soundless exile

Chapter 8: Growing Pains

Hearless holds a hammer and tongs, keeping a piece of metal in place. She swings, bending the red steel into shape, slowly forming what looks to be a mini rudder that would fit onto her boot. Taking her tongs, she dunks the steel into oil, causing flames to shoot from the oil vat as the steel cools. She pulls the steel from the oil, setting it onto the table, letting it cool. She grabs hold of it with her gloves and wipes it of extra oil. She looks at the set of plans she was using and reads off it. "Set the wisdom cube on top of the pair of boots, and wait", "that's weird; wait, not hit it with a hammer or heat them together?", She takes off her gloves, letting the boots cool before putting the cube on them. She stares at the pulsing blue cube, watching it get brighter and then dimmer, slowly lighting up the area around it. The area slowly becomes dark. She looks up at the sky, seeing a rising crescent moon. "Huh, when did it get dark?", She taps the metal and feels it warm to the touch, not too hot, but still slightly uncomfortable to hold for a long time. "This works", she grabs the cube without thinking. Suddenly, her entire arm is in pain. She drops the cube and looks at the burn from the cube, the symbol clearly marked in her flesh. She feels her mouth open involuntarily and her neck vibrating as she screams in pain.

Vestal was standing outside her office looking at the night sky. She froze, hearing an inhuman scream as if a demon were screeching into the night. "That came from the dry dock. Hearless, she is still there", She sprinted into the night, the wind whipping around her as she ran. The few ship girls on night watch saw her sprint by; some decided to follow her. Soon, a group of four ship girls was following Vestal when they entered the dry dock.

Vestal enters the docks in a frenzy and sees Hearless on the floor of the forge, curled up in pain. She sees gloves on the table and the wisdom cube steaming. "She touched the cube without her gloves." She runs up to Hearless and pulls her off the floor, putting her in a chair. She grabs a medical bag and looks at the burn; it was an angry red with the symbol embedded. She grabs some gauze, burn cream, and disinfectant. She pours the disinfectant on the burn, then applies burn cream after it. hearless gave a sharp inhale as Vestal wrapped the hand in gauze, the ship girls that followed her seemed unsure of what to do, one stepped forward, it was Laffey who seemed worried and hugged hearless, one of them seemed to seem confused at this "now why are you hugging this girl you haven't met her before", Laffey gave the girl a tired look, "mom", this caused the girl to take her hat off in confusion, "what do you mean mom?", "she helped build me, she remembered my name, she accepted it when I called her that", this caused the girl with the hat to look at Laffey, a bit skeptically, "if you say so but why?", "she's nice, even if I can't understand her", "understand her?", "she's deaf", "well then, she built you, she's human?", vestal stepped in, "yes she is hornet, she was found on illustrious's ship", "so she was a stow away", "yes but she also helped repair san deigo, and is currently fixing enterprise", Hornet just shook her head.

"Any other relations I should know of?", Hornet asked, looking both confused and slightly shocked. "She has a list in her side bag, Laffey said, holding hearless in her arms. Hornet opened the bag and saw some books, a set of throwing knives, some tools, several bottles of cola, and finally a notepad, which Hornet pulled out. She flipped it open to see it full of names, some crossed out. She flipped it to another page and saw Laffey's name with a checkmark. All the names she sees are ones she recognizes. San Deigo, Laffey, Hornet, and Benson, her eyes snap back to her name. "Hold the fuck up", she said, looking at Hearless in shock. "I don't believe that", she says, putting the list back and shaking her head. The other two girls just seemed confused. "Want to get a drink after watch?", "Sure", the other two walked off and left Laffey, Vestal, and hearless by themselves. Hearless woke up still in pain. Laffey released her, and while Vestal was preparing something from her bag, Hearless put a glove on her hand, setting the cube on the boots. The cube slowly sank into the boots and glowed brighter, blinding the group before the light faded, leaving the boots looking slightly different. The paint scheme that appeared on them matched Hearless's eyes and hair in color. Hearless felt a slight connection to them as if they were calling her, she grabbed hold of them and felt them vanish in her hands, Vestal now looking at her was in shock, "It seems, you're now bounded to your rigging boots", Hearless just looked at her hand confused and thought about the boot and saw it reappear in a flash of blue cubes, Vestal grabbed Hearless's shoulder and dragged her with her.

Hearless was placed under a machine, and a sudden hum was felt through the chair; it vanished as fast as it appeared. Vestal came back with an x-ray. Vestal's eyebrows creased as she looked at it. "Well, you're still human." Hearless just stared back before signing. "Was there any doubt?", Vestal gave her a look before pulling her out from under the machine. "For a moment, yes." Hearless just tilted her head as she looked at Vestal. "It might be your natural connection to magic, and the cube recognized it." Hearless shook her head, unsure what Vestal meant, but decided to head off to bed, waving good-bye to Vestal as she made a look of contemplation as she pulled more books from a shelf, doing research.