Waiting for the Capitán to wake, the Major and Raime had kept talking. Despite himself, he had started responding, keeping the flow of the conversation going. It was strange, disarming. Willow and Armageddon didn’t have any wishes to converse with anyone aside from the Capitán and Dove had thoroughly avoided him so speaking with Raime in the usually silent 131 Byzance hall was a new experience that he’d felt almost instinctively attracted to. There wasn’t any reason for it to feel so different than his relationship with Sihvan but whether it was practical or not, the Major had endorsed the role of a student in their interactions. Talking with Raime, the dynamic was different. They were barely a member of the Cors, even on a technicality. They were overtly casual, even insolent, their mannerisms betraying a lack of confidence despite their loud arrogance. By all means, the Major should’ve never given them any attention, but it was this baseless stoicism that had let Raime reach out to him despite who he was. There was no need, nothing to be gained, from being in the same room as them. They were as small as they’d been when they looked at him for the first time, sheer terror painted across their face. They were as small as any of the other citizens of Last Kunlun, trying desperately to find meaning in their every day lives. The Capitán had taught him as much, Raime was no different.
“So she makes machines for the Capitán?” Raime whispered, pointing down towards Armageddon, still working near to the ground where the Major couldn’t see.
“She can hear you, you can ask her.”
“Yeah but…” Raime regained their normal tone, leaning under the desk, “You don’t mind if I ask the Major about you?”
When they’d came the day before, the Major had noticed Raime had been taken aback by Willow, right now they were probably just grateful they only had to deal with the one who would be louder than them.
Raime rose up from below, a satisfied smile on their face, “She shook her head, see?”
“She is adept with old world technology, yes,” the Major whistled, “but she is also talented in analyzing data.”
“Wouldn’t that be your area of expertise?”
“Why would it?”
“Well…” Raime scratched the bottom of their chin before swiftly sticking their hands in their suit’s pockets, “It sounds dumb now that I think about it but I’ve kind of imagined you as some sort of robot? From the stories I’ve been told.”
“I see, that would give me by nature an edge in computing power.”
“Yeah, that.”
“You are mistaken though, my frame is entirely made of organic matter.”
“Like the aerobus drivers?”
“Affirmative.”
“That’s crazy… they seem to be following a program compared to you though.”
“There is quite a substantial difference in size.”
“Fair, fair.”
“They are much bigger than I,” The Major continued, satisfied at Raime’s sudden surprise, “Their design is their purpose. The aerocores in their chest is the same one that drives the aerobus around, the frame posing as the conductor is simply an accommodation from Jiù ēn.”
“Huh! Why?”
The Major froze, he had automatically regurgitated an anecdote he learned from Sihvan’s classes but the professor had stated that the reason behind most of Jiù ēn’s decisions weren’t clear, and this was one of them.
“I cannot say.”
Raime suddenly looked very unimpressed. The Major didn’t have the time to worry about veering the conversation away from that impasse, somewhere deep inside Byzance 131, something was shifting. His head must have cocked to the side on instinct because the Major saw that Raime had noticed his sudden change of focus.
“Is she awake?” Raime asked.
The Major didn’t respond, only rising from his chair and heading towards the stairs leading to the higher floor.
“That was so creepy,” Raime chuckled.
They lobbed the taunt in the Major’s back but didn’t follow him upstairs. There, he saw the Capitán, who almost rammed into him with how fast she was moving.
“How long did I sleep?” The Capitán asked, in the process of putting on her coat.
“It’s only zenith, you told me when you came back not to wake you.”
“I know. I remember. I should be good for the next three days. No World-Eater?”
“The city is quiet, City Hall even quieter.”
The Capitán didn’t stop one second in the hallway to discuss it further, barreling down the stairs. The Major hoped they could have a little time to discuss what he had learned from Sihvan, far enough away from Raime’s ears but now they were all back in the same room together.
“Already back?” The Capitán sneered in Raime’s direction.
“Do you not have anything else to wear?”
“Ha! Talk about the Sun calling the sky white! I thought if someone were to understand, that’d be you!”
“I don’t have anything else to put on…”
“What? You think I have a wardrobe full of the same shirts and coats? I do, better do the same before you start smelling like upturned dirt.”
“I thought,” The Major tried to interject, “That I should tell you about something I learned from Sihvan last night.”
“Hm? Well go on.”
Armageddon had peeked from under her desk once she had heard the Capitán making her way down. The Capitán went up to her and let her embrace her legs, still half hidden between two desks. The Major looked between Raime and the Capitán, attempting to imply what he had to say didn’t need to be mentioned in their presence.
“Oh please,” The Capitán rolled her eyes in the direction of Raime, “It’s just the role-play thing again. What? You’re gonna judge us? Even the Cors have to unwind in these days of well deserved peace, don’t you think?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Ohhh but you want to!”
“So…” Raime squinted at the Major, “You going to the museum, that was for role-play research?”
“Yep,” The Capitán answered, all smiles, then to the Major, “So?”
“So, I found professor Sihvan at the Museum of Mythos, and while I was there I had the opportunity to bring up your theory about… the Marrow Tree.”
“Oh? Oh. Well what did the illustrious relic keeper had to say?”
“It would have been impossible for the Marrow Tree to have been harvested like you supposed. He claims that even before Jiù ēn descended upon Terra, the tree was heavily defended by a religious cabal.”
Shackled at her legs by Armageddon, the Capitán had been forced to slow down after blitzing through the halls. The moment of stillness and the Major’s revelation made it seem as if she turned to stone. The Major recognized this, she was reorganizing her thoughts, mentally calibrating a new schedule. Raime was sitting silently, straight up in their chair and looking between the two of them. If the Capitán didn’t care about what they heard, then the Major would follow her lead.
“That means the tree has been effectively unguarded since the place got frozen over, whenever that ended up happening,” The Capitán spoke to herself, “A century or just a decade, a lifetime, a thousand lifetimes worth of opportunities for someone to go over there and take a stab at the thing.”
“But how would anyone have traveled from Last Kunlun to the Marrow Tree and back? Only the Scavengers still leave the range of Volantis.”
“Yeah and it’s not like they take passengers…” Raime interjected, absentmindedly.
“Oh they do,” The Capitán nodded, gently pushing away Armageddon with both hands.
She scurried back down under the desks, slipping between Raime’s legs who was too taken aback to take notice.
“Wait, really?”
What was that emotion in their voice? The Major had trouble pinning their priorities, he wasn’t aware of the fact either but it should hardly matter to anyone in Last Kunlun, there was nothing outside of the city that should be worth seeing, and the Scavenger’s gear was the only thing keeping them from freezing solid outside of their aerotrain. The only passengers they could have carried in the years since the Terra froze over would be… The Major understood and decided to never inquire to them about it. Just because they’d exchanged words a few times now didn’t give him the space to dissect them so. His focus should be on the Capitán, who nonchalantly stretched her legs, putting her hands on her hips, still deep in thought.
“If there is a chance, and if Sihvan believes there to be one, then I can’t ignore it, can I?”
“What are we doing?” The Major stepped forward, meeting her eyes in the empty space she was looking at.
“Go fetch your professor, I’m sending you both with the Scavengers on Mantra to go take a good look at the Marrow Tree.”
The Major lagged for a second, Raime’s jaw dropped a few centimeters.
“I could never,” The Major stammered, “I could never go so far-”
“I can go in his place!” Raime interjected, almost falling out of their chair, pure glee seeping from their voice.
“First of all, yes you can, second of all, excuse me? You’ve been hired as an outside contractor yesterday and you think you can mooch on the first Cors field trip? I need you here Raime, job requirements changed, if you still want that key of course?”
Raime slumped back in their chair, visibly biting their bottom lip in frustration. The Capitán stepped closer to the Major who hadn’t moved since she laid her order. She grabbed onto his suit, hard enough to grip his frame through the cloth. The Major lowered his spine.
“We do not even know if there is anything to be gained from the tree, it is a long shot… too much of-”
“You’re the one who followed through on this lead, Major, all on your own. Now I’m afforded two hands to attack with. Today I planned to confront Van Kalkain, my current position is making him restless, now that the Old Man is dead it’s possible that he cracks and that we get access to his files. Then we gain World-Eater’s trace, and then? That’s what haunted me until now, even if we find our elusive friend we are no closer to dismantling what they’ve shown to be capable of doing. That’s what you and Sihvan are going to find out.”
“Then why not send someone else?” The Major whispered to avoid alerting Raime.
“I can count on the Scavenger to send the professor where he needs to go, but not his safety once he’s there. You have to be the one paving the way forward for him,” The Capitán whispered in turn, tugging harshly on his frame, “Like you did for me.”
The Major tried to argue but his words fell short of leaving his chest. The Capitán let go of him, turning towards the main doors.
“You won’t leave straight away, I have to go to Freeway and warn 3, they have preparations to make since I expect you to make a return trip.”
“Could I go see them off at least?” Raime said, still dejected.
“Hm? Yeah sure. You had something for me, Raime?”
“Might have a contact that knows more about Black Lake than I do but…”
“Good, make sure you’re able to find them again and be there tomorrow for the aerotrain’s departure if the Sun rises. Your task will depend on how successful I end up being today.”
“That’s it?”
“Be thankful I’m not asking more of you,” The Capitán said dryly, swinging the doors of Byzance 131 open and disappearing into the street. The Major hadn’t even attempted following. Raime stood up, stretched their arms, legs and neck without a sound and approached the Major, elbowing him.
“Serious role-play you guys have going on, eh?”
The Major didn’t retort, his lenses hadn’t stopped looking at the closed doors. The light of zenith suppressing every trace that she’d ever been here.