Chương 55: On the Shoulders of Giants 5

The displaced trio spent the next lunar day in New Dragunov, over the course of which they learned a great many things. One of those was that Katya absolutely loved to show off. What started as 'orientation' quickly devolved into her just flaunting her technological knowledge and achievements. She was quite a lot like Fizzy in that regard, as well as numerous others. Them being self-absorbed Artificers that inhabited inorganic bodies were the obvious ones.

Beyond that, both women were ambitious, prideful, and held a general disdain for the unwashed masses. They were getting along quite nicely, though the golem was just putting on the old 'smile and nod' routine. The two of them were far too similar for her to believe anything Katya said or showed them. On the more practical side of things, Fizzy and Orrin were able to learn a good deal about these 'gremlins.' Their host had a bevy of audio and visual recordings documenting what she had learned about them.

It wasn't exactly an exhaustive study, but the provided materials served to give her guests an idea of what they would be dealing with. To briefly summarize, Katya had no idea when or how the gremlins got on Tascuna, but they've been there far, far longer than she has. In that time they had developed their own language and a stone-centric magic Job, both of which were unknown on Terrania. Technologically they were quite primitive despite their observed aptitude for mechanical engineering.

It seemed as though they had collectively chosen to abstain from advancing their society through science and maintained a basic, rural lifestyle that was in balance with their environment. In terms of population there were an estimated one to three hundred thousand of them spread across the moon's surface in many small tribes. The ones that kept Katya from her precious power crystal were barely a few thousand, and she expressed no qualms about slaughtering the lot of them if she had the means to do it.

Therein lay the issue. The aforementioned Job's Spells had to do with manipulating rock and stone to a far greater extent than Shamans or Druids. They could also generate and control magnetic fields and pitch-perfect vibrations, which were highly effective against Katya's automatons. It was almost as if the magic in question was specifically designed to dismantle metallic constructs, which was quite strange considering there were none on Tascuna before the Original Artificer arrived.

She would know - she had her flying machines scan for such things when she was first setting up shop. To make matters worse for the otherworlder, the locals had been able to further refine their combat tactics after numerous skirmishes against the Iron Curtain - Katya's moniker for her army of war machines.

"Excuse me, Miss Dragunova?" It was at this point in the orientation tour that Orrin decided to ask something that had been weighing over him since his arrival on Tascuna. He and Fizzy were currently in a meeting room full of video screens that Katya had been using for her presentations. Or perhaps 'propaganda' was a more accurate word considering how hard she tried to portray the moon-gnomes as unenlightened monsters. The Priest was rather desperate to change the topic to something a bit less… discriminatory.

"I told you. Call me Katya. But yes, you have a question?"

"I am quite curious as to the Astral Nail in your Vault. The one we arrived at was clearly your iteration on my ancestors' designs, but that first one was without a doubt the genuine article. Might I ask when and how it fell into your possession?"

"Ah, that thing. I don't remember the specifics, but I got eet in exchange for letting some giant refugees live een my city. I think I still have the contract in the archive somewhere." That didn't surprise him. Orrin's people had technically been in Dragunov since their exile from Percepeia. It just hadn't been a significant presence until the Priest joined and started rallying others to do so. It would make sense that their presence was presaged by some agreement with the settlement's de-facto founder.

However, that did little to answer what was really bothering him, so he decided to just come out and say it.

"For what purpose, might I ask?" Why would an Artificer - the Artificer - need a device created by the estranged people of a dead land?

"I needed to get to the moon, and that was the safest way to do it," she shrugged.

"Still a significant challenge. Reverse engineering that thing was not easy, neither was getting my version up here. I succeeded, of course, otherwise we would not be having this conversation."

"Quite so, quite so." He had no reason to doubt her claim given the results, though something about it still rubbed him the wrong way. Then again, that could be said of Ekaterina Dragunova as a whole. She was as alien as one could get, even more so than these 'gremlins' she had a beef with.

"I have a question for you, as well."

"Of course, Miss Dragunova. What is it?"

"Katya," she insisted.

"If I am understanding things correctly, you are a descendant of those refugees?"

"Potentially. I grew up an orphan and never knew my parents, but all things considered it is very likely that I am."

"But you do live in Old Dragunov?"

"We just call it Dragunov, but yes."

"And how are things over there?"

"Quite well, as I understand it. Full of gnomes, productivity, and Artificers trying to catch up to you."

"And my Regulator?"

"Regulator? Oh, the weather machine?" It was one of several names people had for that central tower, though most common folk just called it the Spire.

"Yes. Eet still stands?"

"Oh, yes. Very much so. Might I say every citizen, including myself and my flock, are ever thankful for it. Some might argue it goes against nature, but the endless spring and sunny skies have done wonders for our morale and our faith."

"Hmpf. You're lucky eet still exists," she turned her nose up.

"Now eef we are done with the diversions, let's continue planning your expedition into gremlin territory." Katya turned her attention back to the map on the giant video screen and resumed downright telling Orrin and Fizzy what they would be doing and where they would be going. Up to a point, of course. Apparently the area surrounding this power crystal she wanted was a dense jungle saturated with electromagnetic interference.

There was only so much guidance and support she could offer before her equipment, including communication devices, stopped working altogether. The giant was diligently taking notes while Fizzy just kind of spaced out in place. She wasn't too sure she liked the bossy and demanding tone this woman used, so she just fell into her old habit of thinking up things to tinker with. Some might consider this terribly irresponsible, but she had already asked a certain someone to pay attention to Katya in her stead.

Speaking of which, that individual had just made a curious observation.

"That's weird." Hm? What's up, Plus?

"Just now Katya said she was surprised the Spire was still there." And?

"It's a bit weird, isn't it?" She hasn't seen it in, like, a century. A lot of things can happen in that time.

"Sure, but we're talking about someone who, A - has a super high opinion of herself and her work, and B - builds stuff that lasts. Not just the Spire and her Vault, either." What are you getting at?

"The way she spoke implied she expected her tower to not be standing, and since she obviously doesn't make things designed to fail, I suspect she planned to topple it herself. Maybe make it explode like with the Vault or something, along with a whole bunch of her other stuff." Fizzy doubted this conjecture at first. Even if Katya was lacking in the ethics department, it seemed doubtful she'd tear down everything she had built up and potentially slaughter a bunch of people in the process.

That was something Boxxy would do, not a rational human being. Then again, they were talking about someone who rigged almost all her creations with self-destruct devices and had a reputation for being ruthless besides. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility that she'd want to wipe the slate clean just to piss off the Kingdom's nobility. That or she just hated the idea of others benefiting from her work without her say-so, or perhaps she didn't want her designs used against her.

Whatever her intentions, this matter boiled down to one question - was Ekaterina Dragunova petty and selfish enough to sacrifice thousands for the sake of protecting her intellectual property? The answer to that, based on what Fizzy had seen today, was a firm 'probably.' After that brief moment of mental deliberation the golem had to agree with her unusually perceptive alter ego that there might not be a Ritz for her to return to, thereby rendering this whole thing a complete waste of time.

Worse still, Fizzy might have unintentionally helped Katya fulfill her catastrophic contingencies. You don't think that button I unstuck did something more than just blow up the Vault, do you?

"I wouldn't be surprised, to be honest." Great. Just great! The golem performed the mental equivalent of a sigh. I suppose we don't need to worry about that until we get back. Until then I'm just going to hope and pray that you're reading too much into a few words.

"That's the spirit!" Nothing else of particular note happened for the rest of the lunar day. Katya kept flaunting her stuff and dispensing selective information. Orrin took it all with a grain of salt and made notes. Fizzy continued to rely on Plus and paid very little attention unless it was about machinery. As for Tony, he wasn't there at all. The hob expressed a firm desire to not be talked down to and asked if he could just go outside for a stroll. Not within New Dragunov itself, but the surrounding area.

It was heavily deforested to the point where the only plants around were moss and grass, but it was a far sight more comfortable place for the Shaman to kill some time. Fizzy agreed and Katya kept an eye on him via one of her flying drones, though it was quite clear the cause of this surveillance was distrust rather than concern. With the sun setting and night descending once more, the group gathered in their rooms to compare some notes and go over the plan for tomorrow.

It was a fairly simple endeavor in which the goal was to simply familiarize themselves with the target region and make contact with the locals. The area being an overgrown jungle was a bit strange considering life seemed rather sparse on Tascuna. Aside from the moon-roaches, of course. Or biters, as Katya called them. Apparently the ones Fizzy's group encountered were the most basic of drones, the bug equivalent of farmers.

The soldiers of the species were far, far more dangerous if the otherworlder's information was accurate. The way she told it, once her operation got their attention it took her a full year of constant fighting to finally push the biters out of the territory she'd claimed. It wasn't as if she'd eradicated them all, just that they figured out it wasn't worth it to contest with a mountain of meatless murder machines.

The two sides have since taken on an unsigned non-aggression pact, but not before the bugs developed a crippling and well-warranted phobia of her radioactive waste. The roaches that lived in the depths beneath that jungle, however, were far less amicable. The overabundance of life meant the biter colony in the region was quite a sizable one. This presence made it extremely ill-advised to travel there at night when the bugs were most active.

Even during the day it was a good idea to keep a low profile and avoid making a lot of noise. This struck Fizzy as odd considering Katya's lumber-bot had a sonic weapon, but perhaps the bugs' sensitivity to sound could be exploited to stun them. It worked well enough on all the meatbags. Morning came and the trio were flown out to Biome 14-E, as Katya had designated it. The cargo helicopter touched down in a small clearing at the edge of the jungle.

After offloading its passengers the vehicle took off lest it come under attack, and would return within minutes once they gave the signal. Speaking of signals, Katya gave each of them a communication device in the shape of a badge pinned to their chests. It would allow the team to talk to her and each other at a distance, though warned them these would cease to function once they ventured deep enough. Which was where the three of them headed almost immediately.

Tony, being the one most at home in this lush environment, scouted ahead of the group while the golem and the giant trampled their way through the dense foliage. As one might expect from a jungle, it was hot, humid, and riddled with bugs - the tiny, winged, disease-spreading kind. The group also encountered the occasional sentient shrub that shuffled around like a blob of leaves and thorns, trying to engulf and swallow anything in its path.

They weren't exactly dangerous due to their slow movements, but annoying to deal with since physical attacks didn't do much and that was the group's main way of dealing damage. Thankfully between the Shaman's underdeveloped fire Spells and Orrin's Holy Bolt incantation the hungry bushes were dispatched in short order. After about an hour of steady progress and encountering a few more plant-based monstrosities, Katya's badges began to crack and fizzle constantly.

It was a sign that the trio was now entering the gremlins' part of the jungle. They turned off the devices lest they distract them and proceeded at a slower, more careful pace. Seeing as they were now firmly out of earshot of their 'gracious host,' Fizzy decided to share some concerns with her companions. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Hold on a second. We need to talk."

"What's up, boss?" the goblin squatted down next to her.

"I assume this is about Katya?" Orrin picked up on her intent.

"Mhm. By this point it should be clear there's a non-zero chance she's gonna stab us in the back at some point."

"I would not be surprised."

"Oh, yeah. De white bitch be too big for her bolts."

"Before that happens, we need to figure out where her real body is. The one we've been talking to isn't it, likely just a remote-controlled automaton." If that white-and-black polymer doll was the real Ekaterina Dragunova, then both Fizzy and Orrin would clearly feel the taint of Taboo from her. The golem did not know for sure whether the otherworlder was indeed branded a heretic, but she saw no way that could not be the case.

That mystox stuff was her creation, and she even admitted to trying to use it on these 'gremlins' in an effort to get rid of them. Not to mention that Spire of hers that warped the weather to her designs. It was inconceivable that she didn't have multiple violations of Zephyra's divine decree to safeguard the environment. Neither Orrin nor Tony doubted Fizzy's deductions since she was the most knowledgeable about the subject of automata, but this revelation spawned a myriad of questions.

"How do you propose we do that?" the Priest voiced the big one.

"I doubt she will allow us to wander her compound unsupervised."

"I'm still working on that. I have some ideas but until I know more we'll need to keep going on these expeditions using whatever excuse we can manage. Speaking of which, there's one more thing you need to know, but she doesn't. I already ran into two of the locals."

"You did?! When?" This was news to Orrin, though the hob did not seem all that surprised. Or he didn't care. Hard to tell with him, honestly.

"About three hours before Katya contacted us. They ambushed me using the same magic and weaponry we were shown, then retreated when they realized they couldn't win. Didn't say a single word the whole time. I suspect they will attempt the same, so keep your eyes peeled."

"Oh-hoh-ho!" Tony chuckled wickedly.

"De midgets wanna play de sneaky game? I show dem a thing or two." Unfortunately for the hob's bravado, the locals beat him to the punch almost immediately. Without warning, the trio was beset on all sides as heat beams and spike-shaped stones rained upon them. Thankfully the attacks were focused on the golem, whose mithril hide shrugged off the brunt of the assault.

The other two deployed defensive Spells as soon as they could - a wall of turbulent winds to throw off the projectiles and a barrier of divine energy to absorb the lasers. Fizzy recovered from the surprise attack moments later and reached for one of the anti-gremlin countermeasures she threw together the day before.

"Flash-and-bash!" The hob and the Priest covered their eyes moments before the golem's flashbang doused the area in its blinding light. A series of startled yelps and screams emerged from the surrounding foliage. Tony then plied his soil-shifting abilities to sink into the ground. There was a thunderous quake moments later as part of the jungle just sank, trapping four of the assailants under a ton of dirt.

Orrin let loose with his own, magicalal equivalent of Fizzy's flashbang, catching any gnomes that avoided the first one. The golem meanwhile plunged into the direction of the closest shouts. The sneaky buggers were in the trees, but she did not hesitate to ram into one shoulder-first. The trunk shook and wobbled violently like rubber. Though it did not break, it served to shake loose the meatbags hiding in it and drop them down within wrenching distance.

"Hearken unto me, ye sons of Tascuna!" the Priest shouted.

"Lay down thine arms, and no harm shall come to ye! Axel's Armistice!" The power of the God of War and Combat answered the giant's call. It manifested as countless chains of red light that swarmed out from Orrin's golden staff like rattling snakes of steel. They spread through the air and darted around the battlefield. Whenever Fizzy's wrench or Tony's axes struck a fatal blow, the mystical bindings would instantly wrap around and stabilize their victims.

The defeated gnomes were thus left alive, yet unable to fight. Those that discarded their weapons and fled were met with the same treatment. The resulting chaos lasted for about a minute before all the hostiles were subdued. Though this grand Spell was meant to preserve life in the face of armed conflict, it was not all powerful. It could not save those who died from crushed skulls or severed necks. Naturally such powerful magic demanded a hefty price. In this instance, the tithe was both mana and life.

Once the dust settled, Orrin was left kneeling, gasping, and bleeding from multiple wounds inflicted upon him by his own Spell. Fizzy and Orrin emerged from the foliage shortly afterwards, each of them dragging several of the magically bound prisoners. The gnomes were thrown onto a pile, after which the golem saw to the giant's wounds. He would've done that himself if Axel's Armistice didn't burn all of his remaining MP in addition to taxing his flesh.

"That worked out alright," the Paladin remarked.

"I had my doubts when you suggested this yesterday, but I guess I underestimated you."

"Was a nice plan, I guess," Tony grumbled.

"I still think we should just kill de lot, send a message we're not to be messed with."

"I'd rather, huff, huff, send one of peace and mercy." Orrin panted as he rose to his feet, his immense stature eliciting a mix of awe and fear from the few conscious captives.

"Our alliance with Dragunova is one of, huff, necessity and convenience. I would rather not seal it in blood."

"Bit late for dat, big guy." The hob smiled wickedly as he lifted up the severed scalp of a gnome. It was safe to assume that its owner did not survive the separation. Orrin glared at him, but did not say anything. Fatalities were inevitable. It would be foolhardy to think otherwise. He had simply done his best to limit the loss of life over a shiny rock. The ten gnomes that still lived were a sight better than the zero that would have survived otherwise.

Of course, there were tangible advantages to taking them alive besides it being the right thing to do. The Priest walked over and squatted near one of them, causing the little guy to whimper and cower in response.

"Easy now, friend. Though we defended ourselves, we did not mean you harm."

"Speak for yourself."

"Tony? Shut the fuck up," Fizzy admonished him.

"… Whatever." With the brute silenced, Orrin once again tried to communicate. However, all his attempts to do so ended in failure. Even after the prisoner stopped babbling and started speaking words, his tongue was even more foreign to him than goblin-speak. Such a severe language barrier made it impossible to find any common ground. He expected as much, but he had to at least try.

After the goody-two-shoes Priest had his chance, Fizzy got busy binding the gnomes' limbs with steel shackles before the magical bindings wore off, then nailing those restraints to the trees. Ideally they'd stay put until the golem's group collected them on the way back, but she wouldn't be too bothered even if they all escaped. Fizzy was actually quite disappointed with this lot. Even if her team had prepared and planned for this encounter, she expected a tougher fight based on her first scuffle.

She could only conclude that the pair from back then were elites among the locals and this bunch were just common rabble. If that was the case, then the average Level on Tascuna was significantly lower than Terrania's. This was ostensibly good news since it meant easier wins, but the golem was secretly hoping to push her Metal Golem Job to Level 50 while she had the chance. That wasn't going to happen anytime soon if all she faced was fodder she couldn't even kill.

Perhaps those soldier-class bugs Katya showed her would serve as a more rewarding challenge, but that was a hunt for another day. With the prisoners taken care of, the group forged onward. It only took them a few minutes to discover the gnomes' nearby settlement thanks to the thin wisp of smoke poking up from the treeline. The place was not quite what they expected. The stereotypical thatch huts and fur tents were present, but they were situated around a positively ancient stone pyramid.

This thing looked to be thousands of years old even to someone like Tony. The masonry was not only weathered and cracked, but also covered in vines and moss. The structure itself was remarkably huge, especially by gnomish standards. It stood a good twenty meters tall, its apex poking just above the jungle canopy. There was an entrance at the base of the pyramid that looked barely large enough for Orrin to squeeze into if he hunched over, though he had no such intentions.

Before going inside the potentially trap-riddled ruin, Fizzy decided to investigate the primitive housing around it first. There wasn't a lot of it. This settlement was more of an outpost than a village, with living space for maybe twenty gnomes at most. It was also currently deserted. Either those ambushers were the only residents or some stragglers warned the rest to flee. Impossible to tell for sure. Curiously, though unsurprisingly, the primitives also had a workshop of some kind.

It was full of salvaged parts and scrapped automatons that were being cannibalized to fashion weapons and gadgets. The level of craftsmanship involved was atrocious. From Fizzy's perspective, it was as if a bunch of monkeys started hammering away at shiny bits until they produced something barely functional purely by accident. The golem collected some of the more serviceable articles in her Bag of Holding for future study and directed her attention to the pyramid in the middle of the outpost.

The structure's interior proved to be rather simple to navigate. The hallways, rooms, and stairs beyond the entrance were laid out in an obvious and accessible manner reminiscent of a temple. The countless engravings and murals along the walls reinforced the building's religious significance. However, the weather writing was indecipherable and the crumbling artwork was downright nonsensical. The few intact images seemed to depict dark-skinned gnomes fighting against an army of metal men and losing horribly.

On the surface this seemed like a reference to the Original Artificer's attempts to evict the 'gremlins' from their land, yet the apparent age of these illustrations unquestionably predated her arrival on Terrania by an immense margin. In other words, either these gnomes fought another army of automatons in the distant past, or their clash with Katya was foretold. Both explanations were equally impossible, which Fizzy took as a hint that the God of Gambling was elbow-deep in whatever was actually going on up here.

Eventually the golem reached the top of the pyramid. Orrin was there too, though he opted to climb up the step-like blocks that made up the monument's outer walls. Tony was still searching the tents for anything useful or informative, which was unfortunate. Fizzy could have used the greenskin's Magic Item Savant ability to help identify the clearly mystical obelisk she and the giant were looking at.

The four-sided object was about two meters in height and appeared to be hewn from some dark, reflective mineral reminiscent of obsidian. It had a faint purple glow enveloping it and gave off a constant, low-pitched hum that only became audible within five paces or so.

"Is this the crystal Katya is after?" the giant asked.

"I doubt it. If it was this easy to get, she wouldn't need us."

"Then it's a power crystal, but not the power crystal?"

"Seems like it."

"What purpose do you think it serves?"

"My best guess is this is the source of the anti-Katya interference." The golem saw something that strongly resembled this obsidian obelisk in one of the murals down below. It was surrounded by those metal men, who were depicted as either afraid or repulsed by it. Furthermore, once she came within arm's reach, Fizzy became aware of a ticking within her chest. Her own core seemed to be skipping a beat in response to whatever magical frequency this thing was giving off.

If this was strong enough to mess with her, it probably had a much worse effect on the delicate circuitry of Katya's automata.

"It seems unlikely that an object this small can cover a jungle so vast." Since he had yet to see the aforementioned murals, Orrin naturally expressed some doubt.

"I'm no Enchanter, but I do know that powerful magic needs a suitable vessel, and that… doesn't seem sufficient." It was too small and too fragile, judging by the nicks, cracks, and scratches covering the obelisk's surface.

"That's true, now that you mention it," Fizzy pondered for a moment.

"Which means…" The golem retrieved one of Katya's low-tech gadgets from a pouch - a pair of binoculars. She used them to scan the jungle from her elevated vantage point. It didn't take long for her to catch a glint of something in the distance. Zooming in on that spot a bit further proved her hunch was correct.

"Yep. There's an entire array of them." A quick sweep across the horizon revealed three other obelisks within her line of sight, probably more deeper inside the jungle. It was worth noting that none of the others were atop pyramids, but natural elevations like cliffs and plateaus. Far, far in the distance she could also make out a mountain. A very… fuzzy mountain.

Taking as close a look as she could manage, the golem realized that for some reason looking at that lump of rock made her eyesight blur and flicker slightly. This had some unpleasant implications, but also hinted that this mountain was where Katya's power source was.

"Hey, boss!" Fizzy tore her eyesight away from the horizon and turned it towards the hobgoblin yelling at her from the ground.

"What?!"

"Lookie what I found!" Tony chucked something at her with such speed it was as if he was trying to take her head off. The golem effortlessly snatched the projectile out of the air before it made impact. At first glance it appeared to be a miniature replica of the obelisk carved out of a piece of pale green moon-rock. A swirly sigil of some kind was carved into its square base.

"Nice, huh?" The Shaman's voice then emerged from the tiny object as if he were trapped inside.

"What the- Tony?"

"Down here, boss." Fizzy glanced back towards his direction to see him waving with his prosthetic left hand while his right held an identical trinket up to his face.

"Can you hear me?" she spoke into hers.

"Loud and clear."

"Wow. You were right. This is nice. Are there more?"

"Oh, yeah. Found like, a whole bunch in a box. Figure we could use them when we plot how to bring down de white bitch."

"I like the way you think." These things were almost identical in function to the Original Artificer's communication devices, except they clearly weren't affected by the electromagnetic interference. They could also be compared to the Comm Cubes the Republic's Legions used to coordinate their forces during the war. Main difference was that these rocky-talkies, as Fizzy decided to call them, were far lighter, simpler to use, and easier to conceal.

It was no wonder the locals were so coordinated if they had a surplus of these things. They were likely not as secure, but would serve nicely for the moment.

"Get, let's say, six pairs of these and get ready to move out. We're going in deeper."

"Okay, boss."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Orrin questioned.

"I need more information. It's clear Katya has no idea what she's actually dealing with. Either that or she's stupid enough to not tell us. Also, we won't get another chance like this. Once those prisoners escape and tell their friends about us, our flash-and-bash strategy won't be nearly as effective. We should push on while we have the element of surprise."

"Hm. I suppose it is for the best, though I still feel uneasy about fighting these people. They are merely defending their home."

"And we're trying to get back to ours," Fizzy coldly stated.

"Look, I'm not having this argument again. If they come at us with force, we'll respond in kind. We all agreed to this last night, right?" Orrin furrowed his brow.

'Agreed' wasn't the word he'd use considering he wasn't given a choice. Either he played ball with this 'reconnaissance in force' or he'd have to find his own way back to Terrania. It was a small miracle he convinced Fizzy to at least let him try to minimize casualties with his magic. Whatever opinion he had of her initially, he now understood that deep down this radiant construct was just as cold and pragmatic as her monstrous nature suggested.

She would not hesitate to slaughtering everyone in her path, but that didn't mean she would go out of her way to cause pain and suffering without sufficient reason. She was a very 'path of least resistance' type of person, and Orrin could work with that.

"… Yes, ma'am," he grumbled.

"I've already resolved myself to do what is necessary. I was just lamenting how unfortunate this all is."

"Yeah, well, you and me both. I mean, just look at all this mud. That's going to take hours to scrub off." He just wished she valued sentient life more than her own appearance.