August took a step back from Kalter, far enough that the mental render of her body vanished from his perception, and then turned his attention back to the pit.

“Welcome back to the land of the living Boko; my name is Rittan,” Rittan said, still kneeling beside the edge of the pit. “Be at ease; you are among friends.”

Boko pushed himself to his feet with a noise of feigned effort, his head coming into August’s view—Haiko had been correct; he was not quite as tall as Rittan, but it was close.

“Thanks for the warm welcome, brother,” Boko said, pushing himself up to his feet. “I didn’t expect to be back again—suppose that means they need us to kill something?”

“Unfortunately, the situation is much more complicated than that,” Rittan admitted, lowering a hand down over the edge. “Please, join us up here in the sun.”

Boko took the offer and planted his foot against the already crumbling wall of the pit. Rittan pulled upwards, dragging Boko up out of the pit, and he stepped over the edge before coming to a stop. Boko turned to look up at the sky and the faint silhouette of the titanic moons hanging above them and smiled. August was surprised by just how well his mental model had represented Boko the dancer—not perfect by any stretch, but close.

“This is much more fun from the other side,” Haiko said, amused. “Hello again, Boko the dancer—you seem to have forgotten to get dressed this time.”

Boko turned, making no move to cover himself. He took in all of the group for a moment before settling his gaze on Haiko and the monster sitting in her arms.

“You were part of the group we stopped to evacuate from the 87th Finger,” Boko said, glancing down at Ladybug for a moment. “I don’t think I ever heard your name.”

“I’m flattered you remember me at all,” Haiko said, raising an eyebrow. “My name is Haiko; it’s a pleasure to meet you under—well, better circumstances may not apply.”

“Nice to see you’re still around, Haiko,” Boko said before turning to look at Kalter. “I remember seeing your face quite a few times as well; you had a talent for making it into the news, Kalter.”

“I tried to contact you once,” Kalter said, eyeing him.

“Yes, I remember,” Boko smiled before leaning sideways to look past her shoulder at August. “Forgive my lack of courtesy; I apologise for not addressing you first, Child of Gaia.”

August watched as Kalter tensed up at the name, and then she seemed to remember that she’d put her back to him. Kalter turned sideways, just enough to keep them both in view while not quite clearing the way entirely.

“I’m not actually a Gaian, so you don’t need to defer to me or anything,” August said before clearing his throat. “My name is August; I’m a human.”

“A human?” Boko said, raising an eyebrow, “I remember hearing about the newer model about a year before we were retired—thought it was called the Toshi, though.”

“That was the name of the next project,” Haiko admitted, “As it turns out, August isn’t from Gaia; he is from another planet entirely.”

“You’re an alien?” Boko said, “You haven’t even got tentacles.”

August couldn’t help but feel weird at having the term assigned to him, but he was on their planet, so it wasn’t like he could really complain about it.

“I keep them on the inside,” August offered before pausing as Boko started to look alarmed. “That was a joke—Rittan.”

“I’ve yet to see any,” Rittan said, amused. “Boko—August is the one responsible for summoning us all from Limbo, one of the many unusual abilities he has access to, and he has agreed to help us bring the rest of our people back.”

Boko turned his gaze upward again, this time to do a quick scan of the horizon.

“An alien who can pull souls out of Limbo? There’s no way the Children of Gaia would let someone like that roam free,” Boko said, bemused. “You should be neck deep in trouble by now—where exactly are we in relation to Hekaton?”

“I’m afraid we have no idea,” Haiko admitted, “Devil’s Nest is an island, presumably somewhere south of Solarvorn, judging by the climate.”

“There are no islands south of Solarvorn,” Boko said, blinking. “You’re right; this is complicated.”

“It gets worse, I’m afraid,” Rittan said, “The island is inhabited by what appears to be escaped experiments from the Automaton Array, and we’ve already had several hostile encounters with them.”

“If we can’t see Hekaton, then we’re far enough away that nothing should have made it to an island that far offshore without help,” Boko said, scratching his cheek. “Someone had to of brought them here—is there a Gaian base setup here somewhere?”

“We don’t know because we’re not in a good position to start searching for anything yet,” Kalter said, waving a hand at the state of the camp behind them. “The best weapon we have right now is wooden spears.”

“Beyond our primitive weapons, we also have some assistance from the monsters that August has tamed,” Haiko said, lifting Ladybug up a fraction. “This is Ladybug—beware, she may look adorable, but she is actually quite terrifying.”

Ladybug trilled at the sound of her name, and Boko tilted his head at the noise.

“I’ve had to deal with things in a similar configuration before, although those ones tried to kill me on sight,” Boko said, leaning down in front of it. “They have a runic system inside that generates the spears that are poking out of the holes; if you deal enough damage to the outer shell, they’ll collapse.”

“This is a different—configuration,” August said, using the Voithos’ word. “They aren’t spears; they’re chains with spikes on the end.”

“Chains?” Boko said, “The old ones would hop around with their spears out and then try to throw themselves at you—how mobile are these ones?”

“Extremely, the forest behind us is full of them, and they’ll swing around the trees attacking anything that catches their eyes.” August said, “Ladybug killed a second one, and I managed to tame it; we’re just waiting for it to regenerate.”

“They regenerate now as well?” Boko said, laughing. “Well, there’s definitely a base here somewhere because I know for a fact that these guys sink in water—the question is; why were they bringing experiments out here to begin with.”

“One of the many questions we seek to answer,” Rittan admitted.

“We’ve only been here for about a week so far, so we’re still trying to build up a proper settlement,” August said, speaking up. “It’s not anything special yet, but you’re welcome to join us.”

“Now that’s the kind of offer I’d be stupid to turn down,” Boko said, clapping his fist into his palm. “Any rules I need to know about?”

August felt most of the group shift towards him, and he grew a bit uneasy at the attention.

“The only real rule we’ve come up with so far is that everyone gets a vote on things that affect the group,” August said, rubbing at the back of his neck. “If you want to set some ground rules for how we behave as a society, that’s something we can go over as a group—tonight?”

“Fine by me,” Kalter said, eyeing him for a moment.

“We even get to set our own rules, huh?” Boko said, sounding interested. “I’ll have to come up with something interesting.”

“Oh dear,” Haiko said, amused.

August looked around at the four of them for a moment and took in just how comfortable they seemed to be in one another’s presence. He wondered if it was due to having hundreds of years of socialisation or if there was just something comforting in being in the company of a member of your own species.

“I’ve got some stuff to deal with before it gets too much later,” August said, swallowing at the direction his thoughts had taken. “I’ll leave you guys to catch up.”

Ladybug hopped up onto Haiko’s shoulder and then used the new height to throw herself across the gap. August stumbled as the cube burst into existence within his mind, and then she landed on his own shoulder.

“Thank you, August,” Rittan said, voice hesitant at his sudden departure.

August held up a hand in a partial wave and headed back towards the camp, doing his best to ignore the tidal wave of longing that was building up in his chest. Maybe, he’d already seen all of the human faces he would ever see, and the rest of his life would be spent just trying not to forget what his friends had looked like.