Unfortunately, the peaceful scene of two people cooking soon devolved into a mess, as everyone swaggered into the kitchen and bustled around. For some reason, Nakama had brought along a small suitcase full of food products, and before Isabelle’s horrified eyes, began to process them. With her sentient knife Stone in hand, Gaius and Isabelle’s little sister diced a slab of meat into tiny cubes, before expertly sweeping them into a pot.

The sight of her doing so sent Gaius into a fluster, but he didn’t dare stop Nakama, not with a knife in her hand.

“Did you teach her that?” Isabelle whispered in his ear.

“What? No!” Gaius rubbed his nose. “I’m as worried as you are! Oh, she’s moving on to the onions…that was fast.”

“Did Xanadu teach her to cook?” Isabelle wondered.

“That’s probably it,” Gaius muttered. Edging over to Xanadu, the two asked the Phantom Blade about Nakama and her cooking, only for her to shake her head.

“Then when did she learn it?” Isabelle asked.

“I think she learned it while watching that television thingy,” Xanadu replied. “Now that I think about it, she did spend quite some time watching The Spectacled Chef.”

Gaius wanted to ask about that programme and the odd premise its title hinted at, but decided to hold his tongue instead.

“Well, it does seem to place emphasis on safety,” Isabelle murmured. “What do you think, Gaius?”

“You’re the one who stopped me from using the stove previously, so there’s really no point in deferring to me on this bit,” Gaius replied. “Your call here.”

Isabelle glanced at Nakama, who was thoroughly absorbed with chopping the dishes, and then rolled her eyes. “We’ll let her cut up the ingredients, but she’ll have no part in the actual cooking.”

“Aww…”

Reaching out to bop La-Ti on the head lightly, Isabelle pulled Gaius away, to supervise what was Nakama’s first attempt at contributing to the cooking process from a safe distance. The two of them didn’t speak, fearful that they would distract Nakama and open her up to the possibility of injury, while Xanadu was already looking after La-Ti.

In Nakama’s defence, her handling of Stone was very professional. It was a sight that reminded Gaius of the fact that children would eventually grow up…and that Nakama was indeed less dependent on him.

“You’re smiling?” Isabelle asked.

“My little sister’s all grown up,” said Gaius. “What’s there to be sad about?”

Isabelle considered his words for a moment, and then nodded. “You’re right. Even if the two of us aren’t physically here anymore, she’ll be alright. This is but one of the many reasons that she’ll be fine.”

“And she won’t be alone either,” Gaius replied, his gaze turning to Xanadu and La-Ti. “She’ll have family.”

“How far did you plan for all this?” Isabelle asked. “You got Xanadu to come with us after the first few days of the Conference of the Four. At that time, you shouldn’t have known what your destiny was.”

“Oh, I wanted someone to take care of you and Nakama, if anything ever went south,” Gaius replied. “By and large, I think it’s a great decision.”

“I can’t help but agree, although you really have a habit of taking in all kinds of people.” Isabelle leaned on him, before poking his cheeks lightly. “It’s a good thing, I guess. No good deed goes unrewarded.”

“I didn’t do all this for any reward, though.” Gaius chuckled, before raising his voice. “Thank you, Nakama.”

His sister, who had just sliced up a slab of meat into fine strips, looked up. “But there’s still a lot left!”

Grinning at her pouting face, Gaius gently steered her away, rubbing her cheeks at the same time. “Any more, and we’ll all be stuffed to the brim. Thanks for helping out, Nakama.”

“We’ll handle the stove from here,” Isabelle added. “If you want to learn, I suppose you can watch us from here. However, if you are to ever cook, Xanadu must watch over you until she thinks you’re good enough to go without supervision.”

“How about me?” La-Ti asked.

“You?” Isabelle’s lips twitched. “You should wait until you’re a bit older.”

“Oh.”

While La-Ti was pondering over Isabelle’s words, she sidled over to Gaius and asked, “From what I understand, La-Ti right now is a soul occupying a sculpture, right? Something like Nexus?”

“On the surface, yes,” Gaius replied. “What of it?”

“Can his body grow?” Isabelle asked. “Or can he swap it out for a taller body easily?”

“You’re asking the guy who’s only expertise is in killing and blowing things up,” Gaius replied. “The Chanter of Innocents is probably the best person to ask when it comes to La-Ti.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Can you summon him later?” Isabelle asked. “I want to ask about La-Ti.”

“Summon?” Gaius found her choice of words rather amusing, but instead of dwelling on that bit, he nodded. “Okay, I’ll try. Why the sudden interest, though?”

“No particular reason. I was just thinking that La-Ti might feel frustrated if he realised that he wasn’t growing any taller, that’s all,” said Isabelle. “But you did teach him how to carve, right?”

“It’s mostly Nakama doing the teaching those days, though. She’s far better at it than me.”

Nakama beamed at those words. “He’s learning really, really quickly!”

“Of course, he is. You’re the one teaching him, after all.” Isabelle chuckled. “Alright, just stand to the side here, while the two of us handle the food.”

The sounds of oil crackling soon filled the kitchen, and Xanadu, who was as thoughtful as she was skilled, led La-Ti out into the living room, where they began to bustle around in arranging the cutlery and utensils.

It didn’t take long before they were done. Nakama had chosen not to speak, simply observing Gaius and Isabelle as they stir-fried the onions and the neat little cubes, which made him feel somewhat depressed. After all, Gaius was unable to show off whatever tips and tricks he had, something he had been looking forward too ever since the topic of cooking came up.

Sighing inwardly, he scooped the stir-fried meat cubes onto two large plates, before bringing them out, only to freeze the moment he stepped out of the kitchen.

The path towards the dinner table was flanked by two lines of little soldiers.

“Are those the soldiers you told me about?” Gaius asked, turning his eyes to Nexus, who was floating around. “The ones that tried to, uh, rebel?”

“The very same,” Nexus replied. “La-Ti got them to form up like this. Apparently, he thinks it’s a cool sight.”

The child in Gaius agreed heartily. It was indeed a rather cool sight, given that behind those two lines, there were small parade contingents marching around suavely. “How many of those little soldiers are there?”

“Around six hundred,” Nexus replied. “Took us — that is, me, Stone and Lightning — quite a few hours to educate properly. Now they’re all full of hopes and dreams about the future.”

Gaius wanted to ask what those so-called hopes and dreams were, but he abruptly decided that he didn’t want to know after all. Clearing his throat, he said, “What can they do?”

“March around in formations, provide an endearing audience that can clap whole-heartedly, and amuse children. Oh, they can also put on an orchestra.”

“Oh.” With the wind taken out of his sails, Gaius decided to place the two plates down onto the table first. “Can they speak?”

“Like I said, I’m an exception. They’re intelligent artefacts, but there’s always a difference. Even the ones used in the Display C2, with Xanadu as the model for the aide, can’t speak either.”

“Disappointing…is what I would say, but intelligent artefacts are really rare, so…” Gaius shrugged, before returning to the kitchen. Isabelle was now brewing up a nice pot of hot soup, and it would not do if she were to be surprised by a horde of tiny artefacts.

“What’s up?” Isabelle, who was leaning on a cabinet full of spices, asked.

“There’s a small army of intelligent artefacts marching around in formation outside, so don’t be shocked later,” Gaius replied.

“Small army?”

“Yeah, don’t think too hard about it.” He turned to Nakama. “You two were just playing Risk yesterday, right? Why did those little fellows suddenly come to life?”

“I don’t know,” Nakama replied. “Is that…going to be a problem?”

“No, just curious.” Gaius hadn’t quite forgotten how Stone came to be; a knife that came to life one day. He knew quite well that Nakama was a dreamwalker, a beastfolk type that no longer existed on Orb. Did her race have any bearing on how those little soldiers became intelligent artefacts? Or was it how those soldiers were made that resulted such an outcome?

It was more food for idle thought, and as the two made way for Isabelle to carry the pot of soup into the living room, Gaius found himself lost in thought.

Lunch…or breakfast, depending on who he asked, was a rather boisterous affair. Isabelle was constantly badgered by the two kids, who were very interested to hear about the places she travelled to with Gaius. Watching over the three of them, Gaius cleared his plate and headed off to wash his dishes.

A thought struck him as he set aside a dried plate, and Gaius turned his thoughts to his intelligent artefact. Nexus. Can you hear me?

“Gaius?” A voice echoed in his head. “What’s wrong?”

No, I just didn’t want to disturb the others. Do me a favour. With the full might of the Library, I want you to check my body. Specifically, the energies inside. You’ve already given me some ideas, but that was without a detailed examination. Since we’re here, I figured we should get this over and done with too.

There was a slight pause, before Nexus agreed. As he stepped out of the kitchen, the artefact slipped off the table and followed him into the long hallways of the Library.

“Sorry for pulling you out,” said Gaius.

“No problem for me,” said the sculpture. “Come on, let’s get you to the infirmity.”

Leading him to a rather nostalgic room — it was the one that Nakama had spent a few months in, after the Last Star, Nox, attacked Heritage Basestation. Back then, Nexus had hypothesised that Nakama’s coma was due to her taking in a small, but potent, portion of Nox’s power, resulting in her dreams becoming too vivid.

Now that he thought about it, that remnant power had probably enhanced her traits as a dreamwalker, so much so that she couldn’t control it.

“Stand there, please.”

“That’s the bed Nakama was lying in so many years ago,” said Gaius.

“Yes, it is. It’s the best facility for your particular request.”

Gaius clicked his teeth. “This bed. The best facility.”

Nexus chuckled, and then pointed at a rather familiar bed. It was the one Gaius had been lying on after his attempt to assassinate the Last Star, but at least there weren’t any “Yes. Incidentally, that bed over there was the best in dealing with internal injuries.”

“These are beds.”

“This is Orb, have you forgotten?”

“On what basis do they work on? Nanomachines?” Gaius paused. “But you do have a good point. Alright, so I just need to sit down on this bed?”

“It’ll be better if you lie down on it. Tuck yourself up nice and comfy, and let me do the rest.”

“Alright.” Patting some dust off his clothes, Gaius removed his shoes and changed his Formless Pauldrons to that of a thin set of robes. After he was done, he plopped down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling.

“If you’re ready, I’ll be starting.”

Gaius nodded his head. “Go ahead.”

White light danced around him, gathering into a large sigil…or to be more accurate, a formation. Sigils linked with each other, creating a hemisphere around the bed. Fine lines of gold light began to run across his body, and for some inexplicable reason, Gaius began to feel sleepy.

“Go ahead and take a nap,” said Nexus. “This should take around thirty minutes. Don’t worry, I’ll inform Isabelle about where you are.”

“Thanks, Nexus.” Gaius yawned, before flipping over to face the pillow. With most of the bright lights blocked out, his fatigue only intensified.

He went out like a light moments later.