As I move into my spot in the formation, the other rail units suddenly all turn to leave. What? What did I miss?! They are all walking slowly toward the door I've never been through before. I glance back over to where the handlers are standing. I entered right at the first bell, I guess that's when we leave? So anything they told the rail units beforehand, I missed it?
I could ask. Just the thought gives me shivers. I'm not talking to them if I don't have to. Whatever happens, I don't want to attract their attention too much. Who knows if they'll ask questions, or notice changes in me, realize I have emotions. Or who knows what else. I have no idea what to expect from them, but it can only be bad. With the last few months to think about things, compare them to living outside, I finally understand how terrible the treatment was. Like I told Emily, everything was bad. Still haunts my nightmares...
I'll keep my head down, pray they don't notice me. Don't pay attention to me. Don't treat me like they used to.
But I need to know what I missed. Rail units are safe, they don't do anything unless the handlers tell them to. Since all the others are walking slowly, the crowd slowed down by the narrow doorway, I take the opportunity to grab 2A right next to me and ask what the handlers were speaking about before.
It turns to me and answers, "They told us about our orders for the battle." Looking at its blank, emotionless face sends shivers up my back after spending so long around people. Still better than the handlers. I keep my composure and let my own face rest the same way.
"What are our orders?" I ask, no tone in my voice, while taking slow steps forward as the crowd advances. Luckily, the door out is on the far right side of the formation while we're all the way to the left, so we should be the last ones through.
"Our center will retreat while the enemy advances, bringing our sides forward to pincer their formation." It's a pretty straightforward strategy. We've learned about all the common ones, so it's nothing new or special. But, it requires the enemy to keep advancing even as you draw back. I suppose it should work well... from what they've told us, more rail units die in their first battle than the ones that come after. Most likely a mixture of our inexperience in actual combat, and our enemies being more aggressive, likely trying to take advantage of our inexperience. Drawing them in like that will probably work.
The plan seems good, at least from what I know about strategy. Though... That's a pretty simple conclusion, isn't it? I feel like it's a little too obvious. Haven't we been fighting for a really long time? If this strategy makes so much sense for new rail units, won't the enemy be expecting it?
That one is beyond my knowledge though. I'm sure the people running the AR program have a lot more information about the ongoing war and how we should move. Maybe their strategy is based on that, not the little sliver of information I'm working with. That makes the most sense.
I'll just need to wait and see. With that in mind, I move with the rest of the rail units through the door. On the other side, there is a rather narrow landing with stairs on either side. To the left, the stairs go up, while the stairs on the right lead downward. I noticed the second floor before, this must be the way to get there. But the stairs down... There is a level below where we lived?
The stairs are not quite as narrow as the ones at the orphanage, but still quite steep. I'm already near the back of the group, so I slow down and let the others go past until I'm at the end. This way I won't hold anyone up or get trampled while descending.
I glance back, finding that the handlers are following us through the door. They only look at me briefly, but it sends my heart rate spiking anyway. I fight it down while they're shutting the door behind us all. I note that there are six there, all men. I think there were some more that lead the way, since the rail units shouldn't know where they are going. With the handlers behind me in their dark robes, I descend the stairs as quickly as I can, trying not to panic or draw their attention as best I can.
It's... a surprisingly long staircase. After climbing up and down the orphanage stairs so many times, it's probably... three, maybe four floors worth of stairs leading downward? Are we going underground?
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At least there are lights on the walls as we descend. Though, I'm not really sure what they are. I don't have the time to look at them closely though. At least they keep the place well lit enough that I can see where I'm going as I try to climb down as fast as I can. It feels like the handlers following behind are getting annoyed that I'm so slow though. I keep trying to breathe deeply and squash the terror as I descend. They won't do anything to me now, too busy getting ready for the battle, right?
The other rail units are already at the bottom of the stairs, and I probably have about halfway left to go.
I just keep doing what I can. Don't panic, don't panic, they'll notice panic. I eventually reach the bottom of the stairs, the handlers right behind me. To catch up with the group, I run a little. Not too fast.
The air here feels different. Cold. The entire passageway is stone, floor to ceiling. With a pretty low ceiling too. I steal another glance back. They're moving at a quick walk to keep pace with me running. The ceiling is just high enough to give them some headroom. No gazes fixed on me. Good, good.
I look ahead once more, my feet tapping loudly on the stone floor as I run to catch up. It takes a surprisingly long time, the other rail units are moving pretty quickly now. By the time I reach the back of the group, I'm a little out of breath, despite all my running around town lately. Part of that is probably my flailing heart, but it's not helping. I need to keep up a jogging pace just to match the much taller rail units' brisk walk. At least I have the time to peer around now, though the only interesting feature here are the strange light sources spaced out on either side of the hall.
I move to one side of the hall, looking up as I go past each. They look like small stones embedded in the walls. Kind of pointy, but they glow with pure white light, kind of like tin does. I don't really think it's glowing tin though, tin usually isn't all pointy like they are, and I don't see why anyone would ask a smith to forge tin into pointy things if they're just going to use them for light.
Besides, it would take a ton of mana to make all of these lights work, wouldn't it? Or... would it? I never really considered it before, but if you just run mana through something like mollite, couldn't you have it interact with as many things as you want? I have no idea since I've never tested anything like that.
Wait, that completely misses the point. At least as far as I know, only rail units can use mana, so there wouldn't even be a way for humans to power lights with it. Then what are these lights? They don't look like fire... I'll just set them aside as a mystery for now.
I keep jogging, but it's pretty tiring. I take a nuvrite coin, pressing it to the ignium, then the durite in my basket as I go. I run a little mana through each time to get some of each mana type. They make it easier to keep up this pace without draining too much energy or leaving me gasping for breath. I have no idea how long we'll be going after all. I can't be worn out before we even make it to the battle.
Still, how far are we going? We just continue on and on. The path seems to be straight, but I can't see the end past all of the rail units ahead of me. It feels like we've been going an even longer distance than my usual trip from the orphanage to the west gate.
Let's see, the entrance to the AR building faces north, so I would have been looking south after entering. We used the door on the left side from the entrance, then turned right, so we should be heading south right now. Where are we going?
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It is so much later by the time we reach a staircase leading up, I feel like we should have already traveled past the south end of the city. Where are we? I hastily climb the steps on all fours, at least it's easier than it was going down. We continue upward for a while, eventually reaching a door that leads out into a new area.
Still at the back of the group, I cross through the doorway and look all around. It's... white. That's the main way to describe it. The ceiling is a kind of higher than I'm used to in most buildings but a little too short to be two full stories tall. But the color is so much more striking than anything else, I just keep looking around while I follow the group as they all swing toward the right.
Floor to ceiling, every surface is made of somewhat smooth looking stone, but it's a lot lighter than the dark gray stone I've seen used anywhere else. There are lights mounted high on the walls, fewer but larger than the ones that ran the length of the hall leading here. They seem to put off the same white glow though.
I look back, seeing the handlers behind me come through the door and close it behind them. At a glance, the door seems to be made entirely of metal, and there's actually a second, identical metal door just a short distance away. Off to the left, a little closer to me from where I'm looking now.
I turn forward again, taking a few quick steps to catch up. The rail units are moving more slowly now, it's hard to see past them since they're all so tall, but I think we're being led through a set of large doors, which are open wide, swinging out into the room we're in. Very large doors actually, they remind me of the big doors I saw on the outside the Ebock refinery. Looking up at them as I pass, these ones appear to be made of simple wood, unlike the two metal doors in the other wall. I glance back one more time. Past the handlers bringing up the rear, I see the two doors on the left hand wall, and one more door opposite of these large ones. No doors on the right wall though. Apart from the doors and lights, the room is completely empty.
Facing forward once more, I pass through the large doors into yet another unfamiliar room. This one looks longer and more narrow than the last, which seems kind of like an entranceway now that I think about it. That makes this room more like a hall, but really big to accommodate a lot of people. Once we are all inside, the large doors swing closed right behind the handlers following at my heels. I guess the hall is just large enough for all of us lined up like this, because a set of much smaller doors opens at the far end at about the same time to let the front of the group through.
Walking down the hall, I find that it is very similar to the previous room. Large lights spaced out, high on the walls, with nothing else of note. However, as I continue to walk, I eventually spot one big difference through the crowd of rail units. Along the right wall of the room, a stairway runs in line with the hall, descending from here to somewhere else. I probably would have missed it if not for the railing. Probably to keep people from accidentally stepping over the edge and falling down to the area below. I wonder what's down there?
As I walk past it, I move over toward the stone railing. It's taller than I am, but I can still try to glance down between the vertical stone poles holding up the top of the railing. There isn't much to see though. From this angle I can mostly just see the wall and stairs below. I do feel like I hear a faint sound... maybe?
Despite straining to listen, it's just too difficult with over a hundred sets of feet tapping on the stone floor, the sound echoing endlessly from all the stone walls and ceiling. The handlers are still right behind me, so I can't stop to look either. After passing the small staircase opening, I continue to move with the crowd, approaching the smaller doors at the end of the hall. Unlike the others, these are made of strange whitish stone, similar to the walls. Why are there so many different types of doors here? Wondering as much, I walk through.
The surroundings in the new area are much different than the other rooms. Much more narrow, not that much larger than the halls at the orphanage. The stone underfoot, while still white in color, is somewhat shiny and looks very smooth, with many individual stones all fitted extremely close together. It kind of reminds me of the stone used in the path leading to the church, it was constructed the same way.
Well, sort of. While the stones are shining white, most are currently covered with dark brown, filthy footprints from the hundred unwashed rail units that passed over them ahead of me. Only the ones off near the walls aren't filthy. A quick glance back shows that yes, the trail of filth leads off down the hall, back the way we came.
To the sides, the walls are similarly shiny, but don't seem to be made of lots of pieces like the floor. At least they aren't so dirty.
Shifting toward the side and crouching momentarily, I run a finger over a piece of clean stone, finding it smooth to the touch as well as having a small depression around its sides. Each piece of stone is square, about the size of my palm, and it looks like they're all fitted together to make up the floor. Though I'm not too sure of the bit taken out around the edge of each, maybe it has to do with the way they're made.
The way they're all so perfectly identical, I wonder if they were made with casting, or something like it. Eryk and Winslow said you can cast metal and glass, but what about stone? I haven't really seen any other stone so perfectly the same before, except maybe the floor in the church, but I'm not really sure if that's the same as this. Is it even made of stone?
While my thoughts wander, I almost walk into a handler and have to stop short. My heart hammers when his gaze flicks to me and I have to lock my throat to stop myself from apologizing profusely, force myself not to show any response to his attention.
Just keep moving like you're expected to, I shout at myself.
A short way past the door, there are handlers standing on either side - one that I nearly walked into - and one in the middle, forcing the whole group to form into two lines. I step into the line on the right side, to get as far away from the handler that glanced at me as possible, taking my place all the way at the end of the line. Bit by bit, I calm down. They won't notice anything. Just stand in line, keep acting like they want, nothing bad will happen.
I take a few steps, then wait. Then a few more steps, then wait again. They must be doing something with each rail unit. I can't see though, since the one in front of me is so much larger that it completely blocks my view. I use the downtime to clear away the fire and lightning mana so I don't need to deal with them later.
This room is nowhere near the size of the last, so it doesn't take long to haltingly walk to the other end. Most of the rail units must have gone through before I even reached this room. As I step forward a little at a time, I begin to feel a difference in the air. It's getting just a bit warmer. And it feels... maybe a little heavy or something? It's hard to describe, and I only vaguely feel like I've felt this on my skin at some point before.
The sensation increases a little as I approach the other end of the room. Once I'm there, I see something unexpected. A handler stands between the two lines, looking at each rail unit going past, while two other people stand to either side. But, these aren't handlers.
I look back and forth. On either side stands a woman. One on the right side of the right hand line, the other on the left side of the left hand line, right near the side walls. As the last rail unit on the left side goes through, I can get a good look at both her and the woman near my line.
They wear sky-blue dresses. Without much special adornment, they look relatively simple, but the way the fabric shines, and that bright, beautiful coloring, they must be high quality clothing. Their dresses are pretty form fitting and show that the women have nice figures, but their skirts aren't like any I've seen women wearing before. They end surprisingly high, far above their knees. The bottom edges flare out too, maybe so they can move their legs? But still, they're so high, if I was any shorter I could probably see their underwear.
They don't have any sleeves either, simply cutting off at the shoulders. With their arms completely exposed, I can see that the women are pretty muscular, their firm, toned muscles clearly visible. The only thing particularly special, almost out of place on such simple blue clothes, are the tiny ruffly frills around the shoulders and bottom of the skirt. Colored deep, dark black.
Besides their clothing, both women are quite young and seem to have long hair, since it is all rolled up into buns at the backs of their heads. Overall, they are actually really pretty. But what are they doing here exactly?
As I watch, the rail unit in front of me pulls off its filthy robe and hands it to the woman on our right. It removes its shoes, then continues to walk forward. The woman tosses the robe and shoes into a big basket near the wall behind her while I step forward.
Ready for the handler's attention this time, I manage to stay calm as I step forward and he glances my way. I'll just mimic the rail unit in front of me. Actually, it was probably mimicking the one in front of it too.
Then I force myself not to cringe or grimace. I can't take off my robe with my hands full. I quickly set my small basket on the ground and remove my shoes. I pull off my robe and hand it to the woman, who seems to hesitate slightly before taking it. Don't react. The handler won't notice anything. I pick up my basket again while the handler eyes me.
I can't breathe. He's looking right at me. My basket. He know. He knows, my panic hisses at me. But he doesn't move, doesn't call me out. I make myself walk forward once more, like nothing happened. Nothing unusual. Don't pay attention to me.
Just a few steps ahead is a curtain. It looks quite thick, unlike any of the fabric I'm familiar with, and when I touch it to pull it aside, I find that it's pretty stiff too. Pushing past, I enter another room. Out of the handler's sight.
The heat is the first thing to hit me as my heart rate begins to drop again. My eyes flash across the entire room in an instant, no dark robes anywhere. I let my head return to the present with absolute relief.
It's so hot in here, it feels kind of suffocating. Actually, it's not just the heat. This feeling, it feels... wet. Kind of like rain, but different. Almost like the air itself is made of water. Which immediately reminds me of the theory I was thinking about yesterday. I look around, seeing foggy, kind of cloud-like air all around.
But that's not all. There are women. Many more women in here, all dressed in the same blue sleeveless dress as the ones outside. Same tiny black frill. So it's probably a uniform? At a glance, they all appear to be quite young, no older than say, twenty five, and at least somewhat good looking. Each one stands near a rail unit. And they're all standing in a big... thing of water. It's sunken down below the floor and full of water. Way too big to be a bucket, it stretches up the entire length of the room. It's not really a river either, the water is all contained, not flowing.
Well, it is flowing a little bit. There is a spot on the far wall where water is somehow pouring out of a series of holes spaced out horizontally in the wall, down into the giant container. But the container is already full, so the water keeps overflowing onto the stone floor I'm standing on, where it flows over to... a number of spots where there are little holes in the floor. I wonder where the water goes after that?
But besides the odd flowing water, even the surface of the container is odd. It definitely looks like a cloudy mist is rising up off of the surface of the water. After taking a few short moments to scan the room, I take a step forward. Then there's another woman stepping toward me just at my side. She was standing near the corner to my right before, a somewhat narrow area before the room opens up wide around the water-thing.
She looks down at me and blinks a couple times. She's obviously surprised, and isn't even really trying to hide her expressions like the handlers do. She looks... maybe sixteen or seventeen years old, with shockingly bright blond hair pulled up into a bun. Weird blond. Like, yellow. It's hard to pull my eyes away to actually look at her properly.
"G-good day, little miss." She stammers a little as she speaks, suddenly jerking as she moves stiffly.
All at once, her feet slide, crossing into an awkward stance while she grabs for the edge of her skirt with one hand and raises the other out to the side. She even bends her knees to the point where she's almost kneeling down while lowering her head to look at the floor. Her skirt is too short though, so she misses it a few times as she tries to grab it. Fumbling makes her wobble slightly with her feet crossed like that, before she manages to hook the edge and sort of lift it a little bit in her strange kneeling posture.
I have no idea what her strangely elaborate movements are supposed to be about, I can't even begin to guess how to respond. But she hardly even gives me a chance, because she says, "This way," and spins on her heel hardly a moment later. Without another word, she begins to lead me to the far end of the room, since the other rail units are already lined up along the sides of the water. I blink a couple times, but there's nothing else to do except follow.
When I a small thought from earlier, I glance away from the yellow bun. Over to the side, confirming the impression I got at a glance from seeing everyone standing in the water. The women are definitely washing the rail units. But why? Aren't we about to go into battle? Why would we need to be clean for that? They never even bothered to teach us what being clean was before.
We walk slowly to the other end of the room, keeping toward the right wall, and I can see the tension in the woman's bare shoulders the whole way. When I glance over to the left to look at the other women, they also seem a bit tense, but not nearly as much as this woman. After we reach the end of the line of rail units, she goes a little way further, taking us to the far right corner of the water. It's right near where the water flows in. Then she steps down into the water, submerging up to her thighs. Her short skirt just barely brushes the surface of the water. So that's why they're like that... Then I look down a little, keeping a frown off of my face. Will I even be able to stand in this?
Trying not to let my worry show through, I set my basket down on the side. Then lower my foot into the water. As soon as my toes touch the surface, it strikes me how hot it is. It's nothing like the cold water of the stream. I slide down to sit on the edge, sinking my feet into the hot water and immediately feel a wave of relaxation wash over me. Who would have imagined that hot water felt so good?
I carefully lower myself from the edge, making sure to keep my hands on the side. I don't know if my issues with being submerged in water from the river are going to act up, and I still don't know if I can stand here. I really don't feel like almost drowning before I go into battle.
I manage to slide into the water up to my chest before the feeling of being underwater finally triggers the flashbacks. Pain and the bite of icy water rushing into my lungs fills my mind and I grit my teeth. I squeeze my eyes shut as I convulse a little, forcing the thoughts away after a moment.
There's no icy water here, only hot water, I tell myself. It's different. Totally different.
I open my eyes one more time, immediately seeing the blond woman staring at me in shock.
I wasn't able to maintain my blank expression through my flashbacks. I freeze, my entire body going totally still. No idea what to do. The next instant, I sweep my eyes across the room again. There are no handlers in here? Right, no handlers, just like before. No one to see. No one to notice.
I let out a trembling sigh when I realize they weren't here to see me slip up. Besides, now that I'm closer to the surface of the water, the hazy air makes it really hard to see anything clearly. Even the other rail units probably can't see me well here. I let out another long, slow breath and let my blank expression return. This woman... she's looking at me with a complicated expression. She's the only one who knows.
Then she speaks to me, her voice hardly rising above a whisper. "Miss, what are you doing here, with these rail units? Are you alright?"
"I... am a rail unit," I answer, unable to help my hesitation. What else am I supposed to say?
"Hmm?" She doesn't seem convinced at all.
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"I'm not like the others because I'm broken," I admit.
"I... see..." she mutters, but it still sounds like she doesn't believe it. Well, it's not like I have to convince her anyway. When she doesn't say anything else, I finish lowering myself into the water. My feet can only barely touch the bottom if I stand on my toes, but my mouth and nose would still be underwater, so I need to hold myself up using the edge of the floor outside the water.
While I hang on, the woman begins to wash me, scrubbing with some sort of textured cloth and soap. I may be dirty, and I may be accustomed to being dirty living as a peasant. However, it's nothing compared to the other rail units that have never been washed before. Especially since I took a little time to wash myself yesterday. In no time at all, the woman has scrubbed the dirt from my skin. She moves up and down, getting my arms and legs clean too. The hot water is really nice, but I still can't help but flinch a little each time the flashbacks come. They're much more mild than usual though, so that's nice. The hot water really is very different.
As she works, I figure I may as well talk to her. More information could always be helpful. To start... "Hey... what is this that we're standing in?" I ask quietly. I want to know what sort of thing is used to hold so much water.
"This? This is a tub," she looks surprised by the question, but answers anyway.
I take that as permission to ask more questions. It can't hurt to ask, right? "Where are we? What is this building?"
"I think this is a facility used for the rail units," she answers. So she's not sure? I got the impression that she worked here so I thought she would know. Maybe it's more complicated?
"Do you work here?"
"No, miss, I normally work in the house of Charles Ordlyn, but I was ordered to serve here today, for this event it would seem..." she speaks in a low voice.
So from the sound of it, the handlers brought in outside help to... wash us? The woman wiggles a finger in a circle, so I carefully turn around while holding onto the side of the tub. I have to stop briefly when my body nearly convulses from the feeling of the water flowing against my skin, but it only lasts a moment.
"You seem pretty smart for a rail unit," she comments when I respond correctly to the vague gesture, and starts to scrub my back.
I hold back the 'Oh?' that wants to slip out in response. "Have you met rail units before?" I ask instead. Where would she be able to meet other rail units?
"Well no, but all the stories say they're just mindless killing machines." So it was just rumors, I guess.
I bite down another sound of understanding. Rail units don't do that. "We aren't stupid, they just don't teach us much."
"That makes sense." Facing away as she scrubs my back, I can only guess what sort of expression she might be making.
She's also quick to finish washing my back, then starts scrubbing my hair.
"So... what's your name?" I ask, but wince a little when it comes out too human sounding. I'm not sure what else to talk about while she works though.
"Nana," she answers. I want to give her my name, but I know I shouldn't right now, so I stay quiet. "Your hair is awfully white, you... wouldn't happen to be Shona, would you, miss?" she says quietly. Shona? I guess that's short for Shonamakase?
"No, I don't think so."
"Hmm..." she mumbles.
"What does having white hair have to do with that though?" I can't help but ask. Maybe I can learn a little more about my strange hair color?
"It's just that people from Shona have more distinctive hair colors than people from Melphira," she explains. So, is that why Minarike's hair was kind of blue? She's right, it certainly is distinctive. But then... if my hair is white like this, maybe I actually did come from there after all? That's certainly unexpected...
"Does that mean you're from Shonamakase?" I ask, turning my mind back to the topic. She does have incredibly yellow hair, I've never seen anything quite like it before. "And uhh, why do you call it Shona?" I think my speech has completely shifted back to normal, but she doesn't even seem to notice.
She giggles a little at the second question. "Most people just shorten it to Shona since it's a mouth full." Well, I guess that makes sense, it is kind of hard to say. Then she returns to my original question. "I'm half. My father came here to Melphira, where he met my mother."
"Ahh," I say quietly. Maybe I was born that way too. Before long, she has washed me completely clean. Since the other rail units are so filthy, they still have a long way to go, dark sludgy water slowly overflowing the sides of the tub as it is replaced with the clean water pouring from the far wall.
While the rest of the women continue to work on the rail units, I ask Nana, "No one here seems to be scared of the rail units, why is that?"
"Well, we were commanded to clean them, it's not like we can just disobey because we're afraid. We were told that the nobles would keep them under control, so..." she shrugs. "We just have to do our work believing that. Besides, I can count myself lucky. Unlike those things, you're just a little cutie," she says with a grin. She really doesn't think I'm a rail unit, does she...? She's definitely not thinking it through, why else would I be here? Well, whatever, I shrug mentally and move on to the next thing bothering me.
"So why are we getting washed anyway?"
Nana shrugs. "I don't know, they just told us to wash the rail units to make them presentable for the ceremony. I don't really know what kind of ceremony it might be though."
"Presentable? Presentable to who?" I feel my pulse quicken at the thought. With all the trouble I've had lately, dealing with high status people makes me really nervous. I have to remind myself that whatever is going on here, it's already been arranged by the AR program and of course I won't be dealing with anyone since I'm just a single rail unit now, mixed into a big group of other rail units. We aren't people, so they won't interact with us like people. I have no need to worry about status differences right now.
"No idea," she answers simply. That was a stupid question, I realize. If she doesn't know about the ceremony, she wouldn't know who will be there. "Anyway, what's that basket for? It's got all sorts of stuff in it," she comments while glancing at it, just a short distance from the edge of the tub.
"Things I'll need for the battle," I tell her even though she still doesn't believe me.
"Hmmm?" she coos playfully. "And how do you think it'll go?"
Even though she's patronizing me a little, I answer seriously. "With all my preparations," and a premonition, I add silently to myself, "I might just stand a chance."
"Mm, mm," she just smiles and nods. I feel like she's just enjoying chatting and isn't really listening, but... oh well. Honestly, I'm also enjoying just being able to talk completely openly for once. Not to mention, this hot water feels incredible. Like it's soaking through my entire body. It's so relaxing it's not even triggering me anymore. Yes, the water is nice, the water is fine, it's not going to hurt me... I tell myself repeatedly, with the vague idea that this experience might help fix my fear of water.
But after relaxing a little longer, I start to feel kind of dizzy. I wonder what this feeling is? It makes it a little hard to hold onto the edge of the tub. If I let go I'll end up drowning again, so I pull myself up out of the water before something goes wrong.
"You look a bit overheated, you should head out," Nana says. She steps up out of the water and takes my hand. Then she helps me back toward the entrance. I can still walk on my own even if I'm a bit wobbly, but I don't turn down her help anyway. It feels really nice after all. "Baths tend to leave children overheated if they stay in too long," Nana explains, "my apologies, I should have been more careful."
"What's a bath?" I ask. I thought she called it a tub, but the way she used the word was a little different, and my head is still kind of off.
"Mm? A bath is when you wash off in a bathtub," she sounds a little worried and presses a hand to my forehead for a few moments. Oh, so that's how it works, tub is short for bathtub, which you take baths in... It takes way too long for me to wrap my head around her explanation. So I stop thinking for a little and just walk as she finishes checking me and we continue.
We walk around the tub, past the other rail units. It looks like they're closer to finished now, they look mostly clean and the women are working on washing out their hair now.
Nearly at the entrance, I wobble a little again, and suddenly feel my foot slip when I try to catch my balance. My feet glide right over the surface of the floor, slipping out from under me. Nana makes a small grunt, lifting me up by my hand as I'm falling. I hang in the air for a moment before she sets me down gently while releasing a labored breath. "Be careful, the floor is very slippery when it's wet," she warns me.
"R-right," I stammer. I guess I did need her help to walk after all. I didn't know the floor was that slippery. I tighten my grip on her hand a little.
"It's a good thing you're so small and light though, little miss," she smiles as we cross the small distance left to the entrance. At the door, she picks up a pale colored thing from a stack of them. It's some sort of cloth, just big and rectangular. But it has little bits of fuzzy cloth or thread all over the surface. It reminds me of the carpet Eryk had. It's a lighter, more pale brown color than any normal cloth I've seen before, not that far off of white. "Let's get you dried off first," Nana says as she holds it out toward me.
"Umm, what is that?" I point and ask.
"This? Just a towel," she responds, as she starts to pat and rub it against my skin. It's so soft! In moments, I'm completely dry. Wow, is that towel really just made of cloth? It doesn't look like there's anything else just looking at it though. Once my skin is dry, she works on my hair, which takes a lot longer. She holds the towel on both sides and pats up and down many times. It kind of feels like she's tossing my hair with each movement, clapping her hands together on my hair over and over.
"You have such pretty hair, miss" she compliments me. "You'll be a real beauty when you grow up." I suppress the conflicted look I would normally have in response to that comment. I'm much more concerned with living through today. Nana just happily continues to work on my hair.
Even though it takes her some time, my hair soon feels mostly dry. "Would you like me to do anything with your hair? How do you normally wear it?" she asks.
"Well..." I think about it a little. I always wore my hair down as a rail unit, but started wearing it up at the orphanage. So I should probably keep wearing it down now, but will that really work in the coming battle? Maybe it would be better if I put it all up in a bun or something, then I wouldn't need to worry about it. Because I seriously have enough to worry about already. I don't have a stick to put it up really well, but I do have... my thoughts trail off when they go to the bandages in my basket. Which I don't have. Since I was all dizzy and lightheaded getting out of the bath, I forgot to pick it up.
"U-umm, I forgot my basket!" I tell Nana.
"Oh, you did. One moment, I will go get it for you." She drapes the towel over my shoulders, then walks back toward the other end of the room. I sigh a little, relieved. Then the towel catches my attention as I wait. It's my first chance to look at something fluffy like this from close up. Peering down, it seems that the fluffy texture comes from a whole lot of tiny loops of thread coming up off the surface. Huh... I rub my finger over, watching each bit as each one slides past. Though it seems like they aren't just individual threads, maybe each one is made from a few threads wound together?
I let the towel fall to my shoulders again, just enjoying the feeling as I wait for Nana to walk back over. She returns, holding out the basket and placing it into my arms. I can't help but sigh as the reassuring weight falls into my hands.
"Now, let's get you dressed and on your way," she says pleasantly, and I nod. Nana leans down, taking the towel from my shoulders and wrapping it around my body a couple times, then tucking one corner into the top so it stays in place. "There, all set," she smiles.
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Nana walks through the curtain and I follow behind her. Back in the smaller room from earlier, there is only one handler standing nearby, the mass of filthy brown rail unit footprints completely cleaned away from the room around him, everything back to a shining white. The rest of the room is empty. His eyes flick up to Nana first, then down to me as I exit behind her, stopping my breath in my throat.
"Unit 1A, you're early. Remain on standby until the other units are finished."
I catch myself before I nod. "Understood."
Then he addresses Nana, saying, "Servant. You are not needed beyond here. Return to the bath, your superiors will notify your group when you can leave."
"Yes, sir."
"Oh, and take that towel back with you," he adds as she begins to turn away.
"Yes, sir." she responds once more. Then she kneels down with her back to the handler, giving me a complicated expression, somewhere between apologetic and surprised, as she removes my towel. Nana walks quickly back through the curtain, leaving just me and the handler standing alone in the room.
I stand there briefly, as still as I can. I guess I just wait now. Just me and the handler. What if he notices something? He doesn't seem to be paying attention to me though.
So I wait.
And wait.
...
I can't do this!
It's hardly been any time at all, each moment stretching longer and longer as I try to stand still and stay quiet in front of the handler. I'm going to start vibrating with nervous energy if this keeps up. I don't know what's happening, where we're going, what we're doing. Completely clueless, I need more information!
What is this about some ceremony before the battle? My twitchy mind latches onto the topic. We're going to war, right? If it's a ceremony then... maybe they are going to pray to Rostor for our success?
No no no wait. My mind grinds to a halt as a bit of old gossip I heard floats to the surface at the thought of Rostor. Jess was talking about how she heard the priests talking about something big coming up around the time of the time of the Summer Solstice. The way she said they were vague and secretive made me think it was related to the upcoming battle at the time, but I didn't know why priests in the church would be talking about that.
Now, hearing about it from the other side, I can start to put the pieces together. The priests were getting ready for an event, and now so are we. So if priests will be involved, we must be doing something related to the church, or at least the gods. So my initial thought about praying to Rostor may not actually be that far off the mark.
That said, will we actually be going to the church for all of this? They washed us to make us presentable, so maybe we are. Or maybe they're taking us somewhere else where we shouldn't be dirty. Like the castle? Isn't the man in charge... I think about it briefly, but I can't remember his name from when I heard it before. Even so, shouldn't that man, who's in charge of this city, be involved in the ongoing war with our enemies?
My head says it makes sense, he has to have some stake in whether our country wins or loses, right? But I still don't know nearly enough about how things work to be sure of that. Maybe if our country loses, he keeps running the city for the other country instead. Then it wouldn't matter who wins, would it?
I feel like I'm at a dead end in my guessing. No closer to any sort of answers. I need something. Anything.
The handler is right there. I know he knows. But talking to him... My breath nearly catches in my throat at the thought. But I need more information. My nerves are going to turn to mush by the time the other rail units get out of the bath if I don't do something.
I draw up all my courage. It's not enough to get me to move one step closer to the handler. Which is stupid because there's nothing he could physically do to me himself. But I can't do it anyway. As long as he doesn't notice anything, it will be fine.
"What are we doing next?" I ask in my flattest, most unemotional rail unit drone.
His face twitches with hidden surprise, sending trickles of cold sweat down my back. But he answers evenly, "the rail units will have their hair cut before we move out."
"Hair cut?" I repeat the term for clarification.
"If hair is too long, it could impede movement in battle," he responds.
"Understood." That's all I have the heart for. I have to stand perfectly still, hiding the rapid thumping of my heart. Please don't hear it...
When I manage to calm myself enough, I can actually consider what he said. They're going to cut our hair. I still don't want to cut my hair, and it turns out my thought about long hair being an issue in combat was more on-point than I initially realized. I guess I will get it tied up. It gives me a reasonable excuse to be anywhere but in front of this handler right now. I turn around and walk back into the room with the bath as smoothly and subtly as I can. I think I hear the handler mutter "huh?" as I go though, my heart cringing at the attention.
As expected, Nana is just on the other side of the door, currently sitting against the right hand wall near the corner of the room. Not far from the stacks of towels. It looks like she's resting with her eyes closed. "Hey, Nana," I say and she opens her eyes. She jolts a little when she sees me.
She pauses, considering her words I think. "1A was it?" she asks, looking a little nervous. "So you really are a rail unit, huh?"
"I told you I was," I say. Then with my back to the rest of the room, I show her an awkward grin. "Just a broken one."
"Ahh..." I don't know if that makes her relieved or just more worried. Judging from her conflicted expression, she isn't sure either. "So, what is it?" she asks.
"The handler said we're going to get our hair cut next. I don't want to cut my hair, so I figured I'd try tying it up. Can you help me?"
"Oh, sure. Do you have anything to tie it with though?"
"Yeah, you can use some of these bandages," I say while pulling out one already cut short enough that it should work. I hand it to her and she eyes it a little skeptically, but just shrugs.
"Sure, I can do that. How do you want it tied?" she asks, straightening out the crumpled up bandage while the tension in her face and shoulders slowly recedes.
"Can you put it in a bun? I want it as short and out of the way as possible."
"Hmm, a bun on someone your age..." she mutters, looking somewhat concerned. "Well, form over function I suppose. I don't think anyone would complain over a rail unit doing it anyway..." I turn around and let her work. I get the impression she's worked with hair a lot because her hands move quickly, twisting my hair, pulling it a few different ways, and then she's wrapping and tying the bandage around to hold it all in place.
"Done."
"Wow, fast!" I breathe to myself. It hardly took her more than a few moments to put all my hair up.
"It's nothing fancy, of course it's quick," she giggles a little.
"Still, thank you. I've only ever put my hair up a little bit before. Having someone else do it is a big help."
"True, but shouldn't you learn how to do it yourself? Here, I'll show you." Without further comment, she pulls at the tie until it comes out and pulls my hair back down, running her fingers through it a few times until it all hangs loosely.
I blink a little, but don't stop her or anything. More time doing this is less time near the handler.
Then she moves to sit in front of me and undoes her own bun. She lets her shockingly blond hair down, repeating the same process and running her fingers through to work out any snags. It takes her a little more effort it seems, since she just washed my hair. Once it is all down, I see that her hair is actually pretty long, going all the way to the middle of her back.
"First, you gather all your hair," she explains while moving. She gathers her hair in her hands, pulling it all together behind her. I mimic her movements, pulling all of my hair together as well. "Next, you twist," with one hand near her head and one hand holding in the middle, she twists her hair repeatedly.
I watch the way she holds it near her head to keep it from moving, while also twisting with her other hand. I try to do the same thing, but it's pretty difficult to do. Especially with my small hands, and while working with so much hair. Hers may go down her back, but mine is below my knees down like this.
I lose a few strands as my hand slips, but I snag them with a finger and pull them back into place with my other hand. "Yes, just like that, keep twisting it," Nana says encouragingly while she glances over at me. It looks like she's already done with this step, and is waiting for me to finish. "Good, once you get the hair twisted nicely, you get it to start wrapping around itself." She shows me how the hair near her scalp starts to spin all around itself when it's twisted up like this. "Then you keep wrapping. Slide your hand down all the way to the ends so you can keep wrapping it around.
I try to do that too, but I can't. My hair is so long I can't reach the ends. When she sees this, she looks dumbfounded for a few moments. "That is... new. I've never seen hair so long you can't reach the ends by yourself..." After thinking a little longer, she suggests, "try pulling it to the side with your other hand so you can get to the ends, like this." Then with her right hand still holding onto her hair, she grabs it with the left and pulls it off the the side, sliding the hair through her right hand until it gets all the way to the end, without her even having to reach that far behind herself.
I do the same, I pull to the left with my left hand so it will pull the hair through my right. When I've extended my left arm all the way without reaching the ends, I try pulling to the right side with my other hand. I manage to get to the ends at last, but by this point, all of the twists seem to have unwound, so I have to start over.
Twist, twist, twist, and pull, I say to myself as I repeat the actions. Doing all of this over and over with my arms raised awkwardly behind myself is surprisingly tiring for my arms and shoulders.
I manage to get my left hand back on the base of my head to hold that without all of the twists falling out this time. "Now just keep twisting it around the base," Nana instructs. I try, but pushing the entire length of hair closer somehow causes all of the hair twisted up at the base to fan out, undoing all of my work one more time.
I sigh a little and Nana looks worried. "I didn't realize just how much harder hair that long would make it to do yourself..." she mutters. "Still, it should be doable. You just need a little more practice. Also, let's try this, it should make it a little easier. First, start by just tying your hair into a ponytail." I nod and use the short bandage to just tie a ponytail, trying to knot it like I've seen Emily do before so it stays. "Now that it's held there securely, make the bun."
One more time, I twist my hair up, over and over again. I use both hands to get to the ends, and it feels like the tie holding the hair into a ponytail really helps keep it from all coming undone. Then I carefully wrap it like she says. I need to keep holding onto the bun to keep it all from falling out. I have to keep letting go so I can get past with my other hand to keep wrapping, until I've eventually finished. Once I've gotten all the way to the ends, wrapping everything around the base as instructed, I grab another short section of bandages from my basket to tie it with, over top of the first tie. With that, it's finished... more or less. Just by feel, it doesn't seem particularly tight or well done.
"Not... that bad... for your first time... with so much hair..." As Nana continues to add more excuses, I just shake my head, very slightly.
"I don't normally wear my hair like this, but now that I know how, I'll keep practicing anyway." My eyes travel to the other rail units, it seems that they are nearly finished getting washed up. "But can you do it for now? I can't afford to have it fall out in battle."
She hesitates, staring at me for just a moment when I say 'battle,' before nodding. "Sure, sure." She quickly undoes my hair, then ties it back up again. "You really do have pretty hair," she comments again when she's finished.
"Thanks," I say quietly. "And thanks again for the help with my hair. Oh, and for washing me too," I add. I forgot to thank her for that earlier.
"It's no problem. This was a much more interesting assignment than expected." We sit briefly as the other rail units are finishing up. They start trickling out of the bath, first one at a time, but then all at once. Now I won't have to endure being by that handler alone for too long.
I turn to Nana. "Guess it's time to go."
"Yeah. Good luck out there, miss rail unit," she says with a small grin. I give her a faint grin in return, then let out a long breath and sink back into a blank expression once more. While the other rail units are still being dried off, I walk back through the curtain into the other room.
It looks like they're getting ready for the rail units to come back. Besides the one handler from before, there are two others, as well as about twenty women standing a little further away, dressed similarly to the ones in the bath room.
I see them carrying a number of items, from short knives to strange tools that look like a pair of blades pinned together so they can pivot. Wait no, I recognize those, Marrianne had them that one time. Scissors, I think they were called. I also see the handle of a broom off in the back, sticking up above the women, though I can't see the one holding it
If the bath is any indication, these women are supposed to cut our hair.
Come on, you can do this, I silently urge myself forward. The sooner I make myself do it, the less time they have to watch me.
I approach the same handler from before. The other two standing nearby look over as well. I clamp down on my emotions, forcing them all down into a tiny box. My blank face an impenetrable wall to hide my real self from them.
"What... did you do with your hair?" he asks slowly.
Blank. No feelings. Completely normal rail unit! I scream in my head.
"I shortened it to avoid issues in combat." Clearly stumped, he turns to the other handlers. They both shrug.
There is nothing normal about me! I shriek.
"Move along," he says, just sounding confused at this point.
"Understood." I walk right past him and the women, into the large hall we came in through before.
When I find no one in the next room, I spend a while breaking down in a corner, shaking uncontrollably as my heart hammers and I roll around on the floor, stifling any sound so I don't draw attention from the next room back. I thought they would do something. Three handlers with their focus directly on me, acting in ways a rail unit shouldn't act. Maybe they passed it off as me being broken? I have no idea.
As soon as I've recovered enough of my sanity, I move over to that strange staircase, better hidden than the big empty hallway, to finish freaking out where I'm less likely to be caught.