Scene Archives

Unua is playing with the Little Hunter, who is currently off leash, and having a wonderful time chasing everything

slips in to the room from her room. Her eyes immediately light on Ĉasid, and she watches them scamper before going to take a seat next to Unua. “They’ve already grown a lot,” she tells them.

: “He certainly has grown. As has his appetite.” Unua gnosis-laughs. “How are you, Friend-Salme?”

pats her shoulder in invitation to the Little Hunter, and then says, to Unua. “I’m doing … as well as one might expect. And I have … three questions, for you, if you don’t mind. Do you want the stupid one, the selfish one, or the serious one first?”

: “I too, am doing…as well as one can. Even with practice and patience, presence of mind can be difficult. I would prefer the serious one first, I think.”

bites her lip, and scoots closer to Unua so she’s pressed into their side. “There is no kind way to ask this. And I. Am going to take care with myself, and I ask you to trust that I will. But if something does happen to me, I wanted to ask if you would be willing to bear the Mask back to Almachadta.”

A moment of silence, punctuated by the rhythmic clanking of gears. “I am glad you mentioned you are going to take care of yourself. And I do trust you, Friend-Salme. As long as you trust that I will do everything in my power to prevent anything from happening to you, I reluctantly agree. I do not plan to lose more comrades. Whatever danger crosses our paths, I will shield all of us from.”

: “That being said…if there is something I cannot protect all of us from…it stands to reason that I would have to be responsible for bringing your mask and terrible news back. I simply wish not to.”

nods firmly. “As I said, there was no kind way to ask. But when I think of being taken the first time, and I think about what might have happened if we hadn’t found the path back to Almachadta … the Mask is Almachadta in a very real way, and I am taking an enormous risk in taking it away from there. And I want to make that risk feel less enormous.” ⁂

: “I am sorry, my friend, to lay this at your feet on top of everything else. I just thought of who I would most trust with this task and the answer was you.” 🙧

places a hand, gently on Salme’s shoulder. “I am uniquely suited to help here. However, I feel compelled to fight even harder than previously to avoid it. Perhaps one of your next questions is…less serious?”

nods. “Unua, what actually is a train?”

A peal of gnosis-laughter.

: “Oh this is a much better question!”

slants a pleased little smile in their direction, glad to hear their laughter. And to get an answer to a question she is at this point sort of scared to ask.

: “Well…the Liminal Express was a train, but a strange one. I think…no, I believe I have a better solution than attempting to describe this.” Unua reaches into one of their bags and removes a piece of stone. “I believe I understand how Caion’s slate-gnosis works. I hope that the modifications I have made will apply correctly.” Unua concentrates for a moment, and snaps the small column of stone between two of their fingers. Pellucid gnosis swirls around the stone, and in Unua’s outstretched hand, is a small stone statuette of a train car. “A train is a vehicle that travels on a track that allows people to reach places far faster than they could under their own power. With enough steam and enough gnosis, we could ride from Kesset to the Courtyard even quicker than by swift.”

stares at the small stone statuette of the train car. She reaches out and traces a tiny window, and then another, and then another, and then she laughs. “That’s amazing,” she grins up at them. “And the … engine is what makes it run? With steam? And you are an End-jinn, and you make the Beast run, or something like that?”

: “Yes! The engine burns fuel to make steam, and with some pipework and gnosis, uses it to propel the train forward. We are the “End-jinn, and we are also made of fire, steel, and steam. I think the Beast makes us run, instead, but you get the idea.“*

nods enthusiastically. “Yes. Yes that makes sense! So … the elevators here could be considered a kind of train? Except they aren’t powered by steam, nor do they look like that,” she brushes her finger over the small train car, “but they are on a track and they do facilitate movement?”

Another moment of almost silence and gears. “It feels strange to call an elevator a train. Trains usually do not leave the ground. But the principles are correct. Yes. The elevators here are similar to trains. I think the main difference is that trains generally facilitate travel between settlements. So elevators are trains, but internal to a settlement?”

nods thoughtfully. “So I shouldn’t call an elevator a train unless I want to irritate someone who enjoys being precise about categories?” she says, with a flicker of a smile.

: “I may have made a mistake.”

: “But, yes, I believe that comment would do exactly what you think it would.”

kisses them on the cheek of their faceplate. “And then the … last question, if you don’t mind? You can say you’d rather not answer but … would you tell me what you remember about Annarr from the Beast? If you remember anything? Aurelius said you two did know each other.”

: “I am happy to answer all questions Friend-Salme. Though, I fear my answers will be lacking in details you seek. I knew of Annarr more than I knew Annarr. I had spent much time away from Queenstown, alone, before returning the latest time. We worked together several times. He’s a bit of a showoff, but I can’t blame him. He’s one of the best fighters I’ve ever seen and his fiendcraft is superior to many as well. Most of our hunts together were for the purpose of protecting those who were in danger - I’ve only ever met one or two other people who cared so deeply about protecting people they didn’t even know.”

: “We did not cross paths often. He was based in Queenstown, and I spent most of my time further afield, but as far as this generation of clans goes, I would take him alone over many entire clans.”

raises her eyebrows. “That’s high praise from you.” She looks at him, thoughtfully. “Is it strange, that he’s become someone different? Sometimes a worry about you. You’ve already lost so much, and here you are, journeying through the worlds, and even the person from your own world is–well. Different. I didn’t know Wolf before we met, but he always felt like home.”

laughs a little then. “I suppose I’m worried about you, Unua. You keep to yourself, and you care for us all, but I don’t want you to be lonely either.”

: “He is different, but he is still good. He may use a spear more often now, and speak of things beyond my understanding, but Aurelius is still part Annarr. And even a part of Annarr is worth an army. Change does not worry me. The Beast is constantly changing. All of us are. His change is…not what I ever expected, certainly. “ ⁂

: “You are a very kind person, Friend-Salme.” You could swear they’re smiling. “I am the least lonely I have been in at least sixty years. I have a clan again, in the five of you. In hindsight, my mistake seems obvious, but choosing to remain as alone as I did was likely not the healthiest way to grieve. Yet it was my choice, and there is no going back, and as such, there can be no regretting it. I think it would be more tragic if I were too afraid to lose more, than to worry about continuing. It could not be a choice I made. I am not Friend-Wolf, with his heart ever-beating. But I am not far from him. I am Unua, Unending, and I was made to fight against the world itself. Nothing less than the entirety of The Beast herself can stop me. And until she does, I will continue. In your eyes, I have lost much. In my eyes, I have gained more than many are lucky to.”

thinks for a moment, considers them, considers their words. “I can’t look at things so optimistically, but it is good to have a friend who can, I think.” She looks down, to the irrica bracelet she’s started to wear again, and tilts her wrist, watching the play of light upon it. “I just hope that if you do have a sorrow that you would like share, that it would be easier to share than keep to yourself, you know that you can. I’ll turn it into a story for you, or maybe Wolf will make it into a song.”

: “I’m not a warrior like Annarr, or a protector like you, but I still keep my clan safe,” she says, looking up and meeting their eyes. “Let me.”

: “Just as well, Friend-Salme. It would not do for you to be a protector like me. You, are a protector like you.” Unua gently pokes her in the forehead with their finger. “I am the shield. You are the heart.” Another moment of almost-silence, were it not for the constant whirring of gears and soft hiss of steam. “I currently do not need to share any sorrows. Especially not here. When we return to the Beast, that may be different. If we spend about as much time here as we did in Almachadta…then I think I will be due to visit my first clan sometime during our adventures on the Beast. You need not trouble yourself on my account, Friend-Salme, who sees so much sorrow. But if you wish to hear a story and that story would cause you no harm, then I would be honored to have you join me there.”

reaches up to poke them back in the forehead, but she really has to reach for it. “I would be honored to join you and hear such a story, and sorrow is as much a part of the story as joy is. If we are to be clan, then I want to weave the story of your first clan into the story we’re telling now.” She settles back into their side. “That’s all I had to ask you for now, but if you wouldn’t mind some quiet companionship and I would like to spend some time with you and Ĉasid.”

: “You are always welcome to sit with me, Friend-Salme. Though I cannot promise Ĉasid has the patience to sit at any given moment. Here. Let us ply him with treats.” Unua hands over a small linen bag stuffed with bits of jerky.

laughs delightedly. “Oh, let’s.” And she keeps to herself that Ĉasid might become a relatively horizontally wide hunter if they keep this up, because she is sometimes quite selfish.

is incredibly enthusiastic about this entire arrangement.