Chapter One
Taylor stretched her body tingling with the motions and her senses stretching out just a little bit further. Every insect in the forest, every crab that had snuck in and every worm and spider within twitched and became extensions of her will.
"So you're still with me, Passenger," Taylor said as she started to walk into the woods. She couldn't see any predators, and most of the scary things that would live in a forest wouldn't be able to handle a metric tonne of bug to the face. It leant her a certain amount of confidence.
After facing off against the likes of Scion, a forest didn't have much that could scare her.
[Shard-Host-Connection Still Active]
Taylor tripped over her own feet and planted face first into soft sand. "What?"
[Shard-Host-Connection Still Active]
"Oh hell," Taylor said as she translated the splash of images and ideas being shoved into her head with the grace and gentleness of an icepick. They were understandable, certainly, the image of a shard, a crystalline entity of massive size connecting to a tiny thing, bursts of information travelling to both of them with constant flashes. The ideas were strange, but clear.
[Shard Queen Administrator is Not Massive. Shard Queen Administrator Volume Within Expected Parameters]
Taylor took a deep breath because the realization that her connection to her passenger was this vivid, and that her passenger had body image issues, were both a lot to take in. Too much in fact.
She shook her head and looked to the sky. The smoke she had spotted earlier was still pushing into the air, easy to see against the bright blue of the morning sky. "We'll need to... talk, later," she said, then waited for the burst that would next come with gritted teeth.
[Affirmative.]
Taylor winced at the stab of images needed to describe acceptance. It was going to take some getting used to. A problem for later. As long as her shard didn't mean her any harm then maybe the company wouldn't go amiss. She wasn't sure what it said about her that she was willing to be friends with an alien space whale.
She moved through the forest, loose leaves and mounds of dirt shifting underfoot as she snaked through and tried to find a path around piles of broken branches and fallen trees. This wasn't a park, or a picturesque, clean forest.
"So is it normal for... hosts to connect to their passengers like this?" Taylor asked.
[Connection Nominal. Additional Channels Opened During Host Recovery]
Taylor bit her lip as the images passed. "Recovery?"
[Host Brain Matter Damaged. Shard Queen Administrator Assisted in Repairing Injuries.]
Taylor stumbled. The images of her brain, her brain missing some parts, flashing through her mind at the same time as the impression of her shard poking at the missing bits and trying to fix them with all the skill of a blind mind putting together a 3d jigsaw puzzle with a hammer.
"Uh," she said. "Thanks?"
[Acknowledged]
She burst out of the forest at a stumble and took a few steps to right herself. She already knew what she would find, the disadvantage of having millions of tiny bug eyes looking ahead for her was that she didn't get surprised by mundane things anymore.
A town was growing out of the side of a small hill, three plateaus with brick walls supporting them, each with dozens of small, cottage-like homes planted on them. Above it all rose a pair of sky-blue towers a seagull-like symbol painted on their sides and ancient canons poking out from the top.
The aesthetic was strange, but the dimensions were human enough and she could see people moving around near the town.
The smoke she had seen was innocent, just the slow puff from the chimneys of a dozen homes. It was at once strange, and peaceful.
A few fat ships sat in the port with the same seagull emblem painted onto their sails. Old ships, of the wood-and-cannons sort that she had only really seen in picture books and movies. Smaller boats moved out into the ocean, nets floating by their sides and lines pulling up the occasional fish.
She took in a deep breath of air that carried the faintest scent of baking bread and roasting meat. Her shoulders loosened, her breathing calmed. No violence, no explosions or capes or anything dangerous, just a peaceful little island in the middle of nowhere.
She didn't have any money, or weapons or anything but a whole lot of bugs, but she was sure she could find some honest work.
[Non-Host Creature Approaching]
Taylor suppressed a wince and turned to see that her passenger was right, a man was walking her way. He was older, with a back that was bent by age. Every step he took was firm though, and his walking stick helped him shuffle along at a decent pace. "Ho, traveller!" he called out.
Taylor smiled. They spoke English, or something close enough. "Hello!" she called out.
The man's eyes rolled up to the back of his head, froth spewed out of his mouth and he collapsed in a heap.
She stared, her arm still raised in a greeting that she hadn't even finished delivering. "Passenger, was that you?" she asked.
[Negative]
She rushed over to the man's side, falling onto her knees even as she turned him over with some difficulty and checked his pulse. He was breathing, his heart beating hummingbird fast, but he was completely out of it.
"What the hell."
***
What do we do about the old guy?
[] Finish the job. The man's halfway dead already. The wimp
[] Blame Contessa
[] Bring the man to town, get him some help
[] Leave him to his impromptu naptime
[] Write in...
