The trip back to camp was grueling as I crawled back along the trail; several of my classmates' bodies were littered the path every few hundred meters or so. They must've had a delayed reaction to the psychic shock of encountering an aberrant. Besides the four mercenaries in the courtyard- the one Aiya and I saw and the three that made it out only to pass before the aberrant was sealed- the rest were all students. I never talked to them, personally, but they were important to someone. I take a moment of silence and offer a prayer to Po'oraat. Aiya and I would have to come back once things have settled down to retrieve the corpses; but that's an issue for a later time.
As I arrive back in camp, I notice a small fire crackling with Aiya and four others huddled around it to distract themselves from what just happened, "A-Are you all okay?" I mutter, hoping for good news all around.
Aiya's eyes go wide as soon as she sees me, "Ain, what in the hells happened!?" Rushing to her feet, she and another classmate help me back to the campfire and prop my mangled leg up to alleviate some of the throbbing pain.
"Everything's fucked," The other girl sobbed, barely keeping it together. At this point I was almost ready to agree with her; but accepting that kind of mindset would just cement our fates here.
"We're mostly alright," One of the other students reaffirmed, "A bit shaken, but we're alive and physically intact."
"I-I'm glad to hear you're all alive... I have some very important things I need to share with you all," I do my best to express my words calmly and clearly despite my injuries as to prevent a panic from breaking out, "The good news f-first: The aberrant- th-the thing you encountered- is sealed back up; and so long as no one says what the professor said, it'll stay that way..."
"And the bad news?" Aiya asked with fear building in her eyes as she inspects my shattered body, "What else happened?"
"The b-bad news is that it's only Abso'ol, and our f-ferry doesn't come back to get us for another four to five days... On top of that, none of the mercenaries survived the encounter with the aberrant; and unless some of the other students fled off in some wild direction, we are the only survivors," I pause for the others to take in the heavy information. I didn't want to be the one to do this, but if we're to recover the bodies anytime soon, it'll need to be said. Better sooner than later, "Also, unfortunately for me, I wasn't as lucky as you all were in your escape and the aberrant got me pretty good... I'll be able to help with a few things here, but I won't be able to do any heavy lifting or anything requiring a lot of physical strain unless we magically happen upon some more potions of Instant Health."
"So what do we do?" One of the other students asks weakly, "Sit here for the next few days and pray we make it?"
"N-no," I weakly reach my hand over to theirs, holding them tightly, "We formulate a p-plan... Planning ahead will be what makes o-or breaks the future of our survival. We'll n-need to keep our heads if we're to get out of this." I make eye contact with everyone to ensure we're all on the same page, "First thing w-we need to do is gather up our f-food and w-water supplies. We'll ration everything out f-from now on; we're in emergency mode, l-let's not take any chances... While you all do that, I'll attempt to care to my wounds. Sound like a plan?" I nod at everyone and all but the crying girl go out and retrieve what food stores they had as I fashion a set of crutches and splints out of various objects nearby. Taking a deep-breath and biting into a leather strap from a nearby backpack, I prepare myself for the ungodly amounts of pain I'm about to inflict on myself, "It has to move so it can heal properly. It has to move so it can heal properly. It has to move so it can heal properly-" And with a sudden jerk, I twist my damaged leg in the opposite direction the aberrant warped it to re-align everything! The pain was unlike anything I had ever experienced before and I begin to sob as my twisted appendage settles back into its proper place. At least when the aberrant messed it up originally I was in the heat of the moment and was distracted somewhat; but this? Gods, I don't think I've ever encountered this amount of pain in my entire life up to this point, nor did I want to experience it again! The re-alignment wasn't perfect, nor did it make things better in the immediate moment; but it'll at least help a little bit in the long-term. Once the pain subsided enough to not be biting holes in the leather strap, I fasten the splints to each side of my leg to keep it from moving around any further before attempting to use the make-shift crutches.
Bringing everything we can find into the professor's tent, I count out everything and divide it by five. We have eight days' worth of food and water... It would have been more, but my pouch is still inside that infernal palace of hatred; so we're stuck with what we have.
"Ain, I think your math is wrong," One of the other students pipes up, "You said we have eight days' worth, but there's six of us. We'll barely make it!"
"Ah, don't worry about that," I wave my hand gently, "I'm not partaking."
"Wait why!?" They reply, "You're injured! You'll need to eat, too!"
"No, it's fine, trust me. I've trained my body to go without food and water for far longer than eight days... So long as I get time to rest and don't over-exert myself," Aiya gives me a suspicious look as if I was going to reveal my secret, "I'll be fine, trust me. The next thing we need to do, and do so before sunset, is move our tents much closer together. We don't have the protection we used to, so we have to be close to each other in case of another emergency."
"Can we share tents?" Another student asks.
"If you feel safer that way and the other person agrees, then yes, I don't see why not."
The three men give each other subtle nods as they go off to combine their tents. As I painfully prep my tent for Aiya's long-term stay, doing my best to keep any weight off of my bad leg, I see her embracing the other girl who was still at the campfire. I wish she was helping me with the tent, if I'm to be honest; but the other girl's definitely had it rough and needs the support more than I realistically do at this point. Aiya points back towards my direction and the girl nods as she wipes away a stray tear. I give Aiya a 'thumbs up' in understanding as I expand my tent so that it may house all three of us.
"Done!" The men stand triumphantly by their tent, looking proud of themselves.
"Good work," I do my best to praise them, as keeping morale high is incredibly important at the moment. If that falls we'll drop like flies, fight amongst each other, or become exhausted far more quickly. "I'm just about done, myself, and then we can discuss the next step."
With Aiya's help, I get the remainder of her and the other girl's belongings into my tent and regroup with the others by the fire. They had begun talking to each other more nonchalantly again, which was a good sign; but I worried about the potential stress bubbling underneath, "Okay, it's about noon. We have around seven hours before it's dark-dark, and six before the sun starts to set. We need to go back and identify bodies. We've had a lot of fallen colleagues and mercenaries, but we need to make sure to document who we find and where. When we move, we move as a group. If anything seems off, let the group know immediately. In addition to identifying them, we should probably take anything useful off of their persons, too-"
"Isn't that... Wrong?" One of the men ask in a sassy tone. I look to them only to realize it was Maeki; I must've been so focused on damaged-control that I didn't recognize him... I can't believe the bastard made it out of there alive, "Like, isn't that grave-robbing at that point?"
"Good question, but no," I rebut, "We are not digging up their graves nor stealing valuables off them. We are strictly taking what may be necessary to survive. This means any weapons, tools, maps, notebooks, et cetera... Don't take heirlooms, coins, clothes, or personal items. Again, this is to make sure we make it. Don't disrespect their remains." I look around the campfire to ensure no one looks hesitant before shakily standing up and begin limping towards the trail, "Let's get to work, then. I want us back before sunset."
I don't recall the total count for the expedition; but so far we've only managed to find ten of the other students' bodies. One of them, thankfully, was making a map of the area for their cartography course back home, so we were able to properly mark who was where. I didn't want any of us to touch the corpses any more than we had to for various reasons, so each one was a quick search, removal from the trail, and a marking on the map. It felt irreverent, but it had to be done to keep us all safe and disease-free.
In addition to the ten students we found, only six of the mercenaries appeared to have died outside the altar room. As I gathered their weapons and tools, I realized we'd be in for a rough time if we ever bump into trouble; as the weapons I managed to get off of them were: a longbow, a wand, a long sword, five daggers, and a shield. Given the Slinger had run out of arrows just before the doors closed, that was worthless. None of us could wield magic either; although if any of us could it wouldn't be reliable enough to consider... As for the long sword, shield, and daggers, however, one of the men gleefully accepted the sword and shield, claiming they've trained with their uncle a good bit. He wouldn't be anywhere near the same level as a typical experienced Pit-Fighter, but something was better than nothing. The daggers were split amongst all of us, except for myself, mainly as a tool for around-camp-use.
As we finish searching the mercenaries, I found three undamaged flasks of Ingested Instant Health on the Etherial! Thank the gods! The group agrees I should be the one that takes them, given my physical condition, so I pop the cork off the first and down the whole thing; the pain quickly fading from my abdomen and my leg finally begins to feel like it's not in constant agony! I should absolutely seek professional medical help when we get back, but my stomach's wound felt like it had finally closed! My leg, while the pain had subsided, was still not entirely intact yet; so I remove the cork off of the second flask.
"Ain, wait!" Aiya shouted, grabbing the flask out of my hands much to the surprise of the others, "The mercenary I talked to earlier said that each flask is two doses! If you take any more you run the risk of getting sick!"
I gesture for the flask back while giving her an annoyed look, "I'll be fine," I huff, as I down the the second flask, "See? Perfectly fine-" Just then I feel my stomach gargle and a rising feeling in my gut. I turn away from the others just in time for my stomach to reject the second flask's contents back onto the ground; the stomach-acid-potion concoction foaming in the dirt. I turn back towards Aiya to see her giving me a dirty look as if to say 'I told you so'.
"I'll hold onto the last flask for you, miss 'I can't follow directions'," She sasses as she snatches the third flask from next to me. I can't blame her... Out of everyone here, I, especially, should've known better... "Come on, let's head back if there's nothing else worth taking," She helps me to my feet and we make sure the group is ready before leaving.
As we begin heading back to camp I start thinking on how I'm going to deal with the aberrant. It needs to be destroyed, along with the rest of this place... I don't mean 'break a few of the valuable things and leave' either, I intend to fully and thoroughly destroy this entire site once I get the rest of the students back home. I'll have to assemble some kind of team for it; as I'm not sure who- or what- would be effective against the aberrant, specifically. The structures, altar room, and the halls of cages I could just drag a Tinkerer out with a bunch of high explosives and blow the place to kingdom come... But the aberrant would be a different story. Since we know that arrows don't affect it in the slightest- and by extension probably bullets- but magic seemed to have some effect, I'll probably see about finding an Etherial or Oath-Sworn, maybe even an Arcanist if the gods permit the use of such a being for my cause. I'll have to get looking as soon as I get home...
The next few days were spent sharing stories, and trying to distract ourselves from the horrors that were witnessed earlier in the week. We all knew this expedition would be dangerous, but none of us expected this level of loss or chaos; at worst we thought we'd deal with a loss of a classmate, but never the entire class... Aiya also finally let me drink one of two remaining doses of the last flask the day after I stupidly overdosed on the second one; the pain from my leg finally relenting enough to wiggle my toes without wanting to die. We decide to keep the last dose in case something were to happen. The remaining dose wouldn't be enough to undo critical damage, but it'd be enough to stop bleeding at-worst, so it was best to hold onto it for now.
On Selefor, we all watch the wannabe Pit-Fighter battle against a dummy the other men fashioned out of the remaining tent poles. He showed each of us how to use our daggers if we absolutely needed to and what the best moves were. We spent that day sparring with each other to test our skills and to pass the time; of course we were all amateurs, so any real threat would absolutely mop the floor with us, but it was still valuable information in case any of us got cornered. The one that surprised me most was Maeki, despite his garbage attitude and terrible posture, he got several hits in on the privately-trained amateur Pit-Fighter! It was most impressive to see him moving in a manner that wasn't just him mindlessly swiping at his opponent like he had done to me at the very start of the week. The other girl was also surprising to see as her movements, while brash and predictable, packed quite the punch from the reaction of her opponents! I guess she had to take out her frustrations some how; but I'm glad I wasn't on the other end of her fury.
As the night begins to fall on Teriae, I verify our food and water supplies before checking the perimeter of our camp; making sure to look for signs of any animals or bandits lurking around before heading back to finagle another log onto the campfire. I didn't want it to be too big, but having a fire would, hopefully, deter any wildlife from wandering into camp. After dropping the log into the fire, making sure to shielding myself from the flying embers, I slowly make my way back to my tent. I wouldn't meditate tonight, just as I've been doing the entire week, but instead just resting my eyes to gain some semblance of 'rest' in case of another emergency. Shortly after I sit down on my prayer mat and close my eyes, I feel Aiya shuffle around before opening my eyes to her laying her head on my lap. Flustered, I do my best not to move in order to not-disturb her. No one's rested themselves on me in this manner before, it was a little strange, I'll admit... But I don't hate it.
At some point in the night I begin hearing a rustling noise coming from one of the unoccupied tents. Immediately snapping my eyes open, I gently lift Aiya's head and set it back down on her pillow before making my way out of the tent, grabbing a red-hot poker from the fire-pit just in case. Judging by the night sky, I'd say we were only an hour or two from sunrise, so hopefully whatever this is isn't something-
Approaching the suspicious tent, I notice the backside of a large animal shaking about as it rummages through the tent. Shit. Returning as quickly as I can to the men's tent, I store the poker back into the fire to get it hot again before ripping open the flap to wake them, "Wake up!" I whisper, shaking each of them awake, "We have a situation. Get your sword ready as soon as possible," The tired men give me a sort of tired salute before I go back to alert the girls, "Pst! Wake up! Get to the campfire now." They slowly open their eyes before giving me a tired nod as they begin shuffling out of their bedrolls. Returning to the campfire, I grab the poker and head towards the ransacked tent with the other armed man, "We should probably see if we can spook it off before trying to engage it in co-" But before I could finish my sentence, the tired man charges in before stabbing the creature in its side, shouting something obscene.
As he pulls the sword out of the beast, it lets out a familiar howl as it barges around with the tent still draped over its face. The wound it had just received wouldn't kill the beast, but it definitely startled it. The wannabe Pit-Fighter goes in for another slash, this time on one of its legs, cutting it to the bone with minimal effort. The beast shrieks again before finally kicking off the tent from over its head, and that's when it struck me: This wasn't just any beast... This was a wolf-bear! This particular species of bear was thought to be extinct centuries ago! With the head and tail of a large wolf and the body of a bear, they're known for their ferocity and stamina; though usually they were far larger than this one and traveled in packs, so I wonder what the deal with this one was...
"Careful! It's a wolf-bear!" I announce, warning the others of the threat we were currently facing.
The wannabe Pit-Fighter shoots me a strange look before parrying one of the wolf-bear's swipes with his shield, "What in the hells is a 'wolf-bear'!?"
"A long-thought extinct species of bear," I clarify before jamming my poker into its fur, its hairs igniting immediately as the steel burns its way into the hide of the beast.
Before I could fully remove the poker from its fur, the wolf-bear hits me with the back-swing of another attack, sending me flying a few meters. As if I hadn't been beaten down enough this week... Shakily standing to my feet, I search for the poker only to find Aiya wielding it, valiantly standing between the wolf-bear and myself, "Get back to the fire, Ain, you've been beat up enough this trip!"
The wannabe Pit-Fighter slashes at the wolf-bear's backside, causing it to writhe in pain as it spins around for another attack; this time falling to its face as its bad ankle gives out, blood pouring from the open wounds as its fur continues to burn.
Aiya dashes in and digs the still-hot poker into the newly-opened wound on the wolf-bear's backside, cauterizing it and causing it to yelp. Looks like the practice earlier is paying off after all; granted, this is probably a pup, and we gave it some gnarly wounds by surprise, but I was still impressed!
The wannabe Pit-Fighter swings again, expecting to cleave its head off cleanly, but is surprised when it deflects the sword with its claws and embedding the weapon into the dirt. Aiya tries to get in another jab, when the beast spins around and knocks the poker out of her hands and onto one of the unoccupied tents, setting it alight.
"Help me put out the fire!" I command the others as they watch in horror. Maeki and the other girl remained stunned by the action in front of them; but luckily the other man was able to help me stomp out the flames.
Just as we get done doing so, I turn back to the fight with the poker once again in my possession only to see the wolf-bear swipe at Aiya and rip into her arms as she attempts to shield her face from its attack. I'll never forget the sound of her screams as her arms begin to bleed heavily from wrists to elbows. I rush back to my tent to retrieve the last of the third flask before returning to Aiya who is doing her best to put pressure on her wounds.
Before I can offer her the remains of the flask, I notice her body go limp, "Maeki!" I point to him, snapping him out of his hypnotic state, "Put pressure on her arms! She needs to drink this or she won't make it!" Obeying me without question for once, Maeki quickly removes his shirt, tearing it into two pieces before tightly wrapping each half around each of Aiya's arms. "Hang in there, Aiya!" I open her mouth and pour the last dose of the potion into her mouth, pinching her nose and forcing her to swallow the medicine. With Aiya's head still in my arms, and Maeki still keeping heavy pressure on her arms, I look over to the fight with the wolf-bear to see the wannabe Pit-Fighter slam his sword into the beast's skull, finishing it off once and for all.
Huffing and wheezing from the exertion, the wannabe Pit-Fighter walks over to Aiya, Maeki, and I before kneeling down besides us, "Is-is she alright?" His words were light as he tried catching his breath.
"She should be, but it may be a bit before she wakes up," I assure him, as I gently stroke her hair, "Why don't we all get packed up and start heading to the shore? That way we can meet Keildrik as soon as possible. The sun will be up in probably an hour and a half or so by this point, and Keildrik's usually early as it is..." I give a nod to Maeki to go gather his things as I tie a knot with the makeshift bandages around Aiya's arms, ensuring the pressure doesn't ease up. For what it's worth, when lives are on the line, Maeki isn't absolutely awful to interact with; but I feel like that bar is low enough for those in hell to trip over...
Once everyone lets me know they're packed, I delegate two of the other students to carry Aiya and I's things as I carry Aiya back to the shore. Her bandages haven't shown any sign of bleed-through since I gave her the potion and she's still breathing, so I pray she'll hold out a little longer. Arriving to the shoreline, I instruct one of the other students to light a torch- or an Ever Burning Torch if they have one- as to send Keildrik a signal that something's gone horribly wrong; as he and I once established this signal during a previous adventure of mine where things seemed extra-dicey. Luckily I haven't had to use it until today, but I'm glad we've had that previous communication.
As Keildrik's new boat drifted into the harbour in front of us, a bell rang out, alerting his crew to get all hands on deck immediately. Dropping anchor, he and his crew rush out in row boats to meet us at the shore, "Ain are you alright!? Where's everyone else?"
"This... This is everyone," I say with a heavy heart, handing him Aiya so I can get into his rowboat, "I'll explain more once we're aboard. We need to get out of here as soon as possible."
Keildrik gives me a wink, "Aye aye, 'Captain'," He chuckles as he grabs the bags of the others and tosses them into his row boat. It was normal for him to not be able to go a minute without cracking some kind of joke; but it felt like an avoidant response to the suddenness of everything this time around. Looking over to the other rowboat, I see the other students join his crew as we break off from the sand and begin moving back towards the ship.
Once aboard, the crew takes Aiya into a private chamber to give her the proper care she needs before coming back into the cabin to give everyone else a quick check-up to ensure we're not cursed, dying, or otherwise sick. I give them a stern look when they approach me for mine; they don't know my secret, nor do the others, save for Aiya and Keildrik... I try reasoning with them that I'm fine, but the crew and my colleagues insist I get checked.
"She had her leg all messed up by the creature!" The wannabe Pit-Fighter speaks over me, "She needs to be checked out. We gave her some potions from one of the dead mercenaries, but I'm not convinced she's better given how she walks..."
"What do you need to see?" I ask with a nasty tone, shooting my classmate a nasty glare, "Just my leg, my face, or my whole body?"
"The more we see, the more we can confirm you're okay," The ship's head mechanic says gently. Keildrik didn't believe in a dedicated medic and instead insisted that everyone be capable of performing multiple tasks in case of an emergency. This particular woman was one such case; being the ship's head mechanic and their medic, among other things, "You don't need to strip naked, but removing all but the strictly necessary articles will help us get a better picture on what you condition is like."
I reluctantly relent.
Disrobing, I carefully remove my bandages, mask, and larger articles of clothing, revealing my partially-healed torso wound as well as my leg that was, admittedly, still in a pretty brutal condition. Upon seeing my true mechanical form, the other students gasp, partially in terror and partially in amazement.
"Y-you!" One of the men from my class shout, "You've been one this entire time!?" Here come the same questions Aiya just asked me a few days ago...
"Why didn't you tell us you were an automaton!?" The other girl demands.
"Did you know about this site ahead of time!? Did you plan all of this!?" Maeki accused, standing to his feet before one of the other mechanics grabbed his shoulder. "You bitch! I'll kill you for what you did here!" He attempts to lunge, but the mechanics pin him to a wall.
"To answer your questions, as I'm sure you're all very curious," I begin explaining, doing my best to not squirm too much while the head mechanic inspects me for any injuries or curses, "Yes, I'm an automaton. I did not know about the site ahead of time, nor did I plan the events that transpired during our expedition; if I did I would not have saved your sorry ass," I point towards Maeki aggressively, "Nor would I have sustained these injuries," I gesture towards my brutalized torso and leg, "If I had 'planned' any of this... To put simply: When I became what I am, I lost all my memories of who I was previously. I had hoped this class- namely this expedition- would give me further insight into the origins of my people-"
"What do you mean by 'became'?" The wannabe Pit-Fighter asks with an inquisitive look on his face. I had actually forgotten that some theories exist where automatons are created from scratch and infused with a fresh soul; or that they were created much like every other race was, by the gods.
"Automatons," I begin hesitantly, trying not to give out too much information, or the very thing I was trying to prevent will happen anyways, "Are created from already existing people. Specifically, by means of human-sacrifice. The site we were investigating was one such site, which is why there were all of those bones. I only discovered this the day before the incident when I managed to get inside the ruins. There may be many, many more locations like this one, but this is currently the only known one. The process, as I've come to figure out over our time at the dig site, can be a fickle one; one wrong move or variation in the ritual, and you get that thing... An 'Aberrant', as it's called; a victim of a failed ritual."
"So... You were human once?" The girl asks, staring at the back of her hands.
"Most likely, given my current form is very human-like; though even way back then: elves, hum'dova, sly'lec, and others existed... So it's not entirely certain what I was, although that doesn't matter anymore, in my opinion," I give a deep sigh. I'll probably have to move after we get back... I can't have someone knowing I exist when some folks want to dissect me.
"Is that why you claimed you didn't need any rations," One of the men asks, "Back on the day of the catastrophe. You mentioned how you've trained your body to go without food and water."
I nod my head, "Yes, I knew you all needed it far more than I did, so I excluded myself from those calculations. Although, it's not a matter of being 'trained', that is just something I don't need to do..."
"Ah, so the rumours are true!"
"Indeed they are," I begin putting my clothes back on as the head mechanic puts her hands out towards me and envelopes my body with a warm light, my wounds finally fully closing, "I don't need to eat, drink, sleep, breathe, and to my knowledge it's difficult- if at all possible- for me to get sick."
"So when you went missing in that cave-!?" The wannabe Pit-Fighter asks before getting hung up on his own words.
My body shutters at the memory of getting trapped in that cave. What a shitty day that was. Fuck everything about that day, "Yes, I was trapped in the water of that cave for some time, although I'd like to point out that that still made me panic... I didn't want to be trapped there forever." I finish wrapping fresh bandages on my limbs and dawn my mask again, "Any other questions?"
"Yeah!" Maeki squirms against the wall he's pinned to, "Is this why you wear all those bandages and masks!? To hide your shameful existence from the world!?"
I calmly approach him, the limp in my step slowly wearing off as the head mechanic's magic finishes doing its work, "No. I wear these concealing articles to keep myself safe from vile people like you," I accuse, "People that are overly-aggressive, don't take 'no' for an answer, and would cut me up into little pieces for personal reasons... You and people like you are why I try staying hidden. I may be full of mysteries to you, but you are an open book; and all of your pages read violence." I look back to the others as they begin their check-ups, "Anything else?"
"I've got one," The first man throws his hand up as if we were in a lecture, "How old are you?"
I roll my eyes, "Why don't you ask Aiya that question when she comes to? She knows the answer... Speaking of, do let me know when she wakes up, I'll be on the bridge," My tone shifting to an annoyed and agitated one as I try to slip out one of the doors to head to the bridge; but before I can even open the door I hear Maeki yelling and before I can fully process what's happened, Maeki tackles me to the floor driving his dagger into my chest; its blade stabbing into one of my lungs. I try to reach out for help, but I can't manage to form any words as Maeki rips the dagger out and drives it back into my chest again. I had never been stabbed before, but now I understand how awful it feels... On top of the fact that I'm being stabbed, of course...
Before he can drive his dagger into me for a third time, the mechanics restrain him, wrestling the dagger out of his blood-thirsty hands before knocking him out cold and taking him into another room; the other students desperately calling for help from the head-mechanic. Slowly sitting up, I stare blankly at my punctured chest in disbelief. I knew he was the violent type, but I didn't expect him to try to kill me in front of the others like that... He's lucky he caught me off guard without my revolver, else he'd be the one full of holes...
"Oh gods!" The head-mechanic rushes to me upon hearing the ruckus, "Can you go two minutes without getting nearly killed!?" I could tell she was joking, but it's not like I had any control over that psychopath's actions, "The only thing I can offer you right now is a potion until I get some time to recharge, myself... You kids were pretty battered and I'm too weak to use any more magic."
"Oh boy, my favourite," I say sarcastically as I cough up red fluid. I've had enough of these damned potions and would've declined it if not for my current condition, "Bottom's up, I suppose..." I feel my body almost resist the effects of the potion, but ultimately the wounds close up enough to matter, "Well at least it tasted sweet... Not many do..." After being given the 'thumbs up' by the head-mechanic, I make a staggered escape back up to the bridge, ensuring I'm not followed this time, "Gods!" I shout nauseously as I slam open the door to the bridge, "One day I won't be harassed for existing... Hell, one day I won't be attacked for it either! One day!..."
Keildrik glances at me before looking back to his dials, "Aye, that's on me... I forgot to tell them to inspect you in private, I'm sorry, lassie."
I storm over the to table and stash my backpack under the bench just like I did a week ago, "Like, I get it, right? I'm 'rare' and they've been studying specifically my people for a while and I could give a lot of insight on things that history books could never even begin to touch on... But fuck me, is it too much to ask if one could throw a billion questions at me!? Or at the very least, avoid dissecting me on the spot." I kick my feet up on the table and lean back, pressing my hands into my face in frustration, "Gods, it feels like I'm some zoo animal sometimes..."
Keildrik sits down across from me and takes a sip of what I could only assume is tea, based on the smell, "Someone attacked you!?" I see him eyeing the new stains in my shirt, "Mora's light, are you alright???"
"Peachy," I groan, rubbing my chest where the little demon stabbed me, "The little shit, Maeki, decided me existing was already a strain on his psyche, but if I was an automaton, that was just unacceptable, I guess... So he stabbed he a couple times before being restrained again. The bastard."
Keildrik's seldom-seen fury begins to show its ugly head again, "I'll make sure to turn him in at the port, don't you worry, lassie... No one hurts my friend, especially on my ship."
"And the worst part?" I continue complaining, "The worst part is that now I'm going to have people constantly harassing me once these goons," I point back to the cabin, "Get back to port and spread my true identity like wildfire..." I let out a deep scream, which causes one of the crew members to peek their head inside before ducking out just as quickly once he saw it was just me having a moment.
"Would it help if I let you steer?" Keildrik gestures towards the controls. He was never good with his words, but I knew he meant well.
"No thanks... I just- I just need to rest up a bit. It's been a long week."
"Suit'cherself," He chuckled, "If you change your mind, you know where I'll be."
"I appreciate it."
As I try to meditate, I think back to the various visions I saw during my time at the dig site. The one with all the people... The one with the frightened child... And then the one with the ritual, itself. Were they past memories of mine? Were they memories of the ones who were sacrificed for my sake? Nothing I recall lines up with anything. There's a few familiar faces between the first two visions, but beyond that nothing that could explain how I got an inside-view of the altar room after the aberrant was created... Maybe automatons have a lot more secrets than even I know about. I try to clear my mind and rest while we travel home.
