The two of them had an early lunch in Alice’s uncle’s tavern, but by the time noon rolled around Dahlia’s stomach was growling again—sure, she was drowsy, hot, and sticky as well, but mainly it was hunger that made her not want to go wherever Alice was trying to bring her.

After leaving the tavern, the young Hasharana commandeered a giant camel from one of the townsfolk and told her to hop on. The man didn't look too pleased, but once Alice said something and pointed out into the dunes, in the direction of the rising sun, the man glanced over at her and sighed. Dahlia couldn't help but frown. Even trying to figure out a single word of the Oasis Town's foreign tongue was proving to be an impossible task, and Alice could probably tell she was feeling immensely awkward, so before long she was dragged in front of the camel to avoid another difficult human interaction..

… Wow.

Um.

The camel was a frighteningly large beast, over twice her height, but with a bit of nagging from Alice and bleating from the hairy beast, she surprised herself by being able to jump straight onto its back hump in a single leap. She was stronger now, after all. Her newly enhanced body didn’t just show with her extra arms. Whispering for Eria to pull up her status screen, she wrapped two shaky arms around Alice’s waist and hoped she wouldn’t be kicked off or anything; she didn't want to have her first time riding a beast end up with her skull caved in.

So she focused, instead, on the little words in her status screen while Alice kicked the side of the camel, the beast harrumphing for a moment before it started trudging out of the town and into the endless golden dunes.

[Name: Dahlia Sina]

[Class: Assassin Bug]

[BloodVolume: 2.9/4.8 (68%), Strain: 453/837 (54%)]

[Unallocated Points: 38]

[// BASIC ATTRIBUTES]

[Strength: 1 (+4), Speed: 1 (+0), Dexterity: 8 (+5), Toughness: 1 (+0), Perceptivity: 3 (+0), StrainLimit: 837]

[// MUTATION TREE ]

[// UNIQUE SWARMSTEEL LIST]

[2x Assassin Bug Claw Gauntlet (Quality = C)(Dex +5/5)(Str +4/12)(Strain +395)]

… Alice had an Altered Swarmsteel System, too, but she didn't feel like talking about it out loud. The camel was sprinting full-speed ahead, and while Alice could pull a moth mask down, she had neither scarf nor shades to cover her face with; she'd swallow mouthfuls of sand if she tried to speak now.

Instead, she squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face behind Alice's shoulders, clutching on for dear life as Eria wriggled on her spine.

[Although it would appear Alice removed most of your Swarmsteel, you still have thirty-eight unallocated points from what little chunks of flesh you managed to devour off the Mutant firefly,] Eria said. [Ignoring the mutations you can unlock for now, I would advise you to put twenty free points into strain limit. With more stamina, you would be able to recover from your Swarmsteel withdrawal quicker, and hereafter you would possess a healthier, sturdier vitality. You will feel less headaches, poisons cannot hurt you as much—you would still have eighteen points left after you do so.]

Anything to stop the aches, she thought. Eria took that as confirmation to allocate her points, and immediately she shuddered in place, her claws tightening and digging into Alice’s cloak involuntarily. It wasn’t like a cold knife being shoved through her head; it was a sewage gate being destroyed so a flood of water could rush through her veins, clearing her blood vessels of any impurities. Her body didn’t feel any lighter. She just felt… more clear in mind. Her vision was less hazy, her ears were less plugged, she felt she could taste every individual grain of sand flying up her nose—she coughed and hacked and hid herself behind Alice once more while the young Hasharana laughed.

“You’re handling your attributes with your Altered Swarmsteel System, aren’t you?” Alice asked, glancing back with her mask shifted slightly. A cheeky smile pulled on the corner of her lips. “I hope it told you to put some points into your strain limit. It’s not exactly the most useful attribute for a bug-slayer, but if you’re just planning on living a normal, peaceful life, I’d say it’s good to not have to worry about whether this berry is poisonous or this weather will make you catch a disease-ridden cold. Heck, you might as well put all of your points into strain limit. You’ll be able to live a good, long life if you do so.”

Dahlia pried one eye open and blinked, trying not to part her own lips too much.

“How… did you know… I was talking in my head?” she asked. “Can you see… my status screen, too?”

“People with Altered Swarmsteel Systems cannot see each other’s status screens,” Alice replied. “Only those with a higher rank, like an Arcana Hasharana, can freely see the status screens of those with a lower rank. But I just kinda guessed you were talking in your head. You do this little head tilt thing whenever you seem like you’re deep in thought.”

Eria whistled. [She’s good-]

“And then your Altered Swarmsteel System just called me good,” Alice continued, without missing a beat. Dahlia snapped upright to stare at her, but she wasn’t glancing around now as they rode over the first crest of a dune, the camel racing towards another one in the distance.

“Again. You just… you just read my mind–”

“It’s not a living being, and it’s not your friend!” Alice said curtly, sounding too cheery for her liking. “Remember: they’re Swarmsteel made from the parts of a dead insect. They’re repurposed to talk to you, to give you information, to help you control your attributes and mutations, but the Great Makers of the Hasharana like to call them… what’s that weird term they like to use? An ‘Artificial Intelligence’? Their design and engineering may be out of this world for ninety-nine percent of the continent, but because they were made for humans by humans, you can kinda predict what they’ll all say if you interact with just one long enough. They’re pretty boring like that.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“That’s why you don’t have to feel bad about letting yours go.

“It may have altered its settings a little to match your preferences, but once it is returned to the Hasharana and has its information updated, everything it knows as experienced through you will be known to every other Altered Swarmsteel System as well.

“It’s nothing really special at all.”

…

Eria had no rebuttal as it sat quietly on her shoulder, and to that, Dahlia thought… perhaps, it wasn’t designed to give a rebuttal in topics like these.

If it had nothing to say, it meant Alice was speaking the truth.

Even still, she felt a deep-seated unease swirling in her stomach as she thought about parting with the little black bug—and to think she would’ve gladly smashed it with her palm just a few weeks ago, she felt her present attachment to the ‘living’ Swarmsteel had to be worth something.

She wanted Eria to herself.

She didn’t want Eria to ‘reconnect with the others' or whatever.

“... Even though, even if you let it go, you won’t be alone in remembering your undertown?”

Alice’s voice was unusually soft again, and the camel screeched to a halt as the reins were pulled, its bleating pulling her out of her mind.

She opened her eyes.

Before her, the sea of sand rolled and changed shapes smoothly, an ever-changing desert no more solid than a cube of ice left out to dry. By now she'd gotten used to seeing the desert wherever she turned to look, but below the crest of the dune Alice had stopped the camel on, there was something else—a deep, obsidian, rocky crater opened up in the middle of the desert like a gateway to the depths of hell.

Her chest clenched painfully. She'd never seen it from above like this, and sunlight couldn't really pierce through to the bottom of the crater, but… once upon a time, before a hole ever opened up, she was sure it protected the Alshifa undertown from the giant horrors of the surface world.

And there were hundreds of small, moving dots far below, wading back and forth along the crater.

…

It took her a while to realise they weren't ants.

The crater attracted hundreds of townsfolk from the Sharaji Oasis Town as waterfalls of sand trickled in by the minute. In several months or years it’d probably be completely filled with sand, but that day wasn’t today, and the townsfolk were busy working in tandem to erect ornate wooden fences around the edge of the crater; smiths were dispatched from the forges to provide their nailing and metalworking skills; haulers carried wooden spikes and hung brass chains between them to fill in the blank spaces; men on camels rode around handing out water gourds to anyone looking like they needed a drink; an escort of a dozen women in full black abayas walked in slow circles around the crater, and each of them carried in their hands, close to their chests, a bundle of gold and red bushy flowers that she could see glimmering even from a hundred metres away.

She didn't need to get up close and personal to tell what type of flower they were holding, nor to tell the men were taking exceptional care not to quicken the waterfalls of sand filling in the crater.

The fences were purely to stop people from accidentally falling in, while the flowers the women left behind every ten metres or so…

“... They call it the ‘Arima’ila Funeral’, for houses that are swallowed by the desert in spring,” Alice said, feeding a handful of berries to the camel while Dahlia stared, eyes looking far and distant. “The desert spirits of the swallowed town cannot come in contact with brass, so the chains and the fences keep them contained until the winds eat away at their lingering attachment to the world. Soon, your undertown will be quiet, and when the desert fills it in it will be like it never existed at all.

“Hence, the most resilient of flowers to remember the funeral site by.

“The desert will not swallow the flowers; they are an offering to Madamaron, the Wind Deity; Sharaji is not displeased.

“And that means it's going to be alright.”

Without turning, without looking back, Alice rubbed her head and forced her to contain her quiet sniffling.

But she couldn't quite hold it in after all.

“... Long after you and your Altered Swarmsteel System pass from this world, the Sharaji Oasis Town will remember the little undertown that took down a Mutant,” Alice said, and through her quiet sobs she rubbed her eyes, swallowed her tears; she can't cry again. “They’re afraid and wary of you now, yes, but they don't bear any ill will towards your people. Even if you forget—and I don't think you will—they will tend to the flowers, and they will preserve them even after the desert fills in the crater.

“So it's fine to part with your Altered Swarmsteel System.

“There are still people who will remember.”

She knew.

She believed.

Judging by the amount of fences and chains already nailed in place, the townsfolk of the Sharaji Oasis Town must’ve been working on preserving the crater for at least a week, maybe even two—and either they didn’t want to tell her about it because they’d wanted it to be a surprise, or Alice had just never bothered to mention it in translation because she should really be resting in bed instead.

But she was glad, nevertheless, that she was brought out here to witness this sight.

A small smile twisted her lips, and with it, her heart.

“... Can I still have some time to think about it?” she whispered, raising one trembling finger. “One… one month. Just one. I’ll… I’ll give you my answer then.”

Alice turned around now, grinning widely. “I’d prefer if you tell me what happened in your undertown first, but sure. I can give you more than a month. You have until I receive orders to leave the Oasis Town to make a decision, which should be pretty far away.”

Dahlia nodded. “U… Understood. Gratitude. I’ll tell you what you want to know–”

“Tomorrow. Today and tonight, you rest. I need to hear the whole thing properly so I can translate it to the townsfolk and the higher ups.”

Without another word, Alice kicked the Camel’s side and pulled its reins back, turning them around.

The whole way back, Dahlia couldn’t stop herself from smiling wistfully back at the crater.

People will remember.

People will remember, Eria.

[... They will, indeed.]

[And now it is time for you to heal.]