The Revelers (Serial 1)

Act 1 - Chapter 21: Gunhild

The tall child in front of me recovers from her stumble. Angered and triggered, she dusts off the soot from her denim shorts and fixates her gaze upon me.

I extend a hand. "Do you need help, child?"

A white spark glints from the child's cybernetic eye. "No," she says with a grunt. "I heard a girl scream. I wanted to check it out."

My hand is next to my ear. Yet, I'm sure she knows the voice I heard prior to her arrival. "I don't hear anyone. Just you and me." A simple lie.

"You didn't hear that girl screaming for help?" the child questions. "She was calling my name."

I raise a brow. The girl is right. A younger one cried out a name. "That would mean your name must be Arizona, yes?"

A sudden pause. The girl's eyes lower only a slight bit, contemplating. "Yes," she mutters, her eyes regaining her focus to me. "Arizona is my name. It's just that I prefer to be called Ari."

"Ah," I respond, "and how many people know you by Arizona?"

"Dr. Williams, for all I know. It's not a well-known fact. Even my WarGamesPedia page doesn't list Arizona. I like the simplicity of Ari."

A girl of simplicity. Nothing wrong in simplifying a concept down to its constituents. Still, perhaps I may have underestimated the capability and intelligence of this girl. It's been so long. Thirteen winters, in fact, when Arizona was a tiny runt. I had lost hope for her survival, but it seems Dr. May-Lynn Williams and later CrystalCorp proper have given me some promise for this child. The corporation turned her into a soldiering machine capable of leadership and destruction. There's an explosive flame of talent burning inside her. Yet, child naivete holds back her true potential.

Still, I'm quite amazed with Helayne's AI and how it had evolved to a point where she can run a cybernetics business worth billions of Satoshis. To see Helayne's company transform Arizona — it amazes me.

I turn to my shoulder and meet the gaze of my white horned owl, Huginn, perched high and stern.

Huginn turns her feathered head and gazes back. She beams a telepathic message into my mind. "This child — I can see her becoming much more than what she is, especially now she's exposed to the residual aether from Amelia's Great Fae Tree. Arizona may not know it, but the concentration from The Tree is much more per volume block than the residual aether from CrystalCorps' Aether Dome."

"Residual," I emphasize. "How about purified aether?"

Huginn hoots and telepathically says, "You have a point, Usurper, but even machines in an Aether Dome can fail if improperly maintained, whereas fae trees are eternal."

The durability of machines is a different field of science on its own. For instance, En'ari android elves can theoretically live longer lives than humans, as long all the parts are in excellent shape. The same for Valkyr cyborgs like myself. Though with cyborgs, our organic components can wilt away like an elder of age, and we'll be nothing more than a just machine without a brain.

"Did that bird just talk?" Arizona asks, her eyes open, looking curious.

"Oh? You heard Huginn say something?" I inquire.

"The owl talked about being exposed to aether, and compared The Great Fae Tree to some building called an Aether Dome. She also called you, Usurper."

Huginn turns her head and says to Arizona. "So you understand me."

Muninn, my raven, perched on the opposite shoulder, transmits his pompous voice and fixates his gaze at Arizona. "Then you know I can speak as well."

"Yes, I can hear both of you," Arizona says.

"Very well," Muninn says. "In my shortly educated opinion, I think The Usurper should test you further." The caws in excitement.

I glance at the black feathered Muninn and then return my gaze to Arizona. "If you can understand my birds, then it seems the Great Tree's aether is slowly unlocking your hidden talents and forgotten memories. Still, there is only one talent that interests me the most." I pull back my woad blue robe, brandishing myself in dark iron ornamental armor, decorated with black and white wings around the metal pauldrons. The swirls of winter wind engrave the scale-like plates, while glowing bluish white accents illuminate, energizing my power armor with aetheric reserves.

Huginn takes my rebec from my side and holds it high with her talons.

Muninn uses his beak to hold on to the instrument's bow and strums a tune. "Let me play you this epic song of battle — a song where great warriors conquer their inner demons. Come relish this moment!" The melody begins fast and violent, full of drama and adrenaline.

"Do you hear that, Arizona? It sounds like an epic duel is before us. Blades shall dance and clash tonight, just yours and mine." A row of selected triggerblades appears and floats in front of the child. "Pick a weapon and I shall test your skills. It's time you fight your demons!" I take hold of my triggerblade, powered by aether, waiting to unleash its explosive magic, and prepare my stance.