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“I’m like magnets,” Aloy said, apropos of nothing, as Nil tallied up the last of the Oseram beer they’d found in the bandit camp. Twelve bottles, minus the two he and Aloy had shared in way of celebration, plus a barrel of something partially fermented and so foul that he had to wonder if it contained machine oil. The beer would buy some fine replacements for the arrows they’d used slowly whittling down the bandits until a frontal assault was possible, and the unknown barrel... well, he might be able to find a buyer for it. Maybe Free Heap. If nothing else, it could be used as fuel.
Aloy had been helping him gather everything, but apparently alcohol hit her like a brick to the head. She had been spending the past thirty minutes leaning against a supply chest and intently staring at bits of Old World junk, but apparently she’d recovered enough to start the ‘drunken rambling’ part of intoxication.
“Like what?” Nil asked.
“Old One thing. I have one somewhere in here...” The Nora dropped the data rifled through her bag for a moment, then glared at it and overturned it entirely. Machine parts, charms, and animal bones scattered everywhere.
Nil wasn’t going to help her pick that up. Dealing with her mess herself would be a good lesson about overindulging.
“Found it!” Grinning triumphantly, she held up a small metal bar painted red on one end. “Watch this.” She held it next to a Watcher heart and let go.
It zipped across the tiny gap and stuck tight to it.
He had to admit that was interesting. “Why does it do that?” he asked, imagining a future where arrows sought out enemies of their own accord.
Aloy shrugged. “Never did figure it out. I only know it was something special when my Focus named it. But see-” She demonstrated again. “Metal attracts it. I’m a magnet, too, but for people.”
Nil raised an eyebrow at her.
“No, I’m not gonna come flying at you and stick to you. But I meet a lot of people who say a few things and then die. I tracked down Ersa, and then she said a few words and then died. I killed her killer, and then he said a few words and then died. Ahsis was slapped by a Thunderjaw, and when we went to see to him he said a few words and then died. When this Carja girl wanted me to track down her boyfriend, I knew even before I found him that he’d say a few words and then die.”
She gestured at a bandit laying broken in a pile of rubble. “See, even he said a few words and then died.”
“He died because you tackled him out of the window, and his few words were outraged screaming.”
Aloy flapped a hand at him. “It still counts.” She reached for one of the unopened bottles, cut off the wax cap with her spear, and took a swig. “If we were to fight, you’d also say a few words and then die.”
“If you won.”
Aloy glared at him. “I’d win,” she said firmly. “I’d win, and then you’d say something introspective like “I thought I could take you” and then you’d bleed out. And I don’t like that. You say some weird things. It would be a shame to take that away from the world.”
Nil took the bottle away. “I think that’s enough for you.”
Aloy threw a slipper at him. It still had the foot inside it. “No, listen! I’m being serious. You’re a madman, and a thug, and you like stabbing people more than you should-”
“I usually shoot them, actually.”
“-but I don’t actually want you to die. The world needs more of your kind of honesty. Look at this woman here.” Aloy pointed at a puddle of blood and gore that had once been a human being before she’d sicced a Stalker on her. “She was a thug who probably liked stabbing people. Do you think she was honest about it? No. She snuck around and ambushed that Oseram caravan. You though, you looked all of them in the eyes as you shot them.”
Well, of course he did. What was the point of killing someone if he wasn’t going to watch them die? That would be half the fun of it all, just gone. He was used to people not understanding, but Aloy really should by this point in their relationship.
“So if you run into trouble, get hurt more than you usually do, take on a foe too strong: limp out instead of pushing forward like I know you’ll want to. Be like the Banuk: survive and prevail. Because I don’t want to find you, listen to you say a few words, and then watch you die.”
It was an oddly touching thing to hear, and Nil wasn’t quite sure how to react to it. “You know I’m hard to kill,” is what he eventually went with.
“That doesn’t stop anyone.” Aloy sighed. “Just, try. Okay?”
Nil looked her in the eyes. She looked serious, despite the best efforts of the beer. He considered his options, then looked away.
“I’ll try,” he finally lied.