Soren sat shirtless on the edge of an exam table in one of the med-bays aboard The Resolute Wind. As soon as they returned from Philos, the team disembarked The Ghost of Mandachor, gave their debrief to Commander Garrin, and casually dismissed. Aurania had ordered him to get a checkup just to be safe while she and Inelius went to one of the tech labs to start deciphering the data core.

  Tamiyo stood in front of him, her eyes lit up as she ran scans. Elias worked a wall panel that displayed more complex diagnostics. The lights overhead hummed gently, sterile white buzzing against the silence.

  “Just some minor bruising,” Tamiyo said with a hint of disapproval. “Looks like it's already starting to fade, probably be completely gone by end of tomorrow.”

  Elias chuckled without looking up from his console.

  Tamiyo cocked an eyebrow at him. “Something funny?”

  Elias laughed and glanced over his shoulder. “He can rip a multi-ton door off without touching it, but he can't dodge the damn thing.” He chuckled again.

  “No one's perfect, Elias,” Tamiyo said defensively. “He still feels pain.”

  “It’s alright,” Soren spoke up. “I'm okay, Tamiyo.”

  She glared at him for a moment, then poked the bruise on his ribs hard enough to make a point.

  “Ow!” Soren winced as a small twinge of sharp pain shot out and quickly faded. Then he returned her glare. “You been hanging around Aurania too much.”

  She just shrugged and powered down her eye scanners, then turned to Elias. “Anything to watch out for that I didn't catch?”

  He switched his diagnostics off. “Nah, just the requisitions officer when you go ask for another new helmet. You're gonna use up all our credit before we find something to save Nox.” He leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms.

  Soren grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head. “Well maybe once we find what we need, then we can do some chores for the LU. I'm halfway decent with a broom.”

  “You better be,” Tamiyo said. “You had 8,000 years to practice.”

  “It's not like I had a broom floating out in space with me.”

  “Yeah you did,” she countered. “Mop and bucket too. You were butt ass naked but the scraps of your uniform were floating around you. The name tag stuck to my window, said ‘Janitor’ right on it.”

  They all laughed loudly.

  “Wait, why didn't you bring his broom aboard then?” Elias asked.

  Tamiyo shrugged. “I already had a broom on my ship.”

  They all laughed warmly again. Interactions with Tamiyo and Elias like this had become common. Elias was a really grounding presence as Soren adjusted to his new reality, and Tamiyo had become more and more like a protective little sister. He couldn't even imagine how different things may have turned out if she hadn't been around to buffer the initial lacravida wrath.

  She side eyed him with an amused look. “So does it feel like you’re starting to gain some control?”

  He thought back to Luqarais and Philos. “Yeah, the meditation is definitely helping. It’s still pretty chaotic and unstable, but if I keep practicing, I think I’ll be able to keep controlling it more.”

  “What about the mental link?” Elias asked. He was just performing a diagnosis as a doctor, but the question caught Soren off guard.

  “Uh…” he hesitated and then averted his gaze.

  Elias opened his eyes wide with curiosity and just waited.

  “It's still there,” Soren said. “It's faded a bit into the background, I think we've both just grown used to it. Sometimes we’re able to directly communicate with it in high-stress situations, but mostly it’s just odd thoughts slipping through. Mostly mine slipping through to her.” He rubbed the back of his neck and tried not to let himself turn red.

  “What thoughts?” Tamiyo said innocently. Soren wasn't sure if it was a trauma response to her past, but he had found she could at times be a bit oblivious to anything related to physical attraction.

  He just returned a flat look in response.

  “Oooohh,” she finally said.

  Soren raised his eyebrows and nodded, then sighed and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “The whole thing is confusing me. At first I was so thrown off by how open they all are with everything. But then I got used to that, and she ends up being so hostile to me in almost every interaction. Which, I mean I got in the beginning, and I guess maybe a little bit still now, but…” He hadn't meant to say all of it, it just spilled out. “I find myself strangely attracted to her.”

  Tamiyo innocently tipped her head to one side. “Is she the only one? It’s not like you’re lacking options.”

  “Yeah,” Elias added, “I heard something about Violet, Veolo, and a bunch of LU guys in a vacant room somewhere onboard.”

  Tamiyo raised her eyebrows and looked at Soren like this was her first time hearing about it.

  He quickly looked between the two of them. “No, no—I mean yes, they did do something like that, but I wasn't part of it.” He was quiet for a moment, then added, “They did invite me. But just, no… didn't feel right.”

  “Why not?” Tamiyo asked.

  “Eh,” Soren rubbed the back of his neck, trying to find the right words. “I don't know, it's not that any of them are unattractive, objectively they're all very good looking. But I guess I'm just not thinking about them like that.”

  Elias shrugged, “Makes sense, we're human. It's different for us.”

  “Wait,” Soren said quickly. “But I thought you had a thing with Amalia at one point.”

  He just shrugged again like he was wondering what Soren's point was. “Yeah, I mean nothing romantic. Violet too one time, and plenty of others.”

  Soren just stared back as his brow furrowed.

  Elias laughed. “You gotta remember, it's a lot more casual for them, very common amongst friends. But now that Riza and I have finally admitted how we feel about each other, I'm not really interested in anyone else.”

  “Yeah she is a bit more reserved than the others,” Soren said. Then he quickly added, “Meaning no disrespect.”

  “You're not wrong,” Elias said. He didn't sound offended.

  Tamiyo smiled at the doctor. “You too seem perfect for each other, she's definitely happier with you around. She's more casual and friendly with everyone, that's all because of you.”

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  “You been watching her pretty close?” Elias asked with a smile.

  “Yep,” she answered pridefully. “But if I look too hard, she catches me. Her perceptions are wild.”

  They all laughed again.

  “So do you have any advice, Elias?” Soren asked.

  “About Aura?” He rubbed his chin in thought.

  “Yeah she won't even let me call her that.”

  “Hmm. She usually only lets people she trusts call her Aura, maybe she's intentionally keeping you at arms length for some reason. She definitely acts different with you around. It's not really ‘good different,’ but I can't say for sure that it's ‘bad different’ either.”

  Soren thought on that for a moment. It wasn't really advice he could act on. “So what do you recommend, then?”

  Elias thought quietly. “I can't say that your situation is exactly the same, you guys don't have the history Riza and I do. But they are both intense, and you obviously have an effect on her. Maybe you just need to give it time.”

  Soren wasn't sure if that made him feel better.

  “How did you handle needing to wait, Elias?” Tamiyo asked.

  The doctor grinned. “Well… for a while, not anything. I started developing feelings for Riza when we were still in the military. I didn't know it at the time, but she did as well. We were both just too in our own heads about not screwing up the friendship that neither of us took the first step.”

  He pushed off the wall and stuck his hands in his pockets. “When we retired, she invited me to move to Berilinsk. She said she needed a friend, so that's what I was. Violet and Amalia had just moved there before I did, and they helped ease me into the culture.”

  “How long until you got physically close with any of them?” Soren asked.

  “Uh, a while,” Elias answered. “Not 8,000 years, but a while. I wasn't sure how to feel about it at first, with how I felt about Riza. But Amalia made sure things moved at a speed that I was comfortable with.”

  It still felt so strange to Soren. “And Riza and Amalia don't feel weird about each other now?”

  “Nope,” Elias said simply. “We've all even talked about it together. Actually, if I had the desire to go do anything with Amalia, I don't think Riza would actually care. But I'm plenty happy. One six and a half foot deadly warrior woman is more than enough for me to handle.”

  Tamiyo actually snorted.

  Soren looked between them, then exhaled. “Thanks.”

  Tamiyo leaned against the side. “You went through something literally no one can imagine. The most I can offer is that we're all going through one trial or another, so I'm glad you feel that you are able to lean on us for support.”

  Then she looked away, her gaze going distant. “I still… get anxious. Sometimes, if I’m in an elevator with people I don’t know… I still catch myself calculating the best escape route if someone tries to pin me. It gets better, but it doesn't go away completely.”

  Soren watched her. There was no shame in her voice, only honesty.

  “Being around the lacravida helps,” she added. “They don’t look at you like you’re fragile. But they don’t force you to be strong either. You just… are. However you are that day.”

  Elias nodded. “I don't think Aurania will stop throwing you off balance anytime soon. But they're good people, you can trust them.”

  There was a warm moment of quiet.

  “Alright,” Tamiyo finally said, pushing off the table. “Let's go see if they found anything useful from the data core.”

  The large tech lab was filled with various work stations for all manner of projects. Screens lined the walls displaying streams of data while a pair of Liberty Union techs hovered over a console in the center. They muttered back and forth, occasionally throwing glances toward a cluster of symbols showing on a large holoscreen.

  Tamiyo and Soren stepped inside just as another line of code scrolled across. Inelius stood near the back, upper arms crossed, lower arms on his hips, and eyes narrowed. Aurania was leaned over one of the terminals with her weight braced on her fists.

  Riza sat at one of the side benches, gear strewn across the tabletop in precise rows. When they entered the room, she looked up and gave a small upwards nod. “Hey Tamiyo, come take a look at this.”

  Tamiyo crossed the room with a curious look on her face.

  “Look familiar?” Riza asked.

  Soren recognized the glowing piece that Riza had recovered. “What is it?”

  Tamiyo answered. “It's CIPHER tech.” She looked up to Riza. “It looks ancient, you found this on Philos?”

  “Yep,” Riza said.

  Soren felt like he was missing some context. “Is there something strange about ancient CIPHER tech being on Philos?”

  Tamiyo looked back at him. “Yeah, I know you've only seen a handful of CIPHERs, but have you noticed how we all look human?”

  “Now that you mention it, yeah.”

  “That's because the Conservatory is the only place we are made. No one else has the technology to do it.” She looked back at the piece on the table.

  She didn’t say it, but the question hung in the air. ‘Why was an ancient piece of CIPHER tech in a lab 40 light years outside the nearest Conservatory territory?’

  “What’s your plan with it?” Soren asked.

  “I have some ideas,” Riza answered. “But I need you to confirm what its functionality is best suited for.”

  Tamiyo looked at it closely, moving around it to observe from different angles. “I think it’s built for neural synchronization.” She picked it up and looked at the bottom, then set it back down. “We’ll need to spend some time analyzing, but I definitely think we can get something useful out of it.”

  A beep chirped from one of the terminals and one of the LU techs turned around. “Finally, there we go.”

  The screen shifted. Dozens of lines of handwritten symbols spilled across the projection—twisted, compact, and clearly written with frantic urgency. Tamiyo tilted her head, and Inelius leaned forward. Aurania's expression tightened. “That almost looks like… old scripture. Ancient lacravida, maybe. But it’s distorted.”

  Soren stepped closer, and a tightness pulled in his gut. His eyes flew across the monitors.

  Aurania's eyes locked onto him, sensing his distress. “What is it?”

  “It’s…” he couldn’t even get the words out until his gaze met hers. “It’s Enderfield.”

  She blinked, her eyes going wide. “What?”

  Inelius spoke up. “Wait, who’s Enderfield?”

  Soren didn’t speak for a moment, collecting his thoughts. He looked around the room to see who was listening.

  Aurania picked up on it and looked at the two LU techs. “You two, what you are about to hear does not leave this room unless myself or Colonel Emberfell authorizes it, understood?”

  They stared back nervously, then slowly nodded.

  Riza spoke from her table in the corner. “That includes if Admiral Marrow or anyone above him orders you to. If that happens, you tell them I ordered you to stay silent and they need to come speak to us.”

  The techs stood up a little straighter and responded, “Yes ma’am.”

  Soren looked from Riza to Aurania, then glanced at the techs and said, “Don’t worry, it’s nothing that should get you in trouble. It just contradicts thousands of years of lacravida culture, so we need to be careful.”

  Their tension eased a little, but Inelius shifted where he stood, anxious to know what was going on.

  Soren looked at him, “You remember how I told you about The Professor?”

  “Yeah,” Inelius nodded. “On the way to Altina.”

  “Yeah, well his name was Tywin Enderfield.”

  Inelius looked surprised, and after a moment of processing, he looked at Aurania, making the connection to her last name. She nodded before he even asked.

  “I put some pieces together back in Berilinsk,” Soren continued. “That giant mural in Silvara’s Hall, the central figure is undoubtedly Enderfield. I don’t really have a way to prove it, but Aurania saw one of my memories with him in it.”

  The LU techs looked understandably lost about the conversation, but stayed silent.

  “So how do these symbols fit in?” Inelius asked.

  Soren stepped closer to one of the screens and rubbed his chin while he observed it. “So, the thing with The Professor was, he was a genius. There’s just no other way to describe it. And he had this insane memory, right? I’m pretty sure it was borderline photographic, but only of everything he’d written down.”

  Soren walked to another screen, looking over the familiar symbols. “So he’d just… scrawl chaotically. Walls, desks, panels—whatever was the closest flat surface, he’d just scribble away.”

  Aurania looked over the notes, then back at Soren. “So you can read it?”

  “Not exactly,” Soren squinted at a screen. “By the time I came into the fold, he had already developed his own sort of language with the notes. But it’s like seeing the letters of your own language arranged into a new one. It's undeniably him.” He looked around more, feeling like he was standing in a freaky dream.

  “Why was it in an ancient lab on Philos?” Inelius asked.

  “That’s the thing,” Soren answered quickly. “I thought there were only a handful of planets outside of Earth that were even being interacted with, maybe a dozen at most.” He scratched his head, trying to figure it all out. “I’d never even heard of Philos. Even if it had a different name back then, the planet is way off in a part of space I didn’t even think anyone had explored yet.”

  “Hey,” Aurania said, her voice almost kind.

  He snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her.

  “This guy sounds like the kind of asshole to keep people on a need-to-know basis. There’s probably a reason you didn’t know about it.”

  Soren found himself smirking. She wasn’t being rude, or dismissing his feelings. It was just her way of saying: Don’t blame yourself.

  “So how do we make use of this?” Inelius asked.

  Tamiyo stepped forward. “I think I can help.”

  They all turned and looked at her.

  “Remember, I’m a CIPHER. A really crass way you could describe me is a super advanced AI crammed into a hyper-realistic robot body.” She turned and looked at Soren. “The language might have been indecipherable 8,000 years ago, but between what you recognize and my intelligence processors, I bet we can figure it out.”

  “Finally,” Aurania breathed. “Some progress.”

  “Let me know however I can help,” Inelius said. “Whatever the Conservatory is up to with this research, it can’t be good.”