Heart Like a Machine

Chapter 90

"We know where Lis' mother is," I told Seyka as soon as we met up with her.

"That's great! Where is she?"

"She's at this park," I said, showing her the coordinates.

"That's pretty far from here," Seyka said.

"But we will get there once we help you with finding your people," Lis said. "We want to know what Londra is up to."

"Y-You're not going to go after her?" Seyka asked.

"Both of us want to go there right now," Lis said. "But we owe you a service to you and your people."

"T-Thank you," Seyka said. "Also, Lis, I-I am sorry for what I said back there."

"It's alright, Seyka. Thank you for your apology."

"Come on, let's go help your people," I said, about to call my Sunwing.

"Whoa whoa, if you're going to help, we're taking my way this time."

"Then I'll follow from the sky," I said.

"W-Why don't you and Seyka ride on the boat and I can fly above," Lis said, giving me that look.

"R-Right," I nodded.

"Alright, let's head out."

Lis got on her Sunwing and flew into the air, waiting as we got settled into the boat. Seyka pulled out from the dock and drove off, Lis following behind.

"So, Lis' mother, what do you think Londra is doing with her?"

"I have no idea, but whatever he's doing to her, I hope it's nothing too bad."

"I bet Lis will be happy to see her mother again."

"We both will be," I said.

"What you said about there being something greater out there, what did you mean by that?"

"I-It's something much greater," I said. "But all of that will come due time."

"This again?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't feel like I can trust you fully. Yes, I can trust you, but not with this sensitive information."

"That's understandable. That's how I feel with explaining the murals we saw."

Reaching a river of lava, Seyka docked on the shores and we both got out. Lis landed the Sunwing next to the boat and jumped off, joining us.

"Shall we?" I asked, gesturing to the large climb ahead of us.

"Let's get climbing," Seyka said.

We started to climb up the hill until we pulled ourselves up to see the Hollywood sign.

"Wow. I'd never think I'd see the Hollywood sign in person," Lis said.

"What was Hollywood even know for?" Seyka asked.

"Back in its day, it made a lot of movies that people would go see whenever a blockbuster came out," I said.

"Were they any good?" Lis asked.

"To them, some were great, some were not so great."

We walked towards a cave opening, but I stopped. Lis bent down and grabbed a rock, throwing it towards the mouth of the cave. The rock bounced off of this force field that was there.

"Well, looks like we're not getting in that way," Lis said.

"What now?"

I tapped my Focus and found a mechanism that was controlling the force field.

"This way," I said and led them to where there were two large machines that were controlling the force field.

"Need to clear out those machines," Lis said.

"Ugh, I hate those things," I sighed. "All those Stingspawn."

"Let me help you guys this time. I can clear out the Stingspawn while you can focus on the Bileguts," Lis said.

"Hope you're a good shot," Seyka said as we jumped down to where the machines were.

"I'm a great shot," Lis said and loaded her bow, getting ready.

As Seyka and I were fighting a Bilegut, there were Stingspawn that were flying towards us. Lis kept an eye out and made sure to get the ones that the Bilegut sent out and the ones we accidentally triggered by getting near the eggs. Once one was down, we climbed up to the mechanism that was charging the force field. Opening up the battery grid, Seyka shot it and we were on to the next one. Lis jumped down from where she was in order to get closer to us. It was nice to know she had our back here. We did exactly the same thing and got the second mechanism down. 

"Alright, let's head back up and see if that force field is down," I said.

We climbed back up and sure enough, there wasn't anything there. We walked into the mouth of the cave and found more Quen were alive.

"Seyka? Is that you?"

"Aunia?"

"Have you come to join us?" she asked.

"Join you?" Seyka questioned.

"Yeah, we have actually," I said.

"It's not like a barbarian to join among the choosen. Zeth would never allow this," a male Quen said.

"How did you get in here without Zeth?" Aunia asked.

"Zeth sent us actually. After we, uhm, helped him with an ambush out in the wilds."

"Right!" Seyka said. "You see, I was on my way here with him when machines attacked us. We tried to hold them off, but we were outnumbered. That's when Aloy came to our rescue."

"I was exploring the region when I came across them, so I rushed in and helped them."

"You should have seen her," Seyka said. "One of the best machine hunters I've ever met. She saved Zeth's life."

"Oh I was just doing what I could."

"Zeth had something important he needed to take care of afterwards. So he said to go without him," Seyka continued.

"That's when he told us how to lower the barrier and said we should head straight inside."

"Zeth really needed a barbarian to help him?" the male Quen asked.

"We all need a little help from time to time," Seyka said.

"Zeth gave them the ok, we should let him in. I don't want to be on the receiving end of his outbursts," Aunia said. "Let the others know of our new arrivals, alright?"

"Fine, but I'm not letting them in the Ascension Hall until they prove they're devoted, like everyone else. And I'll be interested to hear Zeth's side of the story when he returns. Also, the third one. How did she help?"

We turned and faced Lis.

"S-She helped Aloy," Seyka said.

"I don't travel alone like I used to," I said.

The male Quen turned and opened the doors. We headed in and followed the path that led farther into the underground and into whatever Londra had built down here.

"That went as well as it could have," I said.

"That was actually pretty good on the spot thinking," Seyka said.

"Aloy, the master of the machines, but also the master of bullshitting," Lis chuckled.

"Thanks, Lis," I chuckled. "Now, time to find out what Londra is hiding."