Nakama was sitting on her bed when Gaius entered the tent. She was moulding a snowball into a little hand, and as he entered, the little girl jumped off and ran towards Gaius.

She stopped midway and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I—” The little boy couldn’t find words to express his thought, and instead chose to take off the white cloak draped around his shoulders, tossing it at his bed. It landed neatly in the middle, with only the edges flapping somewhat messily. His breathing slow, Gaius walked towards his bed and lied down, his legs dangling off the side of the bed.

It was, perhaps, a rather good representation of his mind right now. Nakama looked at the cloak, before closing the distance between them with a slow walk. Instead of saying anything, however, she sat down beside Gaius and patted his forehead.

Gaius was silent as he watched the little girl try to console her older brother. It was, admittedly, a really odd feeling to be consoled by someone whose age was a couple of decades younger than his actual mental age. But her intentions were all well and good, so it didn’t matter much to him anyway.

A little wooden figurine popped its head out from the cloak that Gaius had tossed onto the bed, and then climbed onto Gaius’ chest and sat there.

“Oh, I forgot you were here,” said Gaius. "Sorry."

“Don’t be,” replied Nexus. “I’ve been told that when people die, it’s a good idea for me to shut up and pretend that I don’t exist.”

“Who’s that, Gaius?”

The little boy mulled over the answer for a moment, while Nexus took a pose. “This guy’s called Nexus…an ultra-intelligent person who’s been stuffed into this wooden doll. He’s very clever.”

“Oh.” Nakama pouted. “Is he your real brother?”

Gaius coughed in rapid succession at that question, and the little wooden figurine tumbled off his chest. “No. How did you even get that?”

“Gai-us, Nex-us…your names are the same.” She blinked innocently. “The senator said that real siblings have similar names.”

“You know, that is a fair point, Master Gaius.” Nexus got back up on its feet. “Now, this must be the sister you were talking about, so let me split some of my resources over to my second incarnation.”

A second wooden figurine stirred to life in Gaius’ tunic, crawling out to exchange a high-five with the first. “Testing, testing. No issues detected.”

“Nakama, this little guy will keep you company from now on. You’ll be able to talk to him, or in emergency cases talk to me through him,” said Gaius.

Her eyes turned into circles, but wilted slightly when she picked up and examined the wooden body that Nexus was occupying. “But it’s so ugly. Look! It’s like five little logs stuck together or something.

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The Nexus near Gaius staggered visibly. Gaius could even hear the sound of its little heart breaking as it tried to nullify the aural damage Nakama had just dealt with it inadvertently.

“Well,” Gaius hurriedly said, “why not remodel it? If you can make great snowmen, surely making these fellas cuter would be a cinch.”

Nexus sat up again at those words. “Make me a better body, like the snowmen outside! I too dislike this frame of mine!”

“Well,” said Gaius, “looks like you have your first commission, Nakama. Make sure your customers are happy. I mean, they are the same person, but still.”

The little girl frowned, and began to examine the little wooden figurine all over again. “What appearance do you want?”

Gaius tilted his head at Nakama as Nexus shot an enquiring look at him, before getting up from the bed. “I’ll be heading out for a while. Play nice, okay?”

The wooden doll and the little girl nodded, and Gaius went outside the tent. The Stellar Core…although he wasn’t sure if he wanted to actually call it that anymore, kept him warm even inside the falling snow, and his eyes gazed into the dull grey firmament that was the Primordial Land.

More snowmen had appeared in the days that Gaius was inside Heritage. Nakama’s latest creations could pass for him now, if not for the fact that they were white and cold. Each of them now depicted him as someone like a hero. One, for instance, had him standing in front of a fallen person, a sword extended. Another had him looking far into the distance, like a visionary.

The corners of his lips curled upwards. Gaius had never used a sword for professional purposes. Sure, he’d waved it around on the odd weekend or two while he was alive, but they were too unwieldly for his tastes. He didn’t want to get started on the Gaius that was staring into the distance — how Nakama actually thought of that pose he had no idea, but just looking at it made him want to roll on the snow to cool off.

“They look better everytime I see them,” said a voice. Gaius whirled around, his hands gripping the hilt of a knife in preparation to silence whoever saw this dark history of his.

Senator Alexandre walked over to the sculpture of Gaius that was looking towards an imaginary horizon, and the little boy released his knife regretfully. “Especially this one. I always felt that you had this special quality around you, and this statue seems to bring it out almost perfectly.”

For a moment, Gaius felt regret at the fact that the man before him was too important to go missing for a day or two. Wiping off whatever emotions he might still have on his face, he greeted the senator politely.

“Like I said before, Gaius, you don’t need to append Senator…” The man shook his head. “Is Nakama inside? One of the Knights that were supposedly absent showed up, so it’ll be nice if we can conclude her treatment today.”

“Conclude?”

“Yes. It’s gone far better than we expected. She shouldn’t have recovered so fast, even if you gave her your share of food. Odd, but welcome.”

Gaius couldn’t help but think about the Campmaster’s son the moment the senator said that, since he did recall the former being forced to hand over his food at one point in time.

“Anyway,” continued Senator Alexandre, “I’m here for the ether cores.”

Gaius nodded, and headed into the tent, where he’d left his backpack when he removed his cloak. He tossed it to the senator. “A hundred plus, I’m a bit lazy to count. More importantly, I came across a bunch of foreign…Harvesters in Heritage earlier. I think they’re from the Western Holdings.”

“From the West?” A shadow flickered across the senator’s face. “I see. We better get a move on, then.”

“Senator?”

The senator raised his hand in farewell, as he jogged towards the depths of the camp. Gaius frowned at that sight, and he couldn’t help but feel a premonition of danger. After relaying the senator’s message to Nakama, who promptly left in high spirits, Gaius turned in for the night. There was something off, but there was no point in losing sleep over it.