Lyra Nexus's Arc

Chapter 21 of 27

The blades cooled in a straight row on the anvil. Lyra had built them handles overnight from the tree's timber and Pixela's leather. Now eight weapons lay finished. She lined them up and called the crew to the forge. Drivers leaned against the wall, her red code still pale at the wrists. The others gathered close. Lyra looked at the row of steel. She had mined for this, lit the fire, failed the hammer, and let others finish what she could not. Now came the part that mattered. Each weapon had to reach the right hand. Lyra lifted the two pink daggers first. Their blades ran with flowing streams of code, sharp and light. She turned to Pixela Code. Pixela was the fastest program in the crew, boxed in once by a firewall, and proud of the one thing she trusted: her speed. Lyra had drawn these two blades for exactly that. "These are yours," Lyra said. "You strike faster than anyone here. Two blades. Get in, cut, get out before they turn." Pixela took the daggers. She spun one, tested the weight, and caught it clean. "Light. Good." She slid them into the leather holsters at her hips. "I can hit twice before they see me once." She said nothing more. Lyra reached for the longbow next. Yellow code ran along its limbs and down the arrow shafts. She held it out to Aurelia. Aurelia watched from the edge of the group, apart from the others, the way she always stood. She felt her own code being rewritten from inside, and she stayed clear of anyone who might touch it. A weapon that struck from a distance suited her. "You watch before you move," Lyra said. "You see what the rest of us miss. This lets you hit the ones we can't reach yet." Aurelia took the bow. She drew the string back slow and let it settle. Her yellow eyes tracked an empty point across the cube. "I work alone," she said. She lowered the bow. Then, after a pause: "This is built for that." "It is," Lyra said. Lyra turned to the next two weapons to hand out.