--In the weapons store--

[color=green]"This is a... [i]beam[/i] sword?"[/color]

The proprietor, an A.I. that had introduced itself as Dashernines, bobbed its cylindrical frame up and down, watching Akagalcia with an unreadable expression. She suspected it was a golem and not the actual housing for Dashernines' spirit. Its colors spoke of bronze and tungsten and other metals she knew. The lights though, particularly the green one that followed her ever since she'd entered the shop, reminded her of Him. They were the first truly familiar thing she'd seen since she'd arrived four days ago.

She held the strange power-handle tightly in her hand, bladeless, and held her kukri in her left, comparing the feel of both. The near weightlessness of the handle felt wrong. She thumbed a button, and the beam sword sprang to life, a lance of suspended plasma extending outward and stopping against the blade of her kukri. There was tension, the plasma field clearly trying to extend farther outward but unable to pass through her weapon. She held them there for a few seconds, deaf to Dashernines' ringing protests at the treatment of his wares, then turned her wrist to point the plasma field upward, watching as it reached its full length. Dashernines had already stopped trying to communicate, staring at her kukri and whirring as diagnostic scans continued to fail.

Akagalcia, meanwhile, was fascinated with the beam, still ignoring Dashernines. She brought the field maybe an inch from her nose, closing her eyes and sniffing at the ionization, curious what element the field she felt was trapping...

...why did it smell like hair?

Akagalcia coughed, wrinkling her nose and scowling as she moved the field away from her face and, more importantly, her [i]hair.[/i] She lifted her thumb from the button to let the beam retract, and set the power-handle back on its neat little display stand with all of the writing in front of it. Buzzing... what was that buzzing?

[color=gray]"I said, what is that weapon made out of, miss?"[/color]

Akagalcia turned to Dashernines, still annoyed but oblivious to the tuft of burning hair at her feet. She held up her kukri for the golem.
 [color=green]"You've never seen shuld-ah... you've never seen [i]steel[/i] before?"

[i]A blessedly simple language. If nothing else, thank you for that, Zed.[/i][/color]