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 seeing a new horizon very far from home in a world of primitive tribes and beasts of steel.

8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Trading for a Memory

The Eule from before the corruption of S-23 Sierpinski would never have imagined that she would be relieved to have a holstered pistol back on her belt and around her hip. This is the Eule who has experienced the den of horror that the forced labor colony had become though, and so she was very glad to have her Protektor pistol back, even giving it an affectionate pat through its holster.

"You glad to have your girl back too?" Star asked with a grin as she just as affectionately patted her holstered Einhorn revolver, now back on her hip belt.

"Maybe just a little," Eule admitted with a smile.

As Star chuckled, the older Brave man named Gran nodded at Eule. "A Brave is always glad to have their weapons back after they're taken from them. You never really feel right without a good bow and spear at your side."

"Oh, but I'm not a Brave though," Eule insisted.

Urani snickered at Eule while Gran merely chuckled, making Eule blush in embarrassment. "I know you're not a Nora Brave, but anyone with eyes can tell that you're some tribe's Brave," Gran insisted.

"No use fighting it, Eule," Star said happily as Eule stared at Gran and Urani in disbelief. "You're now officially a recognized combat Replika. Might as well get used to it and bask in the glory."

"Yeah, bask in the glory! You're a Rotfront Brave now!" Äloy insisted with her usual childish enthusiasm.

Eule could only laugh nervously at Star's and Äloy's pronouncement, wondering what happened to being a mere Simple Universal Light Replika. It was only fortunate that Rost didn't decide to join in, and once more insist that her War Bow was suited for her.

Speaking of which though, Eule now realized that Rost hadn't said anything at all when the trial was concluded, and even now when they were free of the court's influence…which Eule now realized was what let Rost speak to non-outcasts at all.

"Yes, Rost is a stubborn one, isn't he?" Teersa noted jovially as she ambled up next to them. "Refuses to break the law now that his permission to speak is over now. You'd have better luck trying to convince a mountain to move."

Eule could only sigh at the truth behind those words. Rost was many things, but he was practically the propaganda poster for "stubbornness" at times.

Indeed, Rost only broke his silence to turn to Äloy and say: "Aloy, come along now. We're going home."

Äloy looked at him in as much surprise as Eule and Star did. "We can't look around with Eu-le and Star?"

Rost shook his head sadly. "We are still outcasts. We were given special dispensation to enter Mother's Heart for a specific purpose, but now that purpose has been fulfilled, and we cannot stay."

"He's right," Sona said as she strode up to them, still with the proud bearing of a Falke. "Outcasts cannot enter Nora settlements, at least, not for long. They certainly can't stay. I have to escort you two out."

Seeing Äloy's look of utter disappointment was making Eule's heart break, so she crouched down to speak to Äloy face to face, and said consolingly: "It's alright, Äloy. We'll head back once we sort everything out here. I'll even try to get you a souvenir to try and make up for this."

"Souvenir? Ahn-den-ken? What's that?" Äloy sniffling a little, but her eyes still bright with curiosity at this new word.

"Usually something tacky you get from a tourist trap," Star jokingly offered, much to Äloy's confusion.

Eule snorted at that explanation before giving a proper one. "It's a…item you give someone or you take home. Something that links it to a memory you have of the place you visited," she explained, before she admitted with a sheepish grin: "Granted, I'm not sure I can find something like that here that would fit, but I will do my best to. So cheer up, yes?"

Äloy stared into Eule's robotic eyes for a moment before giving Eule a hug. "Promise?"

Eule happily returned the hug. "I promise."

When they eventually ended the hug, Äloy ran over to follow Rost, but not before turning around and waving, shouting: "See you later, Eu-le! Star!"

Eule waved back at Äloy along with Star until the little Gestalt girl, her father in all but name, and the War-Chief whose Falke-like face hid a kind heart were both out of sight as they exited through the side entrance to the hall Eule had seen on the way in.

Star sighed. "It's kind of amazing how that kid can just…sneak her way into your heart, isn't it?"

Eule simply nodded and replied with a simple "Yes", unable to think of any more appropriate a response besides that.

"Heh, I could swear to the All-Mother that you both look like young mothers watching their child be separated from them," Teersa happily noted. Before either Eule or Star could protest or even comment on that remark though, Teersa just as happily continued with: "Don't worry, you two. Once you both have your trade passes, and possibly even traded a bit here for that 'souvenir' thing, then you can head back home."

Eule started to nod, and then her cloned brain suddenly caught up with that last word Teersa said. "Home?" Eule asked curiously.

"Yes, indeed," Teersa replied in her usual jovial manner. "Both of you looked so at home in Rost's house when I saw you on those two nights. As though you feel like you belong there, I think. Am I wrong?"

"But…Sierpinski was our home," Eule protested.

"'Was' being the operative term there," Star noted with a chuckle, before her grim smile turned into a depressed look. "Eule, Sierpinski is gone. One way or another. We don't have a home to go back to. So maybe…maybe Rost will let us borrow his? Just for a while?"

Seeing the look on Star's face, like she was about to cry into the dark, but still determined to carry a light of hope in spite of that, made Eule gently pull her lover into a hug. "Don't worry about that, my Star. I'm sure neither Rost nor Äloy would begrudge us that for a while. Especially little Äloy."

Star reached down and gently pulled Eule into her own hug into her bullet-resistant breastplate. "Yeah, silly me. Äloy would never just kick us out, and neither would Rost."

They both held that hug for several long moments, feeling each other's warmth (even with Star's breastplate unfortunately in the way of feeling her wonderful chest) for mutual comfort before they finally broke that hug, and followed a chuckling Teersa out the main entrance of Mother's Heart's hall.

Eule and Star emerged into the bright sun of midday, which was actually a bit blinding after being in a relatively darkened building for so long. Once Eule's mechanical eyes have gotten a chance to adjust to light though, Eule suddenly realized with more than a bit of shock that she and Star had apparently become the source of a great deal of attention.

Surrounding the stage were Nora: a sea of Nora. There had to be at least a hundred Nora of all ages, from young children hopping up and down or being carried on their parents' shoulders to get a better look, to adult men and women staring curiously at Eule and Star, to elderly folks chattering amiably with each other while waiting to see what happened next. From Eule's perspective, it looked like the entire population of Mother's Heart had gathered to see what their High Matriarchs had decided for these strange new outsiders.

Then in the back of the crowd, almost hidden by the Nora, Eule noticed a trio of strange Gestalt men. They were strange to her purely because she'd seen no one but Nora for days, and so had become familiar with their animal skin, leather, cloth, and Machine armor clothing. Thus, those three Gestalts were strange because they were wearing clothing that were decidedly not the Nora fashion. Two of them were wearing what looked like elaborate and very brightly colored cloth clothing with strategically placed Machine parts seemingly for decoration, while the third was wearing what looked like leather clothing studded with dark grey metal not unlike the metal that was used in Rost's pots. That made Eule think the third man was one of these "Oseram" Rost told her about, but she would have to speak to this "Oseram" man first to confirm it.

Right now though, it looked like Eule and Star would be just a bit too busy to do that given how Teersa was beckoning them forward. The Replikas ended up standing next to Teersa onstage, in front of everyone, waiting for Teersa to finally speak.

And speak she did.

"Nora of Mother's Heart, we have some exciting news today!" Teersa announced, her voice loud and clear with cheer and excitement. "These two outsider women who you no doubt have been wondering about for the past few days have been deemed to be good people by a trial of witnesses. As such, we have granted them trade passes, and the right to live here in the Embrace for as long as they hold those trade passes. So please welcome, hmm, EULR-S2324 and STAR-S2325! Henceforth to be known by Eu-le and Star respectively, as per their wishes! May we Nora welcome them into the Embrace as warmly as the All-Mother herself would!"

To her relief, Eule heard plenty of curious chatter, cheers, and even a few whistles; but nothing negative. Or if there was, it was utterly drowned by the well wishes of the gathered Nora crowd.

Well wishes that, Eule now realized, was also coming from behind and above her. A quick glance backwards revealed that even the Nora that had been in the hall had opened the door and were cheering alongside the Nora in the crowd. Eule smiled when another quick glance above showed Teb and his two friends Sal and Feld leaning out the window in the top floor, joining in the cheering, and ended up giving them a wave.

It was a shame that she and Star couldn't talk to Teb and his friends right now. They were still apparently needed to be witnesses, but this time against Teb's fa…no, the awful Gestalt man who didn't deserve to call himself Teb's father. Eule refused to think of Jasp as Teb's father. Not after that revelation in the courtroom. She silently prayed to the Red Eye to watch over Teb, and resolved to find time to speak with him later.

Eule was disturbed from her thoughts by Teersa leaning over to her and Star. "I did say your names correctly, did I? Both your formal names and the names you wish to be called by?" she asked much more quietly in an aside.

Eule smiled brightly at the High Matriarch who'd helped her and Star so much, eager for an interruption to the thoughts that had been gently spiraling downwards over Teb and his situation. "You did!" Eule happily replied.

"Didn't even miss a letter or number to boot!" Star added with her own bright grin.

Teersa returned those smiles with her own. "Excellent! That would've been embarrassing if I had made a mess of your names there, wouldn't I?" Teersa mused genially to herself. "Now though, before you get swamped by curious Nora, let's go get your actual trade passes, shall we? Now where is he…," Teersa trailed off, looking through the crowd of Nora for someone in particular. Eule was about to ask Teersa who she was looking for so that she can Star can help when Teersa suddenly grinned and waved, calling out: "Jan! Could you come up here for a moment?!"

Eule couldn't tell at first who this Jan was that Teersa was calling out to. After a few moments though, it became clear that a particular Nora man was moving through the crowd, with the crowd itself making way for him once they realized that he was trying to get through, resulting in him stepping onto the stage fairly quickly and allowing Eule to get a better look at this Nora man.

Jan turned out to be a tall Gestalt man. He was even taller than Rost by a few centimeters, but whereas Rost was a mountain, this Jan was a willow tree: thin and lanky, with long fingers that looked as though they would be great for playing a piano with, assuming that the Nora even had pianos. And where Rost's hair was a very dark brown that bordered on black, Jan's hair was as blond as ears of wheat. The only similarity there was that Jan wore his hair in braids like Rost did, and even then, it was in a different style and he was clean-shaven compared to Rost's magnificently braided beard.

"Trade pass?" Jan asked. Eule was unsure if he was asking Teersa, her, or Star; so she ended up nodding along with her lover and the High Matriarch. Jan's only response was a nod, followed by a beckoning gesture and a very Rost-like "Follow."

Somehow, Eule felt comforted by the taciturn reply, so reminiscent of Rost.

"Go have fun with Jan and his family while you get that trade pass," Teersa said, before her usual smile soured into a frown. "Meanwhile, I have to tend to the unpleasant task of joining my sisters in that new trial over that being that dares call himself Teb's father."

"My condolences on having to deal with a rotting pile of shit like him," Star said with a nod.

"That would be giving too much credit to the dung. At least that's useful for giving back to the earth. I think Jasp would poison any plants he tries to grow," Teersa quipped, some of her cheer restored to her as she said: "Go with my blessing, Eule and Star, and may you find this…souvenir you promised for Aloy here, whatever it might be," before walking back into the hall to perform her duty.

Thus, Eule and Star ended up following Jan out of the happily chattering crowd, who just as politely made way for them and back down into Mother's Heart. Said crowd now seemed content to just stay put and chat with each other over what just happened, not following Eule and Star at the moment like walking sources of entertainment, for which Eule was grateful for.

All except for a young, black-braided haired and pale-skinned woman and a little blond girl who joined up with them. Fortunately, Eule wasn't too worried over it. Quite the opposite, in fact, given that the little blond girl was none other than Minali.

"So we meet again, Minali," Eule said happily to her.

Minali blushed and partially hid herself behind her mother's leg, but then poked back out to smile shyly at Eule and nod in reply.

"Oh, so you know Minali?" the young woman who was obviously Minali's mother replied in a curious tone.

"Indeed, we do," Eule replied to Minali's mother. "She was a very brave little girl."

"Certainly a lot braver than that Bast kid," Star quipped.

Minali's mother burst out in laughter. "I know, right? Oh, that little troublemaker acts like he so tough and brave, but give him a good scare, and he'll run like he's got Scrappers after him. Probably shouldn't be laughing at a child like that, but well, he's bullied my Minali and several other children enough that I don't feel too bad about it," she commented in a cheerful chatter, before she suddenly thrust her hand out at Eule and Star. "Name's Rana. I've a feeling if you've gotten Minali to open up to you, even just a little, then we'll be friends too."

Eule happily shook that hand, with Star following immediately afterwards.

"I do hope we'll be friends too," Eule said just as cheerfully. "I'm–"

"Ah-ah, wait! I want to try saying it…er…Oh-u-le? Did I get anywhere close?" Rana asked with a sheepish grin.

"It's…close," Eule tried to console.

Rana scoffed. "No need to pull any punches with me. I prefer people tell me when I'm dead wrong rather than tell me a white lie. So, what is your name then? And tell it to me slowly, okay?"

It took Eule pronouncing her name a couple times to Rana, but eventually, she thought Rana got it.

"Eu-le. Eu-le. Heh, and your mate here has such a simple name too: Star. Who gave you such an impossible to pronounce name, Eu-le?" Rana asked curiously.

'The Eusan Nation government,' Eule thought. Out loud, she replied: "It's the name I was born with. My tribe gave it to me."

Rana laughed once more. "Your tribe named you? Well, can't argue with your whole tribe, that's for certain!" she said with another bout of laughter that was quickly becoming an infectious source of cheer for Eule, and for Star as well judging by her own smile.

"So out of curiosity, Rana: is it that obvious that Eule and I are, er, mates?" Star aske with just as much curiosity as Eule herself was feeling.

Rana's initial reply was a grin. "You two are always close by each other, you look into each other's eyes a lot, and you so casually touch each other so much that you're practically connected to each other. The only person who wouldn't guess that you two are mates would have to be blind."

Eule could only give an embarrassed laugh at that. However, she felt a warm glow of happiness bloom within her at the idea that even complete strangers could tell that she and Star were, in the Nora's terminology: mates. Star's goofy grin upon hearing Rana's words instantly told Eule that her lover felt the same.

A short time later, Jan came to a stop at a particular house. It was a perfectly normal 2-story wood and wire house like most of the other houses in Mother's Heart. This one however distinguished itself by having numerous wooden carvings in varying stages of completion sitting on the porch. So much so that Jan had to move a carving of what looked like a half-finished Grazer aside to get through the front door.

"Wait here. I need to look for them," Jan said as he stepped into his house.

Rana rolled her eyes. "I'll go give my cloud-brain of a mate a hand. Watch Minali for a moment for me, okay?" she asked Eule, but she followed Jan right into their house before Eule could even reply.

Thus, Eule and Star were left with a Minali who was curiously staring up at them. Staring very intensely, in fact. In a manner Eule had seen with a few particularly shy Aras.

Eule crouched down to talk to Minali at eye level. "Did you want to talk, Minali?"

Minali instantly opened her mouth, but then snapped it shut again. She opened her mouth again, but it closed just as quickly. This went on for several moments. To Eule, it looked like Minali had so many things she wanted to talk about that she was having trouble picking one to start with. Personally, she found it adorable in a way that was different from Äloy, but it was adorable nonetheless.

"S-So how is that outcast girl?! Is she okay?!" Minali eventually blurted out, before she had a look of realization. "Oh, but are you okay?! Bast threw that rock and hit you, so are you hurt anywhere? He didn't hurt you, did he? Oh, with a rock that big, he probably did."

"Calm down, Minali. It's okay," Eule said in a calm, assuring voice; trying to keep Minali from going into a full-blown panic the way she seemed to be heading. "That rock didn't hurt me at all. I'm perfectly fine. In fact, my back of my uniform only received a scuff from that."

"Really?" Minali asked, looking around to Eule's back to try and spot that very scuff.

Eule nodded. "You can't see it right now, but there isn't even a scratch on my shell, er, my back."

"Yeah, we Replikas are made of tougher stuff than you Gestalts," Star blithely added, having also crouched down so that Minali didn't have to crane her neck up to look at her face…well, less so than when Star was standing, at any rate.

"And Äloy is fine too, since you asked about her," Eule added in after. "She was a little scared afterwards, but she's okay now."

Minali sighed in relief. "That's good. Bast has always been mean, but that was the meanest he's ever been. Throwing a rock at someone. How could he?"

Eule nodded in agreement, but on the inside, she was glad that someone in the Nora tribe expressed concern for Äloy's well-being. Even if this Nora was a child similar in age to Äloy, at least someone acknowledged her existence, even if Äloy herself didn't know it. Eule made a note to remember to mention this to Äloy when she and Star went home.

Alas, that was all the time Minali had before Rana practically slammed the door to her house open, holding aloft a leather bag and cheerfully shouting: "Found it! Now hold out your hands!"

Rana walked up to Eule and Star, who had both done as she told out of reflex, and pulled a pair of somethings out of her bag before slapping them into Eule and Star's outstretched hands.

That something turned out to be an exquisitely carved wooden medallion as Eule examined it more closely. It was the same entwined knot pattern on the chairs and table in the courtroom, dyed in red just like the knots there. This medallion also had a blue-dyed border carved to look like a single intricate knot. Unlike the other patterns though, this medallion's border had a much simpler design, consisting of five arrows of a new design Eule hadn't seen before. Each arrow was double-ended, pointing both outwards and in. Also unlike the other patterns, there appeared to be a triangular point on one side of the medallion, with a hole drilled into it that looked big enough for a thick string to go through.

"That double arrow means you're an outsider who's been allowed into the Sacred Lands," Jan said, making Eule nearly jump out of her biocomponent skin, since she definitely did not hear Jan walk up to them. Looking up at Jan in front of her, Eule watched him pull out a pair of leather strings and give them to her and Star. "You're supposed to wear those trade passes on your neck, but you can put it in your pouch too. Your choice."

Rana slapped herself on her forehead. "I knew I'd forgotten something. To think I went in there to help you, only for you to be helping me!" she said with a laugh.

Jan rubbed the back of his neck. "To be fair, I think I would've taken a while to find those trade passes. Thought I found them, but they turned out to be the unfinished ones. You were the one who remembered that I left them in that chest for safekeeping."

"Aww, honey!" Rana said, embracing Jan in a hug. "Let's just say we both needed help, and split the difference."

Jan blushed but returned the hug. "I can get behind that," he said with a small smile.

Eule could only smile warmly at the scene, and a quick glance at Star and Minali showed that they both had an equally as warm grin on their faces as well.

"Are they always like this?" Eule whispered curiously to Minali.

The little blond Gestalt girl nodded eagerly. "Mommy and daddy love each other a lot."

Eule and Star could both only nod in agreement at that, given how obvious it was and how much they themselves agreed with that lovey-doveyness.

"But to get back to your trade passes," Jan began when he finally broke his lovey-doveyness with his mate. "Please don't lose them."

"Oh, is there a legal penalty for doing so?" Eule asked with worry.

"No, that's not it. It's just that carving and dyeing a new trade pass is a bit…difficult," Jan replied.

"Ohhh, so you're the one who makes these?" Star asked, looking at her new trade pass with even more appreciation.

Jan nodded. "Rana and I are Carvers," he explained curtly.

"That means we carve for a living," Rana continued from where her mate left off. "Mostly wooden items and totems like the ones you see lying around. However, we also carve tools and even arrows, bows, and spears if someone pays us to. We Carvers don't just carve wood; we also carve steel. And since we're on the subject of carving and your new trade passes: out of curiosity, how much are you charging for those Machine parts in your backpacks? I've been meaning to make a new wood chisel," Rana asked, staring appraisingly at the bulging leather sacks.

Eule opened her mouth to answer, and then slowly closed it again when she realized that she and Star had not the slightest clue how to answer that question. They had no idea what this land's currency was other than they seemed to use the shattered Shards of Machine armor as currency. While that was a decent start, it was not nearly enough information for them to determine how many Shards their Watcher parts are worth.

For this conundrum, Eule decided it was best to go with the truth.

"Rana, I can't answer that. Star and I are from somewhere so far away that we have no Machines where we come from. Thus, we don't use Shards as currency, and we have no idea how many shards our Machine parts are worth," Eule explained, before asking: "So may I ask: is there someone here who can explain that information to us?"

Rana rubbed her chin in thought for a few moments. "Honestly, your best bet there is to find a honest merchant to give you that information. But who to ask…?"

"Karst?" Jan suggested.

Rana gave her mate an askew glance. "That shifty guy?" she asked disbelievingly.

Jan shrugged. "He talks shifty, but he's always traded honestly with us and everyone we talk to who's traded with him. He's just…weird, is all."

Rana stroked her chin some more. "Hmm, fair point. Guess you can't judge everyone by their skin and all. Eu-le and Star are evidence of that. I still wish Karst could just stop being so…yeah, 'weird' is the best way I can describe him."

"Umm, who is this Karst?" Eule asked.

"Karst is a merchant we know. He's about your height, has brown hair all done up in braids like mine but tied back in a bunch, and he looks like he's trying to grown out a beard, but it's still at the scraggly stage and I don't think it's ever going to grow out of it. Oh, and he's always smirking like he knows something you don't. It's a little annoying, to be honest," Rana described with a grin.

At seeing Eule's frozen smile though, Rana continued with a quick wave of her hand: "Oh, but he's not so bad. He's always given us fair deals, and everyone else we know say the same. He even goes out of his way to pull through for you if he thinks you're in trouble, and well, given how you and Star don't even have a clue how much your wares are worth, he's probably the best merchant to speak to about that in the Embrace. And you two are in luck: usually, he's out selling his stuff by his house just southeast of Mother's Cradle. However, this time, he's actually here in the village. His shop here is in the northeast corner of Mother's Heart. Seriously, you can't miss him, although since you two are new here–"

"Oh, oh! Can I show them to Karst? Please? Please?" Minali asked, hopping up and down in place in her excitement, and thus causing Eule to giggle and Star to snort at Minali's adorable enthusiasm.

Judging by Rana's laughter, she clearly thought the same. "Alright, dear. Now go and help out our lost outsiders, okay?"

"And don't forget to ask someone if you get lost," Jan added, looking more than a bit worried.

"Okay, I will," Minali replied, waving goodbye to her mother and father before taking Eule by her robotic hand. Eule in turn held out her free hand to Star, who happily took it with a smile. Together, the three of them formed a line being led by their shortest member as they proceeded towards the shop of this Karst person.

Fortunately, it didn't take long for them to reach that shop, with a young Nora man who looked to be in his mid-20's standing in front of it, advertising his wares to anyone walking past. Which meant that he very quickly noticed the trio of Minali, Eule, and Star walking towards him, still holding hands in a line. Indeed, as Eule walked up to him, she could see that this Nora man was exactly as Rana described Karst to be, right down to his scraggly beard and the smirk behind it.

"Welcome to my humble shop, outsiders," the man Eule presumed to be Karst said, still smirking before winking at Minali. "And one very young lady, of course."

Eule looked down to see Minali blush, and then hide behind Eule's leg, peeking out at the man Eule still presumed to be Karst.

Eule smiled down at Minali. It seemed this little Gestalt girl was a far shyer and meeker person than the other little Gestalt girl they knew and loved. "I would assume that this is the Karst we're looking for, Minali?" she asked gently.

Minali looked up at Eule, and nodded with a quiet "Mm-hmm."

"Well, it appears that I need no introduction," Karst said with a laugh. "So what are you two outsiders interested in? A finely crafted Tripcaster? A suit of Protector armor that will ward off blows from humans and Machines alike? Maybe even some travel food for the road? What can I help you two with?"

Eule blinked in surprise at the mention of "Protector armor", but ignored that odd coincidence to focus on what she and Star needed.

"None of those actually. We wish to trade for information," Eule stated.

Karst raised a very interested eyebrow at her. "Oh? Now information…that's not part of my usual wares, but I don't mind trading for that as well…for a price, of course. So what information are you interested in?"

Eule sighed, but nodded anyways before explaining to Karst what she and Star lacked in terms of the economic details of this land.

"I see, I see. That is a big problem for you two indeed," Karst said, stroking his scraggly beard at them. "That will also mean that it's a lot of information I have to give you, and a lot of information means a hefty price…usually. However, the information you're asking for can come from any merchant or even from a merchant friend if you have one, so that lowers the value of that information a bit. Still, considering that any merchant can cheat you on that information at least once to make a…dishonest sale, it's amazing that you're coming to me about this."

Eule tilted her head at Karst in confusion. "Are you openly admitting to trying to cheat me on this information?"

"Got to admit, that's the weirdest way to swindle someone I've ever heard," Star noted with her own smirk.

"Oh, far from it," Karst said with a grin. "I'm just more curious as to why you'd come to me for that information, given how I'm just one merchant of many here in the Embrace?"

"Well, you were recommended by a pair of friendly Carvers," Eule explained, smiling down pointedly at Minali before returning her smile to Karst. "They said that you are…weird, but that you are trustworthy. I hope that trust is not misplaced?"

"Ahhh, Jan and Rana recommended me? Well, call me flattered!" Karst said with a laugh. "Never thought I'd see the day someone would recommend an ex-outcast as a trustworthy merchant!"

Eule blinked in surprise. "You were an outcast?"

"Whoops, didn't mean to say that out loud," Karst said with a palm to his face.

Eule sighed in disappointment at being handed that tidbit of information, only to have it be snatched away.

"Although," Karst said, raising Eule's hopes. "If you want to know that badly, I could tell you…for a price. You know, on top of that other info you need so badly."

Eule just stared at Karst for several moments at the most obvious bait and switch in the worlds before snorting at him. "You sir, are a scoundrel," she said with a giggle.

Karst grinned at her. "Hey, a scoundrel! I like that. Karst the scoundrel merchant. That's got a nice ring to it. Maybe it might even attract some scoundrel customers too?"

"Scoundrels like us?" Star asked, waggling her plastic-laced eyebrows.

Karst burst out laughing. "You, I can see being a scoundrel. Her?" he asked, pointing at Eule for extra emphasis. "Anyone can tell that she's a goody good rules follower. I'm willing to bet that if she was Nora, she'd be the one following every law preserved into writing to the letter, no ifs, ands, or buts."

Eule could only grimace at that. Rules were made to be followed, right? So why did Karst think that following rules was a bad thing…

Then Eule thought about how Karst mentioned that he was once an outcast. That led her to think about how Äloy was made outcast, apparently from birth, despite it being physically impossible for Äloy to have been capable of doing anything to deserve such a punishment. That felt…unfair to Eule. Unfair in a way that made her angry. It made her wonder if she was really cut out to be the sort of person Karst described if she felt this way…and also wonder if that was truly a bad thing.

Eule shook her head to clear those thoughts though. Right now, she had to concentrate on the most important things to trade for. "So what is your price for, well, how prices here work?" she asked Karst.

Karst smirked at her. "Well, taking everything I just said into consideration, I'm willing to offer my services here for the low, low price of…one Shard."

Eule just blinked at Karst for several moments, unable to say anything until she finally managed to get out: "Did you just say…one Shard?"

"That's right," Karst replied.

"Just…one?" Eule clarified even harder, with an increasingly amount of incredulity in her voice.

"What's the catch?" Star asked with a peculiar combination of suspicion and amusement.

"No catch. I'm offering you a fair discount on my end. Honest," Karst insisted.

"A discount for…what?" Eule asked, with curiosity now slowly replacing her incredulity.

"Let's just say you helped out someone I know not once, but twice, and in a big way each time. Call this discount a way for me to repay my debt to you for that," Karst explained with a wink. "So what do you say? Do we have a deal?"

Eule looked into Karst's eyes for several moments, during which time Karst did not look away. After those moments, Eule then smiled with satisfaction at what she saw, and reached back to take off her backpack. Opening up the leather sack on it, she took out exactly one triangular Shard from the pile within, and held it out to Karst.

"One Shard, as promised," Eule said, still with a smile.

Karst returned that smile with a smirk, and took that Shard out of Eule's hand. "Now we have a deal, so let the lessons begin. To start with: this one Shard? That will get you a drink of ale in any Oseram or Carja tavern. An actual meal at a restaurant would probably cost you anywhere from 5-15 Shards, depending on what you're ordering. Usually though, an inn will charge you 15-25 Shards for a meal and bed overnight, plus breakfast in the morning. Any place that charges you more than 15 Shards for a meal alone is either not worth it, or they're trying to scam you hard. Oh, and don't ask me how I know the prices in Oseram and Carja lands. I won't answer even if you ask."

Eule mentally noted those prices down, even while she giggled at Karst's secretiveness over his simply knowing something of these Carja people. Then she became curious and unhooked her War Bow from her backpack. "What about this? How much would this cost if I were to purchase it?"

"Let me see?" Karst asked.

Eule handed it over, and watched as Karst examined every square centimeter of her War Bow, turning it over and over, and making fascinated sounds at it.

"Yeah, this is a well-made War Bow. A very well-made one. Which Crafter made this is good, possibly even the best, or at least in the top three," Karst said, seemingly to himself as much as to Eule, before handing her War Bow back. "A War Bow that good? That would cost you 100 Shards easily, maybe even a bit more. By the All-Mother, I would buy this from you if you're selling."

Eule clutched her War Bow closely to her. "This isn't for sale. I just wanted to know how much it was so that I could repay the person who gave it to me, and you said it was 100 Shards?"

"At least. I'd probably tack on 5-10 Shards myself for the quality alone," Karst said.

Eule replaced her War Bow on the side of her backpack, and opened up her leather sack to more closely count the contents as Star helped and Minali watched curiously. It didn't take her and Star long to realize that killing three Watchers and smashing apart their armor produced a surprisingly large amount of Shards. Eule and Star's count came out to 210. However, if she had handed Rost the amount of Shards her War Bow had been truly worth, it would've eaten up at least half of the Shards in that sack, leaving Eule and Star with considerably less Shards than before.

"Out of curiosity now, how much would this Sharpshot Bow be?" Star asked in almost morbid curiosity.

After a similar examination, Karst handed Star's Sharpshot Bow back to her with the pronouncement of: "200, no, 210 Shards. Sharpshot Bows are harder to make than other bows. You basically need to attach the bow arms into the grip nice and tight, or else the force of the arms being drawn will just tear them off the grip. Thus, those kind of bows are the most expensive kind, and this one especially is really good quality. Almost looks Carja-made, to be honest."

Eule and Star both winced at the combined cost of their bows. That was all of their Shards, plus a major debt. She could now understand why Rost had refused to accept the money for both her and Star's bows. It still didn't make her feel much better about it.

"So out of curiosity, who did you get those bows from?" Karst asked, looking at both Eule and Star.

"Would it get the person in trouble if I told you that person is an outcast?" Eule asked.

Karst stared at her for a moment before bursting out laughing. "You got a War Bow like that from an outcast? And that Sharpshot Bow too? Did he or she steal one?"

"Rost would never steal–" Eule started to say in Rost's defense, only for her to realize too late that in doing so, she accidentally revealed his identity to Karst.

"Ahhh, now I see," Karst said, nodding as Eule grimaced at her own folly. He noticed that though, and continued: "Now, now. No need to panic. There's nothing officially wrong with an outcast speaking with, giving things, or even trading with an outsider. Oh, people here might look down on that, but despite what some might tell you, there's nothing legally wrong with that. I checked with High Matriarch Teersa. Nora law doesn't mention that at all."

Eule sighed in relief as Star gently patted her head in consolation. At least Rost won't get into trouble for her slip of the biocomponent tongue.

"That said though, Rost must really like you two to give bows like these to you," Karst said. "The man's notorious for being reclusive, even for an outcast. I guess saving someone's kid would make anyone warm up to them. Although, the way you leapt to his defense just now…you aren't holding a torch for that guy, do you?"

Eule stared at Karst for a moment before bursting out giggling at the same time Star started laughing.

"No, no, nothing like that!" Eule managed to get out in between giggles. When said giggles finally died down enough for Eule to speak properly. "It's just…Rost has looked after us for all this time, and he didn't have to. I don't care that he's an outcast. He's one of the kindest people we've ever known, Gestalt or Replika, and I won't stand by and let someone accuse him of crimes he didn't commit."

"And even if he did, well, I would still defend him anyways. Even if Rost is a criminal, he's a lot better than most of the criminals I've known in my time as an officer of the law," Star happily admitted, with Eule not sure whether to be relieved or scandalized by a comment like that from her lover.

Karst laughed. "Yeah, I can see that. Rost is one of those types. The types who reaped honor before disgrace, like the old timers say. Those same old timers, by the way, all respect Rost. All of them. I don't know what kind of honor he reaped before his disgrace, but it must've been an entire field of grain before he became an outcast."

"So you don't know why Rost is an outcast either?" Eule asked with disappointment.

Karst shook his head. "It was way before my time. I was just a kid back then. At that age, the only things I cared about was finding the prettiest stones and bugs to trade with my friends for their stuff."

"A ready-made merchant, eh?" Star teased.

"I'll happily admit to that," Karst said with a smirk. "But back to your question, er…Ou-leh? Was that what Teersa said?" Eule had to repeat her name a few times before Karst was satisfied. "Okay, Eu-le–what a name to have–but anyways, the only things I know about why Rost is an outcast is second and even third-hand stuff."

"So how much do I have to pay for that information?" Eule asked with a wry smile.

"Nothing. This information is so vague that I wouldn't trust it coming out of my own lips," Karst replied with his customary smirk, before continuing in a more serious tone: "Rumor has it, something bad happened outside the Embrace. Something really bad. So bad that no one will talk about it. All I know is that soon after, Sona challenged the old War-Chief for her job, and as you can see, she won it. Sona managed to convince more of us to run in the Proving, and so now we have more Braves than ever before. Why? Don't know. I guess at the very least, the Sacred Lands outside the Embrace is a lot safer now, but that's all I know."

Even though it was indeed very vague, Eule tucked that information away regardless. This "something bad" might very well be related to Rost, but by the Red Eye, she couldn't see how. Thus, it was something to file away for now to focus on more immediate things.

"What about these backpacks? How much are they?" Eule asked with a Star-like mixture of morbid curiosity.

Karst barely gave the backpacks a glance before he rattled off: "20 Shards each. Well-made backpacks like that aren't exactly cheap, but they're nowhere near as expensive as a good bow."

Eule grimaced along with Star. The combined cost of their bows and backpacks would completely deplete their sack of Shards, while leaving them with a major debt on top of that. Eule resolved to herself that no matter what, she would hand back nearly the entire contents of her Shard bad to pay back for the things Rost had given them.

"Now out of my curiosity, what's with the glum face? What, did the merchant who sold you those backpacks make you pay twice their value?" Karst asked in an amused yet pitying tone.

Eule sighed. "If only it was that simple."

Eule then proceeded to explain the situation to Karst.

"And you wonder why I said you were a rules follower," Karst said in a half-mocking tone that irked Eule. "Look, if I was you, I'd just take the backpacks and bows plus their quivers and arrows, which by the way, would cost 5 Shards for the quiver and 2 Shards per arrow, just to add to your tally," Karst said with a wink that made Eule and Star both wince anew. "Rost gave them to you anyways, right? Might as well just take the offer and go with it."

Eule shook her head. She just couldn't. It went against her very being to accept gifts, for lack of a better word, as expensive as these without repaying Rost in some way.

"Yup, goody good rules follower to the core," Karst said happily, before his smirk softened into something kinder. "Look, you got another bag of Shards with Star anyways, right? So I guess you won't be completely broke even if you take leave of your senses, in my opinion at any rate, and decide to pay Rost back for your stuff."

"Actually, these are full of Watcher parts that are apparently not Shard-able," Star explained. "Don't know how much that's all worth, and it might take a while to convert these into Shards, so it's not immediately useful…what's with that face?"

"That face" was Karst grimacing, followed by his palm meeting his face once more.

"Okay, can you open that up and let me see what you got?" Karst asked. When Star complied, Karst looked into it for several moments before reaching in and taking out a small bundle of black Machine muscle wire. "Okay, see this? Rost knew what he was doing. This is a 10-shard bundle of Machine muscle. An individual wire of Machine muscle is barely worth anything, but bundles like these are valuable. We merchants like to buy and sell in bulk, you see, and so bulk materials like these are as valuable to us as Shards. In fact, most merchants will trade bulk materials for stuff worth their equal value in Shards. So all these bundles of Machine muscle? You might as well count them as piles of 10 Shards each. Same thing for all these other Machine parts. Let me give you some figures for them."

As Karst rattled off Shard values for each type of Watcher part to Star and Eule, Eule couldn't help but be fascinated by the currency system of this land. It was almost like barter in some ways, but with an agreed upon value in currency.

Moreover, the use of Shards of Machine armor as currency itself was fascinating. It wasn't like Rationmarks, in which the value of the currency was backed by the Eusan Nation, and the Rationmarks themselves were just bits of cheap metals like copper that originated from ration coupons the Nation issued during the initial Revolution to conserve limited food supplies. Rather, the value of Shards was backed by its value as arrowheads to be used for hunting and war. Eule recalled the term "commodity money" as the most accurate way to describe this form of currency, but she never thought she would be using a currency like this in real life.

"Oh hey, this isn't a Watcher part," Star suddenly said as she pulled out a–

"Wait, that's…the Strider's Blaze canister that Äloy shot off?" Eule said uncertainly. When Star handed her the canister–still filled with yellow-green Blaze sloshing around in it–and examined it, she saw the shallow dent in the side of the translucent plastic she'd noted the first time she held it. "It is! But…what is it doing in here?"

"You think Rost put it in by…mistake?" Star asked in a tone that indicated she found even her own suggestion too ridiculous to believe.

Eule snorted in disbelief at that suggestion before she stared at the Blaze canister with a storm of emotions swirling within her. "I think…Rost was just preparing us for the worst. Karst, how much would this Blaze canister be in Shards?" she asked the decidedly strange but helpful Nora merchant.

"Let me feel it?" Karst asked. When Eule handed the canister over, he hefted it carefully, obviously feeling for its weight. "Judging by how much Blaze is in here…I'd say it's about 80-90 Shards worth for that alone. The canister though is also in really good condition. Barely nicked, really. Someone will definitely pay a lot for this. Machine canisters in good condition are always useful for something. Altogether, this canister plus its Blaze is worth about 200 Shards."

As Star whistled at the value, Eule could only sigh. "Rost definitely left us that on purpose. If we had been exiled in the trial, I've no doubt that Blaze canister would've been very useful to us. Although, come to think of it: is Blaze really that valuable? If I'm calculating the prices correctly, Blaze is worth roughly 20 Shards per liter? Really?" Eule asked curiously.

"I know, right? You'd think with Blaze being everywhere, it'd be pretty cheap. But the thing is? Everyone uses Blaze all the time. So despite it being in high supply, the high demand means that you can always sell Blaze for a decent pile of Shards," Karst explained, before he gained a calculating look in his eye. "In fact, I can hand over 200 Shards for this right now. Saves you a bit of weight in there, and your Shard sack will feel a lot fuller."

Eule and Star looked at each other.

"Is it really alright for us to sell it for Shards, over?" Eule asked her lover over radio.

"Well, look at it this way: we can pay Rost back a lot easier with just straight up Rationmarks, er, Shards, than by lugging the thing back. Besides, he was probably going to sell it anyways, so we might be doing his work for him and saving him an errand, over," Star pointed out also via radio.

"Hmm, I suppose. I do want to pay him back though, over," Eule insisted.

"So do I. He's done a lot for us. Hopefully, getting our Shards' worth out of these Machine parts will help out with that, over," Star said with a smile.

Eule smiled back. "I do believe it will, love. Out."

When Eule turned back to Karst, who was giving her and her lover a peculiar look at their silent conversation, she simply smiled at him and said: "Yes, I do believe we'll take those Shards. And hopefully, we can sell off some of our other Machine parts for more of the same?"

"We've got a deal," Karst said with his usual smirk before putting the Blaze canister in among his store's wares, and returning with a large chest in tow.

Literally, because Karst was dragging the container behind him with a grunt. He undid the knot of blue Machine wire keeping said chest closed, opened it, revealing more Shards than Eule's sack could ever hold. He counted out 200 Shards with Eule, Star, and even Minali watching (with the little blond Gestalt girl counting the Shards under her breath too), and then poured them all into Eule's Shard sack.

"There you go. 200 Shards exactly as we agreed on. Now, let's see what else is in your sack of Machine parts, shall we?" Karst said as he looked into Star's sack, before he noticed the pair of rounded packages wrapped in soft leather, and muttered: "Oh, hello. What do we have here?"

Eule already had an idea that they were the Watcher lenses even before Karst opened up the package to reveal the rounded glass lens rimmed with metal and packed in bundles of what looked like dried grass in lieu of the packing peanuts or bubble wrap Eule was more familiar with.

"Ah, now this…this is valuable," Karst said as he picked up and examined the Watcher lens with the utmost delicacy, making certain he kept both hands on it at all times. "You'd think with Watchers everywhere, Watcher lenses would be cheaper than dirt, but it's just so easy for a careless hunter to just break the lens during the fight, or for the Watcher to fall the wrong way and break its own lens, or even for a hunter who doesn't know how to butcher a Machine to just scratch it while prying it out. Every break or scratch in the lens lowers its value, so a pristine lens like this? With not a scratch on it? It's worth at least 100 Shards."

Star whistled as Karst very carefully replaced the pristine Watcher lens into its bundle and just as very carefully rewrapped it in its leather sack. "What do you Nora use these for that they're worth so much?" she asked.

"Eyeglasses," Karst replied, making both Star and Eule blink at him in surprise. "Some of our tribe suffers from bad eyesight. A good Carver can carve a pair of eyeglasses for them out of pristine Watcher lenses and some wood for the frame like this one. Even if there aren't any Nora in need of eyeglasses, Carja, Oseram, and Banuk can all have people with the same problem. Merchants from all those tribes will pay handsomely for them. In fact, I can take it off your hands right now for, say, 100 Shards? 100 more if the other lens is also pristine."

Eule and Star looked at each other for a brief moment, and then nodded before turning back to Karst.

"You have a deal," Eule and Star said at the same time, prompting giggles from the both of them, and even giggles from Minali, who'd up until this moment had just been content to watch quietly.

Indeed, the other Watcher lens was just as pristine, and Eule and Star watched as Karst counted out another 200 Shards and added them to their Shard sack. It certainly added considerably to the sack's weight, but it was a weight Eule was more than willing to bear, since it meant that not only did it look like they could pay back Rost for everything he had given them, but they'd have extra funds to do some shopping as well.

"So what are these things?" Star asked as she lifted up a small cylindrical piece of machinery out of her Watcher parts sack. Her lover's question intrigued Eule as well since she couldn't identify that bit of machinery either if her life depended on it.

"Huh, Machine cores," Karst said in an almost off-hand manner, before seeing the confused expressions on Eule and Star's faces and quickly explaining: "Best as we can tell: they're the Machines' brains. We always find them deep in their heads, so they must be their brains, right? Unfortunately, no practical use for them as far as I can tell, but you might want to hold on to them for the Carja. Carja love those things, and they will pay handsomely for any intact Machine cores. Best as I can tell, they use them to make jewelry out of."

"Ah, so just like the Machine hearts?" Eule asked, remembering Rost's comments about that Strider heart.

Karst nodded. "Just like those. Speaking of which, Carja will pay handsomely for intact hearts as well. Just don't expect them to pay all that much for Watcher hearts though. Watcher hearts are a lot more durable than lenses, and so there's a lot more of them around. Supply outstrips demand a little, you see. 100 Shards is probably the best deal you can expect, but you might have to accept a bit less than that too. I've seen them go for as little as 20 Shards when hunters bring in too many of them."

Eule sighed, but the economics was what it was. Not even a Falke could make prices change on a whim.

"Well, that covers my end of the deal. Thank you for the economics lesson, and have a wonderful day," Karst said with a smirk and a wink this time. "Now perhaps you might want to spend some of your hard-earned wealth on some of my wares?"

Now that they didn't have to worry about their Shard supply as much, Eule did indeed give Karst's shop a browsing. True to his earlier words, Karst mainly sold weapons, armor, ammunition, and other assorted hunting equipment and supplies. There were bulk Machine parts stacked in crates too, but neither Eule nor Star were interested in those. They were here to sell their Machine parts, not buy more of them.

Eule eventually hefted something that looked like a large slingshot. The two black bands of Machine muscle connecting the sling part to the Y-shaped handles were certainly stretchy enough to work perfectly fine as a slingshot, and the metal handguard crafted from some Machine part looked like it would perfectly protect the user's hand if the sling rebounded.

"Ooh, good choice," Minali said when Eule examined the slingshot.

"Oh? Are you the merchant now?" Eule teased.

"No," Minali replied, blushing and looking down at her feet. But then she peeked up at Eule and said: "But mommy and daddy made it, so…"

"Huh, you can tell, kid?" Star asked curiously.

Minali nodded up at Star. "The way each string is made of a whole bunch of Machine meat braided together? That's mommy. The way the sling part there is a piece of boar fur tied with Machine wire? That's daddy."

"Huh, interesting that you noticed those tiny details," Eule commented, now looking more closely at said details Minali mentioned. "You must like what your mother and father do."

Minali nodded enthusiastically, hopping in place as she did so in her excitement. "I do! They make some really pretty things, so I want to be a Carver too!"

Star laughed, gently patting Minali on the head. "Kid, you're going to be a really good Ara one of these days, from the sounds of it."

Eule smiled, both at her lover's affection and at the confused look Minali gave Star at the mention of that particular Replika model, before continuing to examine the slingshot. "Do you think Äloy would like this?" Eule asked her lover.

"Well, I certainly would, so the kid probably will too," Star commented with a grin. "She'll probably love slinging rocks at rabbits, birds, and things like that."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! That's not a toy," Karst quickly said, prompting Eule and Star to look at him in confusion, while Minali in turn looked at Eule and Star in confusion, which in turn prompted him to explain: "That's a Blast Sling. You don't have Slings where you're from?"

"You mean this slingshot?" Eule asked in further confusion. "I thought there were just children's toys."

"Your people use Slings as toys?" Karst asked in disbelief. "Must be a dangerous place over there in your tribe. We Nora and every other tribe we know use Slings as weapons. That Blast Sling, for example? We use them to fire Blast Bombs, like this one."

Karst lifted a wooden lid off a container that, unlike all the other containers, was made of Machine armor tied together with blue wire rather than wood, and carefully pulled out two things. One looked like a cylindrical Machine part, but with a bit of electric blue-ringed metal sticking out of one end. The other looked like a spherical clay jar, but still with what was obvious a small Sparker sticking out of the jar's opening.

"Both of these are Blast Bombs. This one here is made from a Metal Vessel taken from a Machine." Karst lifted the cylindrical Blast Bomb, before he held up the spherical one. "And this one is made from a clay vessel. No matter what it's made of though, a well-made Blast Bomb will go 'Boom'."

"Uh, wait, hold on. By 'Blast Bomb', you mean these things actually explode? Really?" Star asked with increasing amounts of incredulity.

"Really," Karst said with a nod and an even smirkier smirk than usual. "If you don't believe me, then I can show you…outside Mother's Heart. Where hopefully no one will get caught in the blast, but not so far out that we attract Machines. I may be a merchant, but I'm no fool."

---

A few minutes later, a curious Eule, a still incredulous Star, and even little Minali stood partially behind a boulder and watched as Karst stood in a clearing just outside Mother's Heart, holding a Blast Sling. He took one of the spherical clay Blast Bombs, placed it in the sling, stretched his Blast Sling arm out, and pulled the sling back with his free hand, stretching the black bands past his shoulder–

"There's no way–" Star started to say.

But whatever Star was about to say was interrupted by Karst releasing his hold on the sling, sending the Blast Bomb flying, and immediately stepping behind the boulder with everyone else.

Eule tracked the Blast Bomb with her mechanical eyes, watching the now-tiny Blast Bomb fly upwards in a long arc before reaching its peak, and descending back to the ground. When it finally returned to the earth though, the Blast Bomb erupted with a flash of light and a thunderous CRACK.

Eule instinctively ducked back behind the boulder, covering Minali at the same time. She heard the sound of something small shattering on the boulder sheltering them. When she peeked back out, the ground where the Blast Bomb hit was now marked with a shallow, blackened crater. In addition, a peek at the boulder revealed a small star-shaped dirt pattern that definitely wasn't there before, and was likely the result of a bit of high velocity clay fragment shattering on the boulder, returning to the dust from which the clay came. That made Eule mentally thank Karst and Star for the both of them insisting on using the boulder as a shelter in case of that very scenario.

"See? Blast Bombs go 'Boom'," Karst said to Eule and Star, still smirking that smirkier version of his usual smirk. "Now do you want me to demonstrate the other one, or–"

"No, no, I believe you," Star said quickly, apparently trying to dissuade Karst from making more "Booms". "I believe you, but it's just…Red Eye, you Nora have grenades? How? What are you even using as the filler? What's making it explode on impact? It's got to be some kind of impact fuse, but how?"

Karst waved his hands, apparently overwhelmed by the deluge of questions Star was throwing his way. "Whoa, whoa, slow down! Let me explain…wait, hold on, what's a 'filler'?"

"The explosive charge, er, the stuff on the inside of a grenade that makes it explode," Star explained.

"Blaze," Karst simply replied. "Just Blaze. A lot of it packed into those little containers, but still just Blaze."

"Blaze. The green stuff that you use as fuel? The green stuff from those Striders? Really?" Star asked, still just as incredulous as before.

"Oh, Rost mentioned that to me last night when I was making dinner," Eule added, making her lover turn her incredulous gaze on her now. "Rost told me not to put too much Blaze on the cooking fire, or else it could explode. I just followed his instructions to avoid that, and then forgot it afterwards."

"Yeah, Blaze can do that if you set too much of it on fire," Karst added in his own bit. "Fortunately, Blaze that's just sitting in a puddle in the open doesn't do that. You normally have to pack Blaze tightly into a small container for it to explode, but you occasionally hear of a few idiots who really pour on the Blaze into a campfire, and they get a much bigger fire a lot faster than what they were expecting."

"Okay, that's a little terrifying, but understandable," Star noted. "And the impact fuse is…I assume that Sparker plugged in it?"

Karst nodded up at her. "Blast Bomb hits something, knocks around the Sparker and makes it spark, and then boom."

"Now that's one hell of an impact fuse. Don't know whether to be impressed or terrified," Star noted. "So out of curiosity, what's the safety on these things?" Seeing Karst's confusion though, she quickly explained: "Uh, the thing that keeps the Blast Bombs from blowing up when you don't want it to?"

"Ah, so long-term storage of Blast Bombs. Why didn't you say so in the first place?" Karst asked with his customary smirk. "Just pull out the Sparker, then plug the hole with some dried grass, clay plug, cloth, or anything that will fit in nice and tight, and now you have a…well, Blast Bombs are never safe, but it's as safe as you can make it. Just don't drop the clay ones from too high. They shatter easily."

"Hmm, okay, that works as a safety. An improvised safety, true, but still functional," Star noted with a satisfied nod.

"So, are you interested?" Karst asked with a mercantile gleam in his eyes.

"Red Eye watching, I am now," Star said with a chuckle. "Honestly, I wish I had a few of these grenades, no, these Blast Bombs back in Sierpinski. Would've made room-clearing a lot easier."

Eule had a sudden image of Star quickly sliding open one of S-23 Sierpinski's distinctive security doors a crack, tossing in a Blast Bomb, and then just as quickly slamming the door shut again. A muffled crack later, she would open the door back up, and they would both peek in to see what used to be a room full of their corrupted sisters now nothing but the shredded remains of mutated biocomponents and unnaturally black oxidant-splattered mechanical limbs. Eule wasn't entirely certain if Blast Bombs were powerful enough to do that, but given that explosion and the crater it made, it probably wasn't far off from reality.

Honestly, as gruesome as that image was, Eule couldn't deny just how effective it would've been. Effective enough that the desire to possess one of these Blast Bombs was now growing within her as well.

"I think…perhaps I will purchase one of these Blast Bombs as well?" Eule said. "Along with one of these Blast Slings."

"Oh? The song of the Blast Bombs got you in their grips too?" Star teased.

"A little," Eule admitted with a giggle, before she looked to Karst. "How much do they cost?"

Karst rubbed his hands together in glee, which did not look like a good thing to Eule. "200 Shards for the Blast Sling, almost the same as your Star's Sharpshot Bow. As for each Blast Bomb, well, that depends on which ones you're getting. The clay ones costs only 20 Shards each, but the ones made with Metal Vessels cost 35 Shards. Clay ones are cheaper and easier to make, but Metal Vessels are safer and do more damage."

Eule grimaced at the prices. That would wipe out a good portion of the Shards they just made, even just to have a single Blast Bomb for both her and Star.

"Tell you what though, since I'm feeling nice, I'll give you a 50% discount on that Blast Sling, so that it's 100 Shards, one-time only" Karst suddenly said with a winkier wink than usual. "I'll give you both the first Blast Bomb free, just so you're not left with an empty weapon now. I'll even be nice and give you both Metal Vessel ones, just on the safe side."

Eule blinked in surprise at him. "Really? That's very kind of you."

"And the opposite of profitable, considering that you're basically handing us 170 Shards worth of wares," Star noted with a wondering look.

Karst shrugged. "Call it me further repaying my debt to you. The merchanting lesson was just the first part. Plus, I am getting back 100 Shards, so it's not a complete loss."

"True, but…honestly, this person we helped must be very important to you. May I ask who he or she is?" Eule asked curiously.

"Want to know that badly? I'll tell you that, but for a price," Karst said with a grin instead of his usual wink.

"That's a weird thing to be secretive about," Star noted with a puzzled yet intrigued look.

"Well, we all have our secrets," Karst said with an askew look at Eule and up at Star. "I'll bet you two have plenty of secrets you wouldn't want anyone knowing. For that matter, I'll bet the kid here has some secrets of her own."

Eule ended up giving Karst a polite smile to hide how uncomfortably close the rather odd merchant had come to those very secrets. A glance over at Star revealed that her lover was feeling similarly uncomfortable, but wasn't even bothering to hide it on her face.

But when Eule looked down at Minali to see what her reaction was, the shy little Gestalt girl was merely staring up at Karst.

"What? Did I hurt your feelings, kid?" Karst asked offhandedly.

"Mommy and daddy were right. You're actually nice," Minali commented to Karst's face. As Karst gaped at the small child in front of him, Minali then smiled at him. "But mommy was right too. You are weird. But a nice kind of weird."

Eule immediately started giggling at Karst sputtering at Minali's honest words, with Star joining in on the giggling at the same time while Minali herself merely looked at them both in confusion.

"Well, whatever!" Karst yelled as he threw his hands up and looked to Eule and Star, who were both trying to suppress their giggling…unsuccessfully. "Do we have a deal or not? If we do, then you know where to find me. I'll just be nursing my wounded pride," he said as he left in a huff.

A huff that just made Eule lose control again, and continue with her rampant giggling along with her lover amidst a still-confused Minali.

---

A few minutes later still, Eule now had a brand new Blast Sling clipped to the free side of her backpack opposite her War Bow. Along with a just as brand new pouch clipped onto her belt, alongside her ammo pouches. Unlike those pouches made of Eusan Nation canvas though, this pouch was much larger and was made of Nora leather. It currently had a single metal Blast Bomb occupying its interior, with room for…two more, judging by the amount of empty space left in that pouch.

As for her lover, Star also had a brand new Nora leather pouch clipped with her ammo pouches, now storing her brand new Blast Bomb, which Star gently patted in an almost loving fashion. That bit made Eule giggle at her lover's love of weapons of war. She knew it was something all Star units shared, but it never failed to amuse her each and every time she saw it.

Eule had some decidedly mixed feelings about this. On one hand, she had a new weapon that she felt would be very useful to her. On the other hand though, she was very definitely flouting the Rule of Six by this point. A part of her was still afraid people would give her stern looks for flagrantly flaunting her overuse of resources like this. Seeing how none of the Nora cared in the slightest about the number of items Eule was carrying was the only thing keeping her from just shoving her things into her backpack until she had six items/containers again.

Honestly, Eule was wondering just how it was that her lover was handling her own Rule of Six violation so easily? So casually? As if that all-important rule that was drilled into the head of every Eusan Nation citizen for as long as they can remember didn't matter to her?

"Hmm, I wouldn't say that it doesn't matter to me," Star replied with a thoughtful scratching of her chin shell when Eule asked her about it. "It's more like…I can stop thinking about it more easily since we kind of need to break the Rule of Six right now? That is, when someone doesn't remind me of it." Star grinned and waggled her plastic-laced eyebrows at Eule for emphasis.

"Fair enough there," Eule said in the midst of giggling, both at Star's exaggerated expressions and a bit in self-deprecation at her own worry over what even her lover was insisting was something silly.

"Wait, let me get this straight: your tribe has a rule that you can't carry more than six things at once?" Karst asked, disbelief practically dripping out of his voice. When both Eule and Star nodded, he scratched his head and asked: "Just…why?"

"So as to save resources that would otherwise be needed for our Nation's, er, tribe's war against the remnants of our enemy: the Eusan Empire," Eule explained, repeated almost verbatim from those very first lessons that older Eule sister had taught her and the rest of her batch of Eules almost immediately after they emerged from their growing tanks in that Fabrikationwart G Replike-Werke back in Rotfront.

"Hmm, if your tribe is in a war with another tribe, then that kind of makes sense now. Kind of," Karst half-way admitted, but still with a confounded look on his face. "But even then, being limited to just six items is silly. What, do your Braves just go around with a bow, a quiver, and four arrows in it at all times?"

"Not exactly. Items placed in a container don't count towards the Rule of Six; only the container does. For example: my quiver only counts as a single item no matter how many arrows are in it, just as my ammunition pouches being the same no matter how many bullets are in the ammunition box in that pouch," Eule explained, before she thought of something. "There's actually a song we sang on Rotfront to help us remember that.

Eule took a breath before singing:

"Six... Six...Remember Rule of Six...

Six songs in your ears, Six in your pocket, Six coins in your wallet, Six flowers for our troops, Six brings a smile, Six quells your fears...

Six in your Heart, Six in your Mind, Six in your Body, Six in your Soul, Six when you Dream, and Six while you Wake...

Always Six...Six…Six…Six…Six…

Six as you're Born, Six as you Grow, Six as you Play, Six as you Learn, Six as you Work, Six as you Die...

Keep and uphold, Rule of Six."

"Wow," Minali breathed. "You have really nice singing, Eu-le."

Eule ended up blushing at the compliment and laughing in embarrassment.

"Yes, yes, nice singing voice and all," Karst said with a disturbed look on his face that worried Eule anew. "But that song…honestly, that's the creepiest thing I've ever heard."

Eule rubbed the shell on the back of her neck as she thought about it. "Admittedly, it is meant to be so in parts. That aspect of the song was to help people remember it and the Rule of Six."

"Well, it certainly worked for me," Karst noted in a most sarcastic tone, before continuing: "Creepy song aside, I still think that Rule of Six is silly, but it's a bit better with the whole container thing. I still can't imagine any Nora wanting to go along with that. Who'd want to have the headache of trying to manage their inventory like that when you can just carry whatever you want as needed?"

Eule opened her mouth to protest, but like with every criticism directed against the Rule of Six, she found that she couldn't think of any reasonable counterargument to it…because there wasn't any.

Karst then pointed at Eule's pouches. "Not to mention that you yourself are carrying, let's see…one, two, three, four, five, six, seven–"

"Yes, yes, I noticed. Please don't remind me," Eule practically begged.

Karst shrugged while smirking a very smirky smirk, but he mercifully kept silent.

To further distract herself from thinking about that, Eule browsed some more of Karst's wares. However, nothing he had was really anything she was looking for. None of them felt like they were anything even close to good souvenirs for Äloy. Even Star agreed that the weapons, armor, and assorted hunting supplies felt right.

"You know, maybe instead of slowly looking through my wares all by yourself, you might ask the very knowledgeable merchant who's selling those wares if he's got what you're looking for?" Karst asked with a wink.

Eule scoffed, but told Karst about her and Star's quest for an Äloy-appropriate souvenir to make up for her not being able to explore Mother's Heart.

"Hmm, yeah, that is a problem," Karst replied with a very thoughtful scratching of his scraggly beard. "I don't sell anything like what you're looking for. I sell practical things. Useful things. At least, to a hunter. Kid's toys and such aren't in my line of business."

Eule sighed in disappointment along with her lover.

"However, I do know some merchants who might have what you're looking for," Karst continued. At seeing Eule's and Star's brightening faces, he pointed up at where the hall is. "The Carja trade mission…and the Oseram too, to be fair, but especially the Carja. They always have some exotic thingy from their lands and beyond for sale, so that might work for Alo–er, as that souvenir you mention. Just head up to where the hall is, and then go across a bridge to a big two-story lodge. That's the trade mission building. It's got a big red and gold banner of their Sundom next to it. You can't miss it. It shines as much as the Sun they worship."

"Can't even say Äloy's name, eh?" Star asked with a raised eyebrow and a snark in her voice.

"Hey, I'm just an honest law-abiding merchant. Can't blame me for what the law says," Karst insisted with both hands raised in such a look of complete innocence that even Eule could tell looked fake even if she didn't have a Eule's body language-reading ability.

"Weren't you the one making fun of me for being, what did you call me…a 'goody good rules follower'? Doesn't that make you just like me then?" Eule asked, directing a mischievous smile at the 'honest law-abiding merchant'.

"Hey, hey, big difference between you and me," Karst insisted. "You look like you follow rules just because someone big and important made them. Meanwhile, I follow rules because I don't like being punished for breaking them. Subtle, but big."

"And if you encountered a rule you know is wrong and there's no punishment for breaking it?" Star asked curiously.

"Well, let's just say that if there's any Shards in it for me, there's not an awful lot I won't do," Karst replied with an enigmatic wink.

Eule sighed. "You, Karst, are a very weird Gestalt man indeed," she mentioned, but then she smiled broadly at him. "But as Minali pointed out, you are a very nice man indeed."

"But you just seem to not want to seem like it for some weird reason," Star finished for Eule, also smiling broadly at Karst.

Karst scoffed. "Whatever you want to believe, Eu-le and Star. Whatever you both want to believe." He then made shooing motions at the Replikas. "Go on, have fun with the outsider trade missions and let me get back to counting my Shards."

Eule sighed but still gave Karst a heartfelt smile and bow. "Thank you for everything then, Herr Karst. I hope you have a lovely day."

"That's not just counting the closest things you Nora have to coins," Star added with a cheeky grin.

Karst merely waved them off as Eule, Star, and Minali walked off towards this trade mission place.

As they were walking away though, Eule just barely managed to catch the tail end of Karst singing: "Six…Six…Remember Rule of–" before Karst suddenly stopped and groaned, half-shouting: "Damn it! Why am I singing that creepy little song now?!"

Eule ended up giggling at that while also sympathizing with him. The "Always Remember the Rule of Six" song was indeed a very catchy song. There was a reason why it was literally the very first song she and her batch of Eules learned from their older Eule teacher.

"So I take it that you're leading us to the trade mission too?" Star asked down at the little blond Gestalt girl walking ahead of her and Eule.

Minali merely nodded back at them with a happy smile on her face.

Part of Eule wanted to mention that because of her and Star's Mapping Modules, they now knew perfectly well where to go to get to the trade mission, but Minali looked so happy leading them around that she didn't bear to mention it.

---

It wasn't long at all before Minali had led Eule and Star to the summit of Mother's Heart where the hall laid. Just as Karst described, the trade mission lodge was across a small bridge and indeed, had a very brightly colored banner sitting on top of a bronze pole planted in front of the lodge building. It was hanging from the flagpole at the moment, but then a gust of wind lifted it up for a moment, allowing Eule to see the banner in all its flory.

Said banner had a field as bright a red as the red stripe on the Eusan Nation's flag. It even had a gold-colored emblem adorning the middle of the flag, but that was where the similarities ended. Where the Eusan Nation flag had a hammer, compass, and the familiar triple white stars surrounded by a garland of rye, this Carja banner had a golden circle that enclosed a peculiar six-sided star shape. The reason why the star was peculiar was because it was made up of elongated hexagons enclosing dots, with lines going through them all. The effect made the entire star look like the circuit boards she'd seen when her friend Ara Elf had been taking apart computers for repair. It was altogether a most peculiar emblem for a flag, but Eule supposed that the Carja had just as much reason for that emblem as the Eusan Nation did for their flag.

However, it wasn't that red and gold banner that was the only thing notable about the trade mission lodge. There was a wooden Nora-style chair that was placed in front of the lodge, and upon that chair sat the dark metal-studded leather-clad bearded man Eule had seen before and presumed to be an Oseram man. Now that she was getting closer, Eule noticed three things about him:

1. The presumably-Oseram man had a beard so utterly massive that it dwarfed even Rost's braided beard. However, it was also so unkempt that Eule couldn't even see the man's mouth. Eule did not think this was entirely sanitary.

2. The presumably-Oseram man's right leg was very noticeably a prosthesis. It appeared to be composed of a peg leg with a spring wrapped around it and was itself affixed to a cylindrical piece of dark grey metal attached at the end of the peg leg. Attached to that cylindrical piece of metal though was a thick strip of dark grey metal shaped into an L-shape, in which the bottom part of the "L" formed the man's foot. It wasn't at all like a Replika's mechanical leg and foot, but the vaguely bird-like shape of the man's prosthesis made Eule see why Teersa had made the comparison.

3. There was an incredibly massive boar lying on its side just in front of the presumably-Oseram man's chair, with the man resting his legs on it like some sort of living cushion. Judging by the lack of tusks, this was a female, but that still didn't explain why the man had a boar that was apparently content to be the man's foot cushion.

The presumably-Oseram man himself was relaxing in the chair, reading from sheets of slightly yellowed paper that looks suspiciously like a newspaper to Eule even from this distance.

Upon hearing the heavy sounds of Replika footsteps on the bridge though, Eule first watched the massive sow boar perk her ears up and raise her head, looking at them and grunting loudly. The presumably-Oseram man then snapped up to look at them, and then watched his gaze lower…not to her and Star's chests fortunately, but to their legs. Which carried its own worries admittedly, but at least it wasn't that kind of worry.

Fortunately, the presumably-Oseram man didn't seem frightened as he stood up on both his original leg and his prosthesis, bouncing a bit on that false leg, and put his presumably-newspaper on the chair he'd been occupying, patting the boar on the head and saying "There, there" to her, making the boar lower its head back to the ground and apparently return to her slumber.

Instead, he looked more fascinated as Eule, Star, and Minali walked up to him; playing with his long dark brown beard as he looked up at Star…and Eule, to her surprise. This presumably-Oseram man was shorter than even Eule by at least…10 cm, judging by how the top of the man's head didn't even reach the line across the middle of Eule's face. And yet, the man was also so incredibly broad. It made him resemble a concrete block in human form.

"Well, you all are the oddest group of customers I've ever had walk up to me," the presumably-Oseram man said, still stroking his beard. Before Eule could reply to that though, he continued: "But a customer's a customer." He then held out a hand that was a shade of brown darker than Erika Itoh's hand had been. "Name's Torvund. Torvund Delversson. Travelling merchant extraordinaire, and the best purveyor of the finest of Oseram goods here in the Sacred Lands of the Nora. Probably the only one, to be honest. And this," he said, pointing at the massive sow boar behind him. "Is Bora: my travel-boar."

The sow boar, upon hearing her name, raised her head again, peering curiously at Torvund and then even more curiously at Eule and Star, loudly snuffling the air as though trying to take in the Replikas' scents. Which Eule had no doubt that said scents must smell incredibly strange to Bora.

Eule had to hold back the giggles at how punny the boar's name was. She was puzzled, amused, and curious at that boar and by Torvund calling her a "travel-boar", but she held all that back for the moment to politely take that offered hand and shake it with her black robotic one. "My name is EULR-S2324, but you can call me Eule."

"My name's STAR-S2325, but Star is probably a lot easier for you to remember, so call me that," Star said when Torvund shook her head after he was finished shaking Eule's.

When Minali didn't say anything, merely hiding behind Eule's legs and peeking out at Torvund, Eule added: "And this little one here is Minali. She's showing us around until we have our bearings."

"Hmm, mighty strange names you've got there. Mighty strange hands too, and mighty strange legs while I'm at it," Torvund noted as he released Star's hand, so intently focused on that hand that he looked like he didn't even hear Eule's secondhand introduction of Minali. "I thought you two were wearing gloves at first. Didn't feel like it though. Too stiff, and the surface is too firmly attached despite the thinness of the material. Felt more like…Machine skin over Machine muscle? Hah! Now that's a strange comparison now, isn't it? What, did you slay some Machine and stick its arms and hands on you or something?" he laughed.

Eule and even Star could only laugh weakly in response to that.

"Wait, you really did?" Torvund said in disbelief, before he grinned and laughed. "Now that is a story I would pay Shards to hear! Unless I'm completely wrong about my assumptions?"

"You're not entirely correct, but…," Eule began.

"But you're not entirely wrong either," Star finished for Eule.

"Playing the vague game, I see," Torvund said in a low deadpan, but with a spark in his eyes that looked very much to Eule of amusement. "Well, if you're not here to trade stories, then perhaps you might be interested in trading for some fine Oseram wares?"

Before Eule or Star could reply though, they were all interrupted by the leftmost door of the trade mission lodge banging open, following by a man popping out of that door and shouting with a noticeable lack of anger: "Torvund, you rogue! You're already trying to win over the customers without me?!"

"Like they'd be interested in overpriced Carja stuff, Rashaman!" Torvund shouted back, but with a similar lack of anger.

"Hah! I won't lie! They may be expensive, but I would swear on the Sun that it's all worth it!" Rashaman deflected with a laugh as he strode over.

Rashaman was as different from Torvund as, well, day from night. Rashaman was tall, taller than Eule by a good 5 cm, and thus the top of Torvund's head barely even reached Rashaman's chin. Where Torvund had skin the color of rich earth, Rashaman had skin that was an almost dead match for the light brown skin Erika Itou had. Even their hair and eyes were different, with Torvund having almost-Replika-blue eyes peeking out from his bushy dark brown eyebrows, while Rashaman had hair as black as any Replika's framing eyes the color of very dark chocolate. Indeed, the only thing they shared between them were their fairly young ages. Eule would've guessed that neither of them were much older than 20.

But most different of all were their respective clothes.

Unlike the Nora, Torvund wore clothes made from actual cloth for the most part. He wore a white cloth shirt–sleeveless but for a pair of leather shoulder guards covered in smooth dark grey metal shaped to the shoulder guards–with hose made of much thicker brown cloth that looked as sturdy as Ara work uniforms. One leg of his hose was rolled up to the knee to apparently keep it clear of his prosthetic leg. The other was covered up to the knee by an enormous leather boot that looked as though one could travel an entire planet with it.

To complete that odd ensemble, Torvund wore a leather cap on his head studded with more dark grey metal plates, with a currently rolled up flap that looked like it could be pulled down to protect his face. While Eule couldn't see from this angle, she wouldn't be surprised if that flap too was covered in that dark grey metal that was so obviously shaped in a forge and not simply carved from a Machine.

Even more unlike the Nora though, Rashaman wore a long sleeved shirt and billowy hose that looked completely at odds with Torvund or the Nora. For one thing: both were dyed a brilliantly bright shade of blue the color of a clear sky at noon. His boots below his hose were of knee-length dark brown leather like Torvund's, but featured a more…elegant design to it that didn't make it seem any less sturdy. Those very boots though was outshone by the rest of his clothes. Once Eule looked past that blue though, she noticed that he was wearing a white undershirt underneath that blue shirt that looked like it was made of strips of bundled cloth tied together into an intricate knot to form an undershirt. Over the midsection of the blue shirt was a wide strip of cloth dyed a bright crimson the color of blood, while around his neck hung a magnificent scarf that looked as though it was spun out of gold. The only indication that it wasn't were the intricate circuit board-like patterns sewn into the gold in threads of crimson.

Finally, to complete his colorful look, Rashaman wore a headband as bright red as his midsection cloth, but with Machine parts sewn and clipped into it in an almost Nora-like fashion. The only difference was that these Machine parts formed a helmet-like look around his head and cheeks, making it look both functional and…aesthetically pleasing? Yes, that was the only phrase Eule could describe it as. As though those Machine parts were chosen as much for their looks as for their defensive value.

Night and day. Again, that's what Torvund and Rashaman looked like when they were standing next to each other. Rashaman's brilliant grin only added to Eule's impression of his sunny attitude as he reached out with a hand to Eule.

"Rashaman's the name! Merchant, sellsword, and wandering adventurer all in one! Though I usually prefer the first, mind you. It's a lot easier in many, many ways to earn Shards trading fabulous wares than it is to fight for them," Rashaman added, with his grin turning a bit sheepish towards the end there.

Eule smiled at him and his honesty. "That, I can't agree with you more," she commented.

Introductions from the Replikas were made once more, with Rashaman also replicating Torvund's handshaking with Eule and Star as well.

"Fascinating names you both have there," Rashaman noted with an intrigued rubbing of his very smooth chin. "I've not heard names of that kind anywhere in my travels, or even in any of our records. Neither your full names nor the name you prefer to be called by, to be honest. Oh, but your name is fine, little Minali. I was merely talking about the ones you were leading to us," he said with a grin and a thumbs-up, making Minali blush and hide even further behind Eule's leg, only peeking out to give Rashaman a shy smile.

Eule however, sighed in disappointment. That was yet another hope dashed that anyone here might've heard of the Eusan Nation, or indeed that they might meet another Replika in this land.

"Well, that doesn't matter to me, and I don't think it matters to Torvund either," Rashaman said, breaking Eule out of her depression, along with her lover laying a comforting hand on her shoulder helping to do the same, as well Minali gently patting her upper knee. It helped Eule look up at Rashaman to see a bright and friendly grin on his face. "What you look like or what your name is doesn't really matter to a true merchant. So long as you've got Shards or something to trade, then we can do business. Come then, my shop is inside–"

"Hey, hold it right there, mister!" Torvund said with a raised finger. "These are my customers! They talked to me first, so I get to sell to them first!"

"Hah! The only reason why they talked to you first is because you sit there in front of the trade mission all day just to intercept any potential customers!" Rashaman countered.

"That's because I take my trading seriously! Not like you Carja and your 'Oh, I'm so fancy that I can't stand to do an honest day's work to make Shards' attitude!" Torvund mocked, complete with a high-pitched falsetto for his imaginary Carja voice.

"You call sitting on a chair reading the Meridian Times an 'honest day's work'? Hah!" Rashaman laughed. "I'll bet your boar does more work than you do, and all she does is sleep there all day!"

"Uh," Eule tried to interject.

"You take that back!" Torvund shot back in an outraged tone. "Bora works very hard carrying my loads and is a very good guard boar on top of that!"

"Guard-boar? Whoever heard of a guard-boar?!" Rashaman returned fire in an equally as outraged tone. "What in the name of the Sun is a guard-boar supposed to be guarding from? Machines? The smallest kind perhaps, and only if it's in a half-dead state? Thieves? She doesn't look like she'd harm a fly, much less a robber! And what happened to you calling her a, what did you call her, a 'travel-boar'?"

"Um," Eule again tried to interject.

"She can be both a travel-boar and a guard-boar! It will catch on! Someday, everyone will be using boars to pull their carts and protect their wares!" Torvund insisted.

"…That's possibly the most deluded plan you can think of," Rashaman pointed out.

"Excuse me," Eule attempted to interject…again.

"Yeah?! You think of a better plan, you stuck-up Carja!" Torvund yelled.

"I don't care to think of a better plan than the one everyone is already using, you foolish Oseram!" Rashaman yelled back.

Eule continued to try to get in a word edgewise as Torvund and Rashaman continued to bicker with each other. At the very least, to try to get them to cease their bickering. Alas though, the Oseram man and his Carja counterpart were far too busy to pay attention to a mere Eule.

Then Star laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. Eule turned and looked up at her lover, who grinned and gave her a thumbs-up in reply, mouthing "I got this" at her.

A curious Eule then watched as her lover stepped forward until she was right next to the still bickering Torvund and Rashaman. Star then held out both of her black robotic hands out to their full length, spread them both out, and then brought them back together in an almighty CLAP.

As it turned out, the sound of a pair of Replika hands clapping at full speed was incredibly loud. The sound was almost identical to a Gestalt's clap at first due to the meeting of plastic skin-covered artificial muscle meeting each other. However, the sound gained a very noticeable metallic quality to it that caused it to turn into something akin to a pair of cymbals being crashed together very hard, thanks to the carbon steel bones underneath the artificial muscle.

Two things happened simultaneously:

1. Torvund and Rashaman instantly ceased arguing and turned to look at Star: the source of the interruption, with a mix of surprise and just a bit of fear.

2. Torvund's boar Bora just as instantly leapt up, squealing in panic, and ran off behind the trade mission lodge. But not very far, as Eule saw Bora's furry snout peek out from behind the edge of the lodge, with one orange eye staring suspiciously at Star.

"Okay, break it up you two!" Star belted out in her best officer of the law voice, amidst Eule's giggles. "We're here to shop, and we can browse both of your wares at the same time! So no arguing with each other over who gets to be browsed first, got it?!"

"Yes, ma'am," Torvund and Rashaman both said simultaneously, with both of them saying that in a voice that was filled with a combination of meekness and admonished shame.

"Oh my, is everything alright out there? I heard something loud?" asked a male voice politely as the owner of that voice opened the side door and a glasses-framed face peeked out.

"Oh, milord! You're just in time! We've got customers at last, and by the Sun, are they some very interesting ones!" Rashaman called out.

"Customers? Really? Oh, how delightful!" the spectacled man said in excitement as he dashed out the door with the enthusiasm of a child, and quickly made his way to them.

That gave Eule time to examine the spectacled man as he did so. Of course, the man's glasses was his most noticeable feature. While Eule wasn't entirely certain if the circular lenses for his glasses were carved from Watcher lenses, but the bronze wire rim surrounding and connecting those two lenses were most definitely made in a forge and not just carved from Machine parts, suggesting that these Carja (assuming that this man was a Carja) is fairly technologically advanced.

Aside from that though, this spectacled man had skin as pale as a Replika's, with hair as black as one as well. Even his eyes were as blue as Eule's and Star's eyes, with the only difference being that his pupils were Gestalt black rather than Replika red. His clean-shaven face spoke of a young man even younger than Rashaman, but his bright eyes spoke of an even younger soul inhabiting that body. A feeling that was only enhanced by how thin the man was combined with his clean-shaven appearance.

His clothes consisted of a long-sleeved white shirt with red highlights, paired with a pair of billowy hose of luxurious looking purple fabric and small pointed shoes of dark brown leather that didn't appear to look entirely suited for rough travel. Over his shirt, he wore a bright red waistcoat that was completely adorned in golden patterns that, again, resembled the surface of a circuit board. The waistcoat was open in the middle, with a pair of Machine armor pieces shaped like hexagons connected by a pair of bronze-colored ropes acting as a fastener for that waistcoat.

Finally, the spectacled man wore a most impressive hat on his head. It was essentially a cap made of some rich purple fabric, and decorated with a trio of elongated Machine armor plates on top, a pair of looped coils of bronze metal above his temples fashioned to look like rope, and an additional pair of Machine armor plates in the back that resembled a small pair of wings.

All in all, it was the most pretty elaborate outfit Eule had ever seen anyone wear in this land thus far, and yet it was not so elaborate as to be overwhelming. Eule would probably call it "tastefully complex", and combined with Rashaman addressing him as "milord", it made Eule wonder what was going on with him.

Fortunately, the spectacled man seemed quite friendly as he looked both of them over curiously. His curiosity then slowly turned to excitement as he looked up and down at the Replikas, with Eule noticing that, like with Torvund and Rashaman, he was focused on her and Star's bird-like legs most of all.

"Oh, oh my! Oh my, my, my! What have we here?!" the spectacled man fairly squeaked in his excitement. "What a curious pair of individuals to find in the Nora Sacred Lands, especially here in the heart of the Nora faithful! Such interesting legs you have! They can't be prosthetics, can they? No, no, no! These are far too complex, and too perfectly fitted to you to merely be Machine limbs crudely fixed to you! No, clearly, someone made these for you! And your arms appear to be the same, and…oh my! Your eyes!"

The spectacled man suddenly walked up very close to Eule to look deep into her eyes. Eule immediately retreated at this sudden invasion of her personal space, with Minali retreating right with her, clutching her right leg all the while, but the spectacled man doggedly followed, seemingly intent on a close examination of Eule's ocular modules.

"Fascinating!" the spectacled man breathed. "Even your eyes appear to be artificial! No eyes of flesh and blood would produce that red light in your pupils! Oh, what a marvelous piece of craftsmanship you have in your eyes! You must tell me who designed them for you–"

Before Eule could ask the spectacled man to please allow her personal space and before an irritated Star could pull him away, Rashaman gently took the spectacled man by the torso, and gently pulled him back.

"Lord Bashid? Would you please remember that people need personal space, and that crowding in on them is impolite?" Rashaman politely asked in the tones of someone reminding a child of their manners.

"Lord Bashid's" eyes widened in shock, as if he only just realized that just now with Rashaman's reminder.

"Oh, by the Sun! I'm so sorry! Your clearly artificial limbs and eyes were just so interesting that I…oh, that's no excuse!" Bashid lowered his head to Eule in a distinct bow. It wasn't quite as deep as a Eusan Nation's bow of apology, but Eule figured it was more due to cultural differences than a lack of sincerity. "I, Bashid Ashir Ruwadin, in the name of House Ashir Ruwadin, offer my most sincere apologies for my most impolite gestures borne out of my thoughtlessness."

"House?" both Eule and Star asked in surprise at the same time.

"Oh, my apologies. Does your tribe not have nobility or aristocracy like the Nora? Or really, any tribe outside the Carja?" Bashid asked, before his eyes widened in realization. "Oh, forgive me again if you don't know what they are. See–"

"No, that's alright. We accept your apology, and we do know what nobility are," Eule quickly stated.

"Mostly because we Replikas rebelled against a nobility who were keeping us as their 'Machine-Servants'. Guess even they didn't like calling slaves for what we were," Star noted with some very dark humor, and (Eule noticed) staring very pointedly at Bashid.

Who, as Eule also noticed, looked quite concerned.

"Oh dear," Bashid said in a depressed tone. "I take it then that your tribe suffers from the same evil the Sundom is afflicted with?"

"The Sundom?" Eule asked, getting a sinking feeling where this was leading to.

"Oh, that's the formal name of my nation: the Carja Sundom," Bashid explained.

"So you Carja practice slavery?" Star asked in a way that was almost nonchalant if not for the anger in her voice.

"Unfortunately, yes," Bashid replied with a sigh, looking down at his feet as though trying to find an answer from them despite how unlikely that was. "It began under the 12th Sun-King Hivas: our previous Sun-King–"

"Also known as Hivas the Twilit," Rashaman quipped, sounding jovial on the surface, but Eule could tell there were troubled thoughts underneath his outward cheer.

"Officially, he was Hivas the Militant," Bashid corrected with an uncomfortable expression on his face that made Eule wonder if she looked like that whenever Star openly criticizing the Great Revolutionary and her Daughter, even in this land. "During his 7-year reign, he greatly expanded the Army of the Sun, ordering that every able-bodied man join their ranks, and ordering every one of our craftsmen and artisans to make armor and weapons to equip that army. The problem though was that there were not enough craftsmen or artisans, and with every able-bodied man in the army, there was no one to grow and harvest food for them. So Hivas–"

"Turned to slave labor to make that materiel, and grow and harvest that food?" Star asked with a cold anger that Eule hadn't heard in her lover's voice before.

Bashid nodded, still with that miserable expression on his face. "It began with criminals, both great and small, and then moved on to people who couldn't pay their debts. I've heard even a few foreigners who cause trouble are taken as slaves too." He sighed. "Honestly, what with our current Sun-King Jiran continuing that system of slavery, I don't think it will stop anytime soon. No matter how many Carja speak out against it."

"Your Sun-King allows you to speak against his rule?" Eule asked, both horrified by Bashid's admitting that his people are doing the same thing the Eusan Empire did to her people, but also morbidly curious as to his implication that his ruler allows dissent against said ruler's wishes.

"Yes. The Sun-King's power is absolute…but at least we can make our wishes heard without fear," Bashid said with a bittersweet expression on his face. "For all the good it does. My House has been arguing against that very slavery for decades now, but neither Hivas nor Jiran hears us, and certainly not the Houses who use that slavery to further their own profits. My House isn't alone in believing in what we call 'abolitionism' fortunately…but sometimes, I think we might as well be."

Rashaman laid a hand on Bashid's shoulder. "You're not, milord. People do hear you and your House. It's just that we need more time to listen to your voices and the voices of those who agree with you," he consoled.

Eule looked at Star with a sad look, who looked back at her at the same time with a guilty one.

"Star, I don't think he's to blame for his people's evils. Just…look at him, over," Eule broadcasted, her voice even through radio static sounding just as miserable as she looked.

"…I hate to say it, love, but…yeah, it doesn't matter that he's a noble. I can't blame this guy for what the Carja are doing and feel good about it, out," Star broadcasted back with a nod of determination.

A nod which was returned by Eule as she walked over to Bashid, and gently patted him on the shoulder that wasn't occupied by Rashaman's hand. Even Star walked over to lay her hand on top of Eule's. However, such was Bashid's misery that he didn't even notice, even when Minali reached out from behind Eule's leg and patted him on his stomach: the easiest part of him she could reach.

"It's okay, Herr Bashid. You can't be expected to shoulder the blame for the entirety of your people. Not by anyone reasonable," Eule consoled.

"Yeah, if we did that for the Eusan Nation, we'd be here all day, and probably all year, to be honest," Star quipped.

It was only upon hearing those words that Bashid looked up at Eule and Star, and finally seemed to notice them. "But, we–"

"No buts. I've already had this kind of talk with Star, and I don't wish to do that again for someone who's more or less a stranger," Eule quipped of her own.

Bashid stared into Eule's robotic eyes for several moments before nodding. "Thank you, Miss…oh, by the Sun, I'd completely forgotten to ask you both your names! Er…would you please kindly tell me your names? Err…please?"

Eule had to hold back her giggles at how oddly adorable Bashid was. Again, as though he were an adult man with a child's enthusiasm and even innocence to him. She managed to hold back her giggles during her introduction to Bashid, and amazingly, so did Star when it came time for her introduction.

"Hmm, what peculiar names you have, er, Eu-le and Star? Fascinating," Bashid said, his misery having been pushed aside by his curiosity. "And a series of letters and numbers as your full names? How strange as well."

"That's what I said," Torvund said with a nod.

"No, that's what we both said," Rashaman corrected.

"No, you said–" Torvund cut himself off as he thought about what Bashid and Rashaman said, instead of blindly reacting to it as he was about to. Torvund then crossed his arms, huffed, and said in a surly tone: "Fine, you win, Carja. This time. Now can we talk some business?"

"Oh, yes! You were all here to browse through our wares!" Bashid said as he face-palmed. "I'm so sorry for taking up your time like this. Here, inside now. The Carja, and er, Oseram too, trade mission awaits!" he announced as he made his way to the door he emerged from, stopping only to open it for everyone else before entering the lodge, and ignoring or perhaps simply not noticing Torvund's boar sniffing him as he did so.

As Eule, Star, and Minali followed Bashid though; Torvund spoke up with: "Wait, the kid wants to browse too?"

Minali immediately dashed around to the other side of Eule's leg to hide from Torvund, only peeking out at the Oseram merchant.

"Oh, come now, Torvund. If she wants to take a look at our wares, then there's no harm in letting her," Rashaman gently insisted.

Torvund's response was to throw up his leather gloved hands. "Oh, fine, whatever. So long as I hopefully get some Shards out of this."

Thus, with only a curious sniffing from Bora as everyone walked past her, Eule and Star finally entered the Carja/Oseram trade mission.

---

Upon entering the lodge, Eule could see that the ground floor of the building was essentially one large room. One half of the room was filled with an array of leather and dark grey metal armor, weapons of such unusual make that Eule didn't know what to make of them, furniture, appliances, and assorted gadgets that defied explanation. The other half of the room was filled with sacks of colorful powders, shelves full of produce, and even some beautiful bronze tableware from the looks of them.

The contrast between the two halves were so extreme that Eule had to keep herself from giggling outright at it. It was as though someone had jammed a grocery store and a sporting goods store together into the same room. Really, the only thing that didn't appear to belong to one side or the other was the fireplace at the end of the lodge. Judging by the Oseram and Carja cookware next to it, it was essentially shared property.

There was also a ladder going up a second floor, but Eule figured that led to the merchants' living quarters, and thus was not part of the store. It was the same in many Rotfront stores, so Eule guessed this was the case here.

"Indeed, that's correct," Rashaman said when Eule asked him about the ladder and the room above. "Nothing for sale up there unless you want to purchase our beddings, and I'm afraid we'll have to decline you on that. Sleeping on bare wooden floor is a bit rough, you see."

Eule and Star both snorted in laughter at that.

"Fair enough there," Eule said with a grin, before the browsing began in earnest.

Eule found herself being drawn towards the grocery store half of the trade mission, especially the produce. On display were pumpkins of numerous varieties (including mottled green pumpkins that looked very much like kabochas, much to Eule's excitement), numerous ears of corn with multi-colored red, black, and yellow kernels that looked very different from the all-yellow corn of the Eusan Nation, green pear-shaped fruit with rough mottled skin, and–

"Ginger!" Eule cried out in delight as she examined the fat, light brown roots there were unmistakably that blessed spicy herb that was so important to Eusan Nation cuisine.

"Ah, so your tribe is familiar with ginger?" Rashaman asked curiously.

"You could say that," Star replied with a mischievous chuckle.

"Ginger is used in most dishes in our tribe: the Eusan Nation. Even some sweet dishes use them, and indeed, ginger is sometimes even eaten by itself in pickled or candied form as side dishes and dessert respectively," Eule more than happily explained.

"Hmm, pickled and candied ginger? I've never heard of any dishes like those before, either in Carja or Nora cuisine," Rashaman said, eyes bright with curiosity and (Eule suspected) mercantile spirit. "Do you suppose we could work out a trade for recipes? If you know them, that is?"

Eule cocked her head curiously at the Carja merchant. "Oh? Are you a cook too?"

Rashaman grinned. "Too? Truly, I'm astounded that I would meet a fellow outlander cook in Nora Sacred Lands, and from so far outland too!" he laughed, before his look turned curious. "Honestly though? This is the first time I've heard of this Eusan Nation of yours, and I've spoken with adventurers who journeyed far to the east, far past even the Old World ruins that the Nora call Devil's Grief. Where is this Eusan Nation in respect to Nora lands?"

"Probably nowhere near here. Not unless you have a place where the Red Eye watches us in the sky," Star said as she examined an ear of multi-colored corn.

"Your tribe has a 'red eye' watching you in the sky?" Rashaman repeated in an even more curious tone. "Honestly, I've never heard of such a thing."

"Me neither, I'm afraid," Bashid agreed with a saddened nod.

"This is news to me too, and every Oseram I know," Torvund chipped in.

Eule sighed at not getting any answers about where her home is relative to this land, but she already had a sinking suspicion anyways that it was very far indeed.

"In any case, maybe instead, we might be able to discuss the price of this ginger?" Eule asked in an effort to change the subject.

An effort that looked like it was working, if Rashaman's grin returning was any indicator. "Now that, I can do, courtesy of our scale here," he said, pointing to the empty set of scales in question sitting on a desk that looked to be the closest thing here to a checkout counter. "As you can see: empty and perfectly level. Let it not be known that Rashaman and milord Bashid are cheating scoundrels."

"I should hope not!" Bashid said with an outraged tone in his voice.

"I'm joking, milord! I'm joking!" Rashaman laughed, much to Bashid's satisfaction. "All joking aside, let's see how much that ginger root weighs then, shall we?"

Eule happily complied, placing the ginger root she'd selected, large compared with the others and stronger and more flavorful, on the scale. A few weights on the other side of the scale later, Rashaman nodded in satisfaction. "Alright, that will be 5 Shards."

Eule tilted her head curiously. "5 Shards just for a single ginger root?" she asked curiously.

"Ginger is a valuable spice, after all," Rashaman insisted. "And fresh ginger like this takes some care and time to transport. It takes a while for someone to pull a cartload of it all the way east from Meridian to Daytower, and then finally further east and then south through Nora Sacred Lands before it gets here to the Embrace."

Eule had no real understanding of where those locations were in relation to each other, which only made it impossible to tell if this was a fair price for this ginger root. She did have an idea on how to make it just a bit cheaper though, especially since she planned on buying a fairly large quantity of ginger anyways. She selected five smaller roots, less flavorful but tender, and placed them on top of the large one.

"I assume that these six pieces of ginger would normally be worth 15 Shards judging by how much that large root is, am I correct?" Eule asked.

A quick adding of weights to the other end of the scale later, and Rashaman nodded. "That would be correct."

Eule smiled brightly at the Carja merchant. "Well then, may I suggest then that we lower the price down to, say, 12 Shards? I plan on purchasing a fair amount of ginger anyways, and you would still be making quite a sum of Shards from that deal."

"Hah! Buying in bulk to get a discount? I like your style!" Rashaman laughed, before his usual grin returned. "But at that kind of a discount? Hmm…I'll go down to 14 Shards for that kind of a bulk sale."

"Oh? If you're willing to lower the price, then perhaps just once more down to 13 Shards? Surely, you would be making a profit from that?" Eule asked in an almost innocent way, if not for the too-innocent blinks she gave Rashaman.

Rashaman laughed once more. "Surely, I would! 13 Shards it is then, Eu-le!"

A moment later, Eule was now down 13 Shards, but had gained a large leather bag ("Included with every purchase," Rashaman said) full of ginger, tied with a string of Machine muscle wire. This, she tied to her belt with another bit of Machine muscle. She immediately stopped herself before she conducted her usual counting of her pouches. She really did not want to think about the Rule of Six, and how much she surely must be violating it.

"Hey Eule, what do you say about us getting some of these chili powder for Rost as a thank-you gift, over?" Star asked over radio, looking at the giant sacks of red and yellow powder that were surely the powdered chili Rost and even little Äloy loved so much.

Eule smiled brightly at her lover. "I say that's a wonderful idea. He did seem to be running a bit low on chili powder when I last saw it. I'm sure he would appreciate us helping to refill it, out."

Out loud, Eule asked Rashaman: "How much are those chili powders, assuming that they are? And what is the difference between the different colors, if any?"

"Ah, those are indeed chili powders, and there is also indeed a major difference between them depending on the color," Rashaman replied, before pointing at the red chili powder. "That is chili powder made from dried and crushed cliffside redthorn peppers: found in the deserts of the Forbidden West and then grown in the Royal Maizelands and by various nobles' farmsteads. This is the most potently spicy chili, to the point where I've heard that the Tenakth even train their warriors by eating them whole. I don't know if that's true or not, but given how spicy these chili peppers are, there's probably a grain of truth in there somewhere."

Rashaman then pointed at the yellow chili powder. "That is the chili powder of the jungle goldthorn peppers. We discovered these in the Jewel, and have cultivated it ever since. It's much less spicy than the redthorn, and has a sweet taste to it that redthorn doesn't have. It's a popular spice for those with sensitive palates."

"Save for those who're allergic to it," Torvund piped up.

"Ah yes, that," Rashaman said sheepishly, before explaining to a concerned Eule: "One of the first people to eat a goldthorn: an Oseram ealdorman–the name of their chiefs–suffered a violent allergic reaction to it that nearly killed him. For a while because of that, most people here thought that goldthorns were poisonous, and it took some time before everyone realized that it was just a case of very bad luck on that ealdorman's part."

Eule nodded at that. Severe allergic reactions were no joke, and why back in Sierpinski, Februar had taken note of every allergy their Gestalt prisoners had in order to make absolutely certain that they didn't eat something they would regret, and had distributed that information to every Eule working the kitchens. It may have been a small thing to those prisoners, but it was something the Eule cooks, including herself, took very seriously.

A part of Eule wanted to ask Rashaman about the various things he mentioned: the Royal Maizelands, the Jewel, the ominously named Forbidden West, and even these Tenakth people. However, she would probably be here all day if she did. So she settled on the essentials.

"How much would a large leather bag full of redthorn chili powder cost?" Eule asked.

"20 Shards," Rashaman rattled out without even bothering to weigh it. Both Eule and Star stared at him in response to that absurdly high price, which was already the price of a whole backpack. Rashaman shrugged in response to their stares. "Spices are expensive. It's why spices are such a valuable commodity to us merchants, aside from their light weight and ease of transport."

Eule and Star looked at each other for a moment before sighing at each other.

"Any chance we can negotiate for a lower price of say, 15 Shards, since we are buying in a bit of bulk?" Eule asked hopefully.

It took a bit more haggling, but in the end, Eule managed to negotiate the price down to 18 Shards for a large bag of the redthorn chili powder to tie onto her belt next to the ginger. Even then, she felt like Rashaman still managed to get the better end of that deal.

Now that Eule felt like she had enough spices, she looked over the Carja side of the trade mission, but couldn't find anything that would fit as a souvenir. She was fairly certain that Äloy would be disappointed if Eule brought her nothing but vegetables as gifts, and a quick radio consultation with Star revealed that her lover thought the same thing.

"You two seem to be looking for something in particular? Any chance I may be of help here?" Rashaman asked in a way both friendly and curious. When Eule and Star explained their quest to find a souvenir for a little girl to Rashaman, he rubbed his chin in contemplation.

"I take it you don't mean young Minali there, correct?" Bashid asked, and when he received a negative from Eule, Star, and even Minali alike; he continued: "Hmm…honestly, we don't sell anything like children's toys here, I'm afraid."

"Although…," Rashaman said, still pondering until he had a look of realization. "I got it. Hold here for a moment."

Rashaman quickly dashed over to the far end of the trade mission lodge, near the fireplace blazing merrily away. He then took something out of a basket and placed it on a table next to said fireplace, took a knife and made a trio of cuts, before dashing back to Eule, Star, and Minali; holding something out and asking: "Try these, and tell me what you think?"

Eule ended up being handed what looked like a triangular slice of dense, yellow bread flecked with red and bluish-black along with Star and Minali. Aside from its unusual color, the bread also had a shiny glaze on its crust that gave off the rich, sweet smell of honey. Not only that, but the honey was thickly coated with a combination of sunflower seeds and the small black dots of what were very clearly poppy seeds.

"Oh, you have poppy seeds here?" Eule practically squealed in delight.

"I take it that's what your tribe calls hintergold seeds?" Rashaman asked.

"Hintergold, eh? Heh, honestly, it does sound prettier than poppy," Eule said before taking a bite of the honey and seed-covered bread, finally joining Star and Minali, who were both making appreciative sounds as they chewed.

And now that she was chewing the bread for herself, Eule could understand why they were making such sounds. As it turned out, the bread had a dense, grainy texture which–combined with its inherent sweetness adding to the honey–almost gave Eule the impression of eating a Rotfront sachertorte, albeit minus the chocolate and apricot jam. The rich flavors of the sunflower seeds and poppy, no, hintergold seeds only added to the deliciousness of the cornbread, which Eule realized after some chewing that there was another spice mixed into the bread itself that enhanced the taste of everything in a very familiar manner.

"This is delicious!" Eule pronounced. "And there's some other spice in the bread…cinnamon?"

Rashaman's pleasure at hearing that was so pronounced that he might as well be holding up a giant sign declaring that he had baked this wonderful cornbread, even before he took a bow and said proudly: "Thank you, Eu-le! It's always good for a cook to hear his work complimented, especially by a fellow cook. Although, what is this 'cinnamon' that you speak of? Or was that 'zimt'? I would swear to the Sun that you somehow said both at the same time."

"Technically, I did," Eule said, pointing at her Focus, still attached to her right temple as it had been the entire day. "This device is called a Focus, and it's translating our speech to you, and your speech to ours. Otherwise, Star and I would be speaking in gibberish to you, and unfortunately, your speech would be gibberish to us as well."

"Wait, that's what those things do?!" Torvund asked in shock. When Eule nodded at him, he snapped his fingers in frustration. "By the forge, if I'd known that's what those Focus devices did, I would've sold them at much higher prices than I did!"

Eule laughed nervously at Torvund's fuming before turning back to Rashaman. "But yes, as for cinnamon, it's a spice derived from crushing the inner bark of a particular species of tree. It has a…earthy and bitter taste when on its own, but when added to other foods, it enhances sweet tastes."

"Thus giving us tasty things like cinnamon buns," Star added with a fond smacking of her biocomponent lips.

"Huh, that sounds like spicebark, and if it is, then you are truly a well-travelled cook indeed, Eu-le, to have been able to recognize it in my Mesa Bread," Rashaman said in an impressed tone. "I honestly didn't expect any cooks out here in the East to have even heard of spicebark, let alone tasted it. Then again, you did mention you are outsiders, so maybe that's not so surprising after all," he said with a laugh.

"Mesa Bread," Eule repeated, getting a feel for this dish's name. "Honestly, I have no idea what a 'Mesa' is, but this bread is delicious. I'll admit though: I'm at a loss as to what kind of flour this Mesa Bread uses. I've never had bread with this texture before."

"Ah, so spicebark is known to your tribe, but not maizebread?" Bashid asked in a curious tone.

"Maizebread? You can make bread with maize?" Eule asked in return, now herself very curious.

"So your tribe is aware of maize, but you don't use it for maizebread? Fascinating," Bashid noted, pulling out a notebook and writing in it with something that looked remarkably like a ballpoint pen, but had a sharp tip instead of a ballpoint.

"Out of curiosity, what does your tribe use maize for?" Rashaman asked, also sounding curious.

"Well, we have maize on the cob, egg cloud soup, puffmaize," Star said after swallowing a mouthful of Mesa Bread, listing off the dishes black robotic finger by finger, before turning to Eule and asking: "Pretty sure I'm missing a bunch, right?"

"Well, there's the high fructose maize syrup that's practically in everything sweet," Eule noted with no small amount of amusement, remembering the sight of it in the ingredients list of every single nutritional label on every single candy wrapper in the Eusan Nation.

"Hmm, I don't even know what some of those dishes are, but I'm surprised that maizebread isn't known among your tribe given all those uses of maize," Rashaman noted.

"Probably because it's not 'efficient' enough," Star quipped, creating much confusion among everyone who wasn't Eule as she took another bite of the Mesa Bread. "A shame too. This Mesa Bread is delicious!"

Minali didn't verbally add to the discussion. Her enthusiastic nods as she chewed on a bite of Mesa Bread was more than sufficient for Eule and Star to identify her opinion of it.

"So what do you think of that as a souvenir for this little girl you spoke of?" Rashaman asked, looking at them hopefully.

Eule smiled at him. "It's certainly a start that I'll happily pay Shards for. That said, how much is a loaf of Mesa Bread, and do you think you can bake a new loaf?"

Rashaman grinned so brightly that it was practically shining like the Sun. "5 Shards for a fresh loaf of Mesa Bread, coming right up!" he said cheerfully before he dashed off to the counter next to the fireplace, and began taking out ingredients from the drawer underneath.

Normally, Eule would be more than happy to observe just how Rashaman went about baking Mesa Bread. Indeed, she started to walk over to Rashaman to do just that, but was interrupted by an insistent Torvund-flavored coughing.

"Perhaps while he's busy with that, you could browse some fine Oseram wares for a bit?" Torvund asked very hopefully.

Eule ended up looking at Star, and they both ended up shrugging at each other.

"Alright, let's see what you've got," Star said before she and Eule both browsed through Torvund's wares.

Or at least, they attempted to. The most obvious things were the armor and weapons, and even then, they still contained mysteries on and in them (like the circular, ring-like pieces of metal that covered the hard leather skirt of one set of armor) that defied casual explanation. The rest of Torvund's wares were even more mysterious in nature, save for a few that, fortunately, Eule was drawn to like a moth to a flame, primarily because of their obvious cookware nature.

"Oh-hoh! I take it you're interested in that Oseram-made frying pan?" Torvund asked with an eager air about him.

Indeed, Eule was interested in said frying pan that she was currently hefting. It was made out of the same dark steel that much of the other Oseram wares was made of, with a handle wrapped in strips of leather to prevent accidental burns and with a hole in the end presumably for hanging onto a hook for storage, and was nicely balanced on top of that. It also didn't seem like Rost had anything like a frying pan in the house, so this would be a nice addition to their cooking arsenal.

Plus, Eule wanted to experiment with cooking Machine skin, Machine muscle, and other Machine parts to see if she could make an improvised version of Replika-only rations to act as a substitute for her limited supply of Koagulant Type-K repair patches. Needless to say, the result would be incredibly toxic to Gestalts, so using her own cookware would limit the possibility of accidentally poisoning Rost or, Red Eye forbid, Äloy. Even then, she planned on thoroughly scrubbing her frying pan after each experiment.

But first, Eule had to purchase it.

"Hmm, perhaps," Eule said as she continued hefting the frying pan. "It would depend on how much is this frying pan."

"30 Shards," Torvund instantly said.

Eule blinked at him. "Now that seems a little steep. Isn't it a bit much to have a frying pan be worth 10 Shards more than an actual backpack?"

"Not really, no," Torvund insisted. "You literally can't get steel like this from anywhere but Oseram forges. It takes that plus a lot of time, effort, and sweat to make a good frying pan like that. Here, give it to me and I'll even prove how good it is to you."

A curious Eule handed the frying pan to Torvund, who then clop-thumped his way over to a mannequin wearing a set of armor made of hard leather with plates of shaped dark steel over the belly and chest. He then took the frying pan in both hands, and to Eule's shock, swung the bottom of the pan into the belly plate at full force.

There was a loud CLANG as frying pan met armor, and the entire mannequin fell over with a clatter of steel and leather.

Now looking oddly satisfied, Torvund then returned to a Eule staring at him in shock and disbelief, and proudly showed the bottom of the frying pan to her.

"See? Look! Not a single dent in it even after that. That's good steel there, not like those cheap scrap you sometimes get the dishonest Oseram traders peddling," Torvund insisted as he handed the frying pan back to Eule.

Indeed, Eule could not see a single dent in that frying pan bottom, although there was certainly some scratching on it from that impact. However, the scratching appeared to be to the darkened outer coating. The shiny steel underneath looked to be undamaged.

"Umm, that's very impressive, but I don't intend on using my frying pan as a lethal weapon," Eule said with a nervous laugh.

"Most people don't. Yet, it's better to have a frying pan that you can use to bash in someone's head in a pinch than to have one that shatters when you need it to shatter skulls," Torvund explained quite happily for someone who was talking about murdering someone with cookware. "Plus, a frying pan tough enough to break heads is tough enough to last for years. You, my friend, are paying for an investment in cookware here."

Eule again looked at the bottom of that frying pan, feeling no damage to the steel whatsoever, and ending up sighing at Torvund. Despite his odd ways, he definitely knew how to demonstrate the quality of his wares.

"Very well. 30 Shards it is then for the dual-purpose frying pan," Eule quipped as she handed the requisite amounts of Shards to Torvund, not feeling not haggling over that frying pan after that kind of demonstration of its quality.

Torvund tossed the Shards into the air before pocketing them. "Sold! Thank you very much, er, Eula," he attempted to pronounce.

Eule merely smiled and nodded at him as she hung her new purchase onto her backpack just below her just-as-new Blast Sling. It was pretty close to how it was supposed to be pronounced anyways.

"Huh, hey Eule? Does this look like a sausage grinder to you?" Star asked from behind Eule.

Eule turned around in surprise to see Star holding a complex contraption that did indeed look like a Eusan Nation sausage grinder, if the input/output funnels and stand were made entirely out of dark Oseram steel, with a handle of steel and wood on its back.

"If that isn't a sausage grinder, then I don't know what is," Eule said with an excited grin developing on her biocomponent face.

"Ahh, so your Eusan Nation tribe knows what sausages are?" Torvund asked in a tone just as excited as Eule looked.

"Yours too?" Eule asked back just as excitedly.

Torvund laughed joyfully. "Finally! Someone else has a love of sausage. The Nora and Banuk don't understand sausages at all, and the Carja only think they're so-so. So-so? So-so?! I'll show them so-so!"

On the surface, it sounded like Torvund was getting angry at the end. But to Eule's biomechanical ears, all she heard was the pure passion of an enthusiastic cook, and that in turn made her even more excited and curious.

"Are you by any chance a cook too, Torvund?" Eule asked.

Torvund rubbed his nose and sniffed proudly. "Well, not to blow my own horn, but I like think I'm a pretty good cook."

"Oh? What sort of dishes are your specialty?" Eule pressed, curious as to what sort of dishes this land has to offer.

Torvund grinned enough that Eule could see his teeth even between his thick beard. "Isn't it obvious? Oseram dishes are what I do the best, and no one, I mean no one, can make a better Meat in the Middle than I can," he said proudly, before he snapped his fingers. "In fact, hold on."

Torvund clop-thumped his way over to a small chest on his side of the trade mission, opened it up, pulling out a bundle, and shutting it before clop-thumping back to Eule in the distinctive sound of his almost-Replika-like peg leg's gait. He then opened up the bundle to reveal…a half-eaten pastry?

Torvund then tore a chunk off the unbitten end, and held it out to Eule. "Here, try a bite. I made this Meat in the Middle for lunch today, and it's still good even cold."

Eule wasn't entirely certain about eating a bite of a man's half-eaten lunch, but her curiosity at this Meat in the Middle dish overcame her propriety. Plus, Torvund was offering that bite of his lunch, so she ended up taking the end of the Meat in the Middle and examining it.

Eule found herself looking at what was clearly a sausage of some kind wrapped in a layer of dough that had been baked golden brown. In fact, the end of the sausage that had been exposed to the heat had a nice char on it. The other end that exposed the innards of the sausage showed a pink mix of roughly ground meat with white chunks of fat. Mixed throughout the meat though was the distinct red flakes of redthorn peppers, suggesting that the Oseram–or at least Torvund–liked their sausages spicy.

Eule noticed that Star though was staring intently and more than a little hopefully at the remainder of Torvund's Meat in the Middle, having put down that sausage/meat grinder.

To which Torvund reacted by sighing, ripping off even more of his lunch, and handing it over to the very eager Star unit. He then stared at the tiny nub of Meat in the Middle he had left, shrugged, and popped it into his mouth. "Mmm, definitely still good even after some time spent in a Chillwater box," Torvund said through a mouthful of Meat in the Middle.

Now herself curious, Eule took a bite of the Meat in the Middle at the same time Star took a bit of hers.

Eule could immediately tell from the moment her carbon steel teeth bit into the golden brown dough that it was puff pastry, or something very much like it. The multiple thin layers of baked dough was unmistakably puff pastry, which gave the dough layer a lovely mouthfeel and a delicious buttery taste to it. However, the real centerpiece of Meat in the Middle was in the name: the meat. The sausage in the middle of that dough was definitely ground boar meat, with a distinct smoky taste on top of the spice that indicated ground smoked boar. Certainly, a smoked sausage would keep far better than a fresh one, so it made sense why Torvund would use that for his Meat in the Middle.

However, Eule couldn't help but wonder how the taste profile of Meat in the Middle would change if she were to use a fresh sausage instead. Ah, oh well. It was a recipe to experiment with for another day, and she certainly wasn't complaining about this version of it, especially since she was making appreciative noises as much as her lover was.

"Huh, so you both have dentures?" Torvund asked. When Eule and Star's appreciate noises turned into questioning sounds, he continued: "Your teeth. They looked like they were all steel from what I could see when you both opened your mouths, and good steel too from the looks of how shiny they were. What, did you both not brush your teeth enough, and you had to replace all of them?" he joked.

"Err, not quite," Eule replied with a nervous laugh.

"At all," Star added to that reply.

Before Eule could figure out some excuse for her and Star's carbon steel teeth that did not involve a complete and utter lack of dental hygiene, Torvund said: "Eh, whatever. Not my place to question my customers on something like that. So then, what did you think of that Meat in the Middle? Ground it myself in that very meat grinder, and smoked my sausage myself…er," he paused as Star gave him a raised eyebrow, and then said sheepishly: "You know what I mean, not that other kind of sausage…er…I'll shut up now."

"No worries, I understood what you meant," Eule said with a giggle, before taking hold of the meat grinder to take a closer look at it.

Said meat grinder felt a bit on the heavy side, but Eule could put that down to how sturdy it was. A quick look inside the top-mounted input funnel revealed the distinct screw-like mechanism typical of such meat grinders, while a close examination of the horizontal output funnel revealed the fan-like rotating blade there. A careful rotation of the handle revealed a very smooth action, with no catch to it at all. It was pretty clear that Torvund had been keeping the mechanism cleaned and oiled after using it. Now how to do the same?

"Oh, everything is just screwed into place," Torvund replied when Eule asked about the disassembly. "The top funnel screws off with counterclockwise turns, and the grill over the part where the meat comes out is the same, so that you can pull out all the guts to clean off and oil. The handle comes off when you unscrew that thumb screw."

Eule nodded as she noted it all down, before finally getting to the meat of the issue. "How much is this?"

"120 Shards," Torvund belted out without hesitation.

Eule had to stop her jaw from dropping open in shock. Star had not the control nor the qualms.

"120 Shards, are you serious?! This is worth more than a bow!" Star said in disbelief.

Torvund raised a finger, reminding Eule of EULR-S2309 "September". Her older sister had been the leader of the Eules teaching in Re-ed–er, that word she wasn't supposed to use anymore, in B1. September had always made a gesture like that when she was about to explain something, as was the case with Torvund here and now, just with a finger of flesh, blood, and calcium-based bone instead of plastic skin, polymer muscle, and carbon steel bone.

"Think about this for a moment: a meat grinder is a complex piece of machinery just like a well-made bow," Torvund explained, still with his finger raised. "In fact, in some ways, it's even more complex than a bow. So why wouldn't a good meat grinder be about the same price as a bow, or even be more expensive?"

Try as she might, even Eule couldn't find any fault in his logic. Still, 120 Shards was more than a bit steep. It would eat pretty steeply into their Shard supply, and Eule still wanted to leave enough Shards to pay back Rost for everything he'd given them.

"Maybe it's time to see how much those Watcher hearts and Machine cores are worth to Rashaman…er, maybe Bashid instead? Since he's not cooking and all, over?" Star suggested to Eule via radio.

Eule thought about it for maybe five seconds before she turned to her lover and nodded, and then turned to the excitable Carja noble. "Excuse me, Bashid? We have some Watcher hearts and small Machine cores in our inventory, and since we need some Shards at this moment, do you mind a trade?"

"Oh, do you?" Bashid asked with now intense curiosity. "I would be more than happy to appraise them for you, and write up a Shard value. Now, let's take a look at those hidden gems of those Machines, shall we?"

Indeed, Bashid laid down the Watcher hearts and small Machine cores on the checkout counter (as Eule thought of that table on the Carja's side of the trade mission) with the delicacy one would expect with handling priceless gemstones. Indeed, he even produced a small magnifying glass from one of his far, far more than six pouches, and examined the Machine parts as though he were a jeweler looking for flaws on a gemstone.

"Are they not?" Bashid asked when Eule voiced her thoughts out loud. "Gemstones are beautiful things that come from deep beneath the earth, either dug up by the hands of man or brought forth by the actions of the very earth itself. So why such beautiful things can't also be carved from within the bowels of a Machine?"

"That's an…odd way to put it," Star commented.

"I suppose it's like how pearls are obtained from ice clams?" Eule posited.

"That's…you know, that's not a bad comparison, although I can't imagine any Gestalts being willing to eat Machine meat after getting those 'pearls' out," Star joked.

"Pearls? Ice clams?" Bashid asked curiously.

"Err…ice clams are a species of clam-like animals that live in Rotfront's subsurface ocean, typically on the underside of the surface ice layer," Eule explained. "We harvest them for food and pearls. As for what the latter is: it's a hard, shiny object found within ice clams that we Rotfronters typically use for jewelry. It's made by the ice clam when a grain of sand or some other irritant gets into an ice clam, and it then forms hard, shiny layers around it to protect itself."

"Hmm, fascinating. Most fascinating," Bashid said as he quickly pulled out his notebook and jotted down the information Eule gave him before turning his attention back to the Machine parts, commenting without looking away from said Machine parts: "This is the first I've heard of this practice, and it does sound similar conceptually to obtaining hearts and cores from Machine carcasses."

"But a lot messier, from the sounds of it," Torvund quipped.

"Tastier though," Star quipped right back.

"True, true. I'm assuming that you don't have any of these ice clams on you right now?" Torvund asked. When both Eule and Star shook their heads in the negative though, he sighed. "Ah, well. That will have to be something I can sample later. In the meantime though, any final decision on that meat grinder?" he asked hopefully. Very hopefully.

"That will depend on how many Shards these Machine parts are worth, honestly," Eule admitted, before turning to Bashid. "So how is the appraisal going along?"

"Splendidly, in fact," Bashid said excitedly, which as far as Eule could tell, was his default mode of operation. "First off: the small Machines cores are in excellent condition, and I can pay you the market price for them: 20 Shards each."

"So 60 Shards for all three of them," Eule muttered, more to herself than to anyone else.

"Now as for the Watcher hearts: alas, two of these Watcher hearts aren't in the most pristine condition," Bashid said in a disappointed tone. "This one, in particular, has some scratch damage across its face and some missing studs on the left side that looks like they were incurred by fall damage. I can only give you 50 Shards for that one. Fortunately, the other one is in better condition, with only a minor scratch on the upper right quadrant. That one I will give you 60. Shards. But the best one is this rightmost one here. Just look at it!"

Eule and Star peered closely at the indicated Watcher heart, but neither of them could see anything remarkable about it.

"Precisely!" Bashid said, his excitement now reaching new peaks. "This is a pristine Watcher heart. Not a scratch on it. Even in this day and age, pristine hearts of any Machine are still valuable. I'll give you 100 Shards for that one."

Both Eule and Star ended up whistling at the same time, which made them both giggle at each other before they turned to Torvund, who was now staring at them even more hopefully.

"I believe we now have enough Shards for that meat grinder, Herr Torvund," Eule said with a smile.

Torvund grinned widely enough for his teeth to show between his beard. "Sold, to the outlander women with the innumerable prosthetics and steel dentures!" he declared.

One of these days, Eule would have to correct Torvund on some of the finer points of Replika biology. But not now.

After an exchange of Machine parts for Shards from Bashid, which was followed by an exchange of Shards for meat grinder from Torvund, Eule found herself the proud owner of an Oseram meat grinder carefully wrapped in a large leather bag. She started to reach towards it, only for a familiar pair of black robotic hands to reach it before she did, and lift it up to hug it to a breastplate-covered chest.

"Allow me to carry this particular purchase of ours," Star said with a grin. "After all, you've been carrying everything else, and this thing is pretty heavy. Got to use this combat Replika strength somehow, right?"

Eule smiled back up at her dear lover. "Why, thank you, Star. I'll be sure to repay this gesture with all my gratitude. Both culinary and otherwise," she said, her smile turning mischievous and dusted with just a bit of desire with that last word.

Star's smile down at her lover turned hungry in both ways, with a light blush decorating the biocomponent skin of her cheeks. "I'll be eagerly waiting for that gratitude. Both of them."

"Ah-hem!" Torvund coughed, bringing both Replikas back to reality, which at the moment included the blushing Oseram merchant. "So…anything else you'd like to buy? How about a nice Oseram axe, where you get an axe, a pick, and a prybar for the price of one? Or maybe that suit of Arrow Breaker armor: good against any bow any tribe cares to field? Er, as soon as I right it, that is."

"Maybe later," Eule said with a polite smile as Torvund struggled to pick up the armor-laden mannequin, apparently made of straw-covered wood from the looks of it.

"Yeah, as cool as that armor looks, it looks like it's at least a dozen sizes too big for Äloy," Star said with an appraising look at the now righted mannequin standing next to a huffing Torvund.

"What, you want another present for your kid?" Torvund asked. "Isn't that Carja bread enough? That kid there looks like she's enjoying herself just fine with it."

A look down at Minali revealed that she was indeed still munching on her slice of Mesa Bread, breaking off pieces of it and slowly munching on them, intent on savoring every bite, bringing a smile to Eule's biocomponent lips before she turned back to Torvund.

"It's a good present, certainly. However, I want a present for Äloy that's a bit more…permanent than just a delicious dish, even one as delicious as Rashaman's Mesa Bread," Eule explained, before she noticed Rashaman walking towards them with a basket in hand. With a smile, she said: "Ah, speak under the Red Eye."

Rashaman laughed in his usual high volume. "I've never heard a saying like that before, but I can guess as to what it means. Regardless though, here's a loaf of Mesa Bread, fresh from the skillet just for your little girl! Oh, and a little extra for her too. I, er, got a bit carried away there, and steamed a sweet Maizemeat to put in with the Mesa Bread."

"Maizemeat?" Eule asked just as curiously as Star did.

"Ah, so your tribe doesn't make Maizemeat either? Or perhaps you don't call it that?" Rashaman pondered curiously, before his usual grin returned. "I'll leave that as a surprise for you all then. The only request I make is that you both come back and tell me how it was, okay?"

Eule smiled at him. "That, I will most certainly do, seeing as how we will most likely frequent your, Bashid's, and Torvund's establishment in the future," she said before handing over the agreed-upon 5 Shards.

Eule tried to hand over another 5 Shards for the Maizemeat, which seemed to be wrapped in a maize husk for some reason, but Rashaman steadfastly refused.

"I included that in without your permission. I will certainly not ask for additional charge for it. Do I look like a scoundrel of a merchant to do such a thing?" Rashaman asked with a tone of injury.

"I certainly hope not," Eule said said with a giggle.

Rashaman suddenly then gained a look of thoughtfulness, before turning to look down at Torvund. "Hey, Torvund? I just realized: don't you have something that might work as a gift for these ladies' little girl?"

Torvund blinked at him. "I don't sell kid's toys, if that's what you're asking. All my wares are definitely not meant for small fingers to play with, unless they like getting them chopped off or crushed."

"Yeah, your usual wares are definitely not suitable for children," Rashaman conceded with a frown marring his face, before he shook his head. "But I'm not talking about that. What about that little art project you've been–"

"Nope! Don't you dare!" Torvund shouted angrily, and curiously, with a blush on his cheeks. Or at least, what little of his cheeks could be seen above his beard.

Rashaman pleaded: "But surely they–"

"Not another word, or I swear to the Forge, I will kick you in the nuts, and I have a steel leg to kick you hard there!" Torvund raged.

"Oh, what's this about an art project?" Eule asked curiously.

"Not you too!" Torvund shouted at Eule.

"Oh, come on. I'm off-duty right now, and probably permanently for the foreseeable future. It's not like I can arrest you for it here," Star tried to reason with him.

"What?" Torvund asked in confusion. "Why would you arrest me for making something as simple as making little Machine statues–"

Torvund snapped his mouth shut and covered it, but Eule and Star were already grinning, both at Torvund and at each other in turn.

"Does that sound like the perfect souvenir for Äloy, love?" Eule asked up at her lover.

"Oh, I do believe that sounds perfectly perfect," Star replied down at her lover.

Both Replikas then turned back Torvund, who was still covering his mouth and had a more or less panicked look on his face.

"They're not for sale!" Torvund got out.

"Come on, we're willing to pay Shards for your little Machine figures," Star argued.

"Potentially plenty of Shards," Eule added eagerly.

"But they're terrible!" Torvund tried to argue.

"Hmm, you know, I would've figured that you would leap all over the chance to make some Shards here," Rashaman said with a thoughtful rubbing of his clean-shaven chin. "Maybe you're not quite as business-savvy as I thought? Maybe the merchant's life isn't quite for you if you won't take Shards that are almost literally dangling in front of you–"

"Arrraraggh!" Torvund shouted, yanking on his beard and apparently so frustrated that he seemed to Eule to have forgotten how to use words. Finally though, he jabbed a finger up at Rashaman, and then at Eule and Star in turn. "Fine! I'll show you what I've been working on! But if any of you laugh, no business! Clear?!"

After some reassuring nods from everyone around, including Bashid and Minali despite them not even being part of the discussion, Torvund took a steadying before climbing up the ladder to his and the Carja folks' living quarters. After a few minutes, he came back down with a small chest. Setting it down in front of the Carja side's checkout counter, he opened said chest and took out several small objects, carefully placing them on the counter with all the delicacy one might expect of someone handling glassware. Eule and Star, along with everyone else, just as carefully walked up to the objects and took a closer look at–

Tiny statues of Machines, exactly as Torvund had blurted out. They were essentially figurines of various Machines, no more than 10-12 centimeters tall, made of a combination of carved wood and bits of shaped steel, and even made in various poses. Eule recognized the alert form of Watchers, either frozen mid-stride in a patrol path or standing up with its long tail as a third leg. She also recognized Striders among the figurines, either bent down to graze, standing in an alert stance as though posing for a portrait, or risen up on its hind legs to lash out with its forelimbs.

There were also Machines Eule definitely did not recognize. There was a Machine that looked like a 6-legged, 2-armed spider or crab with a hexagonal bit of metal on its back. There was another Machine that looked like nothing so much as a robotic version of the crocodiles Eule had seen with Star in those nature documentaries her lover loved so much, save that this robotic crocodile appeared to have a pair of chainsaws in its lower jaw. There was even a figurine of a Machine that resembled a long-billed bird of some kind, but which also had a chainsaw for a lower beak, along with tiny indescribable bits sticking out of both beak parts that at this scale looked as though it had tiny clubbed antennae sticking out of said beak. Eule had no idea what these Machines could possibly be, but given the behavior of the Watchers and Striders so far, she guessed that they were probably just as dangerous, if not moreso.

Despite that though, there was one thing these unknown Machines all shared with the Watcher and Strider figurines:

"Aww, they're so cute!" Eule practically squealed.

"Hey, I said no laughing!" Torvund insisted at a very high volume that he probably would've adamantly denied was in an almost whining tone.

"I'm not!" Eule protested, with both of her robotic hands waving for emphasis. "These little figurines really are cute. Really. They'd be perfect souvenirs for Äloy, if you would be willing to part with them?"

"For a price, of course," Star added to sweeten the deal.

Torvund stared at Eule and Star back and forth, with disbelief plainly written across his face. "You seriously want to pay Shards for these things? Both of you?" Upon seeing both Replikas nod vehemently, Torvund sighed. "Fine. Just pick some, and just give me, I don't know, 5 Shards per little statue. Should be reasonable for junk like these."

Eule gave a little cheer and hop before immediately leaning down to examine the figurines closely.

"Honestly, I don't know why you're so eager to downplay your own work like this," Eule said as she examined the fine details on a Watcher statue, noting the carved details in the wooden parts that looked as though it was made with a needle. "These are marvelous little figurines."

Eule heard Torvund scoff. "You call these 'marvelous'? Look at them. I can barely get any kind of detail on the steel parts. They're just too tiny for me to work effectively. Hitting them with a hammer just makes them fly off or flattens them. I have to heat little bits of soft steel, and then hold them in place with tongs while I work on them with a steel needle of hardened steel, all while they're still glowing and workable. I can barely get them into the right shapes that way. They barely even look like the Machines they're supposed to."

"That may be true," Eule said as she gently picked up a Strider figurine: one of the ones that was frozen in the act of rearing up on its hind legs, and lashing out at an invisible foe. "But I can clearly still tell that this is supposed to be a Strider, and one that's in the middle of doing battle just as fiercely as Äloy is fighting to become the Bravest of the Braves. That takes skill on the level of an Ara, so please Herr Torvund, there's no need to sell yourself short like that."

Torvund avoided meeting Eule's eyes, but his blush suggested that Eule's words were having an effect on him. One that Eule fully intended.

"Whatever," Torvund said after a while. "Just pay for your little Machine statues and go, and leave me to try to make little statues that actually deserve praise like that."

Eule merely nodded at him, smiling as she reached into her Shard sack to take out the agreed-upon amount–

Only for Star to hold out a 10-Shard bundle of Machine muscle fibers to Torvund.

"Here, this works in place of Shards, right?" Star asked.

Torvund took the bundle from Star and hefted it in his hand before nodding. "Yeah, it does. But I said '5 Shards'. This is worth 10 Shards."

"Yeah, I know," Star replied with a smile. "I want to get a figurine too. Specifically: this one," she said, taking a very careful hold of a Strider figurine that, based on how its legs were positioned, was frozen in the act of galloping at full speed.

Torvund shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Eule smiled brightly at her lover. "Oh? I take it that you've developed a fondness for these figurines?"

"Well, that too. They are pretty cute," Star admitted with an embarrassed grin before said grin softened into a warm smile. "But the reason I bought it was as a present for you, love."

Eule blinked in surprise, before smiling up at her lover. "Oh? What's the occasion?"

"Aside from celebrating the fact that we're alive now?" Star asked with a grin, before that grin turned sheepish. "Well, you mentioned that your favorite sister liked horses, right? 21, you said her name was? Well, maybe a little Strider figurine to honor her memory would be nice? I know Striders are robot horses, but it's probably close enough that she wouldn't mind, right? Maybe? I mean, I didn't know her like you did, so–"

Eule interrupted the beginnings of a ramble from her lover with a black robotic finger on Star's lips, before the hand that finger belonged to reached back behind Star's head, and pulled her face down to meet Eule in a kiss. A kiss that lasted an eternity and was filled with all the love Eule could give the most important person in her life.

When they finally separated at last, Eule smiled brightly up at Star. "I can safely tell you that 21 would've liked this figurine very much. I wish she was here to receive it, but at the very least, I can hold onto it for her when we eventually meet her again…someday."

Star smiled just as brightly and warmly down at her, scratching her cheek shell in embarrassment. "Heh, I'm glad. Both for you and her."

Out of sight, Eule heard the distinct voice of Torvund whispering in an incredulous tone: "Women can kiss other women? They can do that?"

Also out of sight, Eule immediately heard the sound of a fleshy Gestalt hand meeting a hard but Gestalt head, eliciting a Torvund-flavored yelp, which was immediately followed by the voice of Rashaman saying in a friendly but firm tone: "Try not to ruin the ladies' moment, okay?"

Eule couldn't help it. She broke down giggling at that, and so did Star in front of her. It felt like a perfect ending to her personal quest of finding a memory for Äloy, and Eule had a feeling that things would only become better from here on out.