The next problem I need to deal with is getting to Tarin without having to fight all the Guilty Chiras in the way. Or, alternatively, I could fight them, and earn myself the comnsurate credits. I'm so close to my next Durability upgrade I can almost taste it.
I'm in the midst of convincing myself to fight at least one chira when Tarin shows up, charging into the clearing with blistering speed. There's a trail of black lightning that cascades behind him and at least two cracked trees that I can see.
I blink.
"Ethan!" Tarin declares. "You here!"
"Well, yes, I haven't had the chance to leave yet," I say, slightly amused. This wasn't even the plan we were supposed to et up back in the village. Tarin just waves off, starting to pace around in a circle.
"We lose!" he says. "I not sure what we fight. Bug things? I rember I see bug things. But I not rember how I got hit."
"Ti Flies, according to the Interface," I say dryly. I'm still having trouble with the Interface's chosen na for them. "Apparently they attack through ti, draining the Firmant of their targets. Which is why none of us could defend against it."
Tarin stares at . It's the most shocked I've ever seen him look his beak hangs open slightly. "Cheaters," he finally manages after a mont, scowling. "Of course they cheat."
I laugh a little at this mirror to Tarin's words about the Raid on the crow village, which feels like it was ages ago. Tarin caws at with irritation, flapping his wings. "Why you laugh!"
"You said sothing very similar, once," I say with a small smile. "You don't rember?"
"What?" Tarin looks confused, and then he snaps his talons. "Oh! Yes! Harpies! They also cheaters. Interface cheat."
"By that definition, I'm also a cheater."
"Yes. But you good cheater." Tarin resus pacing. "How we fight flies?"
The question takes back to what I've been doing. "I've got sothing that'll work against them," I say, flexing my fingers. I haven't actually tested Tistrike. "Or it should. It lets punch into the future. As long as I know where they're going to be..."
Tarin stares at , taking a mont to process what I've just said. After a mont, he gives up, throwing his wings into the air. "Interface stupid," he declares. "I not see you for five minutes and suddenly you can punch future!"
"Yep," Ahkelios suddenly chis in from his position atop my head. "Interface stupid. I can't believe it didn't give future punching."
I sigh. I have a feeling neither of these two are going to let live that down for a while. "We should figure out what to do next," I say, changing the subject. "I think we need to find Miktik again."
Tarin's expression darkens. "I not sure I want involve her. She... not deserve what happen."
"I know that." My voice is sympathetic. "But she's already involved. She-Who-Whispers uses her to build... more iterations of Guard, I guess. And she's got sothing that lets her fight the Whispers."
"Oh," Tarin says. It's a blank sort of sound, at first, like he's processing. Then he grins wide. "That like Miktik. She find way to fight."
I nod. "If we go back to Isthanok, we have to get to her first. We might be able to borrow her... I don't know what she calls it. It's so kind of Firmant sink."
We discuss things a little further, and the plan is set. Head to Isthanok, bypass the Chiras because apparently riling them up too much will make the crows' hunting territory that much more dangerous and get help from Miktik.
We should probably figure out whatever's going on with Guard, too.
"How do you know about that?"
Miktik's suspicious. Of course she's suspicious. I suppress my groan I rembered to tell Tarin not to get into the whole Trialgoer thing, but I didn't realize he was going to burst in and ask about the Firmant sink right off the bat.
"A little more discretion, please, Tarin?" I ask tiredly. "You need to be more careful. We don't want to waste everything we've done so far because of one wrong word."
Tarin shakes his head, and his expression is surprisingly serious. He isn't just blowing off or barging ahead. There's sothing else on his mind? "Miktik," he says. "You not understand. Whisper... Whisper hurt you."
Oh.
I look a little closer at Tarin. His wings are trembling slightly, and there's a sharpness in his eyes, a near-invisible crackle of black Firmant that jumps between his feathers. He's breathing a little faster and heavier than he normally is.
He's angry.
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He doesn't get angry very often. I've seen him determined, I've seen him desperate, and I've seen him goof off. The closest I've ever seen him to angry is when he's talking about Naru.
This isn't about him being reckless at all. This is because he watched his friend die in front of him. It's because he saw what Whisper did to her and didn't get the opportunity to talk about it. He's not stupid he's never been stupid, really, as much as he wears his goofiness and obsession with training as a mask and right now he's got a lot of pent-up worry and concern about his friend...
I should have asked how he was doing.
Miktik's reaction is unexpected. She takes several steps back from Tarin, her legs scurrying beneath her body, and I can see her beginning to curl up defensively. It's a reflex response she doesn't believe she's in any real danger but it's pretty telling.
"...How do you know about that?" she asks softly.
"I just know," Tarin says. He steps forward, and this ti Miktik doesn't step away, and leans into it when he hugs her. The scene is, in all honesty, a little awkward; Miktik's species clearly isn't built for hugging. But she seems to appreciate it. "Why you not tell us? We help. We take you back with us. Our ho also yours!"
Miktik looks away. "Miktik can't," she says emphatically. There's a distinct anxiety in the way she shuffles about on her feet. "She-Who-Whispers has... she has sothing Miktik made. An AI core. Miktik can't leave it with her."
Right, that. I frown a little at the reminder. "Miktik," I say slowly. "Do you know anything about He-Who-Guards?"
"The automaton that helps enforce Whisper's rules?" Miktik looks confused. "What about him?"
"He's an AI of so kind, too, right?" I press. "I got to speak to him for a while. There's sothing strange about him."
"The iterations of him that patrol the city are usually hiding, and I've never had a chance to talk to him." Miktik's antennae wave about as if in agitation, but she's a little less nervous now, at least. "Do you think She-Who-Whispers?"
"I don't know," I say.
There are too many unanswered questions about Whisper and Guard, still. Miktik's privacy imbuents aren't powerful enough for to want to risk talking about investigating them, but I make a quiet, ntal note: there's more going on in this city than is apparent on the surface. I need to figure out what.
Miktik is silent for a mont. "...I don't know how you two know all this," Miktik says after a mont. "But I'm guessing you have a Firmant power that's kind of like mine? You can track things down, maybe watch things from afar?"
That's... about as close as I can get without saying I travel through ti. "Sothing like that," I say reservedly, and Tarin thankfully doesn't burst in to explain the ti loop.
"The Firmant sink I use is still in developnt." Miktik sighs, unstrapping sothing from a near-invisible line around the middle segnt of her body. It's a small, triangular device that lets out a beep as it detaches from her, and she holds it up for us to look at. "It's not very stable. I have to replace it every couple of days. I really want to know how you knew about it."
Miktik is trustworthy. I know she's trustworthy, because I just watched her get roasted because she refused to tell Whisper anything else she knew about us. But that makes more reluctant to tell her, if anything; if she hadn't known anything, maybe Whisper wouldn't have blad her for keeping a secret.
"We can't tell you." It takes a mont to co to that decision, and I hope it's the right one. "Do you have more? Could we borrow a couple of them from you?"
Miktik shakes her head rapidly. "Miktik can't afford to make more," she says, her limbs shifting about on the floor in a way I recognize as nervous. "The components are too expensive, especially since I have to keep replacing them. I'll get a shipnt in to build one tomorrow, but this one will be burnt out by then."
I grimace. "Is there any way we can help? Or at least watch the process?" I ask. Miktik's skills don't lie with imbuent, exactly; it's the reason she needed Tarin's help to fix the regulator. Her workshop is full of Firmant-powered machinery and her ability to maintain it is limited compared to her talent at building. "Maybe we can find a way to improve it."
Miktik goes silent. I see her glancing towards the regulator I know she needs fixed I wonder if she's thinking the sa thing I am. "Miktik isn't sure. You might be able to help! You can take a look at this one, if you want."
I exchange glances with Tarin, then approach the Firmant sink that Miktik's holding out to . It's not until I have it in my hands that I'm able to sense exactly how complicated it is.
Part of it, I think, is that the individual components are complicated. Miktik ntioned that the components were hard to get and expensive and I can see why. It looks like there's so sort of power source in the center that's made out of so kind of plant, and that plant has a complex network of Firmant that stretched out through the device.
The rest of it is a lot of different regulators, as far as I can tell. I'm not nearly practiced enough with imbuent to be able to discern their exact purpose, but there's so similarity in their construction to the regulator Miktik showed us in the previous loop. The plant-thing in the center pulls at every bit of Firmant around it in a way that's not unlike the Void, though I don't sense any of that present in the device.
Instead, it does this by creating tiny vortexes of Firmant. The regulators are present largely to help identify what type of Firmant it should draw in, and then there's a final regulator just below the plant matter that I think serves as the actual sink part of the device. I can sense the few stray pieces of Firmant that wander in being converted into heat and light through a complex array of Firmant.
Well, into heat and light Firmant, but it's pretty much the sa thing. The regulators prevent those types of Firmant from being reabsorbed.
I frown. That's an imdiate issue, isn't it?
"Doesn't Whisper use heat-aligned Firmant as the punishnt for disobeying a Whisper?" I ask. "It's not completely the sa, so it'll still grab so of it, but... this thing won't be able to absorb the full backlash."
"That's intentional," Miktik says. "It can't absorb the full backlash or the whole thing would explode imdiately."
Ah. Yep, that sounds like a problem. The whole thing is a little too complicated for to work with right now, but... I think back to my skill imbuents, and consider my upgraded skill, Hueshift.
I might be able to do sothing. It's just too bad I don't have any material to work with here it looks like everything in Miktik's shop is ant for chanical builds, not imbuents.
"You don't happen to have any stones that are good for imbuents, do you?" I ask.
Miktik tilts her head. "No?" she says hesitantly. "But there are a bunch of stones at the Craven Arena, if you want to compete there."
"Oh!" Tarin quips. "That place we make bets! Ethan good fighter!"
"You've been there?" Miktik seems confused. "I don't rember hearing about soone like him in the Arena..."
"Don't worry about it," I say, shaking my head.
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