“Edlier Trule would have helped if he was still around; his odd fascination with us was quite well known,” Haiko said, tapping a finger to her chin. “Junil Eltis was already helping us prior to the decommissioning—and at great personal risk, considering how close she was to the situation—so provided her Rebirth hasn’t changed her personality too much, I imagine she would help us again.”

Edlier Trule? Another name that he hadn’t heard before, and one that meant all of nothing to him—August was starting to develop something of a collection, honestly.

“Junil would help,” Melon murmured. “I know she would.”

“There was that Gaian reporter that was always taking shots at Alown Enterprises and writing about their ‘treatment’ of us,” Boko said, tilting his head. “I can’t remember her name, but she was willing to align with the Voithos publically, so I imagine she would probably help in private.”

“Julia Shio,” Rittan said, nodding. “I remember reading some of her articles.”

There was a long pause as the group seemed to be wracking their brains for more suggestions before Kalter spoke up.

“Kanota, a mercenary from Cloudvale that lived on the 58th floor of Hekaton—he’d do just about anything so long as you paid him well,” Kalter said, speaking slowly. “He had more than one chance to turn us in, but even when the bounty ended up being worth more than we were paying him, he never did.”

“So there are a few people who we could contact if we decided to risk it,” August said, checking on his skewers. “What do you think would happen if we did reach out and it went badly—or someone else found the message, and it fell into the hands of the kind of people we really don’t want it to.”

“You’d end up on a table in some lab to be studied and dissected while we’d all end up back in Limbo,” Kalter said without pause. “That’s what would happen.”

“That sounds about right,” Boko agreed. “That’s part of why I want to start investigating the rest of the island as soon as possible—because if there is a Gaian base here somewhere, then we might be closer to being discovered than we think.”

That little revelation seemed to put them all on edge, and August wasn’t quite sure what to think about it. From what they’d told him, the Gaians had drones and cameras and recorded nearly about everything—if there was a base here, then they’d have some form of security watching it, surely, and he doubted it would have missed them.

“If there is a base here, then it should have a whole host of active rune systems—we might be able to create a simple rune system that looks for other active systems in the area,” Melon said, a bit hesitant. “I wouldn’t be able to do it by myself, but if—if you are able to activate it, then we could pinpoint where the base is, at least if it’s within a certain radius.”

“Would that trigger any kind of alarm?” August asked.

“We’re not trying to interfere with anything or shut it down—” Melon said, shaking her head. “It would be a simple detection task, something which happens from the outside, external to the system.”

“Sounds like one of those mana sensors they gave us sometimes when the experiments had a stealth trait,” Boko wondered, “Could you carve it into something we could carry around—that way, we could go for a walk around and see if it picks anything up.”

“Yes,” Melon admitted. “But I would need—um—his assistance to make sure everything is working and to actually use it in the first place.”

It wasn’t quite his name, but she was clearly trying, at least.

“I’ve been pretty interested in all these runes since I first saw them—getting to see how they actually work is a pretty good motivator, honestly,” August said, eyeing the meat on his skewer. “I’m completely at your service, Melon—”

“Don’t say that,” Melon said, sucking in a sharp breath. “You can’t be at my service—”

“Oh no, she’s already telling you what to do,” Haiko said, amused. “You might be in some serious trouble, August.”

“I wasn’t telling him what to do,” Melon protested. “That’s not at all what I meant—you didn’t let me finish.”

“So he can be at your service?” Haiko said, covering her mouth with one hand. “Melon.”

The way Haiko was saying it had given the whole thing an edge that had been entirely absent before she’d spoken up—what an absolute menace.

“No,” Melon managed. “He can’t.”

August cleared his throat in an attempt to regain control over the conversation.

“I was indicating that I’m available to work on the rune stuff whenever you wanted to start,” August said before Haiko could derail them any further. “Not whatever you two are talking about right now—that’s entirely beyond my comprehension.”

Haiko leaned over and overtly whispered something in her ear; the volume was far too low for him to hear what was being said—but it caused Melon to turn and look at him in alarm as if he was somehow the one at fault.

“If there is a base on Devil’s Nest,” August said, raising his voice in an attempt to drag everyone kicking and screaming back on topic. “What is our plan then—to stay away from it or actually investigate?”

“It depends on what we find, really, but if there is something, we could potentially get our hands on some seriously useful equipment,” Boko said, “Weapons, for one thing, which could give us an upper hand when dealing with all these experiments—but if we’re lucky enough to find something that is completely abandoned, we might even be able to live there.”

“You’re right,” August said, ignoring Haiko’s continued whispering. “Some kind of military base would have far more infrastructure to support us as well—although I suppose that comes with the increased risk of being discovered.”

“Which is why we’ll have to be very, very careful about how we interact with anything we do find,” Boko said in agreement. “If they’ve got some kind of connection to Solarvorn, we might even be able to figure out what they’re all up to at Hekaton.”

Actually having some sort of lens into what the shadowy mass of Gaians was doing might give them some insight as to why he’d been brought here—they just needed to manage it without alerting anyone in the process.

“What’s the general consensus on contacting someone from Hekaton?” August asked. “Hands up for no contact—with the option to revisit the decision in the future if it ever becomes a more attractive choice.”

Kalter, Boko, Rittan, Haiko and August all put their hands up—and then, after a long moment in which Haiko continued to whisper in her ear, Melon joined the vote.

“Unanimous,” Rittan said, impressed. “I’m glad to see we’re all on the same page, at least for this issue in particular.”

“United in our defiance,” Haiko said, the amusement clear in her voice. “We’ve become such a motley bunch of troublemakers since we arrived in Devil’s Nest—perhaps this place is the birthplace of trouble.”

“Even if it was,” August said, “I’m almost certain the devil known as Haiko hatched long before she ever reached the nest.”

Haiko seemed to find that to be the funniest thing in the world because she descended into giggles before she deliberately collapsed onto Melon, taking the other girl to the ground along with her, a squawk of protest on her victim’s lips. Rittan seemed to find some humour in it all as well because when he spoke up, there was a bit of laughter in his voice.

“Cunning? Certainly—but evil?” Rittan wondered, “I’m not sure she’s quite that bad.”

“Agree to disagree,” August hedged.

Day Ten End.