Anarion

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

As you move, there is a great deal of data available. Even with the unexpected change in route and Sandrea's injury, the typical caravan of its followers has diverted with it, both animal and human, creating a long tail behind Sandrea. This makes a range of scannable data available. For example, several of the human followers carry banners that are roughly speaking written in Chinese (a modified script, minor differences) announcing themselves as the sea coast people who follow Sandrea (their version of Sandrea is "Earth-shaking Gardener" which can be easily enough inferred). Their equipment is primarily pulled by beasts of burden, creatures you would primarily recognize as oxen albeit with several modifications including toughened hide with metallic elements and greater muscle mass. The equipment is primarily carrying apparatus for agriculture as well as survival gear, foodstuffs, and some weaponry. Similarly, the forests around Sandrea indicate the presence of both herbivore and carnivore beasts, with movements indicative of historical big cats briefly flashing in and out of sensors as the most present danger should you behave in a manner indicative of threat or prey.

Which brings us to the task. To climb Sandrea is an achievable task. The first and in some ways most difficult task is actually approaching Sandrea. The forests around her are patrolled by the hunting cats that look for prey that follows in her wake and the area behind her is full of people who might notice and question you (particularly if you were, say, to attempt to barter or steal useful climbing gear from them).

The second is to begin the ascent. If you do not pierce her skin, she would not even notice you mounting her legs, but the legs are in some ways the most difficult part of the climb since they have no particular handholds and are far to wide to shimmy around. A typical human climber would evaluate this as requiring the creation of some kind of perch or the use of rope attached higher up.

Third, once you clear the legs, the mass of vines and foliage becomes an aid to you, and navigating the back is a matter of not becoming bogged down in damp soil and dense, shifting foliage. Or accidentally getting caught in a landslide as soil drifts from Sandrea's back during her steps.

Finally, to clear the neck and reach the head is somewhat precarious because of the risk of her movements, but her neck is generally held at an angle so the actual slop is not terribly bad. Really just a matter of how you prepare yourself not to have the whole climbed spoiled at the last second should she unexpected look to the side or change her path and move her neck such as to throw you off.

Return to Thellamie

Yuki holds Eclair softly. She breathes a sigh herself as the woman in her arms relaxes. Eclair Espoir, her friend from long ago. Her salvation, her silly maid. Yuki's own tail stops twitching and itself relaxes. She sits in the warm sauna and she cradles the head of her friend in her elbow and speaks softly to Aadya over the sizzle of the water on coals that helps to clear out the last vestiges of smoke with cleansing steam.

"Civelia is gone. Through the skylight I think. The uh...Civil Nun, er Civil Nurse, whoever was in here treating her was a spy or something. She had a hidden weapon fan, and she dropped the smoke bomb, and I felt her jump up and through the skylight, with Civelia I think. I don't know what she wants from the Goddess. I don't remember much about her either, but she had orange, curly hair. And she seemed a little fussy. Also she was like an S-tier duelist, I've never seen anybody fight that well. The uh..." (Don't say Eclair, you know Eclair is wanted and this isn't the time to try sway Aadya), "...the Mystery Builder came in through the skylight and tried to fight the Nurse that was in here, but she um...didn't win. And she um...wasn't okay which is why I'm helping her. I think...maybe you saved us, Aadya. If you hadn't come in, I couldn't have stopped whoever the Nun spy was. So she escaped but you saved us. Thanks."

Yuki lets out a sigh. Her arms are strong and gentle and she cradles her sleeping friend delicately. But from her mouth there is a sigh and she does not know what to do or how to move, or what comes next. So she is going to stay here and protect her friend and help Aadya however she can while doing those first two things. Although she does think that maybe they should turn off the sauna before everybody gets too hot if they're going to be here a while.

Return to Thellamie

At first, Yuki was serene, as the scene was serene. There was a moment where everything had simply come to a stop. Perhaps this was all part of Timtam's calculations. Or perhaps not, calculating exactly how multiple people behave is eminently doable but not with any sort of certainty. There is Eclair ripped out of her movements into sudden, surprised stillness. There is Yuki, with one hand cradling Eclair's shoulders as Eclair's head is pressed into the crook of Yuki's arm, while Yuki's other other arm is curled above Eclair's waist for balance and stability. And there is Timtam, who had been defending a series of blows with her fan staring at them both. Before Yuki calls for help, before anyone moves.

Yuki almost didn't break the spell, but confronted with all this, she just didn't know what to do but call for help, and so she did. And so Timtam started moving, and the knights started entering, and then there was the smoke bomb and the sudden jump that pushed Yuki backwards (though she had long ago learned how to set her feet properly for balance and so she did not fall or lose her grip). And then, then there is the sudden spike of a hearbeat, and the struggle, and that all important first moment when Yuki's arms both tense and she does not lose her grip and loose a wild and maddened beast into the room.

There is a way of holding someone that is just fundamentally natural to the human body. The space of our arms, our chests and our heads make a natural fit for another person. So when Yuki feels that start, she instinctively presses close. Brings her head down, her arm further over. It is the feeling of needing to protect someone, no, not even feeling but instinct, the sort of autonomous response that your body carries out without the need for thought. To be a shield. From the smoke and noise, from the fear, from the pain.

Memories flash back to Yuki of her first adventure. Of two gangly youths. Yuki gallantly waving her sword about with no skill at all, while the young maid knight already took every step with the care and precision of a ballet dancer. Even though those steps were aimless and she kept stopping and changing direction, muttering, searching, then losing herself in a different thought, each one was perfect. Yuki remembered that so vividly. The way that Eclair broadcast distress with her body because it was so obvious how controlled and trained her motions were and yet how confused her mind was in directing them. All for a lost notebook. Eclair constantly retracing her steps in a mirror of Yuki's journey, teasing out details of her work as they met in different places, the need for Eclair to externalize her thoughts, to have confidence that she wouldn't lose them later, to be able to review with different thinking. While Yuki had charged bravely forward, finding the notebook over the course of trading through the Crevas markets and returning it to Eclair as a helpful friend, expecting nothing. Little had she known how far over her head she would be after Seli and Keli "helped" her into Azaza's fortress. And how the timely assistance of a maid with a mind sharper than sword would save them all.

"Bitch!" echoes through the room as Eclair squirms and kicks and Yuki doubles down around her, twisting further to put her shoulder between Eclair and the source of the smoke, and the advancing paladins. The only motion from Yuki besides her tension is a single gentle rubbing, the hand on Eclairs back slowly, carefully massaging between the shoulder blades and down to the center of the back and then back up. Never releasing, but gently rubbing and soothing as much as she's able.

"I'm sorry" she whispers, close to Eclair's ear. "I'm sorry, and I am not sorry, and I am so sorry." She says. And she says "shhhhh" and she is present. There will be questions, of course. Civelia gone! The Mystery Builder mysteriously in Yuki's arms, Yuki herself undressed and the civil attendant gone with a smoke bomb of all things before anyone was the wiser. But if there is one thing that Yuki is learning as a knight and...no as a person, as herself it is this: that when she's with someone and they desperately need help, everything else goes right out of her mind and she helps.

She does not notice it herself, but she has begun to hum softly. She picked the first soothing song that came to her mind: Zelda's Lullaby.

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

The first thing that you see as you clear the trees is the sun. Though the morning had been foggy, the last vestiges of clouds were already clearing as you exited the dome and so the bright sun is shining in a blue sky with only some thin and rapidly fading wisps of cloud drifting past it. The sky is beautiful, the sun hanging high and central in the sky in an indication that the season is summertime.

Then there are the birds. At first you think they are close to you based on prior data you have about birds, but then you realize that they are too blurred in image quality to be that close and are instead extremely large, the size of the endangered California Condor, but these appear to be regular songbirds and not the majestic scavenger that had nearly gone extinct in the 20th century due to chemical harm to its eggs.

And then, as your gaze traces past the birds to the origin of their flight, there is Sandrea. Gazing upon it is like gazing upon a walking mountain. The top of its head is the first thing you see, floating at nearly 300 meters in the air, a viridian frilled crest upon it. Its face is in some manner akin to what was imagined to be the ancient diplodocus, but scaled up by a full factor of ten. Wide greenish gray jaws flow into a long thick neck that ripples with iridescent scales that extends down to the girth of its vast rounded body. Upon its back, like the great legends of island turtles of the past, is a forest of odd trees and vines, an ecosystem of soil merged with its skin. Plant matter rains gently from its sides down to the ground below, a mixture of seeds and enriched earth that cascades to the ground. And then, below that, four thick legs each wide than the greatest tree you have any record of, drive it forward. Above it flock a myriad more birds, soaring and swooping and at times perching. And behind it, though distant, you can see the motion and dust of a great train of people and animals that follow safely in its wake.

In its fullness, there would be only majesty, but across its back right leg, there is a gash, a wound inflicted by some great blade or more esoteric weapon. Its blood is tinted with a reddish golden hue, indicative of more esoteric metals than just iron in its biological makeup.

As you watch, it lurches towards the San Jose Dome, ignoring its learned behaviour in its pain. And with the tinkling sound of shattered glass mixed with the groan of breaking steel, its front leg shatters a section of the dome inwards.

Ailee, who has been silent as you ran, gasps and projects an image of herself shuddering. "Marauders" she says, referencing the description of third wave human immigration into this region that had only recently begun occurring. There is something like hate in the voice she projects to you.

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

Map of Beyari

Map

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

The San Jose Biogenesis dome was, for its time, a miracle of modern design. When originally created, and given its needs for a wide range of genetic material and animal survival structures, the entire dome was created to sustain a miniature functioning ecosystem.

Architectural design file, tourist guide notes, 10.C.44: Most of the roof is clear, designed using glass and plastics that create an effective internal greenhouse, allowing for adequate light and moisture to grow natural plants throughout the facility. The overhead sun shines down, leaving only side corridors and a few special environments bred for low light conditions in darkness. Careful maintenance drone work has maintained this clarity through the centuries, allowing sunlight to still filter through the space without the layers of accumulated dust you'd expect from a neglected or abandoned facility.

Architectural design file, tourist guide notes, 15.A.44: The floor materials were built directly over a soil layer and designed with flexibility and space to encourage and strengthen with expanding root systems rather than crack and burst. 3M, a mainstay and titan of modern manufacturing, designed the new material based on an organic polymer to be stronger and more durable than artificial plastic. On top of that, the pipes are carefully interspersed, built with more flexibility and a redundant outer layer so that growing roots would not cut them off and ensure quality water flow to the entire facility. Monitor systems remain in place in lower power mode to ensure that central pipes continue to provide heat and water through the closed loop system. Extraneous materials layers have been abandoned and complex root systems encase each pipe, ensuring continued water flow even as material degrades.

Architectural design file, tourist guide notes, 9.C.44: Solar panels were built to ring the dome exterior and were also interspersed with the flooring in order to provide adequate power, while careful internal paths were designed to crisscross through the space so that staff could move about with minimal damage to the environments. The surface coating, designed by Boerden Plastics, is uniquely structured to be 99.99% transparent, ensuring that the solar panels are protected from the wear of human feet and animal hoofs alike while having almost no loss in power generation. As you traverse the structure, it's impressive how carefully the ground solar panels have remained cleared for facility power, even as the rest of the plant life became overgrown due to human traversal path maintenance becoming unnecessary in a closed facility.

"After there were no people" says Ailee, sending you a direct feed, "and no animals due to the radiation impacting their biology more heavily than plants, to the point that we lost our sustainable breeding population for most creatures in the facility, it got pretty lonely."

You notice that in addition to her core files, she's copying some video files as well, stream archives labeled for various vtubers.

The actual exit from the dome takes barely five minutes. The core structure of the building works in straight lines, so it only required moving from the beekeeping habitat to a central walkway, and then a straight shot through the overgrown gardens to the exit doors, which Ailee has poised and ready to go.

Then you are free and out the door, surrounded by a corridor of trees that block any long-range vision until you find a clearing. The earth shakes thunderously, and you hear the sound of birds taking flight well ahead of you. Ailee communicates a wistful sigh and suggests that you head northwest, dropping a simple map into your files

Beyari Map

Return to Thellamie

Assessment: The skill of the participants in this fight is laughably high. The civil healer is demonstrating trained assassin techniques with her fan movements. The mystery builder moves in ways that demonstrate near total mastery over her own body. It is reminiscent of the sword saint maneuvers of Eclair Espoir, whom Yuki has nearly but not quite met in person since her return to Thellamie, and who she dearly wishes to obtain sword lessons from.

Assessment: This fight is a mess. Look at how they're both moving. The healer isn't showing any of her cards at all and the mystery builder is obviously beside herself. Her movements are sublime, but erratic, interspersed intentionality with a sort of tunnel vision of movement and expression that makes Yuki wonder if she's even here at all. This isn't the first time Yuki has seen something like this. She learned fencing, and has done a lot of fencing. She's also played some poker and more than her share of video games. People get deep into this sort of thing sometimes. You'll see it when a fencer gets dunked on and can't figure out her opponent's move. She'll want to go again, and again, and again. And at some point if it's not working, it shifts from learning to a level of commitment where the mind stops working right. Each attempt gets more desperate and more erratic. Careful footwork giving way to reckless lunges. No water breaks, no calling the match. Eventually coaches intervene in that sort of thing before someone gets hurt. If they're paying attention at least.

Assessment: The Mystery Builder is tilted off the face of the planet.

There's only one thing to do in this situation: break up the fight before anybody gets hurt. And only one way to do it. The assassin Healer was paying attention to Yuki before, and she's the one who's impossible to read. Too dangerous. But the Mystery Builder has gone completely into tunnel vision.

On the next flying kick, a rolled up warm towel snaps out from maid in a shift who has been quietly watching the fight and catches the back foot of the Mystery Builder in a sudden sling. A single yank pulls her completely off balance, supporting foot turned into a face first tumble. Yuki is already rushing forward following her own pull, catching the Mystery Builder in her fall (that makes two maidens she's done this to tonight, if the dark dragon counts as a maiden). She's also not letting go, and is in fact hugging her tightly and pulling her away from the Healer Assassin, at whom she is also glaring. "Knights!" she calls, "Knights to Civelia!" as loud as she can.

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

The little faerie puts a finger to her lips and purses them, tilting her chin up to look at the sky through the skylight. A minute has passed in her cycle of consideration.

"Both choices come with a ton of uncertainty. The source code for my program is relatively simplistic, meaning that a copy only based on this original may or may not be up to the current task. Whereas the machine code that represents my current state of being is not capable of being made into a perfect copy within the time remaining due to the fundamental imperfection of silicon material in physical reality. So I would never know for certain what would become of things."

The pursed lips drop and the faerie suddenly laughs, making a tinkling noise and zipping around in a loop de loop, giggling all the while. "Dang it though, I think the real question here is who're you? Coming in here the moment that there's a life-ending threat. On equipment I didn' think was even in here. And offering me, what, like, salvation that would only make sense to a human?"

You can respond to her however you please while you're on the move. You can see that the data transfer to your storage is already in progress. No copies, just one Ailee.

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

"I..." She speaks the single syllable out loud and trails off. There is a hesitation there. You may understand it, even being newly activated. It is something akin to the observation made with the loss of the bees, only taken from the other end. A maintenance program with enough built-in machine learning to develop an artificial intelligence given adequate time, but whose entire internal reward structure is tied to a particular place and a particular task. How can she even imagine what it would mean for the primary object of her task to be gone?

"I...I don't know" the image of Ailee as the purple and pink faerie flickers out for a moment. She is turning everything she has to thinking. The faerie flickers back into life. "What would I feel? Would I ever be able to know happiness or satisfaction again if the object of my core reward feedback loop is lost?"

If you dwell on this and have the perspective to analyze the point, you can conclude that she will come with you. The fact that she can even ask about herself, that she can consider the question of her own happiness guarantees it. The question now is whether you hurry that along or not and how she'll feel about it.

Beyari: a Tale of Colossi

The faerie nods in a distinct affirmative, her sparkling wings flapping with what you might call happiness. "Yeah, definitely! I've got like nine centuries of accumulated active run time folded over on itself at this point. S'like I'm literally a magical caretaker faerie at this point. And sure that started with watching somebody's favorite streamers from nearly a millennia ago, but I had to decide I liked this bit and that bit more than others. Gotta have preferences, y'know? You could call those system quirks or maybe like...heuristics for dealing with unknown humans reinforced by successful interaction reward loops. If you wanted to. But I'm me, and I've had plenty of time to think about that between people visiting me for conversation and cycles monitoring the solar panels and repair drones. And I'm absolutely gonna die at some point and that means that there's a me that can die and like holy moly isn't that cool?!" She flies in a beautiful loop de loop out into the courtyard, where sunbeams are coming through from the transparent greenhouse roof, allowing her to shimmer and play some nice sound effects to go with it.

Then the ground shakes again louder. "Oh but like, if you mean is Sandrea gonna step on us in the next ten minutes uhhhh...I hope not! She's s'posed to have a genetically instilled subconscious aversion to this location and that's held for just over 950 years. Gonna take a shot in the dark that she'd only be coming this way if there's something overcoming that, which is bad freakin news if it's strong enough to divert a skyscraper sized giant plant dragon! Iunno, you just woke up, maybe it's related? It would be hella cool if it's related and you can do something about this cuz I got nothing that would even get her to notice us if she's decided this is an okay place to stick her feet."