[4-12] The Mines

[Amaterasu]

The below takes place before Okor’s post.

Fiara gasped when she saw the corpse... or was it the scrap heap? She didn't know what to call it, she had never met a man made of metal like Vision. Maybe that was also why she did not regurgitate what little was left in her stomach right now... she averted her eyes and heaved the metal out of the way entirely to lay the android's body out in the open, then with her spear waved to the others. "Come here! I found Vision! He’s... he’s dead, I’m certain", she called. Her voice was trembling despite it all and the flames on her wrists provided a beacon of light in this dark hole that Okor and Marcus could find her by. She closed his eyes and, lacking coins for him to pay the bridge guard on the Sanzu river, placed two round black stones on the lids. Maybe the guard would accept them for lack of actual payment to be allowed to pass. The two Primes came over and Marcus briefly confirmed that Vision was gone - not that one needed to have a medical degree to tell.

End of retcon. This takes place after the end of Okor’s post.

"I’m not scared. There’s reasons... always gotta be. Nothing happens out of the blue.”  She  grunted as she slowly forced herself back on her feet and used her sleeves to stop the bleeding from her ears, though it seemed that no new blood was pouring. What the hell had that been...? Sure there had to be a reason, but that doesn’t mean that it was always one in plain sight. She felt dizzy on her feet, balancing on them was difficult. Her ears were still ringing... hadn’t Moegami once told her of this? Of how the ears held some integral part to balance the body? And that screech had thrown hers out of whack, though she was slowly recovering. But she wouldn’t be quite as nimble on her feet for a while.

”Okor, would you mind explaining what you just told me?” She asked with eyes trained on the marine, crossing her arms again. She nodded towards Vision’s corpse - an error that made her stumble and nearly fall over - and tried to avoid looking at the other ones that were scattered around the place. “You say that Vision and Marcus cannot die. Because they are... what they are?” She made a vague motion at her face and torso, carefully slow so she could stay balanced. “Metal-men? Some sort of... of Tsukumogami? Possessed metal statues?”

"We are Primes. We are... Damned to dance upon Omni's strings until he tires of us. Vision will rise again in the Nexus, soon enough."

“So you come back to life? You just... your spirit returns to your body that is reanimated?”

Okor responded with another deep croaking laugh. “Have you no idea at all?”

“I only heard the word “Prime” before but never understood its meaning”, admitted Fiara. “If you could fill the gap, that’d be great.” The flames on her wrists had now died down to little more than candlelights and didn’t provide much vision. Because she still had her arms crossed however her face was eerily illuminated from below, like a parent lighting their face with a flashlight as they told their children a scary story.

"When something ends our cursed existences, The Smiling One... recreates us at The Fountain in three days. We can work the Omnillium that flows through our veins, forging cities, weapons, sustenance... and Secondaries."

“And you call me mortal because I’m a Secondary? Because they’re not immortal?” Fiara asked and waved her hand around to underline her point. Again, carefully and slow.

"Exactly."

“Ha!” She looked quite smug and pointed at Okor, only to stumble forward two steps due to the sudden movement causing problems to her balance. She hastily recovered though the flow of her speech was ruined at this point. “I’m a Phoenix, I told you. Like my father, if I die I shall rearise from my ashes.”

"The rules in this world are different."

Fiara sighed, again back on her feet. “I’m not going to die if I can help it, whether I return or not. But thank you for the explanation.” She took one step back so she could look at Okor and Marcus simultaneously and adress them both. “So... what are we going to do now? I don’t think that I want to know what sort of creep caused this... sound, but we can’t get back out.” She looked up at the hole through which they had fallen in. “... and I’m still missing my friend, Saber. I don’t know how we are going to get out of this... cave system, but maybe either of you have some idea?”

The screech has messed with Fiara’s sense of balance and will cause her to stumble and be thrown out of balance at any sudden movement. She will recover from the condition over ~40-50 minutes during which her balance gradually restores itself.

If deemed appropriate she can also take some damage from the screech.

782 words.

Translations:

Tsukumogami: A type of monster in japanese mythology: an object that comes to life on its 100th birthday as it’s possessed by a spirit.
(basically Fiara believes that Marcus & Vision are spirit-possessed metal statues or puppets, because she doesn't know what a robot or cyborg is)