Zerua Unchained

Chapter Seven

 FRIEND heads over to the Blacksmith shop to drop off the raptor talons that he gathered. Henrik looks up at him as FRIEND places the talons on his table.

"I don't have any more money," Henrik tells him with a sigh. "So I'll only take them if you're planning to give them to me for free."

"Fair enough," FRIEND says with a shrug, leaving the talons with Henrik.

Mikaela stares at a sleeping Orielle in bed then looks over at Selro.

"Let's go pack up our stuff while she's resting," Mikaela suggests, eyeing Colton who had a look of concern as he stared at Orielle. "Should we circle around and find FRIEND before heading back?"

"Are we just going to leave our barracks from now on?" Selro asks, looking between her and Colton.

"I'm assuming we won't be coming back any time soon," Mikaela tells him as they head out the door.

Ember leans against the doorway and crosses her arms.

"I need to go and make sure all of the automatons get on the boat so they can go home to Mom," she says, walking out of the room.

Mikaela and Selro follow her out of the tavern and they watch as she heads over to the docks. On their way to the Barracks, they find FRIEND heading in their direction.

"So what is happening?" FRIEND asks as he makes it next to them.

"We're going to gather what we need to pack and then we're going to meet back at the Tavern in two hours to have a meeting about what we're doing going forward," Mikaela informs him. "So let's grab everything at the Barracks. I say we just wait at the Tavern until it's time unless you guys have something else to do?"

"Ok," FRIEND agrees as they make their way to the Donut. "I have something I want to do."

"Then go do it," Selro tells him.

"Ok!"

Once inside the Donut, they see Ember running to each of the robots and placing a large ruby on their chest. Each robot flares up, their eyes turning red, and starts to walk out of the Donut. FRIEND rushes over to Ember in curiosity.

"How are you doing that?" He asks inquisitively.

"Um, well, my mother created all of these robots," Ember explains as she turns to him. "So I have the power to turn them on for a short period of time so that they can get on the ships and go home. I suspect that leaving them here will make her very upset, so I'm sending them on their way."

"I don't think they'd be very useful here," mumbled Mikaela.

"Unfortunately we don't have a way of powering them up so yes, I agree."

"I might be able to power up one of them," FRIEND pipes up thoughtfully, rubbing the chin of his faceplate.

"Huh?" Mikaela looks at him, startled.

"If I'm correct," FRIEND explains excitedly. "The gem that's in the wall is a power source."

Ember smiles as she crosses her arms.

"Ah yes. We call them 'Eternius Stones'. They were found about 10 years after the moon was formed."

"So am I correct in saying that they are a power source?" FRIEND asks curiously.

"Uh, so long as they are able to receive the moon's light, yes," Ember nods. "Of course, we found that they are slightly volatile."

FRIEND contemplates for a minute as he looks at all the robots powering up. He then glances back at Ember who was staring at him with a fascinated look.