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"Guess I'll just ask them, heh."

She shrugged, and went to sit down on a random sofa.

Then, she reached her right hand to her waist, taking the void bag previously put there, then opened it.

An otherworldly pink light emerged from the bag. She extended her hand into it, and quickly took out - a screwdriver kit, a screw kit, some PCBs with holes, a chip kit, some wires, some tin, a device for heating up and melting said tin, and a powerful battery.

It seemed like she was going to make something.

"Mine's the Zero Sugar Pepsi, actually."

He brought Xueqing a plush bone and sat it in front of her.

Noticing the plush bone, Xueqing gave a warm smile to Thor.

Then, she took out more things. Some circuit graph, some sort of measurement tool, a... photo? And some resistor, some diodes, some capacitors, stuff...

With all these, she started working on whatever she planned to do...

Revs up the chainsword for no particular reason.

" Hrmn... it needs oil "

Xib eyes go two-way again. Left eye study softbacks. Right eye count plates. Mammals weird. They love big squishy chest-pillows, then act like they not notice them. No extra nerve-string neither. One brain. One panic. Thunk too hard. But Xib never see mammal outthunk bonk with log-on-head. Dumdums always in rush to go nowhere. Not slow. Not wise. Not patient like Turzien.

“Bah…” Xib belch. Big proud belch. Snot bubble pop from nostril like tiny balloon. One eye blink. Other eye blink later. Late blink. Like it miss the joke. Xib wiggle throat. Fold-flesh go clap clap. Old bog habit. Kick mozzies out air. He reach behind shell, scratch scratch with stubby digits. Tail is short. Stubby nub. Not much to wag. Still scratch good.

Then he drag his LOG. Real log. Big wood. His bonker. His weapon. It scrape along bar like grumpy tree. Skrk. Skrk. Everybody hear it and pretend they not hear it. Xib stare at nomnoms on mammal plates. Meat. Bread. Greens that look like they already give up on life. Still nomnoms though. Belly go rumbly like swamp drum.

“Me have rumbly. Me eat…” Xib thunk hard. Thunk so hard he almost hear brain squeak. But then problem. No shiny circle money. Mammals love shiny circle more than not-dying. Weird math. Xib pat pouch. Empty. He click snapper. Clak clak clak. Tongue flop out beak, long and wild, like it trying to steal a sausage by itself.

He pull out shiny rock. Not best rock. Medium rock. Still shiny if you squint and believe. “Me trade, yes?” Xib say, pointing with log like polite threat. “Me give shiny rock. You give leafy. Or bread. Or meat. Me no greedy. Me just rumbly.” He pause. One eye look at plate. Other eye look at mammal face. “Mammal say no, Xib do sad face. Very sad. Then this one maybe bonk table by accident. Oops.”

Xueqing is too concentrated in making some sort of electronic device to notice this...

Her hands moved swiftly. Right then, she was pieceing the full circuit - from one piece, to the PCB, then to another piece. Resistors, chips, diodes, capacitors, LED... What was being put together looked indecipherable at first...

Xib might notice this one young individual minding her own business.

Xib make approach with maximum noble. Meaning Xib walk slow-slow so flatbacks thunk, Xib lift chin like it carrying royal air in throat. Xib drag log like it ceremonial cane of authoritation. Skrk. Skrk. Xib stop and lift it little, because scraping noise is not dignifical. It be very peasant. Xib is Lord now. Sort of. Allegedly. Xib see young flatback at table. Hands go quick-quick. Spider quick. Table full of tiny shiny bits. Little square bug-rock. Little bead-eggs. Little wire noodles. All stuck to green plank like swamp leaf that forgot how to be soft.

Xib cough once. Important cough. The cough that say, “Make room. Titles arriving.” “Ah-hem. Salubriations,” Xib announce in Big Words Voice. “It be this one. Kan-Xib-Yui. The Log. Noble-ility in the legalistical sense. War-veterinarian of the White Sand unpleasantness. Bridge-guardian of reputations. Xib come for… intelligents and other brain-thunks.” Xib nod at her work like Xib understand. Xib do not understand. But nod is free. Nobles do many nods.

“You are… assembulating an electro-nomical contraptionary,” Xib say, pointing with stubby digit still having mud credential under nail. “Very techno-ritualistic. You put metal beetles on board. You fuse them with tiny teeth-wire. You conjure the glow-eye.” Xib point at LED. “That one is the luminational orb. Very prestigitation. Very aristocratical.” Xib lean closer. One eye watch her fingers. Other eye watch the parts like snack buffet. Tongue peek out beak. Then tongue retreat fast, like caught doing crime.

Xib narrow eyes at a resistor and decide to sound like scholar-lord. “That there is… resistible,” Xib declare. “It resist. Like shield. Like good morals.” Xib point at capacitor. “And that round egg is cap-a-sitter. It cap. It store. It hoard power like noble hoard bread. Very wisdom.” Xib point at chip. “And that square bug is the brain-slab. It do the thunking in squares. Terrifyful.”

Xib sit back on haunches, log across lap like judge-hammer of court. Court is now open. “Now,” Xib continue, voice extra fancy but still broken, “as a Lord-Adjacent Personage of municipality and veterination, this one must do the courteous inquirement.” Xib pat belly. Belly answer with rumbly. Rumbly is honest. “Can Xib eat it?”

Xib hold up hand fast. “Not you. Device. Shiny bug parts. Look crunchy. Might be edibible. Maybe taste like salt rock. Maybe taste like smart. Maybe taste like lightning. Xib is curiological.” Xib pause. Then add, solemn like law carved in mud. “Unless you want Xib to have bite of you instead. Then it be rude not to. Manners is manners. Nobility do not refusate an offering. But Xib prefer start with device bite first. Less screaming. Usually. Also less consequences.”

Xib nod once, pleased with own diplomacy. “If device not edibible,” Xib say, leaning in again, “does it do warmification? Winterwake cold is unlawful to shell folk. Maybe your thingie do thermifications. Like tiny sun trapped in green plank. If it make warm, Xib approve and maybe cuddle it for civic morale. If it make zap, you pre-warn Xib so this one can do dignified flinch. Not peasant flinch. Big difference.”

Xib gesture grandly with the log like it scepter and not bonk-stick. The log remain humble royalty. “Xib cannot read. Xib cannot write,” Xib confess like noble tragedy. “But Xib can observe your circuituary. Lines go here. Power go there. Glow go there. Catastrophes go… somewhere. This one feel it in shell. Premonitional vibration.”

One eye blink. Other eye blink late. Late blink always. “So. Tell Xib, in simple words for noble person. It snack? It heater? It bitey? It explodey? It summon demon in box?” Xib whisper last part like secret. “And if it explode,” Xib add, very confidential, “this one will say Xib prognosticated it. That is what lords do. Very foresightful. Very… prophecious.” He burped.

"Sir!" piped up as she looked at Aleksandr. "I can get you the oil for the chainsword," she said as she stared at the other denizens of the tavern.

The girl was not anticipating interruption, and jolted her head towards Xib with fright. But, as he started his speech... with silly wording, Xueqing grew more... confused.

Hearing his claims on the little parts, she internally facepalmed. It's somehow accurate, but in a sense this was... far from their definition. At least he got the capacitor right.

When the mammal asked whether the device was edible, she shook her head. It was a very weird question. "Sorry, but this thing isn't quite- euuaaAAAAAHH!!" This girl again got frightened when Xib expressed that she might be eaten instead, and cringed a little.

Then, annoyance and concern came up. "No! No. You CANNOT eat this. Silicon is bad for your stomach. And so am I."

When he asked whether this thing produces heat, she replied, "I could make it this way... but still, don't eat either of us."

She got back to assembling the bits and pieces, and pulled out some heating tubes from her void bag.

Xib watch flatback do the head-jolt. Big fright. Like rabbit see shadow. Xib blink. One eye. Then other eye late. Late blink mean “This one sorry, but also curious. Ah. Yes. Apologistics,” Xib say, lowering Big Words Voice a little. “Xib did not mean to do the startle-ation. This one approach with noble gait. Nobles do surprise sometimes. It is in the charter.”

She say no eat. She say silicon bad. Xib hear “silicon” and it sound like “silly-con.” Xib nod like he understand. He do not understand, but he respect stomach warnings. Stomach is important council. “Okay. No eat,” Xib agree, solemn. “Xib accept. This one will not consumate the shiny beetles. Xib will not nibble flatback either. Even though manners say, if offer happen, refusing is rude. But flatback say no offer. So it be fine. Silly-con no good for tumtum.”

Xib look at green plank again. He tilt head hard. Brain start thunking. Thunk sting a little. “But,” Xib say, carefully, “if not for eating… what for?” He point with stubby digit at the little parts. “You making trap? You making light bug that blink to talk? It be for war? It be for bridge? It be for making flatbacks stop blabber? Because Xib have rock for that already. Very efficient.”

She pull out heating tubes. Xib eyes widen. Both eyes look at tubes. Tube look like long glass worms. Tube look like it could be soup straw. “Oooo,” Xib whisper, impressed. “Little heat worms.” He lean back fast, remembering rule. Xib pat chest like oath.

Xueqing decided to ignore Xib's mumbles and focus on her tasks.

As things were quickly assembled, she turned on the battery - it seemed more like a power bank of some sort - and connected the electric iron to it. With soldering tin, wires and pins connected. A full, functional circuit was forming.

The actual circuit seemed much more complicated than what might form from those basic "shiny little beetles"...

Xib left. Unaware that the child had no idea how complicated beetles were. It wasn't uncommon for the ill-informed and uneducated to push simple falsehoods as assumptions where it didn't belong. Not all could be as wise and learned as Xib.

((I love this self-sarcasm))

After having done with the circuit works, she wiped her forehead and let out a "whew!"

Then, she put the leftover materials back inside the void bag, and pulled out another LOT of materials.

She started assembling. Again.

"What are you doing?" she asked as she stared at Xueqing for the first time. "What sorcery is this?" She couldn't help but to be attention to her again. Things changed about Ami. She isn't how she was before joining the Imperium.

Finishes her meal as she closes her ledger. Sliding it between her bust so it vanished within the pocket realm tucked between there.

"By the Lord General, how did you do that?" she asked the woman with the ledger. She had been astonished as to what happened to it and was curious for a answer.

Ixqueya’s regard settled upon Ami with the authority of permafrost. The cerulean of her eyes carried the pallor of glacial depths where light is remembered rather than permitted. A single brow inclined upward. It was as austere as a magistrate’s seal impressed into cold wax.

Her tongue, bifurcated and faintly lustrous, traced her mouth in a gesture less sensual than liturgical, as though she were sealing a vow against entropy. “The act was sequestration,” she said. “Not display.”


Silence followed. Dense. Instructive. The kind that accumulates beneath snowdrifts and headstones. “To open a gate to my province is to tithe oneself. Borders are devout. They demand marrow, focus, and the acceptance of aftermath.” Her chin lifted by a margin, granting the space a measured absolution.

“This required less. A permissive fold. Indexed. Anchored to flesh.” Her mouth curved, precise and unmerciful. Her gaze fixed Ami in place, unblinking, as though inscribing her name into a ledger of the living.

“The world anoints women as reliquaries without reverence. I chose to formalize the blasphemy.” A final pause. The words that followed were neither cruel nor kind. Merely final.

“Utility is doctrine. Excess is sin. We already bear enough burdens as women. And your general means nothing to me. He is, after all, a small man casting a small shadow. He inhabits a single mote cast adrift within a virtually infinite sea of motes that are subject to currents and eddies." She stated candidly.

Seeing the strange woman take interest in her, all she could do was wonder if she should have kept her mouth shut. Without hesitation, she rose a eyebrow as well as though she was confused on why the woman did that.

She stood up with a stern look on her face after she heard what the woman said. "So meaning you took it...as a debt?" she said as she stood there with a stern look on her face still. Should I trust her? she thought to herself as she responded to the momentarily.

She stayed quiet for a while until the conversation was picked up once again as she thought what was said. "Seems extreme to send something that small to a different dimension," she said as she relaxes a little from what she heard. The process was still confusing to her, but perhaps further explanation will help her understand.

She was freaked out by how the woman stared at her compared to what she told her. That stare felt like the woman was doing something. Her voice wasn't there as though she couldn't speak any words, her purple eyes stared deeply in the other woman's eyes.

At that moment she wanted to put her hand on her plasma pistol, but it felt like she was frozen in place. This woman was no ordinary woman. Was she a degenerate or something else. She jerked her head to her Lord General before turning her gaze back at the other woman.

She finally got her voice as she said, "You mean we are better than men?" she asked out of curiosity. "And you are unnatural." She started uttering the chant of the Emperor of Mankind as she took her book to her chest as though to protect herself from the sinful woman.

She stood there not moving an inch, her body again seizing up as though fear was setting in. Why did I have to look at her? she asked herself in her mind, her eyes closed as she kept muttering the words of the Emperor of Mankind.

When Xueqing finished her craft - ignoring Ami's curiosity - it turned out to be a small heater. Chargeable, adjustable, efficient, solid.

She turned it on to try the effect on minimal power. It was as if a hand warmer.

"Nailed it!"

This girl seemed satisfied and proud.