Chapter 14: Dawn of Adulthood (Part 1)
Elster pushed open the sliding door as she exited the darkened and book-filled backroom, expecting to finally get into the Itou bookstore that she hadn't been able to reach from the commercial corridor.
She did in fact reach that bookstore, as she expected.
What she did not expect to see was the side of a familiar green and white dress, with a familiar head of long, braided dark red hair atop it, staring into an open shrine behind the counter.
Elster started to open her mouth to call out to Isa.
The words died in her biocomponent throat as Isa slowly turned around.
The Gestalt woman was drastically changed from since the last time Elster had seen her. For one thing, Isa had even more bandages than before. In fact, bandages swathed the right side of Isa's face where her eye should've been, and a concerning amount of blood was soaking through it. There were even cuts that weren't bandaged, with the red lines left exposed to the air. Either Isa ran out of bandages to cover them with, or she wasn't bothering to anymore. Elster didn't know which one was worse.
But even more concerning than that were Isa's arms. Gone was the slightly dark-colored skin there, and in its place was a rusty red that ran up past Isa's elbows. Did Isa have blood or oxidant soaking every square centimeter of the skin there, or…?
"I couldn't find her…"
It was the tone of Isa's voice that wrested Elster's full attention. It was empty, hollow, and devoid of the life Isa previously displayed in her voice.
"I've looked everywhere…"
That voice drew Elster's attention to Isa's eyes, which were of a similarly lifeless nature. The light it once held was now gone and dulled.
"But she's not here anymore…and neither is Aloy."
Tears roll down Isa's cheeks from the corners of her dull eyes. Elster noticed that those tears were a rusty red.
"I've failed them. Erika. Aloy. I've failed both of them," Isa said in a cracking voice, the tears continuing to leave rusty trails on her cheek, dripping rust that splattered onto the white tiled floor. "I couldn't save them. I couldn't…"
"Negative," Elster interrupted in a tone that was filled with surety and confidence, still staring deep into Isa's eyes, which only now finally made eye contact. "I recently made contact with the Gestalt named Aloy."
"…What?"
Elster saw something appear in Isa's eyes at last. Something that sputtered and sparkled like a dim flame, but began to resemble the beginnings of life again. Thus, Elster continued:
"Aloy disappeared while I was en route to this location, but she was in optimal condition the last time I had eyes on her."
"She was?" Isa asked.
"I also promised Aloy that I would deliver several items to you, including two that you appear to need immediately. Here."
Elster quickly reached into one of her pockets to pull out all six of the pale pink berries Aloy had called "salvebrush" (a plant that had her Repair Logic Module couldn't meaningfully identify in any way) and even that chunk of "hintergold sap" (which said Repair Logic Module told her was opium latex), and showed them all to Isa.
"Here. Eat."
"Huh?" Isa asked, confusion now replacing the deadness of her previous gaze.
"Eat," Elster repeated, thinking that perhaps Isa did not hear her correctly in her obviously ill state. "This is medicine, according to Aloy and my Repair Logic Module. So eat."
Isa, still looking surprised, raised up a hand to receive the medicinal items…or rather, she would've done so, had her hands, colored scarlet blotched with rust, was shaking so much that Elster was not confident that Isa could hold the berries and block of sap without dropping them.
"Isa, open your mouth," Elster commanded.
Seemingly too surprised to argue, Isa did so. Elster then gently took a single salvebrush berry, and just as gently pushed it into Isa's mouth, which Elster noted with no small amount of concern had red sores inside. Elster then reached below Isa's chin to cup it in one hand, and then pushed up with the slightest amount of force needed to close that mouth.
"Now chew and swallow," Elster continued commanding.
Elster watched Isa's face as she chewed the dried berry to make sure she was actually eating it, observing how Isa's eyes widened in surprise as she did so.
"It's…bitter? Sour? Ah, a bit of both," Isa commented as she chewed, before swallowing with a gulp. "It's…not great…but it's still better than those ration bars."
Elster nodded, logging that information into her memory banks. "Here, the rest of the berries. You appear to need them."
Six berries later, each and every one just as gently and attentively fed by Elster, Isa sighed. "Odd. It still hurts, but…I feel a bit better now."
Elster nodded, feeling relieved to hear that, before holding up the hintergold sap. "One last thing to eat," she insisted before gently placing the small block of dark-colored latex into Isa's mouth.
As Isa chewed, Elster watched as Isa made a face. "Eurgh, it's bitter. But…huh, my mouth is going numb. Just a little, but…" Isa gulped, swallowing the sap. "Hmm, it feels…odd."
Elster saw that Isa was swaying on her feet, so she quickly walked over and helped Isa over to a stool just behind the counter, obviously meant for the computer in front of it.
"Are you stable now?" Elster asked.
"I…think?" Isa didn't sound too sure, but she did smile. "At the very least, it doesn't hurt as much anymore…and Aloy did this for me?"
Elster nodded. "She did. She remembered your kindness to her, and wanted to assist you."
Elster watched Isa's expression go from surprised to a small and quiet smile. "She did, did she? Thank you, Aloy…and please tell her that for me, will you?"
Elster nodded, before bringing out the final item. "Aloy also wished to give this to you. As proof of her friendship with you."
Elster held up the magpie feather to Isa, carefully turning it back and forth to allow the dim light inside the bookstore to nonetheless catch the iridescence of the feather, making it glint with the exact shade of metallic purple edged with green that Elster had seen herself.
For some reason though, seeing Isa's wide eyes at the feather, now having lost their dead look entirely, made Elster feel warm on the inside of her biomechanical body. It was strange. Her internal temperature readings record no change in frame temperature. And yet…Elster liked that warm feeling nonetheless.
"It's beautiful," Isa breathed.
Elster nodded at that remark, saying nothing more. She then thought for a moment about where to put the feather, before she had an idea. Taking the tip of Isa's braid (making Isa herself squeak for no reason Elster could identify), Elster then tucked the shaft of the feather into the green ribbon holding the end of that braid tight. The result was that when Elster released Isa's braid, the magpie feather was dangling from it in a way that Elster thought looked…aesthetically pleasing.
At least…Elster hoped it did.
"Mission completed," Elster said with a firm nod.
The smile that Isa gave Elster in response, small and wan as it was, made that warm feeling in Elster grow pleasantly warmer.
"Thank you, Elster…and thank you, Aloy," Isa added, still with that small, fragile smile.
Elster nodded once more. "I will convey your thanks to Aloy as well."
Isa closed her eyes, still smiling. "I'm glad. Aloy is alive and well. I didn't fail…I didn't."
Elster nodded, more due to reflex since Isa couldn't see her nod at the moment, before extending her mechanical hand out to Isa. "Then come. Let's thank Aloy in person."
Isa finally opened her eyes, now with the life that Elster saw back in B1 returned to them, and smiled warmly. "Yes. Let's."
Isa reached out and gently, shakily took Elster's hand.
Something thumped to the floor.
Elster looked down at the same time Isa did.
There, lying twisted on the floor, was Isa's right leg, stretching out Isa's thigh-high black socks from where the tibia and fibula had snapped as Isa had put weight on it. Already, that severed leg was melting into rusty goo that pooled on the floor through the black cloth.
"Oh," Isa said, before looking back up at Elster with a smile that had now turned sad. "I'm sorry."
Elster watched with growing horror–
"Caution! Hypersensitive warning!" screamed her system-psychogram diagnostics program in her mind.
–as Isa's left shoe started pooling with rusty fluid, dribbling onto the floor, joining the dripping that came from Isa's legs.
"This is the end for me. I don't think I can go on anymore," Isa explained sadly.
Rusty fluid began seeping through Isa's green dress, spreading up from the hips.
"I wish I could've traveled with you to see Aloy. I wish…I could've seen Erika one last time. But…some wishes aren't meant to be granted, I suppose," Isa said with a quiet chuckle.
The rusty fluid was now leaking from Isa's chest.
"Tell Aloy 'Thank you' for me. Tell her…it was good to be her friend. Even if…"
The skin on Isa's neck was flaking off now, revealing red muscle oozing with rusty fluid.
"…it was just for a brief moment."
A chunk of Isa's face fell off, the musculature and teeth of her cheek there now exposed.
And yet, Isa was still trying to smile.
"Sayonara. Aloy. Elster. Goodbye."
Isa at last crumbled into chunks, leaving behind severed body parts on the floor that were all slowly degrading into rusty ooze.
Elster was left holding a detached hand, still attached to a rusty arm that was slowly crumbling from its rotted edge.
And yet, despite that, Elster couldn't bring herself to drop it.
"Alert! Catatonic warning!" her system-psychogram added on top of the previous warning, which turned into: "Alert!
She held onto Isa's hand, still warm from her body heat, ignoring all of her system warnings to watch the last of Isa's body parts finally melt into rusty ooze that pooled on the floor.
Until at last, Isa's hand melted in her grip, dribbling that rusty ooze onto the floor, joining the rest of it there as it bubbled and roiled.
All that was left in the end was a black stain, roughly Gestalt-shaped, on the formerly white tiles. Isa's clothes laid where they'd fallen, soiled and stained black with Isa's remains.
As soiled and stained as Elster's right hand was.
Elster barely noticed. She was still staring at the spot where Isa's head had been, lying with her face looking up at Elster. In the end, Isa had still been smiling.
Elster didn't know how long she stood there, staring at the black stain. She knew she could consult her internal clock to find out…but that act seemed so pointless to her.
Elster didn't know why she picked up Isa's soiled dress, laid it out, and began searching through the black pockets sewn into its front. Was it a desire to salvage some part of Isa? Was it simply her persona stabilization routines trying to comfort her in this time of massive stress? Elster didn't know. All she knew was that she needed to do this…all while avoiding looking at the magpie feather that had been lying on the floor under the dress, its iridescence now soiled beyond saving.
Elster was almost surprised to find a single knife in Isa's pocket. It was a simple kitchen knife, likely had belonged to some poor EULR unit in Sierpinski. There were words etched into the handle. It read "Februar", but Elster had no idea what it meant. She stowed the knife away in the pocket that had held the medicinal items. It was now empty anyways.
Elster wanted to only stay in the bookstore long enough to collect what she needed to free herself from this place and continue her journey to Ariane. That had been her plan.
Then she looked in the shrine, and saw that above the tarot card, were two framed photos.
On the right was a photo of "Erika". Some of the Gestalt woman's face was stained black, as though Isa had coughed blood onto it, but there was just enough of the woman's face and smile left for Elster to know that this was what Isa's sister looked like.
On the left was a photo of Isa herself, with the name "Isolde" written on a gold plaque just below the photo in the same place "Erika" had been written on its twin. Isa was barely smiling in the photo, looking like she was too nervous to give a proper smile…but it was a smile nonetheless.
Elster stared at that photo of Isa for far longer than she should have.
"I'm sorry," Elster whispered to the photo.
Isa smiled faintly back at Elster. There was no judgement in her eyes. No rebuke. No accusation. Elster almost wished that Isa would do just that.
Elster ended up having to tear her gaze from Isa to take the Death-marked tarot card…and then quickly shoved it into a pocket to avoid having to look at it any longer than she needed to. Fortunately, the thin card easily fit into any one of her pockets, even the ones already filled with another item. The Rule of Six had not been broken. Only bent.
All the while, her system-psychogram program continued to blare out their Hypersensitive and Catatonic warnings. Elster could have checked the exact values, but she saw no point in doing so.
With that final task completed, Elster finally left the Itou Bookstore behind. There was nothing for her there in that house of death.
The morning Star faced would've seemed just like any other day she woke up here in the Embrace.
At least, it would've, if it hadn't been for that bizarre whatever the fuck Machine that had woken them all in the dead of last night, and then had dropped…something before taking off with what Star still insisted sounded suspiciously like the roar of some kind of jet engine…along with the sound of giant wings flapping mixed in.
"It could be entirely possible," Rost had said when Star brought it up. "Every flying Machine I've seen have all had flapping wings. This one would just be another one of them."
Alas, without any visual confirmation of it, all it was at the moment was just an unprovable hypothesis.
Thus, the reason why Star was up along with her family was not to search for that Machine, but to search for whatever had made that thump last night.
"I've seen a few Machines drop or throw canisters before," Rost explained as they stood in the front yard, all dressed up in fox and raccoon furs on top of their normal Nora clothes for the winter chill. "I don't know why they do that. All I know is that this Machine must be one of those Machines, and so finding whatever it dropped will at least let us attempt to figure out what it was."
Everyone nodded at that.
"It sounded like whatever it was dropped pretty close by," Eule noted. "Although how close is…"
"It couldn't be that far given how loud it was," Star added. "Wouldn't be surprised if it was within spitting range of our house, really."
Indeed, it didn't take much searching before they found what it was. There, just past the bit of forest where the outhouses resided, sitting on a massive rocky outcropping jutting out of the mountain like a platform, was…something. It looked like some kind of teardrop-shaped pod made of metal and plastic, but that was all Star could make of it from where she stood.
Thus, all Star could say to it was: "What the fuck is that?"
"Is it…a Machine?" Eule asked, with just as confusion in her voice as Star's.
"No way," Aloy replied disbelievingly. "If it's a Machine, then it should be attacking us…right?"
In the end, Star along with Eule and Aloy turned to look at the most experienced member of their family.
The member who at the moment was gently stroking his long, braided beard down and up, up and down in deep thought, staring into the distance as though he was lost in a memory, as he gazed at the weird pod. "This…looks familiar to me. I've seen such things before, but I've never been able to figure out exactly what they are. The Carja like to put them in their farms, but the only thing I've ever learned from them is that they call these things 'Metal Flowers'."
"Metal Flowers?" echoed Star, Eule, and Aloy.
Now that Star knew what it was called, that pod did look a bit like a closed flower bud…kind of. If flowers had petals of steel and plastic.
"Are they…dangerous?" Eule asked.
"As far as I know: no," Rost answered. "They appear to do nothing but sit there, only opening up during the day, and closing back up at night. Nothing more."
Everyone turned back to the look at the Metal Flower, which had been doing exactly as Rost described all this time, and was just sitting there, closed up and apparently dead to the world around it.
"Maybe we can butcher it for parts?" Aloy asked.
"Hmm, that could be an option," Rost replied, stroking his beard as he did so. "Give me time, and I can attach anchors here and there, and rope them together to make a rope bridge. Then we can just cross it to–"
"Hold on, I got a better idea," Star interrupted with a grin. "That gap looks like it's just short enough for me to jump across."
"Are you sure?" Eule asked, peering down over the edge of the rock outcropping they were standing on. "It's a long fall if you miss."
"Nah, I'll be fine," Star assured. "It's really that short a leap for me, the target area is huge, and it's on a slope anyways. Worse comes to worse, I'll just slide and jump down the slope and run back up here."
"Hmm," Eule hummed in the way Star could tell that she agreed with what Star said, but still had her worries. Despite that though, Eule took a deep breath, and then smiled up at Star. "Okay, I trust you, love. Just…" Eule then reached up behind Star's head, and pulled her down to kiss her. "Be careful, yes?"
Star grinned down at the love of her life, and returned that kiss with a kiss of her own. "You know me. I always am."
Eule snorted, but there was a giggle mixed in that warmed Star's biomechanical heart.
Thus, with Eule's worries assuaged, Star could get to work.
A running leap should be Star's best bet, so she stepped back. Way back. Back about 10 meters so that she could get a true STAR unit running start. Similarly, Eule, Aloy, and Rost stood aside so that Star could get a clear shot at her target.
With all the prep work done, Star took a deep breath, deployed her face mask for both protection and comfort of mind, and then ran.
Star had always loved running. The Nation definitely had pragmatic reasons for giving her model such long legs, but to Star, that didn't matter. It was the feel of the wind on the upper half of her face that Star truly cared about as she managed to reach 50 km/h before she took that last step onto their side of the mountain, and leapt.
As it turned out, that running start hadn't even been necessary. Star reached that outcropping with plenty of room to spare. That didn't stop Star's heart from soaring at the sounds of Aloy and Eule cheering behind her. She even stopped for a moment to give a jaunty wave back at them, even at a silent Rost who nodded at her, before turning back and continuing to her true target.
Curiously, the Metal Flower did not open up as Rost described. Instead, it remained closed even as Star strode right up to it.
Star unhooked her EIG-2 stun prod from her belt, and gave the Metal Flower a gentle tap with the red pronged end.
Nothing happened.
Star tapped it harder with her stun prod.
Nothing happened as well.
Star then gave it a whack with that same stun prod, with the force she would use to "only" give a Gestalt a bump on their head.
Nothing happened still.
"Huh, curious," Star muttered as she hooked her stun prod back onto her belt, and crouched down to examine the Metal Flower more closely.
Which now that Star did so, she can see why it had that name. It was composed of numerous silvery grey steel "petals" in a radial formation around it, forming a six-petal flower, with six small black "leaves" at the base forming a balanced support, which explained why it was able to stay upright like that. Three of the steel petals even glowed with a blue light emitting out of a power indicator light near their base, as though it really was some kind of Machine, just a Machine flower rather than a Machine animal.
"And a flower that follows the Rule of Six too, no less," Star mused.
Now truly curious, Star reached up to her own Focus, and pressed and held down on it. She hadn't had many opportunities to use her Focus's scan program thing, and so this was one of the few times where it was applicable.
It only took a few seconds of waiting for that circle to fill up with green, and then her Focus came back with a text box that read:
"Metal Flower.
"A metal flower of unknown design, possibly used to promote seed germination. Includes an embedded code fragment.
"Read?"
"I'll bite, yeah," Star replied with a shrug, even knowing that the Focus likely couldn't see her shrug…possibly?
Star's curiosity then redoubled as the text box's text blinked out of existence, only to be replaced with new scrolling text that read:
Metal Flower – Mark I (B)
Metal Flower – Set I
Code fragment downloaded:
/
[function: true]
{{Evening wind:}}
{{water laps}}
{{the heron's legs.}}
[function: true]
/
"…The fuck?" Star questioned, scratching her cheek shell in confusion. "You're a weird little thing, yeah?"
If the Metal Flower gave any offense to that, it didn't show it in the slightest.
"Hmm, is that first line your name? Mark I (B)?" Star asked, now more curious than confused.
Even the tone and word shift though did not make the Metal Flower respond in the slightest.
Star smiled down at it regardless. "Well, I guess we're both weird things in this world, yeah?"
With that settled, Star decided to see if harvesting this Metal Flower was possible. She took hold of the lower sections of the thing, just above the black leaves resting on the rock, and lifted–
Only to find that it seemed to be stuck to the rock.
"Come on, come on," Star muttered as she took a deep breath, and with the strength of a combat Replika, pulled.
Star heard a cracking sound, just before the Metal Flower came out of the rock quite suddenly, sending Star stumbling back a step with an "Oof!" of surprise rather than pain.
When Star stood back up, she discovered two things.
The first was that the Metal Flower was a lot lighter than she expected. Oh, it was still decently heavy, even to a combat Replika like her. However, it was also a lot lighter than what its massive size (Star estimated that it was about a meter tall) would indicate. Either this thing was made up of a lot more plastic than she thought it was, or maybe…it was mostly hollow inside? Star had no idea, but she wanted to find out.
The second was that bits of the rock that had been below the Metal Flower seemed to be cracked and pitted. The reason why became apparent when Star turned the Metal Flower over to see its bottom, which revealed that there were these pale brown nubs coming out of holes in the steel and plastic. Pale brown nubs…which resembled roots beginning to sprout out from a seed. Bits of pebbles and dust clung to those roots, suggesting that they had somehow been digging into that rock.
"Yeah, you are definitely a weird little thing," Star chirped happily to the Metal Flower.
The Metal Flower still had no reply to Star. Not that she expected a reply, but the act of conversing with this inanimate Machine flower thing was weirdly entertaining to Star. She wondered briefly if the Aras did this to their plants, before deciding that she'd had enough of being all by her lonesome with a Metal Flower. Some actual, talking company was in order.
Thus, she tucked the Metal Flower under one arm, and made a running start back to the cliff edge she came from.
Which she did, just as easily as she did so the first time.
"Hmm, so this is what a Metal Flower looks like up close," Rost said in wonder, gripping his beard as though he was too fascinated to let go.
"You've never done that?" Star asked curiously.
Rost shook his head. "Metal Flowers are always growing out of extremely remote locations, or are guarded by Machines. This is the first time I've been able to see one this close…although 'growing' might not be accurate if we assume that strange Machine from last night dropped it."
"Yeah, for all we know, it might've pooped it out," Star posited.
"Ewww," Aloy piped up with a look of disgust.
Eule sighed. "Really, Star?"
Star could only laugh nervously in reply. It had just sort of come out…which was admittedly not the best way to put it, thus explaining why Star didn't voice that thought out loud.
"I guess it doesn't smell like it got pooped out," Aloy piped up once more, minus the disgusted look. "It just smells like…Machinestone, like a Machine."
"Hmm…well, I guess it must be a non-hostile Machine for once, since it's not doing anything," Star pointed out. "It didn't even do anything when I hit it with my stun prod, or even when I just yanked it out of the rock."
"Speaking of which, I noticed that you seemed to have been having some trouble pulling it out of that rock," Rost noted with a thoughtful beard-tugging, before asking a simple: "Why?"
"Look here," Star replied, turning the Metal Flower over so that everyone could get a look at its underside. "These brown nubs looked like they were just starting to burrow into the rock before I came along. It made it so that this thing was basically semi-anchored into the rock, which explained that pulling I had to do."
"So…they're roots?" Eule asked, curiosity filling her voice.
"My thoughts exactly," Star replied with a grin. "Guess this Metal Flower doesn't just look like a plant."
"It's like a Machine plant," Aloy added, wonder in her voice to go with the curiosity.
Eule smiled. "Ara Elf would've loved this Metal Flower," she noted.
Star nodded, hearing the wistful tone in her lover's voice, and feeling much the same. "Ara Eins would've too. Probably would've tried to see if she could take care of it like a bio plant. Don't know why the Aras love plants so much, but well, I figure this thing would hit them both in the plant-growing button and in the engineering one too."
"Ooh," Aloy piped up, with Star looking down to see that the wonder had now reached Aloy's eyes too. "These 'Aras' sound fun. Do you think I'll get to meet one of them one day?"
Star smiled down at her kid, reaching down to pat her on her flame-colored hair. "Yeah, hopefully we will one day. I can even show them what I found when-oh, yeah, I almost forgot! Everyone, scan this Metal Flower with your Focuses. You'll find something pretty neat!"
Everyone did so, including Rost, which still amused Star to see given that whole initial relic-phobia of his.
"Huh, what's this?" Eule asked, a finger pressed on her temple's Focus. "'Code fragment downloaded'…huh, what is this?"
"You got me," Star admitted with a shrug. "I was hoping you might've had a better idea than I did."
Eule merely shook her head, sighing with just as much defeat as Star felt, before she peered at the Metal Flower once more. "Metal Flower – Mark I (B)…wait, is that–"
"Its name?" Star finished for her lover with a grin. "I think so? Maybe? It didn't answer either way, so might as well be a good name to call it in the meantime."
"Machines…don't have names," Rost insisted, or tried to, if the hitch in his words after "Machines" hadn't made him sound hesitant.
"Are you sure?" Eule asked.
"…Honestly, I'm no longer sure of anything now with you two in my life," Rost replied with a sigh. "All I know is that the Machines have never identified themselves with any names."
"Well, it looks like this one has a name," Eule commented. "Albeit, a strange one. Mark I (B)? It almost sounds like a serial number, but is its model name 'Mark'? Why? It's like naming an entire Replika model 'Erik'."
"I don't know, maybe whoever made this thing was just weird?" Star asked, before something occurred to her. "Hey, Rost? Do you know who made the Machines? I mean, they're machines. They can't just be coming out of nowhere. Someone has to be making them…right?"
"The Machines have always been part of our world. No person could've possibly made them," Rost retorted, before looking thoughtful as he scrunched his beard up one-handed, clenching it into an almost-fist. "But even the question of what is making the Machines is a mystery. All I've been able to find out is that they come out of places called 'Cauldrons'."
"'Cauldrons'?" Star asked at the same time Eule did, with even Aloy joining in the chorus.
Rost nodded. "Great steel doors, even taller than the tallest watchtower of Mother's Heart's hall, always set into the side of a mountain or at least very close to one. I've seen Machine as large as Bellowbacks come out of those doors myself, with plenty of space to spare. However, those doors are always guarded by numerous Machines, and even without them, no one has been able to get them to open. Thus, everything behind them is an unknown, and likely a dangerous one at that."
Star blew out a breath. "Well, this mystery just keeps getting deeper and deeper."
"And with seemingly no hope of getting to the bottom of this mystery," Eule concluded with a corresponding sigh.
"Unless we go explore a Cauldron," Aloy suggested with no small amount of excitement in her voice.
"Err, let's hold off on that Cauldron exploration until you're just a little older," Eule nervously suggested in turn.
"Yeah, when you're maybe taller than thigh level for me," Star teased.
"Aww!"
Star snickered at the disappointment in Aloy's voice and at imagining the pout she likely had, but it was for the best. Even she didn't think one of these Cauldron places would be a good idea for Aloy to go into, although the thought of going into one to see what was in it did…excite her all the way into her carbon steel bones.
Star was interrupted from her pondering by a tiny hand tugging on her Metal Flower-occupied arm, and she looked down with an expectant smile at her favorite kid. "What's up, Aloy?"
"Do you or Eule know what a 'heron' is?" Aloy asked with a puzzled frown scrunching up her face.
Star stared down at Aloy for a good several moments before she grinned. "Don't know about herons, yeah? Well, I can fix that. Herons were this family of birds that lived on Vineta. They had long legs, long necks, and were exclusively carnivores: eating a variety of small prey, usually living in the water the herons favored, which explains why that code fragment mentioned the water lapping the heron's legs in a poetic way…wait, could it be–"
"–a poem?" Eule posited, finishing Star's positing for her, before tilting her head in confusion. "But…why a poem?"
"Part of the cypher? Maybe?" Star tossed out, before shrugging in defeat. "Or it could just be a poem about an extinct bird. I don't know."
"Oh, it's extinct too?" Aloy asked, looking down in disappointment.
"'Extinct'?" Rost echoed.
"Ah, 'extinct' is a word to refer to when the last member of a species dies out," Eule explained, looking down at the ground as she did so in a way that made Star want to give her lover a warm hug against the depression.
Which naturally, she did. Even if it was just with a single arm courtesy of the Metal Flower she kept tucked under her other arm.
"But…herons aren't 'extinct'."
Star froze at the same time Eule did and Aloy did, and they all turned to stare at Rost.
"Huh?" was Star and Eule's reply, with Aloy joining in the chorus at the same time.
"Herons aren't extinct," Rost repeated with a sigh. "None of you have visited Mother's Birthwaters–"
Star couldn't help it. She snickered at that name. It got her every time, along with Rost's flat gaze afterwards.
"As I said," Rost said after a moment of that gaze. "None of you have visited our lake, so I'm not surprised that none of you know that herons regularly visit that lake in the spring and summer to fish as much as we Nora do."
"What, no, that's not possible. All the wild land animals larger than rats all died out over the course of Vineta's liberation. Everyone…knows…that…" Star trailed off, before she actually thought about it. "But then, there are boars, foxes, and raccoons. But if this place is Vineta, then how…argh, my brain hurts," Star concluded, clutching her head in annoyed disbelief at the weirdness of this place and how none of it made even a lick a sense when she thought about it.
Star was then treated to the sight and sensation of Eule reaching up to pat her on her head. "There, there, love. At least we have more evidence that wherever the Embrace is in Vineta, it seems to be a place where many things that are supposedly extinct are in fact not."
"If it helps, I can hunt a heron for you the next time I'm near there to fish," Rost offered.
"I'm perfectly happy to take your word on that," Star admitted, before grinning at Rost. "But well, if we're going to get a meal out of it, might as well anyways."
"Oh, oh!" Aloy shouted, hopping up and down as she still held Star's arm, causing Star to repeatedly feel Aloy's full weight on said arm for moments at a time. "If herons aren't extinct, then does that mean owls aren't extinct too?"
Star could feel the exact moment Eule froze in her embrace, which was right about the same time Rost replied to Aloy's question with: "No, they're not."
Star couldn't see Eule's face from her angle, but she could already imagine Eule opening and closing her mouth in shock from the sounds she was making, before Eule managed to sputter out: "Wait, what?! Really?!"
Rost nodded in reply. "I've hunted owls myself. They are nigh-impossible to spot when they roost during the day, let alone when they fly at night, but their feathers make some of the softest pillows and the quietest yet warmest hunting clothes, even if not the most waterproof, so they're worth the time, effort, and skill to hunt."
"You hunt–" Eule began in a shocked tone, before she went silent for a moment, and then continued with a sigh: "Well, of course you do. It would be logical to hunt owls for their feathers."
Star gently patted Eule consolingly on her headful of black hair, before something occurred to her. "Hey Rost, since owls aren't extinct, have you ever heard of a bird called a 'starling'?"
Rost blinked at Star in surprise before tugging at his beard. "A 'star', you said? Your name is also a bird, and there is such a bird called a 'star'? This is the first I've heard of such a bird."
"No, I said 'starling', not 'star'," Star clarified.
"…I'm getting very confused here," Rost said, scratching the part of his beard closest to his face as he tilted his head at her.
As Star scratched her cheek shell in just as much confusion, Eule suddenly piped up with: "Wait, Rost, what do you hear when Star and I say 'starling'? Not what the Focus says, but what we're saying with our mouths when we say 'starling'?"
"…'Star'," Rost replied after only a moment's hesitation.
"Okay, how about 'star', like the stars in the sky?" Star asked in turn.
"…'Stern'," Rost replied after another bit of hesitation, before his brow furrowed. "But wait, your 'star' is just a word that sounds the same as the word for the star in the sky, but it's actually the name of a bird in your words? How peculiar."
"I believe that's called a 'homophone'," Eule piped up, before shaking her head with a smile. "And a rather coincidental homophone here too."
"Interesting, but it still doesn't change my answer," Rost replied with a shake of his head. "I have never heard of a bird called a 'star' in all my years. Perhaps you could describe it to me?"
"Erm…" Star had to review her internal memory, recalling the memories of watching nature documentaries either featuring the starling or at least having them present in said documentary. "They were small birds, less than half the size of a crow. They had black, iridescent feathers, er, that means they shone green, purple, and blue in the light, and those feathers had white tips. Their beaks were yellow, their eyes were black, and their legs were a reddish-orange. They flew in massive flocks that if big enough could blot out the sky. Oh, and they pooped a lot when their flocks got that big, enough that they can kill plants actually. Ring a bell there, big guy?"
Rost looked up at the morning sky as he stroked his braided beard up and down again, as if the Nora's All-Mother could help him jog his memory. After several moments, he then sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Star. I have never seen such a bird in my life."
Star sighed in turn. "Well, one out of two ain't bad."
Star wasn't all that disappointed. Really…but Eule's comforting hand on her shoulder still felt nice regardless.
"Maybe it's just that there weren't any starlings where Rost went?" Eule asked hopefully.
"Nah, that can't be," Star replied, shaking her head. "Starlings were practically everywhere in North America after some nut jobs released them there. If this is North America and there are no starlings, then there are no starlings period," she explained with a sigh, before holding up the Metal Flower. "Oh well, at least I still have Eule, Aloy, Rost, and even you, Mark."
"Mark?" asked Eule, Aloy, and Rost all at once.
"Yeah, you know, because that code fragment mentioned this thing's name is Mark?" Star pointed out, before looking at the closed steel and plastic bud once more. "Probably going to need to figure out where to best plant him though."
"Maybe in a place with lots of sunlight?" Eule suggested. "It might be like a bio plant in that regard."
"Well, it's worth a shot," Star replied with a shrug and a nod.
"Wait, what are you both talking about?" Rost asked, confusion in both his voice and on his face.
Star looked down at Eule, who looked up at her. Once they had both confirmed each other's confusion, they then both looked back at Rost and made a questioning sound at him.
"I guess…basically keeping this Metal Flower as a pet?" Star ventured, hoping that would solve Rost's confusion.
"A…pet? What's a…'pet'?" Rost instead asked back, looking even more confused than before.
Star just stared at Rost in a mix of surprise and utter bafflement for a moment, just as much as Eule was, before asking, voice filled with disbelief: "Wait, you don't know what a pet is? Really?"
"I don't know what a pet is too," Aloy piped up, making Star stare down at the kid with the same look she gave Rost.
"Really? You don't know what a pet is either?" Eule asked before Star could.
When Aloy shook her head, Star had to take a moment to wrap her biomechanical head around this bit of weirdness before replying: "You know, a pet? Like you keep an animal around for fun?"
"…Is this a custom among your Eusan Nation tribe? One of the more peculiar customs, perhaps?" Rost asked, his confusion just as present as before.
"Wait, seriously? You don't keep pets–" Star cut herself off, recalling a key Nora factoid about their farming…or rather, their prohibiting of it. "Yeah, I can see why you'd think keeping pets is weird given the whole 'no raising animals' thing. Well, now you're going to be finding out about the joy of keeping a pet, courtesy of me keeping Mark as mine," she finished with a grin.
"You're going to keep a Machine…for fun?" Rost asked with nothing but incredulity in his voice. "Machines are Machines. No one keeps one for fun, especially not with the Derangement going on. What if that Metal Flower attacks us like all the other Deranged Machines?"
Star didn't even need to think about it. "If Mark decides he doesn't want to play ball and be friends, then I'll put him down myself. There's no way I'm going to let him hurt Eule, Aloy, or you, Rost," she said with a firm nod.
Rost looked straight at Star for several moments, before finally sighing with a nod. "Very well then, I will trust you on this, Star. Let's hope…'Mark' stays docile then."
Indeed, even when Star planted Mark right in a bare patch of rock in the yard, in clear view of the sole front-facing window left on Rost's house, the Metal Flower did not react in the slightest.
The next morning didn't reveal anything different, and neither did the morning after that. Mark the Metal Flower just remained silently sitting in place like some kind of bizarre art piece than a Machine, which was seriously starting to make Star question if that was indeed the case.
It was on the third morning after the planting that when Star lifted up the wooden window cover that she saw any change with Mark…but it was worth it.
Mark the Metal Flower had bloomed.
Star quietly crept outside, and just as silently walked over to the Metal Flower, hoping not to disturb it and make it close up again. However, Mark remained open even when Star walked right up to it, and was gazing down at its spread form.
The entire bud-like form of the Machine had opened up. Six outer petals made of silvery steel edged with bright yellow had split open to reveal three smaller, forked petals made of shiny, dark-colored plastic that caught the morning light (as wan as it was in winter), with that same plastic coating the inside of three of the outer petals, making Star wonder if they were for catching sunlight.
However, the centerpiece was a cylindrical column-like device made of more silvery steel surrounded by black plastic forked bits like male bits surrounding the female bits of a bio flower, rising out of the center of the Metal Flower about half a meter high, for perched atop it was an eye. Or at least, something that resembled a camera eye not too unlike that of a Replika's eye module, light glinting off of the glass covering the delicate electronics within.
Naturally, after seeing this, Star quietly crept back into the house…and then proceeded to very loudly wake her entire cadre up to take a gander at her pet Machine.
"Amazing, it really is a Machine, and a plant Machine at that," Rost marveled. He spent several moments marveling at the blooming Metal Flower before turning to Star. "And it hasn't attacked you once?"
"Nope," Star insisted. "I literally just walked right up to it, and it didn't so much as blink at me."
"Not even when you poked it?" Aloy asked, staring intently at the Metal Flower as if she wanted to do that herself.
"…You know, I hadn't actually done that, but now that you mention it," Star said, right before unhooking her stun prod from her belt.
"Are you sure that's safe?" Eule asked, making Star stop in her tracks.
"…How about you all get back a bit before I poke it, yeah?" Star suggested.
Once everyone aside from Star was at a safe distance away, and hiding behind one of the Grazer dummies on top of that, Star finally extended her stun prod into Mark the Metal Flower, and gently tapped it on the metal cylinder in the center–
And then quickly yanked back her arm as the Metal Flower rapidly closed back up with a quiet whir of servos, its petals clicking shut in mere seconds.
Star stood still, index finger poised on her stun prod's trigger, waiting to deliver high voltage electricity into Mark if it decided to attack her for that poking.
Except…even after several moments…Mark didn't do anything but sit there as a closed-up bud again.
Then, after exactly a minute had passed by, Mark the Metal Flower opened up again, its steel and plastic petals unfurling with another quiet whir, until it was in full bloom once more.
"Huh, I guess Mark really isn't Deranged," Star noted as she returned her stun prod to its usual place, confident now that Mark wasn't going to suddenly leap at her.
"Truly curious," Rost said, not making Star jump one bit at how quietly he crept on her, no sirree. "This is the first time I've seen any Machine not be affected by the Derangement. I wonder why?"
"If you don't know, then I highly doubt we have any answers for you there," Eule said with a nervous laugh.
Rost only nodded in response, and nothing more.
"Well, I guess since Mark isn't doing anything, it might be a harmless little pet robot flower after all!" Star noted cheerfully to everyone.
It took only seven cycles (or rather, days) after that statement before it quickly became apparent that Mark wasn't doing nothing.
"Hey, Eule, it's still winter, right?" Star asked.
"According to my internal calendar and coordination with Rost, it should still be late winter, yes," Eule replied.
"Then…why is there so much green here?"
Indeed, all around Mark the Metal Flower, there was green. Plants were sprouting around the Machine from every available patch of soil as though spring had come early. Star couldn't even begin to identify them at this early stage of growth, but the one thing she couldn't deny was the verdant greenness of it all along with how out of season it all was.
"It's not just here either," Eule said. She pointed back towards the house for emphasis, where Star could see green bitter leaf poking out from behind some pots and arrow quivers, as though it was playing peek-a-boo with them. "Rost's little bitter leaf plant is now…not quite so little."
"Hmm, on one hand, it's good that I have more bitter leaf," Rost admitted with beard-tugging thoughtfulness, before returning his gaze to the sprouting plants around the Metal Flower, his beard-tugging turning into beard-clenching as he did so. "On the other hand, if it only took a week for these plants to grow this much even in late winter, then our yard will be overrun with them once spring comes."
"True, true," Star admitted, scratching her own cheek shell in similar thoughtfulness. "Looks like we're going to have to move Mark."
"Ooh, how about over there, where the salvebrush likes to grow?" Aloy pointed out…literally in her case, due to pointing out the door leading to where the pair of outhouses were. "We could always use more of them."
"Aloy, that's…I mean…" Rost trailed off.
"To be fair, it's not that different conceptually from adding Metalbite-digested, er, waste to a salvebrush patch to help it grow, yes?" Eule pointed out.
"That is just returning what we take from the All-Mother back to the earth so that new life can grow," Rost insisted to Eule, before looking back at the Metal Flower. "But this…this…I don't even know how it's making these plants grow like this."
Star clapped a mechanical hand on Rost's shoulder. "Welcome to our cadre, Rost, where we know even less about the Machines than you do."
"Perhaps this could be your Rule of Six to overcome?" Eule suggested, with a mischievous smile dancing on her lips. "After all, you've been doing fine work convincing us to let go of the Rule of Six. It's only fair that we return the favor."
Rost groaned, and then sighed, slumping his shoulders in defeat. "As long as it doesn't do anything strange to the salvebrush then."
Indeed, in the days following Star relocating Mark the Metal Flower to that patch of forest, nothing strange happened to the salvebrush or any of the plants there.
That is, if you didn't count them growing more lushly and vibrantly to be strange.
Neither Star nor Eule nor even Aloy said anything when they watched Rost quietly relocate his bitter leaf plant to an area close to the Metal Flower. They didn't need to. Their happy smiles at him overcoming his own Rule of Six was message enough, along with the plant life sprouting in front of them.
LSTR-512 let go of the golden spear she had just thrust forward.
That golden spear, formerly pure and shining in a way that made Elster's head hurt and her vision distort to look at for too long, now dripped with corrupted black oxidant as it laid impaled in the head of what had once been a Wunderwaffe–no, what had once been a god–of the Eusan Nation along with its five sisthren.
The thing that used to be a god rocked back, and then its head fell forward, spraying oxidant out both sides of its warped head that flickered back and forth between god and demon. Elster instinctively closed her eyes for a split-second as hot oxidant splattered onto her faceplate, and when she opened them again, the demon was right in front of her.
Elster's hand started to rise up, still gripping the Protektor pistol that had served her well in her quest, trying to shoot this demon before it could–
The demon fell to its knees, and the world–
"Caution! Cata█████ ████████"
–faded–
"██████ ████████ Ē̴̱̱̪̪͉͎͕̤͇̓̄̿̂̏̎͊̇͆̓͝ͅṙ̸̥̗̯̼̹̙̫͂̋̿́̀̾͆ŗ̶̯͙̹̞̺̣̄́̀̂̓o̶̧͆͗͠͝r̸͕̭̪̦͚̼̰̔̈̋̂͛̓̌͂̇͝ͅ.̵̲̥͙͈̼̮̝̜̱̫͛̒̂͗̏ͅͅ ̸̨͎̠̭͍̝̆̃̄͛̔̈́͝S̴̡̝͖̃̚y̴̧̘̤̳͖̯͈͙̞͕͌͂̍͜s̵̯͉̎͆͗̀̔͊̑͑̓̐͂͆̈̕t̴̨͚̤̬̲͔̅̊̅̉̀̈́̀̃̏̉̀̿͋̽͝e̸̛̛͔͐̇̌̏͑͛́̉̕̚m̵̨̬̘̖̹̜̼̦̦̗̬̹̃̐̽̿͛̽̌̎̎͊͂̑͋͝-̴̨͔̮̻͍̈́p̵̞͓̈́̌̂́̄͑̀̉̈́̓͘̕͝ş̴̛͓̼̰̟̩͚͎̗͇͍̩̤̎̓̊́͑̓̆̇̇̔̍̈́͘ỹ̴̨̩̝͙̟͈̤̤̈́̅̏̃́̏̚ć̵̡̡̨͖͍̯̰̟͎̝̣̳̻͙̣̃̀h̸̡̲̖͋̾̉̈́̉̄̉̏̊̒̅͋͜ͅǫ̵̝͉̖̘͇̗̰̮͔̘̎̌̂̈͗̑͊͝ͅģ̵̛̙̜̺̻͔͕͍̼̞̦̫̤̊̄̈̀͐́̋̚͘ŗ̶͎̱͖̟̯͓͇̬̼̻͍͕̣̃̋͛͐̀́̾̍͒͒̃͜a̷͚̤͍̮̫̜̥̙̪͖͆̓̄̍͌̐̓m̸͇͕͔͙̲̪̟̒͑̀͊̊̋͗͊͊̀͐̓͝͝ ̶͙̻̹̝͐̓̂̍̚͝ͅç̸̖̠̘̓̓̏̏̅͗͌̋o̵͈̪̿̍̽͘ŕ̵̨̛̯̱̝̘̿͊̊̏͆̌͜͝ͅr̴̡̧͓̜̫̱̰͓̯̙̫̭̰̒̌̿͐̽̈̔̒ͅǘ̴̠̪̖͔͖͚͕̬͓͔̗̹̮͍͆̔̄̽̒̏͜████ █████████"
–out.
Strange visions flashed through Elster's mind. Some loving and familiar, holding Ariane in her arms. Others merely familiar, flickering like the mirage of an island. Others still were familiar even if they shouldn't be, commanding Adler to remain behind to await her return so as to protect him from the risks of this stranger gate. Even stranger though was the journey across the wine-dark sea towards a glaring red door, of which Elster had no memory of whatsoever.
[LSTR-512.]
The voice speaking deep into Elster's mind along with a hand placed on her upper breastplate suddenly jolted her out of the flood of visions, and she found herself gazing down upon a fallen demon, on her knees and leaning a single flesh-overgrown hand on white steel.
"Now-" the demon spoke in the voice of something that was once a Falke, sounding…at peace? "-we are whole."
The demon's hand slipped from the steel, and the demon followed, falling to one side.
[I've been waiting for this for a long time.] The voice continued to speak into Elster's mind as the demon fell. [I wish…I could've seen them again…once more.]
Thoughts of what "them" were ended the moment the demon thumped to the floor, and all that remained was a deathly silence.
Elster wished to leave. She needed to keep her promise to Ariane…and yet, she also remembered she had one more promise yet to keep.
One mechanical black hand carefully, slowly reached into a pocket, and emerged with a magpie feather, still shining with iridescent beauty even after all this time, as if even a battle with a demon couldn't extinguish that shimmering light.
She knelt down to the demon, who had now rolled into a supine position after its fall.
"You are the only Falke I have ever met, so I can only imagine that Aloy must be referring to you," Elster spoke, unsure if she was talking to herself or to the fallen god. "Here."
She carefully lifted the demon's hands up to its chest, cracked from bulging biocomponents and oozing out darkened oxidant, and carefully placed the magpie feather into its hands, in the same position she remembered that owl-themed music box had been when she had seen it in that Falke unit's hands.
She stood back up, staring down at her handiwork. In this position, the once-Falke unit looked…almost peaceful. If she ignored the Corruption and her surroundings, the thing that used to be a Falke could've still been peacefully slumbering in her bed, just as Elster found her.
Elster…didn't quite know why she did that, especially for something that had only been moments ago trying its best to kill her in the most brutal ways imaginable and not.
And yet…Elster remembered moments during that battle when she received inexplicable urges to jump aside, resulting in a diving spear narrowly missing her by centimeters. Moments in which she inexplicably found ammunition that just so happened to fit the weapon she had been using at the time. Moments in which she saw a spear thrown by the demon veer just so slightly off-course and skimming off of her armor rather than impaling into her heart.
Elster could only reflect on this now after the fight was over, but now she wondered if perhaps there had still been a god left in the demon, helping Elster slay that demon along with the god.
It was that thought that made Elster continue her words to the dead with: "It's from Aloy, as I promised. I hope you enjoy it, wherever you are now."
Elster suddenly stiffened as that same godly voice suddenly spoke into her mind again, but so quietly that it was barely even a whisper.
[Aloy…thank…you.]
She stared at the corpse of the demon, wondering if it was really a corpse…but the voice spoke no more after that. The god was silent now, as still as the demon she had become.
Elster sighed, in relief…and in remorse. She raised both hands up, clapped them twice, and bowed to Falke. She had no idea why, but it made her feel…slightly better.
Thus, she limped away from the battlefield, away from that place of death, towards her waiting promise at long last.