured her. "We all have our private affairs, aye? I'd never ask to intrude."

"Thanks," Aloy told him. "Take care, okay?"

"Don't be strangers!" Kryse told her.

"We won't," she promised, and she walked away, headed south to where she'd dined with Orns the previous night.

---

Aapologies again for a long chapter. I originally hoped that the time between Nil's fight with Shands and the next Big Thing that happens, aka the entire festival, would be all one chapter, and, well, the festival has lasted for two super-long chapters now and there's one more to go before said Big Thing…I have too much to say and do, and I'm trying my best with it all, but I do apologize.