Little Senti raised her hand. Dark, inky feathers materialized in her palm.
Drawing on Fu Hua's mories and knowledge, she had a pretty good guess by now as to what exactly she was.
But when had she beco a Herrscher? Wait — no. More to the point, when had she even ended up inside Fu Hua's body?
"...Haah." Little Senti patted her own cheeks. She still had no idea how she was supposed to go back and face the others. Should she just... hand the body back over? And then what? What would she even do after that?
And if she really did push through that glass pane between them — how was she supposed to live alongside Elysia and the rest afterward?
"Coo?" A red kite hopped up onto a large boulder and waddled over to Little Senti's side, pecking lightly at the back of her hand. Coo, coo, coo.
"What? Can't you see I'm brooding?" Little Senti waved her hand to shoo the bird away. "Keep it up and I'll make stew out of you."
"Coo, coo, coo~" The kite sidled just out of reach of her swatting hand, then settled right back down beside her, fixing Little Senti with a steady gaze and letting out a few more soft coos.
"You're asking what I'm doing sitting out here?" Little Senti turned to look at the bird.
As the Herrscher of Sentience, she could understand perfectly well what the kite was saying.
Which, incidentally, was proof enough that she really wasn't the original Fu Hua. The real Fu Hua would have needed Fenghuang Down to make sense of it, or else just guessed from behavior alone.
Hah. Once you actually thought it through, the cracks were everywhere.
"Coo~"
"Even if I told you, you wouldn't get it." Little Senti waved her hand again, face scrunched in exasperation — though she had to admit this plump little bird was probably not going to solve her problems for her.
"Go play sowhere. Don't worry about ."
"Coo coo coo coo coo." The kite studied Little Senti for a mont, then seed to understand sothing. It squinted its little eyes and patted her on the back with one wing, its cooing softening noticeably.
"Coo coo~ Coo coo coo."
"Ha!" Little Senti shot upright, eyes going wide. "How do you know?! Am I — was my act really that unconvincing?"
The kite gave a small nod. True, at first they'd been fooled. But the more they paid attention, the clearer it beca — the personality, the aura, everything was completely different.
Their Fu Hua wasn't this scattered. And then the real Fu Hua had actually shown up afterward, which only confird what they'd already suspected.
"Oh, great." Little Senti flopped onto her back on the boulder in total resignation. "If even you figured it out, then Kevin definitely saw through too. Did I fool a single person? Even one?"
"Coo~" The kite hopped up to sit beside Little Senti's head. "Coo coo coo coo coo coo coo coo~"
"This isn't about whether I'm conflicted or not — it's..." Little Senti grabbed the kite, gave it a vigorous scrub, then let it go. "Ugh, I keep saying you wouldn't understand. Go play."
"Coo coo coo~ Coo coo coo~"
"You're bringing up Elysia? Look, she's my — wait, no. I can't exactly call her my disciple either." The words died halfway. Little Senti tossed the kite aside and sprawled out on the stone, staring up at the stars.
"Ugh, this is such a ss."
The displaced kite hopped back up onto the boulder and patted Little Senti on the head with a wing, then pointed with its wingtip toward the mountain's peak, where a faint warm glow still lingered. Up there, Fuyun Pavilion had just lit its lamps.
"Coo coo coo coo coo."
"You're asking why I don't just go back up?" Little Senti looked at the bird, hesitated for a mont, then slowly shook her head. "How am I supposed to show my face like this?"
"Coo~"
"No, I'm not saying they'd hate , I just — it's just..." Before Little Senti could fumble through the rest of the sentence, a gentle voice drifted in from behind her.
"Need a hand, Master?" Elysia's figure appeared before her, tone warm and unhurried. "You've been gone a while."
"Elysia..." Little Senti looked up at her — how long had she been standing there? — and scrambled upright, a flush of awkwardness spreading across her face. "How long have you been here?"
"Hmm. As long as Master hoped I hadn't been." Elysia gave a light shrug, spread her hands with an easy smile, then sat down beside her.
Little Senti instinctively scooted over — and Elysia imdiately reached out and hooked an arm around her shoulder, pulling her back.
"Hey — what are you doing?"
"What's wrong? Did I make you angry? Or do you just not like ? Why are you scooting away?" Elysia looked at the flustered Little Senti and planted herself firmly at her side.
The Authority of Expertise rippled subtly through Elysia, reinforcing her muscles, giving her the leverage to simply keep Little Senti rooted to the spot. Though she quickly realized she didn't need to bother.
Little Senti struggled for exactly one second, then gave up entirely with the air of soone accepting their fate, and sat there beside Elysia without further resistance.
"So you all knew the whole ti." Little Senti muttered under her breath. Of course she'd figured it out the mont she saw Elysia's reaction — they'd known long before now.
"Honestly, the plan wasn't supposed to go this way." Elysia shrugged, glancing at Little Senti. "We didn't expect you to figure it out this quickly."
Little Senti had caught on faster than any of them anticipated. Or perhaps none of them were really cut out to be actors. As the Herrscher of Sentience, Little Senti wasn't exactly easy to deceive.
Except for that one ti her own 'mother' ran a con on her — though even then, Little Senti had let her guard down out of genuine concern for the others, which was why Fu Hua had been able to pull it off.
Maybe, as Fuxi had said, it was never going to hold for long. Fu Hua's mind held far, far too much that could be used as evidence.
"I..." Little Senti opened her mouth, about to say sothing, when —
"Want one?" Elysia reached up and ruffled her hair, then flipped her hand over with a small flourish — like a magician producing sothing from thin air — and revealed a lollipop sitting in her palm.
"Sweets make people happy. Here, have one."
"You're treating like a little kid." Little Senti stared at the lollipop being dangled in front of her. She'd already sensed what Elysia had just done with her Authority of Creation. "Though I'll admit the application is kind of interesting."
"Is Master really so big? If we're counting literally, you're only a few days old." Elysia smiled at her. "Just say yes or no."
"Yes. Free candy — why would I say no?" Little Senti tossed the lollipop into her mouth. A wave of sweetness blood across her tongue, exactly as Elysia had said. Sweets really did help.
The furrow in Little Senti's brow smoothed out, the knot in her chest loosening along with it. She looked over at Elysia, sat quietly for a mont, then spoke.
"Elysia... why are you still calling Master? You know I'm not her."
"That's really up to you, isn't it?" Elysia leaned back against the boulder. "Does it actually matter that much whether you are or aren't? You're not Fu Hua — fine. Then you can just be Little Senti."
Little Senti blinked at the na. "...Little Senti?"
"Herrscher of Sentience." Elysia smiled. "Call it a codena, or a real na — either works. Though I think nas deserve a little more weight than that."
"Because a na is the first blessing given at birth. It should be chosen carefully."
"What about Kiana, then?" Kiana's true identity was no secret to Little Senti — Otto had let it slip at the ti, and she'd pieced together the whole story. Everything except why she'd ended up with that particular na.
"For that one, you'd have to take it up with Siegfried. Though honestly, he's a bit of a wronged party in that story — let's leave it for them to sort out themselves."
"There's a backstory? Tell ." Little Senti perked up.
"The short version: a child, several years old, ten thousand ters in the air, shrapnel to the skull, vertical freefall, no parachute — oh, and you can tack on hypothermia in a snowfield for good asure. Siegfried himself couldn't say for certain he'd have survived that."
"Ah. That explains it." Little Senti pictured each item on Elysia's list, then nodded in perfect understanding. "Even an eagle would've died on impact."
Never mind an eagle — even if soone dropped that on her, she'd probably need a loading screen to recover. A child of that age? The kindest thing you could hope for was that they left a complete body.
"Don't write it off completely, though." Elysia gave her a mild shrug. "So miracles do happen. But I'll leave it there for now."
"Hey, you can't hook soone's interest and then just go 'to be continued'!" Little Senti poked Elysia on the head in irritation. "Tell — from the way you said that, the original girl didn't actually die, did she?"
"That's not the point right now, is it? Little Senti, Master~" Elysia shook her head, wearing the serene expression of soone who had committed fully to the cliffhanger. "Or I could call you Senti-gem instead, if you prefer."
"You." Little Senti looked at her, exasperated. "...Seriously, you really don't mind? Any of this?"
"Hm — the Herrscher thing, you an?" Elysia turned to look at her, spreading her hands. "I'm a Herrscher myself. Look around — who on the Hyperion isn't a Herrscher at this point?"
"...Hm." Little Senti opened her mouth, staring at Elysia. Right. Elysia was a Herrscher. i was a Herrscher. Kiana was a Herrscher. Wendy was a Herrscher.
Her class was basically a Herrscher convention at this point — four of them in one room. Wait, no — she counted herself now too, which made five. Five Herrschers. Was that even legal?
Elysia watched her with a blank look and kept going. "Or are you more worried about how things stand between you and the Grand Master? Emotionally speaking, you two could be called a split personality."
"Split personalities are practically the norm around here anyway. i used to be one. Kiana's still technically one. And then there's Seele — probably soone Master hasn't t."
"One more little Master doesn't even make a dent. After all, you have all of Master Fu Hua's mories — you're just looking at them from a different angle."
In this day and age, this planet had no shortage of split personalities. If the main cast tossed a brick, bounced it off four walls, it'd hit at least three. Whatever Little Senti decided to do about her situation, there was soone who could relate.
"Your comforting technique is... unique." Little Senti looked at her, mouth twitching faintly.
Wasn't this the part where you were supposed to speak gently, explain everything carefully, and end with so tearful declaration that you'd never abandon her no matter what?
Though the mont she thought that, Little Senti shook her own head. That kind of thing was unbearably sappy. She didn't actually want to be comforted that way — she was supposed to be the one comforting people.
"If you want sappy, I can do sappy~" Elysia popped another lollipop into her own mouth, then promptly launched herself sideways and crushed Little Senti in a hug, rubbing her cheek against hers.
"Senti-gem~"
"Could you at least pick ONE na and stick with it?! And let go of !"
"I like variety~" Elysia let go after a thoroughly satisfying cheek-rub, and looked at Little Senti, who was now rapidly approaching steam-engine territory. She smiled.
"Little Senti hasn't decided on a na yet anyway, right? Why not hear out?"
"I have a feeling your input will make things worse, not better. 'Little Senti,' 'Senti-gem' — are those even nas?" Little Senti squinted at her, grumbled for a mont, then seed to deflate entirely. "Fine. Call whatever you want."
"Then it's Little Senti." Elysia reached over and patted her on the head. "Now, we should head back — it's getting late, and Xiao Xuan's been waiting for this batch of things to repair."
"Head back..." At the ntion of it, Little Senti looked up toward the glowing peak, and for so reason seed to shrink in on herself.
"It'll be fine. Nobody there wishes you any harm." Elysia leaned close, stroking her hair. "Actually, everyone likes you quite a bit."
"Your feelings might be a little complicated, but when it cos down to it, you've always been on humanity's side~"
"Gee, thanks, very effective comfort." Little Senti squinted at her, turned away, and gathered up the pile of Keys of Domination she'd been using as ground stakes.
"Has anyone ever told you that the way you comfort people stings a little?"
Elysia smiled at her. "The truth is, you don't actually want to leave either. Otherwise you wouldn't care this much about what everyone thinks of you."
"You just want soone to accept you. But that acceptance doesn't have to co attached to the na Fu Hua — does it?"
"...Tch. You just had to go and say the right thing." Little Senti turned her face away, scooped up the Keys of Domination, and started walking up the mountain. "Once I've figured things out, I'll give myself a proper na. Until then..."
"Little Senti works fine, honestly. It has a good ring to it. But don't you dare call Senti-gem."
"Understood, Senti-gem! Of course, Senti-gem!" Elysia watched her go, a grin spreading wide across her face.
The red kite still perched on the boulder joined in with a whole string of enthusiastic coos, as if egging them on.
"You two!" Little Senti looked at the pair of them — one girl, one bird — doing exactly what she'd just told them not to. She thought for a mont, then turned to the kite and drew a slow, deliberate finger across her throat.
Her little disciple, she could forgive. But that bird? When she had a free mont, she was absolutely coming for it. Maybe dye its feathers so obnoxious color for starters.
"COO COO COO!!!" The kite instantly sensed the wave of nace rolling toward it, scrambled off the boulder in a panic, and dove straight into Elysia's arms.
Having co to understand that Elysia was nothing like those awful people from before — that she was, in fact, genuinely wonderful — the kites had grown very fond of her. The current threat probably helped too.
"Easy now, Senti-gem, don't be so hostile." Elysia gently ruffled the kite's soft feathers.
"I told you to stop calling that." Little Senti shot Elysia a look. "Whatever, I'll deal with you later. Let's go — we're heading back."
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