Something strangely important about an entire society hidden as something completely benign? I was about to point out how stupid that was, but then I remembered all the age limits we’d set as humans. Sixteen for driving. Eighteen for joining the army. Twenty-one for drinking. And those were just the ones I was used to, not the global standard. And I’d never once questioned why they were what they were. They just… were.

“Maybe it’s to protect kids from being swayed by their parents’ beliefs?” I theorized. It made sense to me, seeing as thirteen was around when kids started to go through puberty. “Let them make their own choices instead of the ones their parents want them to?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t really care.” Jun muttered. “But thanks for not making fun of me for the god I pray to. Even the most open-minded people I’ve met give me a strange look when they find out.”

I smiled and nodded, even though Jun could only see half of the gesture, and turned as I heard Okeria finishing up with his prayers. “We’re stuck with each other for at least another week, so let’s make the best of it. Because I am not wasting years of my life training for what I already know.”

Jun paused, then turned to face Okeria’s approach. “Neither am I.” She whispered. “Not again.”

----------------------------------------

The week that followed passed by without a hitch. I tried to strike up a conversation with Jun whenever Okeria wasn’t listening, but she didn’t seem to be fully listening to me. As if she was otherwise occupied with her own thoughts, but didn’t want to share a single one of them. She spoke freely to Okeria, though, and I could barely understand the words they spoke.

It was like listening to two people talk about a movie they’d seen, and I hadn’t even seen a trailer. And since I was feigning amnesia, Okeria never once tried to include me in the conversation. My frustration grew and grew as we passed by coral outcropping after coral outcropping, but I couldn’t do anything about it. The only thing worse than being ignored was being scrutinized, and I really didn’t want any of Jun’s people to find out I wasn’t one of them.

When we passed under an arch that had scrawlings in the same language Jun had written her name in, Okeria stopped suddenly. His body tensed up under his armor, and the spine he still carried started to strain under his strength.

“Persephonia wishes to speak ta ya.” He said slowly, turning to Jun and ignoring me completely. “Only ya. She didn’t react ta your friend at all, which either doesn’t bode well or bodes extremely well. I’m warning ya; if ya go see her with anything from that creature in your inventories it won’t end well. Anyone but her and ya’d have a good chance at explaining yourselves, but she won’t give ya a single second ta talk.”

Jun let out a tired chuckle that spoke from experience. “You don’t have to tell me.” She turned to me and gestured for me to come up next to her, then began emptying her inventory of anything that had come from the eel. “Give him everything you took from the eel. We can’t risk anything with Persephonia.”

The thought of giving up my hard-fought spoils didn’t sit right with me, but I nodded and did as Jun asked. I wasn’t strong enough to make my own rules yet, and I wasn’t going to risk my life over some low-level food and materials.

Okeria watched in silence as we dumped everything we’d taken to the ground, not saying a single word until we’d created a fairly large pile of meat, bone, and organs.

“Ya have some pretty huge inventories for someone so fresh.” He noted, then dropped the spine on top of the pile. “Come see me when ya get a moment free from the tyrant’s claws. I’ll be at the community hall, office eleven, for two weeks. If ya don’t come see me by then, I’ll leave a note telling ya where I hid all this.”

“Thanks, Okeria.” Jun said with a nod, pulling the armored figure into a hug and tapping both of his shoulders with her fists. He did the same to her, then waved for us to get going. “We’ll come find you later today.”

“Ya know that isn’t happening.” Okeria laughed, waving as we walked down the path towards a settlement I still couldn’t make out. “See ya in a week.”

I waited until Okeria was unmistakably out of earshot before speaking. “So this Persephonia. Is she going to give us trouble?”

“No more than she’ll give everyone else.” Jun snorted. “You can call her a lot of things, and a few definitions of ‘fair’ are some of those things.”

That reticence she’d shown ever since we talked about Moricla unfortunately hadn't left with Okeria. Jun clammed up the moment she’d finished talking, and didn’t initiate anything of her own for the fifteen minutes of silence we walked in. I still couldn’t see Walkalong anywhere in the distance, and the further we walked, the more I felt that Okeria had just taken us for fools.

Until the air shuddered, then yet another new armored figure stood before us. They were all sleek angles and razor-sharp edges, as if a stealth bomber had been made into a suit of armor, with a helmet that was far smaller than what Jun and I were wearing. Four gleaming orange cuts marked where the person who I assumed was Persephonia’s eyes were, and I felt them skim over me before they settled on Jun.

She snapped into a salute with one hand over her stomach and one fist covering where her upper two eyes would be and began to speak. “Matria Persephonia. I’m–”

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Persephonia held up an open palm and Jun instantly stopped speaking. I felt the rumbling before I heard it, the air shattering and warping around me as it caught up with Persephonia’s intrusion. If I hadn’t had my armor on, the sonic boom would have done some serious damage.

{Can you identify her like you did the Custodian?} I asked The End while I stared at the smaller woman who stood before me.

//I CANNOT.

//INFORMATION ON OTHER SYSTEM-BEARING PERSONS IS UNABLE TO TRANSFER BETWEEN SYSTEM-BEARING PERSONS, ASIDE FROM VERBAL OR WRITTEN COMMUNICATION.

//BEFORE YOU ASK, HOW I COMMUNICATE WITH YOU IS CONSIDERED PART OF THE SYSTEM, AND MUST OBEY ALL OF ITS RULES.

I was about to ask just how The End had given me any information on the Custodian if it was so bogged down in rules, but the woman in front of me began to speak in a voice that demanded I pay attention even if it wasn’t commanding. This was someone who knew how to get people’s attention, even if their tone and body language didn’t show it.

Or maybe it was a function and I was drastically overestimating her natural skills. I’d made that mistake quite a few times over in my old life.

“Thank you for waiting, recruit.” Persephonia said in a soft, almost matronly voice. “You have an explanation for me, yes?”

“Of course Matria.” Jun said with the shallowest of bows. She barely tipped her head down, but apparently that was the proper greeting, as Persephonia nodded in return. “Do you wish to hear it here, or in the safety of Walkalong?”

Persephonia seemed to consider the options for a moment, then shook her head. “Okeria already relayed all the information I need for the moment, so I’ll hear the rest of it in the safety of my office.” A notification popped up over the center of my vision, a simple sentence that said ‘Matria Persephonia Persephonia requests your compliance’.

I raised an eyebrow and looked over at Jun, and she gestured at Persephonia multiple times to try and tell me to accept the invitation. At least that’s what I assumed she was trying to say, and not ‘don’t accept it no matter what she does to you’. I pressed the flashing ‘accept’ prompt and nodded at Persephonia, but she wasn’t even looking at me.

“Very good. Hold tight, recruit.” Persephonia ordered, then shifted to look at me for the first time. “I’ll find something for you to do while we attempt to recover your memories. Hold tight.”

That was a little more than I’d expected, but before I could say anything close to a thank you, it felt like my body was being smashed against the back of my armor. I reflexively shut my eyes against the immense pressure, and when I opened them again I was standing at what I would describe as a bog-standard middle of nowhere town. Except instead of wood and stone, everything was made from coral and… well, some very colourful stone.

A chain-link fence around the place went up twenty feet high, but it was all shimmering silver that looked like it both existed and didn’t exist at the same time. I blinked multiple times and bent over to try and catch a breath I didn’t remember losing, noting that I didn’t see a single person out and about on the gravel paths. For all the buildings, utilities, and shops there should have been some people, but there was nobody.

“I apologize for the swift movement, but it is in both of our best wishes to deal with recruit Keratily’s absence before the other recruits return from hazard training.” Persephonia stated as if her words were absolute fact, and from the sheer display of power, I didn’t want to argue. “The fence will not stop anyone who bears the blood of our people, so step true, recruits.”

Oh fuck. I didn’t want to be found out this early, and definitely not by someone as powerful as Persephonia. “I need a minute, sorry. I don’t feel so good.” I half-lied, flopping onto my ass for emphasis and leaning back to watch the sky. “I’ll follow you two in a few minutes.”

I felt something reach under my back, and suddenly I was staring at a sleek helmet. “Nonsense.” Persephonia said, not looking down to meet my eyes. “There are devices and enchantments to aid you in Walkalong.”

I looked over at Jun for some help, but she just shrugged helplessly.

A second later, we were on the inside of the fence. I looked around in confusion, readying myself for whatever alarm was about to go off, but nothing happened. Had being so close to Persephonia muddled our biological signals? If so, that was a huge security flaw, but I couldn’t bring it up without bringing a mountain of suspicion down on myself.

Jun quickly hopped up next to us and nodded at me, then saluted Persephonia and waited. The leader didn’t respond and began walking towards a huge building that was the centerpiece of the makeshift town; a two-story mishmashed rainbow that seemed to be built into one continuous ring. Two of the flags we’d seen right when we left the floodforest fluttered in the wind above an entryway that was held open with two large white boulders, showing a cluttered room that I assumed was the waiting area.

My assumption didn’t last for long as Persephonia nudged the rocks away and let the doors slam shut behind us. She gently placed me down on a hammock that hung from two hooks that were cemented into the wall, then turned to rummage around in a cabinet whose doors didn’t fully close.

Persephonia turned and pressed something to my chest, waiting for my hands to come up to it before letting go and revealing a small metal bar that was inscribed with far too many runes. “Carry this for at least two hours, and if your recovery is not finished by that time, I will escort you to the emergency medical building.”

She paused, then began answering a question I hadn’t asked. “No, there is no traditional medical facility, as most injuries can be healed by simply donning your armor or drinking medicine. The EMB is exclusively for injuries that cannot be healed by your armor, such as genetic diseases, or those that require additional aid in addition to the armor’s benefits.”

I noted how similar that was to what my group had created before, completely abandoning anything that could be otherwise solved by our armor’s help. Our medical tents had slowly devolved from homesickness and bellyaches to palliative care and procedures that skirted death on the razor’s edge. Setting and healing a broken bone was a painful and lengthy procedure and recovery without the armor, but with it? As long as I had enough battery, nothing like that even bothered me.

“Makes sense.” I agreed with a nod, clutching the bar to my chest to try and get as much of its effects into my core as possible. “Why bother with regular doctors when all you really need are surgeons now.”

The silence coming off of Persephonia began to scare me, but she eventually stopped staring at me and turned to address Jun instead. “Recruit. I need to see your interface.”