She Who Woke Among Eternity

“Is this it?” Scevi asked, looking up at the hand-painted hanging sign above a tucked-away door down a side alley.

“Stories and Games Await in the Dragon’s Lair,” Avalyn read aloud from the pretty sign. “I have a good feeling about this place. Dragon’s Lair was a really iconic and revolutionary video game back in my simulation. I also like the colors. I hope it doesn’t smell inside, not that I would know! Ready to go inside?”

“What’s it going to be like?” Gramps asked warily.

Avalyn shrugged. “I have an idea, but if that idea was ever based on real life, it was from the Kenana Era so,” she shrugged again. “Hopefully there are lots of shelves lined with games, cards, minis, and paints. A good few tables to sit at and play. Maybe even an area for miniature wargames.” She started moving her upper half side to side. “Avalyn is very excited.”

Scevi laughed. “Yeah? Is Avalyn excited?” Avalyn nodded. “So excited that she starts talking in the third-person?”

She nodded again, faster. “Avalyn does that when she’s overstimulated, both in good and bad ways. Can we go inside now, please?”

“Go for it, kiddo,” Gramps said with a smile.

Avalyn’s slight wobble got faster for a moment before she turned and went for the door. Her hand gripped the door, and for the first time, she felt apprehension. There was a chance that this wouldn’t be like anything she knew from her simulation, and that possibility felt a little crushing. She really needed something familiar and good right now, and if she had built up all these hopes only to be crushed, it wouldn’t end well for Avalyn.

“Kid?” Gramps asked as Avalyn continued to hesitate.

“Sorry,” she replied without a thought about what she was saying. “I got really nervous.” Before anyone could respond, Avalyn pushed the door open. A jingle sounded above her from a bell attached to the door frame, and it took her by surprise. Why, she wasn’t sure; maybe it just felt out of place in this futuristic galaxy. What she saw inside was even more out of place in this sci-fi city.

The room was larger than what was expected on the outside, but not too incredibly large, but the most surprising thing was that it was decorated to look like a furnished cave. A ‘stone fireplace’ was lit up with a fake fire. All the furniture was made to look like they were crudely carved from stone or wood. The ‘cave’ walls were lined with different shelves and displays, showing all manner of games and figures. To one side was a ‘stone’ display cabinet that clearly served as the counter for the store. Was it a perfect-looking dragon’s lair? No, but there had clearly been a lot of love and thought put into how the store was designed.

“I’ll be,” Gramps said from behind Avalyn. “Didn’t expect that.”

“Nor did I,” Avalyn admitted. “This is fucking awesome.”

“I feel like I just walked into one of those bedtime stories my ma used to read to me,” Scevi said.

“Uh—welcome!” a voice called out from behind what looked like a crudely made wooden door. It was only upon hearing this unfamiliar voice that Avalyn noticed that there wasn’t anyone else in the store at the moment. “Did you unlock the door already?” The voice asked to what must have been someone else in the back room. Soon enough the door opened and out walked what Avalyn could only describe as a bronze dragonborn man. “Hello,” he said, putting his hand over his chest and giving the slightest of bows.

All the other three returned the gesture. “Some place you’ve got here,” Scevi said, looking around, still with a little wonder in her eyes.

“Thank you,” the man said through a pointed-tooth smile. His molten gold-colored eyes glanced around his store with pride. “I haven’t seen your faces around here before, so let me just say, welcome to our humble game store. What can I help you with today?”

Gramps and Scevi looked to Avalyn, as Avalyn still continued to look around. “Not sure yet. Just wanted to come and see what game stores of the Alliance have to offer.” Nervously, she started taking a few steps toward the counter. Out of the corner of her vision, she could see the man look a little wary, and Avalyn realized she was about to have that dreaded conversation all over again. With a sigh, she said, “I’m not an automaton. I was in a bad crash and this is the body I have to use to get around. If you want to try and shut me down, you can, but it will not work and I’ll probably just leave.”

He was silent for a few moments as he looked at her. “I take it you’ve been getting that a lot since the crash,” the man said.

Avalyn had to admit she was a little surprised he didn’t take her up on that offer. “If you don’t try, you would be the third person in the Alliance that hasn’t tried to shut me down.”

He nodded and stayed silent only for a moment before saying, “Well, then I’ll be the third. I’m Erthrin and welcome to the Dragon’s Lair.”

One day Avalyn was going to be able to express happiness without having to voice it, and she was never going to take that for granted. Even if she ended up wearing a mask most of the time. Then again, she would have a lot of movable feathers to display her emotions, and that was an exciting thought. “I’m Avalyn, and these are my grandparents, Vestan and Scevi.” Avalyn gestured to them and very much enjoyed the reddening of Gramps’s face, and even more so the slight red tint that grew on Scevi’s.

Erthrin gave another smile before leaning against the counter and speaking again. “You said you’re new to Alliance space?”

Avalyn nodded. “I am; these two aren’t.”

“I’m a native Brystian,” Scevi said proudly. “There’s no better planet to live on.”

“I agree,” Erthrin said, but added, “I only moved here about three decades ago, but my mate is a native too. Well,” he turned back to Avalyn, “welcome to the Alliance. I dare say you’ve found yourself on the best planet the Alliance has to offer.”

“The best I’ve ever been to,” Avalyn said happily.

“The only planet in the Alliance you’ve ever been to,” Gramps added.

“Two things can be true at the same time.” Avalyn put her hands on her hips. “And until I have seen other planets to compare, Bryst will remain the best planet in the Alliance in my opinion.” That got a chuckle out of Gramps and Scevi, which made Avalyn feel very good. “Alright, now it’s time to see what games here have to offer.”

The door that Erthrin had come out of opened again, and now out walked a woman who appeared to be made out mostly of rock, with lava and fire sprouting from the gaps between the rocks that made up her shape. The only thing Avalyn could equate the woman to was a flame atronach mixed with a lava elemental. The odd thing was that she still wore light and small, but very normal-looking clothes. Fabric clothes that didn’t appear to be burning even when touching the fire. She looked over at Erthrin and started moving her hands in intricate gestures.

“No, you were the last one to walk through the door and you didn’t lock it behind you,” Erthrin said, looking back at her. Her hands moved again, to which he replied. “Well, we’ll just hope that he doesn’t show up this early.” Her hands moved again. “No, I still don’t know how he always knows, even when we change our hours or open late.”

“Giff, I think the store wasn’t actually open yet,” Gramps said quietly to Avalyn and Scevi.

“I thought you checked when we found the place on the kiosk,” Scevi chided.

Gramps nervously rubbed the back of his head, yellow eyes glancing anywhere but Scevi. “I may have skipped the store hours.” Scevi crossed her arms, and Gramps’s face started turning red. “What? It’s midday, and most places are open at this time.”

“Not every business keeps the same hours you do, Vestan.”

“One of the LGSes I knew from my past wouldn’t open until midday. Even later on release days, where they would be open well into the night.”

“Alright, well, I draked up, but we’re here now and they aren’t kicking us out yet.”

“Was she signing in a common sign language?” Avalyn asked, now exploring some applications and setting on her companion mentally. There had to be captioning software that could caption signing. Right as she actually finished speaking, she found the right setting and now she just needed to know what sign language it was.

“Yes, just Agrebsin,” Scevi said. “That’s the most common sign-language used in the alliance.”

“Do you both speak it?” Avalyn asked as she internally debated an idea. She could just overlay the software over her vision so that she would get a real life hud style subtitles¹Cyberpunk 2077 has subtitles as cannon to your vision as your cyberware translates and overlays it on your vision. It even translates other langauges characters speak into whatever language you have selected., which would be very easy. Then there was the other option of instead of using the software, she could actively download the information more directly into her mind, like she did with the terms and conditions. Then she would just know Agrbsin, but the part of her mind that wanted to be organic ‘again’ fought against the idea of just downloading new languages and information matrix style.

“Yes,” Scevi said firmly. “My stepbrother I talked about speaks in Agrebsin.”

“I…” Gramps’s face turned a little more red again. “I’m not the best, but I can understand it for the most part.”

Avalyn nodded before deciding that for now she would just subtitle the translation. She had been terrible at learning other languages in the simulation, but even so, she didn’t like the idea of just learning new ones instantly, no matter how easy that would be. Maybe with the subtitles, she could slowly learn the language. Then Avalyn suddenly had the fear that maybe this woman had just been reading Erthrin’s lips. Letting out a sigh, Avalyn decided to just see how this played out before downloading a new language into her mind. Turning back to Erthrin and the new woman, Avalyn found them both looking at them.

“Sorry,” Erthrin started, “no, we aren’t technically open yet, but we’re not about to turn away someone coming to explore what games our society has to offer.” Gesturing to the lava woman, he said, “This is Velgi, my mate.” Velgi put her hand on her chest and gave a small bow, to which the intruding trio returned.

“Why do you sound and dress like those really old captures and cets of people before the Alliance was made?” Velgi asked Avalyn.

“Sorry,” Erthrin said quickly. “She can be rather direct with things she thinks instead of properly greeting people first.

“What? It’s a fair question.”

Having subtitles on Avalyn’s vision was interesting, but even though she couldn’t specifically focus her vision on the subtitles, like one would do while watching a movie, she could still easily read them. “It’s fine; I don’t mind. My exposure to your cultures and the common language came from an old lost Kenana era wayfairing ship. I have that kind of accent because that’s just how I learned the language.” Avalyn decided to try something she hadn’t really done before, and that was put a Melcarna accent over common, like how Mama sounded. “But I could talk with a different accent. I just really love the way the captain of that ship spoke,” Avalyn swapped back to the Kenena accent, “and I want to honor her memory and the gifts she gave me by bringing her voice back into the galaxy.”

“Wait, do you talk with Heather’s actual voice, or just her accent?” Gramps asked.

If Avalyn had an organic face, she was sure it would be turning red. Her gaze shifted down, not meeting Gramp’s eyes as her two hands started fiddling with one another. She hadn’t actually explained to anyone that she had taken on Heather’s voice. “Well, I don’t have vocal cords, and even when I could talk before, my voice wasn’t right… and she is my direct donor that gave me life.” There was an uncomfortable quiet that really weighed on Avalyn. “I understand that might sound wrong to—”

“That’s a good way to remember her,” Scevi said, cutting her off. “I’m sure she would be happy to know in some way her voice still echoes through her ship thousands of vols later.”

There was another moment of silence before Gramps said, “It wouldn’t be right for a captain of a stargazer to not have the fitting voice.” Avalyn finally looked back up and found a gentle smile on his lips. “And whenever you swear like an old wayfarer it brightens up my day.”

“It is pretty funny,” Scevi added.

“You even swear like a wayfarer,” Erthrin asked.

“Of course I fucking do,” Avalyn said without missing a beat and putting her hands on her hips. “I’d feel like a dick if I didn’t take this shit seriously and swear like the proper bitchin’ wayfarer I aspire to be.” She wished she could smile.

Velgi gave a gentle but impressed clap. “My grandpa would find that really funny,” she said. “Wish I had recorded that. He loves old wayfarer stuff.”

“Yeah?” Gramps asked, getting a little excited. “If he really likes that stuff, he’d probably get a really kick out of a real stargazer we’re repairing.” After the words left his mouth, his cheeks turned a little red. His gaze sheepishly shifted to Avalyn. “Giff, I probably shouldn’t be spouting stuff like that without your permission.”

Avalyn shrugged. “It’s your special interest and I get that you’re really excited and wanting to show it off.” She sighed. “Besides, if we’re still running the circuit, I’m going to have to get used to showing her off.” That was going to be a very interesting experience, and potentially getting small tastes of that beforehand might help prepare her a little more. That didn’t mean she wanted everyone in Crescent to start showing up to the yard to get a peak at her.

“Is that a special ship or something?” Erthrin asked.

“Oh, don’t get him started,” Scevi said with a quiet laugh.

“It was the pioneer of space exploration for its time,” Gramps said proudly. “One of the most iconic and rare ships ever made during that era, and still is the prettiest-looking ship ever made, in my humble opinion.”

Avalyn said, “He had to sit down for half an hour after he realized I was flying the genuine thing.”

“It wasn’t that long,” Gramps said defensively.

“You’re right, I exaggerated. It was 20 minutes, 18 seconds, and 768 nanoseconds.”

“You timed him?” Scevi laughed out. Avalyn just shrugged.

“Maybe I’ll have to let my grandpa kn—” Velgi was cut off by the loudest choppy engine rumbling suddenly coming from outside.

“Oh, drak me,” Erthrin said.