Kilria

Lost

I begin to hear murmurs echoing around me as awareness tingles through my body.
"Don't touch that!"
"What do you think it is?"
"It looks female.. where's its arm?"
My body feels strangely numb. I'm only faintly aware of my limbs in a very detached way, I try flexing my fingers. I become aware of the fact that I'm standing instead of in a bed like I had assumed. Lights flash across my minds eye, words and outlines as if I'm looking at an illuminated book. While my eyes remain closed the heat signatures of three humanoids standing around me become visible. My fingers twitch again and this time my hand flies to my sword belt out of familiar instinct.
"Shit" I hear one of them curse.
My belt is empty.
I open my eyes and take in the room, three large tables are in the center made of stone. The make is Denver so I must be in one of the deep cities. On the tables lay many pieces of technology. I surmise I'm standing in a tinker's workshop. Anatomical mechanical limbs hang haphazardly around the room like a macabre butchers shop. Two more humanoid forms stand against the far wall across from me. One appears fully formed while the other is just a suspended torso, head and one leg.
"Do you think it can understand us?" One of the voices says from my left.
"I don't know, more of those things are gonna come looking after that noise let's just get out of here." replied another who was looking nervously out the doorway into the city street.
"Maybe it can help us find an exit? It's worth trying a few more minutes" replied the one closest to me. The humanoid appeared to be male with two days growth of a beard. Dirt and grime coated his face and extremities and he had a bandage wrapped around his forearm. I blinked at him but he didn't take notice while his head was bent down to my chest examining me.
"Where am I?" I said, or tied to say. When the words formed sound all that came out was a grinding squeal of gears. Still the sound made the man jerk back to my face.
"Did you just try to speak?" He asked his hands went to my throat and suddenly an image appeared in my memory of another's hands going to my throat, their face a clinical mask while they sliced through my skin. Oblivious to my screams while he disabled my voice with a scalpel. I jerked away and slammed my head against the stone wall behind me.
"Where am I?" I tired again, the last two words were more intelligible this time.
"Ah I think I see the problem, if we can get some oil on those gears in it's neck the sound might clear up." said the male, he turned to the table and grabbed a container with a long tube. Retuning to me I allowed him to administer the oil.
"Where am I?" I said and to my surprise my voice came out intelligible.
"There's your voice" he said smiling "somewhere in some ancient ruins. I don't suppose you know the way out of here."
"Ruins?" Looking around again I noticed the cobwebs and the inch of dust that coated everything. Along the wall was a sleeping platform and a plate with dust the looked like it might have been fruit at one point
"We've been looking for the exit for a few days now but every time we go out looking some strange mechanical guards start attacking." He said
"Designate racial origin?" I said to him and he frowned at my words but answered anyway
" uh I'm human mostly." At his words my spine snapped to attention against my will, programmed words that did not sound like my own came from my mouth.
"No human is to be permitted within the deep cities" I said, speaking in route words I'd said so many times. "All non denvarian are to be killed on sight, all non denvarian are to be shown no mercy for trespassing in the deep cities, all those with disobey this decree will be sent for repurposing."  My head snapped to the side and a red glow emanated from my eyes
"Oh shit not another one. Silas!" The man in front of my said above my route.
"I told you not to touch anything! Another man who had been quietly reading some tablets at one of the tables looked up from his work. He was more handsome then the man in front of me even in their disheveled state.
Without conscious thought I took a step forward out of my alcove and began to scan the ethnicity of the three in front of me, denvarian words flashing in front of my eyes, decrees and laws and operating procedures passed down by the high queen.
As I reviewed the man by the table light formed at the edges of his fingers coalescing as if he pulled the  light out of thin air as it danced across the tips of his fingers he muttered a word and the light bolted twords me. Pain filled my senses as every muscle in me locked up, I was reminded of the feeling of a whip across my back as I stood in center of the training camp in my teenage years.
The words and decrees stopped flashing across my minds eye and my eyes returned to their normal blue. I looked down at my hand which continued to reach for my sword and realized I was missing an arm.
I looked up at the one called Silas and he stared back at me, assessing my threat.
"What year is it?" I asked the three they looked at each other before the man in front of me responded.
"1350 A.s." he said
"A.s.?"
"After the sundering" he said with a slight wince
"What was the sundering?" I said, suddenly desperate for all the knowledge I could acquire.
"We don't have time for this we need to keep going" said the female who was guarding the doors. I made note of her loaded crossbow and her pointed ears.

"The sundering was when the gods punished us for the crimes of others." Said the first man while he strode to the far wall and grabbed a backpack laden with supplies. Silas followed him to the wall and grabbed his own pack.
"We can't just leave it here now that it's awake and sentient, and I haven't the faintest idea if there is an off switch." Silas said to the others
"Come on, we need to get out of here"
"What if it attacks us again?" The man said eyeing me warily
"Zapping it worked the first time, let's go we don't have a lot of time" Silas said, he walked to the table closest to me and grabbed my arm which I noticed was laying half repaired among scattered tools. On Impulse he grabbed my sword and sword belt that were hanging on the wall by my alcove.
"Will you help us reach the exit?" He asked me formally. I scanned the three gaunt dirty faces before me and the inches of dust surrounding me.
"Very well"