sigelphoenix

Title: Reunion
Characters: Nexus, Vilda, Drannor
Word Count: ~1700
Summary: Last time Nexus saw Vilda, she was killed by gnolls. Luckily, she was only mostly dead!
Notes: Since I was absent for the adventure in which the sidekicks showed up, I'm doing a bit of a retcon.

A nearly 7-foot tall construct made mostly out of adamantine is not quiet at the best of times. It is especially not quiet when it is running across an open city street, joyously shouting, "VILDA!" and sweeping its semi-construct friend into its arms.

Vilda laughs, her "Hi, Nexus" turning into a yelp as it spins her around.

She is markedly heavier than a normal humanoid her size, Nexus notes. But her weight is still well within the limits of its strength, and it keeps hugging her to its chest, letting her legs dangle a good foot off of the ground. It doesn't feel like putting her down just yet. "I don't want you to ever get that close to dying again."

Vilda's laugh this time is still lighthearted, but more subdued. "Yeah, me neither."

The others want to greet Vilda too, and Nexus wants to greet the rest of the people who came with the nexi army, so eventually it puts her down. But it stays close to her, and talks to her while the newcomers are led back to the Twist Fish. It's just happy to see its friend again, to see her healthy and moving around. Of course, Thut told them all that Vilda was all right, but it's one thing to be told, and another thing to witness it in person.

Also, with Tandaeth's gift, Nexus can see better than it used to, so it wants to take in all the details of Vilda's appearance, like it has already done with its other friends. Of course, now it knows that this isn't what Vilda really looks like. But it's sort of like Luth's chosen appearance - even if it's not the 'real' Vilda anymore, it's how she wants to look to other people. Nexus thinks of Vilda's and Luth's choices about their respective appearances sort of like very important outfits - they affect the way other people perceive them, but they aren't really lies. Still, it wants to see if she'll show it what she looks like without illusion.

It can wait, though, because they have time. First, Nexus wants to take the opportunity to introduce Vilda to its newest companion. "Drannor, I'd like you to meet Vilda. Can you show yourself to her?"

"Certainly." Drannor's brow furrows in concentration, and then Vilda's eyes light with recognition, so he must no longer be a ball of light to her.

"I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, Vilda. My name is Drannor, and I am Nexus' guide in the ways of the Order of the Eternal Blade, an ancient and noble tradition of the elves." The floating elf bows in greeting.

"Hi, Drannor," Vilda replies, giving him a little wave. "I'm Nexus' friend. We met through Kanuran, and then started travelling together because, uh ..." she falters. "I don't know, everything was kind of a blur after that. I was really excited."

"Ah." Drannor nods.

"You know," Nexus says, as they continue walking, "the only other time I've seen anyone I care about with that much of their head missing was when Kershach died." Its voice holds a mixture of wonder and concern. "And we couldn't save him, so I was afraid for you."

"Yeah ..." Vilda reaches up and rubs the back of her head gingerly, as if to make sure it's still there. "That's, uh ... kinda weird to think about." Then her expression changes, and she gets that glint in her eye that usually makes people start backing away from her. "I bet it looked pretty neat, though, huh?"

"Neat?" Nexus ponders that. "I wasn't thinking about it being neat, because I was very worried at the time. But I guess you could say it was neat. I've never seen the inside of your head before. And some of the insides were on the outside."

"Like brains?"

It nods. "And blood, and I think some skull."

"Ooh!"

"If you're interested, you might want to ask Thut if he has any parts of your head left. I don't know if he used them all when he healed you, since he healed you magically."

Vilda snorts with laughter. "I like talking with you, Nexus. You never think I'm weird."

"Thank you. I'm glad you don't think I'm weird, either."

"So, you wanna see?"

It takes Nexus a second to figure out what she means. Vilda's thoughts often jump a few steps ahead of the construct's, leaving Nexus mentally running to catch up. "Of course I do."

Vilda grins and tips her hat, the way Nexus has seen rich men do to rich women. But Vilda's hat holds the magic of her illusion, and as she lifts it off her head, her appearance shimmers. The yielding flesh of her grinning cheeks fade to reveal a face made mostly of immobile wood, and she stands before it in the body it has seen only once before, when Vilda was near death. Now, that body - a mixture of flesh, wood, stone, and metal - is fully alive and functional, and Nexus stares for awhile. It's pretty sure that no one has ever done anything like she has before.

"You must be the first of your kind, like me."

"Probably," Vilda agrees, and then plops the hat back on her head as they reach the Twist Fish.

The rest of the afternoon is spent with Lucas debriefing all of the newcomers about the current military situation, so they are kept quite busy for awhile. But eventually, as strategic talk winds down and evening comes on, fires are lit in the fireplaces and people split off into smaller groups or leave the main hall. Vilda and Nexus are left more or less alone.

"So ..." Nexus begins.

"Yes?"

It considers how to pose the questions it wants to ask Vilda, and finally settles on, "What?"

"Huh?"

"What?" There are ways to use words to be more eloquent, and Nexus knows many of them, but at the moment they don't seem as useful as merely waving its hand atVilda's altered body.

Vilda touches her cheek, which Nexus now knows is made of polished darkwood instead of human skin. "You mean this?"

"Yes."

She grins - and it knows that, in reality, the upper portion of the left side of her face remains rigid, the sculpted wood refusing to bend along with her cheek. "I was curious."

"Oh." Nexus nods. "But ... you cut off your arms."

"Okay, yeah, I was really, really curious," Vilda admits. She tilts her head, her gaze turning toward nothing in particular, and continues in a more contemplative tone. "After I helped build Graven, and I saw all the amazing things we could do with such simple materials, I wanted to know more, you know? And not just make something that would wander around so I could watch it - not that I don't have fun watching you, Nexus," she says, turning back to it with a smile. "But I wanted to experience it myself - really feel it."

The sentiment makes a lot of sense to Nexus. "I know what you mean about wanting to experience things yourself." Then it added, "But I don't think anything would make me want to cut off parts of my body. Or at least, I haven't found it yet."

She shrugs. "I'm sure I'll miss some things about having a human body," she admits, but doesn't seem too worried about it. "But I'll have all this new stuff to try instead."

"It is not so bad, giving up the body you were born with for something greater," Drannor comments in Nexus' mind.

Nexus nods and shares the elf's words with Vilda, who sits up excitedly. "Right! See?" Then her voice drops as her face turns thoughtful and she mutters to herself, "That's a good one. I should use it sometime."

Nexus reaches over while Vilda is thinking, giving her knee a light experimental poke. As it expected, it doesn't give the way flesh does, and feels like metal or a hard wood. "What do you think you'll miss most?"

She takes off her enchanted hat and tosses it on a table, leaving behind the true appearance of her half-construct, half-flesh form. "About my old body?" she asks as she leans back in her chair, raising the leg Nexus poked and turning the wooden foot back and forth so both of them can look at it. Nexus notes that she gave herself toes, which she wiggles. It wonders if it might like to have toes. "Oh, you know, the stuff that humans do for fun."

It ponders that for a second, and comes up with, "Eating, sexual intercourse, and urination?"

Vilda's remaining eyebrow twitches. "Eh ... probably not the urination. Mostly the sex. There are some things ... I should put together a list so I can keep track of it ..." She starts digging through her pack, which contains a messy stack of parchment. "I wrote things down as I thought of them, so they're mostly in the margins of my research notes ..." She's muttering to herself again.

She stands up abruptly, papers clutched in her hand. "You know what, Nexus?"

"Hm?"

"I think I've got to, uh - excuse me! Yes, you!" Vilda calls, waving over one of the employees of the Twist Fish. "Could you come here?" She turns back to Nexus and says, "I should have experiences when the opportunity presents itself, shouldn't I?"

"Sure."

"Then I'm going to go do that. Them. This." She waves her papers. "Sorry to cut this short - let's talk more later, okay? Bye, Nexus!" Vilda puts the hat back on and grabs the arm of the waiting employee, already talking rapidly as she leads him away. Occasionally she shows him her papers and points to something.

Nexus watches her go. "I'm glad Vilda's okay," it says to Drannor. "I like her."

"Ah," Drannor says.