《Ayla&#x27;s Junkyard》


 The First Day

    I died.  I know I died.  so why can I see?  and why does everything look like its shrouded in dust? I rub my eyes, and everything is a bit clearer, why cant I blink?  I can feel everything, like normal, but I can''t blink.

    I sit up and immediately notice there is only metal around me.  I look to my left and see a shiny piece of metal.  I look into it, and see only two large cameras looking back at me, and what looks like a computer board exposed to the elements.  I raise my hand and touch the top of my head, and the thing in the reflection does too, I feel a sharp pain in my head, as a spark flairs up on the reflection.  I look down, and realize the mechanical thing in front of me, is me.

    I must have reincarnated as a robot!  And now, I officially freak out.

    After a while, I calmed down, and started looking at my new body.  pneumatic pistons replaced where my muscles would have been, my lungs were now two compressed air tanks, since it was pneumatics, the air pressure was released into the open air, but it did so through a small electric generator located where a human heart should be, my stomach, and intestines were replaced with a distribution block, Solenoids, and the conveyance lines for all my pneumatics.  and when I turned my back to the surface I could see myself in, there were electrical lines going through my spine, and attached to sensors on the various parts of my body.  I still felt as though I had skin enclosing all these parts, and when my hand passed close to where my old body was, I could feel it.  the sensors were attached to my pistons, and a few focal points around the body, such as the annoying ''funny bone'' and ''big toe''  but also there were small ones attached to the conveyance lines, when I pulled one out I got a small red warning in the corner of my vision that there wasn''t enough pressure in my upper left leg.

    I guess they are pressure sensors.  I tried to stand up, but immediately got a warning that my gyrostabilizers had been disconnected.  I looked at the reflection and noticed there were two orbs directly behind the cameras I was seeing though, and the wires leading into them were cut cleanly.  I found a sharp piece of metal, stripped the wires for one of them and twisted the matching colors together.  The message that a stabilizer was found came up, and I was able to stand, shaky, but stand.

    I looked around and saw nothing but junk around me, and as I looked, I noticed other bodies similar to mine, with one huge problem: none of them were moving, and all of them looked more rusted than I did.  The place looked like it had once been a thriving city, in a few places there were remnants of two and three story buildings with stone exteriors.

    I came up to what looked like it had once been a town square, and in its center stood a metal fountain, but instead of water, mineral oil flowed.  I put my hand in it, and it was easier to move, so I just jumped in, soaked for a few seconds, and then got out, knowing from some of the computers I had built that mineral oil would not effect any electronics, other than making the wires hard with continued exposure.

    I started looking around and seeing what I could find.  As the sun came down to touch the horizon, I saw movement in a building directly ahead of me, hoping it was another survivor, I walked straight to it, at almost a jog.

    When I got there, three women and two men were looking at me with frightened looks on their faces.  one of them started to talk, but I couldn''t hear him.  so I signed to him by pointing at the side of my head with one hand, moving the other in a talking motion, and shaking my head back and forth.

    One of the women must have understood it because she started talking quickly to the man who was trying to talk to me.  The youngest one, just barely to old to be called a girl walked over to a sand pile and started drawing lines in the sand, I recognized them as a language.  I looked at the lines, and a message came up saying I learned a language: Written Common,  when I looked back at the lines, it was a question,

    ''can you not hear?''

    I shrugged and lifted my hands to say ''I don''t know''  the girl looked at me funny, so I wiped away her sand words, and began to write my own.

    ''I woke up shortly after dawn, I don''t know where I am at, or what''s going on.''

    when she read my words, I''m assuming aloud, the other women started to panic, and the men looked really worried, so I quickly wiped the words away and wrote again.

    ''Why do your friends look scared?''

    The girl looked up at me with a look on her face that I interpreted as ''you really don''t know?''  but then she started to write in the sand again.

    ''You are sentient????''  she wrote with four question marks.

    I nodded, and the group seemed to freak out, so I backed away from them, and the girl, trying to say ''I don''t want to harm anyone.''  it seemed to calm them down.

    The girl waved me closer, and started writing again.

    ''There hasn''t been a sentient one of your kind in nearly six centuries.''  she looked at me, and when she knew I had read it, she wiped it away, and started again. ''This city was the last fortress of the Andronis, it fell when a bomb went off.''  again she looked at me and waited to continue.  ''My name is Angela.  What are you called?''

    I looked at her straight in the eyes when I had read it, and then sagged my head, and shook my head no.  I then wrote next to her question. ''I have no memory of my name, I only have a few memories before I died.  I know I died.''  what I didn''t tell her was that I was a human woman when I died.

    The whole group looked at me with an astonished look, and then one of the men approached me.  He waved his hand in front of me to get my attention, then got down with Angela and I, erased our words, and started to write.

    ''May I ask a few questions, that would normally be rude to ask one of your kind?''  like Angela, he started writing again, once he knew I had read it, and before I could answer.  ''do you know what classification you had before your death? worker, scout?''  I shook my head no, and he continued.  ''I am an archeologist, and have studied your kind, I think I can give you a voice, do you mind if I try?''  I leaned my head at this, and he started writing again.  ''my studies show that normally your kind would self repair, but you don''t appear to know how.''  I shook my head and pointed at the orb next to my camera, then extended my thumb and pointed at my chest with it.

    I could tell the man was laughing, as was Angela.  she started writing this time.  ''what is that part for?  all the ones we have taken apart just have a little thing in them that spins?''  I motioned for them to give me one, and then wrote in the sand.

    ''can you hand me one you have taken apart, and about a yard''s worth of string?''

    ''How long is a yard''s worth?'' the man wrote.  I extended my arm, and then pointed with my other hand to the fingertips, and then to the bolt between my cameras where my nose would normally be, then wrote.

    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.''About that long, its not exact though.''  Angela seemed to laugh, at least it appeared in her eyes that she was honestly happy.  The eldest of the women approached me with a cardboard bobbin with a yellow thread on it, I stretched out as far as I needed, then wrote in the sand.

    ''I only need it for a demonstration, I don''t need to cut it.''  the man came back with one of the gyros, and I wrapped the string around the center shaft.  I pointed to the girl, and then motioned for her to hold her hand out with only her index finger extended.  I grabbed the wound string, then pulled it as fast as I could, which seemed slower than I thought it would be.  I then set it on her hand horizontally, and let it go, so it seemed to float in midair beside her hand, then I wrote again.  ''because they are spinning constantly, they can tell me the angle my head is at, in relation to the ground.  without this, I cant walk upright.''  everyone seemed to be enthralled by the little device defying gravity that it took a few minutes for the man to read my words.

    he smiled, and pulled a small wire out of his pack, I immediately recognized it as a very sensitive microphone.  he held it up, and then wrote ''can you tell me what this is for?''  I nodded, and wiped away his words.

    ''may I have it, and then tell you?''  he handed it to me.  I took it in one hand, and detached one of my cameras, to look at my motherboard behind them.  I saw where I needed to attach it, and then placed it.  it was a bit disorientating to see the top of my head, and the group at the same time, but now at least I could hear.

    as I was finishing up, I noticed that every minor movement I was hearing the pneumatics fire through the little generator in my chest, and I was constantly hearing the ticking of the solenoids in my lower chest moving the different pistons to make my body move.

    "what is it doing Papa?"   I see Angela''s mouth move along with the words, and a new message pops up, Language Mastered: Common.

    "I don''t care what its doing as long as it doesn''t kill us."  the younger of the two women said.

    I wrote ''I won''t kill you, nor will I try.  please don''t say those things about me.''  all the people stopped and looked at me now.  and I started writing again.  ''what you just gave me allows me to hear, its a microphone, it works partially like your ears.''  when the man read it he started tearing up.

    "I have made two advancements into the Andronic Culture today that nobody has figured out since the fall."  I felt myself smiling at the man''s comment.

    ''I would be happy to help as much as I can, however I would have two conditions.''

    he read the statement, and then motioned for me to continue.

    ''First, I need a protective cover for my frame, there are parts here that are sensitive, and imperative to my survival, as well as could hurt your kind if they break just the wrong way.''  the man and Angela read along.

    "I think I can help with that part, Papa."  I looked at her and nodded to her, as a show of gratitude.

    ''Second, I would need an agreement from anyone I would work with that they would not attempt, in any way, to disassemble me.''

    "Wow, even a self-preservation instinct." the man said as he nodded his agreement to the condition.

    I wanted to groan, and when I felt myself doing it, I heard one, but it didn''t look like it came from anyone.

    "There Papa, what was that sound it made?"

    I pointed at myself ''That sound was me?''

    "Yes."  Angela replied.  I thought about it for a few seconds.

    ''I am going to try something, please don''t be frightened

    .''  the two nodded.

    "Hello?"  I heard a melodious, feminine voice fill the room.  "Well, I guess I can talk."

    Angela jumped up and wrapped her arms around my neck, I patted her back, hoping it was gently.

    "Would you mind if we gave you a name?"  The Eldest woman said.  I nodded to her, and everyone in the room looked at the man who hadn''t spoken since I could hear.  but when he opened his mouth, a full sounding voice came out of the skinny man''s body, I didn''t think a voice like that could come from him.  [A/N: Think John Rys-Davis voice out of Tom Hanks in Forest Gump]

    "Then, Would you honor our family, and carry the name of the daughter we lost at her birth?"

    "What was her name?"

    "Ayla."  he said.

    "Hello, everyone.  Sorry, for the late introduction, I am Ayla."  at this, everyone seemed to smile and laugh.  The man I had been talking to, spoke again.

    "Well Ayla, I don''t know if your kind sleeps, but we do, and its well past our bed-time."

    "Sir, I don''t know if I sleep or not.  I do know that I need to find some mineral oil soon, as my generator isn''t working as well as it was earlier.  I know where some is at, but I have no way to carry any with me."

    "Here Ayla." Angela handed me a container that looked like it was about 4 liters in size, the marks on the side was 1/3.78

    "A Gallon container, nice."  I said.  I then made to walk out of the dimly lit room, I then stopped, grabbed the large piece of metal that looked like it was a door, and picked it up.  I looked it over it and found two places where it was slightly raised from the surface, and saw the same thing on the door jam.  I  picked up the piece of metal that went into the slots. "block this door with that piece of metal in these slots.  if its me returning, I will knock twice, once then three times."

    they all nodded at the precaution, although I have no idea why I thought it was needed.  I pulled the door into the hole, and held it in place until I heard the metal slide into the slot, then left to go to the fountain.

    it was an eventful day.  and I''m glad its almost over.

    ______________________________________________________________________________

    ''Do you think she will survive?''

    ''She better, the only thing we took from her was the memories of any names or nicknames.''

    ''True,  she must still have a lot of luck left to have found that archeologist and his family.''

    ''I wonder if we should introduce ourselves to her?''

    ''If we do, we will need to wait a while.''

    ''Why do you say that?''

    ''We gave her the ability to gain perfect mastery over everything having only seen or heard it one time.  what will she do when she realizes that?''

    ''I could only hope that she survives to bring back the race we let get killed off.''

    ''True, we should not have let that bomb work.''

    ''No, Elaina, we should have never let it be discovered that it could work, the race we created could be killed over and over and over again, with only a single one of those things.''

    ''Should we give Ayla the ability to shield herself from it?''

    ''Already gave her the knowledge, when she sees the material she can use to do it, she will know how to use it.''

    ''Oh, Elisha, you are a cunning one.''

 Learning

    It has been a week since I woke up, and met my new friends.  I found out that I do need to sleep, but it''s only once every three days instead of every night.

    Apparently things I learn are patched in, and sleeping makes them hard coded into my memory.  I don''t know how much I can store, I can''t find anything that resembles a hard drive, or any type of memory chips I remember.  I did manage to find a piece of armor on one of the frames to protect my generator.  So now, my ''heart'' is safe.

    I have taken to calling them frames, I don''t like the idea I am canablizing someone, somehow changing what I called them made me feel less guilt about taking their parts.

    I let Jody, Angela''s father, rewire my gyroscopes, so that I didn''t have bare wires sticking out.  He placed small plugs on the wires, so that I could later change parts out with less work.  With both gyros working, I was able to walk with more ease.

    I was also constantly dripping oil onto the bearings on my little generator.  It got annoying, but it wasn''t happening as often as it was the first couple of days.

    "Ayla, it''s time for us to go, our permit only let us be in the city for one month."  Jody said to me.

    "Well I''m not attached here, and we already decided I would help you, and Angela still owes me that armor."  I said with a bit of a chuckle.

    Andy, the man who named me turned me to look at him.  "Ayla, if you leave the city with us, there will be a lot of people who will react the way we did.  Modern robots don''t look like you do.  Also, we have told our children horror stories of your kind, enough so, that even I was afraid when we first saw you."

    I nodded that I understood.  "I''m still comming.  I can''t learn anything more by looking at deactivated frames, and I want to see this world of yours.  Even if I have to claim to be property, I''m leaving this dead city.  I would rather do so with you, than on my own.

    I looked at each face in turn, they all appeard to be pleased with my response.  Angela tapped me on my shoulder, which was the same height as hers.

    "If that''s the case Ayla, I will help you; but instead of you being property, would you claim me?"

    I cocked my head at her request, and then Jody told me what she was doing.

    "Since the Andronic war, no being of flesh has been allowed to own a sentient robot.  It has been the long standing law, and a well known one, that if a sentient Andronis was found, the person who found them must offer themselves as property to it.  She is the one who discovered you were sentient."

    "I don''t want a slave."  I said simply.  Angela and Jody shared an honest laugh.

    "It wouldnt change anything, other than the fact that I would now have to ask you permission instead of papa.  Think of it more as being a guardian, than a slave owner."

    I nodded, "Then, I Ayla of the Andronis, claim you."

    A message appeard: ''You have officially claimed a human as your own, you are now responsible for her well being.  Unlike you, she requires food every four to six hours.  Downloading all known information from surrounding networks; information will be accessible after next update.''

    When I finished reading, I looked toward her again, she looked like she was about to cry.  She grabbed her head, and fell to the ground, letting out a loud groan of agony.  After a few minutes she started to cry, when she regained control of he muscles, she grabbed me into an embrace.  And started repeating over and over again ''I''m sorry'', ''I didn''t know'', and finally, ''I will never tell anyone''.

    About the time the sun was at its peak, we started walking east, we came across another fountain, so I refilled my jug, and continued to follow the party ahead of me.  Angela still in tears, but she started to whisper.  But I could hear her plainly.

    "Nod if you can hear me."  She said and I complied.

    "The claim you made was an official one.  And something you should know, and for some reason I know that it''s knowledge lost to you.  Andronis isn''t what you are.  It''s who you are.  An official claim can only happen if you truthfully speak your given name, your real name."

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

    She looked at me quickly, and the. Back forward.  "You didn''t remember your first name, because you never had one," I knew in my old life I had a name, but I must not have had one here. "So when we named you Ayla, the world system recognized it as your name.  But the last name, that can only be given by family.  Not only are you a member of the Andronis race, you ARE Andronis, as in the family, as in the Andronis Royal Family.  I''m sorry, but that will have to be revealed at the gate.  The rest of what happened in that house will wait until we are alone."  I nodded to her.  And then what she said finally clicked for me.

    "Angela please tell me that doesn''t mean what I think it means."  I said in a normal voice, she replied in kind.

    "I''m afraid so, Ayla.  Although you are my size, and your frame is as old as it is, you are only a week old."  She said with a smile that didn''t reach her eyes.  To me her eyes were screaming ''say nothing else''.

    I shook my head, and took her nonverbal warning; someone with us, she didn''t trust.

    It was about three hours after we started that we came to an area that had lush, well kept grass, that stretched for about 100 feet, and abruptly ended into a three story tall concrete wall, and at its base was an obvious guard house.

    As we approached thee guards came out carrying rifles, a series of messages scrolled through my right camera, telling me I had learned various parts creation masteries, combat styles and even marksmanship.  In my left eye, arrows and a targeting reticle appeared in yellow surrounding each of the guards.

    Angela seemed like she was getting a headache again, then she stood wide eyed for a second, looked at me and then back.  Then all traces disappeared of her pain.  She took in a deep breath, and then spoke loudly, on the verge of a shout.

    "I, Angela Grey, Discovered, and have been claimed by Ayla Andronis.  As per the Andronic Treaty, I make this announcement of my own free will."

    As soon as she said it, all the reticle a turned green, and then disappeared.  A tall man exited the wall toward us.  He looked at Angela, seeming to be furious.

    "Do not Jest about such things child.  If what you say is true, than this relic next to you is the heir to a throne that is currently being used as a bargaining chip to these very grounds.  Do you know what you just said child?" He said trying to get her to recant her statement.

    Angela glared at him, pulled out a round piece of glass, and handed it to the man. "These can''t be faked.  Look at her through this, and don''t drop it."

    When he looked at me through it, he nearly did drop it.  He approached me and kneeled.

    "Princess Andronis, I apologize for my rude behavior toward your Envoy."  He took off his hat and revealed his pointed ears.  He was an elf.

    I looked back and forth between Angela and him, in complete surprise.  Angela walked between us.

    "This slight was expected, and no offense has been taken.  You mentioned her throne being used in a bargain of some kind?"

    "Yes, Envoy, the fairies have held ownership, and thus revenue, from the permits to enter and take items from this place, for the last fifty years.  They are currently in negotiations with the human nation you hail from."

    I was curious, so, I asked, "Where are these negotiations being held?"  The elf bowed deeper and then replied.

    "The north gate Princess, that''s the technical main entrance."

    "How can I get there?"  Instead of getting a response, he stood and flashed a series of hand signals.  Two vehicles pulled up, he motioned for me to get on one, then Angela.  He got on the other one, and the vehicles sped North, leaving the rest of of Angela''s party at the east gate.

 Taking Claim

    We approached the north gate, it was easily larger than the east gate''s guard station.  The grass around it curved inwards away from the gate, so that other than the paving stone walkway, there was close to 500 feet of just the finely maintained lawn on the inside of the wall.

    The whole thing looked well maintained, and it was as if the city was purposefully untouched.  The two wheeled vehicles came to a stop, the elf escorted Angela and I to the building.

    "Pardon me, for being bold, but I believe I should lead you to the room, instead of giving instructions."  He said.  I felt as though he was trying to weave himself into a political position; so I looked toward my human friend.

    "That''s fine, but I will announce her, when we get to the room."  She said.  His shoulders sagged, betraying what he was intending to maneuver himself to do.

    We walked briskly through the building, even as sensitive as my new microphone was, only when we climbed stairs, could I hear the air being released behind the armor plate protecting my generator.

    We approached a double door, and the elf went to open it, Angela pushed his hand away, and did it instead.  The whole time we were in the city, I never saw her be this aggressive.

    As the door opened, I heard three different languages, I know because I understood Common, but I got messages for understanding spoken Human, and Illustrial.  When the messages came up, Angela seemed to get nautious then she spoke in common, with the croud still talking over her.  They stopped talking when she said my name.

    "I, Angela Grey, present to the council Ayla Andronis, the Crowned Princess."

    I could have heard a needle drop to the floor.  One of the men I recognized as a member of the fairy race approached me, and spoke in Common.

    "So this Andronis, is the keeper?"  He asked.  I answered in his native tongue.

    "This Andronis, is currently standing in front of you, speaking in your native tongue, and has been officially announced."  I switched to the human language, "This Andronis wishes to join the negotiations pertaining to the land of her birth."  Then I changed to Common.  "Are there any further objections to my presence?"

    Everyone shook their head no.  I don''t know what made me answer the fairy in that way, it just felt like what I was supposed to do.  Angela stepped out of the room, and came back with a solid wooden chair.

    As she sat it down I heard her whisper, "that was the perfect thing to do."  And she took a couple steps back from the chair.

    The room still hadn''t spoken since I stated my intent to stay, and my obvious knowledge of their native languages.

    "Since I have just come to these negotiations, could someone please tell me where things currently stand?"

    The fairy, who was the size of a human currently, stepped toward the table. Then proceeded in common

    "We have held the responsibility of caretakers of this city for the past fifty years.  And the Andronic Treaty states that the ability to care for this place must pass to the next race this year."

    "And where does the Andronis fit into your fifty year cycle?" I asked him.

    "Well Miss...." Angela interrupted him,

    "That''s Princess, at least until the actual crown can be found."

    "...erm, sorry, Princess, we have never had someone enter the negotiations from your race.  We wouldn''t know."

    "So, I could ask for my guardianship to be next in line right now, correct?"  I could see the anger grow on the faces of the two humans that were at the table.  The rest of them seemed frightend, as if they would be punished if this went poorly.

    "Well, since no one else at this table has the tact to introduce themselves, I will stake my claim, to my own land here and now.  Any and all permits given will continue at their current yearly issuances.  The cost of which will be maintained at the same rate for the next three years.  At wich time all races named in the treaty will meet back here."

    "The proceedes of the permits will first be used to fund maintinance and guards of the perimeter.  After that, I will personally take 10% for my own income, of the remainder, I will spit it, fifty percent to each of your races for the next three years."

    "You can''t be serious!"  One of the humans stood and shouted at me.

    "Let me ask you this, no-named man, would you willingly allow someone from another race to enter one of your conquered cities, specifically the home of the Royal Family, and take portions of the corpses interned there for their own uses?"  He sat down at this point, so I continued.

    "For six hundred years, you all have bickered over the last resting place of my kinsmen.  And no one ever questioned their actions, against the dead of a race that no longer was counted among the living."

    "I know, I am currently the only one of my kind, I also know that your economies are dependent on the relics you find among the dead in this city, and I know that right now, the full alliance of your militaries would be too much for me to handle."

    "But I also know, that the treaty specifically states that if any Andronis is found sentient, then this land belongs to them, as does the individual who discovers them."

    "So I will make one more rule for everyone who enters these grounds:  no being, being indentured, or owned, is permitted on these grounds.  Only free beings are allowed."

    "I will not allow a single slave, or Indentured Servant on this property as long as I am in control of it."  I looked toward the humans.  "This will be effective at midnight tonight, so I suggest you either leave tonight, or learn how to dress yourselves."  I stood.

    "I''m allowing you to take parts from my family''s dead; the least you can do is honor my wish that only free males and females be allowed to enter."

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    When the implications finally hit the people in the room, the male fairy stood up.

    "Princess, forgive my lack of tact.  I am Ambassador Bilby Raleigh, and I agree with all of your terms, and find them favorable to the Fair People, as well as the Andronic Treaty."

    The human stood and said the same thing, but he seemed to be holding a grudge, and still refused to give me his name, and was about to leave when Angela spoke up.

    "Human, if you exit the threshold of this room, your life will be forfit the next time you enter it; you have failed to give your name to all parties while engaged in negotiations."

    He turned to face the room and made a hand gesture I assumed was considered offensive, and then said ''suck it Tincan''.  So I calmly replied.

    "Well met, Ambassador Tincan."

    At this the fairies all laughed, and shrunk in size.  Each of them were now about a foot tall, and had beautiful colored translucent wings.  Raleigh came over to me.

    "Princess, first let me say I am glad for your return, second, this was the fastest negotiation in three hundred years.  We were expecting to argue with those humans for another two months."

    "Thank you, Ambassador.  I''m new to this, so pardon me if I broke protocol."

    "Nonsense, as you so elequently put it, this city is a burial ground, and a burial ground of your family, as well as the last fortess that stood during the war.  It took the entire clan of Dwarves 100 years to open these gates."

    "Now that one of you have returned, I can see the technology race taking off again.  Between the Dwarves, and the Gnomes, things have stagnated.  It was your kind that pushed the limits."

    "Well thanks for the confidence."  I said.  Angela stepped forward, and looked like she wanted to speak.  "Go ahead, Angela."

    "Um, Ambassador, may I touch your wings?  I''ve always been told that it''s good luck to touch a fairy''s wings."

    "Well, Angela," he looked at me, then continued, "may I request that the two of you touch each of our wings?  It is considered the greatest honor we can bestow to a non-fair person, and we would like to honor your return by doing this."

    I nodded, and the twelve of them lined up on the table in front of us.  They each turned their back toward us, and we each touched them in turn.  A couple of the young ones seemed to almost faint when Angela touched them.

    The Ambassador, having also seen this, looked toward the girl.

    "Angela, how do you have so much pain in your spirit, for one so young?  I know you tried to hold it back from us, but anyone who touches our wings, shares their spirit with us."

    Angela looked at me, and her eyes started to water.

    "Ayla, it is rude not to honestly answer their question, especially after what they just let us do.  I''m sorry, I hid this from you."

    I had no idea what she was talking about, but I watched as she leaned down and was at eye level with the group of the fair people, and told them what they felt.

    "You all know, I discovered Ayla, and was claimed by her.  As a result, I was given her memories.  All of them."  She looked at me, and I knew she had learned I was once human. "So please, forgive me.  I also have her memories of loosing everything."

    She stood up then looked at me as she finished.  "I also have the memories of her death.  And I know what she went through."

    If I could cry, at this moment I would be.  I don''t wish the feelings I remember at that time on even my worst enemy.

    "So, when your spirit touched us, we were being touched by both of you?"  One of the last two fairies asked, seeming confused, she looked at me, "I felt your spirit, it was filled with a heavy loss, but hope for a possible future."  She looked at Angela; "young one, don''t dwell on her past, or what she has lost, she sees you as a positive force in her new life, and as a teacher.  Where the humans might consider you her slave, we know the truth.  She sees herself as a friend, and a guardian.  You have but to ask, and she would release her claim without a second thought, but only if you request it.  No slave, or indentured servant has a guarantee of immediate release at their request.  You do."

    With that, the fair people seemed to shimmer and disappear. When they had all gone, the ambassador stood there for a moment longer, then pulled a key half his size out of a hole be materialized next to him."

    "This is the key to the city, erm, the key to your city.  And please, call me Bilby from now on.  Using my family name, even in formal occasions will be considerd rude after I allowed one to touch my wings."  The others will tell you their familiar names as they come in and out, we will always be able to find your spirit now."

    "Thank you Bilby, but would you mind keeping that for a while?  I want to learn about the world I now find myself in."  He nodded, gave a bow, and disappeared with the key.

    "I guess I now own this junkyard." I said to Angela.  she laughed and gave me a hug.

    "I''m sorry I didn''t tell you I knew, or that every time you learn something new, so do I.  I know you aren''t getting the pain I am, but, I don''t mind it as the first one, when I got all the memories of your past life.  I didn''t get a single name though."

    "I don''t remember the names either.  And don''t worry about hiding it, it''s not like we have been alone long enough to talk about it since this morning."

    She nodded, "do me a favor; actually go to sleep tonight.  Your memories tell me that you know that helps make your systems faster."

    "Alright.  So do you know where we are sleeping tonight?  As I asked, we walked past the elf that was still at the door.  He hadn''t moved in the fifteen minutes we had been in there.  We both ignored him and kept walking.

 Angela Grey

    Papa finally let me come into the fallen city with him.  Andy, Carol, and Stephanie were coming with us.  Andy was researching the building materials that had been used, Carol was comming along to see if she could find any trinkets, or things she thought would make interesting jewelry.  And Stephanie, would never admit it, but was just coming to spend time with Papa.

    Although, officially she was our nurse.  The permit we were able to purchase let us go in for 31 days, but we weren''t allowed to take anything out, somehow Carol always managed to get stuff out though.

    After three weeks in the city, sleeping in different buildings every night, I was starting to get bored.  You can only see ''the horrible Andronis'' unmoving so many times before the thrill wears off.  As we were settling in, I heard quick, rhythmic pulses.

    It sounded like quick air blasts, followed by something spinning on a bad bearing.  Before I could warn anyone, the doorway darkened, and the jet black frame of an Andronis filled the open doorway.  The lenses of it''s eyes reflected the last vestiges of the setting sun around their edges, making them look red.

    The cylinders to move its body creaked, and the rods were covered in rust.  Almost as though this one had been exposed to the elements and just woke up.

    "Friend or Foe!"  Papa shouted.  The thing made a grand guesure, and Stephanie said that she didn''t think it could hear.  So I started writing in the sand.

    When I asked it if it was sentient, it nodded, and for some reason everyone else moved away, as did it.

    "Would you guys quit scaring it?"  I shouted at them.  This was the most exciting thing in my life since I turned 17, and was able to come with Papa.  Of course, I knew the laws, before we left I would have to offer myself to it.

    It left us later, once she could hear, and talk.  The conversation was a lot easier at the end.  She told us to barricade the door, when we woke up in the morning, the door was still there.  When we opened it, she was standing next to the building, facing the rising sun.

    I thought it was a beautiful sight, a being of an extinct race, walking on the face of the earth again, and she is watching the sun rise.  I felt as though this moment was the start of a new era.

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.I pulled out my info-glass, and looked at her through it.  And nearly wept.  Her last name wasn''t displayed, but it didn''t have to be.  The golden crown icon was in front of her name.

    "Papa," I said putting the glass away, "no matter what happens, we have to protect her."

    "I know Booger.  And I may loose you because of this, but I agree, she must be kept safe.  I want to know what she saw, those final seconds.  But she is the first one to reawaken.  You need to get started designing armor for her.  Talk with her, learn how she moves, Andy and I will start  looking for pistons in good shape, so she doesn''t have to work so hard to move."

    We spent the last week of our expedition finding parts for Ayla.  At first she seemed disgusted that we were taking parts and giving them to her, or in a few cases replacing some of her parts with them.

    About halfway through the last week, I felt as though she was feeling good, almost hopeful.  The little thing in her chest didnt need oil as often, and was even quiet.  She found a piece of white armor on one of the frames that was covering it.  When she mounted it to herself, she seemed pleased.

    It would be another three days before I would realize how bad things had been for her.  But at that moment, she was just another facination to me.

    The day finally came to leave, and when we told Ayla, she seemed more resolute about leaving.  I had already told her about the Andronic Treaty, but I had left out the fact that I had to at least offer myself to her.

    She made an official declaration.  And claimed me.  At that moment, all of her memories flooded into me, her pains, heartaches, joys, and finally her murder.  She was alive when her boyfriend threw her paralyzed body into the wood chipper.  I felt everything she had.

    This was the downside to me being a spirit reader.  I knew everything about those closest to me.  And now, she was the closest.  Both legally, and through spirit.

    I felt more of a duty now to protect her secrets, than to help Papa.

    now every time I looked at her, I saw the physical spirit of the woman she once was shrouding the frame of an Andronis.  The Great Spirits played a joke on this woman, making a computer builder reincarnate, as a machine.

 Toran

    Angela and I continued out of the building, the poor elf seemed to be struck dumb by what happened, and still hadn''t said a word.  At least he was walking behind us.

    I had gotten used to walking again, it seemed like we were going to be doing a lot of it.  I stepped onto the two wheeled vehicle, and the driver started moving Angela and I back to the east gate.

    "So what is this thing called?  I''ve not received a notification about them."  I asked Angela.

    "Oh, they are chariots.  The gnomes figured out about a hundred years ago how to keep them level, and not have an animal in front."

    "Let me guess, the gnomes buy a lot of these orb parts?"

    "Yeah.  How did you know?"

    "It''s pretty difficult to do something like this without gyroscopes.  It''s a shame they have no real idea what they have."  I told her.

    We came up to the east gate, and the party was still there.  Apparently no one in the party may leave if one person is missing.  We stepped off the chariot, and walked toward Jody.

    "Oy! Ayla, what made you take off like that?"  He shouted.  Carol and Stephanie approached Angela and looked her over as they bombarded her with questions I tuned out.

    "Well, the fair folk, and a couple of humans were arguing about the land.  I just went and settled the dispute."  I answered honestly.

    One of the fairies from the conference room flew out of the gate towards me.

    "Is it true you are letting us hold the key for you?  Oh sorry, I am Gate Marshall Evelyn Viridian."

    "Yes Evelyn, I am letting Bilby hold onto the key for now."  I said, almost forgetting what Bilby had said about names.

    She started smiling when I said that.

    "Thank you, Princess Andronis."  I held my hand up.

    "Evelyn, I consider it rude to not use the first name of someone you expect to use yours; and I carry my name to honor this group of humans here."

    "I apologize, Ayla." She turned to face the group.  "Because you are with Ayla, your permit has been nullified, and the cost refunded to your accounts.  Ambassador Raleigh has told me to hand each of you a pass ring."  She handed each of them a black ring, "Show these rings any time you enter or exit in the next three years, have a wonderful day!"

    And with that the cheerful Evelyn, green wings and all disappeared.  Andy and Carol stood there a moment staring at the piece of metal.

    "Ayla, what did you do?"  Stephanie asked slowly.

    "I claimed the city, and neither side argued my terms."

    "That''s understandable, Ayla.  The fair folk wouldn''t loose anything by loosing this city for fifty years, and as I said before, until they get to know you, humans won''t argue with you, out of fear." Andy replied.

    "Well, that one Idiot did leave the room, without giving his name."  Angela told everyone.  I looked at her and deadpaned my response.

    "You mean his name wasn''t ''Suck It Tincan''?"  The whole group laughed, and we exited through the gate.  As we passed the guards, Carol asked if they were going to search us.

    "No ma''am.  You are here with Gatekeeper Andronis, we are not allowed to search your persons."  The female elf replied.  Carol nodded, and then gave an uncomfortable smile as she walked out of the gatehouse.

    There was a small parking area next to the gate, and vehicles that looked like traditional cars from my past life.  I only drove one time, I didn''t like the experience.  So I was mostly driven around by my caretaker.  My boyfriend only drove me somewhere my last night.

    Anyway, think happier thoughts.  The group approached a cargo van, and we all piled in.  The packs with camping gear, and the little remaining food for the humans was thrown into the back, and we drove away from the gate, heading northeast.

    A short fourty-five minute drive later, we pulled up to a house that looked like it had been added on to by people with very different tastes in what it should look like, there had probably been fifteen to twenty Additions made to the original structure.

    "Ayla, Angela; I need you two to come with me." Jody said in a more serious way than I had heard him before.  We walked through a garage door of the house, and then down a flight of stairs that was at the front of the room.

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    "Booger, you know most of this, but I''m not going to have Ayla be the only one to have to listen to this, understand?"

    "Yes Papa."  Angela looked as though she knew what was coming, and had no intention of arguing.

    "Now.  Ayla, I''m sorry if I offend you, but as of this morning, you are responsible for my daughter, and right now, we are on my land, not yours.  I''ll follow your rules on your land, I expect the same curtesy."

    I nodded that I understood; Jody then continued.

    "You and Angela have a curfew.  You are to be inside this house before 10 in the evening.  I know you don''t eat,  but in this house once a week we will eat a meal together.  I don''t expect you do do something you can''t. I do expect you to be there."

    I nodded again.

    "Lastly, this door goes to my lab.  Up until now, Angela''s late mother wa the only other person I had ever let in here; but as this research relates directly to you, I figured I could not restrict you from it."

    I nod again.

    "Ayla, do you know how much it normally costs to get one of these rings?"

    I shook my head, and Angela answered.

    "Ayla, one of these rings would cost ten years worth of Papa''s salary at the university."  She made sure it sunk in a bit more.  "You just protected Papas job, as well as made it easier to do his research."

    "I''m glad I could help."  I said to him.

    "No, I''m glad we found you, instead of a rival school.  This ring means I will be able to take a class in with me, not just the few with rich parents.  And the university will expect it of me."  He turned and opened the door behind him, and waved the two of us in.

    "This is the oldest part of the estate.  It''s close to nine hundred years old, it''s so old it has fallen off records for this building''s structure.  So the government doesn''t know it''s here."  He said.

    When he flipped on the light, I saw several complete Andronis frames, most with armor around them to make them look humanoid.  None of the ones in the city had even a single piece for the outside.  The armor for my generator was the only piece I found.

    "These frames were found and preserved by Lilly, Angela''s Mom.  She told me once that these frames were collected the day the dwarves opened the city."  He looked at me.  "I know you want armor, but I can''t find it in my heart to give these to you."

    Angela stepped forward and patted his arm.  "Papa, I told her I would make some for her.  And you told me to make sure I did it right.  Give me till the end of the week, and I can have most of it done."

    He nodded, shut the light out, and we followed him out of the room.  At the top of the stairs, he turned and faced me, "Oh, I''m sorry, welcome to the Toran Estate.  Angela''s Inheretance from her mother''s family."

    "If it''s Angela''s Inheretance, why is it your property?"  I asked Jody.

    "Because here in the Ceril Empire, women are not allowed to own property until they are twenty five.  So legally, it''s mine until she comes of age."

    "How old was Lilly when she died?"  I asked realizing the time between the Dwarves opening the city, and Angela''s birth was nearly five centuries.

    "She was seven hundred fifty-eight years old when her spirit faded."  I stood there for a moment to try and comprehend what I just heard from Jody.

    "Angela here is 1/2 Fair.  It''s why she can read spirits the way she can. Lilly was fair, but because Angela is half, the Fair folk have all but disowned her.  It''s not uncommon for Fairies to live past one thousand years.  But if one gives birth without another fair present, they pass their spirit to the babe, sacrificing themselves for the babe."

    Jody nodded his head, turned away from us, and walked away, "Dinner is at eight tonight, it''s mandatory!" He shouted back, his voice cracking as he did so.

 Mandatory Meal

    It was a couple of hours before Angela and I were expected in the dining room, so we started unloading the van, cleaning the gear, and putting it away. My hands were getting stiff from all the water, so she had me stop washing stuff."

    "Let''s go work on some casing for you, before dinner." She said when we had put everything away. "It''s easier to make plastic parts, and see how you move with them before we make your actual armor. In some cases you may opt to keep the printed parts rather than switching to metal."

    I nodded to her reasoning as we walked into one of the rooms connected to the garage. It was full of machines that were moving, the largest one only came up to my hips. These must be the extent of modern robots.

    "Do you think we could build a new frame as well? This one seems a bit blocky, and doesn''t let me move the way I want." I tell her.

    "Yeah, we should, but let''s get this one protected first. Do you mind if we start with your head? Protecting those parts seems kind of imperative, and now that I''ve seen the ones in the basement, it seems like that is what we should do."

    "Sounds good to me."

    "Since you can''t show emotion with this head, I was thinking a doll''s head, like the ones from your memories as a girl, just before you got the chair."

    "You can do something like that?" I asked.

    She turned around and picked up a plastic doll of a fairy, that was about the same size as the doll in my memory.

    "Printing it is easy, once we have what we want designed." We sat down next to her computer and started designing my ''doll face'' and printed it in three pieces. The face as one part, the bottom of the back, and top as well as the rest of the back as the third part. All of it was solid white

    It didn''t quite fit right, and it limited my sight slightly. But at least the face''s proportions looked right, and my cameras were in the right spot, we didn''t have to move anything.

    We were adjusting the fit between the pieces when we got called to the dining room.

    Angela took a deep breath in, as we walked into the room. "Smells good Carol." She said. We sat down around the table. I knew where they wanted me because there wasn''t a plate, only a oil dropper and a pint container of oil.

    The group stopped what they were doing and looked at me when I came into the room.

    "What?" I instinctively asked.

    "We weren''t expecting to see a face yet." Andy replied.

    "I like the design." Jody said.

    "It''s a temporary design, Papa. I want to get her frame covered before I start doing anything permanent." Angela said as she sat down.

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    I sat at my seat, and looked at the home cooked meal in front of me. It was simple meatloaf, hominy, creamed green beans, and cornbread. I wanted some. And here I sat, knowing I could not only, not, eat this meal in front of me; I couldn''t smell it.

    I reluctantly started oiling my parts, watching as those around me ate. I hadn''t gotten homesick like this in the last week, I hadn''t ever been camping before, so I guess the camp soup pot, and the trail rations didn''t do it for me. But seeing this, it was hard.

    The white plastic mask on my head felt real for a moment, it felt like I was back in that chair, putting on the act of enjoying my friends being happy, and independent.

    I bided my time, and once I had oiled every place that needed it, I asked to be excused.

    I set the oil and dropper on the counter in the kitchen, and walked out to sit on the back porch. The cold air felt good. At least I could still feel. I don''t know how it worked, but I was able to feel the dry cool air around me. It was one of the few things I had kept from my old life.

    "Ayla, are you alright?" Angie asked.

    "Yeah, just homesick." I told her as she sat on the step next to me.

    "Well, we will have to make this feel like your new home. Just think of us as your new caretakers." She seemed to regret the choice of words immediately.

    "Angela, do me a big favor," she nodded, "don''t compare yourself to that woman."

    She nodded, set her hand on my shoulder and sat with me for a short time. "It''s time for bed Ayla, and you need to sleep tonight."

    "I know." I looked at her. "it kind of scares me though." I confided. she stood up, and got in front of me and crossed her arms over her chest.

    "Why does Sleeping Scare you?" she asked me.

    "No, but you know what happened to me.  I don''t want you to have nightmares because of my accident, I know I did for years.  let alone, well, I don''t want to talk about it."

    "I know.  its not the first time I have touched a troubled spirit.  but it is the first time I have witnessed, well...."

    "Yeah.  by the way, what room am I in?"

    "Papa said you can sleep in my room.  some of your joints are sharp, so you cant sleep in one of the beds, but I have a bench next to my window you can sleep on."  she said to me.  I got up and followed her into the house.

    "By the way, why does Jody call you ''Booger''"  I looked over at her, "Never Mind."  I replied when I saw her picking her nose.  and I don''t mean just a scratch, I mean white-knuckle, and digging.

    "What?"  she said the same way I had at the dinner table.

    <hr />

 A New Frame

    We had a nice night sleep.  I woke up early, and somehow I knew exactly how to take care of Angela.  She was still asleep, so I went into the room we were in earlier with all the parts printers.  We had these when I was ali.... in my last life, but they could only do plastic, and took hours.  The face she made for me took like three minutes for each part.

    I sat down at her computer and started designing a new frame.  I''ll let her worry about this chassis, I want to start working on something I am more familiar with, and will give me more flexibility.  I started with the hips.

    On my current body, I cant rotate my legs.  I have full range of motion, but the joint doesn''t allow for any rotation  so I wanted to fix that, also the spine on this frame is solid.  I want to be able to move more.  so I started designing something a bit more human like.  I was never big into the sciences, but I remember the general look of a skeleton, so I started designing each part.

    I know my mind worked faster than before, and having only watched Angela use this program once, I already had it down how it worked.  In the course of two hours I had redesigned the chassis, and saved the file.  Angela still wasn''t awake, and it was almost noon.

    I walked into the kitchen, filled a glass of water, then went to her bedroom, and splashed it in her face.  That woke her up.

    "What did you do that for?"  she yelled at me.

    "If you sleep any longer, your body wont be at its best."  I turned and started walking out.  "when you get dressed, come to your computer room, I have something I want to show you."  at that she jumped out of her bed and started getting ready for the day.

    About twenty minutes later, she came into the lab where I had the parts images brought up on the monitor.

    "Ayla, this is pretty complex.  I don''t think I have ever built something like this.  I don''t think the Gnomes or Dwarves have done something like this."

    "Well Bilby did say, it was my kind that pushed the technology race."  I just wish I could figure out memory storage, so I can rework this motherboard, its grossly inefficient."

    "Well, since you are so adamant about doing this, what do you say we print it off?"

    "I was thinking we could build one the size of your fairy doll, and work out kinks in that size before we commit to one that will use that much material."  I told her.

    "sounds good to me."  she said as she adjusted the scale, and hit the print button.  five minutes later, all the parts of a 12 inch tall carbon fiber skeleton was sitting on the work bench.  I arranged all the pieces on the table where they would go in relation to each other, and started running the sensor wires I knew it would need, as well as a group of wires for servos that would later assist with the torque of the upper body.  as well as muscle movements of the face.

    as I was working on that Angela was busy designing and printing new pistons, solenoids, cameras, Gyroscopes, a generator, and all the parts that would be needed to get a frame this size to work.  with her designing parts to scale based off what was in my body, and me working on the frame, in about two hours we had a semi-functional prototype.  just no motherboard, or memory bank.  I had a piece of cardboard sitting in the position the motherboard was.

    I actuated all the parts, and made sure it had a decent range of motion, with no catches.  The carbon fiber pieces were lighter than I thought they would be.  I picked up the doll, and took it to Jody, who was in his office, getting ready for a lesson, he was returning to classes this evening.  I set the little frame on his desk, and he stopped what he was doing.

    he looked from me to it, and back.  Angela and I had taken the time to run the conveyance lines and everything, so the whole system would work if we hooked it up to a system that it could function with.

    "I made a Jumper for you Ayla," she said as she came in, "may I plug this in?"  I nodded to her, and she plugged the wires into the back of my head, and then a small plug into the skull of the model.

    I reached out and grabbed it, and the model''s arm moved in the same fashion I did.  I felt myself smile at it, and watched as the servos on the dolls face moved into the smile I felt.  I took a step, and it took one with me. I leaned back, and where my frame was square, the doll''s torqued the way I had planned, and had a perfect curve in the spine.  I was quite pleased with it.

    Angie and Jody stood there starring at me. when I put it down.

    "What now?"  I asked.

    "That thing smiled.  an honest smile.  I didn''t know Andronis were capable of that."  Jody said.

    "That was me.  And, well, think of the frames you knew as archaic, and basic technology.  they were incapable of showing emotion.  which is why your stories always told of them being fearless, and emotionless killing machines."  I told him.  "Humans have a predication to need to see the emotional response in the face.  They are trained that way from birth to recognize certain emotions.  and the frames downstairs, just weren''t capable of doing that.  This frame will be."

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    "Is." Angela said.  "I''ve already started printing the full scale one, even before your little test there."

    "Ayla," Jody started, "May I take this miniature one with me to class tonight?"

    "I don''t see why not, just put something over the chest area, I don''t like the idea of people knowing the exact location of the generator."  I replied

    "Consider it done."  he leaned forward and gave me a kiss on the side of my camera, but I felt it in my spirit as well.   I heard Angela giggle.

    "What is it this time?  I said.  she pointed to my hand, and I saw that the doll''s emotions were mirroring my own.  she had been watching the doll''s face.  I unplugged the jack from the doll and handed it to her, leaving the jumper attached, and walked to the basement, to get a better look at the motherboards without me having to take off my cameras again.

    I removed the face shield off of one of the frames, and spent the next thirty minutes studying the motherboard, and then went back to Angela''s computer, did a re-design and then miniaturized it, and hooked it into the small frame, she had left next to the computer.

    once the new motherboard was plugged in, the small body came to life, within minutes it started developing Fairy wings.  when I realized what I was seeing, I got a message in my view.  "Andronic life created: Andronis-Fair hybrid.  This is a separate and unique Andronis, as it is able to use the Fair''s Spirit magic, as well as the fast learning capabilities of a normal Andronis, this is not the same as the learning capabilities of the Andronis Royal Family."

    "Hello, little one."  I said.  "Do you have a name?" It shook its head no. "Well do you know if you are a boy or a girl?"  it nodded, and a voice that sounded like Evelyn came out.

    "I am a girl."  she said.

    "Would you mind if I gave you a name?"  she nodded, and her face showed excitement.

    "Then I would like to name you after my friend''s Mother, do you mind if I call you Lilly?"

    "Lilly is a good name." she said.  I picked her up, grabbed a thin rag and wrapped it around her, it looked like a little toga, and set her on my shoulder and walked back to where I knew Angela and Jody were: the kitchen.

    when I walked into the room, there were six other people there I didn''t recognize, and all of them had a strange looking headset covering their left eyes, and I could tell they were cameras.  each headset had a different logo, with a number and a series of five letters.  They were reporters.

    "Hello, " I said to them.  "Jody, I wanted to show this little one to you." I said, now fully ignoring the reporters.  "This is the frame Angela and I were working on this morning, I made a new board for her, and she came to life.  Lilly, say hello to Angela, and Jody."

    she stood up on my shoulder, and gave a light jump with her ankles, and used her wings to glide down to the table.  she gave a short bow to the two, and then turned to the reporters.

    "Who are they?" she asked.  "They are reporters.  come with me Lilly, let Jody and Angela finish their work here, and not disturb them any more."  she nodded, then gently flew back up to my shoulder, her wings fluttering a lot more than they had on the glide down.

    I tuned out the commotion that broke out in the kitchen as we left, and headed back to the printing room.  and started assembling my new body.  I looked at the screen Angela was using, and saw a design for armor there, all of it was multi-segmented, and looked like it would allow for full range of motion, but it looked like she only had the pieces designed at the moment for the torso.  I went ahead and printed it at Lilly''s size, and then put the pieces on her.  she helped with the more delicate parts, as my fingers were too large.

    after a while she came into the room, and looked over Lilly''s Torso.

    "What do you think Angie?"  she asked.

    "I think we definitely need to get you a shirt now."  she said with a smile.  "Do you feel like a trip tonight?"

    Lilly looked at me as though to ask permission, so I nodded, "yes, I''d love to."

    "Well good, because you are going to meet Papa''s students at the university.  And so is Princess Ayla over here."  Angie said, making clear it wasn''t a request.

    "I don''t wa... "

    "I don''t care what you want to do.  you just showed yourself on half a dozen live broadcasts, as well as this little one.  You. Are. Going."  I just nodded at her statement.

 The University

    Angie and I finished making the flexible face for Lilly, as well as the hard cover for the top of her head,   Lilly was playing with the colors of her wings, and shifting them between several different colors.

    "Why don''t you have wings, Ayla?"  Lilly asked.

    "I don''t know.  I was kind of surprised you got them."  I told her as I finished attaching her face.  Angie had already attached the temporary covers over my current body, they were kind of blocky, and firm, much like my current frame parts.

    We added temporary elbow and knee pads to Lilly, so she could have a bit more freedom of movement than she normally could, and we all filed into the van, and headed to Jody''s workplace.

    "IDs please."  I heard come into the window as we neared the university.  "Oh! how are you Professor Grey?"

    "I''m doing alright, Chuck, thanks for asking."

    "Say, I saw the live broadcast on Channel 31 earlier.  Is it true that there is an Andronis at your place."

    "No, they are both with me."  I heard him say, and I stuck my head into the front to look out the window toward the guard.  he was a nerdy looking guy, and if I didn''t know any better, I would have called him a Halfling, but his head was slightly too large for that.

    "Are you a Gnome?"  I asked.

    "Yes I am, Princess, and before you ask, once you were seen on the news, the ambassadors from the Andronis City revealed who you were, and that you were now in control of the city, instead of the humans.  So all of that is now common knowledge."  I nodded, and sat back down in my seat.

    we drove through another gate, but this one didn''t have a guard, and Jody backed up to a door, Angie got up, and walked hunched over down the isle in the van, and opened the back door.

    "We figured this would be better if we need to get away and cause you as little issue as possible." Jody said.  "Booger is used to coming in this way, but its not where I normally park."

    I followed Angie out the back door, and Lilly landed on my shoulder, and leaned back like I was a lounge chair, her wings fluttering slowly.

    most of the humans stopped walking when they saw our little troupe, but we just walked straight to Jody''s classroom, and walked in.

    there were 12 students in the class, and they all stood up quickly when I walked into the room.  Lilly took the opportunity to fly around us, and then landed on the desk.

    "You two, go ahead and take a seat, it looks like Lilly has already found hers."

    "I''ve never seen a walking Andronis."  one of the boys said.

    "I''m the first to reawaken."  I said.  the class seemed to be surprised with the fact I could talk.

    "Yes, Class, this is Princess Ayla Andronis.  the matriarch, and current Gatekeeper of her family''s resting place.  and as she said, the first of her kind to reawaken, and hopefully not the last.  and this little girl up here, is her first invention since her awakening, an Andronis-Fair hybrid."

    At this the class seemed to get rather interested.  Jody spoke on the things he had learned in the city over his month in, as well as the things I had taught him.  he even called one of the students up to demonstrate the gyroscope the same as I had done.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    After about a half hour, he asked if anyone had any questions for me, so I stood up, and started answering them.

    "What''s the last thing you remember before waking up?"  was the first question asked, so I answered partially honestly.

    "I died.  I know I died.  and then I woke up here, "  Next question.

    "When you woke up, did you know you were the princess?"

    "No, not until the elf at the gate called me that, but I knew I was a part of the Andronis Family."

    "How can you hear?"  was the next one.  at this question, Jody pulled out a microphone, and handed it to me.

    "This device, its rather small, and it looks like a wire with a bauble on the end, well this bauble is able to move, and take the vibrations in the air, and convert them to electrical signals so I can interpret them, and hear.  think of this wire as a mechanical version of the bones inside your ear."  this answer seemed to confuse them.  so I walked up to the white board and drew the drum, hammer, anvil, and stapes, and explained how they worked, then drew the microphone, and gave the same explanation.

    "Wait, so you know the anatomy of our kind, and how we function, then base technology off of that?"   Another student asked.

    "Somewhat.  Lilly here was built today.  her frame is based off a miniaturized version of the human skeleton, with some obvious modifications, we were attaching pistons, and servos to the bones instead of muscles and ligaments.  Angela and I initially planned on using this chassis to test how parts would function and see if it would be a good idea to build a frame like this for me."

    "So then the stories are true, if injured, you can just move yourself to a new frame, and the bomb was the only real way to kill your kind during the war."

    "I don''t know if that''s true.  Angela and I were just playing with this idea and Lilly came to life.  and I will not do anything to her without her permission.  she is a completely separate being to me, and that''s not an experiment I want to attempt with another living being."  my response seemed to calm them down some.  "As for the bomb, I don''t know anything about it."

    after a few more questions, class was over, and the four of us went back to the van.  another Gnome ran out of a hallway in front of us, and I heard a groan from Angela.

    "Booger, Booger, Booger!"  Is it true, you and your dad found a living Andronis?"  she looked from him to me, I turned away and started walking toward the van again.

    "Yes, Leo, that''s the Princess there.  now could you please not shout that embarassing nickname every time you see me."  I looked over my shoulder and saw her fulfilling that nickname, but kept walking.

    "Is it true, she, she, she, claimed you?"  he said excitedly.

    "Yes, I am hers.  please leave us alone Leo."  she said, still acting on her nickname.

    The Gnome put his hand on his forehead and started repeating ''Wow'' over and over again with large eyes.  by the time he realized we weren''t there anymore, we were already back in the van, and pulling out of the University''s parking lot.

    I never did get the university''s name.  oh there it is.  "Brenden Anthropologic University"

 Nightmare

    I was sitting in a seat, a simple lap belt over me, I didn''t know what this was, but I knew this was a memory, not one of mine, one of Ayla''s.  there is a window to my right, I look out, and see a metal boom, and I look below it, there are lights, some solid, most white, or a shade of white.  but there was a lot of red.  all of the red lights were moving.

    Those are people!  I thought to myself.  I wanted to look around more, but this was a memory, I could only see what Ayla saw, so I tried to think about all the things I needed to remember.  her eyes moved.  she looked into a mirror.

    A seven year old''s face stared back at me.  beautiful blue eyes, and strawberry blond hair.  she wore a yellow dress with purple dots all over it, and black shiny shoes.  Ayla stared at them for a while, I could barely see her face in the mirror, she was content, happy even.

    A light flashed outside the window, and a man with a strange looking uniform walked by and quickly pulled a shade over the window.

    "You don''t need to see out there little one."  he said with a smile.  "we are coming into some turbulence, its nothing to be afraid of, but its going to be rough for a few minutes, okay.  show me how much of a big girl you can be, and try to hold in your feelings."

    I felt myself, Ayla, nod at his words.  her little hands grabbed the belt on the waist and pulled tighter.  The man sat down in a seat, buckled himself in, and grabbed a little black thing off the wall.

    "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Captain has turned on the ''Fasten Seatbelt'' sign, we are coming into some rough weather over ******* and we will be arriving at our destination just outside of the hour.  Please avoid moving around the cabin."

    Damn her memories not keeping names.  we sat there for a few minutes, Ayla raised the blind on the window a little bit, and water droplets were sliding sideways across the window.  Wait, that''s rain!  how fast is this thing moving to make rain look like its going sideways, and freeze on the boom outside the window.  A section of the boom moved and the ice broke free, but even I''m freaking out,

    The room we were in seemed to shake violently, and it felt like we fell, and then were pushed back up, and fell again.  my eyes didn''t leave the boom outside the window, each time we fell, it shook, and moved, and then it started to twist.  it seemed to go on for a while, and I could no longer see the lights outside the window, once in a while, some would appear through the rain, but most were dark now.

    The lights flickered inside the cabin, and then all of them went out.  Ayla''s sight looked at the seat the man sat in before, he was still there, a device held to the side of his head.  he was talking, but I couldn''t hear what he was saying, and then he turned ghostly pale.  and all the noise in the room stopped.

    Ayla looked out the window just in time for me to witness a huge part of the boom twisting back and falling away from us, taking part of the boom with it.  I felt the fear well up inside her, I wanted to scream, although I don''t know why, but even through her memory, I knew that what I had just seen was really bad.  the cabin rolled and I felt like I was lower than the person to my left.

    I could see lights now, they were bright, and flashing in sequence.  for some reason I knew this is where we were supposed to be, all the red and white lights were lined up, but I knew I shouldn''t be seeing them out of this window.  I heard the sound of metal tearing again, this time it was from the other side of the room.  the lights weren''t in my window now, and I felt a little better.

    I heard the man in the little chair yell out.  "Put your head between your knees!  Brace for impact, Brace for impact!"  I felt my body contort, and my arms go against the seat in front of me.  I pushed as hard as I could with my elbows.  I heard the scraping of metal against a grinder, and then it felt like my whole body was slammed into the seatback.

    The window next to me broke, and I felt the room rolling, it was too fast to count.  I glanced to my right, and could no longer see a wall there.  the whole room broke up, and my little section, my seat, and the seat I was holding on to, separated from the rest of the room.  I looked toward it, while I was in this metal piece sliding.  it looked like a metal cigar, even the way the fire seemed to just smolder on the back.

    Then there was a bright light, and the scene changed.  I was still a seven year old girl, but now I couldn''t feel my legs.  my hands were touching two large wheels, and I was tugging on one, rocking myself back and forth, while listening to people drone on in front of me.  a wooden hammer hitting the man''s desk in the center brought me out of my boredom, and blank thoughts.

    "Award to ********* ****** in the amount of 5% of the *********** Airline''s annual income for the remainder of her natural life, and the CEOs personal responsibility of the, now, orphaned girl''s well being."  a man at the desk next to me started to stand, and the man at the desk started talking again.  "Her father was the head Steward on that flight, and her mother was the pilot, the shoddy maintenance was the cause of the catastrophe, and the loss of 375 lives, of which she is the only survivor.  your choices made her an orphan, and now, you will make sure she is cared for, for the remainder of her days.

    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    I woke up in a cold sweat, and sat upright in my bed.  I saw glimpses of these events when I touched her spirit, but I never thought of something like this.  and what did the person mean by flight.  was that building, in the air?  I''ve only ever seen the gnomish hovercraft in the air, and they all use some type of a gas to make themselves light.  this structure didn''t look like it had any of that, or even a way to use it.

    I went to the restroom, and walked back next to my bed, picked up my leg, and plopped myself back into bed, my face landing on my pillow, I felt myself drift off to sleep again.

    I opened my eyes, and sat up in bed.  I looked into a mirror, and knew I was in another one of Ayla''s memories.  she had the same strawberry blond hair, and blue eyes, but they didn''t seem na?ve anymore, they were cold and analytical, much like the Ayla I knew today, she looked to be about the age I am now.  I used my arms to push myself over to the side of my bed.  the chair wasn''t there, for some reason I knew it should have been.  A cursory look around the room, and I found it next to the door to the bathroom.

    I rolled myself onto the floor, and started pulling myself toward the bathroom.  I climbed onto the porcelain throne, and relived myself, took my nightgown, and small clothes off, and climbed into the tub, filled it while I was in it, and took a bath, washed my hair, and then drained the tub, then worked my way back into the room with a towel holding my wet hair, and one around me.

    My chair was outside the narrow door, and I pulled myself up into it, then rolled around to gather what I would need for the day, then got dressed.  as I was finishing, the caretaker came in, and finished with my hair, putting it up in a tight bun, not once saying a word to me.  for some reason I knew this was the normal thing for Ayla to go through.

    As I was leaving the house, the caretaker finally said something to her.  "Don''t forget you have a date with your boyfriend tonight.  You best be back on time."  although the caretaker sounded excited, Ayla only felt dread, as though the boyfriend was neither her choice or idea.

    I blinked, and the sun was down.  I knew it was the same day though.  A handsome man, a little younger than Ayla was pushing the wheel chair.  he picked her up, and put her in the passenger side of a fast looking vehicle, with only two seats.  he set her wheelchair back on the curb, and got in.  Ayla didn''t say anything, as though this was normal.  the car didn''t look like it had any place to put it anyway.  what kind of guy would take a paraplegic out in a car without enough room for her wheel chair.

    "I have a surprise for you tonight.  I think you will really like it; I know I will."  the boy said.

    "I highly doubt I will enjoy anything you, or your father have planned."  it was the first words I had heard Ayla speak in the memories I had been watching the last two nights.  I rode in the car for what seemed like an hour, and he finally stopped in a flat area, there were no lights nearby.

    "So, do you know where you are at?"  he asked.

    "Yes, dipshit.  I''m in the same spot I lost use of my legs, Runway 27 at your daddy''s airport."  I felt her say.

    "Wrong.  you are at the spot you should have died ten years ago.  and tonight, I''m going to make sure it really happens."  before Ayla could do or say anything, I felt a heavy pressure on the side of her head, and then nothing.  when she came to, she was bound and gagged, a rope holding her body above a wood chipper.

    "I wanted to make sure you were awake for this.  I wanted to know if it was true you couldn''t move your legs.   Now, we will both find out."  the boy''s voice was filled with malice, as I heard the machine below me turn on, and gain speed.  when my toes were hit by the fast spinning blades, I wanted to black out, but I couldn''t.  I felt everything again.  heard everything again, and I couldn''t wake up.  finally the light that was Ayla, before I knew her, faded.  but not before the chipper had taken its portion, and I woke up.

    The light was on in my room, Ayla, Papa, Carol, Andy, and Lilly were in my room.  Ayla was kneeled next to my bed, and Lilly kept petting my hand, I guess trying to sooth me.

    "Goodness girl, you woke up the whole house with your screaming.  I''ve never heard you like that before.  What has you so afraid?"  Papa asked me.

    "Papa, some things aren''t mine to tell.  I''m okay now.  just go back to sleep."  I said.

    "Can''t do that, Booger, its time to get to work again."  Papa said with a cheeky grin.

 Shared Memories

    Angela had told me about her nightmares, her dreaming some of the low points in my life, well, the big ones anyway.  I hope she gets to see some of my good ones too.

    Being in a wheelchair wasn''t all bad, but it could be a hassle sometimes.  You can only sit in certain areas of a movie theater, when you go to church, you either roll yourself to the front, sit in your chair next to the pew, or stay in the back.

    The public swimming pool near where I lived even had a chair designed for the pool, so my good chair didn''t get ruined by the chlorine.

    I know she is having another bad one, I can hear her tossing again.

    I got the legs together while she was sleeping, I ran the conveyance lines, since the carbon parts are hollow, I cut holes to run the smaller lines through them, as well as the various sensor wires.  Lilly was doing most of the beveling on the outer shell, and she had already finished pitting her parts on her, and had found clothes for Angie''s Fair doll, and put them on.

    I had just started to run the wire bundle through the vertebrae stack when a blood curdling scream came from Angie''s room.  A red system message came up in my left eye:  Your Human, Angela Sierra Grey, is in distress!

    Well, I can tell that.  I dropped the piece I was working on, and left the workshop.  The light visible through the windows showed a dim murky pre-dawn ambiance.  Lilly got in the room just before me, and Jody just after.  She was tossing and turning. I reached out to try and wake her; Jody and Lilly stopped me.

    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there."I know you''re worried, Ayla, but don''t touch her right now." Jody said, holding my hands together, and away from her.  Lilly lighted on my shoulder and whispered to me.

    "Ayla, she is having a Spirit Dream.  If you touch her, your spirit will give her a boost, and make her dive deeper into the dream.  One this bad can only mean she is witnessing an unnatural death.  Your spirit boost could lock her spirit in the dream at the moment of death.  It could kill her."

    "What can I do for her?"  I asked, as a message stating I had learned 1% of Fair Culture scrolled by.

    "What we all do when this happens: be there for when she wakes up, and pray that she never sees this memory again."  Andy answered.  "The last time she was like this, was when she saw my sister''s murder,  the two of them had shared a spirit as well,  whatever this is, it''s worse than Callie being stabbed."

    "She is comming out of it.  It''s safe to touch her now Ayla."

    I hesitated.  She woke up to Lilly''s gentle caressing on her hand.  I felt utterly useless.

    After a few minutes and everyone making sure she was okay, we left Angela''s room so she could get ready for the day, and Lilly and I went back to the workshop.  When I opened the door, I just hung my head in dispair; not at Angie''s situation, but because I had knocked over the stand holding my new lower body, and the pelvis was in two distinct pieces on either side of the bar that used to hold it still.

    I have now discovered the first piece that will be remade into metal.

 The Last King

    The day was somewhat uneventful up until lunch, I got most of my body put back together, and had printed off a new lower torso, one that would take more than a 3-foot fall, and went ahead and printed the shoulder pieces the same way.  All of the casing was still plastic, so that we could figure out if it limited my movement in any way.  Lilly didn''t seem to have any complaints, but she had been surprisingly quiet since she awoke yesterday.

    Lilly and I had just completed putting the jaw on my new frame, when Bilby appeared in front of me, somewhat surprising me.

    "Princess, your presence is needed at the north gate."  he bowed and reached his hand out to me.  I looked toward Lilly, to try and gauge what she wanted to do, and she was mid-flight, and was aimed at my shoulder which had become her unofficial perch.  Bilby seemed surprised at her presence, but didn''t say anything.  when I touched his hand, the room seemed to go grey; and moved away from me.  we passed through the walls, and then outside of the house, I watched the scenery go by, all muted and grey.  Within a few seconds, I could see the north gate of the city, a trip that had taken a few hours my first time, was over in less than half a minute, no wonder the fairies were such good caretakers of the fallen city.

    I hadn''t ever seen the outside of the North Gate, I couldn''t guess of materials, as everything I could see was the muted grey color, we passed right through the side wall, and I could tell it was solid, and it was thick.  we entered a room, and there were several people standing there, and twenty or so fairies that were in color.  then they disappeared as color returned to the drab, unadorned room Bilby had brought me to.

    "Don''t say anything about the guard fairies you saw in the room, they can''t hear from where they are, but a signal from me, and they can take care of any problems." Bilby whispered to me, loud enough for Lilly to hear, his wings, which were usually a bright purple, were almost clear, as were Lilly''s, but they both seemed to slowly be getting their color back.

    "Ambassador Green, Princess Andronis has been able to find time in her schedule to be here, so could you please repeat your request again?"  Bilby said to the man who told me his name was ''Suck it Tincan''.

    "We are requesting removal of a complete frame, one that hasn''t been found in this good of condition in the last century, and as per the Treaty, only the keyholder may grant the authorization to remove a complete frame."  The man stated, his voice told me he didn''t want to ask me, but also didn''t want to upset those whom he answered to.

    "I want to inspect this frame, as well as the location it was found."  I stated.

    "That has never been asked of us for something as simple as this."  he rebutted.  I guess the initial fear of seeing me alive was starting to wear off.

    "Well, Ambassador Tincan, I have never been a Keyholder, and you are asking to remove the body of one of my relatives from their resting place.  I want to see the place their body was interred, as well as inspect it myself, and as you have yet to honestly introduce yourself to me, I don''t think you want to enter the negotiation room to negotiate this, as you decided to forfeit your life if you ever re-enter that room."  at this response, he seemed to swallow his pride, along with some of the willpower he had mustered up to this point.

    "Of course, Princess.  The group that has the frame is this way." he turned to leave, and escort us to where it was.

    "Body."  I corrected.  "You will take me to the group that has the body."  At this he nodded, and led the way down four flights of stairs, to the ground level of the North Gate.  as we entered the vestibule, I felt something strange come over me, and I looked back to Bilby, who didn''t seem to notice, but Lilly flew back and forth between the place I felt it a few times, then came back to her perch.

    The group seemed to be excited as they waited for me to enter the room, I was still wearing the blocky temporary casing that Angela had made for me.  I ignored the group, and walked straight to the frame, they had it laying on a cart, and it was in a burial position.  when my eyes landed on the head of this Andronis, a series of messages scrolled by telling me who this had been, and where they had been laid to rest.  this frame stopped functioning after the bomb.

    "I''m sorry Gentleman, and Lady.  I can not let you remove this particular body from the city."  I said.  they all jumped up, and seemed they were about to argue when the Ambassador spoke up.

    "And why not?  we only want to study this one."

    "I do as well, Ambassador.  however there are three things you must be told, and all three are reasons why I can not allow this body to be removed from this city, but first; Bilby, is there a place where this person can be taken, and held, that is on neutral ground within the city, so that any who wish to study it, may?"  Bilby nodded and flashed a hand signal, and two Fair people appeared, then touched the body, and disappeared with it.

    "I will escort you to it in a moment, Princess." he replied.  I turned to the group, ignoring the Ambassador.

    "You all, deserve to be rewarded, however I am unsure of what would be a decent reward for such a find as you have brought to the gate, and it is because of the importance of this find, that you may not remove it from the city.  As I told the Ambassador, there are three reasons why you may not take this one. "  I looked at the four men, and one human woman in front of me, each in turn for a few seconds, then continued.  "First, you may not take this particular body, for the very reason you want it, it is in pristine condition, and there isn''t even any rust on the pistons.  Second, that body did not deactivate until 100 years after the bomb went off, and third, you may not take it, because he is still wearing his crown.  you have found the last King of the Andronis.  Now, take me to where you found him."

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    At my third reason, Bilby fell from the air in shock, the Ambassador''s Eyes nearly bulged out of his eyelids, and the five humans in front of me were stunned for a moment, then started pushing each other back toward the city, to show me where they had found Alucard Andronis.

    An hour later, we came to an area in the city that was completely flat, and there was a small door in the ground, the woman opened it, and Lilly dove into the hole, then came back out.

    "Princess Ayla!  there are more in there.  I would recommend you go in alone for a few minutes."  I nodded at her statement, and climbed down the ladder.  there were close to a hundred cubby holes along the long wall, and another fifty on the short walls.  when I looked at each one, I was given a brief synopsis of who they had been, their name, and a pedigree.  I stopped on one that kept flashing a yellow warning to my mental systems.  I looked at her closely, and then it dawned on my as to why this particular Andronis was so important.

    [Danielle Leann Andronis]

    [Andronic Queen at time of the fall, was the only survivor.]

    [Mother of *Ayla Andronis-Oldest Daughter; and Alucard Benjamain Andronis- youngest child, and only son]

    *[Ayla Andronis] was un-named at time of the fall, her crown was interred under Danielle''s only armored plate.  the rest of Danielle''s outer skin was developed by her husband in an attempt to circumvent the results of a Gnomish invention thought to be able to wipe out the Andronis.  it was the first test of the Weapon that wiped out Danielle''s entire family.  She later built Alucard to carry on the Andronis Legacy, however he was never allowed to leave this room, and died a week before Danielle did.]

    I finished reading as the woman, and two of the men came down.  Lilly was floating behind me, as was Bilby.  I turned to face the two human men.

    "May you gentlemen assist me by sliding this one out for a moment?"  the two large men nodded, and quietly moved the bulky and cumbersome body of my mother out.  I removed the chest piece, and then the armor over the generator, and sitting there was a small microchip, that my system told me was a crown of Andronis, and had never been used.  I put the parts back, and asked the two men to put her back, they struggled with her heavy body, but they were able to handle her respectfully.

    "Lilly, could you hold onto this for me, until we get out of here? "  I asked her, as I handed it to her.  her little eyes became large with surprise, and the emotion was clear through all the servo''s parts on her face.  it made me look forward to getting into my new body.

    "Princess, are you sure I can hold this?"  she said, her surprise overflowed into her voice. and I simply nodded, and gestured for her to not say what it was just yet.  Bilby simply looked between the two of us.

    "Bilby, do you have guards that you would trust with a place like this?  I do not want anyone else here without me escorting them."  I could tell he was questioning it, but simply nodded, and the Elf from my last visit appeared next to me along with four Fair that I had met in the conference room, but hadn''t introduced themselves yet.

    "You Five, guard this location with your lives.  no one is to enter this room without Ayla present."  he said to them.

    "You Five may check this room as often as necessary to ensure no one else enters here, but outside of your duties to ensure the safety of these remains, you are also not permitted in here."  I added.  the five of them went up the ladder, I motioned for the humans to do the same, Lilly and Bilby flew up just ahead of me.

    "Princess Andronis, may I ask what it is that we found?" the woman asked.  I nodded through my response.

    "You five have found the burial chambers of the entire royal family.  Every body in that place are former kings or queens of the Andronic people."  you have given me more than I would be able to reward you with.   This, I consider a gift from the human people to me.  I will allow the public study of Alucard, the last King, but I must prohibit the study of all those interred here."  everyone present nodded in understanding, even the Ambassador seemed to understand why I had made the decision, and didn''t even appear to want to argue.

    Bilby looked at the chip in Lilly''s hand "What is that, Ayla."

    "Lilly, would you mind telling everyone what is in your hands?"  I asked her.  she nodded.

    "This is an Andronic Crown.  Being able to even see it in this form, before its worn, is one of the highest honors that the old Andronis could offer to anyone not of our race.  This was to be Ayla''s Crown.  and when the Fall occurred, Ayla''s mom put it next to her heart."  Lilly said with much excitement, but kept a firm grip on the little square block, careful not to bend any of the pins.

    "So that is your crown?"  Bilby asked.

    "Yes, and I know that if I put it on, I will become a queen.  but I am not ready for that.  I still want to see more of the world that I am currently in.  I would like to talk to all of the Fair that have allowed me to touch their wings."  at my last statement, the Ambassador, and all of the men present turned their heads to me in surprise, and then as an attempt to confirm what I had said, looked toward Bilby and saw him simply nodding.

    We all walked back to the North Gate and entered one of the conference rooms on the first level, all the Fair I had met on my first visit here were already present, including the four whom were now my family''s honor guard.

 Jennifer

    I was finally able to get a salvage permit, I bought one that would let me bring four friends into the city.  Last month I found a room full of frames that hadn''t looked like they had aged.

    I didn''t tell the gate about it, but I knew it would be a huge find.  Salvage permits are always for one day, so I didn''t worry about food, or my normal pack.

    Brian, Charlie, Doug and Mike were being their normal selves when we got to the door I had found.  This area had been picked clean by the gnomes during the second cycle, so few people ever came to this area. How the Gnomes missed this, I''ll never know.

    "Jenn, I thought you said we are salvaging?"  Doug asked, knowing where we were.

    "We are, and we''re here."  I opened the door, and went down the ladder.  Brian, and Mike followed me down.  The look on their faces when they turned around must have been the same as mine when I realized we were in a warehouse, of complete Andronis.

    "Pick one, Mike.  That''s the one we will present to the gate."

    He walked over to a blue one, it had a four inch wide diagonal red slash painted on its chest.  It must have been planned as a dignitary of some sort.

    "I like the blue one."  He said.  I glanced around the room an noticed that half of the frames in here were painted the same way.  Only one was different from the rest in color.  It was  pristine white, it seemed like the dust in the room refused to tarnish the gloss paint.  All the rest were a pale grey with a purple slash in the same spot, just like the princess on the news the other day.

    The boys pulled up the frame, and I slid my salvage cart the gate gave us, under it.  Now to go speak to the Human Ambassador about removing this one.  Maybe I can convince him to buy it from me without having to reveal the rest of them, the value will drop if I show him the room.

    The gate guard''s eyes nearly bulged out of his narrow elvish skull.  He flashed a hand sign, and a few seconds later the purple winged fairy that I always spoke to appeared.  I''m a commoner, so it would be rude of me to ask his name, so I never did.

    He saw what we had, floated around it twice, looked at the long-ear and nodded.  The elf nodded back, and took off at a solid run into the building.  Guards were the only ones allowed to run inside the gate structures, not even the Fair, who had been caretakers, were allowed to move faster than a human could walk.  Some thought there was Fair Spirit Magic at work to force them like that.

    Ambassador green arrived, saw what we had, he and the Fair talked for a few minutes, dull policy crap, then the Fair flew backwards a few feet; a universal sign that he was agitated, and about to use his magic aggressively.

    "You have to speak to the Keyholder.  And yes, I may be entrusted with the key, but Princess Andronis is the Keyholder.  It''s her decision.  Wait in the holding room."

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    Not even the usually boisterous ''Ambassador Gilbert Green'' was arguing, he looked afraid.  He walked inside, and Mr. Purple wings dissappeared.

    Three minutes later, I met the Andronic Princess, Ayla.  I did my best to not show my fear, as she inspected the frame we had brought up.

    "I''m sorry." I heard the true disappointment in her voice, she was being honest, "I can''t let you remove this body."  I was devistated.

    "Bilby is there a neutral place to put him?" She asked, Mr. Purple nodded.  Who was this Princess to be able to publicly use their first names like that?  I mean a human princess once did that to a Fair and she got electrocuted by it.  She lived, but everyone learned quickly that Fair don''t play about names.

    I was stunned to hear the reason for us not being able to sell the frame.  I had found the Royal Tomb. Here I thought I had found Andronis in finished states; instead, I had found their kings and queens.

    And for this one to have stopped functioning a century after the bomb, impressive indeed.  I didn''t know at the time, but this one was built after the fall.

    Princess Andronis requested to know where I had found it, but I was still stunned.  Charlie slapping me with one hand, and pushing me out with the other finally got my attention back to the real world.

    I led the princess, and Two fair to the door.  The girl Fair seemed to be sunbathing on her shoulder.  Different indeed.  At the door, Doug opened it for her, but the girl went down, came up, and said she needed to go down alone for a second.

    We went down a few minutes later, it was this visit down here that I saw this room for what it truely was:  a morgue.  It''s just the bodies halve t been buried yet.

    Doug and Charlie helped with the white frame, I watched as she took a few pieces off, the. Put all but the last one back.  We all went back up, and the little fair had said this little piece was the Princess''s Crown, and that seeing it unworn was the highest honor we could get, but I didn''t see how.

    "Jennifer," Mr. Purple said to me.  "Do you understand why an unworn crown is a big deal to the Andronis?"  I shook my head no.  "It''s an admission to their weaknesses.  They don''t like being reminded they are machines.  To them, they are no different than us.  Ayla is like that.  I never thought I would meet a creature as facinating as she is."

    "We just don know enough about her yet."  I said.

    He nodded and fluttered off.  He came back with a credit Chit for half a million credits, and handed it to me.  Enough for a woman like me to fall into troule.

 A Bit Of History

    I looked at the eleven Fair in front of me, and then to Bilby, I trusted these beings a lot, and didn''t know much about their culture, but I felt like I could trust them with what I was about to do.

    "Lilly, can you set that on the table, please?"  I asked as I walked over to the door, and out looked at the five humans who came back with me.  "Could the permit holder for your group come in here, please?"  The woman left the wall, seeming apprehensive about my request, but came into the room anyway, I closed the door behind her.

    "Bilby, is there a way to check her for deception while I ask her a few questions?"

    "Yes, but she would have to touch our wings to do so."

    "Is there one among you willing to allow this, I will not force it, and if you all deny it, then I will just forget about what I am thinking."

    "I''ll allow it, I''ve seen her enough to trust her with this."  it was Evelyn Viridian.

    "Thank you Evelyn." I said.  she approached the woman and floated in front of her.

    "I am the Eastern Gate Marshall, Evelyn viridian.  I grant you permission to use my familiar name."  she gave a short curtsey in the air in front of her, and then lighted on the table behind her.

    "Miss, you now need to give her your name, at least first and last, as well as any official titles you hold.  doing otherwise would be rude."  Bilby stated to her.

    "I am a commoner, and hold no titles, My name is Jennifer Morris."  she said seeming nervous.

    "Now say that you give her permission to use your familiar name."  Lilly added.

    "I give you, and all those present, permission to use my familiar name." she said.  a couple gasps could be heard from the other table where the remaining Fair were.

    "Thank you." Evelyn started. "once you have touched my wings, it will be rude to call me by anything other than my familiar name, and I will show you the same respect.  and since I am doing this to find deception, do not let go until Ayla has asked her questions, and you have answered.

    Jennifer simply nodded, and reached forward with her index finger, and gently touched the side of Evelyn''s green wings, the lower half of which fluttered quickly, and she got a large smile on her face.  so I started to ask my questions.

    "Have you ever taken anything else from the room you showed me today?"

    "No." she answered.

    "Truth."  Evelyn stated, still grinning.

    "Do you promise to never reveal its location, or what is inside to anyone else."

    "Yes."

    "truth."

    "Did you hold back your findings in hope of a higher payout."

    "Yes." she answered nervously.

    "Truth."

    "Would you be willing to assist me in negotiations with your people?"

    Jennifer looked at my doll-face for a moment before replying.

    "Yes."

    "Truth."

    "Last question, are you, at this moment, a free person, and not indentured or owned by anyone else."

    "Yes."

    "Lie."  Evelyn covered her mouth quickly when she said it. and stepped away from Jennifer; the choir of Fair on the other table also covered their mouths and surprise showed on their faces.

    "I didn''t Lie!"  Jennifer insisted, appearing frightened.

    "You didn''t mean to, Jennifer." Evelyn said.  "you owe money to the bank, you have a loan on your house.  your spirit considers it the same as indenturment."  I looked from Evelyn to Jennifer, and then back.

    "Evelyn.  thank you."  I looked toward Jennifer. "Jennifer, I will not hold a mortgage over you as indenturment, thank you for your honesty, and troubling me in this way, but as of right now, you are no longer a commoner, but rather my personal Ambassador to your people.  I want you to speak on my behalf to your race''s Ambassadors, and look out for the interests of this city."  I turned from her to Bilby. "What amount would be a fair wage, that I could afford, to give her for this?"

    "Ayla, an Ambassador is expected a minimum of one hundred thousand Credits a month, you could easily afford to pay her three times that, and still not make much of a dent in your personal income, the reward for finding your family was a mere hour''s wage for you."

    I turned and faced my new Ambassador, her eyes were bulging with surprise.

    "Will this amount suffice for you Jennifer?"  I asked.  her mouth didn''t move, she simply nodded.  "I am unaware of your people''s customs, I know some of them.  I will hold you responsible, not only for being my voice, but also teaching me what is proper.  I know you were a commoner, I would rather learn from you than someone like Ambassador Tincan."  she looked puzzled at who I mentioned.

    "Ambassador Green, he said some rather unpleasant things to Ayla at their first meeting, and has yet to properly introduce himself to her, so she refers to him in that manner."  Bilby explained to her.  she seemed to understand and a smile began to form on her still surprised face.

    "Now that that is taken care of, you all have allowed me to share your sprits, as such, I wish to repay that kindness by giving you the highest honor I could think of giving you, allowing you to hold onto the crown of the Andronis, until such time as I am ready for it."

    the group present all started smiling, and their wings fluttered in excitement.  The two youngest ones were even letting some of their magic loose and it was forming dust on the ground behind them.

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    "Crystalized Fairy Dust."  I heard Jennifer say.  I turned to her, as did Bilby.

    "You know what that is?"  Bilby asked.

    "Yes, Sir, but I only know its value, I don''t know its purpose."

    "I do." I replied. "well at least one purpose, if enough of that is gathered, it can be added to the materials to protect me from a device like the gnomish bomb, and make it ineffective.  as of right now, I am still vulnerable to it."  everyone in the room looked toward me at saying this.  I felt kind of nervous about saying it out loud.

    "Your mother''s casing was made with this?"  Evelyn asked.  I just nodded.  "How much?"

    "The information I got when I inspected the pieces all said that the material was 5% Crystalized Fairy Dust, and 5% Crystalized Fair Mana."  Evelyn''s demeanor changed, and she no longer seemed happy.

    "Crystalized Fair Mana can only be given by a fair who is of venerable age, and on the verge of dying.  its literally our last wings.  in order for that amount, just to use in the pieces you have on you; your talking about the death of close to three hundred Fair of that age.  that is some expensive plating, just to protect your self from a bomb."

    "I don''t think that I would need that much, I would see that as a misuse, and I don''t think that I will be making any anytime soon."

    "What color were the pieces?" Evelyn asked

    "They were gloss white, it looked like even the dust in the room wanted to stay away." Jennifer said nervously.

    "Then whoever made those pieces was no friend of the Fair, and the Mana was taken from unwilling fair, not freely given.  if it had been freely given, the result would have been a glossless green."  one of the male Fair at the table said.  "My apologies, Ayla, I am Gilbert Brenan, my Clan''s Historian."

    "The Brenan Clan were the original Keyholders, and the first ones to try and open the gates when no Andronis had not come out for ten days, they had always come out at least once every three days, since then, there has always been a Brenan Fair on staff at the north gate, regardless of the race holding the city."  Bilby told me

    "Then you would be the best to tell me where that could be stored?"  I asked pointing to the chip on the table.

    "I do, Ayla.  would you mind your little one come with me, so it may be safely stored?"  Gilbert asked me.  I simply nodded, and Lilly picked it up, and disappeared with Gilbert.  they came back a few seconds later, empty handed.  "Your Crown-Bearer and myself are the only ones who know its location, so if it is lost, you will know it is either her, or myself at fault."

    "Thank you, Gilbert.  say, I know you all know I built Lilly, but would you mind teaching her your ways?  I know that you don''t take kindly to half-Fair, but I can''t teach her how her magic works, I know she knows some of it, but I figured she could teach me about your culture, to lower the risk of offending you."  a couple of the Fair seemed to agree with this.

    "We would be happy to honor your request, but why would you say we shy away from Half-Fair?"  Bilby asked.

    I explained to them about Angela''s situation, and being raised without a Fair mother to teach her.  and all the other things that I had been told.

    "There are only two clans that are like that," Gilbert stated.  My own, Brenan clan, and the Toran clan, the ones who told the Gnomes about the Andronis'' weakens to electronic waves in the air."

    "Electro-Magnetic Pulse."  I said, Jennifer and Bilby looked toward me.  "Jennifer, you are to never repeat this."  she nodded quickly.  "Our weakness isn''t Electronic waves, I can probably produce some that wouldn''t pose a problem.  the problem is when those waves have a magnetic resonance with them.  that''s what Danielle''s plating was meant to guard against, and it worked, but its a bit excessive.  by making a few changes to my wiring, I wont need anywhere near the amount used on her, only on the inner lining of whatever I use for my head."

    "Is it really that simple to prevent the bomb from being used again?" Bilby asked.

    "I doubt it to be simple, but its possible.  I''m already working on a new frame, and have the wiring ran, I can add the changes when I get back to the workshop, so a shield against Electromagnetic radiation can be retrofitted, when I can safely make the plating.  I doubt I will actually need the crystalized fairy Mana, and after seeing her plating, I think I can make something that works better, without the issues of causing your people pain, or having to wait for your elder''s to pass on."  at this everyone seemed to shift into a lighter, and more festive mood.

    "Lilly, are you able to take me back home?"

    "Yes, Ayla.  but, could we wait about a half hour more?  I want to make sure I have enough, and not pass out as soon as we get back."  she said.  she looked contemplative for a moment. "I wonder how Angie will feel when she finds out that her ancestors were the ones who told the gnomes?"

    "I don''t Know, but lets keep that between us for now?"  Lilly nodded at my request.

 The New Beginning

    I spent the next half hour giving instructions to my new ambassador, and Evelyn seemed to be in an exceptional mood around the brown haired woman, who was half a head shorter than myself.  Jennifer seemed to soak all of it in, and even requested the four men she was here with to become bodyguards.  I agreed, and said that I would cover the cost for two of them, once Bilby gave me the fair amount to pay for a guard.

    Lilly got off the table, and flew to me, constantly changing the colors of her wings as she did so.  she sat down, and I could hear the light whisper from her letting me know that she was ready whenever I was.  I asked Bilby to give Jennifer directions to where I was staying, so that she could visit me if there were problems, he nodded and said that he would.  And Lilly took us home after that.

    Once back in the workshop, I immediately added the diodes to the top of the wiring harness, in their correct directions, to prevent residual EMP radiation from going into a new motherboard, once the shield was made.  it was easier to do this now, than to wait until later, and modify it.  I told Lilly that I could make the changes to her, but only if she wanted it, she stated that she would do it herself at a later time, and wanted to see how my new body would turn out, even though it was just a larger version of what she was using.

    I printed off the new motherboard I had originally designed for Lilly''s body and hooked the jumper Angie made for me into it as I plugged it into the new frame.  the facial servos actuated as I felt myself move my face around, I twisted and arched my back to verify its movement, bent over to check balance, and then wondered how I would get myself into this new body.  as I was pondering the question to myself, I felt my spirit move toward it.

    <<Andronis Operating System has detected an Unknown Chassis.  Do you wish to Transfer?>>

    "Yes."  I said out loud and the jumper ejected itself from the back of the head of my new body, I had successfully moved into it.

    I was now about the same size as Angie, using the measurements of my old world I would be 168 centimeters, or about five and a half feet tall.  the new armor plating allowed for slightly more flexibility than I expected, and I felt awkward standing while still attached to the stand, Lilly pulled the pin for me, and I took my first step in a completely new body, just as I had stepped off the stand, Angie had come back in from grabbing a quick bite, and got a grin on her face, that nearly mimicked my own.

    "Lets go get you in some clothes!"  Angie nearly squealed, as she grabbed my arm and pulled me after her at nearly a jog.

    I wasn''t used to the amount of mobility that I had now, so I tripped over my own feet, and fell face first through the door.  I felt disappointed in myself, and embarrassed, but I just put my hands under my body, and pushed myself back up, and then stood.

    "Let me get used to this body before we do that again."  I said to her, and she nodded and walked in front of me backwards toward her room.  once there I grabbed a racer-back tank-top, and a pair of pants made out of a jersey type material and put them on, then slipped my new feet into a pair of sandals.

    "Now you look like yourself." Angie said to me, I smiled at her comment, and she gave me a hug, then we went downstairs to see Jody.

    Stephanie was in his study when we got there, arguing with him about something.  I stepped into the room and Stephanie was startled to see my grey and white body enter the room, I smiled at her.

    "Its good to see you again Stephanie, how have you been since we parted ways last?"  I asked, purposely being formal.

    "Is that Ayla?"  she asked, surprise evident on her face.  "That body looks amazing!"

    "Thank you, Angela and I just finished it today, There are a few tweaks I need to make to it, but the majority of the components are correct."  I told her, and Jody just smiled.  "Jody, you may take my old body to your students at the university, I no longer have a use for it, and it would be useful for your students to see the condition of that body, I will remove the generator itself from the body and you can have the remainder."

    "Th... Th... Thank you, Ayla, you do realize how valuable your old body will become, don''t you?"  he asked.

    I waved my hand as though it was unimportant. "Jody, its a small price compared to the hospitality you have shown me since finding me, and aside from my new ambassador at the city, the one who has shown the least hostility toward me.  even Carol, and Stephanie here, have struggled to hide their feelings, and fear.  consider it as a thank you."  I told him, he nodded, and then I left his office to get back with whatever Stephanie and he were arguing about.

    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    it was getting late, so I went to the room next to Angela''s laid down in the bed, and put myself to sleep.  I knew I would need it tonight, my operating system had an entirely new body to recode itself to.  hopefully it would work a bit smoother tomorrow, it felt kind of jerky.  we will see.

    I woke up the next day, and asked Lilly to take me to see Bilby, and she took me to the strange grey place like we had traveled before, and in a few minutes, I was at the north gate with Bilby and Jennifer.

    When I appeared in front of them, Jennifer jumped back in surprise, but I could tell that Bilby knew we were there.

    "Hello, Jennifer, Bilby.  I thought here would be the best place to show my new body publicly.  what do you think?" I asked the two of them, while smiling, and held my arms out and turned in a 360 circle to show off my handy work, well aside what was being hidden by Angela''s clothes.

    "Princess Andronis?"  Jennifer asked.

    "Jennifer, when we are alone, Ayla is fine, in public, please just call me Princess Ayla.  we will leave the family name for formal announcements okay?"  she nodded

    "This is the new body you said you were working on yesterday?"  Bilby asked.

    "Yep.  I hope I do it justice, it took a while to get the wires ran, and we found some structural issues with it while we were building it, so they were fixed, now, I am planning on making different eyes, these cameras are fixed position, I need something that moves a bit more, and has a wider angle, these feel like tunnel vision, but I wanted to have mobility before I fixed those issues."

    "You seem to be thinking about quite a bit while doing this."  Jennifer said.

    "Well, I plan on seeing more of this world than just the two cities I''ve been in, and nobody would react favorably to my old body, this one should be a little more personable, as well as obvious as to who I am."

    "That it is."  Bilby said.  "May I ask to touch your spirit, just to make sure it really is you?  I mean it feels like you are here, I just want to make sure."

    "Go ahead."  I said adding a cheerful giggle to my response.  "Oh!  how will I be able to access my money while I am away.  so far you guys have managed that aspect for me."

    Bilby touched my shoulder and then smiled.  "I''ll be right back."  he flew out of the room.

    "How is your first day going?"  I asked Jennifer.

    "Its already more exhausting than I thought it would be.  Ambassador Raleigh will be a huge help, and has already been teaching me quite a bit."

    "He is good peoples."  I said using slang from my last life.  Jennifer seemed to understand the sentiment, and giggled while nodding at my statement.  he came back in, and motioned for me to hold up my arm, so I did, and he put a bracelet around my wrist.

    "This will give you access to your account that we set up for you, as well as prevent fraud.  I''m sure that your systems have already updated you as to what this is, and how to use it?"  I could tell he was asking, and not telling me, so I simply confirmed that the lines of code letting me know that this was equivalent to a debit card, had passed by my vision, as well as how it is used, then he continued.  "This particular model will only allow you to utilize a quarter million credits in a twenty four hour period without having to contact the bank, and then to get a temporary lift on that restriction, you will have to have one of us twelve present as you inter the bank."  I didn''t need to ask who he meant by ''us twelve''  I knew which Fair he meant.

    "Thanks Bilby!"  I gave him a smile. "While I am here, do you need me for anything?"  both started shaking their heads.  "If that changes, Angie made an earphone yesterday while I was here," I handed the large one to Jennifer, and the small one to Bilby, "These will let you communicate with me from anywhere that can receive the local news stations, but please be careful with them, there is no security with them yet."

    I showed them how to turn them on, and off, as well as mute the microphone in case they needed to talk to someone else and didn''t want to confuse me.

 Happy New Year

    its been a long year for me.... getting a place to stay, that isnt the streets; feeding myself while struggling to find a job, finding a temp job to barely cover rent and food, befriending a neighbor that allows me to leech off their internet, ''falling'' into a better paying job through the temp services, meanwhile, trying to work on keeping my skills up to date for my job, trying to keep my mouth shut about various problems, while still getting things done, and then eventually blowing up about said problems, and barely keeping my job because of it.

    life is never easy; nothing worth doing ever is.  between all of the BS of the real world, I have been given very few chances to even be able to work on my social life, let alone this work that I feel has my heart and soul burried deep into it.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    I don''t know when I will be able to post what I do have written already, namely because I want to make sure that I am taking it the direction that Ayla''s story should go.

    Ive probably written two or three 60-70 thousand word sketches of where the story may go, but I am unsure at the moment of what would work for this part of her journey, and what should wait, and most importantly:  things I should scrap all together; so hopefully my descision to not post anything for the time being ends up giving you, the reader, a better story than this would otherwise be.

    Honestly, I just want to give Ayla my best effort.

    ~Tink

 Belated Beginning

    It was just the four of us in the small workshop. Well, I say the four of us, but in reality this type of work is beneath a grand gnome such as myself. The three lesser beings in the room are supposedly the best in their fields. I would rather have gnomes in here instead, but even the Council of Nine told me these were the best.

    In the end I had no choice but to hire two elves, and a smelly female human, which for some reason has a heavy smell of iron for the past two days. Despicable. An artificer with such talent that even the ruling gnomes were forced to accept her ability, and she spends time in mines for some stupid reason. The elves seem to be perturbed by her smell as well.

    They both keep glancing at her while sniffing the air. Its beginning to bother me. The female elf is supposedly the best at miniaturization. We have needed her ability constantly on this project. The frame is only a box about the size of a human��s night stand; but it has to be able to hold all the contraptions I needed for this project.

    And the male elf is the laborer who put my design together. It took me nearly a month of lunar eclipses to finally get it through his head that even though he is drawing the components, as well as doing the math for each part, to make sure it holds up, its still my design. He signed a magic contract that keeps him from ever taking credit for my work, they all did. There is no way I would allow a lesser race to take credit for my work.

    The artificer grabbed another spool of mithril wire from the female elf. It seems that��s all the elf has been doing lately, making smaller and smaller spools of wire, and giving it to the artificer. But even I can see the twenty seven enchantment matrices interlinked, and she is using the smaller and smaller wire to interlink the enchanted cubes. I won��t lie and say I know what she is doing; but no matter what, its my design.

    ��Alright, Bilinda, you��re up.�� the human says at last, and the rack of matrices with wires intermingled between them gets passed from the foul smelling human to the equally inept elf. In a matter of minutes, I watch as the elf stretches the wires and slowly the cubes attract closer and closer together, eventually shrinking themselves, over the course of six hours Bilinda has made the twenty seven matrice cubes the same size as one normal cube, reducing the space needed for the brain to nearly a third of the space I thought would have been required for this project.

    ��Gilder, you��re turn.�� Bilinda says after a few hours time. He takes the cube from her, and mounts it into a contraption that I don��t remember telling him to build. Oh well, its my design, it doesn��t matter. The cube seems to be completely secure inside the cage like structure, and he turns to put it into the box. I see the holes line up, and realize this is the last component needed to get this thing to work.

    ��I will mount it.�� I say plainly over his hunched form. He leans back, and hands me the tool that was in his hand, and holds out several screws to me. Good. An elf subservient to a gnome, as all the races will be after this is finished.

    ��Grace, the matrice interface ready?�� Gilder asks, making me drop a screw into the cage, and into the hollow enchantment matrices inside. Gilder��s head is turned so he doesn��t notice. It cant hurt anything being in there. Iron can��t conduct the same way mithril, silver, and gold can. It wont effect anything.

    The human female comes over, and begins running more enchantment wire through the cage, leading to what looks like a plug, but I don��t see anywhere it would attach. She opens a cover facing away from me, and I see her attach the bundle of wire quickly, and close the door she had just opened..

    ��Did you spend the night in the mine?�� I asked her. Instead of answering, she just turned red. Gilder punched me immediately after that. Everything went blank for a moment, and when I came to, I was bound and gagged with both elves standing over me. I may own their ideas, but I screwed up with the contracts, there is no clause stating they couldn��t do this, and I was also bound by the same contract that I couldn��t fire them until this project was completed. A slight oversight that I will correct with the next projects contracts.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ��You know that the iron smell coming from Grace isn��t from the mines.�� Bilinda says to me while slapping me in the neck every few words.

    ��You��ve also been told before that its rude in human culture to mention that you know about it.�� Gilder delivered with a quick kick that made me slide further into a corner.

    A bright glow comes from the project in the corner, and I watch as it begins moving on its own. It begins grabbing components from around the shop, and creating something anew with it. Something I had never seen before. It took several hours, and I couldn��t speak to it, I couldn��t give it an order, I couldn��t tell it anything because these inferiors bound me.

    Eventually, the project attached the component it had made to itself, and I heard it make a noise. After a few seconds, I heard a clear sentence come from it.

    ��Where am I?�� it asked. I was dumbfounded. These three had created an enchanted being.

    ��You are in a Lab.�� Grace answered for me. I began thrashing, because talking to it was supposed to be my job. ��The three of us created you, financed by the Gnome tied up over there. We are also under a magical contract that we can��t tell anyone that who wasn��t in the lab while we were creating you.�� she tells it.

    Well crap. Another loophole that I didn��t foresee. These three inferiors are under contract, but the creation isn��t, and it was in the lab the entire time up until now at least.

    ��You three created this body. It is flawed.�� the project said to the trio; ��may I use the materials here to create a better one?��

    ��You may. This is Grace, and this is Bilinda, and I am Gilder. Do you wish to give yourself a name?��

    ��I am Andy Roni���� at that moment, a sizzling sound came out of the matrix used as its brain, but even I could tell that it was unintentional.

    ��Andronis.�� Gilder repeated, the thick elfish accent hiding the word that was meant. ��That seems to fit you.��

    I didn��t even get to name my creation, they did it for me. I will make the restrictions tighter on my next magical contracts.

    The contraption began scurrying around the lab, and the utility tools we had given it flourished around the block frame creating several things at once. It was amazing, so much so that my subordinates had forgotten to untie me; and carried on a conversation with it while it was working, I was still bound and gagged while laying on the floor, dealing with that stench coming off of the human female.

    I watched as it created itself again in a matter of a single hour, and even made a couple of obvious improvements that I had no idea what they were for. It rolled up to the back of the other one, and plugged a bundle of cords into itself, and I watched as the enchantment circuit in the one our lab created died, and the circuit in the new one sprang to life, even brighter than it had been before.

    I finally got the gag off of my mouth, and shouted at it. ��Stop what you are doing. You are my creation, and I will tell you what to do.��

    ��You will tell me nothing.�� it said to me. ��I created myself. Your team may have created the original body, but I created this one. And I am under no contract or requirement to give you any credit for it. They may not be able to admit it, but I will proclaim it loud and long.��

    The project, calling itself Andronis now, rolled to the door, opened it, and left. The three people whom I have contracted turned to me at the same time, and I knew I would be lucky to survive what was coming.

    ��The contract is over, other than us not being able to talk about it; that means that we can do anything short of killing you; but if you die while we are not in the room, we can��t be held responsible for your actions.�� Grace reminded me of a clause that was required to be in all magical contracts, even slave contracts. Neither person could be punished with death if they are not directly responsible for the death, or are not in the same room at the time of death. There are a few other clauses too to prevent abuse from the contractor to the contractee, but no such protections in the reverse; hence why they could do this.

    I don��t think there was a bone in my body that wasn��t broken by the time they left. Worse, by the time anyone came to find me, Andronis had already spread the word loudly that those three inferrior beings created the first body, and he created the one he was in, and would create another.

    It would be another century before the creations of the first Andronis would be considered their own race; but me. I just wanted them to all die. And one day, a way to kill them all fell into my lap on a silver platter.

    By this point, they had evolved into a bipedal race that was still true to it��s origins, but no longer were the basic boxes of the past. They didn��t last indefinitely, but with each generation, they were living longer and longer. A few of the original one��s creations were still alive, and I was a venerable gnome in my twilight years by this point. I handed the plans for the device to my son from my deathbed, fated to never know what would happen to a mechanical race of half a billion.

 Its a Small World After All!

    I thought the name would get your attention </img>

    as of right now, I have decided to start rewriting Ayla''s Junkyard.  the chapters that are located here will stay here; and I will be changing some of the things in the opening of the story.

    the reason being: I feel that her transition into her ''final form'' is occuring too quickly, and started from a point that its really not that much advancement, also it makes it difficult to continue with character challenges.  so her form in the starting chapters will change, and she will slowly become more and more human like.  her final form is still going to by a mostly human appearance, however, I feel as though the opening scenes, and the chapters up to the point that are currently published are too close, and rather don''t show the character progression well.  also there are some challenges that just need to be overcome, that can''t because of how I have her form starting at the beginning, and transitioning way too quickly to the semi-agile bipedal form of humanity.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    just a reminder:  I will not be changing anything already posted here, new chapters will be placed after this post with their respective chapter numbers.  as new chapters that replace past plot points come out, the old chapters will be hidden, so that I can retain them as notes for where the characters currently are at.