Sophia watched as Scout left without a look back, even as Volat called towards her and asked her to explain. "If we want to keep talking, we should wait."

Sophia was pretty sure from the two identical male androids' behavior that they intended to stop anyone who followed Scout. Violence was an option, but it wasn't one Sophia wanted to reach for right now. She frowned at the androids. She'd been treating them like immobile statues, but they were probably also people, the way Scout was. "What are your names?"

They didn't answer.

Sophia couldn't tell if that was because they didn't understand her, couldn't speak, or simply chose not to. The last possibility seemed the most likely; hearing was useful and the one part of their bodies that was obviously humanoid was the lower part of the mouth, including the face. There was no reason to keep that and not keep the possibility of a voice when you designed an android. "Can you talk?"

Once again, her question was met only with silence. She asked several other things, but the two identical androids didn't respond at all. They'd move if she looked like she was moving towards the door, but other than that they simply stood there.

Sophia got bored of trying to get them to answer her pretty quickly. It was clear they weren't going to, and it was also clear they would have to force their way past the pair if they wanted to go after Scout immediately. Sophia didn't want to force the issue and it looked like everyone else was of the same opinion.

Well, except for Volat. He was even more insistent on getting the identical duo to talk than Sophia was. She quickly lost count of how many different ways he tried to introduce himself or ask questions, even though none of them got a response. He was definitely more patient than she was.

Several hours later, they'd all found a place to be comfortable. Horus was the only one standing, if leaning on a wall counted as standing. He was carefully situated between everyone other than Volat and the twin androids, clearly prepared for something but not sure what to prepare for.

Sophia couldn't blame him for giving up on Volat. He was still asking questions.

Sophia was cuddled against Dav while he rubbed a shoulder and talked about his first trip back home. It was faster than he liked, but at least he got to see his parents while he proved his origin. He wasn't far into the story when Scout walked back into the room.

She stopped before she reached the pair of identical automatons and looked at the crowd. "There are too many of you. The two translators, of course, and your leader. One guard. No. I have two; you should have two. Two guards. Follow me."

Scout and one of the two guards, the one on the left, turned and left the room. Shortly after that, the second guard spoke for the first time. His voice made Scout's sound full of personality. "Speak when you are ready. I will lead."

Sophia grinned. She knew they could talk!

She was a little impressed at how well they held their silence. It was enough to make her wonder just how sapient they were; while they were young, babies had more personality than the two guards seemed to have. That was true even of the artificial sapiences she'd met. She guessed they were probably the same age as Scout, which meant they were certainly old enough to have started diverging even if they were originally identical.

While she was thinking, Volat translated for Lan'ti. He snorted, glanced around, then groaned. "Sophia, Volat, Amy, you're all coming with me. The last spot, though, uh. Horus, I think it has to be you, in case we need to run for some reason. Dav, can you work with Azalea and Xin'ri to search this level? You'll probably have to take it slow and be careful of ruins apparitions, but you should be able to kill them even if they're stronger than they were above. If you have to retreat, you can contact Amy or Sophia, even at a distance, can't you?"

"As long as you don't go too far," Dav answered slowly. "We haven't found a distance limit but that doesn't mean one doesn't exist. Sophia, are you good with splitting up?"

Sophia frowned. She certainly wasn't happy about it; she didn't like Scout telling them how many people to bring. It made her wonder why she was limiting the number of people. It could be innocent or it could be dangerous; Scout hadn't stuck around to answer questions.

Sophia blinked, then looked up at the guard as he stood motionless, waiting. "Why are you limiting the number of people?"

"Othala's space is small," the guard answered quickly. "It was built for no more than two, and in standard use no more than one was to visit her."

"Now you're willing to talk?" Volat sounded exasperated. "Why wouldn't you say anything before?"

The guard didn't answer.

Sophia giggled. She doubted the android was doing it deliberately, but giving that question the silent treatment was funny. She almost immediately muffled her laughter in Dav's chest as she gave him a hug. As soon as she could speak without her mirth becoming obvious, she loosened her grip. "Yeah, I'll be okay. I hate splitting up, but it's probably the best choice. One of us needs to stay for the ruins apparitions and whatever else is here."

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"Call if you need help," Dav stated firmly. His expression flickered for a moment and Sophia knew he was putting on a strong front to hide his worry for her. Splitting up might be the right choice, but he didn't like it any more than she did. Dav's altered version of the Innate Communication ability was definitely doing some heavy lifting to get that across.

Dav smiled, then added a few words telepathically. "Send directions, too? We can stay far enough away that it's not a problem, but close enough we can help if they aren't telling us everything."

Sophia nodded and gave Dav a quick squeeze. She followed that with a kiss, then whispered, "Stay safe yourself, okay?"

Dav's arms tightened around Sophia, then loosened. He gave her a halfhearted, worried smile. "You too."

Sophia didn't expect the trip to take long. She was wrong.

They followed the silent guard down five levels and around a number of barricades before they arrived at a door that had the other identical guard waiting for them. Scout was nowhere to be seen.

The guard opened the door and stepped to the side. "Othala waits for you."

Horus stepped in first. A moment later, he waved the rest of them in.

Scout stood off to one side of the square room, but Sophia ignored her. The room was far more interesting.

It was mostly filled by a strange structure that seemed to grow out of the ceiling and the floor. The base looked like a cracked black brick pedestal with an open area in the center filled with small glowing crystals. An organic-looking twisted trunk grew from the center, passed through a more or less spherical metal enchanted item of some sort, then continued up until it merged with the ceiling in a widemass, almost like roots that grew up instead of down. More colorful glowing crystals poked down from the upper "roots."

Sophia focused on the central enchanted sphere. There was a spire of crystal that pointed nearly directly towards where she stood and she could see another at the top, bottom, left, and right. There was almost certainly one on the far side as well, if it was truly spherical.

A small layer of glowing crystal seemed to fill a hollow between the inner sphere and an outer band that looked almost cut away; the outer band was what the treelike structure that joined the ceiling and the floor grew into. It had its own set of crystalline protrusions, but while they were well lit enough to be visible and colorful, they didn't glow nearly as strongly as the rest of the crystals.

The entire thing glowed with magic; most of it was mana, but there was a swirl of essence around the five spikes Sophia could see. There were a lot of different Affinities present, enough that Sophia couldn't really separate them out. What she could tell was that the Affinity of the essence was very reminiscent of the feel of Scout and the two guards. The blue spikes felt more like Scout, while the yellow-orange spike looked a lot like the two guards. The pinkish-purple spike felt different from both.

"I thought we were going to meet someone? Othala?" Volat sounded slightly confused and a little irritated.

"I am Othala." The enchanted sphere pulsed with light as it spoke. Othala's voice was clear, with an odd breathiness that managed to both sound like a woman's voice and not at the same time. Unlike Scout or the guard, it sounded filled with emotion. "It is good to see someone after so long. You are one of the translators who speaks Kestii?"

Volat frowned and glanced around the room. He quickly settled on looking at the enchanted item in the middle of the room. "Where are you? Why are you talking through a, ah, far-voice?"

Othala's glow dimmed for a moment, then brightened as it spoke. Its tone was intense, maybe even angry. "I am a glyph shaper. I am not one of your kind hiding by poor artifice."

"You are part of this installation, then? Have you always been here?" Sophia tried to divert Othala's anger into something more useful. At this point, Sophia had no idea what they were going to do here, but she was certain it depended on what Othala wanted. That didn't necessarily mean that they'd do whatever Othala asked, but no matter what, Othala's presence changed things.

"This was my Branch," Othala agreed. Its voice sounded a little calmer but still agitated. "Is my Branch? I am not certain. The Tree has been severed."

Sophia turned towards Lan'ti, as if he'd know what Othala was talking about. His confused expression reminded her that he couldn't understand when Othala spoke. Volat didn't seem to want to translate, so Sophia caught Lan'ti, Amy, and Horus up with what she knew so far. It took longer to explain the fact that Othala probably created Scout and the two guards than everything else combined. It was like the concept of sapient automatons just didn't make sense to them.

"Only people can make people," Volat objected, fortunately in English. He waved towards the crystal-studded fake tree. "And that's not people. We should make it show us where the real Othala is."

Sophia shook her head. "That's Othala. Why wouldn't it be?"

Was it really that hard to understand that you didn't have to be shaped like a human to be a person? They didn't seem to have a problem with Taika, and he was usually a chinchilla. The blind spot didn't make any sense to Sophia.

"It's a made object, enchanted," Volat countered. "It's an amazing artifact and probably can't be removed from where it is, but it's just a magic item. It can't make people!"

Sophia glanced at Scout, then back at Volat. "What makes you think Scout and the twins are any more human than Othala is?"

Volat's face twisted in disbelief. "Look at them! They're human! Warped or wearing odd clothing, but human! That isn't."

Sophia started to say something, then stopped herself. She wasn't going to win this one, was she?

Did she need to win?

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