Aloy and John reach the top and walk up to the quantum processor unit.
"Okay, here's the plan," John said. "I'll help you hook it up to the unit and then you can do your thing. That is gaining access to it and scaring Hephaestus out of there."
"Gotcha," Aloy said.
Together, they work on hooking the Thunderjaw heart up to the unit, taking only several minutes to do so.
"Now that that's done," Aloy said afterwards. "I'll be accessing the unit."
John steps back as Aloy steps forward. He watches as she mentally enters the unit. A droning sound eminates from the quantum processor unit and it begins to glow in the glass where the spear is still stuck into. John's attention is yanked to a small lightening arc traveling up the relay tower. He watches as another small lightening arc travels up the relay tower. Another one follows after it too. Then another after that. Every time the lightening arc disappears at the top another one appears at the bottom to travel up to the top.
Aloy exclaims a shout of shock and shakes her head while gasping.
"Aloy, are you okay?!" John exclaimed as he runs up to her.
"I'm okay," she assured. "I just saw Hephaestus in the relay tower. You were right, Jawn! He has taken them over! And when I tried to pull him into this unit, he abandoned the Spire. Now we have a chance to find the other Subroutines."
"That's great. Can you locate one now?"
"I'm doing that now."
There is silence as Aloy starts fiddling with a virtual control panel while in its cyberspace. The minutes stretch out.
"I found one!" Aloy exclaimed.
"Where?!" John asked eagerly.
"It's," as she fiddles some more to get the location more clearly. Then pulls her head back with a confused expression.
"What's wrong?"
"It's . . . It's at that Banuk camp?!"
"You mean the one where you went to investigate those peaceful machines?"
"Yes, but I scanned that quantum processor unit and found nothing!"
"Maybe you didn't do a good enough scan on it. But do you know which Subroutine it is?"
"No I don't. But I do know that we have to go up there and investigate."
"Right now? But it's getting late."
"If we take machines then we can at least get to Day Tower by nightfall. No, Dawn's Sentinel since it's closer. And we'll need this Thunderjaw heart too."
Aloy and John detach the heart. She next packs it away on herself and with John in tow leave the Spire. As they pass through Meridian, they encounter Erend.
"Aloy!" Erend called happily as they close the distance. "I heard you were here in the city! Great to see ya again! Hey, I recognize him. He's the guy I saw here days ago."
"Erend, this is Jawn. He's here to help me with a task," Aloy said.
John and Erend clasp forearms.
"So I take it your thing enables you to see the unseen as well," Erend said to John.
"Ah, yeah," John was quick to pick up. "But not as well as what Aloy can. Being able to see the unseen is no good if you don't understand what your looking at." As he now understands that given Aloy's lifestyle, she no doubt does a lot of tracking. Something her focus enhances.
"So Aloy, what brings you up here instead of in the Sun-King's palace to greet him?" Erend asked.
"I was eager to return to the Sacred Land," Aloy answered.
"I thought you were eager to leave it?" Erend said.
"Yeah I was," Aloy admitted. "But I was . . . gone for a long time."
"You certainly were," Erend mused. "The last time I saw you was just after the Battle for Meridian. That was almost a month ago. Anyway, Sun-King Avad is eager to meet with you again."
"This should be fascinating," John quipped.
"Yeah, he can come too," Erend said.
"But we're chasing a lead on something," Aloy said.
"Hey, that unit is not going anywhere," John said. "And it will be nightfall before we can get there."
Aloy and John follow Erend back into the city.
"Hey, uh, Erend," John said. "How do I greet the Sun-King?"
"Give him a slight bow and refer to him as, Your Majesty."
"Gotcha."
Aloy and John walk up into an area past Oseram freebooters that John now understands is off limits to anyone not invited. They head up a turning flight of stairs and walk into an area that looks more elegant. There are guards everywhere and they stiffen to attention as they thump their halberds onto the floor. Erend leads them onto an elaborate balcony and soon walk up to a group of men, one of whom looks more important to John as he can tell by his outfit.
"Ah, Aloy," Avad said with a broad smile. "When I heard that you were here in Meridian, I wanted to see you right away."
"I do apologize for not coming to see you right away," Aloy said. "It was just that I was eager to return to the Sacred Lands after leaving the west. Then I came here to follow up on a lead."
"And who is this man?" Avad said of John.
"This is Jawn," Aloy answered. "He came from the northwest. From a tribe called the Harguess."
"Erend told me about those people," Avad asked. "Tell me, Jawn. Is it true that the Eclipse machines rose up that far to there?!"
"Yes it is," John sighed.
"Were your people ever attacked during the Red Raids?" Avad asked.
"No, the Red Raids never got up that far, your Majesty," John answered insofar as it was the truth from what he was told by the Harguess during the two days he spent with them.
"Ah, that's good to hear," Avad said sounding pleased, then turns to Aloy. "So Aloy, how was your travel into the Forbidden West?"
"My travels were interesting," Aloy answered, though seemingly unsure as how to elaborate in the manner she had spoken the word, interesting. "There is more desert out that way and large mountains stretching as far north and south as the eyes can see. I didn't travel beyond them, but I did find the ruins of a house with the body of a woman. She was an Old One because she wore ancient armor and had died while sitting on a stone bench facing those ruins, which was no doubt her home. She was still well-preserved, as if she had only died the day I found her. I gave her a proper burial."
"Really?!" Avad marveled. "If I had found her I would have had her put into the royal depository."
John feels a jab of displeasure over that remark. Putting Dr. Sobeck on display like that when she was the reason why life was resurrected. Then again, Egyptian mummies of pharoahs were once on display in museums as well.
"I don't think that's appropriate," Aloy said flatly. "And since you made that remark, I don't think I'm gonna tell you where I buried her."
John is surprised by her curt remark. Normally in the presence of a VIP, one would be cordial, even in their disagreement.
"Ah, I'm sorry Aloy," Avad said apologetically. "It's just that only the bones of Old Ones were ever found, never fresh bodies."
"And certainly never live ones either," John quipped, then quickly chuckles to cover himself, prompting Aloy to chuckle; raising chuckles from Erend and Avad.
"Certainly not," Avad sighed humorously.
"Anyway," Aloy then said to change the topic. "We were chasing a lead involving the Derangement."
"What kind of a lead?" Avad asked.
"That somehow it could be ended," Aloy answered.
"A-Are you serious?!" Erend gaped with a gasp.
"Is that even possible?!" Avad added with wonderment.
"We don't know," Aloy answered cautiously. "The fact is we're not even sure if it's going to work to begin with. So it's for the better that you keep your expectations low."
"True, true," Avad agreed. "But then again, Aloy . . . you do have an uncanny ability to accomplish the seemingly impossible."
"Yeah, if anyone could end the Derangement, it would be you," Erend added.
"She may have only played a part in the Battle for Meridian, Jawn," Avad said to him, "but she personally slew their leader, my father's champion. Then fought off waves of machines. Afterwards, she made her way up to the Spire where she and the rest of the Nora and Oseram fought off the machines until she was able to personally slay Hades, an evil god that the Shadow Carja worshipped, ending the war and saving Meridian and the world."
"So I was told," John said. "But Aloy did make a point about the uncertainty of success because the Derangement is not just local, it's global. I mean, it's affecting the whole world."
"That's so hard to imagine," Avad mused. "But I guess the Sun does shine even upon lands unknown."
"Be that as it may," Aloy spoke up. "Jawn and I have to see to that task. It's directly north of the Sacred Land."
"Surely you can go at dawn?" Avad said. "You and your friend are welcomed to stay in a guest room."
"He's right, Aloy," John said. "It be better than having to bed down for the night out there, where we might get trampled by machines that didn't see us. Last night we had that high ruin of a building in Col,I mean Devil's Thirst, that kept us up and away from the machines that prowled below. And besides, I'm kinda curious to spend the night here."
Aloy sighs and relents, then she and John are each shown to their respective guest rooms, which are side-by-side. The guest rooms have a spartan yet luxurious appearance with a rug on the marble floor with a bed that is made of bounded colorful plastic around its frames. There is a table nearby with a chair. They each have a single window next to the bed. It has no glass, but has shutters on it that can be closed and silk curtains draping them.
John is with Aloy in her guest room as they talk strategy.
"So what else can you tell me about that quantum processor unit in that camp you visited?" John asked.
"Nothing else really," Aloy answered. "What you know about it is what I told you about it."
"Yeah, you did. So can I assume that you didn't detect another presence within it?"
"It was not like I was doing a deep scan of the thing. But there was clearly something there that I did not see or else I would not have been picking up something from that unit once again."
"So which Subroutine do you think may be in it?"
"I don't know, but if I were to guess it's probably Eleuthia. It was responsible for the creation and raising of the first humans. Since it's gained intelligence, it must be devoted to protecting humans."
"You're probably right and she, since it sounds feminine, would be a good counter against Hephaestus. If we could just somehow get Eleuthia into those relay towers, then we could potentially end the Derangement."
"Yeah, but how?"
"Well since that quantum processor unit is identical to the one up by that relay tower, moving it down here is clearly out of the question."
"Maybe sleeping on it will give us the answer tomorrow."
"Yeah, so I'm gonna go to bed now, goodnight Aloy."
"Goodnight Jawn."
John leaves her room and enters his own. He slips off his shoes, closes the shutters, and places his focus on a stand next to the bed to lie down. It is a comfortable bed and he wonders if he will be getting a good night sleep upon it. This makes him think of Aloy. Someone like her who must have slept on hard ground for years will probably feel like she is sinking into it.
Back in that distant Cauldron, the gun-like tool stops its continuous firing of its lightening-like bolt upon that huge silvery rectangular block in question and pulls back up. The anti gravity carrying modules lower from the ceiling to gather upon it. They work in unison to slowly remove something from within and it is revealed to be another silvery rectangular block.
The anti gravity modules carry away the former for recycling and the gun-like tool lowers once again to fire a steady beam of its lightening-like bolt onto that new object.
John awakens due to a knock on his door. For a moment he sits up and fumbles in the dim interior for his focus and finds it. He puts it on and scans the door to see someone behind it. The scan does not reveal the person's hair and clothing. They knock again.
"Alright, I'm coming, I'm coming," John called as he gets up and goes to the door and opens it. Aloy stands there. "Ah, I'd figure you'd be up." As he reads the time as five hundred hours and thirty minutes.
"We need to get a head start," Aloy said.
"What? Right now?"
"Yes, right now."
"You mean like . . . just walk out of here without even so much as a goodbye?"
"Yes, now let's go."
John sighs as he turns away and walks over to the bed. He opens the shutters to let the dawn in. The window faces south. He gets off the bed.
"Well?" Aloy asked eagerly.
"Now see here, Aloy," John said seriously as he turns to face her. "I understand that you're eager to get going, but it would be the height of rudeness to just leave without notice. Given where that unit had come from, it has been up there for the past twenty years, so it's not going anywhere. Now relax and let's bid Sun-King Avad a proper goodbye. And if he invites us to have breakfast with him, then by all means we should. You're very smart, Aloy, but you really need to work on your manners."
Aloy sighs with frustration. "Are manners really that important?"
"Yes they are. All societies are built on them. Even the Nora use them."
"Yeah and a part of their manners was shunning others who were born the wrong way."
"Look I'm sorry that you had a rough time growing up being subjected to the manners of the Nora, but try to understand. Manners, etiquette, these are what create a functioning society, from a civilization like the Carja all the way down to a simpler one like the Nora. And it's all because people have an intrinsic disdain toward rudeness. Fights and even worse have broken out because somebody was rude. I don't think Avad would mind, given that you saved the world and all, but it's polite to say a proper goodbye, and even have a meal with him before we go."
"Fine."
Aloy waits with John in his guest room as it gets brighter outside.
"So what's the plan when we get to that other quantum processor unit?" John asked.
"Funny, I was about to ask you the same thing," Aloy quipped.
"So we're stuck on what to do to move that Subroutine once we get there. Then let's brainstorm like we did back at the ruins of Colorado Springs that led us to figure out a theory on how to end the Derangement. The problem is that we have to get that Subroutine, possibly Eleuthia, into that relay tower up there without having to move that unit."
"So we need to get that Subroutine into some sort of container small enough to carry, yet powerful enough to contain it completely."
"Then the question is, what sort of device could act as a quantum processor unit?"
"And be small enough to carry?"
They thought about that in silence. Each was about to voice what they had in mind, only to stop and dismiss it.
That is when John perks up. "How big is a Thunderjaw brain?"
"It's about as big as a man's head," Aloy answered.
"If that Thunderjaw still has its head intact, you could remove its brain and then we could make our way up to that Banuk camp with it."
"That could work." As Aloy rubs her chin while looking off in thought.
"Pardon my presence, esteemed guests," a man said from the doorway, Aloy and John look to see a male servant standing there. "But the Fourteenth Luminance of the Radiant Line Sun-King Avad will now see you. If you will just follow me."