Chapter Text
Before the lightning dome of Yyasulani had been breached...
A distant asterodia beast flapped its mighty wings while a scattering of defective turrets approached it, beeping helplessly, and Taapu listened. Perhaps we can harvest their electrope soon, she thought.
The winds blew, carrying scents of dry brushwood and charred vegetation, and Taapu could smell it. No burnt circuitry today. A shame.
The air was thick with static and moisture outside the Everkeep, and Taapu could feel it on her skin. Another ordinary day.
Though lightning fell so regularly that it seemed like the land’s heartbeat, the rods spread throughout the wide perimeter kept her safe. The sound of thunder was a familiar comfort. Taapu was home.
Life as an electrope scavenger, or "reforger" as one of her coworkers prided himself on saying, was mostly predictable. Her morning began with a helping of soup made with locally-harvested vegetables. Afterwards, Taapu and Yyopya would depart their home in the Outskirts and make for the Driftdowns. Since they travelled together, Taapu did not often need to use her white cane, leaning on her wife’s eyesight because she knew it made Yyopya feel useful.
Once they reached their worksite, Yyopya would resume her phytology studies, and Taapu would either go on patrol for depowered sentries and abandoned electrope rations, stand watch for threats or take apart salvaged electrope. The runes and circuitry yielded with some effort and a deft hand. A slight hum from within a part would warn her of powered devices that could be dangerous to touch bare-handed.
It was on a day of watch duty that she heard a new sound: stomps approaching from the wilderness, leaden like those of a mechanical soldier, but heavier and clumsier, with an almost bashful cadence. That’s not a sentry, nor a floating aerostat or a turret. The stomps aren’t in sets of four like a gomphotherium’s either.
The others are on lunch break. I’ll have to do the talking. Are they a person or a machine?...
When the visitor had drawn close enough for her to pick up the tinny sounds of malfunctioning machinery, she raised her voice: ‘Greetings, stranger. I don’t recognise your footfalls.’
The steps stumbled to a halt. A baritone voice with a slight crackle reached her: ‘Ah, my most gracious apologies for intruding upon your grounds, my dear madam. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?’
He has an Alexandrian accent. ‘My name is Taapu. What’s yours?’
‘I am Ser Otis Velona, but I must bid you to keep my name to yourself. Due to matters too complex for a brief explanation at this moment, I require that my presence here does not reach the ears of Queen Sphene. Is that a tolerable request?’
Taapu filed the name away alongside Otis' sound profile. ‘We owe much and more to Queen Sphene. What if I were to decline?’
Discreetly, she reached for the transmitter stowed in the back pocket of her coat.
‘Well, I…’ In the pause, there was the faint whirring of servos. ‘I would be most inconvenienced, and would have to abandon the premises posthaste.’
That’s it? Taapu’s hand dropped from the coat’s back.
‘But I must impress upon you, Madam Taapu, that I would sooner fall upon my sword than allow any harm to befall the Queen.’
There was an earnest timbre, an uncompromising steadiness to Otis’ voice that told Taapu more than his words did.
‘Very well,’ Taapu said, ‘let us say that I accept your request. What brings you here, Ser Otis?’
‘Please, Otis shall suffice. I’m afraid that after some time on my own, my ability to maintain my current self has…degraded.’
The discordant clicking and jarring sliding of parts within Otis had already conveyed as much to Taapu. ‘You require repairs, then?’
Her portrait of Otis, combining his demeanor with his mechanical constitution, had settled on a being akin to Queen Sphene. Whatever the two of them are, they’re similar. But Otis is expansive where the Queen is reserved.
‘Regrettably… Yes.’
Taapu ran through her mental inventory. ‘Once my colleagues return from their lunch break, we can see about your condition and the necessary materials. I don’t handle powered electrope.’
‘Certainly, Madam Taapu.’
‘And you’ll need to pay for the materials. Do you have the means to do so?’
Otis clunked in surprise. ‘Pay? Ah, but of course, I should have expected as much. I do not possess any currency, but perhaps if I were to provide the materials myself, this would meet with your approval?’
Taapu raised an eyebrow. ‘I thought you said you needed repairs? How will you acquire the materials?’
The boisterous laughter that Otis produced was one of the most pleasant sounds Taapu had ever heard. ‘You need not concern yourself, my good madam. I shall procure the materials expediently and in a manner without reproach.’
With that, Otis produced a pivoting noise and stomped away.
When he returned after lunch, the silent gasps of the other scavengers as they beheld him told Taapu: He’s not like the rest of the machines. He’s definitely closer to Queen Sphene than to the sentries roaming the wilderness.
The cacophony of electrope parts hitting the floor as they dropped from Otis’ hands gave her one more detail: Even with whatever problems he’s facing, he’s able to take down powered sentries. This is not the type of electrope you can get solely by pillaging homes in Old Alexandria.
They had already collected a surplus of electrope at the Driftdowns that day, and Otis chose to donate the excess in his share once the crew finished repairing him. Afterwards, he left as awkwardly as he had come, so he could not take part in the party they organised at day’s end to celebrate the historic haul.
Between plates of woolback steak and rock-fisted popoto salad, the people whispered of the strange Otis Velona, whose humanoid body and uncanny shape brought to mind the King of Resolve.
For the next few months, Otis evolved into a rare but consistent visitor in Taapu’s workplace. Each time, he would come bearing materials and request some minor repairs, leaving the excess with them.
Her impression of him, already positive, was nonetheless much improved. She alone had noticed that during her patrols, where once she and her fellow reforgers might have had to contend with berserk drones, there were now no incoming threats. Far from her colleagues’ eyesight, the lumbering stomps of Otis as he dispatched turrets ahead of them told her all she needed to know.
It was a great shock to her, therefore, when Otis’ voice snuck up on her while she was once again on lone watch duty.
‘Greetings, Madam Taa—’
‘Aah!’
She had pulled out the transmitter and her white cane in a panic, not that it would be of much use against a real foe. Her brain caught up before she triggered the transmission. The embarrassment and frustration heated her neck and face.
‘Otis,’ Taapu half-yelled, ‘why did you— How did you make your way here so quietly?’ You, of all people, evading my hearing? What in the thunderous heavens!?
‘Ah.’ His joints noisily moved into what sounded like a kneeling position. ‘I have committed an offense most foul and beg your forgiveness, my good madam, but I swear on my knight’s honour that I have good reason to do so.’
‘State your reasons,’ Taapu replied, leaning on her cane as she reassured her racing heart with a trembling hand.
‘I had to test my stealth routines to verify their integrity, and could think of no better person to enlist in this endeavour.’
‘Stealth routines? Vidraals be damned, please ask before you attempt such a test in the future, not afterwards!’
Otis had not moved. ‘You are entirely correct, Madam Taapu. I can think of no suitable apology beyond that which I have given, but I shall strive to—’
‘Enough, Otis,’ she interrupted. ‘I know what you’ve been doing behind the backs of the Driftdowns reforgers. Taking down the malfunctioning robots ahead of our patrols, and bringing us more spoils as well.’ She sighed as calm returned to her heart. ‘You’re forgiven, but do not repeat the feat.’
‘... You are most compassionate,’ he replied, finally standing up.
Taapu tilted her head. ‘Why were you testing your stealth routines?’
The degree to which Otis lowered his voice was another new experience for Taapu. ‘I have need of them,’ he whispered. ‘I must teach these routines, this style of movement and stratagems, to my newest protegé.’
‘And who is this new protegé of whom you speak?’
‘He does not have a name, but he is a young boy with no family to speak of, and no desire to leave the wilderness.’
A young boy…? ‘Otis, you cannot mean to support the whims of a child who wants to live in such a dangerous place, surely? Bring him in and we’ll find a home for him if need be.’
Otis’ voice now sounded hesitant. ‘That is a sound judgement, but I am afraid that the situation is rather complex.’
Complex, like the reason we cannot tell Queen Sphene about you? You’ve never elaborated, but neither have we pressed you for it.
‘I have good reason to believe,’ he continued, ‘that the boy may be related to the King and have been abandoned to die. It is not simply the case that his father does not care for him — he would still be allowed a residence in the Queen’s keep in that scenario. No, I fear that his fate is a far more tragic one…’
Taapu’s throat suddenly felt dry. The King wants the boy dead? To defy the Queen of Reason was generally seen as not recommended, or at the very least, quite rude. To defy the King of Resolve, on the other hand, was to invite a death sentence. A knot formed in her stomach.
She cleared her throat. ‘So, Otis, you’ll safeguard him and ensure he’s cared for?’
If not, the only other option would be to get into contact with Oblivion, I suppose, but… We would still be opposing the King more strongly in doing so. I fear for Yyopya and the others if we do.
Otis banged his fist against something, most likely his chest. ‘On my honour, my knight’s vow and my eternal Queen, I swear it. I shall keep the boy safe.’
The knot in Taapu’s stomach loosened somewhat, but feelings of guilt bubbled up inside of her. Otis is the strongest mechanical being we’ve encountered out here, but… What a home for a boy to grow up in…
She racked her brain to think of ways she could help, and pictured the simplest needs a child could have. ‘Otis, does he have clean clothing? Do you have a place for him to sleep and stay?’
‘We have made use of an Old Alexandrian house that is less ruined than the rest.’
He had not fully answered her question, and that was all the information she needed. ‘What of his meals? Do you know how to prepare a balanced meal for a child?’
‘... I am well acquainted with a variety of recipes, but it has been some time since I have had to feed myself, and I am concerned that those recipes involve foodstuffs and supplies no longer available in this day and age.’
Taapu gave him a smile. ‘Then, let me at least address those matters.’
For the next hour, she helped Otis update his recipes. She taught him all about Yyopya’s favourite, woolback stew, which combined tender meat from the younglings with yams and pumpkins harvested near the Outskirts, and had her wife bring some robes and quilted blankets from their home.
By the time Otis left, he carried in his arms as many objects as he usually brought to the Driftdowns as offerings.
‘Do you suppose we might be able to meet the boy, one day?’ Taapu had asked him before he stomped away.
‘I cannot say. The boy does not wish to meet anyone, and it was a difficult enough task to gain his trust. I do not wish to betray it by taking others to see him against his wishes. Should his temperament change, I will extend the warmest of invitations to you and Madam Yyopya both.’
’Very well.’
She had stood still, listening to his powerful steps growing more and more distant.
A handful of days later, Otis came to Taapu during a solo patrol, which had become a possibility ever since the knight had taken to clearing the path ahead.
‘I would beseech your aid for a matter most…confounding, Madam Taapu.’
‘Greetings, Otis. What’s the matter?’
‘Please, follow me.’
Even though they were alone, Otis took her aside from the main path. There was an ashamed quality to his stomps and whirrs as he did.
He emitted the sound of a throat being cleared, albeit with an electronic filter. ‘I wish to smile.’
Taapu raised both eyebrows. ‘Pardon?’
‘Oh, my apologies. You may not know this, but my face— that is, my visor is perpetually locked into a simple display. My eyes, or a representation of them, are visible, but my mouth is not. And I am not able to change how those eyes are displayed.’
‘... I see.’ Taapu tried to let her puzzlement and their conversation not distract her overly from their surroundings, although Otis would likely fend off any threats as usual. ‘Why do you wish to smile?’
‘I… Well, you see…’
A slight shifting of plates indicated that he had lifted his head to peer at the sky, perhaps in embarrassment.
‘The boy, he will not smile. I know he has his reasons, but I would very much like to see him happy. Try as I might, however, I cannot overturn his state of dejectedness. And I fear that he may have…forgotten how to smile. Short of breaching his privacy by inviting another, the only means I have of teaching him how to do so is by smiling, myself.’
Yyopya is right, Taapu thought, giving the knight a smile. He really is like a Haworthia plant — Hard on the outside, but tender on the inside. ‘We’ll do what we can. Come to the Driftdowns, and don’t worry about the payment this time.’
As much as she had wanted to fulfill his sweet request, the reality of his unique body proved too difficult to overcome.
When her colleagues gathered with her some distance away to discuss the results of their efforts to upgrade Otis, their opinion was unanimous: They did not have the expertise to modify his visor to such an extent, not without depowering him and risking a permanent loss of consciousness. His was an ancient frame, made with technology beyond their ken. It lacked modern safeguards associated with regulator usage and memory transference.
The only person who might know how is Queen Sphene, but… The others don’t even know about how she’s different. And the Queen can’t know without the King knowing too, sooner or later.
She considered lying to cheer Otis up, but all it would take was a glance into a puddle of water or the lake near Old Alexandria to uncover the truth.
When she told him, there was a moment where she feared for his spirits. But all too quickly, his body and the land itself quaked with his joyful laughter.
It was a lovely sound that enveloped the heart in a kind embrace and inevitably drew a grin on Taapu’s face. It evoked the same feelings in her as when she settled at home on the couch beside her wife. This is what it must be like when something’s glowing bright.
‘Such are the trials and tribulations of a knight,’ Otis proclaimed. ‘Ere I wish to smile, I must give the boy all of the reasons to do so. I must simply commit myself further, and ensure that he does. Yes, that is a challenge worthy of Ser Otis Velona!’
His laughter roared forth once more, and then he stomped away into the far distance.
Your love is all the smiling the boy needs, Otis. She heard him go between the lightning strikes drawn to the rods. His oil mixed with the dusty earth in the breeze, and she felt the warmth of his soul on her skin.
I don’t know what the future holds for a boy who grows in the King’s deathly wake. Fate hounds both of your footfalls. But until it comes, let him and you be happy.
She wiped an errant tear from her face. Ignorance is bliss, and the two of you deserve that bliss tenfold.