Frontier Town Sun Stone Saloon

[Jackie Cat]

"I never did thank you for the body, I think?" However that worked. It was familiar, and somehow felt like him. "It's uh... nice." Even if he hadn't evolved yet. For some reason. Maybe he should ask Betel...

Betel bobbed brightly at Koa, their chassis glowing softly. "I am so pleased to hear that! I do hope you choose to evolve before the end of your time here, Koamaru. I would like to see you as a Manectric!"

“Yooo, Betey! We meet in the flesh, at last! Or, well, in the flesh and solid, virtual, holographic, huh… divine substance? Whatever you’re, um, made of?” She giggled heartily and wagged her tail. “So! I’ve heard you could get a new body? Are you excited to find out what you could do once you’re 100% more awesome?!”

"MY body is made mostly of synthetic polymers and aluminium," answered Betel, in a chipper tone. "Although there are all sorts of other metals, glass, silicon-ceramic composites, rare earths... all suffused with considerable amounts of Radiance, of course. I would hesitate to use the word 'divine'; I certainly don't believe myself to be worthy of such an adjective!"

The little bird-bot made a chirping, electronic sound that might've been laughter.

"To tell you the truth, Lyra, I am more than a little nervous about what comes next. I am accustomed to be an observer and a conduit—Powehi's challenge demands that I be an active participant. I cannot help but feel some trepidation!"

"Did someone blow the place up? What did I miss?"

Laura cleared her throat and nodded upwards to Nova. "Articuno blew up Arthur's office, I guess? I think they held an emergency roundtable and basically dissolved most of the Covenant's institutions. The Knights still exist, I know that much, but everything's changing and Arthur's been outed as a fraud and everything, so... I don't know. It's kinda blown up, yeah."

They hadn't stuck around to participate properly, but Laura had the feeling the Wayfarers were no longer members of the Covenant in any way, whatever the Covenant even was at this point...

"That's not fair. Nobody else is getting 'more like they were before'. If they're letting you stay here to help until we're done then they shouldn't make it harder for you."

Betel sighed with a whir of their cooling fans. "It is a consequence of the Blacklight in Nova's aura. Your souls are asserting themselves on the world–the 'rules' of his world are taking precedence over the 'rules' of this one. It is a peculiar quality of combining the two energies that they allow one to directly alter reality in this way, even involuntarily. You all may be experiencing lesser forms of this phenomenon in various ways, including greater recollection of your personal histories."

Laura nodded numbly, clutching her drink. She'd been starting to suspect her memories had been blanked out not long into her journey back home, and they'd been opening up in recent weeks. She had a nasty feeling she knew what had happened to Salem after all.