Servitude: The Hydrangea Chapters

Chp 17: The Reflections of Perception

In the few days that passed, Marlina gradually memorized the daily routines of everyone around Englias.

Mordecai was usually the first to wake, hours before sunrise, to do morning exercises and training. Marlina would watch him as he did so and found that he was also proficient with throwing knives along with his crossbow and scimitar. He'd also tend to the braxl by feeding them and scraping off their dead scales with a tool like Marlina does with just her metal body. Lately, he's been leading them to the nearby hekoska carcasses to feed them and take the bones once the corpses were picked clean.

Once the sun rose, so would Aurea; she would be found doing odd tasks, at least strange to Marlina since it seemed Aurea was the closest thing to nobility among them. There had been plenty of times when Marlina would find her making repairs to the buildings and walls. Since that hunter hekoska smashed into the wall encompassing Englias, she's spent quite some time working to repair that section with clay she had made from degraded soil.

Elek was usually the next to awaken, and he would spend most of his day in the room where he kept the skeletal remains to examine and catalog their information. Due to Elek being awake, Tessa was not far behind where she would make breakfast for everyone and momentarily took Elek away from his work to eat before going to tend to the indoor garden on the upper floors. There had been a section of land just east of the outpost where it looked like she was preparing a space for farmland with her earth magic circles. She's told Marlina that it's in special preparation for the nutrient-rich volcanic soil the twins will bring back.

Speaking of the twins, they were due to return today. Marlina was asked to help with tidying up the tavern, at least as much as she could. It would entail dusting, sweeping, and lowering chairs to the floor. If she had a sense of smell, she'd detect the scent of cooking beans bubbling away in a broth from boiled hekoska bones. Mordecai was at the stove, tasting the beans and cutting herbs and peppers to add to the broth.

"Did Miss Tessa not make enough for breakfast?"

Mordecai chuckles and takes another taste. "The twins will be dying for a hearty home-cooked meal after their trip. I always make them this when they come home from a delivery. It's my best dish, granted with all we can grow here. Once we start growing more various vegetables, I can update this and make it even better." Looking over his shoulder, he'd find Marlina watching him cook, her gaze on the pot. It seemed she was curious what its contents tasted like. However, as they all have discovered, she doesn't eat. "I know it's probably a stupid question, but was there ever a time you could eat?"

Marlina shakes her head. "I only remember being in this metal body, which doesn't need food. Any time I tried, it would just fall into my body and start to rot over time. I would pretend to eat and remove the food later when no one was around."

Mordecai's gaze trailed her body, especially the gaps that lingered. Then returning to his cutting, scooping peppers into the pot. "If I'm able to be honest with you?"

"About what Sir Mordecai?"

"I can't exactly tell you why, or have any proof about what I feel, but I feel you weren't always like this. Metal and empty. Let's just say it's intuition."

"Because I act so human?"

Placing a lid on the pot, he turns to her and points his wooden spoon to her. "Exactly, you have a soul. I've seen those automatons Colonials invented when I had some patrons passing through. They don't look like humans, just resemble something humanoid. They cling to their creator and only respond to them. You don't act like them, you have more life to you. If you weren't riddled with holes and handless, I would guess you were a living breathing person, no questions asked."