Before I even know it, I am on my feet and running like the very wind itself. It wasn't long after leaving the village that I heard the news: A soldier was attacking the village in revenge. "Come and see us again real soon!" says the woman.Īs I walk away, the last thing I see is her small hand happily waving goodbye. The villagers all gather at the edge of town to see me off. I'm also afraid of what might happen if I grow used to the warmth and kindness of others. I tell her my work in the village is done and I will be on my way. This time, I manage to face the woman and thank her for the assistance. She also thanks me again for my actions from before.
As we walk, she tells me they have been married almost three years. Finally, she can take no more attention and leads me out of the shop. I can only chuckle and show a wry smile as I listen. She turns red as he talks about everything he loves about her. It turns out the engineer and the woman are married. "Consider this my way of saying thanks for saving my wife." As I test it out, the engineer smiles at me and says, The woman asks me how it feels, and I'm both surprised and delighted that it seems to move more smoothly than before. Story 3Įventually, the parts arrive and my arm is finally repaired. I thought I'd lost the ability to do such a thing long ago. How long has it been since I smiled? Weeks? Years? More? When the woman leans in and asks how it tastes, I feel an unfamiliar smile slowly make its way across my lips. I take a bite of something and nearly swoon I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a hot meal. Soon, I find myself regaled with food, drink, and song from all corners. She gathers the drinkers around her and spins an epic tale of how I saved her from the kingdom brigand. Still determined to show her thanks, the woman huffs loudly, grabs my good arm, and drags me off anew. The engineer is indeed skilled, but lacks the needed parts for repairs-and unfortunately, it will be some time before they're available. I am guided to an engineer so that my arm might be repaired. "Come along."īefore I can think to protest further, she takes my hand in hers and leads me off. "We've a skilled engineer in the village," she says. Though I try to explain that I can repair my arm, she waves me off with a dismissive grunt. It was damaged when I took the blow the soldier intended for her. She examines it carefully, looking it up and down. Asking to see my prosthetic arm, she draws in close. As I move to leave, the woman bars my path. I fight for revenge-not to save lives or spread justice. I leap in the way and take it myself before swiftly ending his life. I see a kingdom soldier raise a fist and bring it down on the head of a woman.
Under the midday sun, I hear a voice call for help. And I won't stop until every last one of them is dead. Still, scattered remnants of its forces remain. But its lust for power fed an unsustainable hunger for war, and it eventually collapsed. The kingdom razed my home, killed my sister, and took everything from me. She constructs a grave to mourn the pair, then quickly moves on. Finding him in an abandoned church, she takes him down, then learns of his past with the corpse he was protecting. Some time in the future, Gayle takes up the job of a bounty hunter and scouts a village saloon for intel on a nearby clockwork soldier. She blacks out, eventually coming to with bloodied chunks of bodies surrounding them, then gently embraces her sibling before swearing to a life of revenge. She escapes after an altercation with a guard, who gleefully states she is now a "failed killing machine."įrantically searching for her sister, Gayle finds her on a bloodied battlefield being cut down by an enemy soldier. Some time later, Gayle wakes in a prison with her hair turned stark white and left arm and leg replaced with prosthetics. Unsuccessful, they are both captured and "sorted," experimented on and tortured.
Asking her sister to stay put, the older one goes to investigate, finding the town a slaughterhouse.ĭespite her instructions, Gayle's sister arrives and the two attempt to flee when surrounded by kingdom soldiers. After an incident with a wild beast, the sisters notice a nearby village being razed. Gayle's story is explored in Chapter 2: Grains of Sand (What Was Lost).Ī young woman hailing from a lush and verdant land, Gayle spends her days living and hunting with her younger sister. In place of regular limbs, her left arm and leg are prosthetics.īefore her current appearance, she had dark ebon hair. Gayle is a young woman with bright white hair that goes down to her mid back.
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