Reid awoke to a stick poking his shin.

"...has to be. So he's not right. He still hasn't reacted."

"He said he might scream, though, and then he did. So maybe this is normal?"

"Oh yeah, flat normal for wounded men to scream for hours and then not wake up for three days. Come on, Brinkha, use your head. No one screams like that unless they're dying."

"But Gerald, his wounds..."

"If you're so insistent, go ahead and give him an inspection! Why not? I'm sure an esteemed attendant like yourself knows so much about it."

"Stop giving her shit, Gerald. The closest you've come to seeing someone die is when I had to kill that Murgheese Welles for the banquet."

"And. It. Screamed. Like. Him."

Reid heard them move away, and peeked open an eye. The woman, Brinkha, was waving her hands as she spoke.

"That's an animal, and this is a person! Not the same. In the Preparatory Corps, I dealt with processing wounded. I know what it sounds like. We just need to wait a bit longer, Gerald."

Gerald was the broad shouldered one with thick forearms. He pointed a finger at Brinkha.

"I was a PreCo, too, and -"

The hunched man with scarred arms interrupted.

"Gasten's ashes, Gerald, you were in the masonry corps!"

"I was a Unit Leader, Norton!"

"Oh, well good for you, chief stonefucker - but that doesn't mean you know shit about shit. You sure as hell knew fuck-all about running a business, and you know fuck-all about medicine. He helped us, we stay with him, and that's it."

Gerald growled at Norton, then kicked at the dirt.

"You two are impossible! He helped us - and I'm going to remember him for that. Honor him, even. But he's either dying or comatose. We can't help him like this - and he might die if we do nothing. We need to go find someone more capable, together, and-"

Reid propped himself up on an elbow and rolled his neck. His armor scraped against a mess of mildly dirty fabrics that looked a great deal like corpse-foraged clothing. The noise got Gerald's attention, and the man moved himself between the sound and Brinkha as he turned to face its source.

Gerald's jaw went slack when he saw Reid awake. Brinkha rushed over to him, and pulled out a mostly-empty water bottle Reid had given her. Norton moved closer, but said nothing. Reid had already started to summon a fresh water and some chameleon meat from storage. He shook his head at her offer.

"Can you remove your armor? I couldn't get all of it off, and I couldn't cut through it, we really need to check your wounds and treat them. Infections are less probable with the system, but they can still happen and we don't have ready access to medicine out here."

Reid's snack popped into existence, and he chucked the pieces of meat into his mouth, then added in some fresh water. The trio were surprised, but didn't jump away. Reid was still chewing when Brinkha started asking questions again.

"None of us recognized you - do you belong to a house, or were you a vest? What's your name?"

Reid swallowed. A smile tugged at his mouth when he realized this wasn't the first time he'd woken up to a round of questioning. His opinions on sharing information had changed a little in the meantime.

"Call me Serroc. Brinkha, Gerald, and Norton, right?"

The three nodded. Reid sat up straight and cracked his neck, then held up both pointer fingers as Brinkha started to ask about houses and vests again.

"Sorry. Hang on. We're in the middle of a forest teeming with beasts, so important things first. What are your skills?"

Gerald stepped forward. "I'm a stonemason, corps trained. Can still build a fair bit." He pointed three fingers on one hand towards a small structure that sat in the shadow of a tree. When the man saw Reid's questioning look, he stammered and pointed to the others. "I.. uh... you were too heavy to drag, and you said not to move you. We only barely got you rolled for the bedding - anyway, Brinkha's an attendant - actually esteemed, you know? And-"

Reid waved a hand again.

"I meant, what's your magic. I still need to kill that beast lord, and you three need to not die."

Gerald scratched at the back of his head and looked very intently at the grass. Brinkha picked up the conversation.

"Well, Gerald has sanitization magic - sorry, purification." She corrected herself after a glare from the man. "I've got a really basic Spatial Manipulation magic, and Norton has Nutrient Alchemy. None of us are useful in a fight, but we do have some rudimentary combat knowledge. Mostly hand-to-hand training."

Reid nodded and rubbed at his temples. They wouldn't exactly be safe on their own, but if he equipped them with some osteal gear, they should be fine long enough for him to finish the beast lord off. And recover. After that, he could figure out how to return them to a safe spot. He took offered hands to help him to his feet, and frowned down at his armor. There was a lot to fix - and recreate.

Gears ground to a halt in Reid's brain, and he swiveled towards Norton.

"Explain nutrient alchemy."

Norton glanced at the other two before he answered.

"It's not a combat skill, and I can't make, um, poisons or anything. I can just change food around a little, is all. Doing it takes a lot of mana, but I guess I'm decent at using it?"

Reid glanced back at the burns on the man's arms. His thin frame that held a surprising amount of strength. His tendency to hunch, and the way his hair seemed permanently braided back. Reid's pulse quickened.

This could be the most important moment he'd had in days - no, weeks. Maybe months. He put his hands gently on the man's shoulders.

"Norton, what did you do before the awakening?"

Reid held his breath as he stared into the man's tired eyes.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Oh, um, it's nothing special. I was just a line cook."

Reid let go of the man, and cheered to the treetops.

#

#

#

Juices flowed out the corners of his mouth as Reid moaned into the succulent folds of a shaved guinea pig steak sandwich. The bread was a healthy mix between the hardness it gained from fire toasting, and the soft texture it regained by soaking up meat juice. A few foraged leaves added complexity to the flavor, and something approaching but not quite cheese graced the bottom of the creation, melty between the meat and bread.

His eyes were closed as he slowly chewed the meal, prepared by the single-most important Vuxarinan inside the tutorial.

Norton was a god descended upon the world to fill it with deliciousness.

He savored two more bites. The only thing that could have improved the meal was silence.

"And all I'm saying is it has to be inefficient to make bread from meat."

"You don't even know how his magic works!"

"I know it took him a full day to turn that pile of meat into three loaves of bread, and now his magic is spent. We'd be better off with more vegetables."

It would be easier to look after two people instead of three. Much, much easier.

After a few moments contemplation, Reid decided to be more lenient and not kill the man for interrupting his first bites of a real, honest-to-goodness sandwich in far too damn long.

"Why do they call you stonefucker?"

Gerald's face went sour, and Norton let out a wheezing, coughing laugh. Brinkha answered.

"You don't know what the Preparatory Corps are, do you?"

Reid shook his head.

"Right - well, there's an option to get some extra training, and education, in skills and subjects. You enroll through the royal court's representatives, and you're officially part of the royal faction's forces. But not combat forces. Combat isn't really... there hasn't been a real war or conflict in a long time. Just little pockets of cults and idiots. Anyway, you do a few years there, depending on the program, and it sets you up for either getting out and finding employment elsewhere, or you can stay in and keep going. Most people do at least a few years. Either to get ahead of their peers or keep even with them. There's a... competitive spirit between different corps, and that's led to some... nicknames for people there."

Reid nodded and swallowed a bite of his sandwich. "So, Gerald's nickname?"

"The masonry corps is one of the oldest, and honestly, still one of the more grand options. They're tasked with maintaining historical sites like the old castles, and statues. Each masonry corps class adds a building to the royal capital, and there's a whole district made by them. It's tough work, and it's impressive. Part of their service includes going into old sites that are closed access, and doing work there - but no one ever talks about it, like it's some big secret. So, secrets and competitive nature mixed, and somewhere along the line, an insult got thrown around and it led to... stonefucker. And it stuck."

Gerald wore a thoughtful smile. "I thought you hated the masons. Thanks for the compliments."

Brinkha blushed. "No problem... stonefucker."

#

Not needing to sleep as much as everyone else left Reid with an abundance of free time compared to the trio. In the few days they'd spent together so far while Reid recovered, he'd been repairing his internal self, making sure his energy pathways were okay to use again if he needed them. Tonight, he'd used part of that free time to craft armor and weapons that now sat in Gerald's stone structure. He'd pushed himself closer to unlocking another message, and would probably finish with it tomorrow. After eating a few proper meals in a row, Reid had started to stow the last few bites in storage. Midnight snacks were back in play, and he'd just finished a bit of grilled eggplant-like thing that Norton called a 'eromourd'.

Reid watched a breeze rustle a branch enough that it disturbed the black-winged bird trying to sleep there. The creature took flight and lazily moved in the direction of the mountains.

"Mind if I sit?"

Brinkha pointed to a patch of grass near Reid. He tilted his head in assent. She let silence stretch as Reid stared up towards a fake sky.

"I know you're not with a house, and you're not a vest, and you don't know the things you should, so... when were you taken?"

Reid turned to face her, but she was staring at the fake stars.

"The only memories I have of Vuxarina are from when I landed here to start the tutorial."

It wasn't really a lie. Just the right bits of the truth.

"I'm sorry that happened to you... Did... did they treat you alright? The aliens, I mean."

Reid chewed the inside of his lip.

"It could've been worse, I guess. Could've been better, too. But don't call people aliens. It's impolite."

Fake stars shifted in the night sky.

"I had an older sister. One day, a few years back, she was on her way home and then she was just... gone. And we thought it was crime, or something, but there was no evidence of anything. Part of the reason I became an attendant was so I could save up enough to launch a private investigation into her disappearance, because I was so sure they'd missed something. But then the awakening happened, and Belar showed up, and people that were gone for years just, flew in from the clouds on these spaceships. I hoped, you know? There was that tiny light that I'd always kept lit, and then suddenly I thought it might stay lit all on its own. She might be out there somewhere, alive, and I just need to find her. Then we would have each other back."

Brinkha's gaze shifted from the stars to the ground. She let out a long sigh.

"But even if she's back, things are all messed up. All the things I took for granted, the institutions and the stability, they're gone. Talking to you earlier today about the masons, I realized it. Even if I get her back, she's not coming home to the same place, just like you'll never get to know Vuxarina like you should. That world and everything it was is gone, and it can't come back... and... I'm sorry. I came over here because I have this selfish thought that you might be able to give me some idea of what it might've been like for her, or some idea of where she might be, or - I don't know. That you somehow knew her. I just wanted something, anything, to latch on to."

The words churned in Reid's heart. Where would he be now if he didn't have that something in Sara's messages? If he didn't have some indication of how she was doing, he wasn't sure how well he would be holding himself together.

Reid patted her shoulder.

"I never saw another Vuxarinan out there, so I can't say. But if you think there's a chance, then keep your spirits up. If not - it sounds like she would've wanted you happy."

Brinkha's nod shook the tears from her eyes.

She eventually excused herself back to the stone structure, and Reid was left alone with his thoughts. They led him back to Sara. The simple, fulfilling truth that he had bits of her life waiting for him whenever he wanted to reach for them.

Energy into the glyph.

So, exciting news that made me think of you. One of our research teams discovered that a strain of awakened tea leaf plants can absorb mana, and then it infuses liquids with mana when you brew it, so yeah. We reinvented energy drinks. Or Coffee, I guess. But it brought back memories of the first time you let me have an energy drink, and I hated it, but I finished the whole thing because I wanted to be like you. There's so few things that remind me of old Earth. Everything else has grown and changed and become part of the new reality. But my first 17 years of life were so important to me - almost like they were more real than all the rest. I hold on where I can.

Reid could smell his living room, and the lightly buttered popcorn he'd made in a pot on the stove. Father-daughter movie night was a great way to spend a weekend, especially when Susan was away working. The lumpy cushions of their living room couch had been comfortable enough to lull him close to sleep, and then he had stepped into the kitchen to keep himself awake. The can was a flavor that hadn't even tried to sound natural - "Electric Sunshine".

Sara - bright eyed and still hopped up on the idea of watching old action movies with dad - had stared at the brightly colored can like it was a forbidden nectar. So, he offered. Not the best choice he made as a parent, that one. She'd sipped, gagged, and poorly tried to play it off. Stubborn as she was, Sara finished the whole thing, chasing each gulp with a handful of popcorn.

Brinkha's words and Sara's message swirled through his memory and scattered it.

That world and everything it was is gone, and it can't come back. Everything has grown and changed.

Reid pulled his knees to his chest, and cried into his hands.

#

#

There was still no sign of daybreak. Puffed eyes and dried tears marked Reid's face as he marched through the forest. His emotions were still a churned mess and there was nothing he could do about it. Nothing that was actually going to make things better, at least. He needed an outlet. Requiem appeared in one hand, and brock the other. Nyx spoke up for the first time in days.

"Reid, I know you're antsy, but you still need a day or two to get back to full strength. Just give yourself that, then go back to the hive."

He stopped his walk and tried to calm his breathing. It didn't work. He was a swirling mess - and Nyx could feel it, too. He was certain of that, because he could feel echoes of her emotions warring against themselves. A minute passed. When she finally spoke again, her voice was gentle and low.

"Okay. You go to the hive and you let yourself loose. Don't worry about recovery. Just do what you need to do. I'll handle the rest."

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