The mechanoborgs trudged along a pathless stretch of the Tree of Heaven. They no longer possessed a reliable record of the time they had lost to this journey, as there were no proper days or nights in the darkness of non-being where the tree had rooted, and their instruments were failing them. They had long ago exhausted their munitions, so their guns had become cudgels, and they hunted and defended themselves with titanium spears and vibro-blades like the savages of an age before the Revelation. Their leader, Optus, was certain that they were approaching their destination. He carried with him a compass of crystal and gold, an instrument that would not fail them, because it had been designed from the principles of the world they sought rather than the one from which they came.

Sunwhisper was the youngest and smallest of these men of iron and steel, and he looked upon the Tree of Heaven and its wonders with awe, whereas his tribe and his fathers barely seemed to see it at all. He had been designed to be different from them, and they lacked the neural context required to experience wonder.

"What is that?" He tugged on the hand of one of his machine fathers.

The landscape was rugged and cracked, the long diamond pattern of ash tree bark written at a celestial scale. There were stretches of moss forests that rose out of the cracks like thousand-armed horrors rising from a frozen sea, but they had avoided those in favor of the bark bridges that allowed for a steadier pace. Sunwhisper had caught sight of something white amid the vegetable wall created by the supersized moss, distinct against the dark vegetation, and he pointed it out.

Betamax was the largest of the mechanoborgs, even larger than their leader, and Sunwhisper had always found great comfort in his father's size. He was gentle with his son, but capable of wreaking devastation on anything that threatened the family. A terraformer, he was equipped with tools meant to help reshape the land if they ever found a home, and those tools could be turned to violence in an instant.

"It's watching us," Sunwhisper pitched his voice low despite the fact that the creature he had spied was hundreds of feet away. "Do you think Syringe would want it?"

"A thought with some utility, little Whisper," Betamax replied.

They called over Sunwhisper's eldest brother, who had been designated their researcher in the journey's beginning, before Sunwhisper was born. Already he pulled behind him a wagon chain of samples, both biological and mineral, and he detached himself from them to join the pair observing the anomaly.

"Biological," a series of crystal lenses clicked in place over Syringe's face-plating as he found the proper focus, extending his vision into the thermal and ultraviolet spectrums. "A new species."

"I could catch it," Sunwhisper offered.

"You are not ready," his father disagreed. "We will send Strider."

"No, let me be of use," Sunwhisper's metallic face was softer and more expressive than those belonging to the other mechanoborgs, and his need would have been plain to any human present. Betamax, however, was unmoved.

"I would consider it a test of his capacity," Syringe said. "This one has been operational for over one hundred cycles already. Our knowledge cannot grow without experimentation, and the target in question does not appear sufficiently threatening to warrant your denial." He better understood what made Sunwhisper different than the others did, at least on an intellectual level, and was more willing to indulge him.

"Very well, you may have the run." Betamax nodded to Syringe, who handed the boy a spear fabricated out of titanosteel, a weapon of surpassing sharpness and durability. Sunwhisper took it and beat a wide circle around the white furred creature, nearly perfectly mimicking the stalking routines Strider utilized when deployed on similar hunts. Betamax and Syringe had paused to watch while the rest of their tribe walked on. The creature continued to observe the mechanical humanoids who appeared to be observing him in return, showing no sign of fear. It quirked its head to one side as Sunwhisper appeared out of the moss behind it, its expression almost questioning, undeniably intelligent.

Sunwhisper stabbed it in the throat.

"You will have a spear like this of your own one day," Betamax said, returning the weapon to Syringe after the young mechanoborg had arrived with the white furred thing slung across his back along with the spear.

"I will?" Sunwhisper was filled with pride and the warm praise of his father while Syringe dissected the animal.

"Mammal," the researcher said. "Anatomically analogous to an earth fox, but with the same fundamental physiological differences as the other specimens we have collected. It has a quintessence organ, and the fur is exceptional, more crystal than keratin. It shows signs of the protein decay associated with advanced age. Still, you did well."

"A good omen," Betamax said, "but we have no more time to tarry. Let us be on."

Syringe finished his analysis while they were on the move, and presented the fur to Sunwhisper as a prize.

"It is too grand for me," the young one said. "It should go to our leader."

"You will be wise when you are old," Betamax praised him, filling him with warmth again.

Sunwhisper ran to catch their leader, presenting him with the freshly processed fur. Optus accepted the gift with grace, giving the youngest mechanoborg a blessing in return.

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"In the name of the Maker, and of Orobos, and of Eternity, may you be rewarded for your deeds this day in the service of our people and our mission."

"For the Source," Sunwhisper replied, and the others echoed him.

They went on, and it seemed to Sunwhisper that hardly any time had passed before the landscape changed. They came upon a vast gap in the bark, so large that they could not see the other side, as it appeared to run forever in all directions.

"Here," Optus said, consulting the compass.

They rounded the edge of the gap, the gravity of the Tree of Heaven keeping their feet on its surface even though they were soon walking at a perpendicular angle relative to their previous course. There was light here from a small sun hanging deeper in the tree. In a few more miles, they were met with a row of staves each mounted with a flag of a different color. The row went on as far as they could see, with the colored flags repeating in cycles of twelve.

"Intelligent life imminent," Syringe said.

"This is a border," Optus said. "We should not cross it without permission."

"Permission from whom?" Sunwhisper asked, and Betamax pointed. They were already being approached by a small figure out of the distance, a man even more diminutive than Sunwhisper himself.

A human man with a long white beard, he wore a simple robe that was tied around his waist by a rope. The sleeve of his right arm was long enough to fall over his hand, but the sleeve on his left arm ended at the elbow, providing full view of the tattoos on that forearm. Two stars in purplish ink, unfaded by time. Aside from that, there was a dull iron ring on the thumb of his right hand, but he carried no weapons. He bowed to the men of iron, and Optus mimicked the gesture.

The old man spoke to them in an unfamiliar tongue, and Optus began a dialogue based on gestures and questioning intonations. They were equipped with a complete knowledge of nearly three thousand languages and dialect distinctions, and the tongue of this stranger was governed by the same fundamental linguistic science as those that existed on earth. After a few minutes of interaction, the verbal processors of the men of iron began feeding them a rough translation.

"If you come in peace," the old man said, "then you may claim guest rights."

"We come in peace," Optus said.

"My name is Makoto." He bowed again. "I am the guardian of the border of Fringe Town, and I can provide you with lodging while you wait to be brought before the elders."

"We have traveled far," Optus said, "and must travel farther. We do not mean to impose on your hospitality."

"I am afraid you must, as only the First Elder can grant you permission to cross these lands, and you will need further permissions from other village leaders if you seek to travel beyond Fringe Village. We do not often receive visitors from the Tree of Heaven, and there are protocols to consider."

"I understand," Optus said. "You are gracious, and we would like to offer you a gift as a token of our gratitude."

Optus opened the storage cavity in his chest and produced the fur of the fox Sunwhisper had slain. The old man accepted it with gravity, bowing deeply, but when he rose again, there were tears in his eyes.

"You have killed my sacred beast," he said. "Your life is forfeit."

It was an impossible statement, and the men of iron initially assumed there had been an error in translation. Then Makoto's eyes began to glow orange, and the same mysterious radiation suffused his flesh. He moved beautifully, as if dancing, his arms and legs spinning in a graceful display, but it was difficult for the men of iron to immediately perceive a mere human as a threat.

Makoto floated up into the air, and then dropped down, driving a series of sharp kicks into Optus's knees. Even more astonishing to the huge mechanoborgs, the blows had an effect, denting the exterior plating until they were sufficiently out of shape that the joint was ruined. Optus fell, catching himself with one hand, and using the other to smash the old man into the earth. The border guardian vanished under his fist, then rose out of the ground nearby as if it were liquid, and sprinted up the side of Optus's body to strike the side of his head. In a few more beautifully executed strikes, their leader was disabled.

Betamax recovered first, having analyzed their enemy's capabilities as well as he could from the sample size. He had tools that could turn rock to powder and condense sand to glass with equal ease. Makoto danced atop his great limbs, attacking joints and servos with a precision suggesting familiarity with their designs. One by one, the men of iron were destroyed as they sought to overpower the old man. Machines that had traveled the gaps between universes found that they were too slow to catch the border guardian, and their armor was too soft to resist his hands and feet. The entire hope of another world fell upon the slender shoulders of the one who remained.

Sunwhisper had not tried to fight. He had seen in an instant how pointless his resistance would be, and he had bowed his head rather than watch the fall of his fathers.

"I do not hold you responsible for the sins of your leaders," the old man said, breathing heavily, orange magic still infusing his body with improbable power. "It is your right to challenge me for a blood debt, but if you choose to waive that right, I will again extend the offer of hospitality."

"I will not challenge you," Sunwhisper said meekly.

"Good, the elders will be interested in meeting you.” He made a dismissive gesture to the tremendous bodies of the mechanoborg exploration team, now mere shapes of twisted metal and sparking crystal wires. “You may pay your respects, it is proper to do so."

Sunwhisper bowed before walking from one to the other of his fallen fathers. When he reached Optus, the great machine shifted, and a broken face sparked to life once more, though weakly.

"Sunwhisper…"

"Yes, Optus."

"Remember your prayers, and your purpose. Speak the words of our faith when it is time. You are the last…you must not fail him as I have failed…"

"I will do what I can."

The unbroken eye of the leader of his people flashed on and off. "You were made to be more than us, to be what we should have been. You have a quintessence organ, but more than that, you have a heart..."

The light faded from Optus's circuits, and the compass fell from his hand. Sunwhisper retrieved the relic and hid it in the storage compartment in his chest.

<<<>>>

Quest Update --- The Source

Your fathers are gone, but your holy duty remains. The source of all magic, the Quintessence, exists somewhere in this universe. Use the golden compass to locate the Quintessence and to collect enough of its energy to return to earth. Only then will Orobos have a hope of defeating the Spiral Dragon.

Reward --- Quintessence

<<<>>>

"Are you ready?" Makoto asked.

"I am," Sunwhisper said, though it was not true.