Seres was experiencing a new emotion, which would have been very exciting if not for what that emotion was.

  Frustration.

  When she was only a few hours away from Captain Mummy Mikayla and First Mate Daddy Keldryn's location, they had suddenly started moving towards her through the air. For a minute she'd believed that they had seen her, that they were coming to meet her. But they'd flown straight overhead without even slowing down. So naturally she had changed direction and gone to catch up.

  And then they'd turned back, and returned to the place they had come from.

  It was annoying.

  It was very annoying.

  But it was fine. She was less than a day's travel from the site, after all.

  There was a noise. Footsteps, but too loud to be footsteps. Stomp steps.

  An unknown entity was approaching. She scanned her surroundings. The trees obstructed her visibility, but she could identify faint motions.

  The vibrations of the stomps could have allowed her to detect the direction the entity was approaching from. But it hadn't occured to her to put tactile sensors in her frame's feet.

  That would have to be fixed.

  There was a loud noise. Her database categorised it as a 'roar'. The entity had announced its presence.

  She had a visual lock on it now. It was approaching. Its body was similar to hers, with two legs, gripper arms, and a long tail. But it had a much larger head and more teeth than she could accurately count, as well as a massive crest growing out of its back. What purpose did those features serve? Should she imitate them?

  The entity drew to a halt, sizing her up.

  "Hello. I am Seres. How can I help you today?"

  The entity did not respond in any intelligible way. It just glared at her, then stomped on the ground. There was a tremor underneath her feet.

  And a sharp pillar of metal appeared out of the ground and impaled her.

  It ripped through her circuits, severing her connection to large parts of her frame. Warnings ran through her mind. Her functionality was impaired. It was highly distressing.

  Was this what humans referred to as 'pain'?

  The fact that a spike had appeared out of nowhere in exactly the right place to critically damage her was illogical. It was impossible. That meant it was time to update her understanding of what was possible. This was probably a result of the stomp that the entity had done but she needed to verify that. How could she verify that? It probably wasn't possible. The entity had resisted her attempt to communicate.

  The entity was drawing closer. Its mouth was opening wide. With her visual sensors, Seres counted sixty-four teeth. Was that the optimal number?

  Oh. It was biting her head. So that was what the teeth were for.

  More warnings appeared in her mind. More 'pain'. She struggled, but half of her actuators failed to respond. The other half were ineffectual. Her spikes carved shallow wounds into the entity's flesh, but it was undeterred.

  She didn't understand why the entity was attacking her. There was no meat in her frame. She attempted to explain that with her audio emitters, but the entity did not acknowledge her in any way that she could detect.

  It took several minutes of being gnawed on from every angle before the entity had concluded that it was unable to eat her. So she watched it leave, stomping away, abandoning Seres in the spot where it had impaled her to the ground, covered in holes and bite marks that would take a long time to repair.

  She set her nanites to begin repairs, but that only occupied a fraction of her processing power. She had nothing else to do but think about what the entity had done to her.

  It had hurt her. It had made her unable to move. Unable to reunite with Captain Mummy Mikayla. And she didn't even understand why. All she could do was work at the arduous process of repairing herself, while ruminating on how she would prevent this from happening again.

  And so it was that Seres learned what it was like to hate.

  <=====}—o

  "So. Flyreh let the Rainbow Ouroboros slip through his fingers,"

  The speaker was inhumanly tall, draped in a long and flowing cloak. His only distinguishing features were the bestial talons emerging from his sleeves and the icy blue eyes peering through the shadows of his hood.

  "At least he didn't have the guts to come and face us after his failure," The woman to his right was dressed similarly, but had her hood pulled back, revealing pink skin, silver hair and thick, spiralling horns growing from her forehead.

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  "Only because the fool got himself killed. He was one of yours, Segam, have you got anything to say?" The third speaker at the table was grotesquely rotund, and his seat creaked every time the mass contained within his bulging robes shifted.

  The fourth and final member of their council glanced at the messenger who had brought them the news, then waved her hand to dismiss him. "Flyreh's failure is vexing, but we can recover from it,"

  "Oh, really?" The horned woman quirked an eyebrow. "You know where to find another god of teamwork? Can't believe there was even one in the first place,"

  "There are alternatives. You would do well to trust in the expertise of one older and wiser than you, Ruogang," Segam coolly retorted.

  The rotund man cleared his throat. "There's another issue,"

  "Is it the weight limit of your chair, Roseau?" Ruogang simpered.

  Roseau glared at her, trying to fold his arms impassively but not quite managing to get them around his giant gut. "Ahem. I am also concerned by the reports we received about Flyreh and his broad's Ersatzes both failing. Apparently their grafts exploded,"

  "The Ersatz exploding when the host dies isn't a bug, it's a feature," Segam replied.

  "What about when they explode while the host is still alive?"

  Segam looked away. "That one is a bug. We're working on it,"

  "Just saying. There's no point in fixing the grafting process if the product itself is faulty. I'm damn well not going to let you put one of those things in me until I'm certain that it won't explode,"

  "We're in no rush," Segam assured him. "We have plenty of time to work out the kinks,"

  "Indeed," Apostle intervened. "Now, moving on to the other order of business. How is everyone's progress regarding their roles in Project Seven? Mine is advancing at an acceptable rate,"

  "I've got my part sorted. Just have to deal with the bureaucracy," Ruogang rolled her eyes. "It'll be done in six months, tops. Ages before the deadline,"

  "That does not sound 'sorted' to me," Roseau sneered. "My people are performing above and beyond expectations. As expected,"

  Segam let out a slight sigh.

  "Is there an issue, Segam?" Apostle questioned.

  "My part of the operation has suffered setbacks," she grumbled. "The Guardsmen are just too diligent,"

  Ruogang cackled. "You are not on your game, huh?"

  "It's not as though you could do any better. Some of us can't afford to buy anyone who looks at me funny," The hooded woman sounded distinctly flustered, much to Ruogang's amusement.

  Apostle did not move, but the sound of something heavy being slammed down emanated from his hood. "It does not matter," he asserted, regaining control over the table. "Segam, continue your efforts. Under the circumstances, I will delegate organising the operation to recover the backup flesh-grafter to Roseau. I expect you can enlist trustworthy mercenaries without issue?"

  "Won't be a problem," Roseau assured him.

  "Ruogang, maintain your cover and continue your preparations. Assist Segam if you can,"

  "Sure thing, she clearly needs it,"

  "I will not be -" Segam's bluster died half-born when Apostle leered at her.

  "Given your struggles, I would expect additional aid to be welcome. Perhaps Ruogang can help you devise an alternate method to achieve our objectives,"

  "It'd be my pleasure," Ruogang side-eyed the older woman, who had frustration all but leaking out of her ears.

  "That is all for now. Meeting adjourned," Apostle declared. "For the glorious past to become our future," the head of the table ended their meeting with their group's motto.

  "For the glorious past to become our future," Segam and Roseau chorused.

  All three looked at Ruogang, who regarded them all with arms folded. "What? I've told you all before I have no patience for this culty nonsense," She rolled her eyes and stalked away, abandoning the table.

  Roseau glanced at Apostle. "Not to question your judgement, oh great one," he drawled in a tone that sounded a lot like he was questioning their leader's judgement, "but do we really need her?"

  "She vexes me too, but yes, we do,"

  <=====}—o

  Go Big To Go Home will be continued in Book 2: Moonlight Rose.