Horizon Loop Escape

by BbK2442

An Elster's dying story and a Bioresonant goddess's last wish results in a certain Eule and Star couple ending up very far from home and seeing the dawn of a new horizon for the both of them.

10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Towards a New Horizon

Passing once more through the gate to Mother's Heart, but in the opposite direction this time, resulted in the pair of Nora Brave guards standing as stiff as possible, spear butts thumping into the ground. Once more, Eule was struck by how similar they were to alert Star units in posture, if not in height. Indeed, Star seemed to also feel the same, judging by the Eusan Nation-style salute she gave them as she passed by. It was a pity though that the Braves didn't seem to understand the gesture, although one Brave's hesitant raising of his left hand suggests that he at least understood the intent…maybe.

As Eule and Star walked along the trail back towards the mountainside where Rost's house rested partway up on, Eule couldn't help but notice the Metal Devil. When she and her lover were in Mother's Heart, the buildings, people, and the series of events involving those people had helped obscure it from view. However, now that they were walking south and had a clear view of All-Mother Mountain, it was virtually impossible to ignore the sight of the massive insectoid shape from which equally as massive tentacles emerged and snaked into said mountain.

"You still as disturbed by that thing as I am?" Star asked, staring at exactly the same thing Eule was looking at.

Eule nodded in affirmation. "Do you by any chance have any theories as to what that might be?"

Star was silent for several long moments before shrugging. "A giant robot bug from outer space? Or maybe it's corpse? Dead after trying to invade Vineta to devour it?"

Eule snorted in laughter. "That will probably do for an explanation until we find out what that Metal Devil really…if we ever do."

"Yeah, as cute as Äloy is and as knowledgeable as Rost is, I'm not so sure that what they think that thing is, is really what it is," Star commented in as dry a tone as Rost was prone to.

Eule gave a nervous laugh at that, but she had to concede that her lover had a very good point there. The apparent Nora myth that Äloy told them didn't seem to contain much in the way of solid fact. Or at least, none that Eule could pull out of it yet.

The trip back to the foot of the mountain was relatively peaceful otherwise (save for a quick stop in a patch of foxtail grass to avoid a random Watcher just wandering around by its lonesome), and the trip up the forested mountainside was just as…invigorating as usual. Despite the nature of the climb though, or maybe because of it, the sight of what Eule had come to know as the "front gate" of the wall around Rost's house filled her and her lover with a feeling of sheer relief: like coming home after a long, grinding day of work.

A feeling that was only amplified by the sight of a familiar little Gestalt girl sitting on a log seat in front of the house, seated in such a way as to have a clear view of both gates, and fiddling with her Focus in the meantime. The moment Eule and Star appeared at the front gate though, Äloy immediately leapt up, causing her midair Focus screen to vanish like a Kolibri doppelganger, and raced towards the Replikas, calling out their names with all the volume of a very excited and relieved young child.

Eule barely had time to return the call before Äloy thumped into her and hugged her tightly to her small organic body, clutching an armful of Eule's cloth Nora shirt with her left hand as Eule returned the hug with her free hand. Äloy's right arm was busy hugging Star's upper knee just as tightly, prompting Star to give Äloy some affectionate pats on her head, tussling her flame-red hair just a bit.

"You came back," Äloy said, sounding a bit muffled due to how she had half-squished her face into Eule's body.

"We certainly did," Eule replied happily.

"What, did you think we were just going to leave after all that?" Star asked jokingly. When Äloy didn't reply though, Star's grin slowly slipped off her face. "Wait, really?"

"I…I had this thought maybe this was a dream. A really fun dream…but then I would wake up, and you two would be gone, and it'd be just me and Rost again, and there'd be no one else to talk to," Äloy said, quiet now, her exuberance now replaced with depression.

"Oh, Äloy," Eule said soothingly as she stroked the adorable little Gestalt girl's cheek. "We're right here. We're real, not a dream, and we're not going anywhere."

"Yeah, you think it's just a dream mussing up your hair right now, kid?" Star joked softly, trying to inject some good humor back into little Äloy.

Äloy sniffed. "But…that ghost woman just brought you here out of nowhere. What if…she changes her mind and took you back?"

Eule went still for a moment, and shuddered at the thought before fortifying herself with a comforting lean against Star. "Honestly, as much that thought scares me, I really don't think it would happen. This ghost woman…this Alina Seo…she brought us here for a reason, presumably. She brought us out of the darkness of Sierpinski and into the light of the Embrace. I don't think someone who would do that would just…fling us back into the mines on a whim," Eule argued, as much for herself as for Äloy.

"Yeah, she probably went through a lot of trouble to do all that. She's not going to go through that same trouble to reverse everything she did," Star added, sounding as hopeful as someone trying to convince herself of that in addition to her target audience.

Äloy hummed for a bit before hugging both Replikas more tightly. "Yeah, that makes sense. This Aleena Sayo woman didn't look like she would do that. She looked too…sad. So thanks, and sorry about making you two worry."

Star grinned down at Äloy. "Don't thank us just yet. You still got souvenirs to get, after all."

Äloy suddenly snapped her gaze up at Star, her green eyes now practically sparkling like a pair of emeralds. "Oh, oh! I forgot until just now! What did you get me?!"

Eule giggled, relieved now that little Äloy has had her personality stabilized and was back to her normal, cheerful self. "Maybe we could wait until Rost is awake before we all see those souvenirs together?"

"Which fortunately, I am."

Eule started at the sound of Rost's voice, which came from the man himself as he walked towards them from the front door of the house, apparently having opened and closed it without making a single sound. Even now, his feet made not even so much as a scuffle as he stepped on the dirt, stone, grass, and other assorted plants in the yard.

Star whistled. "Already showing off your stealth skills first thing after waking up?" she asked with a playful grin.

"A hunter always takes some time to practice their craft," Rost replied sagely, so sagely that Eule giggled at how much of a martial arts master he sounded like.

Through her giggles, Eule saw Rost give her as a reply a single raised eyebrow, and nothing more. No words were needed for him, as usual.

"So now can I, er, we see what these 'souvenirs' are?!" Äloy asked excitedly, eager to speak for herself as well as Rost.

A couple minutes of setting down backpacks on the ground and leather-wrapped packages on a dragged-out table later, and the various results of their Mother's Heart shopping trip was now unveiled upon that table for all to see.

"What's that 'souvenir'?" Äloy asked very curiously as she pointed at the meat grinder.

"Ah, that's not really a souvenir…or maybe it is? It is something we're all going to enjoy, after all," Eule mused to herself before smiling down at a confused Äloy. "This appliance is a meat grinder, and once that boar is ready for carving, I'm going to use some of that meat to make so many different kinds of sausage."

"Sausage? Vurst?" Äloy asked, now sounding somewhere between confused and curious.

Eule started to open her mouth to explain what a sausage was, but then someone beat her to it.

"It's an Oseram food made by stuffing ground-up meat into cleaned intestines," Rost explained to Äloy, before turning to Eule. "I take it that your Eusan Nation tribe also makes these sausages?"

As Eule nodded in agreement, Äloy tilted her head one way and then the other. "That's a weird way to eat meat," she commented.

"It's definitely worth it though," Star commented in reply, and licking her biocomponent lips as well. "There's nothing better as a beer snack than a nice fat Weißwurst with a soft, fluffy pretzel."

"Ah, while I can certainly try to make a soft pretzel and I'm reasonably confident that I can do that, I don't think I will be able to make a true Weißwurst without veal," Eule pondered out loud, before she quickly noticed the disappointed look on Star's face, as though she had kicked a Star-shaped puppy. "Oh, but I think I can make a decent substitute with the game meat we have! Maybe, um, maybe fox or raccoon might taste close enough to beef to count? Hopefully? Er, definitely!"

Eule was fairly relieved to see Star smile at her. "Heh, honestly, I think just the prospect of eating Eusan Nation-style sausages again is amazing. Thank you, love, and sorry if I came off as, well, ungrateful to you."

Eule smiled back at her lover and gave her a hug and a kiss on her cheek. "No worries there. I'm just as excited to try to make sausages like the ones we had back home too."

"Hmm, I've had Oseram sausages before, and they were decent foods," Rost commented as he stroked his braided beard in contemplation. "I will be curious to see what kind of sausages your Eusan Nation tribe makes."

"Ah, I take it that Torvund sold some sausages to you?" Eule asked.

What she didn't expect to see was Rost looking surprised for a moment before he quickly–too quickly, Eule thought–said: "Yes, I did."

Before Eule could ask Rost further about that though, Äloy piped up with: "So what's in these bags?"

Eule smiled happily down at her favorite little Gestalt girl. "Something I think you'll love. Here, let me open it up and take off this…Maizemeat, was what Rashaman called it, and…and ta-da!"

Äloy stared at the circular loaf of golden Mesa Bread sitting in the unwrapped package of leather, liberally coated with honey and covered in the same sunflower seeds and poppy, er, hintergold seeds as before with wide eyes. Admittedly, even Eule was admiring the bread, for a whole, intact loaf of freshly baked Mesa Bread, still steaming, was truly a magnificent and delectable sight.

Eule made a mental note to try to get the recipe out of Rashaman sometime in the future, although given the amount of mental notes she already had, she pondered asking Rost later for some paper and pencil to write them down lest she forget.

For now though, Äloy was the most important thing to focus on.

"Is this…bread?" Äloy asked with a tone of intense curiosity with just a hint of awe in it.

Eule started to open her mouth to explain what Mesa Bread was, but to her surprise, she was beaten to it.

"This is Mesa Bread: a Carja bread made from their maize grain," Rost explained. "This one is just one of many of such breads, which the Carja together call 'Maizebread'."

"Huh, do you speak with Rashaman very often?" Eule asked curiously.

"The loud Carja merchant? Yes, but not often," Rost clarified. "I only visit him infrequently to replenish my supply of chili powder and the rare bit of goat cheese, and nothing more."

Eule started to nod, but then tilted her head in confusion at Rost. "Wait, but if you're not allowed into Mother's Heart, then how do you get all that?"

"Rashaman semi-regularly makes trips to Mother's Cradle to sell Carja wares there. I just catch him to and from those trips in order to buy any chili powder and cheese he has," Rost explained.

As Eule nodded in understanding, she turned to look at Star when her lover asked: "Wait, so let me get this straight: you basically stalk and hunt Rashaman…just to get your spice and snacks?"

Silence reigned for a few moments before Rost coughed. "I suppose…if you wish to call it that," he said with a very faint hint of pink on his cheeks.

Eule couldn't help it. She didn't just giggle; she burst out laughing clutching her motor as deep belly laughs came out of her. "I'm sorry! I can't–I can't…why?!" she managed to get out in between sprays of laughter.

Soon, Star was joining in on the laughter, with Äloy's high-pitched laughs adding to the cacophony. It got to the point where Rost had to help Eule, Star, and even Äloy sit down on some chairs, sighing all the while, but even through her own laughter, Eule noticed a smile on Rost's face.

"If you must know," Rost said when everyone had finally calmed down enough from the hilarity. "At that point, I…wasn't quite used to people yet. So speaking with someone as…loud as Rashaman was…is, well, awkward for me."

Eule had to cover her mouth to keep from bursting out into laughter once more. "Oh, by the Red Eye! You're shy!" she practically squealed.

"I suppose that's another way to put it," Rost said in yet another of his Kitezhian dry tones.

"I'm sorry for laughing at you, I really am," Eule said, still covering her mouth to keep Rost from seeing her grin. "It's just…I did not anticipate you being capable of acting…adorable." She managed to get that last word out without so much as a giggle. Really.

"Yeah, it's like watching Storch Sieben act all embarrassed about how much she loves old pre-Empire Vinetan history. I swear, she was such an adorable nerd about it," Star said with a giggle of her own.

"I thought all Storchs had to read about such things as part of their personality stabilization?" Eule asked, with curiosity overwhelming hilarity for now.

"Yeah, but from what Sieben said, a lot of her sisters treated those history and mythology books like they were funny stories to read, and forget about them the moment they put their books down. Sieben though? She took reading them seriously. If you gave her half a chance, she would've gushed about the weird mix of Vinetan democracies, autocracies, and everything in between that dominated the world before the Empress conquered them all," Star explained, before she rubbed her cheek shell sheepishly. "And yeah, she's gushed about them enough to me for me to remember a decent chunk of it off the top of my head."

Eule giggled at the thought of a tall, stern Storch gushing about history with a Bashid-like enthusiasm and excitement. "Honestly, I would have liked to meet this Storch Sieben. She sounds like an interesting person."

"Yeah, she was," Star said with a laugh, before it died down to something softer. "She was."

Eule reached out and held her lover's hand, who squeezed it comfortingly in reply. They had both lost people they cared about back in Sierpinski. It was better to talk about them, to remember them instead of letting them be forgotten in the past. But…it was hard.

"Maybe you'll feel better after a snack?" Äloy suddenly asked, holding out something to Star.

"Heh, thanks, kid," Star said as she held her free hand out. However, when a piece of a familiar-looking pastry dropped into it, Star stared at the small chunk in her hand for a moment before asking: "Hey, kid? Isn't this the Mesa Bread? Or a chunk of it, at any rate?"

Äloy nodded. "You looked really sad and this May-sa Bread is yummy, and you like yummy things, so I was thinking that this might make you feel better."

Sure enough, a quick glance at the open package of Mesa Bread revealed that a chunk of it was in fact missing from its edge. A chunk that looked just about the right size for the small hand of a little Gestalt girl to have ripped off. Judging from the quiet chuckle Rost gave at the sight of missing chunk, he found it just as amusing as Eule did.

"So do you feel better?" Äloy asked, looking up at Star with a worried look on her face.

Eule watched as Star smiled a warm smile at Äloy before she stuffed the entire chunk of Mesa Bread into her mouth, chewing it with just as much relish as she did when Rashaman had handed her that slice just earlier today.

"It does. Not a lot, but…it does make me feel a little better, especially when it's you handing me it," Star said after she had swallowed the bread, before reaching out and pulling Äloy into her for a one-armed hug. "Thanks, Äloy. I mean it."

Äloy giggled and grinned up at Star. "You're welcome!" she said as she happily returned the hug with small arms and sticky hands, making Eule's heart melt from both the situation and the sheer cuteness on full display here.

"Oh! Maybe if it makes you feel better, maybe you can let me try out your, um, Ein-horn revolver bow, er, revolver?" Äloy asked hopefully. "You know, like you said I could before?"

While Eule still had trepidations about letting a kindergarten-age child handle guns, the excited and eager look on Star's face upon hearing Äloy's request helped alleviate those fears.

"Yeah, we can do that!" Star replied with a grin, prompting Äloy to grin back, right before Star raised a black mechanical finger. "But the first thing we need to do before we handle guns: wash our hands. Aside from the grossness value and the time it'd take to clean our guns off afterwards, I'm not risking a malfunction because we accidentally got sticky honey into the inner workings of our guns."

Eule readily agreed with the cleanliness part, but the possibility of their guns actively malfunctioning and suffering a misfire because of something as simple as honey getting into them truly and utterly alarmed her.

"Both of you. Wash. Now," Eule ordered.

Star threw a Eusan Nation salute at Eule. "Yes, love!" she belted out.

Äloy also raised her own left hand, smacking it to her forehead with her palm facing outwards in an adorable replication of Star's salute. "Me too!" she shouted with just as much energy.

Eule giggled at the mimicry just as Rost came back with a bowl of clean water, just as silently as when he left the house.

When everyone had finished washing any honey and assorted grime from their hands, whether organic or robotic (including Eule's own hands and very thoroughly, just for personality stabilization's sake), they were finally ready for these long-promised dry fire drills.

Or at least, preparing for them.

Eule and Star started by removing all live rounds from their guns. Eule removed the magazine of her Type-75 Protektor pistol, and then pulled back the slide, ejecting the chambered round. She then proceeded to manually remove all 10 rounds from the magazine, one at a time, laying them in a row out on an empty spot on the wooden table next to the rewrapped souvenirs. Needless to say, it was a far more tedious chore than what Star did.

All her lover had to do was swing her Eu-K508 S Einhorn revolver's cylinder out, and then depress a plunger to eject all 6 rounds at once before carefully locking the now-empty cylinder back into place in a motion that looked very much practiced to Eule. It's not surprising in the slightest given how the Star units as a whole were. Eule wouldn't be surprised if they all were that like that with their Einhorn revolver, since they were the standard sidearms of the Star units, after all.

Eule felt maybe a smidge of jealousy at that, but she was more annoyed at her own weapon for how the simple act of preparing it for dry fire drills was such a surprisingly complex chore. Eventually though, she had 11 rounds on the table, allowing her to slide an empty magazine back into her pistol's grip. She then pulled down a little switch on the left side of the slide to disengage the slide stop, allowing the open slide to lock back forward. Now, it was finally fully unloaded at long last.

"Okay," Star began "Now that we both have unloaded guns–"

"I can hold them now?!" Äloy asked with peaking excitement.

"Incorrect!" Star belted out, much to Äloy's shock. "First! We need to go over the most important part about guns: gun safety!" Star then pointed a finger straight at Eule. "Love, what are the Six Rules of Gun Safety?"

Eule was quite amused by her lover's impression of a drill sergeant, or rather, one of the stricter of her Eule sisters who went into teaching, but Star's lessons have taught her that gun safety is something that should be taken seriously at all times. Thus, Eule holstered her empty pistol and stood stiff at attention, left hand up at her forehead in a Eusan Nation salute.

"Ma'am!" Eule belted right back at Sergeant Star, before continuing more calmly: "Here are the Six Rules of Gun Safety:

1. Treat all guns as if they are loaded, and always assume that a gun is loaded even if you believe with absolute certainty that it is not.

2. Always be aware of where your gun is pointing. Always point your gun at whoever or whatever you intend to shoot. Never point the gun at anyone you don't intend to shoot or…yourself."

Eule's words hitched for a moment there as the memory of her pistol's barrel touching her right eye came back to haunt her, but then she felt the warm hands of her beloved Star take hold of her right hand, and there was Star's lovely face above her smiling encouragingly at her, mouthing: "It's okay. We're here, not back there."

With that sight and sensation strengthening her, Eule took a deep breath, hummed a bit of "Eulenlieder" to stabilize herself a bit more, assured a very worried Äloy that she was fine (and also assuring a just-as-worried Rost in the process), and she continued listing off the Six Rules of Gun Safety.

"3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to fire. Never rest your finger on the trigger, no matter how comfortable it is. The risk of accidentally pulling the trigger is too high.

4. Always be aware of your target and everything around your target. Remember that if your bullet misses its target or overpenetrates its target, it can hit something or someone other than your target, and…what was it you said, Star? Once Frau Bullet leaves the barrel, Frau Bullet is friends with no one?"

The snickers coming out of her lover's mouth and the subsequent thumbs-up told Eule that she quoted that line perfectly, and thus she continued:

"5. Know how to operate your gun. Practice with it regularly to familiarize yourself with properly loading, unloading, and cleaning your gun; as well as how to properly clear gun malfunctions, because guns are just machines, and any machine can malfunction.

6. Store your gun safely and securely to prevent unauthorized use. Both guns and their ammunition should be stored in secured and locked containers, and ideally in separate such containers. If possible, locking devices should be used on your guns, but unfortunately, we couldn't acquire any such locking devices in Sierpinski.

And that conclude the Six Rules of Gun Safety. Any questions, Äloy? Rost?" Eule asked.

"That was a most excellent demonstration of your knowledge, Soldat Eule. Well done," Star said, staying in a professional tone right up until her grin popped up at the end.

"Thank you, Gefreiter Star. You are too kind to so compliment your subordinate like this," Eule said with a mischievous smile on her face the entire time.

"Oh, don't you know? All Gefreiters are Soldats promoted one rank up. Thus, all I have to do is promote you to Gefreiter, and you don't have to call me 'ma'am' anymore," Star said with a similarly mischievous grin.

"Oh? And what do I have to do to deserve such a promotion?" Eule asked, batting her eyes playfully at her lover.

"Nothing," Star said with a grin. "I hereby officially promote you to Gefreiter, and now we are equals."

"Oh, but that won't do. Such generosity from my dearest deserves a fitting reward," Eule said, still in a mischievous tone that was now also flavored with something a bit more…sultry.

"Oh? And what kind of fitting reward do you have in mind for me, comrade?" Star said, her voice gaining its own sultry quality even as a blush rose up on the soft, biocomponent part of her cheeks.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe a nice, long massage could work? And then maybe I could give you a massage in return?" Eule suggested, putting extra emphasis on the M-word.

But before Star could reply to that suggestion, there was a loud Rost-flavored cough.

"Eu-le. Star. Need I remind you two that we have a child in our company?" Rost said in an even drier tone than usual. "I'm honestly surprised that I have to remind you, of all people, Eu-le."

Eule blushed deeply as Star gave an embarrassed laugh at their momentarily forgetting that there were other people in their company. Eule glanced at Äloy in the hopes that the little Gestalt girl hadn't heard too much of the Replikas' flirting, but thankfully, Äloy didn't seem to be paying attention to them in the slightest. Instead, she appeared to be muttering something under her breath…and a closer listen revealed that Äloy was muttering the Six Rules of Gun Safety to herself.

Eule smiled at this, happy that her favorite little Gestalt girl was taking gun safety as seriously as the subject required.

"Anyways," Rost spoke up, pulling Eule and Star's attention to him now. "I do have a question about these 'Six Rules of Gun Safety'. You mentioned a strange word in Rule 4: 'overpenetration'. This is the first time I've heard such a word. What does it mean in this context? From what I can tell, it means…penetrating something too much?"

"That's broadly what it means, yes," Eule replied with a nod. "In this specific context though, it refers to a bullet penetrating a target and emerging out the other side, causing anything or anyone behind the target to be hit by that bullet."

Rost raised one of his bushy, dark brown eyebrows in a gesture that was by now all too familiar to Eule. "This is the first I've heard of even a casterbow arrow being powerful enough to do that."

"Yeah, a bullet from a gun is a lot more powerful than any cross–I mean, casterbow," Star explained. When she saw that Rost's eyebrow was still raised up, she sighed. "I really should demonstrate for you. I just have to figure out how…"

"Star, dear? Maybe we should teach them how to do these dry fire drills before we get into firing real bullets? Remember, it's more logical to teach Äloy and Rost how to walk before teaching them how to run," Eule pointed out.

Star grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, good point. So Äloy, you think you got those Six Rules of Gun Safety?"

Äloy nodded carefully. "I think so."

Eule smiled. "Alright then. Repeat them for us, if you please."

Indeed, Äloy proceeded to repeat all Six Rules of Gun Safety right back at Eule and Star, much to their mutual approval. It wasn't in the exact same words Eule used, but it was perfectly clear that Äloy understood the basic concepts behind them.

Even Rost, when quizzed on the Six Rules of Gun Safety, showed that he too understood those basic concepts.

"These Six Rules of Gun Safety are not that different from the ways one should be careful with casterbows, to be honest," Rost pointed out.

Star thought for a moment before shrugging. "Ehh, I say that's a close enough comparison. But for now though, let's get shooting! Er, I mean, imaginary shooting, since it is dry fire drills, after all," Star hastily corrected when faced with Eule's dry look.

Eule nodded at Star, giving her lover a satisfied look before asking her: "Is there any special procedure that I or Äloy need to remember for a dry firing compared to a live firing?"

"No, it should be the same as a live firing, save for the lack of flying bullets," Star quipped.

"To which we can all be grateful for right now," Eule quipped right back before looking down to Äloy. "Now Äloy, this is how you use the Type-75 Protektor pistol:

First, you take up a shooting stance. This will allow you to have the most stable platform to fire your pistol from–"

"Oh, just like a bow and spear stance?" Äloy asked excitedly.

"It is the same principle, so yes, it is," Eule replied with a smile. "So this stance, which Star calls the, er, Kaufmann Stance?"

"Well, a modified variant of it, but yeah," Star corrected with a nod.

"Right, so the stance goes like this: stand with your legs spread slightly apart, and hold your pistol out with your dominant arm fully extended. Bend your non-dominant arm slightly like so, and hold the pistol with both hands by the grip so that you can look down the sights along the top while having the most stable grip on the pistol," Eule explained as she pointed her pistol at a conveniently nearby Grazer dummy. "Line up the three dots of the sights along your target, and/or point the laser sight onto the target like so–"

"Oh, oh! I've seen that before!" Äloy shouted even more excitedly than before upon seeing the red dot appear on the target on the Grazer dummy's flank, right on the yellow center. "That red dot appeared when you were aiming your pistol at that Strider! What did you call it again? A 'laser sight'? What's a 'laser sight'? How is your pistol doing that?"

Eule giggled at the barrage of questions and the accompanying curiosity. "A laser sight is…well, first, let me explain what a laser is. A laser is a beam of coherent light…er," Eule thought more on the subject as she watched Äloy stare at her in confusion at the terminology. "A laser is…imagine light that's all made to travel in a single direction so that it all hits a single tiny spot. That's basically what a laser is. A laser sight is just another way for a gun to be aimed by lining up the laser with where the gun is pointing. As for how my pistol is doing it, you can see the laser emitter here right at the top of the grip. That's where the laser is coming from. The laser sight is turned on by a button here on the front of the grip, so that you can press it with your middle finger. See? Off. On."

"Oooh," Äloy said in an impressed tone, watching the laser disappear and reappear again.

"Oh, but you're not supposed to aim the laser sight directly into the eyes of anyone, Gestalt or Replika. Lasers will permanently damage the eyes of either in seconds, and it's even worse for Gestalts because they can't easily replace their eyes, so please don't do that," Eule noted in a warning tone.

"OOH!" Äloy practically shouted in an even more impressed tone than before, much to Eule's surprise. "I want one for my bow! Then I can see where I'm aiming really quickly and blind any of my enemies if I'm quick enough too!"

"Alas, I don't have the technical knowledge to take my pistol's laser sight off, and I really don't want to try," Eule said with a nervous laugh at the thought of accidentally destroying her laser sight, giving up said laser sight, and at Äloy having learned entirely the wrong lesson from her warning about laser sights.

But then again… Äloy was going to be a warrior of her people, after all, Eule thought. It occurred to her that despite how nervous it made her felt, imagining Äloy risking her life against foes, that bloodthirstiness might help her against those same foes. So perhaps… Äloy was learning the right lesson after all?

"No, no, I don't want yours," Äloy corrected, interrupting Eule's thoughts and alleviating one of her fears. "I want to make one for myself. Hmm, maybe I can learn to make one from someone from your Eusan Nation tribe then? Star, do you know how to make a laser sight?" the little Gestalt girl asked hopefully.

Star's initial reply was to burst out in laughter, momentarily disturbing the lesson she'd been giving to Rost.

"Kid, I know as much as my Eule here about how to actually make one of those things. Which is to say: I know absolutely nothing. The Eusan Nation doesn't exactly train us Star units to have Ara-level technical competence, you know?" Star explained after that initial outburst.

"Aww," Äloy whined.

"Aloy, remember that not all Braves are Carvers as well," Rost gently reminded her.

"But you're great at being both a Brave and a Carver," Äloy pointed out. "Oh, and a Builder too!"

Rost coughed. "I admit: I am not the typical Brave."

"Ah, so not all of the Nora's Braves are as awesomely Ara-like as you are?" Star asked cheekily.

"I'm still not entirely certain who these Aras are that you keep comparing me to other than that they are more of your people, but I stand by my previous statement," Rost said in his usual Kitezhian dryness, before stroking his braided beard thoughtfully. "Still, Aloy does have a point. Not on the crafting of these laser machines, but about blinding your enemies with them. Your lasers seem to appear in an instant at what you are pointing. Perhaps you can in fact use them to blind your enemies? Including possibly Machines, since you mentioned that they will blind Replikas as well, and you mentioned that your people are…well, partly Machines? Or rather, human-made machines rather than the beasts of steel?"

Eule nodded at his correction, and then stopped as she thought about what he said. "Hmm, maybe? Would that work, Star?"

"Hmm…maybe?" Star said as she scratched her cheek shell in thought. "You would have to aim the laser directly into their eyes though, and then hold it there for several seconds for there to be permanent damage, so…it could work, but I'm not sure any enemy is just going to stand there for several seconds while you shine a laser directly into their eyes. Maybe more as a temporary blinder if you have good aim? Yeah, that could work better."

"Hmm, I see," Eule said as she thought about actually doing that to someone attacking her.

Eule's mind instantly went to shining a laser directly into the dilated red eyes of one of the things that used to be one of her sisters. Considering how fast it could move, even she doubted that shining a laser into its eyes would work fast enough before it had sunk a kitchen knife into her, and so had to agree with her lover on that.

A series of tugging sensations at her Nora animal skin hose brought her thoughts back down to Äloy.

"Hey, can I hold your pistol now then to try out your lessons? Please?" Äloy asked pleadingly.

Eule looked at the Protektor pistol still in her hands, pointed down at the ground, and sighed. She did promise Äloy, after all. "Alright, time for a practical lesson now."

Soon, Eule was watching over Äloy handle her Type-75 Protektor pistol, while Star busied herself doing the same with Rost as he handled her Eu-K508 S Einhorn revolver.

"Huh, this is a weird weapon," Äloy noted, turning the empty pistol left and right to examine both sides of it. "It's so…Machiney. There's so many bits you can move on it, like this thing here."

Before Eule could stop her, Äloy thumbed the magazine release, ejecting the magazine straight out of the grip. But before Eule could react though, Äloy caught the empty magazine before it hit the ground, giving a sheepish look up at Eule.

"Oops," Äloy said as she inserted the magazine back into the pistol.

"No worries. I, um, also did that once when I first handled a pistol," Eule said with a sheepish look of her own down at Äloy. "Unlike you though, I wasn't fast enough to catch that magazine before it hit the floor."

Äloy stared at the magazine release button with a frown. "Why is this bit even here then? To make you drop the 'magazeen' by accident?"

Eule giggled. "No, that's the magazine release. It's there to allow you to eject the magazine more quickly to reload…which admittedly is a moot point for me since I only have that one magazine, but the principle is still there."

"Hmm, I guess," Äloy conceded, before giving the Protektor pistol in her hand one more examination before beginning her shooting stance.

Eule watched as Äloy mimicked her own Kaufmann Stance more or less perfectly, and carefully aimed at the bullseye on the target of a nearby Grazer dummy. Eule could tell because a red dot had appeared over the yellow center, shakily staying there as Äloy held down the laser sight button. Äloy spent several seconds lining up her shot before finally pulling the trigger.

Only for nothing to happen as Äloy fruitlessly pulled at the trigger without it actually moving.

"Oh, wait, I forgot to teach you one very important thing about my pistol," Eule said, realizing her error only now. "Do you see that switch on the left side of the pistol, towards the back? That's the safety lever. Its purpose is to prevent the pistol from firing when you don't want it to. Right now, it's in the up position, so it won't fire. To fire, you have to flip it down to turn off the safety…yes, like that. When you can see that red dot, it means it's ready to fire."

Äloy nodded and said "Okay," before returning her aim to the Grazer dummy, and then pulling the trigger once more.

This time, the Protektor pistol "fired", with its firing pin dropping with an audible click. It was quite an unremarkable sound compared to if a bullet had been in the chamber, but for the purposes of teaching a child, it was more than sufficient.

"Huh, it clicked instead of going 'BOOM!' like Star's revolver," Äloy noted, actually almost shouting the word as if to emphasize how loud that Einhorn revolver had been on that first day. "Is it supposed to do that?" she then asked up at Eule.

Eule shook her head, noting with pride that Äloy was pointing the Protektor pistol at the ground, only turning her head to ask her question. "My pistol only makes that sound when it's out of ammunition. When it does have that, it's as loud as Star's revolver."

"Ohhh, okay. It only makes noise when it has those bullets in it. Got it," Äloy said with a nod before she aimed at the Grazer dummy's target yet again.

Numerous clicks followed as Äloy made the firing pin go click with each trigger pull. Then after only a minute of this, Äloy then lowered her aim back to the ground with a sigh.

"This is boring," Äloy complained. "It's not doing anything but clicking. Rost, does Star's gun do some other than click?"

"It seems to be larger than Eu-le's gun, and the…cylinder, you called it, Star?" Rost asked for clarification. After a nod from Star, Rost continued: "It spins to the next hole every time I pull the trigger. Other than that though, it seems to be making identical clicking sounds."

Äloy groaned, before turning and looking up at Eule. "I know you said you can't get any more of your 'bullets' and you want to use as little as you can, but can't you let me use just one? Just to see what it does? Please?"

Eule had to steel herself to avoid immediately giving in to the puppy dog eyes Äloy was currently giving her, no matter how adorable her favorite little Gestalt girl looked.

"Äloy, it's–"

"It's alright," Star interrupted. Even as Eule opened her mouth to protest the ammunition wastage though, Star held up a hand to further interrupt. "What Rost said about not understand overpenetration made me think about how to demonstrate it, and I think I've figured out how. Hey Rost, do you mind if I borrow a Grazer dummy, some Machine wire, and the biggest and flattest piece of Machine armor you have?"

"Hmm, you want a piece of Machine armor that's large and flat?" Rost repeated for clarification. When Star nodded, Rost thought for a moment before nodding and handing back Star's Einhorn revolver to her. To Eule's appreciation, Rost handed it back in such a way so that the barrel was pointed at no one but the ground. "Be right back," he simply said before walking off to the semi-covered storage shed on the side of the yard.

A short time later, Rost came back with a large bundle of Machine muscle and a roughly rectangular piece of Machine that looked like it had a semi-circular curve on one side, and was emblazoned with a peculiar symbol that resembled a white triangle, but if the bottom line suddenly angled upwards before reaching the leftmost corner, and ended at the center of the triangle, touching nothing.

"This is the shoulder plate of a Strider," Rost explained. "It's the largest and flattest piece of Machine hide that I possess. Will this do?"

"Yeah, that will work," Star said happily as she took the Strider shoulder plate and Machine muscle bundle from Rost. "Alright, time to do my best impression of an Elster, and hope it works!"

"Oh, can I see your, um, revolver then while you do an Elster, Star? Please?" Äloy asked in her most adorable pleading voice.

A voice which, as it turned out, was just as effective against Security Technician Guard Replikas as it was against Simple Universal Light Replikas.

"Alrighty, kid," Star replied just as happily as she temporarily set down her crafting materials in order to pull her Einhorn revolver out and hold it out to Äloy by the grip. "Be careful with her though. She's the fourth-most precious thing in this world to me."

"Oh my, that's an oddly specific number," Eule said with a mischievous smile. "And what, pray tell, are the first three things?"

"Well, you are definitely on the top of that list, my beloved Eule," Star said, leaning over to kiss Eule on her lips and making her giggle in response.

"The second thing on that list would be this tiny little fiery soldier of a kid named Äloy here," Star continued, reaching down with her free hand to pat Äloy's head, making the little Gestalt girl grin the biggest and most adorable happy grin up at Star.

"And the third and final thing is old Rost, for welcoming us into his home and his family's life," Star said with a happy grin directed at Rost. Rost merely looked down at the ground in reply, although Eule smiled when she could just about make out a faint blush on Rost's cheeks.

"So yeah, after all of you, my Einhorn here is the most precious thing to me. Do take care of it while I'm Elstering, will you?" Star asked of Äloy, still holding out her revolver to the little Gestalt girl.

"Hmm, why Elstering and not Araing?" Eule asked out of curiosity.

"Because this, my love, is not even going to be close to being as neat as what an Ara would do," Star said with a grin.

Eule snorted in amusement, just as Äloy nodded rapidly and reverently took the Einhorn revolver from Star's hand with both hands, while also being careful not to point the barrel at anything but the ground as she held it. "I won't let you down!" Äloy happily said up at Star, who nodded and then returned to her "Elstering".

Eule ended up watching Äloy try to make sense of and get a proper grip of the Stars' signature standard sidearm, while occasionally glancing over at Star to see how her "Elstering" was going. To be honest, it seemed to be going fairly well from what Eule was seeing. Especially since Rost walked over to help out after Star was having trouble with the knots, and between the two of them, were now doing a pretty good job tying the Strider shoulder plate onto the midsection of the Grazer dummy.

With that witnessed, and with no small amount of warmth at seeing her Star and Rost work together like this, Eule turned back to Äloy and asked: "So, how is Star's revolver?"

"Urgh," Äloy groaned as she struggled with the Einhorn revolver. "It didn't look that big, but it's actually really big. I can't even reach the trigger."

Indeed, Eule watched as Äloy's index finger was patently unable to extend long enough to get a grip on that slightly curved revolver trigger. In fact, that tiny index finger was barely even able to clear the gap between the grip and the trigger guard.

"Hmm, may I try Star's revolver out then?" Eule asked, now curious herself as to what her lover's weapon felt like.

A few moments of trading later, and Eule was now holding her Star's Einhorn revolver. Hefting it in her hands, she found that it was indeed quite large and heavy now that she was holding it for herself. It felt like it was about twice as heavy as her own Protektor pistol now sitting snugly in its hip holster. It even felt larger, if not quite as long as the Protektor pistol.

Fortunately, as Eule lifted it up to aim down its sights at the same nearby Grazer dummy she and Äloy were using as dry fire target practice, her Star's Einhorn revolver wasn't so large that she couldn't reach its trigger. That said, it seemed to take just a bit more force to pull that trigger than her own pistol. Eule was fairly certain that it had something to do with Star's increased strength compared to her own.

But all in all, handling Star's Einhorn revolver made Eule realize something.

"So how is she?" Star asked excitedly, plopping her chin onto Eule's shoulder.

A move that conveniently allowed Eule to easily turn her head and give her lover a peck on her cheek. "Honestly, I think I prefer my Protektor pistol. Your girl is a bit too…bulky and heavy for my tastes, I believe."

"Yeah, fair enough there. I've heard similar complaints from Gestalts who use one of these girls, but then again, I guess that's why the Einhorn revolvers are Star-issue only," Star said with a thoughtful look on her face.

Eule could only nod in agreement. "So how is that Elstering going then, out of curiosity?" Eule asked as she handed Star her revolver back.

Star grinned in reply. "Why not look for yourself, love?"

And so Eule did, and indeed, with all the Machine wire now securing the Strider shoulder plate to the Grazer dummy's flank, there seemed to be no chance whatsoever that it would slip off, given what Eule assumed Star wanted to do with it.

"Got it in one," Star said when Eule brought up those assumptions. "That one question has been bugging me all this time: how tough are the Machines' armor against our guns? I know I've shot those Watchers in the eye before, but given how even an arrow will penetrate it, it's not really a good test for bullet penetration. A Strider's shoulder plate though? Now that's more like it."

Eule nodded in a surprised agreement. That was a conundrum Eule hadn't even considered before. She just assumed that her Protektor pistol's bullet would just punch right through the Machines' armor given what the Einhorn revolver's bullets did…but now that Star brought it up, Eule was now no longer so sure.

"So we test my pistol out first?" Eule asked.

"Definitely," Star simply replied with a nod. "Here's hoping that 10x20mm VMG is effective against Machine armor."

Eule ended up taking a single 10x20mm full metal jacket round, putting it into the top of her Protektor pistol's magazine, and inserting that magazine into her pistol's grip. Once that was done, all she then had to do was pull her pistol's slide all the way back, and then released it to let it lock back forward, and there! Now she had a round chambered in her pistol and ready to fire.

"Alright, now just fire it dead center of that plate, just above that…triangle-looking mark. It's the flattest part of it, so it shouldn't ricochet," Star instructed.

"What's a rico-chet? Ab-prallen?" Äloy asked curiously.

"It's…oh, that's something I should've mentioned earlier," Eule admitted guiltily, mentally hitting herself for forgetting to mention something that important about guns. "Ricochet is when a bullet hits an angle too steep for it to penetrate, and so it bounces off whatever it's hitting. This can result in the bullet hitting something or someone you didn't intend to, so please watch out for angled surfaces when you're shooting at something."

"Hmm, so like arrows that hit Machine armor wrong then," Rost commented as he stroked his beard in contemplation.

Eule grimaced. "So arrows can ricochet too?"

Rost nodded sagely. "I've seen it happen when a hunter shoot an arrow at a Machine or other hard surface when it's at a shallow angle relative to the hunter. I've even had that happen to me when I was young."

Eule made a mental note of that and added it to the top of the pile. She did not want to accidentally ricochet an arrow into Rost or, Red Eye watching, Äloy.

"It's okay, love," Star said, giving her a gentle hug and a comforting kiss on her cheek. "We know what a ricochet is and how to avoid it."

Eule scoffed, returning the kiss on Star's own cheek. "Only because you taught me and drilled it into me. Basic firearms training from nearly 5 years ago definitely does not prepare me to using a pistol after such a long time without even touching one."

"True, but you've more than proved that you can use a pistol well," Star insisted.

"Only barely. Why do you think I still have all this ammunition after everything in Sierpinski?" Eule asked bitterly.

"I would put that down more to how good we were at scavenging for bullets," Star pointed out. "You did fire that pistol of yours a decent amount of times before we stumbled on that cache of bullets in the mine's office."

"True, but I feel bad for anyone else following us, since we took all the 10x20mm bullets to fill up our ammunition supply," Eule noted. "At least we left that flare gun and signal flares there."

"You're going to have to be a pretty good shot to use that thing as a weapon though," Star mused. "No sights period, iron or laser, means that you can't aim it for shit, and I've never practiced on the range with a flare gun before, of all things."

"I don't think any of us ever did," Eule mused right back. "Plus, we didn't have any room in our inventory for them without violating the Rule of Six, so maybe that was of help to anyone else following after us."

"Hopefully," Star continued her musing, before giving Eule another smooch on the cheek. "But that's all in the past now. Can't do much about that, so how about we do something about the present and future now?"

Eule gently turned Star's head to give her a proper kiss right on her lips. "Heh, you're right. Silly me for dwelling on the past like that. Let's live in the present then, shall we?"

Thus, a short time later, Eule adopted a Kaufmann Stance as she aimed down the sights of her Protektor pistol, with the red dot of her laser sight hovering right on the spot just above that triangular symbol her Star indicated.

As Eule was aiming though, she suddenly realized something.

"Äloy? Rost? Could you both please cover your ears? Guns are extremely loud, even for something as small as my Protektor pistol, and can damage Gestalt ears from overexposure," Eule explained without taking her eyes off the piece of Strider shoulder plate.

"Yeah, remember how loud my Einhorn revolver was?" Star pointed out. Eule couldn't see what was happening, but she knew that Äloy and Rost had followed her request/advice when Star told her: "Both of them have their ears covered now. Now you're weapons free…er, that means 'fire at will'."

Eule gave an amusedly exasperated snort at Star's use of military terminology, which as a non-combat Replika model she most definitely did not understand on an instinctual level the way her Star did, and took just a few more seconds to aim before finally squeezing the trigger of her Protektor pistol in a single smooth motion the way her Star had taught her.

There was the familiar BANG of her Protektor pistol firing, sending its chambered 10x20mm full metal jacket round straight into the Strider shoulder plate in a spray of sparks as it made supersonic contact with the steel of the Machine armor.

There was also, at the same time, a most definitely unfamiliar shriek coming from behind her.

At first, Eule thought that Äloy had shrieked in surprise at the sound of her pistol firing. But then her biomechanical brain registered a fraction of a moment later that the voice that shrieked, while it certainly sounded young and female, also did not sound like Äloy.

"Who's there?!" Rost shouted.

Eule spun around in shock, and raised her pistol…only just now realizing that the slide was locked open, still smoking a bit from the just-fired cartridge that had been thrown out of the ejection port. A Protektor pistol with no bullets was just an awkwardly shaped Protektor club, but Eule was more than prepared to use it as such to defend her loved ones. Especially little Äloy, who had dashed behind the protective bulk of Rost's leg the moment everyone heard that shriek.

Even Star had brought her EIG-2 stun prod out, and looked ready to use its red business end to give their potential attacker an electroshock surprise.

Only, as it turned out, Eule, Star, and Rost had no need to defend anyone. Especially when Eule saw a group of very familiar-looking children peeking out from behind the fence walk out sheepishly at being called out.

"Minali?! Vala?! And Teb, Sal, and Feld?!" Eule asked in shock as she instantly lowered her pistol's aim to the ground. Then she noticed Rost standing there with a spear in hand, frozen in the middle of holding it out in a combat stance. "Rost, it's okay! They're just children we know from Mother's Heart, and see, there's Teb right there!"

"Yes. I'm well aware of that," Rost quietly said as he adopted a much more relaxed stance, looking down at the ground with a faint blush on his cheeks.

It suddenly occurred to Eule that Rost had, completely by accident, broken Nora law. It certainly explained why he looked so embarrassed right now. Eule could only pat his shoulder in consolation, with Star joining in after sheepishly re-hanging her stun prod onto her belt by patting his other shoulder.

"So kids, you got a reason to have been stalking us or something?" Star asked curiously as she returned her stun prod to her belt…and more than a little wryly as well.

"We weren't…stalking," Minali tried to protest, and sounding not quite like she meant it.

"Yeah, Minali's mother and father gave her something to give to, uhh, Oo-ler and Star?" Vala said in a questioning tone, wondering if she got Eule's name right, which Eule could hear that she most definitely didn't. Eule could at least forgive Vala for being a small child though as Vala continued: "But both of you left already and we couldn't find you, so we asked Teb and his friends to help us find you, and we tracked you from your footprints, which by the way look really, really, REALLY weird, like you have circle feet with four toes in a circle, but so we tracked you here, and then you were doing something so we just watched, and then you made your weapon make thunder like a Blast Bomb, and so Minali screamed, and now here we are!"

"Yeah, sorry about that," Teb apologized in a tone that couldn't have been any more apologetic if he tried. "The kids here were pretty insistent."

"And what do you mean by 'we', kid?" Sal asked Vala in a snide tone. "We're the ones who did all the tracking, not you."

"Hey, I was the one who pointed out Oouo-ler and Star's weird footprints to you three!" Vala retorted in a fully outraged tone.

"Okay, one, they're not weird. They're awesome footprints," Sal rebutted indignantly, making Eule quietly giggle to herself as Sal cast glances towards her Star. "Two, those footprints are so distinct that any hunter with half a brain could spot them from meters away. You spotting them isn't anything special."

"Oh yeah, you big dummy? If it's so easy, how come I spotted it first?" Vala continued to retort, sticking her tongue out at Sal.

Sal's indignity turned into outrage of his own. "Oh yeah, well–"

"Sal, All-Mother give me strength, you're arguing with a 6-year old. Could you stop embarrassing yourself already?" Feld half-cried out in a tone of complete and utter exasperation, palming his face for added effect.

Sal started to open his mouth to retort, and then after a moment, slowly closed his mouth and stared down at the ground, blushing.

"Hah, I win!" Vala cried out in childish triumph,

Sal's only reply was to groan loudly and cover his face, all while Star was cracking up over the situation. Even Eule barely managed to keep it down to some giggling rather than the full-on laughter that Star was pouring out.

It was when everyone had calmed down enough that Eule was able to finally speak about what Vala had been talking about in her explanation that, admittedly, bordered on rambling.

"So Minali, what did your parents wish to give me and Star?" Eule asked the shy little Gestalt girl.

Minali started at the address, and dithered for a bit seemingly in an effort to collect herself, before finally walking up to Eule, pulling out a leather bag from her belt. "Hold out your hand, Eu-le," Minali instructed.

Eule did so, being both puzzled and curious as to what Minali would hand her.

Minali then reached into her leather bag, and pulled out a single steel Shard, placing it gently onto Eule's robotic black palm. That wasn't the end though. Minali continued placing Shards onto Eule's palm one by one, until eventually, 20 Shards rested on Eule's plastic-skinned hand.

"Mommy and daddy said that they didn't feel right about just taking a Watcher bone from you and Star without, umm, 'equal payment'. So they gave me 20 Shards to give to you both, but then I couldn't find you in Mother's Heart, and then Vala and everyone helped me, and so…um, now here's 20 Shards, so um, yeah," Minali explained, trailing off towards the end as she stared at the ground.

Eule looked at the small pile of Shards in her hand and sighed in exasperation, but it was an amused exasperation at the coincidences in this world. It would seem that she and Minali's parents were of like mind in this regard. Gestalt or Replika, it didn't seem to matter. Some people just can't stand having leaving debts behind.

"Minali," Eule began after dropping off the Shards in her Shard sack, causing the shy little Gestalt girl to start and raise her gaze up to meet Eule's robotic eyes. Eule rewarded that courage by crouching down, allowing her to properly meet Minali at eye level. "When you get back to your parents, could you please tell them for us that Watcher bone had been meant as a gift, with no expectation to have that gift be reciprocated? Nevertheless though, could you also please tell them for us that we appreciate your repaying us for the gift, and that since we are apparently of like minds, then maybe we can continue to have this friendly relationship in the future?"

Minali's surprised look quickly turned into a happy grin. "Don't worry, I'll tell them! I hope we can have that, er, friendly relationship too?"

Eule held the hand that wasn't currently enclosing a small pile of Shards to Minali. "It's a promise!"

The sensation of Minali's tiny organic hand shaking her own robotic one made Eule's biomechanical heart warm to a very comfortable level that couldn't be registered on any internal thermometer.

"Hey kid, didn't you say before that you also had something to give to, er…Ue-le and Star?" Feld asked.

Eule watched as Vala stared at the older boy for several moments before her jaw fell open in shock. "Oh! OH! I nearly forgot! Thanks, Feld!"

Before Eule could ask what that was all about, Vala dashed forward and skidded to a stop right next to Minali. Vala then rummaged through her pockets and pouches in front of a perplexed Eule, before finally crying out in triumph and holding out a–

"Oh, our Focus!" Eule said in surprise.

"Yup! Sorry about forgetting to give it back to you after I was done," Vala apologized in an embarrassed tone.

"It's okay, really," Eule consoled as Vala dropped the Focus into Eule's waiting palm. As Eule returned that small, strange, and precious device to her medical satchel, she continued: "You were suddenly called out to leave, so it's perfectly understandable why you would've forgotten about it."

Vala still looked down at her feet in depression. "I still feel bad about it though…and stupid on top of it."

As Eule tried to figure out how to make Vala feel better, or at least not miserable as she was now, a familiar little voice piped up with: "But you're not stupid."

Vala looked up in surprise to see Äloy looking at her, having stepped out from behind Rost's leg and had stepped up to just behind Eule.

"Aloy," Rost said in a warning tone.

A warning tone which Äloy completely ignored.

"You're not stupid. You forgot once. Everyone forgets things sometimes. That doesn't make you stupid. If everyone who forgot something once is stupid, then everyone is stupid," Äloy continued to Vala.

Vala stared at Äloy for a moment before her mouth dropped open in shock, and she suddenly said: "You're right! Thank you, Aloy!" Vala said before she immediately threw a hug around Äloy.

Eule watched as for a moment, Äloy went completely stiff, as though she was not used to being hugged before. Eule was perplexed by that, since she had been hugged by Äloy very openly before, and she'd seen Äloy freely hug both Rost and Star.

It only just now occurred to her though that Äloy had never been hugged by a member of the Nora tribe before, which by their laws, would be quite illegal despite how perfectly harmless the act was. Thus, Eule realized that this was a very new experience for her favorite little Gestalt girl, and one which apparently was a source of complete and utter bafflement.

Vala then suddenly sprang up, releasing her hug upon Äloy. "Oh, wait! Was hugging outcasts unlawgal?! Uhh, I'm sorry, Aloy, if I got you in trouble for breaking the law."

"Kid, even talking to outcasts is illegal," Feld said in a very Rost-like dry tone, with emphasis on the corrected word.

Vala turned to look at Feld in shock. "What?! But then how can I apologize to an outcast?!"

"You can't. That's the thing," Feld said slowly, as if speaking more slowly would make Vala understand him better.

Vala's only response was to pout at Feld and stick her tongue out at him. "That's unfair! I can't even apologize to an outcast if I do something wrong? That doesn't make sense!"

"Kid, laws don't have to make sense. You either break them or not. Breaking them gets you into trouble, and that's that," Feld said in the tone of one who is absolutely not going to be breaking any laws if he can help it.

"Feld, don't be mean," Teb said to his friend.

"Yeah, didn't you say something about how embarrassing it was to argue with a 6-year old?" Sal pointed out.

Feld shrugged. "I'm not arguing. I'm only pointing out the facts here."

"You know, kid," Star began with a neutral expression on her face that worried Eule. "Let me ask you this: if you find a law to be unjust and unfair, even if it's only in a specific instance, would you still follow it?"

Feld merely shrugged once more. "Even if it is, what can I do but follow it? It's not like my opinion will change a law once it's been preserved into writing."

Star's neutral expression turned into a lop-sided look that wasn't quite a frown but also wasn't quite a smirk. "I suppose you would be a perfect little citizen in our Eusan Nation, blindly following the law because you believe that your opinion doesn't matter. Or at least, that's your excuse."

Feld's only response to that was, again, to shrug, but Eule could see a bit of annoyance in his eyes at having his worldview being called out like that.

Star sighed when she didn't get a verbal answer from Feld. "Oh well, time to get back to what we were doing before, everyone. Want to see what a pistol round does to Machine armor, Eule?"

"Oh, yes. Let's do that," Eule said quickly, partially hoping that this distracts her lover from whatever is troubling her about Feld's worldview and partially because she herself was curious about that whole penetration issue herself.

Thus, the entire group found themselves right next to the Grazer dummy, looking at the Strider shoulder player affixed to its flank over the target. Said shoulder plate looked the same as before, save for a flattened round metallic lump right where Eule had shot it that was most definitely not there before.

"Oh, ohhh. I did not expect that to happen. I'm so glad that we did this test now, instead of finding this out in the middle of a fight with a Machine," Star noted with a clear tone of worry in her voice.

A clear tone of worry that most definitely worried Eule in turn. "Is there something I'm missing about this?"

"You don't…oh yeah, you don't," Star said sheepishly, scratching her cheek in embarrassment. "Okay, what I expected was for the pistol bullet to punch through the armor, leaving a hole in it and burying the bullet into the Grazer dummy. This though…"

Star reached over, dug her robotic black fingers into the lump, and pulled it out, letting a few broken Shards fall to the ground and revealing the brass cylinder of the bullet. Said bullet though, had its normally conical head squashed into a flattened, wide lump, resulting it looking vaguely like a metallic mushroom now.

"This kind of mushrooming of a bullet? That usually only happens when a bullet fails to penetrate the target, and just squashes into it," Star explained. "Granted, it did break the armor where it hit, so it's better than not penetrating at all. All the same though, Eule, you're going to have to aim for weak spots and unarmored sections of a Machine's body with that pistol if you want to do serious damage."

Eule gulped before nodding. Star was right. Now Eule too was glad that they ran this test in the nice safe environment of Rost's yard, and not in the wilds when a raging Strider was charging at her.

"So are you going to test your Einhorn revolver on this shoulder plate too then?" Eule asked with nervous curiosity.

"That's what I'm planning," Star replied with a nod. "12x40mm should have a lot more penetration power than 10x20mm, even hollow-point, but I want to make absolutely sure."

Star the proceeded to snatch one of those 12x40mm hollow-point bullets from Rost's table, pulled out her Einhorn revolver from its holster, swung the cylinder out, inserted the bullet into the bottommost chamber, and carefully pushed the cylinder back into place with her now-free hand. All in a single fluid motion that happened in the span of just over 3 seconds.

It made Eule's clumsy efforts to load a single round into her Protektor pistol's magazine look…well, clumsy. She supposed that practice makes perfect here, and so resolved to practice that more in the future.

Although a thought did occur to Eule. "Hey, love? How come you didn't just swing the cylinder closed like what people do in some of those war movies? Is that faster or…"

Eule trailed off and stopped talking because of the look of shock and horror that Star was giving her.

"Love, don't do that. That's one thing from those movies you should never, ever copy with a revolver of any kind," Star insisted. "Swinging a revolver cylinder shut hard like that will bend the yoke, er, the little metal lever connecting the cylinder to the revolver, and mess up the alignment of the cylinder with the revolver. At best, you can expect a much less accurate revolver due to the chamber being misaligned with the barrel. At worst, that same problem could be bad enough to cause a misfire. And even worse? This is just one of the ways jerking a revolver cylinder shut like in those movies would damage a revolver, so please, don't do that."

Eule nodded with the attentive air of a diligent student, as did Rost next to her and Äloy below her. Even their new audience all nodded with that same diligent air, with Star's gun instructor mode having ensnared them in her spell.

"Okay, so with that settled, time to test this girl out against robot horse armor…oh, and cover your ears, kids. This is going to get loud," Star said with a grin.

As soon as Star saw that every one of their Gestalt audience had covered their ears, Star turned back to the Strider shoulder plate and raised her Einhorn revolver, the red dot of the revolver's laser sight appearing on the shoulder plate just to the right of where Eule had shot it. After a few seconds of focused aiming, Star finally pulled the trigger.

The thunderous report of the Einhorn revolver echoed across the yard, and likely across much of the Embrace as well, as a flash of fire emerged from the revolver's barrel and more sparks flew from the Strider shoulder plate. This time though, there was no "mushroomed" bullet left behind in the sparks' wake. This time, there was a neat hole drilled right through the Shard of Strider armor.

"Well, that's a relief," Star said with a grin, and blew away the smoke still wafting from her revolver's barrel. "At least I know my girl can still punch through Strider armor."

Eule freely admitted: her Star looked so incredibly sexy like that, with her free hand on her hip and her Einhorn revolver pointed up at the sky just after blowing away that gun smoke.

And it seemed that she wasn't the only one.

"Wow, Star's so pretty when she does that," Sal muttered as though in a daze…and just loud enough for everyone to overhear him.

Star merely turned around to look at Sal with a single raised eyebrow of black plastic-laced hair.

As Eule started to giggle along with the young children, but for what Eule suspected were somewhat different reasons, Feld palmed his face with both hands.

"Sal, is it even possible for you to get out a single sentence without embarrassing yourself?" Feld groaned.

Sal's reply to all of that was to blush and look down, staring with the utmost intent at his own feet, perhaps hoping that he will sink into them.

"Feld, a little mean there? You know, just a little?" Teb asked just a bit archly at his friend before he gently patted Sal's shoulder. "Don't feel bad, Sal. We all put our foot in our mouth sometimes."

Sal merely groaned again, still apparently hoping his feet with rescue him from this embarrassment.

"Hey, Sal."

Sal looked up from his feet at last, and then continued looking up, and up, and up until he was finally looking up at Star's face in front of him.

"Ur…hey…Star," Sal said nervously.

Star looked down at him for a few pregnant moments before she smiled down at him. "Thanks for the feelings there. While I appreciate it, I'm already taken, so hopefully no hard feelings, okay?"

Sal blushed, but after a few moments, he nodded. "O-Okay. Heh, I guess my, er, crush on you was doomed after all. But um…thanks for telling me, and I hope you're happy with the guy you're with."

Eule at this point was just staring at Sal in a look of amused astonishment. Based on how everyone reacted to them, she had assumed that it was fairly obvious that she and Star were a couple. Was she wrong, or was this a Sal conundrum?

Although based on how the trio of little Gestalt girls were giggling at Sal, Eule was reasonably confident of the latter.

Star, meanwhile, was smiling at Sal in a way Eule could tell from experience indicated incoming mischief on her part. "Close, but no cigar. You're off by about, ohh, this much."

Eule could already tell what was going to happen when Star's free hand reached across Eule's shoulder and began gently caressing her cheek. Eule was only too happy to turn her head and look up at Star as her lover bent down and just as gently planted a kiss on her lips.

Truth be told, Eule was feeling more than a bit…frisky. It was only 2 days since she and Star had had sex, but it felt strangely longer than that to Eule, possibly due to how much stress the trial had put on her. It likely contributed to Eule taking the opportunity to give Star some tongue during that kiss. It was a very quick tonguing, but it at least satisfied some of Eule's desires and prevented her from pushing Star to the ground and unclothing her lover as fast as her robotic hands could allow…perhaps, Eule thought, she was more pent-up and in need of "personality stabilization" than she had thought.

"Wow, now that was a kiss," Star said in a bit of a happy daze.

"You're the one who initiated the kiss, love. You should talk," Eule replied in a bit of a happy daze herself.

"Whoa. Girls can be mates with other girls?" Sal asked, sounding as if he was in a daze of his own, but for entirely different reasons…kind of.

"Sal? Could you possibly ram your foot in any harder? Maybe if you take that foot and shove it in a bit more, you might even fit the entire foot in. I mean, All-Mother bless me with strength, how did you not notice?" Feld said in a weary tone full of nothing but dry disbelief.

It said something that even Teb only laughed nervously and patted a still-dazed Sal comfortingly on the shoulder, who seemed to be more or less insensate now given how little he was saying. Or rather, the absolute silence coming from his closed mouth.

"Uhh, hey, you okay?" Star asked Sal, now concerned. "I didn't crash you by accident, did I?"

"Do you, um, need time to process this?" Eule also asked, with Star's concern spreading to her as well.

Judging by the continued silence, Eule could only assume that Sal had indeed somehow crashed despite being a Gestalt and/or needed time to process his feelings on the matter.

"He's fine…I think," Feld said, with concern creeping into his voice now.

"Come on, Sal. I'll buy you some beer back in Mother's Heart to help out with this, okay?" Teb suggested.

Sal finally nodded, and allowed himself to be led away by Teb, who then called back: "Vala, Minali? It's time to head home now. The sun's going down, and we really don't want to walk back in the dark."

"Okay!" Vala cried out happily.

"Ok-oh! Almost forgot," Minali said before she turned to the one person Eule hoped she would turn to. "I…er…um…bye…Aloy," Minali said haltingly, only making eye contact with Äloy in glances, but she was without question talking to Äloy.

Äloy for her part simply stared at Minali with her mouth wide open, as if she couldn't quite believe this was happening to her after an entire life's worth of being ignored by the Nora.

"Kid? You know you're breaking the law, right?" Feld asked disbelievingly.

"Well, maybe like Star said: this law is, um, 'unjust' and 'unfair' in this, erm, case," Minali managed to get out in between stammers, all with a determined look on her face. "Maybe…maybe I don't want to follow what the law says about Äloy! If the law is wrong, then I don't want to follow it!"

Rost groaned, covering his face with one of his massive hands. Star only gave Minali a happy thumbs-up and an even happier grin. Even Eule gave Minali a warm smile, in spite of the fact that she was breaking her tribe's law.

As for Äloy herself? Eule's favorite little Gestalt girl was still staring at Minali with an open mouth, but now that gaze was turning into something hopeful. Something that was stirring Äloy's heart and soul.

"Umm, Minali?" Äloy asked, making the shy little Gestalt girl turn to look at Äloy, and look her properly in the eye. "Thank you. Really," she said quietly, giving a small, fragile smile at Minali.

Minali gave her own small smile back, fragile from both nerves and shyness, Eule guessed. "You're welcome. Umm, see you again then? Aloy?"

"Well, that does it!" Vala suddenly cried out, startling both Minali and Äloy before the latter could have a chance to reply to the former's question. "I don't care about that stupid law either! So it's not just Minali who'll see you again, but me too!"

"Same here!" Teb called out. "Breaking the law once didn't hurt me, so why not keep doing it?"

"Teb! Not you too!" Feld groaned out loud.

Äloy's stunned look quickly turned into a warm smile being directly at Vala and Teb as well. "Yeah, see you all again."

As Minali and Vala left with Teb, Sal, and Feld; waving goodbyes at Äloy, Eule felt something warm stir in her heart just as much as Äloy surely was. Even if it was just a pair of fellow little Gestalt girls, at least Äloy now appeared to have friends among the Nora for the first time in her life.

"Aloy," Rost said at last, making the Äloy in question jump and then look up at Rost nervously. "You know that by doing that, Minali, Vala, and Teb are all breaking the law, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, I know," Äloy said with a nod.

"And you know that they're doing this for you, right?" Rost asked further.

Äloy nodded again, this time much more solemnly. "I know. I'll do everything to not get them in trouble. I'll only talk to them here or where no one else can see. They're only breaking the law if someone sees them, right? So if no one but us sees, then they won't get in trouble."

Star barked out a laugh. "Spoken like a budding criminal…or rather, a budding revolutionary," she said, playfully patting Äloy's head as the little Gestalt girl giggled.

Out of another Star unit's mouth, that might've been an indictment or accusation. Out of her Star's mouth though, it was a warm compliment for an action worthy of praise. How strange that this series of events managed to occur in a place that's seemingly so far from the Eusan Nation, Eule thought…or maybe it was because it was so far that this seemingly impossible event was entirely possible.

Rost's reaction to Äloy's words was to sigh. "I see you've put a lot of thought behind that, and I can already tell that no words of warning or forbidding I speak will dissuade you from meeting Minali and Vala in the future." He sighed once more before speaking: "Well, then all I can say is: be careful, Aloy."

Äloy gasped in pure delight and hugged his leg in just as much delight. "Thank you, Rost!"

Rost merely sighed once more, but his gentle patting of Äloy's head told Eule that even if Rost didn't like this wanton law-breaking, then at the very least, he will not try to stop it. All, as Eule suspected, for his little girl and her happiness.

"Come on, then," Rost said. "Let's help get Eu-le and Star's laundry in, and then let's have dinner. I am eager to eat Mesa Bread again after so long, as well as Maizemeat. I am curious as to what to do with all of that leftover steamed watergrain though. I can't think of anything else to do with it other than boil it into more stew."

Eule smiled at Rost. "Well, if you will allow me to cook dinner for us once more, then perhaps I can show you? There is a recipe from Rotfront that calls precisely for old rice like this. I'm sure you and Äloy will love fried rice."

Rost raised an eyebrow at Eule, and then sighed. "Very well, then. This night too, but the next dinner is mine. This will be two nights in a row where I have not cooked dinner, and my fingers are already feeling a bit restless."

Eule's smile at Rost turned beatific. "Well, now you know how I felt when you wouldn't let me cook for, hmm, three nights in a row? For a cook who'd been working in the Protektor kitchens of S-23 Sierpinski daily without interruption prior to everything happening, that felt like an eternity."

Rost stared Eule in the eye for a few moments before his face broke into a wry smile. "Point taken. It seems that we are of like mind as far as cooking goes. In that case, allow me to observe you cooking this fried watergrain, or 'rice' as you call it. I am genuinely curious as to how one fries grains like that without turning them hard and nearly inedible?"

Eule returned that wry smile with a joyous carbon steel-revealing grin. "Oh, do let me demonstrate that in person, Rost. I guarantee you will enjoy it."

---

After collecting the spent brass cartridges from Eule and Star's firings of their weapons (Star mentioned that she wanted to try using them to make dummy rounds out of), and bringing in the laundry (and folding their Eusan Nation uniforms into neat piles) along with Eule and Star's assorted items and purchases, including the rest of Äloy's souvenirs, and removing their outer clothes to strip down to what the Nora called "undergarments", Eule got to work on that fried rice.

That Oseram frying pan turned out to be quite useful for that. It was impressively large, and suitable for frying decently large quantities of rice. Eule did intend to use it for experimenting with cooking up plastic Machine parts, so after doing that, she had no intention of using this pan to cook food for Rost, Äloy, or any other Gestalt. Even disregarding the issue of how difficult it'd be to clean off molten plastic from the pan afterwards, she had no intention of contaminating whatever food she cooked with it with microplastics or even just the taste of plastic. Thus, this may be the only time she ever got a chance to cook food with it that they could all eat.

…Actually, Eule now wondered if Torvund had a smaller pan she could use for that experimentation, because it seemed a waste to use such a large and usable frying pan for that specific niche purpose only, but that's a thought for the future. For now, in the present: there was only fried rice.

As Eule expected: the old steamed rice, with its much lower water content, was perfect for fried rice, with the multi-colored nature of Nora rice making for a much more aesthetically pleasing fried rice than usual. For the meat: she added in the last remaining bits of boar offal and then some diced smoked boar meat. For the vegetables: she added in some diced multi-colored wild carrot that Rost still had in his Chillwater chest, along with chopped green onion/springbulb and spinach/tendergreen, just like yesterday. What wasn't like yesterday was the addition of some of the newly purchased Carja ginger chopped into thin spears to be added to the vegetable mix for flavoring.

Together with some lard to use as frying oil, and the resulting fried rice came out marvelously, resulting in heaping helpings of fried rice served up in everyone's bowls at the dinner table.

"For everyone's dinner tonight: this Eule presents Boar Fried Rice, with Mesa Bread and Maizemeat as the dessert, and Bitter Leaf Tea and water as the beverages. Enjoy!" Eule concluded with a bow.

And everyone did, with spoonfuls of gusto.

"Hmm, I did not expect frying watergrain to turn out like this. It's not hard at all," Rost noted as he delivered another spoonful of fried rice into his mouth. "It's chewier than last night's watergrain, but it's still recognizably that same watergrain."

"It's nummy!" Äloy said from between a mouthful of fried rice.

"Very nummy!" Star repeated from between her own mouthful.

"Now, now, no trying to speak with full mouths, okay?" Eule chided gently, to which they both immediately violated in their attempt to answer that question, and to which Eule's response was a giggle.

Soon though, it came time for the Mesa Bread, which everyone agreed was delicious/still delicious. What was new though was this Maizemeat dish that Eule was very curious about.

As it turned out though, Maizemeat was a dish was steamed maize dough with filling wrapped in what appeared to be maize leaves. Not only that though, but the filling for this Maizemeat turned out, to Eule's surprise, to be soft pumpkin and just-as-soft apple, all flavored with cinnamon and the distinct taste of honey.

"Hmm, not bad. It's like pumpkin and apple pie, but if it was made with maize instead of pie stuff," Star commented after swallowing her own mouthful of Maizemeat.

"It's weird, but it's good," was Äloy comment as she shoved another mouthful of Maizemeat into her gullet.

"I can't help but agree with that sentiment, Äloy," Eule said happily, before popping another mouthful of Maizemeat into her mouth and chewing on it even more thoughtfully than the last, teasing out the various flavors to analyze, and now thoroughly determined to get the recipe for this Maizemeat out Rashaman as well.

"Hmm, fascinating. This is the first I've had this," Rost commented as he popped another forkful of Maizemeat into his mouth.

"Haven't had this Maizemeat stuff before?" Star asked.

"No, I have had Maizemeat in general before. It's just that this is the first time I've had the sweet kind of this dish, although I have heard of this before," Rost corrected. "I've only eaten the savory kind with meat and cheese before."

"Mmm, now that sounds yummy too," Star said with a dreamy look on her face.

Äloy giggled. "Star! You just ate dinner!"

Star patted her uniform-covered belly. "We Star units have a second motor in here for digesting more food than other Replikas models. All so we can get more electricity and food energy from all the food we need to eat. So you can basically say we have two stomachs."

Äloy's eyes nearly bugged out. "Really?!"

"No," Eule corrected. "Star units only have a single motor like the rest of us. It may be a bit bigger than mine, but there's only one in that frame."

Now Äloy gaped at Star. "You tried to trick me!" she accused the Security Technician Guard Replika.

Said Security Technician Guard Replika only snickered in reply, confirming her attempt to prank Äloy.

Who pouted at Star for some very obviously miffed reasons.

"Okay, okay, it was just a joke, kid. Honest. I'll make it up to you. Here, ask me to tell whatever story from the Eusan Nation you want. Pick anything," Star offered as consolation.

Äloy's eyes practically sparkled at the offer. "Oh, oh! Then how about that story you promised you would tell Eule last night?"

Eule had no idea that Äloy still remembered that or that she would just bring it up now. Instantly, she could see Star's mood drop like a boulder tossed down through a shaft into Rotfront's subsurface sea in real time.

"Uhh…shit, I guess I fell right into that, didn't I?" Star joked, but Eule could see that the humor didn't reach Star's robotic eyes.

"Star, you don't have to tell that story right now, if you want," Eule quietly suggested.

"Sometimes, some stories from one's past are better left untold," Rost just as quietly added.

"Yeah, maybe you could tell another story? I don't mind," Äloy not so quiet offered, having apparently read the moods of both Star and the room.

Star gave a soft smile at the support being directed at her. "Thanks, everyone. I mean it, but I feel like I do need to tell this story of mine. Not just because I promised to do so, but also because I feel like I need to get it off my chest before…well, I lose the courage."

Eule nodded and gave her lover a comforting hug, kiss on her cheek, and a handhold that left them gently squeezing each other's hands. "Anything you want, love," Eule murmured to Star.

Rost said nothing. He simply nodded, stood up to retrieve the pot of bitter leaf tea from where it hung over the fireplace, and poured Star a fresh steaming cup of the green brew.

"A story like this sounds like it is best told with something hot to sip while you do so," Rost quietly insisted.

Star smiled at Rost. "Thanks, big guy. I mean it," she said as she took that sip, sighing after she did so before continuing: "So, here goes: the story of how STAR-S2325, also known as yours truly, came to be reassigned from B2 to B1."

Eule listened attentively as Star began her tale.

Eule had been aware that her Star worked at the Worker Accommodations in B2, but she hadn't been aware of the details of how that level worked due to her own job being in the Staff and Protektor Accommodations down in B6 through B8. So hearing about how B2 was supposed to function from her Star was her first look into it, and hearing that really reinforced Eule's beliefs that S-23 Sierpinski was a prison even if none of the documents, either internal or external, described the colony as such.

Nothing else would explain the highly regimented and controlled life of the workers, with armed Star and Storch guards (and even the occasional Kolibri guard) patrolling the B2 corridors at every turn, and the fact that the Gestalt workers were all locked into their dorms, with each individual bed also being locked with screens and bars. No matter how you looked at it, it clearly wasn't nearly as "voluntary" as any of the brochures made it out to be.

And all that was even before the corruption began sweeping through S-23 Sierpinski. The rapid and severe nature of the plague made it impossible to hide from the worker-prisoners, which resulted in riots both threatened and real. Even the ex-smuggler gang who usually helped the Protektors maintain control in exchange for the guards helping the workers get luxuries from outside the colony (and wasn't that surprising to learn) couldn't suppress the riots for long, and even joined in on the riots themselves in the wake of the information blackout about the spreading plague.

This, unfortunately, led to a riot suppression order being issued by the Storch in command, which turned out to be the Storch Sieben her Star had mentioned to be her friend.

"Yeah, Storch Sieben was fair, but tough when order broke down like that. I can understand why she ordered riot suppression then," Star admitted with a frown. "I don't like it, but I can understand it. What I neither understand nor like was the way that older sister of mine in charge handled the riot suppression."

Star…did not go into details about what happened during this riot suppression. Even without those details though, Eule could read between the lines and tell that it had been brutally violent.

However, the parts where Star did elaborate somehow made it worse.

"STAR-S2304 'Smiley' began ordering punishments for the prisoners for crimes that would normally be minor infractions at best," Star explained. "Crimes like contraband, trespassing, and minor shit like that. The punishment for all of them? What that sister of mine called 'interrogation'," Star said, with that last word being in an almost-snarl. "All the sisters I spoke to who saw these interrogations refused to tell me what was going on in them, and when I managed to get into that room…fuck, I'd never seen so much blood before in my life. I don't know what 'Smiley' was doing in there, but now I knew why at least two prisoners died during those 'interrogations'.

So I went to Storch Sieben to demand answers from her, and I didn't know if I was more angry or scared that she didn't seem to know what I was talking about, but she had that look in her eye that told me she was someone to trust, especially when she said that she would personally look into it.

I should've gone with her. I thought Storch Sieben would just settle the matter privately to give Smiley a bit of dignity. What I didn't expect was for Smiley to suddenly declare that Storch Sieben was deemed unfit for command and was now being held under arrest, with Smiley herself now the one in charge.

I've never been able to prove it, and I'll never be able to, but I'm almost certain Smiley staged a very illegal coup. None of that would make sense unless Smiley decided that she wanted to be the one in charge, and didn't care how she did it. It's as amazing as it is terrifying that my other sisters and the Storchs, for the most part, went along with it. I think…the emergency had scared them so much that they were grasping onto anything that gave them some semblance of order, even if it was as wrong as the one Smiley gave them. I think that was why we basically let it get as bad as it did to allow her to take control, and me and a few of my sisters were some of the few who objected when it got to that point.

Well, Smiley couldn't let that happen. She confiscated all of us rebels' ID cards, and then basically exiled us to different parts of the facility through 'reassignments' to keep us from being able to interfere with her…I guess 'fun' would be what she called it. You remember Panzer, Mother, and Star 31 and 32, right, Eule? All four of them were part of that rebel group, and just managed to make it to the Eule Dorm to regroup.

As for me? Smiley reassigned me to Reeducation in B1. Yeah, with no Adler or AEON to tell us otherwise, we can just call it by its old name now. Anyways, the Eule in charge there, April, her teachers, and even the political prisoners there were actually pretty nice to me. I remember one of the political prisoners–this one Gestalt woman with dark skin–tried to keep everyone's spirits up, but they could all still tell that something was going horribly wrong in Sierpinski.

I basically stewed up there in B1, wondering what to do, and then the corruption hit B1. Well, some bad shit went down, and I ended up hurt after I tried to save April. Didn't succeed though. Sorry about that, Eule, if you were close to her. I'm sorry about it too, but that's when I realized that I couldn't stay there, and I needed to get to you.

So funny thing that I learned from April: one of the political prisoners turned out to be a bomb-maker or some shit who'd been sneaking bits of explosive material from the munitions factory in B2. Why? Who knows, but the other political prisoners caught the bastard before he could do much more than make a half-built bomb, and they and the Eules basically tied him up and locked him in a random classroom until someone could properly arrest him for it. Well, as you can tell, that didn't happen, but April was keeping all of his explosive material in a storage locker she was using as an evidence locker. Well, I took it. Had to use it to blow a hole in the floor of one of the classrooms to get back to B2 since I couldn't access the elevator without my ID card, and well, AEON can try to bill me for the damage later.

B2 was…fuck, it had gone to hell. No prisoners that I could see with no idea where they had all gone, and the only things left down there were some dead Eules, sorry about that too, and things that used to be my sisters. So I just grabbed my ID card out of Evidence Storage–Smiley put it there instead of the secure wall safe in the Office for some reason, probably to hide it, but that just made it easier for me to get it back–and used it to get down the elevator down to B5 because, you know, of that blocking the shaft, and the rest you know when I showed up in front of the Eule Dorm, Eule.

So yeah, story of how I got reassigned to B1 and a bit extra. Hope you enjoyed it," Star concluded dryly, but it was a dead dryness that lacked her usual humor.

No one said anything for several moments. What could you possibly say to that?

"Star," Eule began.

"Yeah, I know. I fucked things up, but what can you expect from a screw-up who couldn't even–"

"Star. Look at me," Eule practically commanded, reaching up to turn Star's head to face Eule.

In Star's eyes, Eule could see guilt consuming her from within, eating away at her like…like the corruption. Eule though, would not let that happen. Not to her Star.

"Star, you didn't do anything wrong," Eule said.

"I could've stopped Smiley before it got that bad," Star insisted, her voice thick with emotion. "I could've stood up to her after that first 'interrogation'. I should've known something was wrong when Smiley didn't even try to call for a Kolibri to help with them. I could've gone with Storch Sieben when she went to confront Smiley. Another pair of eyes watching her back, and maybe that whole thing with Smiley would've turned out a lot differently. There were so many things I could've done, and I didn't do any of them–"

"Star, you didn't do anything wrong!" Eule practically shouted at her. It took several moments of deep breathing amidst Star's shocked expression before Eule could calm down enough to speak normally. "You tried to do your best. You tried. You can't just blame yourself for everything you might or might not have done, second-guessing yourself with the benefit of hindsight. That's just a quick path to personality destabilization. So please, stop beating yourself up over this. No one else is blaming you for what happened, so stop blaming yourself. Please."

Star stared down at Eule, stunned. "You…you don't blame me for that?"

"No! Of course not!" Eule insisted. "Why would I blame you for that?"

Star broke eye contact, looking down at the floor guiltily. "For everything I'd said, I was so sure anyone in their right mind would blame me for not stopping Smiley. I thought…"

"Star, even I do not blame you for that," Rost interjected. When Star was looking Rost in his neaerly Replika-blue eyes, he continued: "What happened was not the result of anything you did, and you attempted to stop it along with those few of your sisters. In my mind, that makes you and those sisters of yours true Braves. Nothing more, but nothing less either."

"But…we couldn't stop it…" Star trailed off dejectedly, although, not as dejectedly as she sounded before, Eule noted.

"Not being able to accomplish something doesn't mean that the attempt to do that something is completely invalid," Rost insisted with a firm nod, adding: "The journey is just as important as the destination. This is a lesson you would do well to take to heart."

"I…" Star trailed off, before taking a deep breath and then looking Rost in the eye once more. "I think…I get it. Thanks, big guy."

Rost merely nodded. Nothing more, nothing less.

As Star nodded back in reply, Eule suddenly heard a quiet thump from below her. She looked downwards along with Star, and they both saw the tiny form of Äloy down there, clutching Star's left leg in a hug like an orange-haired monkey.

"You really didn't do anything wrong, Star. You really, really, really didn't," Äloy insisted from her hugging position.

Star scoffed. "I guess if you're insisting too, then thanks, kid. I mean it," the Security Technician Guard Replika said as she reached down to gently pat Äloy's head in gratitude, making the little Gestalt girl giggle with each pat.

"Oh, um, then can I ask for a…um, something small as thanks?" Äloy asked, looking up at Star hopefully.

Eule and Star both looked at each other with raised eyebrow, before looking back down at the still hopeful Äloy.

"Okay, I'll bite. What's this 'something small' you want?" Star asked curiously.

"Well…could you maybe…kiss me?" Äloy asked extra hopefully. Amidst Star's eyebrow raising up extra high, the little Gestalt girl continued: "You and Eule look like you're having so much fun kissing, so I was wondering: can I have a kiss too? Just one?"

Star gave Eule a look, with her questioning eyebrow still raised so high up that it was completely hidden by her black bangs. Eule simply smiled and nodded in reply. Star's reply was a snicker as she turned back to a still-very-hopeful Äloy.

"Alright, kid. One kiss," Star said, making Äloy gasp with excitement. "Now remember: this is a very special kind of kiss that I would normally give to Eule. So this is a special occasion for you, okay?"

As Äloy nodded so rapidly that Eule started to worry whether her head might come off, Star then proceeded to lift a practically vibrating Äloy up into the air, sitting the little Gestalt girl onto her robotic white and red-banded lap. Star then leaned down…and planted a kiss right onto Äloy's forehead, making a smooching sound so loud and exaggerated that Eule started giggling at it. Just as much as Äloy was giggling at the sensation of being kissed.

"There! How was it?" Star said when the deed was done.

Äloy was practically sparkling at Star. At least, that was how it looked to a still-giggling Eule in between her giggles.

"Your lips were warm, and it kinda tickled. I like it," Äloy said happily, before turning a hopeful look now to Eule. "Then can I get one from you too, Eule? You know, just to compare? Please?"

Eule managed to get herself under control in order to seriously…well, semi-seriously answer Äloy's question. "Well, since you asked so nicely, then I can't help but grant your request, Äloy. But! May I then ask a question of you as my reward for fulfilling this request?"

Äloy didn't reply verbally, but her rapid head-nodding was more than sufficient as a reply.

Eule smiled at her favorite little Gestalt girl. "Then it's a promise, and here is your reward," Eule said before leaning down, and planting a gentle kiss onto Äloy. Right onto the spot where Star had kissed Äloy's forehead, making Äloy giggle just as much as she had when Star had kissed her.

"Ooh, you both have soft lips, and it tickled too," Äloy commented, before smiling broadly up at the Replikas. "I think I like being kissed."

"Well, that's confirmed: we have ourselves a little lesbian right here," Star teased as she gave Äloy a gentle rubbing of her soft, red hair, making the little Gestalt girl giggle at the sensation.

"Okay, so what do you want to ask me, Eule?" Äloy asked curiously, once she managed to stop giggling.

"Well, I would like to ask: when did you practice saying my name so smoothly?" Eule asked, thinking about how Äloy now no longer said her name with that slight hesitation between "Eu" and "le".

"Back when I was waiting for you and Star to come back home. I practiced a lot," Äloy proudly declared, before asking: "Did I say it right? As smooth as Star says it?"

Eule's initial reply was simply a gentle head-rubbing for Äloy. "Indeed, you did. Good job, Äloy."

Äloy giggled happily, whether at the compliment or at the head-rubbing seemed to be irrelevant in her mind. "Then, maybe you can reward me by saying my name right?"

Silence dominated the room for but a brief moment in the wake of that request.

"Eh?" Eule asked in confusion. "What? I haven't been saying your name right?"

"Nope," Äloy replied blithely. "You say my name just a bit…weird. My name is Aloy, but you say it like it's spelled 'Aeloy'. Star gets it wrong like that too."

Eule had to repeat Äloy, er, Aloy's name several times before she could hear the difference. Aloy's name was as if someone took the "Ä", and cut off the latter half of the sound before it could fully form into "Ä". It was the strangest sound Eule had ever heard, but now that she thought about it, it was how everyone had been pronouncing Aloy's name. She and Star have just been mishearing it.

"A-loy," Eule said slowly, rolling the name around in her mouth, before giving a rueful grin. "I have to admit: now I'm the embarrassed one."

"Same here, A-loy," Star added with a rueful grin of her own. "Guess you're going to have to remind us if we get it wrong again."

Aloy looked proudly up at them at that, as if she thought she was being given a most important duty to carry out. And in a way, she was. That didn't make it any less amusing to Eule though.

"So, how about as your final reward of the night, as a reward for teaching us how to say your name properly, we unpack your final souvenir, Ä-Aloy?" Eule asked. When Aloy started rapidly nodding her head again, Eule grinned. "One moment then, please."

A few moments later, Eule had returned with a small leather package, and gently pulled at the blue wire keeping it bound. With the knot undone, Eule was free to pull the leather sheet apart, revealing the tiny hay and down feather-covered Strider figurine there, still frozen in that reared-up pose in the middle of kicking out with its front hooves.

"How does our little lady feel about this final souvenir then?" Eule asked graciously, in the same tone as she would use when serving someone a delicious meal, along with the same underlying worry that Aloy would be disappointed with the metaphorical meal.

Fortunately, Aloy's fascinated stare at the tiny effigy of an attacking Strider served to alleviate that worry to a great extent.

"It's so pretty," Aloy breathed. "It's like a little Strider is just…standing there, always about to attack. It's like something the Nora makes, but as a little one."

"Honestly, I would say this is not quite in the Nora style," Rost said, leaning down closely to examine the little Strider figurine. "It's too detailed, and the metal parts are fitted too precisely. It looks more like…an Oseram attempt to make Nora art?"

"Well, we did buy it from Torvund, after all," Eule noted with a smile. "It's where Star bought me this too."

Eule pulled out the other package she'd been hiding behind herself, opening it up on the table to reveal the galloping Strider figurine.

"Hmm, I hadn't realized that Oseram merchant made things like these too," Rost said in a tone that sounded a bit scandalized…but also impressed as well.

"Well, he did sound embarrassed about them," Star noted.

"But we did convince him to show them to us, and well, that deal worked out well for all of us," Eule happily added.

Aloy stared in wonder at the galloping Strider before looking back at the rearing Strider with a giggle. "Heh, we both match now, Eule," the little Gestalt girl said happily before carefully and gently taking the rearing Strider figuring and placing it in front of her. "Thank you, Eule and Star."

Eule smiled down at Aloy just as happily as her favorite little Gestalt girl was smiling at her, just as Star was doing the same.

"You're welcome!" Eule said at the same time Star did, resulting in them giggling at each other and hugging as a result.

"Well," Rost began. "Now that we have all these…souvenirs settled–"

"Oh, hold on. We've got something for you too, Rost," Eule quickly added before dashing off to retrieve the items in question.

The first item Eule handed to Rost was the bag of redthorn chili pepper powder.

"As thanks for everything you've done for us, and to replenish your supply of the spices you love so much," Eule explained.

Rost opened up the bag, gently sniffing and nodding at the heady scent of redthorn peppers wafting from it. "You didn't have to do this, but thank you all the same," he said warmly.

Eule nodded and smiled happily at Rost before handing him the second item: a bag containing a pre-counted amount of Shards plus some extra Machine parts to cover the rest. 610 Shards, to be precise. It was what the combined value of their bows, quivers and arrows, and backpacks had come to. Not to mention: that Strider Blaze canister Rost had included into their supply of Machine parts.

Eule could tell that, even before Rost opened the bag, he guessed what was in it. It was impossible to disguise the metallic clink the bag made as the Shards inside rattled around.

"Eule," Rost said in a tired voice that told Eule that he also guessed what the Shards were for even without asking. "For the last time, you don't have to pay me back–"

Eule held up a hand to simultaneously forestall and interrupt Rost. "Rost, you can't talk me out of this. I can't not pay you back for everything you have given us. It may have been alright when you thought there was a real risk of us being driven out, but not now. Not when the danger has been averted. If we're going to be living together, then we must repay our debts to you. For everything you've done for us. This is how we show you that we care about you, so please. Just take it."

Rost stared into Eule's eyes with the same silent yet intense force of will he usually displayed when he was being stubborn. Eule didn't look away though. She refused to look away. She would show that in some matters, even a Eule can be as stubborn as a Rost.

Eventually, after several long moments of silent staring, Rost sighed. "Truly, you are not as weak as you sometimes insist you are. I hope that one day, you will realize that, Eu-le," he said as he took the bag of Shards and Machine parts.

Eule smiled happily at Rost. "I think…I already am, Rost. Thank you."

Rost only nodded back with a sigh, and also a smile of his own, before turning to Aloy. "Now Aloy, I believe it's time for bed," he said, receiving an entirely predictable groan of complaint from the adorable little Gestalt girl.

"Now, now, Aloy," Eule gently chided. "You need to wake up bright-eyed and fully charged for when you perform your Brave training tomorrow, yes?"

"Okay," Aloy conceded. "Then can I at least sleep with you and Star again?"

Eule was about to say: "Yes."

But–

"Not this time, Aloy," Rost interrupted. "Eu-le and Star need their private time together. They are mates, after all."

"Mates want private time?" Aloy asked Rost. When Rost nodded solemnly, Aloy gave a disappointed sigh, but then nodded. "Okay, maybe tomorrow then. Good night, Eu-le! Star!"

As soon as Aloy had clambered up to the second floor where her bed awaited, while carrying her new rearing Strider figuring under one arm to boot, Eule and Star both gave Rost questioning looks.

Rost sighed once more before speaking. "I have realized something after thinking about it: Eu-le. Star. Neither of you have been able to get any…privacy for days now, right? Privacy for you both to do things that…well, mates typically want to do with each other?"

Eule understood perfectly what Rost was getting at. She still found herself nodding at Rost with a deep blush at talking about her and Star's sex life with Rost, even indirectly like this. Judging by Star's own blush, she was just as embarrassed by this as Eule was.

Then Eule realized just how specific the timeframe Rost mentioned was, and blushed even harder. "Wait, Rost. Does that mean…you heard us?" she asked with the utmost care and hesitation.

Star, for her part, just dropped her jaw open and looked to Rost for an answer.

After a few moments, Rost finally and slowly nodded, much to Eule's dawning embarrassed horror.

"Oh, Red Eye watch over me," Eule muttered as she covered her face. "Where we that loud?"

"No, you were not," Rost said bluntly, if having a faint blush of his own on his cheeks. "It was only because I am a light sleeper that I heard you at all. Honestly, I had initially thought that the noise was the work of intruders, but when I realized that it was just you two mating, I calmed down and went back to sleep."

"…Red Eye, you heard us and just…went back to sleep?" Star asked incredulously. When Rost merely nodded, Star chuckled in disbelief. "Wow, now that is just incredible levels of calm on your part."

"It was just you two mating, so there was nothing wrong happening," Rost casually and bluntly insisted.

"…On one hand, I can appreciate that," Eule conceded, only now uncovering her face. "On the other hand…arrragghargh…" she trailed off, covering her face once more.

Rost, for his part, nodded back understandingly and began rubbing his braided beard in thought. "I think I have a temporary solution to that particular problem, if you wish it to hear it out." After seeing both Eule (having uncovered her face once more) and Star nod curiously at him, he continued: "I once saw a peculiar custom among the Banuk to the far north that might help with this. When the Banuk wish to make a shelter that still lets them watch over their goat herds, they would make a sort of…field bed in their pastures. It's basically a wooden box standing on legs to raise it out of the snow and mud, with a bed inside the box along with furs lining the box's interior to keep out the cold. I learned to craft such a bed from the Banuk, and can make one for you in the yard if you wish to have privacy for the night.

Now granted, this is only a temporary solution until I can build a new room in the house for the both of you, but perhaps that field bed might work in the meantime?" Rost asked hopefully.

Eule barely even had to think about it before she blurted out: "Yes, it would!" along with Star.

Eule giggled with Star for another moment before she continued: "Yes, if it's not too much trouble, then we will accept that field bed solution until…"

It was at that point that Eule's biomechanical brain finally processed Rost's words towards the end.

"My apologies, Rost, but I think I misheard, so I must clarify: did you just say 'build a new room in the house'?" Eule had to ask.

Rost simply nodded, with apparently no further explanation on his part even after several moments' worth of waiting.

"Rost, wait, that's too much!" Eule protested. "You can't–"

Rost raised up a hand, grinding Eule's protest to a halt. "Aloy wants you two to be a part of her life, that much I can see…and if you don't mind, I want you both to be a part of Aloy's life as well. I've never seen Aloy so…happy before. So fulfilled and content. It doesn't matter that you two are outsiders. It doesn't even matter that you two are part Machine. You two are the best things to ever be in Aloy's life, and if you two would accept, then I ask you to be…family, and for this place to be your home."

Eule stared at Rost along with Star for moments. Many, many moments, before Eule suddenly felt warm liquid drip down her cheeks. It took several moments before Eule realized that she was crying.

And yet, she was not reminded of the last time she cried like this: back in the mines with her Star gone from her along with all hope. No, this time, her Star had her arm wrapped around her and her cheek resting against her, with her free hand gently stroking the top of Eule's head as she sobbed. And the tears Eule cried this time were not of despair crushing her very soul, but of joy overflowing her from within. She didn't even have to ask Rost for that very request. Rost with his heart as big as his body is had offered what Eule had been about to ask of his own free will.

"We'll–" Eule had to stop to wipe her eyes and nose, using the leather sheet that had been wrapping her galloping Strider figurine as a handkerchief. "We'll accept. If it's alright with you, Star?"

Star leaned down to nuzzle against Eule's cheek. "I'm more than okay with this arrangement, since Rost is offering, after all. Heh, I'm already not really able to imagine a life together without the kid and the big guy. Does it feel weird to say that it already feels like we're a package deal now?"

Eule turned her head in order to give Star a loving kiss on her gorgeous lips. "Not at all, my lovely Star. Not at all."

Rost, for his part, smiled softly at the Replikas. "Then you both must agree that a room all to yourselves here would be the only appropriate thing to have if you are to be family."

Eule slowly nodded, being forced to concede the point. "And of course, it means that we don't have to take your bed all the time due to being guests."

Rost chuckled quietly. "For this night and every night until I can build that field bed, you can. Oh, and don't worry about, erm, making a mess. I've been meaning to give my bed a wash, after all," he said with the same mysterious smile he gave whenever he saw Eule being lovey-dovey with her Star.

Even while Eule was trying to protest, Rost was already blowing out the candles before climbing up to the second floor to presumably sleep on his feather and boar hide cape bed next to Aloy.

"Well, he did give us his blessing," Star said blithely, planting another kiss on Eule's lips as she spoke. "Why not take advantage of it for this night?"

Eule wanted to protest, but there was a part of her mind that was already busy giving in to the desire as she felt Star's tongue gently enter her mouth, feeling the softly rough texture of that tongue with her own.

It really had been a rough few days. By the Red Eye, even without taking the trial into account, it has only been a few days since she and Star were trapped in the nightmare that S-23 Sierpinski had become. When thinking about it that way, the need for personality stabilization after all that stress certainly explained to Eule why she desired Star so much.

It certainly explained why she and Star were kissing each other as passionately and yet as quietly as possible as they lied in the bed next to the fireplace. Eule deliberately did not think of it as Rost's bed for the times she and Star made love on it. It would've made it just a bit too…awkward.

"Quietly now," Eule whispered in between her lips making contact with Star's. "Don't want to wake Aloy or, mm, Rost up."

"I'll try, mm, not to," Star whispered back as she not only continued kissing Eule, but also started wandering her hands all over Eule in some very sensitive places.

Which, needless to say, caused Eule to moan quietly as Star's fingers found her breasts, and started rubbing the very stiff nipples through the cloth Nora shirt.

"Oh wow, I'd almost forgotten that you didn't have underwear on under there," Star breathed. Her expression of surprise then turned into a grin. "Well, not anymore."

Eule continued moaning as she pulled off the soft leather apron-thing that formed the outer part of what the Nora called "underwear". She tried to keep it quiet, and could only hope she succeeded as Star's fingers played with Eule's nipples poking through the cloth shirt, rubbing circles around them and gently pinching them.

"Wait, wait," Eule managed to gasp out. When Star paused in her Eule breast examination with a questioning sound, Eule took the opportunity to pull off the cloth Nora shirt, baring her bare chest to her lover in all of their twin peaks of glory. "Please, more," Eule said, panting as she started to pull down the leather Nora hose.

Eule groaned as she saw the trail of mucus extending from the crotch of the Nora hose to her own crotch, partially out of embarrassment at having gotten Aloy's future adult clothes dirty like this, and partially because Star was busy sucking on one of Eule's breasts. Star became even busier the moment Eule got the hose off as one of her black robotic hands reached down and started playing with Eule's delicate parts, rubbing up and down the sides of her vulva before gently pushing her middle and ring fingers into Eule's most precious and very wet place and inserting them in and out, all while her thumb rubbed back and forth across Eule's clitoris.

"Star! Star!" Eule managed to quietly gasp out, trying to tell her lover to get her hose off before she dirtied them.

Except that Eule just couldn't get the words out past that as Star pumped her fingers in and out of her, turning her breathing into a hot, heavy mess as she continued to try to get the words out in between the pleasure.

Finally though, Eule gave up as she reached the verge of climax, and just hugged Star, kissing her fiercely as the pleasure of being fingered built up to the very tip top of its peak…before at last, Eule came into Star's fingers, her moans of pleasure being directly muffled by Star's mouth as her white robotic legs clamped onto Star's arm.

"Heh, that was quick of you," Star said as she panted as well, her face red from just as much arousal as Eule felt.

Eule didn't answer in words. Instead, she scooted down to pull down Star's own Nora hose. On one hand, she was disappointed to see that she hadn't done that in time before Star's juices had formed a trail from the hose's crotch to Star's own precious place.

On the other hand though, the very sight of that made Eule's biomechanical heart beat faster and her breathing come harder. So much so that Eule pulled Star's legs apart, exposing that cave of wonders to Eule in all of its dripping wet glory. Eule then pushed her face into that space, and delicately stuck out her tongue to just as delicately lick Star's womanhood.

"Oh, Eule!" Star tried to quietly gasp as she struggled to pull off the rest of her clothes amidst Eule's onslaught.

Eule would've normally hoped that Star succeeded, but right now, her entire focus was on the sensation before her. The soft texture of Star's precious place combined with the slightly sweet taste of the juices flowing from within was just as much heaven to Eule as the sounds of Star trying to muffle her pleasure.

When Star's legs clamped onto Eule's head and she felt and tasted Star's juices squirting into her mouth, Eule knew with a deeply satisfied sensation that she had succeeded in making her lover feel the same pleasure she had felt.

And yet…Eule's own dripping womanhood still felt unsatisfied. Her hips wriggled and she rubbed her thighs together, in a desperate bid for stimulation. As though she needed more.

Thus, when Star's beautiful white and red-banded legs released their hold on Eule's head, she sat up, exposing her naked body to Star and possibly to anyone watching. Before Star could ask anything, Eule snaked her legs around and under Star's legs, allowing her to press her womanhood against Star's womanhood, and in that position, began moving her hips.

For several long, luxurious moments, Eule and Star breathed heavily, enjoying the sensation of their womanhoods rubbing against each other along with their clitorises pressing against each other. Eventually though, Eule's pleasure grew, and her grinding reached a faster and faster rhythm, building in intensity as she neared her peak.

Eule covered her mouth, trying desperately to keep any sound from leaking out, until at last, her release came in the form of a muffled gasp and groans as she came into Star's womanhood, her juices splashing into Star's as they came together.

After an impossibly long moment that Eule wished didn't end, her orgasm finally lowered to the point where Eule could release her hold on her own mouth, and thus gasping for air, fell forward to flop onto Star's naked form, smothering her lover's mouth in kiss after kiss as Star embraced her in turn.

"Oh, Red Eye, that was…intense," Star managed to get out after several long moments of nothing but gasping and kissing.

Eule let out a very tired but very satisfied giggle. "Maybe…maybe we should do this more…often? Hold back a bit…and then 'mate' after some time?"

"Heh, maybe…but maybe not for too long. Who know…what we might do if we can't…personality stabilize for too long?" Star rhetorically asked with her own tired giggle.

"Probably…something we will be pretty embarrassed about," Eule concluded with a last tired giggle.

Eule laid on top of Star like that before settling into a more natural and comfortable position, nestled against her lover side by side.

"Hey, Eule?" Star asked, making Eule look up at her lover's face. "Thank you."

Eule blinked owlishly at her starling. "For the sex?"

Star snorted. "That too, but…mostly more for accepting me. For loving me, despite everything."

Eule smiled up at Star before snuggling even closer to her. "STAR-S2325, we've only been together for…what, just over a year? Yet, despite that short length of time, I've come to know so much about you. Your love of those nature documentaries, your friendships with all the people you love, your dislike, no, disgust of injustice and corruption, and how openly you show your emotions. All of that, all of that makes up the you that distinguishes you from all of your Star sisters: that is the Star I want to be for however long this frame lasts."

Star gently enfolded Eule in a hug. "I really don't deserve you, EULR-S2324. I really don't. But…I do want to be with you until my own frame falls apart. I don't know how long that will take, and frankly, I hope neither of our frames ever do, but I want to be by your side for however long that will be too."

Eule nuzzled her face under Star's chin. "That's a promise then, for the both of us. For the morning that will come, and the next morning after that, and all the mornings in the future…"

So comforted, Eule drifted off into the realm of dreams at the same time her Star did.

---

"…24? Hey, 24? Are you listening?" a feminine voice asked.

EULR-S2324 suddenly sat up from where she'd been resting her head against the table, looking around in shock. At least part of the shock came from getting a good look at said table, which Eule 24 realized was the silvery metal table of the Eule Dorm. The music cassette player was even still resting in the middle of the table, pristine and untouched. Without even a single knife impaled into it like in…in…

…Eule 24 couldn't remember. What had she been dreaming about again?

"24? Are you okay?" the same feminine voiced asked, now with a touch of concern in it.

Eule 24 snapped her head around to look at the source of the voice, and was relieved to see that it was just her sister EULR-S2321.

"Yeah, I'm alright," Eule 24 said to her favorite sister. "I just…had the strangest dream, is all."

"Oh?" Eule 21 asked with a mischievous grin as she leaned in close to Eule 24's ear to whisper: "Was it a dream starring that Star unit you're into? A naughty dream, maybe?"

"21!" Eule 24 shouted, blushing bright red with embarrassment.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" Eule 21 laughed, before conceding: "Well, halfway kidding. But seriously, was it at least a good dream?"

"It was…it was…you know, I can't seem to recall?" Eule 24 asked back in return, trying to remember what her dream had been about.

But the more she thought about it, the more she got nothing, as though she was confronted with a door that wouldn't open no matter how hard she tried to pull. The only thing she could even recall about that dream was an impression…and it was not a good impression. She felt cold and sad just even trying to remember the impressions the dream gave her.

"No, I don't think it was a good dream," Eule 24 concluded to her favorite sister sadly.

Eule 21 looked at Eule 24 with concern before she gave her a reassuring smile…or rather, a reassuring grin as she jerked a white glove-covered robotic thumb at herself. "Well, don't worry about it that much. It's just a dream, after all. No dream can hurt you, not even a nightmare. And if any nightmare tries, well, they'll have to go through your big sister here, and I'm not letting any old nightmare past me!" Eule 21 declared proudly.

Eule 24 giggled at her favorite sister. "You're only my elder by two years, you know!" she laughed.

Eule 21 giggled back proudly. "That still makes you my adorable little sister by that long!"

Eule 24 now started to openly laugh at her favorite sister's antics, and then looked at her Eule 21. Really looked at her…and immediately got up from her chair, darted forward, and hugged Eule 21 tightly.

"Whoa, okay!" Eule 21 laughed, before teasing: "What's the occasion?"

"I…I don't know," Eule 24 admitted, still tightly locked in an embrace with her favorite sister. "I don't know…but…I don't want to let go of you. Ever. Please…please…don't go…"

Eule 24 didn't know why she started crying, but once she started, she couldn't stop, getting her tears all over the white triangle of cloth that was the exposed part of the blouse-like underclothing that made up part of the Eule's uniform. She tried to apologize for making such a mess, but only choked sobs came out.

"It's okay, little sis. Shh, it's okay. It's going to be okay," Eule 21 said comfortingly as she gently returned the desperate hug Eule 24 gave her.

It took several moments before Eule 24 calmed down enough to get out: "I don't…I'm sorry, I don't know why I did that. I just…I had this strange feeling that if I looked away, you'll be gone."

Eule 21 smiled reassuringly. "Silly 24, there's no way that's going to happen. Not as long as you remember me. There's no way I'll disappear so long as we're always in each other's memories."

Eule 24 sniffed, and smiled back. "Yes, I suppose you're right, 21."

"21? 24? What are you doing?" a stern feminine voice asked.

Eule 24 and Eule 21 both turned to look at a familiar elder sister of theirs walking over to them, wearing her usual frown on the face she typically showed to her younger sisters in private. This frown though, turned worried when her gaze fell upon Eule 24.

"24, you've been crying," EULR-S2302 "Februar" bluntly stated, before asking in a clear tone of worry: "Are you alright? Did something happen?"

"No," Eule 24 said, shaking her head at one of her eldest sisters and her direct superior in the B7 kitchens. "It was just a nightmare. I just…just…"

Eule 24 couldn't stop herself. Dragging Eule 21 along, she dashed forward and embraced Februar in a hug as tight as the one she'd been giving her favorite sister.

"24?" Februar asked in a tone of utter bafflement, before Eule 24 heard her sigh and felt gentle pats on her back, saying in an exasperated tone: "Red Eye watching, what's gotten into you?"

"Sorry, Feb," Eule 21 said with a giggle. "24 had some kind of nightmare, and is being pretty adorably clingy right now."

Februar sighed once more. "Honestly, all this over a nightmare. You're well over a year old now, 24. You shouldn't let some silly nightmare scare you like this."

Eule 24 was about to explain herself, but then she heard the familiar voice of her eldest sister say: "Now, now, dear. It's the duty of us as the eldest sisters to comfort our younger sisters in time like these."

Eule 24 looked up from where she'd pressed her face into Februar's chest to look at the approaching form of EULR-S2301 "Januar", delicately stepping up next to Februar with her usual grace and poise.

"After all, we ourselves were once that young and in need of comfort against the dark things our own minds can come up with in that strange realm of dreams, were we not?" Januar asked warmly.

Februar scoffed. "It has been a very long time since we were that young…but I concede your point," Februar said warmly to Januar as she continued gently patting Eule 24's back.

Januar stepped over to give Februar a gentle kiss on her cheek before leaning comfortably against her. "Our ages shouldn't prevent us from giving or receiving comfort, love. I do desire your comfort on the regular, you know," Januar said with a gentle smile.

Februar sighed, and leaned her head against Januar's head in response. "Honestly, Janchen. I think you might be a bit too needy at times."

"Just as needy as you can be at times?" Januar asked teasingly.

Februar scoffed, but there was a gentle smile offsetting the scoff. "As needy as I can be, yes," Februar conceded.

Watching Januar and Februar flirt like this again brought more tears that Eule 24 couldn't stop, and she included her eldest sister into her embrace.

"And as needy as our younger sister here can be too," Januar said warmly as she returned the embrace with her own.

"I…I don't know why I'm crying so much, so why I don't want to let any of you go," Eule 24 said after she managed to get the tears to stop, wiping them away on a tissue Eule 21 handed her. "I think it might have something to do with my nightmare, but…I can't remember any of it right now."

"Don't worry about that, dearie," Januar consoled. "Dreams and nightmares alike can be hard to recall once the dreamer has awakened. You just need a bit of time to remember it."

Eule nodded at the logic behind it, and then snapped around in surprise when she heard a thud–

Only to see EULR-S2303 "März" lying face-down on the thinly carpeted floor, right next to the blue sheet-covered bunk bed she fell off of, bathed in the cheery light of the fairy lights strung onto all of the Eule Dorm's bunk beds.

"Owww," März groaned as she pushed herself back upright. "I can't believe I fell out of bed again."

"März!" Eule 24 cried out as she rushed over to help März back up.

"Eh-heh, thanks, 24," März said with an embarrassed look on her face…right before she squeaked as Eule 24 hugged her as well. "Uhh, 24?"

"Heh, at this rate, 24, you're going to be hugging every Eule in the dorm like you haven't seen them in years," Eule 21 teased.

Eule was about to reply to that, but then a knock came on the door to the Eule Dorm. A rather insistent knock, from the sounds of it.

"Oh my, who could it be at this hour?" Januar asked rhetorically, starting to walk over to the door to answer it.

"Oh wait, Januar! I'll get it!" Eule 24 said, rushing ahead of Januar to press the green button to make the two halves of the steel door slide open–

Only to be hit with a rush of warm air that made Eule 24 reflexively close her eyes. With that warm air came the sweet scent of flowers, the trills and chirps of merry birdsong, and…a song.

There was the sound of drums and the haunting sound of some sort of wind instrument mixed in with the equally as haunting sound of a woman's voice…and then the clear tones of a violin began playing in a rhythm that resounded in Eule 24's very soul, pulling it across deep valleys and towering snow-capped mountains, over flowing rivers and lush meadows, and through the vast, untamed wilds of the world.

Finally though, that female voice began to sing. There were no lyrics to the song she sang though. It was a wordless chant, singing of primordial beauty and ancient wonders. Of freedom as wild as the wind, and hope soaring high as the clouds in the skies above. Of times long past, of a present to be enjoyed with loved ones, and the promise of a future waiting to be discovered.

And in the midst of this auditory beauty, there were the sounds of…mechanical whinnies?

Eule 24 finally opened her eyes to see…light.

Ahead of her was a grassy field extending as far as the eye can see, all the way to the horizon where the Sun was just breaking over that distant line and bathing the world in morning light, with only the sight of All-Mother Mountain breaking that horizon, crowned with snow and the massive corpse of the Metal Devil on its summit.

In the far distance in front of that sacred mountain, Eule 24 could see the quadrupedal forms of…Striders, yes, that was what they were called. The distinct forms of those robotic horses were peacefully grazing the grass at their feet. Eule 24 unfocused her gaze from the Striders and looked around the herd to see…yes, the bipedal forms of Watchers patrolling around them, their massive blue eyes still on the watch for anything that might threaten their charges.

It was a whole herd of Machines complete with their herd guards protecting them…and Eule 24 had no idea how she knew that.

"Hey, Eule! Come on over here!"

Eule 24 broke her gaze from the Strider herd to look at the source of that voice, and saw her beloved Star standing there with her Sharpshot Bow in hand.

"Come on! We're tracking that herd, and we need some help taking them down!" Star called out, holding out her hand and smiling as she did so. "Those Strider Blaze canisters are too valuable to pass up!"

"Yeah, come on!"

Eule 24 looked down, and saw her favorite little Gestalt girl right in front of her, holding out a tiny hand of squishy flesh to her.

"Let's go! I want to see if I can take down a Watcher this time!" Aloy said excitedly.

Upon hearing a cough of attention, Eule 24 unfocused her gaze from both Aloy and her Star to look at the familiar bulk of Rost, half-turned towards her. With a faint smile and a beckoning arm, Rost simply said: "Come, Eu-le. Follow," before turning and walking towards the Strider herd.

Eule 24 instinctively walked forward, taking both Aloy's offered hand and her Star's as well, following after Rost–

Only to suddenly stop and snap around.

There, in front of her, was the door to the Eule Dorm, seemingly floating there in the air with no building around it. Gathered at the door were Eule 21, Februar, Januar, and even März; all watching her with smiles, but making no move to follow.

All at once, Eule 24 remembered. All that she had been through with her Star, all that they had lost, and all that they had gained in turn. All that had made Eule 24 into the Eule of today.

Eule held out her hand to her beloved sisters. "Come with me. Please," she begged.

Januar shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry. Where you go now…is a place where we cannot follow."

Eule stared in despair at her sisters, and stood there frozen to the ground, not wanting to leave them behind.

"Hey, don't worry about us!" Eule 21 called out with a grin, before that grin turned into a soft smile. "There's no need to be sad. We'll all still be here. All you have to do is remember us, and we live again. As long as you do that, then we'll never be truly dead, you know?"

"21," Eule said, tears leaking down her biocomponent face.

"Just go out there and ride some of those Striders for me, okay?" Eule 21 asked, her grin returning to her face.

"EULR-S2321, remember that those Striders are wild and dangerous beasts of steel," Februar scolded. "There will be no riding Machines that can easily injure or kill 24 with a kick."

Eule 21 laughed in an embarrassed tone. "Sorry, 24! Maybe later?" Eule 21 asked hopefully.

Eule laughed now, wiping her tears from her eyes at her favorite sister's antics. "Maybe!" Eule called back. She raised her hand and waved at the memory of her Eule sisters. "So long! Thank you, everyone! I'll…I'll see you all later! I promise! I swear on the Red Eye, I'll see you later! I don't care how long it takes before I dream of you all again! I swear it!"

With that said and with the sight of her sisters waving goodbye at her, Eule turned around and followed after Star, Aloy, and Rost.

Towards the distant Machine herd.

Towards the rising Sun.

Towards a new horizon.