After a long night of being woken up by the continual noise in the inn, sunrise finally came and I washed up behind the inn before heading out to the Steelheart Company. Where do they get the water from? I wondered. Vehrehr had sewers, clearly, but the freshwater that I had been using and drinking couldn't have been sourced from groundwater. They must collect rain, maybe? But there are no collectors. Groundwater would be saline this close to the coast, so it can't be that. As I walked Koyl came up behind me and slapped me on the shoulder. I knew it was him because nobody else in the town would dare to do something like that.

“Nervous?” he asked with a smile.

“No,” I replied. What were you doing last night that required that much noise? I wanted to ask. The various vocalizations and movement noises coming from Koyl's room had been the first of many sources to keep me awake.

“Just remember, you're a dumb foreigner, and you didn't mean to hurt anybody too badly,” Koyl grinned.

“If you say so,” I replied.

“You're saying that wrong by the way,” Koyl informed me, “if you want to sound convincingly Gwahlaob you have to say it like this...” The next ten minutes as we walked towards the Steelheart Company office were filled with Koyl helping me adjust my accent to sound more like it would if my backstory were true. I hadn't realized just how much I was mispronouncing certain words until Koyl contrasted them for me. The intricacies of how they intone some of these phonemes are baffling, I thought.

Luckily for us, nobody was in the office when we arrived. Unluckily for us that included Dawpvaol, who was nowhere to be found. Koyl and I looked at each other, Koyl shrugged, and I decided to simply wait at the counter until she arrived. Minutes later Dawpvaol emerged from the back room, adjusted her hat, and took her usual spot behind the desk.

“Taking a dump?” Koyl joked.

“If it isn't my two favorite workers,” Dawpvaol said with a touch of dry sarcasm. “It's good that you're on time today. Now, Yuwniht, before we proceed I am going to need you to personally explain and attest to your origins.” My face flickered in surprise. Did Koyl know this was coming? I wondered. “You don't need to explain any of your personal circumstances, but we do need to know your nation of origin, family name, and date of birth.” Shit, I swore internally, I didn't come up with a birthday at all, I don't even know the names of the months they use here.

“I have no family name,” I said, “I don't know my date of birth either.” Dawpvaol narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

“You sound different from yesterday,” she noted.

“Koyl was helping me overcome my accent,” I explained quickly, “I wasn't aware of just how difficult I was to understand until recently.” Dawpvaol's eyes stayed narrowed but the rest of her didn't react, a good sign.

“Where are you from?” she asked.

“Yahn Gwah,” I replied, “I was born in a small village to a Gwahlaob mother. My father was a foreign mercenary so I never knew him, nor did I take his name. I never learned to read or write, and once I was old enough I left and eventually stowed away on a ship, then washed up on shore here after being kicked off when I was found.” Dawpvaol's hand was rapidly scribbling notes onto a piece of paper while she continued to observe me.

“Mother's family name?” she asked. I froze, trying to come up with an answer. Koyl said that English sounds like the language of Yahn Gwah right? I remembered, The patriarch in Suwlahtk also said that English had too many hissing sounds, which I assume are aspirated consonants, to be Gwahlaob. So if I just pick a word that doesn't have many aspirated consonants I should be good.

“Android?” I suggested. I made it sound like I wasn't entirely sure that I was remembering it correctly.

“Aenjroyd?” Dawpvaol asked, “that doesn't sound Gwahlaob.” My stomach tightened as my body registered its response to my own tension.

“I'm sorry,” I replied, “she died when I was young. I don't really remember what her name was. That was a word I remember her calling me sometimes, so I thought it might be what you were looking for.” For a moment there was a flash of emotion on Dawpvaol's face. Sadness? I thought unsurely, Why would she be sad?

“Do you remember any other words?” Dawpvaol asked. “I might be able to identify which one was the name.” Damn it just drop it, I griped.

“Drone, Infiltrator, Killer, Soldier, Enemy, Spy, Robot, Machine...” I rattled off many words that warbreed had used to refer to my kind, as well as some that my own commanders had used.

“Hmm,” Dawpvaol grunted, “I suppose we can just put down Lihyveyz if you want. Some of those words I don't think I would be able to spell out in Uwrish.”

“That means... nameless?” I asked. “If that is an acceptable answer to your questions I would be willing to accept that.” Another flash of sadness crossed her face, then Dawpvaol wrote a word on the page in front of her.

“Now, when were you born?” She asked.

“The anniversary of my birth was around twenty days ago,” I replied, “as for years, I am thirty-one years old.” I couldn't recall exactly how long I had been on the island, but it felt like less than a month when I envisioned it. Dawpvaol nodded and wrote more information down on her paper, then slid it to the side.

“Sorry for that, but we do need some information about the people we allow to be guards,” Dawpvaol said. “Now, as for the resolution of the issue you caused yesterday: You will work, at two-thirds of the original pay rate, as a guard at the east office until a suitable replacement is found for your position. When such a replacement is found you will relinquish the position and become ineligible for another guard position at that location for a duration of five years. Is this acceptable to you?” I blinked, an unconscious response to my surprise.

“Yes,” I said.

“Koylzmeyl,” Dawpvaol called out over my shoulder, “you're going too, but you're only getting paid half of the original rate.” Koyl perked up when he was told that he would be working, but then frowned when he heard the word “half”.

“Screw that,” he scoffed, “I'll do no such thing.”

“You'll do it if you want to ever work at Steelheart again,” Dawpvaol lectured, “Your appeal was denied, you are in bad standing with the company. I only managed to get you this opportunity because Thaajh was injured badly enough to not be able to serve as the second guard for the location.” Koyl hissed and rolled his eyes.

“So you use me for cheap labor then you'll kick me out afterwards,” he grumbled. Dawpvaol pulled out another paper from her desk.

“If you do it, you will be granted access to a limited set of contract jobs upon completion,” she said. “The conditions are that you must not be the sole worker or the leader of the group. It's here on this paper, you can read it if you want to.” Koyl reluctantly walked over and read the sheet of scribbles. He tried his best to look unimpressed, but my trained eye could see that he was excited.

“Got it boss,” he chuckled, “you need a print on that?” Dawpvaol placed the thumb-poking device in front of Koyl, who eagerly pressed into it then left a smear on the paper. She then put another sheet in front of me, and I did the same. Do they examine those prints manually? I wondered. I had never heard of fingerprint analysis being done without a computer, but I supposed it was possible.

Guard work was extremely boring. At least, that is what I assumed about it by the amount of fidgeting and sighing that Koyl did while he and I stood outside the east office doors looking intimidating. When we arrived, Thaajh gruffly handed me a medal to affix to my armor then shooed me out of the office. Koyl emerged fifteen minutes later wearing a tattered-looking studded leather breastplate of Steelheart Company design and a familiar-looking sword on his hip. He had started talking to me almost immediately, but an irate Thaajh soon burst out of the door and slapped him with his remaining hand after telling him to be quiet. Evidently, Thaajh had either lost the hand or removed it of his own volition.

Halfway between noon and sunset Thaajh emerged, gave Koyl and me bread and water to eat, and demanded it be consumed as quickly as possible. I had no trouble eating the entire small loaf in three bites and gulping down the water in under a minute, but Koyl was berated for being slow by Thaajh before he went back inside. “Npoyt,” Koyl muttered once he was out of earshot, then briefly flinched as a thump came from inside the building that sounded like Thaajh walking back out.

Sundown came and Thaajh eventually emerged from the building, telling Koyl to give back the gear he had been lent and ripping the Steelheart medal off of my armor. The action was intended to provoke me for some reason, but I had long since decided not to respond to such things like most humans would because it would result in further trouble for me down the line. It's better if my human persona is known to be more passive so long as I can get enough money to leave this island, I reasoned, it may help avoid conflict in the future. Koyl left the office and we headed back to the inn, with Koyl ranting in very flowery language about how much he disliked Thaajh the entire way back.

“So I have to ask,” Koyl said loudly over the noise of the inn's dining room, “do you just not feel pain or what?” Yehpweyl was quite busy and unable to entertain Koyl's desire for social interaction, so unfortunately he had taken to poking and prodding at me while we ate. In response, I quickly reached across the table and lightly stabbed his hand with my meat knife. “Agh, damn it that hurt,” Koyl exclaimed angrily.

“How badly?” I asked. In response, Koyl stabbed my hand with his meat knife. I didn't even flinch. I could feel my body telling me that my hand was damaged, and I could feel the hot prickly sensation of my rapid healing fixing that damage, but the strength of the pain was far below my threshold. Koyl frowned when he saw no response from me. “I felt that,” I said.

“Yeah but that's not the same thing,” Koyl sighed. “You sat there and just stared at me the whole time. You didn't even blink.”

“Do it again,” I said. Koyl shrugged and stabbed my hand again. Unlike before, I recoiled and hissed, then groaned and clutched the bleeding appendage, gritting my teeth and sucking in air through them while flexing the muscles in my face. Koyl watched me with a mixture of curiosity and worry, though he probably didn't intend the second emotion to show. “Better?” I asked flatly, dropping the act and putting my hand back on the table.

“That's freakish,” Koyl muttered.

The second day of guarding went much like the first, except with light rain throughout the day. We showed up, I put the medal on, Koyl put the armor and weapon on, and we stood in place outside the door. Koyl experimented with what was audible to Thaajh and what wasn't, earning himself several smacks to the head, and eventually found a level of whisper that he could use to talk without alerting Thaajh. I, meanwhile, actually did my job as it was described to me and kept my eyes on the passerby. This is the fourteenth time in two days that man has passed by, I noted, it's always from the same direction.

“It's too quiet,” Koyl whispered. I glanced over at him and he looked nervous, eyes shifting from alley to alley.

“Just keep quiet for now,” I said, “nobody here is a threat to us at the moment.” Koyl blew air out through his nose as a reply, an indication of stress.

“If there were any normal visitors to the office it would at least feel normal,” Koyl muttered.

That night when Thaajh came to relieve us I told him about the man who I had seen passing by repeatedly, and though he was clearly still angry with me he nodded and muttered something about looking into it. As Koyl and I walked back to the inn I described the man to him as well as I could: Black hair, short black goatee, orange or red eyes, skin slightly darker than average for the region but still light, tattered tunic, no visible armaments. It was a poor description because so many people shared it, but it was the best we had. Thaajh did suspect that someone was trying to kill him when we met him, I thought, It would be best to remain vigilant.

Koyl was much quieter when we ate supper than he was the night before, and there were no sounds of any kind from his room during the night.