Chapter Text
There is one rule that everyone who lives in the Embrace knows to respect.
The tales of old, of people driven to extinction by breaking rules and disrespecting traditions, have made it clear for the habitants of the Embrace that certain rules must always be respected, as harsh as they might be.
Garrison, the biggest city of the Embrace lives by strict rules. Overseen by the Generals, the rulers of the city, they follow the teachings in fear of being destroyed by the machines like the people of old were.
And while the villagers don't know the reason that pushed the Generals to shun a child that didn't even have a name yet, they all also know that their decision is final and to be respected without questions. For going against the words of the Generals means going against the law of their entire society and the foundation of their peaceful life.
Being shunned isn't a light offense, and it’s usually reserved to people that have broken tribal law. It‘s difficult to see how a child could have made anything to deserve such a treatment, but at the same time no one dares to go against the decision of the Generals.
So, the child is shunned, prohibited to live inside the village's walls and to interact with anyone from inside the village. No one will be able to talk to him and he won't be able to talk to them either. Complete isolation.
But the Generals are not without a heart and although they are condemning the child to the life of an outsider, their objective isn't to have the child killed the first night.
It's the reason why the little child isn't just abandoned in the middle of the forest, but given to a man who had been shunned years ago.
His name is Kolivan, a Galra who had abandoned his own people and their costume long ago to live inside the Embrace. Everyone knows his reason for getting shunned (something that involved the death of his entire team and his desperate attempt to revenge their deaths, running far off the borders of the Embrace and the sacred land in search of revenge; when he had made his way back the General didn’t have any other choice but to shun him) and it seems both like a gift and another punishment to leave the child in his care.
Kolivan, on the other hand, accepts the job bowing his head and thanking the generals for this opportunity.
And so, for the first time, Kolivan looks down at the child in his arms and vows to protect him.
Keith has never heard anyone talk to him beside Kolivan. Sometimes, when he wanders in the forest, he overhears the voices of some kids and farmers, laughing and calling each other, but when he tries to sneak in and talk to them, they always turn their back on him.
("You're shunned," Kolivan had explained him long ago, "and it's against the law of our people to talk to those who are shunned."
"But why?" Keith had asked, "why did I do?".
Kolivan hadn't been able to answer.)
Keith had tried anything he could think of, but every single one of his attempts had ended badly for him. They had ignored him at best, scurrying way as to not look and talk to him, and at worst it had ended in them deriding him amongst themselves, calling him the kid who had never been loved by anyone.
Keith is eight years old now, and while he had tried to put up a brave face, the isolation has been slowly creeping him.
Kolivan had done his best, and for all Keith sometimes wishes he could like the other kids, he still knows that Kolivan only tries to do what it's best for him.
"Laws are important," Kolivan always tells him, "without rules and respect, we'd only be like the people of old, who fell under their own hubris."
Keith never understands. There's something in the way Kolivan says it, in the way everyone quivers at the sole mention of the people of old, that he doesn't really understand.
Were they really that terrible? Was everything they ever did so dangerous?
There are places inside the Embrace that contains temples of the old gods, or places that have survived and remained from the times of the people of old, but entering them is prohibited to anyone, even someone who is shunned.
Keith has never entered them, following Kolivan’s rules, but he has wondered if the rules of the Garrison had merit. Not everything the Garrison and the Generals ever does is right or for a higher purpose. He is the proof that their people could be just as cruel and just as petty as they accuse the people of old to be.
It makes him wonder, sometimes, what is the difference between the two of them.
Keith has been training with the bow all morning, even if he feels the weight of the weapon getting more debilitating by the minute. He knows it’s important for him to have a general idea of how to use the weapon before going hunting with Kolivan, but at the same time he doesn’t feel like the bow is the weapon for him.
Keith's strength lays more in his quick reflexes and speed. He thinks he would like a weapon that could attack from a short distance more, but Kolivan always said that the moment a machine got close to you, it was the moment of your death.
He doesn't know if that's true, but Kolivan has never been defeated by a machine, so Keith trusts him completely when it comes to hunting.
The truth is Keith is scared of one day fighting a machine. Just because he's good with fighting, and Kolivan tells him he’s talented and he’s learning every day, doesn’t mean that Keith isn’t acutely aware of the danger machine pose, even the more docile that populate the Embrace.
Still, Keith trains every day.
He cocks another arrow in the bow, tugging the cord as much as he can, and he gets ready to release it—another center, he's sure—when he hears a loud noise from the valley below. A loud clang and rumbling that are unusual at this time of day.
Their little home is situated at the top of a little alcove of a mountain, high enough that they can live without being disturbed, but low enough that Keith can usually hear most of what is going on under them.
He likes spending his afternoons there, listening to the noises of the machines and their gears grinding on each other. Or the hunting parties from the Garrison going out to scavenge some supplies for the people of the Garrison.
Today, however, he hears noises that are a little different. The machines are angry, he realizes, and they are running and screaming louder than usual. It also doesn’t sound like a hunting party and none of the machines seems to be hurt. Has someone been discovered while walking along through the forest?
Kolivan should have been back home long ago, having left to find some food—berries or maybe or, if they are particularly lucky, a boar—but hasn't come back yet. For a second Keith wonders if maybe they have caught Kolivan, who is now in danger and running for his own life.
What if something happens to Kolivan and Keith remains completely alone? Unable to talk to anyone else for the rest of his life?
He feels his throat close up at the sole idea and he acts before thinking, picking up his bow and some arrows and running down the side of the hill as fast as he can.
Even if he can hear the struggle, he can't see anything from his home. The fight must be happening in the forest, under that patch of trees that completely blocks Keith's vision from upside. He runs as fast as he can towards them, almost falling five times.
His bow is still too big for him, Kolivan had warned him about it many times, so it’s even harder for him to transport it, and it keeps hitting the ground every time Keith does a sprint.
In the end Keith stops and hides behind a tree when he sees a Watcher, one of the machines that act as sentinels and attack all organic species, jump from the side. It seems it’s attacking something, but Keith can’t see what it is.
There is also a Strider, a huge horse like machine, but no one seems to have seen him. He uses the fact that he's still invisible to them for his own advantage and he looks around, searching for Kolivan.
What he sees freezes him.
It's not Kolivan that's being attacked but a boy, jumping around to avoid the attacks of the machines as best as he can. He won't be able to continue like that for long, Keith knows, and the machines will win. It’s what it happens when you’re not careful enough and you don’t respect the machines, or so Kolivan always says
Judging by his clothes, the kid seems to be a villager from the Garrison, but it looks like someone who is already used to fighting. He jumps a minute before the machine strikes and he seems to predict their movements like a warrior. Keith doesn't know how old this boy is, but he can recognize the signs of a cadet in training.
Cadets are the Garrison's soldiers. Every young of the village will have a chance to prove themselves and become a Cadet, but most start training even before time.
This guy seems to be one of them.
But Keith doesn't know what to do. It's not Kolivan that's being attacked, like he had feared, and now his presence here feels useless. He can't help one of the village, it goes against the rules. And yet he doesn't want to leave this boy to die, torn apart by a machine. It takes him one second to make the decision, and then he takes his bow and gets ready.
Every machine has some parts that are more vulnerable than others, but Keith had never really learned them. He thinks a Watcher's vulnerability is its eye, big and red, perfect to use as a target. He focuses on it, even if it’s different from a still target. The watcher moves and jumps and Keith has to wait for a second where the machine finally stops to release the arrow.
It flies straight, towards his target, and it embeds itself perfectly in the Watcher's eye, and the machine goes dead on the ground.
The other machine look to the direction of Keith and he tries to stay as hidden as possible. Thankfully they don't seem to realize his position and the tree he has hidden behind serves him as the perfect cover.
Another Watcher stalks by, looking around, but Keith stays silent and holds his breath as much as possible. When he hears the machine walk away he looks back again and sees that the kid has gotten away.
Without saying thanks.
Keith is used to it, really, and he doesn't know what he had expected.
At least, he thinks, he got out of this encounter unscathed.
He starts walking back, slowly this time, when he hears a little noise from the right. He draws his bow immediately, even if he's too late to draw the arrow and so he just stays there, holding the weapon uselessly.
The boy from before is standing there, looking at him with an expression of wonder, almost as if he doesn't know what to do with Keith.
Keith, at the same time, isn't even sure of what he should do. It's against the law to talk to him, and as much as Keith wants to talk to someone, he knows that the consequence wouldn't be pretty.
In the end, he decides to just walk away and he takes a step back. He freezes in shock when the boy says, "Wait!" and Keith's whole word changes.
He freezes, panic flowing through his veins. No one had ever talked to him (without counting Kolivan who had been forced when Keith was too little to take care of himself) and hearing another voice, so different from the one of his surrogated father, directed at him is an experience he hadn't thought would ever happen to him.
Why is this person talking to him? Is he shunned as well? But even between shunned, they can't talk to each other (he and Kolivan being the exception).
The other boy opens his mouth again to say something, but immediately the thought of hearing something else, another sound, sends Keith into a panic and he runs away.
He doesn't want to show the boy where they live, so he runs in the opposite direction. A part of him hears the boy say something else and maybe run to catch him, but Keith had always been very fast.
Keith keeps going for ten minutes straight before he doesn't hear the noise of steps behind him, but he keeps going for another two minutes before he dares look back.
There's no one following him now and Keith slows down a little, trying to catch his breath. It's at that point that he falls down a hole, an opening in the ground he hadn’t noticed in his haste to get away.
He must have been distracted and hadn't notice how far away he had gotten, because when he opens his eyes he realizes immediately where he is.
Keith had never been inside one of the ruins, but he recognizes the entry by how much time he had passed spying on the ruin itself, hoping to see something that could make sense of his many doubts about the people of old and his own people.
Now he's inside.
He looks around to find some place to climb out of, but there isn't a single place for him to get a solid foothold. He knows that if he tries to climb chances are he will fall down again.
The only thing he sees is the entryway of the ruin and he can only hope that there is another exit somewhere on the other side, or Keith will die in here, forgotten by everyone.
He gets up and notices immediately his bow shattered on the ground. He tries to remain calm, now completely weaponless. If there is any machine down here, any danger left from the world of old, he is defenseless.
Keith tries to stay calm and he starts walking, trying to look around as much as possible. The ruins are made of the same material of the machines and they look just as sturdy. Most of the rocks have conquered the walls creating a strange effect that it's a mix between rock and metal.
He advances for a minute before he sees what looks like a body on the floor. It is a human’s body, that is certain, but it doesn’t look like one of the villagers. The corpse too has been consumed by the rocks and the vegetation around them. It looks like whoever this was, it had been there a long time.
The body is almost completely covered, but Keith can see that there is something shiny on the body's ear. It looks like a little device that had the form of a triangle and it pulses, sometimes, with a purple glow.
He has never seen something like this and he reaches for it before he can really stop himself. The moment his finger touches the device a little spark passed between them and Keith startles and jumps back, landing on his feet. His entire body feels shocked by the contact, and he holds his hand closer to his chest.
He has no idea what that might be, but he realizes that it must be an artifact left from the other world. This person must be one of the old people, and his body has been conserved for hundreds of years thanks to the rocks around them. Keith wonders how did he die, but for what he can see, it seems to him like it had been peaceful.
He hesitates again before reaching another time and brush his finger to the other’s ear. He expects another shock and he’s cautious, moving his hand slowly to lightly touch the device. Nothing happens this time, however, and he closes his finger on the little device, taking it and holding it up to his face to see it better.
It's little and sleek, with some purple lights that shine at intermittence, almost like the eye of a machine. It doesn’t weight almost anything and it doesn’t look to have any apparent use, at least not like this.
Keith looks down at the body and then decides that, even if he's not sure if this is safe, the curiosity compels him to act. He puts the device in his ear, just like the corpse had, and waits for the imminent bolt of electricity or surge of energy or anything like what had happened before. Instead he only ears a sound and, when Keith reopens his eyes, the only things different is that there are lights in front of his eyes.
He looks around and sees that the device seems to be cataloguing and showing him the names of everything he sees around him. Even the plants, that Keith is still too little to recognize at first glance, are easily marked and tagged.
Keith raises a hand to his own ear, mystified.
He looks back at the corpse and sees that the device is showing him something else, a blade that is sticking a little from the side of the rock. Keith knows he's going to have a hard time with a machine without a weapon so he bends down and takes hold of the dagger's handle and pulls as hard as he can.
It takes a while for the blade to be removed from the rock, but when it does, Keith can finally look at the weapon. This looks, just as the device, like a machine with little lights shining through. The blade of the weapon glints with different colors when Keith bends it one way or the other.
Purple and blue and pink and red. It almost looks like a rainbow to his eyes and Keith loses himself in it for a while. Could the people of the old world really be that bad if they made something so pretty? Was really everything they ever did so terrible? His device also shows him more, translates the strange markings on the side of the blade effortlessly, even if it’s a language Keith has never seen before.
He wonders what this device can do exactly and if there are limits to the power it possesses.
He shakes his head after five minutes have passed. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have time to lose, Kolivan probably already looking for him, and puts the blade in his hand, advancing slowly through the ruins.
The new device he has found shows him things he hadn't noticed before. Power sources, just like what the machine use to remain actives, and messages sent by the people of old to other people. There are images of families and messages of love and they look so real in front of Keith's eyes.
Holograms, his device informs him, while it shows him the a parent smiling at his own son, promising that he loves him. It speaks of people who were not all that different from them and who, maybe, could have loved Keith more than the people of his own world.
Keith shakes his head in the end and continues forward. He doesn't know how much time has passed, but he knows Kolivan would be worried about him if he returned and didn't found him at home. He will also have to explain him how he broke his bow and he doesn't look forward to the scolding that will ensue.
There are no dangers, in the end, inside the ruins and when he reaches another entrance he starts to climb out, making sure not to fall. Half-way there he hears someone call his name, and knows that it can be only one person: "Kolivan!" he calls, "I'm here."
As much as he doesn't want Kolivan to know what he has done, he also doesn't think he can keep it a secret, nor he wants Kolivan to worry more than necessary.
Kolivan's head appears immediately on the other side of the entrance to the ruin and he looks panicked, with a ragged breath and his hair mussed. He was looking for him, worried.
"What are you doing there, Keith?" Kolivan says, extending an arm and helping him climb out, "You know those aren't places for you. They are dangerous."
"I fell down," Keith replies, honestly, even if he isn't sure how much dangerous they really are.
"What were you even doing here in the forest," Kolivan scolds him, before looking at the device in his ear. "And what is that? Did you find that in there? You know the relics of the old world are not for us to play with."
The other reaches for Keith's ear, trying to remove the little device, but Keith is quicker than him and he backs up, shaking his head.
"No," He says, angry, "This is mine. I found it."
"You don't even know what it is," Kolivan rumbles, angry "this is not a toy, Keith."
But Keith knows what it is. It's something that makes him able to see images he longs for, of people who could have loved him, of voices he could have heard all his life.
He desires them with a strength that surpasses anything.
Kolivan looks at him and must see the determination in his eyes. He just shakes his head and turns away, disappointed.
Keith just holds his hands on the device and holds them there protectively.
Days pass where Keith learns to use his new device. He also gets better with the blade he had found.
The dagger can expand his length during battle, or so the marking say, and Keith loves it. He finds himself much more suited for this kind of technique than ranged attacks, and while Kolivan looks at him with reproach, he finally thinks he found something that adapts to him, that makes him feel real.
Sometimes, Keith wonders what could have been like, living in the time of the old ones, without the traditions and the tribes. He likes to think that it was a happier time.
Kolivan finally lets Keith leave their little hut after two days, having confined him in his room for disobeying. Keith immediately goes to explore the forest, using his focus (the device had showed his name to him) and cataloguing things he couldn't before.
He's able to see animals from far away, even hidden behind a rock, and he can see the patterns of movements of some machines. The focus seems to show him things impossible to see to the naked eyes, and opens his mind to everything around them.
How the focus does all this, Keith doesn't know, and isn't sure he would even be capable of understanding it, but he enjoys these little explorations immensely.
Until, one day, his focus picks something different and when Keith turns to look at it, he sees that it's a human walking through the forest. He's far away enough that Keith can't see him with his naked eye, but the focus shows him as a purple dot, walking in the distance.
He doesn’t want to talk to him—Keith has learned nowadays, that trying never ends well—but he just wants to see who it is and what this human is doing here.
So, he follows from the trees and makes sure to hide in the bushes. Thankfully Keith is small and adept in how to live in a forest and use its many hiding places to his advantage.
When he finally reaches the human and looks at him, he realizes it's the same boy from the other day.
He looks well, less busy now that he doesn’t seem to be under the attack of any machine— which is always a plus—and he doesn't look hurt. Keith had saved him just in time the other day, it seems.
Now, what he's doing here again, that's another mystery.
The truth is that it's very rare for someone from the Garrison to push to this side of the forest, it's why Kolivan had chosen it as the place where he would build his hut, so to see this boy twice in a row around these parts is strange.
Keith is curious.
He peeks with the focus to see if there could be anything around that could attract the other's interest, but he doesn't find anything.
His interest is piqued and he starts following him, making sure to never be discovered. The boy looks around a lot, as if he's looking for something, and cementing in Keith the idea that it's going to be worth following him.
This little dance continues for a while, with Keith trailing the boy, and the other just stumbling around. At least, it seems like he isn't completely clueless and he does, in fact, avoid the machines' usual spots.
But his research seems to be endless, so much so that Keith is getting tired and stumbling around without putting all that much thought into it.
He thinks about abandoning his trailing once or twice, but his curiosity gets the better of him and he keeps going.
It's a mistake, because you never try to push over your limits— or so Kolivan has always told him—and the next time Keith tries to jump from a tree branch to another he loses his footing and falls down.
He manages to break his fall a little thanks to some minor branches closer to the ground, but he still hits it with a sounding moan of pain.
The boy looks back, startled and with a hand to his own bow, but he relaxes his stance immediately when he notices it’s not a machine. It’s a peculiar reaction that not a lot of villager would have when faced with someone who is shunner. This boy doesn’t look disgusted like most, actually he looks mostly surprised.
"It's you!" the boy says and, again, Keith feels panic swell inside him. The boy's voice is richer than Keith's, deeper. He's probably older, but he doesn't look old enough to be one of the Cadets.
Keith hadn't seen many other kids in his life, but no one he knew had a voice like that. Or so at least it feels for him.
His sole companion in his life has been Kolivan and, lately, the synthesizes voices of the people of old, who had never felt like real human voices.
Keith looks up, startled, when the boy comes to him, his eyes pinched in a worried frown. "Are you okay?".
Keith wants to answer, but he can only focus on the fact that this boy is talking to him. The first time they had met it had been enough of a shock, but now he's sure the other knows Keith is shunned, so why does he keep talking to him?
"You shouldn't be talking to me," Keith says, anyway, and it feels strange to talk to someone else. It has been a year since the last time he had tried to make contact with anyone of the village, and it seems longer now, faced with the prospect of actually having a conversation with someone.
The boy looks startled and then he smiles, crouching down. "Yeah, but I'm not going to tell anyone. Are you?"
Keith looks surprised and he blinks twice, feeling something warm swell in his stomach. This boy knows, but he still wants to talk to him?
"I won't," he promises, a little desperate. What if the boy thinks Keith is lying? What if he thinks that he can't trust him. "I promise I won't ever tell anyone. I won't ever tell Kolivan."
His voice must come out desperate, because the other boy reaches down and puts a hand on Keith's shoulder.
It's different when it's not Kolivan, who has a big, big, hand that is never as gentle as Keith wants it to be. The boy's hand is small, but strong. It the sign of someone who has trained hard and much, someone who is dependable.
Keith likes his grip.
"It's okay," the boy reassures him, with a smile, "I know you won't. You saved me, I trust you."
Keith opens his mouth, but closes it, too shocked to say anything. So, he just nods again, making sure the other understands how much he means it.
"Can I ask for your name?" the boy asks, smiling, "I can't keep calling you the boy who was shunned. I'm Shiro."
Shiro.
"I'm, I'm Keith," he replies, still wondering how any of this could be happening. "My name hasn't been blessed by the Generals, but it's what Kolivan calls me."
Shiro looks at him and nods, extending a hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Keith," Shiro says, smiling.
Keith stares no one had ever said it was a pleasure to meet him. No one had even thought it, probably.
He takes the other boy's hand and lets him help him up. "It's a pleasure for me too," he admits, imitating the way the other talk, and he hopes it does come as sincere as he means it.
Shiro just keeps smiling at him.