12 Miles Below

It had been a simple deal to start. To’Aacar was leaving to kill his son. There was only one person with the power to fight the Feather off. He offered the girl anything if she could save Keith.

An accord had been made, one that both of them agreed to without issue. She’d save Keith and he would follow and guide her wherever her path took her. He suspected she would have wanted to save Keith regardless of a deal, only didn’t have the means to voice it out. So he’d nudged fate and gave the push she needed.

It had worked. She’d arrived just in time and carried him far away from harm. Now they had to make sure the boy would survive the next ordeal until he could reunite with the clan. Keith wasn’t a warrior, even in relic armor. Tenisent remembered the last time he’d seen the boy fight something, and he’d won only by guile and clever planning. There wasn’t much planning one could do in the middle of a surprise ambush. Keith needed a guardian to safeguard him for now.

“A Deathless?” She asked, thinking. “Yes, that would work. It would explain my healing abilities.” Then the girl looked down at her hands. “Deathless look like humans, correct?”

“The ones I’ve met all have.” Tenisent said.

“Do they also have that human armor?” She asked, along with a slew of other obvious questions.

He nodded. There hadn’t been a single one he’d seen that didn’t own a relic armor. No, they didn’t have gills, extra arms, or hidden body changes they kept secret when the machines weren’t around to spot them. They were human in all ways that he knew of, except for their blood. Feathers were the ones with mutations or additions.

He gave a quick glance at the boy propped up against the side of a tree, eyes closed, breathing steady. The hole in his armor was still wide open, but the flesh under it healed and no longer bleeding. Only stains on the ground remained. “Hurry with the changes.” He growled out to the Feather. Keith would wake up soon enough.

Given Tenisent’s luck, it’ll likely happen at the worst possible moment, maybe halfway while the Feather was changing if fate had a cruel sense of humor.

Wrath closed her eyes, and commanded a dark mist to swoop around and envelop her body, eating away at trees and rocks nearby, draining her power cell, but crafting a lookalike to relic armor as the mist slowly worked its way over her shell. Soon, what was left behind was a human simulacrum.

“This should do.” To’Wrathh declared, giving her new armor a look over. It didn’t look quite like relic armor he know of, but it would function for now.

There were more egregious errors to fix.

“Humans do not have marble white skin, or white hair.” Tenisent said.

To’Wrathh frowned. “My energy reserves are growing low. Are you sure we cannot say I have a sickness of some kind? Humans are prone to millions of mutations, any of which could explain the lack of pigment. And only his sister has seen my current form, he couldn’t possibly know I am a Feather from that minor detail.”

“That’s what you consider a minor detail?” Tenisent growled. “It’s as clear as ice to anyone with half a working brain.”

She reluctantly followed the order, changing her appearance.

“Deathless don’t have halos.” Tenisent said next.

Now she frowned. “I could say it was a battle trophy?”

That got the ghost growling. “The less you need to stretch the truth, the better the disguise. Clan lord Atius taught me that lesson, and so I’m teaching you now. Get rid of the halo.”

To’Wrathh pouted, but still complied.

“And the wings.” Tenisent said, after giving her armor a look over for anything he might have missed.

“They’re my wings.” To’Wrathh said, eyes narrowing. “I like them.”

It dawned on Tenisent then, that all of this might not go quite as easily as he’d expected.

Before he could give the obvious counter-argument, Keith stirred in his sleep, heartbeat picking up and eyes flickering under groggy lids.

Tenisent could only curse his luck as To’Wrathh immediately abandoned any talk and rushed over to investigate her old original rival.

“All right,” Keith said with a shrug, mercifully deciding not to question anything further. Tenisent felt only relief at that, as if he’d run a few circuits around the colony already.

He had severely underestimated just how socialized To’Wrathh really was. Thankfully, he’d also overestimated his son’s common sense. Keith seemed to take everything without question and completely ignore the oddities.

What sort of people had his son been spending time with in the clan? He’d heard from the staff a few times that Keith spent his time with a group of spiteful little hellions running amok whenever he snuck out past the hired house guards. Just how much had he missed?

“Just happy to be here.” The boy said, trying to stand up in the broken armor. “How long has it been?”

“Five hours, twelve minutes, twenty-two secon—”

“To’Wrathh.” Tenisent growled. “Humans do not keep perfect time in their heads.”

Panic welled from her soul fractal, and he huffed at the side. “Calm. Tell him it was your relic armor giving you coordinates. That will do.”

“My… relic armor was tracking the exact time, of course.” She said out loud, quickly. “Returning to the point, we are approximately twenty-three miles away from your initial fall. The area was dangerous, and I needed to relocate before my presence could be noticed.”

Not even two minutes and there had already been three oddities, and one outright close call.

A rough start, but the girl would adapt and learn, of course.

This was fine. She would get better over time. It was fortunate his son was dense as a metal core, but that still had limits.

She ate the skewer.

The entire gods damnedskewer, wood and all.

The greedy food-obsessed glutton had chomped it down too fast for Tenisent to even raise a hand, let alone stop her from snapping the wood a few dozen times and swallowing the whole thing.

He stared in outright mute horror. There was not a single bit of experience he had in all his life that could possibly prepare him for this.

The glutton in question clearly mistook his silence as acceptance as she happily chewed away the rest, before realizing Keith was staring at her with a mouth half open in shock.

With both Winterscars staring her down, some part of her tiny malfunctioning cricket-sized brain finally realized she might have made a mistake.

Humans don’t eat the wood part, do they? She asked him quietly, looking down at her half eaten skewer and back to Keith a few times.

“No. No, they do not.” Tenisent said, evenly.

Her automatic systems were already gleefully betraying her, calling up a red blush on her cheeks while the girl was too shocked to notice.

Tenisent raced through ways to explain this. Even an idiot would question why someone would willingly eat wood.

Then he heard a crunch, and he saw the idiot eating away at the skewer - wood and all.

Tenisent watched in mute horror again. Keith looked up and gave a toothy, pained smile, bits of wood still sticking in his mouth.

Ah ha! Wrath declared, glancing between him and the boy, a smug smile bleeding into her features. I knew it!Smiling is a human expression for happiness and acceptance. The wood portion of the skewer was an excellent choice to include, clearly. It seems I now know more things about human culture than you do, Tenisent.

The girl had the audacity to seriously believe this too.

“You are both fools made for each other, clearly.” Tenisent said, eye twitching.

You are just upset I was correct in my deductions. Wrath countered, gleefully eating the next skewer, munching away while staring him down.

He didn’t know someone could both smirk and chew with a mouth full at the same time, but To’Wrathh managed it perfectly.

He felt his eye twitch again.

“I always heard Deathless spend most of their time in the lower levels, and this is just the first strata. Are you one of the new Deathless I keep hearing about, or part of the old guard?” Keith asked.

“I have been a Deathless for one month, twenty da—”

Tenisent outright glared at her. “No.” He said.

The girl stopped, looking exactly as guilty as she should be. “... Approximately two months now.” She meekly corrected.

“Good.” Tenisent huffed, arms folded, glaring her down. It wasn’t even an hour, and he was already feeling exhausted. Being social had never been something he was good at, and now he had to teach a robot how to be human or Keith would try to escape from the only person who could save his life.

The gods demanded too much of him. He’d already died once. What more did they want from him?

Apparently, the answer to that question was his sanity.

“You can power down your armor completely. I have enough energy to remain operational and alert.”

“To’Wrathh…” Tenisent growled, “Humans are not machines, they’re not powered by batteries.”

“I mean, my armor has that feature.” The girl said, hastily falling back to her usual default excuse, as Keith’s eyebrow rose a small fraction. “Of course, I will do the sleep like you while we remain here until night has passed.”

If he had hair to pull, he wouldn’t have had any of it anymore by now. “Humans sleep. They don’t do the sleep.” He hissed, wondering if he should just shut up and let this airspeeder crash into the mountain by itself.

“Will do the sleep?” Keith asked, equally confused, but clearly taking the wrong understanding from it, somehow. Perhaps two fools really did cancel each other out. Tenisent could only pray and hope.

“I mean, I’ll be sleeping too, like a normal person would, yes.” The girl opened her mouth to stab herself further into the foot, but Tenisent beat her to that. She caught sight of him for a second, and wisely decided to move topics.

“Anyway! We’ll rely on my armor to wake us if there is danger, and otherwise sleep. That’s the important part, yes.” She said, and quickly turned away to prepare a bed.

And then paused.

He could already feel her reaching out to his cell, pounding at the door, tears on her eyes in panic. Asking him how to prepare a ‘sleeping nest’ or the step by step instructions for what humans do when out in the wild. She’d only ever seen humans sleep in beds.

He spent the next few minutes patiently explaining to her that humans didn’t make sleeping nests on ceilings or tree branches. It took her some time to process through, despite her arguments that sleeping on a floor was clearly suboptimal.

“No, that isn’t edible. Spit those out…. To’Wrathh. Spit out. The bones. Now. And stop sulking about it!”

“Use your hands to cup water. Do not submerge your head into the stream, again.... No, I don’t care if it’s more optimal.” A beat passed. “The boy is a terrible example of a regular human being. He doesn’t count. It’s going to take an hour to dry off his hair by a fire, and you’ll need to do that. Humans can get ill from this.”

To’Wrathh sulked. If this behavior is dangerous, how has he li--

“I don’t know how he’s still alive at this point and I gave up asking hours ago. Only the gods know.” Tenisent said. “Now collect firewood and start a camp.”

“You don’t have the gear to hunt fish in the stream. Ignore his request. Stand back up, there’s perfectly reasonable prey to hunt only a few feet ahe- did you just spear that fish with your hand?! Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

She did indeed think he wouldn’t notice if she was fast enough. And her plan had been to hand over the slimy uncooked thing over to Keith as if it were a ration bar he could eat in secret. Because he’d idly asked for fish during their talk.

“You realize the fish needs to be prepared and cooked?” Tenisent said, while Keith observed the fish with wide eyed spectacle. He’d never seen someone spear a gods damned fish with a hand before now, and somehow didn’t think it was abnormal.

Human history has plenty of culinary examples of raw fish being consumed. She huffed, shoving a few textbooks into his cell. Additionally, whole fish could equally be eaten in certain cultures.

Tenisent didn’t even know that was a thing. Humanity clearly was just as unhinged as she was. He took a quick look over her sources, out of sheer morbid curiosity while Keith and the empty-headed Feather ran around trying to work out how to butcher the thing into pieces without relic armor to guide him.

“To’Wrathh, the raw fish sections are specifically only the muscles. And the edible whole fish are the size of a finger, not an arm. Not to mention half of these books are fictional. Kobolds are not a real race, their diets do not reflect reality.”

Tenisent took a moment to center himself. It could have been worse. She could have taken a bite out of the fish the moment she’d speared it out, and then handed the other half to Keith. Who knows what the boy would have done then?

He watched as the two sat down to figure out how to prepare and cook a fish using only the textbooks To’Wrathh had stored in her mind.

It was a disaster. They ruined their fish and had to go fish out more.

And the stupid Feather did end up taking a bite out of a wiggling angry fish regardless, once they got frustrated at the lack of progress.

Other animals eat fish whole and raw, why are humans an exception? She argued, munching down on the fish head, cheeks full, eyes glaring in protest back at the ghost.

When Kidra was young, she’d often been mischievous, sneaking out treats or bringing her stuffed toys to places they shouldn’t belong in. Tenisent never had to overtly deal with the girl, his wife saw to it. Often racing after the fleeing little troublemaker and pinching her cheeks until the girl complied. Tenisent never understood the impulse then, but now he was dearly wishing for hands again.

Keith didn’t seem even remotely surprised at this point. But fortunately he’d learned he could avoid strange Undersider customs so long as he excused himself politely. Which he did while To’Wrathh’s shark-like teeth finished the rest of the meal in three more happy bites, fishtail and all.

To’Wrathh spat out a few fishbones in Tenisent’s direction, huffing.

“Hecate.” Keith eventually said some time later, slowly, clapping both his hands together, taking a deep breath.

Tenisent felt a chill run through his spine. He couldn’t tell why. All of this seemed like the usual idiots talking to each other. Why did he feel like there was something ominous about to happen?

“I know you saved my life, and I want you to know that I’m very grateful for that.” The boy said, only making the ominous feeling wrap around Tenisent’s shoulders like a noose.

“However. If we spend more than a day together, I swear to all the gods I’m going to find some way to teach you a sense of humor, even if it kills me.”

Tenisent stared. And then promptly decided to simply watch the disaster as it unfolded. Stress left his mind like a wisp of air.

Whatever happens, happens. Keith wouldn’t be able to kill off To’Wrathh if he discovered she was a Feather. And To’Wrathh wasn’t going to kill Keith if she was discovered. What was the worst that could happen?

He felt a sudden sense of peace and tranquility for the first time in days, as if a light was shining down on him.

Up until a drake decided peace was not an option.

The boy and the girl walked casually down the road, with a drake slinking above them, taunting the entire time, while his son threw rocks at it.

Tenisent didn’t know what to say or do. He simply floated along, mentally exhausted.

At least To’Wrathh had stopped trying to eat everything that looked remotely edible. Progress.

“What’s the plan now?” Keith asked, “Are we going to continue the search for a fountain using the mysterious spooky sled?”

“Most of our energy expenditure is spent on moving our mass. With this hoversled, we can remain stationary and use the longer sticks for propulsion and steering.” To’Wrathh said, already aboard. “It will be far more efficient. We may even cover ground faster than walking.”

“This is going to be a disaster.” Tenisent said, floating to the side, watching.

She frowned, turning her gaze to the ghost. “Assuming we coordinate together correctly, I don’t see how this would be a disaster.”

“You underestimate my ability to turn anything into a disaster.” Keith said, clearly not realizing he hadn’t been the one talked to. “Any idea what follow the trail meant?”

She shook her head. “I am as confused as you are. However, we need to move before the drake returns and we do not have other options to explore.”

“Technically, we do.” Keith said.

“We do not have any acceptable options.” She corrected, giving him a stern glare..

“Fine, you twisted my arm here.” Keith grabbed a rod and gave an experimental tug against the ground. The sled started gliding across the remains of the campfire.

Tenisent watched, debating how many seconds they’d go before slamming into a tree.

He’d overestimated.

Within the first second of trying to cooperate, both the Feather and the boy pushed off on opposite ends, spinning their hoversled like a demonic dreidel.

This doesn’t count. To’Wrathh said internally.

Tenisent rightfully ignored her feeble squawks of protest. “I told you this would be a disaster.”

“Want to draw straws on who leads?” Keith asked once the spinning stopped, reaching down for a few twigs to work with. “On my honor I’ll accept any result, so long as it’s one where I win.”

Should I suggest to lead or is it a good idea to allow random chance to determine our course? This doesn’t seem like the right way to choose leadership. To’Wrathh asked.

“Flick his head.” Tenisent answered.

I did not expect that as an option to choose from.

“It is effective against idiots. You should try it sometime.” The ghost insisted.

She frowned. Why am I getting the impression you are implicating me in this?

“Oh, you understand subtext now?” The ghost said. “How convenient.”

“What?” Keith asked, oblivious to the conversation, still getting the sticks ready.

“I have just been given advice to flick you on the forehead.” To’Wrathh told the boy, still unsure of the direction to pick. The advice seemed suspicious to her.

“Who’s giving you such shocking and violent advice?” Keith shot back, lifting up the sticks and offering her to take one. “I want a word with them.”

Tenisent watched as the Feather and the human spoke in the dim darkness, waiting for the power cells to charge up.

They spoke animatedly about all kinds of different topics, most of which the old ghost did not know a thing about. They found a stick somewhere, and started drawing out graphs and numbers into the dirt, debating different ideas. Completely absorbed in their own little world.

He’d always thought machine kind and humanity were destined for war. That cooperation was a naïve notion that would only lead people to a quicker death.

And yet, here was the proof before him that there really could be a better future.

Perhaps, Tenisent thought, two fools really do cancel each other out.

A slight smile twitched on his features.

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