I stare after him with wide eyes as more of the machines go screaming past, uncertain how to proceed. My head starts to hurt immediately from the influx of light and sound. I’d thought the screaming wind of the Howling Wind Plains was bad. Harrow, I’d thought the Verdant Nexus was loud. That was nothing compared to this.
I’m so caught up on the sight of this functioning and thriving city, that it takes me a little longer to realize there’s another difference.
The people.
There are humans everywhere, dressed in a variety of clothing. Some of them I can tell are players because of their mishmash of items. It’s easy to tell us apart because of the various armor and weapons hanging off of us. Other humans, I assume predominately NPCs, are wearing clothing in a style I’ve never seen before. Men are dressed in loose trousers and white shirts, strange ropes holding their trousers up over their shoulders. Other men are dressed in fancy looking outfits that look better fitted for sleeping than surviving the Harrow. Many of the men wear hats. The women range from short sparkly knee-length dresses that Dox would gush over, dressed like the men, or simple loose dresses that feel more modest. Some of them wear strands of white polished rocks and feathers in their hair. Some of them have their own hats, different from the ones the men wear.
And then there are the other people.
While many of the people look wholly human, many of them . . . don’t. I can’t explain it, because I don’t have words for what they are, but their features vary from my own. Some of them have different shades of skin I never thought possible. Green, blue, purple, and strange patterns like an animal echoing on their flesh. Some of their ears are misshapen and pointed. Some of them have teeth that hang up over their lips. Some of them have wings!
They’re mixed in with the people, going about their daily life as if this is all normal.
I guess it is normal when you live here.
“This is better,” Svetlana says as she finally emerges from my cloak. “I thought we were never going to leave the frigid asshole of that region.”
“You and me both,” I say, dragging off my cloak and storing it into my inventory. Warmth presses against my skin and I sigh at the distinct lack of cold.
I reach across the border and drag Locke back across the boundary. “Look!”
“I see,” Locke grunts, squinting his eyes at the bright lights.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” I ask, staring at it all in wonder. This is what Dross was once supposed to be, what it can never be now. This is what humanity has always yearned for.
“Beautiful isn’t the word I’d use,” Locke admits. “Noisy. Loud.” He looks up at the buildings. “Too bright.”
I laugh. “Look at the moving machines on the street! There are people in them, controlling them . . . I think!” I grin. “One of them almost ran into me!”
“Seems a strange thing to be excited about,” he says.
It’s the first time I realize that his voice is just a little different from before. I keep waiting for the excited lilt that he’d had before he leveled up, the tick up in his tone, but it never comes. My smile falls as I study him, as I try to find the difference.
We haven’t had time to revel in his upgrade. He hadn’t read the description and I could hardly ask him if he feels much different while he’d been carrying me and we’d been trying to leave the Shatterlands. But now, here, with all this new beauty around us, I notice a difference.
His voice is just a little bit deeper, just a little less smooth.
“Are you okay?” I ask, staring at him.
“I’m fine. Why?” he asks, watching me back. He doesn’t seem to realize I’m sizing him up, looking for variations from the man I once knew. Luckily, the only real difference seems to just be the pitch of his voice and his muscled shoulders. Everything else is exactly the same.
“Just asking,” I murmur, worry dancing in the back of my mind.
Cipher had been adamant that I shouldn’t linger around a Bone Breaker. Locke and I have formed a pretty solid bond over the last . . . however long it’s been. But now that he’s leveling up, do I need to worry?
“Yes,” Cipher whispers in my mind. “Pay close attention, Vespera.”
Not going to warn me away from him again?I ask mentally.
“You would not listen if I did,” he replies. “This is a lesson you will have to learn on your own.”
My frown deepens, but I don’t argue. I do look at Locke from the corner of my eyes and, after a moment of consideration, take his hand in mine. He looks down at where our fingers are joined and then releases me to pull off his glove before doing the same to mine. Then he threads our fingers together properly, flesh against flesh. He doesn’t say anything, but his grip is just a little tight, a little desperate.
“So, I don’t get run down by the box machines,” I say, smiling.
“Of course,” he nods. “They’ll run into me first.”
“No,” I laugh. “You’ll make sure I don’t walk out in front of them.”
