"Alright, let's be honest with one another, shall we?" Cass said. "I don't know how you tamed those Machines, and I still think you were sent here by Skulldriver, but one thing is clear: you are not part of his camp."
"I told you that," Aloy interjected.
"But I also don't know whether you are a friend or a threat, so you must tell me three things… Who are you really, where are you from, and why did Skulldriver send you here?"
"Well, those first two topics are… complicated. Let me address the third topic first."
"That's fair, I guess. Go on." Cass relaxed into her chair, slumped to one side, and swung one leg over the other. She wore a long skirt that pulled up slightly as she did so, and in the torchlight, Aloy noted that the woman's bare leg looked discolored and scarred. She had suffered some malady in her past.
"I told Skulldriver that I would hunt down the tree attackers. We didn't discuss what I'd do when I found them… you… but just that I would find them."
"Okay, you found us. Now what?"
"Actually, I haven't figured that out myself. I guess I was expecting a gang of cutthroat Bandits who'd put up a fight so I'd have to kill them. Then I could give Skulldriver the good news."
Cass peered at Aloy and raised an eyebrow. "And now that you know? Are we about to die?"
"Of course not," Aloy responded rather abruptly. She was not ready for a tussle with this group. "But it's obvious that you and your village are struggling to survive. You've got a talent for leadership, and these people are loyal and motivated. Why don't you make an offer to Skulldriver? You could become a part of his village, but keep your independence, and help his village grow."
"No! We will not bow to that tyrant again!" Cass was visibly upset. "No one here wants to go back to living under that man's rule!"
"What if I negotiate for you? Skulldriver seemed friendly enough to me, and he obviously trusted me to carry out justice for him. What if I return and work out a deal?"
"There can be no deal with that man," Cass replied as she uncrossed her legs and sat forward in her chair. "Jhonnson! Jhonnson, come in here!"
Aloy turned toward the open doorway to see Cass's child enter the room. The child shyly walked between them and stood next to Cass, head lowered as he stared at some invisible object on the floor.
"Let me show you one example of Skulldriver's temper." Cass raised a leg of the child's deerskin pants to reveal a long vertical scar running from the child's ankle to just below the knee. "This is from one of Skulldriver's drunken rages, when he threw our own son out of our house. Jhonnson caught his leg on a rock. We thought it might be too infected to save.
"That is just one reason I will not go back!"
"Wait," Aloy said, "you said 'our' son and 'our' house; were you and Skulldriver married?"
"If you mean betrothed by some religious ritual, no. But we lived together for almost three years."
Well, that certainly explains the animosity, Aloy thought.
"Skulldriver's real name is Jhonn. This is his son, Jhonnson. The two of us packed up and moved out of the village – it was known as Gorman back then – just after the Great Corruption, when Jhonn got his scars and… changed.
"I knew it was coming. I knew before the Corruption that we had to leave. Jhonn was wildly jealous. He accused me of sneaking out to be with other men… and women. He tied my legs together with leather and soaked the leather in water until it cut and tore my skin. He tried to rip the hair out of my head with his bare hands. He is a cruel and vicious man, and if I ever see him again it will be when he's dead."
Cass took a deep breath and stared at the floor before looking up at her son. "Alright, Jhonnson, you may go now. It's time for bed."
"Goodnight, mama," the boy said in a low whisper. Cass leaned forward and gave her son a kiss on the forehead.
"Say goodnight to our special guest, too. This is Red." Jhonnson looked shyly at Aloy, whispered "Goodnight Red," and ran out of the building.
"Goodnight to you too, Jhonnson," Aloy called after the boy.
Cass seemed to visibly try to shake off the memories when she sat up in her chair, turned to look at the handful of people still standing in the back of the room, and said, "It's getting a little chilly in here, don't you think? We can afford to have a fire in our stove tonight – it so happens that we have a few fresh pieces of wood, taken from trees in a neighbor's orchard. Will one of you fetch an armload and prep the fire? Then we really must get some dinner for our guest."
With that the entire party left the room, and Aloy and Cass were alone.
"Soon you're going to return to Skulldriver," Cass said, "and tell him whatever you wish. You couldn't find us, or you made sure we're all dead, or we chased you out of this valley, I don't care what you say, as long as you don't tell the truth: that we have established our own village and we're doing as well as we possibly can."
"I don't know," Aloy managed a smile, "the truth sounds the most unbelievable. If Jhonn's as bad as you say, that's probably the one outcome he'd least likely accept."
"Please," Cass replied, solemnly, "don't call that man 'Jhonn.' If you let it slip when you talk to him, he'll know I told you about him. He wants to be known as Skulldriver."
"No problem," Aloy replied.
Voices could be heard outside the building. Aloy turned to see a man and a woman enter; the man carried two large bowls, the woman an armload of tree limbs with the bark stripped away. The man handed one bowl to Cass and the other to Aloy, and the woman dropped the load of wood next to the stove, opened the door in the stove's belly, and set up starter and kindling for a fire.
Aloy held the bowl high so the light from a torch lit its contents. It appeared to be a very thick soup of some sort. Cass noticed Aloy's curiosity.
"This is Wild Grass Soup," Cass explained. "We have farmers who have managed to cultivate a wild grass. It produces seeds that are very rich in nutrients. Every Spring we plant a field of the seeds and we harvest till Fall. We dry a supply of the seeds, along with the leaves from the plants, and we eat them over the Winter. We have a storage shed filled with them. Soak the seeds in water for a few hours, add the leaves, some spices and flavorings, boil them together, and we have dinner for the entire village. Try it!"
Aloy used the wooden spoon stuck into the soup to scoop a small bite. Steam rose from the lump of wild grass in her spoon. She took a bite, and was pleasantly surprised at the fragrant flavors. The grass seeds were a bit chewy but not objectionably so.
They ate in silence as the fire in the stove provided meager warmth and light. The man and woman who had served them were long gone.
Aloy was surprised at how hungry she felt. When the solid contents of the soup were eaten, she raised the bowl to her lips and drank the last remaining bit of broth. Cass watched, chuckled, and did the same.
"I gather you liked it?" Cass asked. "That was a double serving, you know. A couple of the villagers took reduced rations to share that with you."
Aloy looked down at her empty bowl and back up at Cass. "Oh no! They shouldn't have! I don't want anyone to suffer because of me. If I'd known…"
"Don't worry, don't worry," Cass reassured her. "They were Pol's parents – they wanted to thank you for saving Pol from those Machines – and I suspect Pol is still so excited about her adventure today that she hasn't even touched her own food."
"If I don't get to meet them, please thank them for me," Aloy said.
"Of course," Cass replied.
"You know, you could make this go farther with some venison or rabbit meat. And it would be even more nutritious."
"We don't eat meat," Cass explained. "Wildlife is scarce in this region, and besides, we have no desire to kill helpless animals. We have food sources that provide everything we need without hunting."
This was a new concept to Aloy: meat had been a staple of her diet and her lifestyle as long as she could remember, from hunting goats and boars with her foster father, Rost, to roasting duck or drying venison to store in her food pouch, to catching fresh salmon or trout and cooking them over an open flame. To consciously choose to live without consuming meat – this was a novel idea. She was certain that no one in her homeland – The Savage East – would ever choose to voluntarily avoid meat. She had even heard rumors of tribes in the fringes of The Savage East that lived on meat carved from their enemies: members of other tribes.
Over the past year or so, Aloy had seen more than her share of killing. Bandits, crazed zealots, thieves and murderers, would-be tyrants… she'd been personally responsible for many of those deaths, easily into the hundreds, whether protecting those who could not protect themselves or eliminating serious threats to whole civilizations. But she was not fond of killing. Perhaps it was just maturity, perhaps acknowledgement that eliminating one's enemies does not assure peace for one's friends; whatever it was, she had never gotten the taste for it. The concept of living off the earth without killing its wildlife seemed especially intriguing for her. Aloy made a mental note to try to learn more about this meatless diet.
Cass interrupted Aloy's musings.
"You've answered one question, so let's consider another… Who are you?"
Aloy thought for a moment. Where do I begin? Do I tell her the whole story… from my childhood in The Embrace to my showdown with the world threat known as Hades? My origins, not from the natural union between a woman and a man, but from the creation of an advanced artificial intelligence using the DNA of a woman dead almost a millennium? My dealings with the crazed self-anointed Ruler of the World?
"You know, it's easy to see why you're called Red," Cass commented, "your red roots are showing."
Aloy reached for the scarf still tied over most of her freshly-cropped hair. She lightly rubbed her hands on the exposed clumps of hair, then looked at her palms and realized that there were only wisps of lampblack. The rain! It must have washed away the coloring! How long has my red hair been showing?
She decided that she would start with the obvious. She reached up and pulled the scarf off her head. Cass emitted what sounded like a coo, or an perhaps expression of admiration.
"Your hair – what remains of it, anyway – is really a mess!" Cass observed. "Did you cut it yourself?"
"No," Aloy used her right hand to rub the uneven tufts of hair on the top and side of her head. She could tell that very little of her flowing flame-colored hair remained. "It was cut for me. In total darkness. To hide it from Skulldriver and his Bandits."
"Well, if it's any consolation to you, there are still splotches of hair, but there are other spots where your head almost appears shaven. You won't have much of a head of hair for a few months. So why was your hair cut like that? Certainly I've never seen anyone with such red hair, but so what? What did you fear?"
"I wondered the same thing when one of Skulldriver's scouts chose to hack it off. And maybe Skulldriver's henchmen didn't know who I was, but Skulldriver recognized me as soon as he saw me."
"Recognized you? From that red hair, or from something else?"
"I think my reputation preceded me."
"Your reputation. For what? Taming Machines? Bad haircuts?"
"Maybe you didn't hear about it, but there was some crazy woman north of here who thought she could rule the world."
"We heard rumors and stories from traveling merchants about such a woman. But we didn't hear what happened to her. Since nothing's changed for us, we assumed someone put an end to her."
"Yes. Me."
"You? You singlehandedly knocked off a self-appointed dictator?"
"Not singlehandedly, no. I had lots of help. But she wanted me to be her… a surrogate mother, and maybe even to rule once she died. But thousands of people were hurting because of her, so I… we… got rid of her."
"You know, I'd consider you to be a lunatic if I hadn't seen you tame Machines all by yourself. And clearly Skulldriver sees something in you since he set you free and sent you to find me. If I weren't a student of science, I'd start to think that maybe that hag Harlie is right – you are a witch."
"No, not a witch. I've been lucky enough to meet other people of science, and you might say I have science in my blood, so I've learned ways do things that only look like magic."
"Now I'm more curious than ever to know – where did you come from?"
Aloy was feeling more comfortable with this woman. She was finding herself not only willing to speak the truth about her life, but almost compelled to do so. Was there something in that soup? she pondered. Or is it just the chance to be myself?
Whatever the reason, Aloy proceeded to tell the complete truth about how she came to be born… created… by an intelligence that imbued in her the DNA of a brilliant scientist, and how she defeated the code known as Hades that intended to eliminate all life on Earth. There were tears in her eyes as she spoke of her mentor Rost, an outcast from his own tribe who raised her from birth and died saving her. She felt homesick when she spoke of her friends back home, those who bravely fought by her side, some of them with their lives, to defeat the Great Corruption.
When Aloy paused, she was conscious of the amount of time she'd been talking, and she was staring at the flames dancing in the belly of the wood-burning stove. Cass had been eerily silent the entire time. Aloy was almost afraid to look at Cass, concerned that this stranger might have judged her totally insane.
The crackling from the wet, sap-laden sticks burning in the stove sounded deafening in the silence. It felt like an eternity before Cass finally spoke.
"So you're the one."
"I'm one, but I'm not sure I'm 'the' one," Aloy replied, relieved that Cass did not appear to doubt her story. "My… mother… was a scientist who specialized in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. She founded a 'firm' – that's like a village but it focused on science – called Miriam Technologies, to try to make her world better."
"Miriam?" Cass's voice rose as she sat up in her chair. "That's a familiar name. Jhonn told me stories of some ghost he and other residents of The Bunker got to see. He didn't remember much about the ghost, but apparently she was worshipped as a god, and the leaders believed she would return to save them all someday. Jhonn said her name was Miriam."
"I saw that 'ghost' too," Aloy calmly explained, "but she's no god, she's just a hologram – a sort of projected image. That image was Dr. Elisabet Sobeck, wearing a lab coat with her firm's name – MIRIAM – on the front. Apparently sometime in the past, someone in The Bunker interpreted the image as a message from a god. But I guarantee you, she's not returning. Unless I impersonate her. Once I get my hair back."
"Stories of your victory over the Great Corruption have made it here to the West, so we heard that some girl stopped it. But that's all I knew."
"Pretty close to what happened, I guess," Aloy replied, "except I'm not really a girl – I'm a woman – and I had lots of help."
"Oh please, I didn't mean any offense by calling you a 'girl!'" Cass sounded embarrassed. "That's just what we heard. You're certainly not 'some girl,' that much is clear."
"You know," Aloy confessed, "I've never told my life's story before. It actually feels good to talk about it, and especially to know that you aren't having me thrown in prison. Thank you, Cass."
"I admit, parts of your story sounded farfetched, but taken in whole, it's not impossible to believe. For all you've been through, I find it amazing that you've kept your sanity, Red …"
"It's Aloy," Aloy interjected. "My name is Aloy."
"It's an honor to know you, Aloy," Cass responded. "I feel humbled in your presence, and I feel downright embarrassed that I came so close to having my guards attack you when you first showed up. I guess my guards would be dead now, wouldn't they?"
"Hard to say for sure," Aloy chuckled, "there were a lot of them. But I've been in some sticky situations before and I haven't met my end yet."
Cass laughed, then stood and stretched. "Goodness, it's late! You must be exhausted, Aloy. We need to find you a place to bed for the night."
"I'm good with what I brought," Aloy replied, as she reached beside her chair and lifted the bundle of weapons, ammo, and supplies, all neatly bound in her thick Banuk fur wrap. "This keeps me warm even in the snow, so I'll just use it."
"Alright, but I thought, perhaps…" Cass paused and sat forward on the edge of her chair, looking directly into Aloy's eyes. "…Perhaps… after you've washed up a bit and we've burned those filthy clothes… you would consider sharing my bed."
"I… think I understand your invitation," Aloy replied, as she privately relished the idea of dumping the smelly Bandit regalia she still wore, "and I find myself having very strong feelings for you. But if I can, I think for now I'd like to take you up on that bath offer. I have a change of clothes I can wear. Are you alright with that?"
Cass reached her right hand and placed it on Aloy's arm. "My dear, I am honored and blessed to have you as my guest in my village. You may have whatever you wish. And if you should change your mind, my offer to share my home will remain open."
"Thank you," Aloy replied.
"Now, let me get you a bowl of water and a cloth for washing. I'm afraid we don't have enough water for a formal bath, but I'll toss a few more sticks in the fire and warm the water on the stove. You may wash and change and sleep in this room. You'll be safe here."
"That sounds wonderful," Aloy said as Cass arose from her chair. Aloy stood as well and waited until Cass walked from the room before unrolling her Banuk wrap. In the middle of the wrap, in a disheveled pile, lay her Shield-Weaver armor. She opened the pieces of lightweight clothing and lay them on the chair. I'm taking a chance wearing this, she thought as she attempted to shake the wrinkles from the armor, people are going to know I don't belong. But I'm going to feel a lot better, especially after I get rid of these disgusting Bandit clothes!
Cass returned to the room carrying a bowl, similar in size and shape to the soup bowl, and a small piece of fabric. She placed the bowl atop the woodburning stove, opened the stove, and carefully lay the remaining half-dozen pieces of wood atop the glowing embers. Flames immediately sprang from the sappy wood; Cass closed the stove door and turned her attention back to Aloy. She glanced more than once at the unusual outerwear adorning the chair, and at the assortment of weapons and pouches now lying about on the floor at Aloy's feet.
"The water should get hot pretty fast," Cass said, clearly trying to ignore the odd variety of equipment before her. "You're welcome to sleep in this building. The fire will give you a little warmth and light, at least long enough to wash and change, but we're going to extinguish the wall torches for the evening. There's no need for guards outside the door – you're perfectly safe here, and if you should decide it's time for you to leave, no one will try to stop you.
"I hope you'll stay until morning, though. Good night," Cass said as she strode toward the open door on the far side of the small room. As she pulled back the hide curtain that sheltered the room, she stopped, muttered, "Oh no," and stepped back into the room. Behind her was the old woman Harlie, walking with benefit of a wooden cane, slowly entering the room.
"I know it's late, but I have a way to prove to you that this woman is a witch!" Harlie said with a crackling voice as she pushed her way past Cass and toward Aloy, now standing over her strewn gear.
Harlie glanced only briefly at the weapons, clothing, and pouches on the floor. From a handbag attached around her waist, she produced a small, black, rectangular object and waved it at Aloy, almost under her nose, as if to taunt her with it.
"This," Harlie cackled, "this will prove it! Do you know what this is, girl?"
Aloy tried to identify the object in the woman's hand as it continued to move about. In the low light, Aloy suspected the object was a holo disk, perhaps a full player, but the woman didn't stop waving it long enough to be sure. So Aloy spoke up.
"No, you keep waving it like it's a flag. Maybe if you'd let me hold it… or at least keep it still for a moment?"
Harlie seemed unaffected by the request. But as she waved the object over her left shoulder, Cass, who was standing behind her, snatched it out of her hand. Cass looked at one side of the object, turned it over, looked at the edges. As far as Aloy could see, the object bore no markings whatsoever. But she was now certain it was a holoplayer.
Harlie had barely flinched when Cass extracted the player from her hand. She continued to stare at Aloy, and then said, "I was given this by a shaman many years ago. He claimed that it held the secrets of the earth, if only I could find a way to view them. Since you are a witch, I know you can see what's in this box, and great mysteries will be solved!"
"And if I can't?" Aloy asked as Cass handed the holoplayer to her.
"Then you are still a witch, an evil witch, intent on hiding the truth from us!"
"So let me get this straight," Aloy said as she examined the box: there were no markings, but the player looked more or less intact. If there is a holo recording inside, it might be recoverable. She was tempted to use her Focus to check the status of the player, but she decided to hold off, for the moment at least. "If I can see what's in this box, it proves I'm a witch, and if it I can't it proves I'm a witch? How do I prove I'm not?"
"You are a witch, girl, we all saw how you enchanted those Machines! Now reveal the secrets of this box!"
Aloy was torn about what to do next: Do I see if I can read the holo, even try to project the holo image with my Focus? It seems these people don't know anything about Focuses, so I'll have to explain it. But if I do nothing, this woman is going to make my time here unpleasant.
Aloy looked at Cass. Cass had been watching the exchange with curiosity, but, Aloy sensed, with a bit of empathy as well. Aloy was certain that, if she refused to do anything, Cass would support her. But Aloy also felt an affinity for this woman, a desire to be honest and forthright, more so than she'd felt in a long time, if ever. She decided to continue the night of truths revealed.
Aloy turned her head to the left, so that both Cass and Harlie could see the Focus attached to her head, near her right temple. "Do you see this? This device is called a Focus."
"Yes, I've seen those before," Cass replied, "Skulldriver is able to use one to communicate with his scientists."
"That's one use for them," Aloy explained, "though mine seems to have much more power than any of the ones Skulldriver uses. Mine can scan items like this box – it's a holoplayer – and determine if any of the holo's contents can be restored."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Cass replied, "but I'll take your word for it…"
"I know!" Harlie interjected. "The shaman said something about "holy visions" when he gave it to me. He said I'd need to focus to see them! But I didn't know what he meant."
"What he meant," Aloy replied, "was that you'd need a Focus – this device – to access the holo visions. Now give me a moment to check this out."
Aloy tapped the Focus on her temple, and the familiar red-purple grid appeared before her. She knew the others couldn't see what she saw, but since her main interest was the condition of the holoplayer in her left hand, she held it before her and read a message that appeared next to the player:
HOLOPLAYER. STATUS: PARTIALLY CORRUPTED.
Another tap of the Focus and the grid and words disappeared. Aloy looked at the two women. Each of them had an incredulous look on her face, but Harlie's expression seemed more intense while Cass simply seemed curious.
"It's in pretty bad shape," Aloy said as she extended her hand toward Harlie, offering to return the holoplayer. "I'm not sure anything can be recovered."
Harlie folded her arms and recoiled from Aloy's offer. "If you can see all that, why can't you see the vision on it?"
"I might be able access the contents – 'see the vision,' as you call it – but I'm not sure you want to see it."
"I have had that box for most of my life," Harlie almost snorted back at Aloy. "I have tried to focus on it and force a vision to appear, but I can't. Since you're a witch, you can do it, I'm sure."
"Yes, Aloy," Cass spoke quietly and calmly, "if your… device… can show us the 'visions,' perhaps we will learn something valuable. Perhaps this box was left behind by Those Who Destroyed the Earth, to tell us why they did it."
"Those Who Destroyed the Earth?" Aloy asked. "We know why and how the Earth was almost destroyed. We just know so little about what the Old Ones knew."
"You know this? It seems we have much more to discuss, you and I." Cass looked puzzled. "If you can reveal the contents of this box, please, let us see them."
Aloy realized that the story of all that had happened during the Corruption and the discovery of Project Zero Dawn had not reached this far. At least, not to everyone. She made a note to have a conversation with Cass about it. But first, there was the matter of the holoplayer.
"Alright," Aloy said as she looked at the holoplayer once more. "I'll see if my Focus can recover anything from this holo. But be warned, both of you: the images may be very realistic, and they may be frightening. If they're too much, I can stop the playback. Now," she said as she once again activated her Focus, "let's see what Harlie's been packing all these years…"
A faint rusted circle on one side of the holoplayer shone clearly in Aloy's Focus: PLAY was visible to her alone. She pressed hard on the button with her right thumb, and after a few seconds, a flickering image started to appear as if in the air before them: a scratchy, black and white image of what might be a road, multiple buildings lining the sides of the road. Stopped along the road were the sorts of moving vehicles Aloy had encountered at times, but rather than rusting hulks, these seemed shiny and new. The image became clearer as they watched: on one side of the road, what might have been young men, dressed in very unfamiliar clothing, were running towards them, each glancing behind him at times. There was still no sound, but in seconds the image shifted slightly, and they could see a mob of young girls in frantic pursuit of the boys. All of them were dressed very strangely, and none appeared to be carrying a weapon.
"Oh, dear!" Harlie exclaimed. "Those boy must be witches, too, and the girls are going to stone them to death!"
"No, I don't think that's it – look," Cass stated, "now we can see the young men, and they seem to be laughing. I think it's some kind of game."
The grainy imagery faded and strengthened, still in black and white ghost-outlines, as a crackling sound began to emanate from the box. An odd series of sounds could be heard – Aloy recognized it as some sort of music, though she couldn't determine the instruments – and then voices, singing, with the music:
…It's been a hard day's night
I should be sleeping like a log
But when I get home to you
I'll find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright…
Then the sound ended abruptly, the visions faded away, and there was nothing but silence. After several seconds, Harlie spoke.
"Bring it back! Why did you stop? What did that mean?"
"That's all my Focus could detect," Aloy explained. "The holo is badly damaged. I can play that piece again, but I don't think I can recover any more."
"You must bring it back! You are a witch… and you're an evil witch, too, if that's all you're going to let us see!" Harlie was getting more agitated by the moment. Cass attempted to calm her.
"Hold on, Harlie, Aloy is no more a witch than I am." Cass turned to Aloy and asked, "what do you think that vision means?"
"I don't know," Aloy replied, "I'm not even sure the song went along with the images. It said something about sleeping 'like a log,' not an expression I've ever heard. But I agree with you, Cass, I think this was a game of some kind. Maybe the full image was a form of entertainment for the Old Ones.
"I'm sorry, Harlie," Aloy said as she handed the holoplayer back to the woman with her left hand and deactivated the Focus with her right, "that's the best I could do."
All was quiet for a moment, then Cass asked, "Have you done this before? Generated images, I mean."
"Well, sort of," Aloy replied, "but I don't really 'generate' them as much as I use the Focus to visualize them.
"I am disappointed in this holo, though. I was hoping it might contain some knowledge from the Old Ones. Something that would help us understand more about them, or even better, more about our world."
"If that's what you seek, my dear friend, I hope you find it."
"Honestly," Aloy said, "I've already found a stash of holos. And books, and who knows what else. I just can't get to it."
"Oh?" Cass brightened. "Where? Maybe I can help?"
"In two places, but I don't think you can do much to help. There is a building in the Irradiated City, and a room where thousands of books somehow survived from the time of the Old Ones. I saw only a few of them.
"The second place was a room in The Bunker, where the people living there worship the image they call Miriam. That room is packed to the ceiling with holos and books, and as far as I could tell, no one has looked at any of them."
"Uh, you know… that might not be a problem."
"What might not? The Irradiated City or The Bunker?"
"Well, maybe both, eventually. But first, The Bunker… remember that I said Jhonn wants to control The Bunker? Last I heard, his plot involved killing everyone who lives there and taking the place over for himself. Maybe you can negotiate with him to get access to that room you describe."
"What? He can't do that! There are innocent people in that Bunker!"
Cass recoiled slightly, shocked at the vehemence of Aloy's protest. "You've… you've seen The Bunker? You didn't mention that when I spoke about it."
"I didn't know you or trust you then! But now I'll tell you – I know the main entrance and I know of a secret back entrance. I met some of the residents and they are not bad people. Some of them don't want to live in The Bunker anymore."
"Obviously I don't know his timing, but I suspect Jhonn will make his move sooner rather than later. He has some sort of secret weapon – something that he claimed would seek out every living being in the Bunker and kill it. After that, he plans to clean the place out and take it over for himself and his most loyal followers.
"If you have friends in The Bunker, Aloy, I suggest you get moving as soon as you can."
"Yes, I agree," Aloy nodded. This is very distressing news. I've got to try to stop Skulldriver, or get the word to people in The Bunker. Or maybe do both."
Cass turned to Harlie. "I think that's enough excitement for tonight, let's let Aloy get some sleep. We can talk more in the morning."
"Yes… about the morning," Aloy commented. Cass turned back toward her.
"What about the morning?"
"I promised Skulldriver I'd find out who was damaging his orchard, and if I'm away too long he'll probably get suspicious. I think it best that I report back to him tomorrow. And I'll find a way to get more information on his invasion plans for The Bunker."
"I suppose you're right," Cass replied, "but I wish you'd just forget that monster and settle in here."
"Thank you for the invitation," Aloy replied as she turned back to the equipment spread on the floor behind her, reached down, and lifted the Banuk wrap. "Maybe someday… I actually have more offers to 'settle in' than you might imagine."
"Knowing you, my dear, I suspect you have at least one offer from every person you've ever met."
"Not quite that many offers," Aloy chuckled, "and some of those 'offers' included my funeral. But I want to learn more than I have, to try to understand where we came from, what we should know, what we can do to rebuild our world."
"All the more reason to stay a bit longer," Cass said as she ushered Harlie toward the door, "so you can see the school we've set up."
"That sounds wonderful!" Aloy replied, "perhaps whenever I return…"
"Yes, perhaps if you ever return," Cass said as she reached the doorway and stopped to turn toward Aloy. "Have a pleasant night's sleep, my new friend, and don't forget to wash up - I think your water is starting to boil. if I don't see you before you leave in the morning, travel in peace."
"Thank you, and you too," Aloy said, "and same for you, Harlie!" The elderly woman had already exited the room, but Aloy was sure she heard a faint grunt, or perhaps it was a growl, from outside the door.