For the first time in a literal eternity, Shifting Gales felt the many taboos in her body acting up. Anger was an emotion the Iterator rarely felt, a mood she stripped away from her persona once she became friends with Far Whisper. To act as the calm counter scale to the bug-like Iterator’s regular expressions of strong emotions. The sound of the shattering spears on her shoulder blades, however, caused her to feel that emotion bellowing up, risking on consuming her.

She drew as much coolant water as she was physically able to, briefly forgetting that this would lead the acid to prior untainted locations in her Superstructure, and cranked up her umbilical arm to eleven. With the boosted reflexes of an Iterator at max capacity, which was in her current state a measly 19% effectivness, Gales pulled her puppet away from the cowering position and into an upright position. Gales raised her arms, assuming a defensive stance, her fists loose, yet fingers tensed up.

The two Scavengers appeared surprised by her resilience and recovery. The blue-scaled traitor pointed at his shattered spear in sheer befuddlement growling lowly. An expression the green creature retorted with a dismissive wave, throwing the broken rebar to the ground. They appeared like ferocious beasts to Gales, and her growing fascination with their kind shattered in an instant. Gales scoffed, uncaring that the assassins on her puppet wouldn’t understand a single word. She couldn’t stay silent and collected, as the feeling of pride filled her guts. She was an Iterator after all, and these lowly critters dared to raise their spears against her. Her bellowing up wrath was nothing against the anger Far Whisper was known for, in comparison to her friend, Gales was currently a calm storm.

“You dare raise your hands against me!? I forgive much, I let everything pass. Even if I was built in a faulty fashion, my Can being a laughable joke of my creators, even then! I endured it all. I can’t stand up to any of my friends, I am nothing but baggage to them, even at this very moment.

But you! … You! … You managed to test my patience, and break through my brittle restrains. If you lowly beasts desire to anger a wrathful goddess, so be it! Striking me at my weakest, right after Breaker provided me with much required relief. How low. How sinful. Such … cowardice.”

Gales' digital eyes narrowed to slits, her emotions taking over her shaking puppet. In her current state an emotional outbreak could cause significant damage to her Can, probably even destabilize her before the date set in her calculations. But in this very moment, the formerly repressed emotions made it difficult to even think, the countless partially faded taboos attempting to hold her back, to keep her small and insignificant. Gales let out a shrieking cry of pain and anger, a hollow-sounding interference that visibly haunted the Scavengers.

If Gales had the mental focus to analyse her opponents, she could read their raised yet irregular heartbeat. She was scaring the hell out of them. The small and defenceless puppet was now floating above the ground, a circle of black and white energy having appeared behind her, wild bolts hitting the walls of the red-tinted room.

This assassination target was far above their pay rate, they had probably realized by now. Even the weakest random god of this planet was still that: A goddess! A divine calculator, envisioned by the House of Strings, realized by the House of Forgiveness. She was the Guardian of Solitude, one of the five gods of Seven Red Suns' religion.

Nothing of that meant much, but reciting that inside Gales’ burned-up mind provided her with enough stability to keep a clear enough head to not evaporate the acid in her veins.

And yet … the Scavengers didn’t fully comprehend just how outclassed they were. Both reached to their crooked backs and pulled out a spear each, covered in a thinly laced red gooey liquid. Gales understood their purpose, explosive tips. They would go in for the kill. They could try at least, Gales thought to herself, a last rational thought in her consumed mind commandeering her remaining restraint.

And indeed they went on the attack, having shaken off the paralysing sensation of her sudden outburst. Gales narrowed her eyes and opened her hands. She sped up her processing time to the sheer maximum of what she was capable of, slowing time itself for her to react more swiftly. Fingers grabbed the back of the spearhead as they went right for her head and broke off the sharpened end in two motions of her wrists. The sound of bending and shattering rebar sent the aggressors into a state of stupor, watching in terror as the Iterator disarmed their explosive spears while they were striking forth. Both retreated with a leap back, befuddled by the second failure in a row, their eyes reflecting the realisation that they screwed up for real this time.

Gales was cooking internally. She felt the spearheads between her fingers, their brimming energy ready to ignite, to explode if she would press just a little bit firmer. The Iterator focused her enemies and tossed the coated metal parts aside, causing both to explode harmlessly in the far corners of the room. Gales assumed a straight pose and looked down at them, exhaling, sending thick clouds of vaporized acid out of the vents of her Can.

“Run … while you still can. I researched the cycle long enough. I know that you will return if I end you here and now. Reawaken the next day not remembering our little encounter. Turning reality into a nightmare, bound to the cycle like all living beings with a soul. Are you little creatures intelligent enough to realize your own deaths? One life wasted, cursed to try again?

…

I can still see defiance in your eyes. You need to learn it the hard way. But not from me. I am Shifting Gales, I am not Bloodless Promise, the Iterator of Pain and Forgiveness. I am not interested in figuring out that part of the cycle.

But … I think 098 and 099 are quite angry with you, that you attacked their therapist, their surrogate mother. I will let them decide your fate! May the cycle teach you humility.”

Shifting Gales had noticed the blue pairs of eyes in the dim background. The growling and yelping of the Cyan Lizards, the growing desire to protect and take revenge for their caretaker. And Gales allowed them to act on their carnal desires. With her vocal box, she conjured up a series of nonsensical sounds, somewhat akin to a shrill whistle. A command, a specific array of sounds she created for the lizard siblings. And they reacted immediately.

The unfortunate Scavengers couldn’t even fully realize their situation as the strong jaws of the leaping beasts closed around their torsos. But they knew how much their caretaker resented witnessing their sinful desires, which caused them to leave her behind and hop with a series of explosions down the path they originally arrived through, taking the unfortunate assassins with them. Gales could imagine what would happen to these traitors to her hospitality, but she shook off all of those gruesome details and instead focused on the very same corridor.

The two Cyan Lizards passed their orange boss and Breaker, leaving behind both in a state of sheer confusion. Gales' champion, however, quickly pieced together what happened after spotting the battle damage and the torn fabric around Gales’ shoulders. He lowered himself in front of her on his knees and let his head hang, reaching behind his mask to unfasten the coloured pearls she paid him with two hundred cycles ago. A gesture that told Gales everything she needed to know, paired with the light acid damage on his fur and scales. Breaker hasted over to her aid after realizing what his kin would do and did put his greed aside to beg for forgiveness.

Gales' expression softened up and the black-bolt circle behind her back faded out. She hovered down on her feet and took the offered pearls, only to turn them around and press them back in his palm.

“There is no need, Breaker. I do not accuse you of being in cahoots with them. If you would have been, they would have attacked my umbilical arm after all, am I right?” With a slow nod, Breaker grasped the pearls a bit closer. “And do not worry about them. What happened here, will soon be for them, nothing more than a bad nightmare. 098 and 099 will make sure of that. According to my knowledge of the endless cycle, both will return to us the next cycle with no memories of this. Death … is for you mortals highly exaggerated, unless my kind finds a solution for us … for you all.”

Breaker tilted his head. While he reattached his pearls to the strings at his back, he absently looked to the side. When he focused on his goddess again with his reddish gaze, a clear question was painted across his face. After a bit of interpreting on Gales’ side, she finally understood his query. He had dreams about fights with 025 in his memories. He lost but couldn’t remember losing to the orange lizard. Gales reached out and brushed over his mask with the back of her hand.

“You are partially aware of your past lives in this body. Yes, you and … Crusher … fought. Many times even. Sometimes you won, sometimes he did. And eventually, you both buried the hatchet and made peace with each other, accepting the dreams as a growing bond.

What a fascinating development. From enemies to allies. Please, take good care of 025 … of Crusher for me, my Champion.”

Breaker lowered his masked head respectfully and nodded. She knew that he would take good care of Crusher, they appeared to her like kindred spirits. It was odd that they grew together through fights and bloodshed, but not unheard of. If she had had more processing power left and would not operate under the restraints of inevitability, she would have loved to research their bond closer. In terms of her interest in the effects of Empathy, these two represented a near-confirmation of her theories. Especially when observing how diligently Breaker took care of Crusher. Enemies to allies to kindred spirits. Through adversaries, the sprout of empathy bloomed, and they began to understand each other, to grow together. Fascinating!

But would that help them to eventually escape the cycle? Could the vice of Kinship transcend the bindings to the now? … Maybe if they find salvation as a unit, together.

Crusher, Breaker, and Shifting Gales soon left the scene of the attempted assassination and began to move up. Breaker did notice a slight change in the moving pattern of his goddess, she appeared lighter, a bit relieved even. His actions allowed the Iterator to recuperate, if only for a bit. But every action he could take would bring him closer to figuring out how to cure her. How to stop the burning rain.

But for that quest, he needed to figure out a better way of responding to the machine goddess. He could understand her, but she had to rely on a guessing game to understand his complex sign language. He should take the time they required to get to the city, where she required him for another important haul, to at least address the basics of his language.

It took a bit to convince Gales of his intentions, especially as he purposefully didn’t ask for any payment for it, a gesture that confused his goddess greatly. But eventually, they began translating her language into signs and noises of his. Given Gales’ slow pace on her railing, they had plenty of time and wouldn’t need to stop to communicate.

His goddess learned quickly. Breaker was impressed by how intelligent she asked him of words to express certain actions. After less than half a cycle Gales had already learned the entire key vocabulary of his language, which made following interactions way easier for Breaker. And when he began to explain to her the written language his kind used to leave messages, Gales' expression brightened up even more. She began to sign out her excitement, attempting to not use her own language to communicate. It was an amusing spectacle, especially considering she deeply struggled with the grunts that gave the same signs different meanings.

‘Exciting discovery. Written language similar to language of ancient citizens, creators. Scavengers adapted ancient language. Surprising amount of symbols mean same. Scavenger tribe very advanced.’

She sighed and began to untangle her fingers and cool down her vocal box. Using that language visibly exerted her, but also amusingly excited her, Breaker noticed.

“It does work for short banter. But that throatiness actively damages my vocal box. My voice is too … metallic and bright for that. But I can work with that. Thank you, Unrelenting Wave Breaker. This exercise was very enlightening. I finished transcribing a pearl containing your whole base vocabulary. Still require some terms for the extended version, but this could help my peers to better understand and communicate with your kind. … Yes, I will send one copy to the purple goddess, to my best friend Far Whisper.

I understand that you want to make peace with her. Believe me, I think after having cooled down she would love to do that as well. Whispy was never able to let bygones be bygones and carried her debts and guilt always to the point of finally making peace with her opposite but mainly her own.

I will make it possible. Maybe even though the project I want you to aid me with. But I will explain your part in it in a closer fashion once we reach the Silent Monastery. Sounds acceptable?”

Breaker nodded excitedly, a way to make peace with Far Whisper was very much appreciated in the widespread agenda of the Chieftain in making. He required good relationships with both his kin and the random gods they were in various ways dependent of.

“Wonderful.~”

‘Request accepted. Welcome back in my mind, Suns. What is on your mind? If you ask for progress, I am still trying to climb Shifting Gales’ tower. Partially collapsed, what a shame.’

‘I can see it, Spears. Interesting that the murals of the tower appear so … different.’

Suns scratched their metal chin, tapping with their finger against the location where usually a mouth would reside. It was the big question. Why did the Red Crypt and Gales' Tower both look so differently?

There can be only one explanation for it. The underground altar room was built prior to Gales’ construction. I would require building material samples to confirm that suspicion. My creators just can’t be that silhouette blind to mess up her appearance so badly. It is as if both architects never worked together.

We need to conduct more research. … I wish the 1.0 chat device would support image sharing. That would at least confirm which murals accurately depict her.

‘Oh, there is something I have to request of you, my little hero!’

‘Anything you need or require, Suns? I will get it for you, I always do.’

‘I require you, Spears. Approaching Sky … stop groaning in my mind … Sky had reported that he managed to teach 001 the baselines of our sign language. She is, according to him, a noisy pupil without any sense of respect. I assume she learned way more than that already. After all, Sky had granted me a peer in her fascinating baseline genetics. But she does require something else to take it seriously.

Can you be there with me the next time Sky has scheduled a call? I might be able to get you and 001 to talk if Sky confirms it as necessary …’

‘Subject 001 … I dislike the name. I was originally test number 07. Am aware that there were six before me. I … fine. Under one condition. Bring Sky to change her name to something … less replaceable.’

‘You know what, Spears? Why don’t you ask her directly how we should refer to her? But yes, I do agree with you. 001 … now I dislike the implications of that name as well … has something in advantage to your predecessors. Sky doesn’t try to perfect a formula based on the teachings of his creators. 001 is lively, her vitals are outstanding, and her genetic makeover is fascinating.

I will do my best to convince his stubborn mind to make the first attempt the final one.’

Suns felt the affectionate nudge of Spears' mind in theirs. That was all Suns required to know, that their little champion was content with these conditions, excited even, to spend some time with the pup, even if only over solid vision holograms. What was good enough for Iterators, should suffice for them as well.

As Suns disconnected their minds once again, to allow Spearmaster to concentrate on their leaps through Gales’ tower, their gaze wandered over to the dark corner of their Core. The screen, reserved for Approaching Sky, was shimmering dimly, but all other broadcast windows remained empty, disabled. Suns sighed and lowered their puppet to the dedicated wall, summoning the hard light control panel over their chats with the outside world. A deep sigh caused their Can to push out thick clouds of moisture.

A few unread messages from my group as well as a metric ton from No Significant Harassment. I … am not ready yet to answer any questions or discuss anything regarding Pebbles or Moon …

I hope these are manageable. Give me more time, and allow me to focus on saving at least one of us in this centicycle. When Gales is out of danger, I will get back to you.

Gales would be disappointed by that. Fine … at least a sign of life. You won, you falsely proclaimed Guardian of Solitude. I will at least inform my group admin.

[LIVE BROADCAST] – PRIVATE - [1594.721]

Obsidian Tower, Seven Red Suns

SRS: …

SRS: I apologize for having grown silent, Tower.

SRS: And I will continue for a bit. I require the focus.

SRS: I have my reasons. 

OT: You have nerves showing yourself, Suns. You know how Golden Hysteria is in times of uncertainty. And you cutting all communications with the world was indeed one such time.

OT: I will let it slide, this time. But don’t you dare scare her again, Suns!

OT: … I wish you success with your project.

SRS: I … am aware. And thank you, Obsidian Tower.

SRS: This shouldn’t take longer than one major cycle.

SRS: Can you please inform NSH for me? That I am busy? I will get to him once this project is in dry sheets.

OT: I will. Void be with you.