Six Hours Previous

Eyrin directed Clarissa toward the bears, transmitting her the image of a devilbat swooping around the lead bear so that he could direct a dragonleaf tendril into its side.

This would be easier if the bears weren't deaf, Eyrin thought, annoyed. They aren't moving so fast that my voice would be drowned out. Especially not with the raft full of ship parts on their backs slowing them down.

He wondered if they were intentionally ignoring him. That wouldn't make sense, he transmitted to Clarissa. It'll be more work for them if they go in the wrong direction.

The devilbat snorted. They're bears: the definition of stubborn. If they think they're going the right direction, you're screwed.

Eyrin frowned. "Do you remember what I taught you?" he murmured, wrapping his first and second pairs of arms snugly around Clarissa's neck and back. Clarissa noticeably tensed at his words.

Yeah.

Eyrin smiled. Of course you do. Even so, he transmitted a reminder: If I don't feel anything, you're doing it wrong.

Clarissa pumped her wings and prepared to dive. Yeah, yeah. One danger dive coming up. The devilbat plummeted, tucking her wings and legs in to streamline her form. As Clarissa came dangerously close to the apex of a relatively tall desert dune, Eyrin felt the stirrings of excitement in his heart.

If she were to clip her wings on anything, at this speed...Eyrin thought himself an excellent judge of the consequences of stunts gone wrong, and his instincts said that such a misstep would result in both him and Clarissa breaking half the bones in their bodies and skipping over the desert like stones across a lake.

He clenched his primary right hand against Clarissa's hair-covered neck. These caretaker boons would fix any of our injuries. While Eyrin knew that any serious head injury might prevent him from being in the state of mind to initiate caretaker healing, he had the utmost confidence in his close-combat-boon-assisted reflexes: in the event of a crash, he would protect his head by reorienting his body and adjusting his center of mass.

This knowledge in mind, he fearlessly ushered Clarissa on toward the bears, directing her to glide mere feet above the sand as he stretched out a dragonleaf tether from an opening in his robe below his mane.

Thicket snorted as Eyrin and Clarissa crested above her, as though the unorthodox pair were naught but buzzing flies. Eyrin smiled into the wind, his dual predatory grins revealed as his veil flipped up, teeth glinting red in Vast Desert's sanguine light.

Thicket growled as Eyrin's dragonleaf tether made contact, though to her credit, the bear kept a steady pace. Eyrin laughed sharply as his adrenaline began to build; then, launching off Clarissa toward Thicket. He swung himself directly toward the bear's snarling mouth, tucking in his second and third pairs of arms and curling in his spine. Then, when the bear's bellowing cry was close enough to spray spittle onto his exposed face, he uncoiled, changing his trajectory so that his hands flew right into the iron-like tendrils of dragonleaf spooling around Thicket's shoulders.

He whipped around so that his body lay directly atop Thicket's lower back, just above her hips. The dragonleaf girdle connecting her to the raft rose just above her shoulders and sides, the gaps between which Eyrin navigated without issue. This maneuver happened in the blink of an eye, Eyrin essentially slamming into the bear like a torpedo.

Only when he was situated on the bear's back did he initiate the conversation via dragonleaf tether, any fleeting attempts at oral speech forsaken as Thicket's snarling reached a fever-pitch.

Thicket, you're going the wrong way, Eyrin transmitted gleefully, eyes alight with wonder as he effectively surfed atop Thicket's back. Turn around and go back to the humans.

Unexpectedly, Thicket began transmitting the image of a small, human infant. The infant, swaddled in some kind of blanket, was left outside. Thicket then transmitted an image of her violently mauling the baby, flaying its wailing lips from its head in a grisly display of animal ferocity. She ate the baby in three pieces, moving on in search of more prey.

I'm not a human, Eyrin said, his mental voice seemingly unfazed. Truly, we must return to the others. This is childish.

The sounds of grunting, seemingly malevolent laughter erupted from Thicket's mouth. Then, without warning, Thicket reached back, shearing through any dragonleaf in her way. She swatted Eyrin clean off her back in one fluid motion, her forearm snapping to the ground a second later as though it had never shifted positions.

Eyrin, on the other hand, skipped on the desert dunes in a fashion entirely like that of a stone. I suppose I did judge that correctly after all, he thought as he skipped forward, the fine sand grating against his exposed face. He flipped and tumbled, finding his attempts at protecting his head utterly lacking.

Not what I was expecting, he panted, frozen in pain on a random dune as his motion came to a halt. He felt a piercing pain from his chest and realized that he felt no sensation in the lower half of his body. I've never been so hurt, he noted, thoughts foggy and muddled. Ugh.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Worst of all, in Eyrin's mind, was that the blow of the bear had come so unexpectedly and with so much force that he'd only ended up bouncing over sand for under three seconds. As a consequence, despite his grievous injuries, he barely felt any lingering danger rush.

By the time Clarissa touched down at his side ten seconds later, Eyrin had already healed the vast majority of his injuries, though doing so made him feel somewhat exhausted.

Did the bears continue in the wrong direction? he asked, still dead-set on completing his assigned task.

Clarissa gasped in disbelief. No, actually: they're going the right way. The better question is, why do you even care?

Eyrin snorted and transmitted back the image of a swantree, an arcing, white organism that remained stationary and ingrained its relatively fragile roots into the characteristically hard rock of his province, Eyris', steppes. Swantrees were enormous, larger than most buildings, and represented peace and calm.

Clarissa ignored the unfamiliar, seemingly-random image. Seriously! I saw how that bear flicked you like a pest across the sand. You're a kursi, damn it: if that bear actually killed you, I'm sure your father would--

Please, Eyrin replied, blinking twice. He wouldn't bat an eye.

They traveled in silence for the next minute or so until they finally caught up to the bears. From that point, they quickly rendezvoused with the other kursi and continued on toward the Egdelek Arc. Eyrin was thankful that he had Clarissa to rest on for the journey, allowing him to mostly recover from fatigue.

The flight was uneventful, the red sand as monotonous as ever. When the group did finally arrive at the hole marking the Arc's entrance, Eyrin had to work hard to suppress his peaking excitement.

The Egdelek Arc, he thought, Crashed here a mere two-thousand-or-so years previously. Right here, on Vast Desert...and the Juserins never knew. His veil covered a smirk as he helped to transport a fairly heavy part down the hole. Because he was naturally the weakest and slowest--being the only one still without all boons, and therefore without any invested PP--Eyrin was the last kursi to enter the shaft, falling down its length to land at the end of a five-person line.

It's not even that I'm weaker than everyone else, he thought. The others have already been here once before and are able to better navigate the familiar space. He trained his eyes on the apparently-slumbering form of what should be AI Ninety-Seven, its crossed legs firmly rooted on the stark, white floor of the sphere-shaped chamber. Clarissa, who was toting a triage of lighter parts, opened her mouth in a clear display of echolocation.

Just as Eyrin was getting a handle on the current situation, Zhou turned around and smiled directly at the back of the line. "Alright: Eyrin's going first."

Eyrin bowed his head in submission. He truly didn't mind going first, his curiosity about the Arc and AI Ninety-Seven mounting with each passing second. He made his way past the other kursi, stepping gingerly on two legs toward the inanimate sapient-imitation. As he neared its face, the android's body lit up with neon green light, evidently powering on.

"We have been sent to deliver the requested parts," Eyrin proclaimed, head bowed respectfully.

The android was silent for a moment. "Do you come alone?"

Eyrin started, his head turning slightly back. Can the android truly not perceive anything before this point?

"No; not alone...someone is clicking sound waves in this direction." The robot stood to its full height, opening all of its four glowing eyes. "How many serve your master?"

"Innumerable servants," Eyrin replied circuitously. "He has sent seven to deliver all requested parts." What a peculiar sapient, Eyrin thought. I'm unfamiliar with its like. This wasn't too surprising, given the size of the universe.

The robot shot Eyrin a seemingly incredulous glance. "The report I prepared was long," it stated simply.

Eyrin nodded. "We come bringing many parts."

With that, the android smiled and turned around, facing a rapidly-expanding crack in the floor. It turned back, saying, "All who have come, follow." Soon, all the kursi and Clarissa had crossed the threshold of the chamber and were entering the purple bedroom demarcating the entrance to the Arc.

Eyrin noticed that the android seemed particularly fixated on Clarissa, at times staring at her while proceeding unhesitatingly in the opposite direction down the corridor. Eventually, the android led them to a towering violet door, pushing it open and leading them into the barren room beyond. Eyrin noted the various nonsensical inscriptions on the floor, all glowing faintly iridescent.

AI Ninety-Seven soundlessly trod toward the centerpiece of the room, a shining white pedestal. Its glow makes my eyes hurt, Eyrin thought, instinctively recoiling from its splendor.

"This is the control room," the android announced, its tone clinical. "Place your parts here, then return to the surface and retrieve the others you have brought. Inform me when all parts have been retrieved." Having issued this announcement, the robot sat down on its knees next to the pedestal and closed all of its eyes, the glowing green running over its skin dissipating.

Looks as though it's gone into a state of hibernation, Eyrin thought. Interesting.

The group wasted no time, depositing their parts unceremoniously on the ground and sprinting to the outside to grab more. The fact that, between the seven of them, the transport process took a full hour was a testament to just how many parts the engineers had produced over the past few days.

Zhou continued to insist that Eyrin be the one to address the android. "You're up again, little blue."

Somewhat confused by Zhou's transfer of responsibility--after all, shouldn't the leader of the kursi be the one to speak diplomatically with the android?--Eyrin blinked twice, though refrained from protesting. Speaking with the android, as of yet, hadn't been very difficult: compared to the nobility of Illudis, the android was a breath of fresh, unpolitical air.

Part of him did wonder, however, why Zhou didn't put Lisa in charge of diplomacy: the woman was clearly vocal, always talking with one of the other kursi or quasies about something or other. Moreover, Eyrin sensed that the woman had a sense of authority about her that originally led him to believe that she was the leader of the kursi. If Zhou felt uncomfortable addressing the android--which Eyrin felt was plausible, given Zhou's laid back manner--Lisa was the natural second choice.

Despite this fact, Eyrin recalled how Lisa had been oddly mute ever since entering the Arc. Perhaps she isn't as familiar in diplomatic situations as I originally thought.

Zhou trained his eyes on Eyrin expectantly, causing the verdora to sigh inwardly and bipedally pad forward towards the android. As he reached within a rod of AI Ninety-Seven, it reanimated with a flash of green, rising fluidly to its feet.

"Have you amassed all the parts?" the robot asked, voice clipped and devoid of emotion.

Eyrin bowed his head. "Yes; they fill this room, awaiting your inspection."