Mono Aurarelia, but what did her name even mean? At a glance, it was obvious, a person or a singular person carrying with them an aura of authority. But was that all? Such a hollow name for someone's little girl? What value did it hold, lost to the touch of cold metal against her fingers? No name in Atlaris was a coincidence, even slaves held a last name, branding them to the place of their origin.
Then why did the great inventor's parents choose such a peculiar name?
'I knew my mother wasn't from this world.' Voiceless due to broken machinery, her voice bounced about inside her head. 'My father was no different, but I never thought to question it then.'
A week had passed with her being trapped inside the cripple's body and her mind had slowly begun to submit. With exhaustion seeping deep within her gaze, she looked around at the dinner table again. No different than yesterday, she was being spoon-fed by the machina's adoptive mother, her father was checking job listings on a pamphlet since the prospect of living with a duke had miserably failed.
Last came their young boy, half the size of the crippled machina despite her body being bound to a wheelchair. To her surprise, the young man was smart, much smarter than his parents. He often tried to test different methods to fix his sister's legs, but nothing that he'd learned so far at the Spire had helped him get anywhere close.
'If only I could talk to him.' As smart as he was, the boy had inherited the dooming gene of all prospecting demi-human wizards and sorceresses, an inability to read no matter how plain the text. 'A visual learner, but I can't even teach him how to fix me without talking at least a word at a time.'
"Sweetheart, stop wincing, will you? It's gonna give you wrinkles around your eyes," making her head suddenly turn to her, the beastwoman smiled at her daughter and slowly fed her with a wooden spoon. "You need all the energy you can get to heal up, don't waste it on getting upset with what can be, but be grateful for what you have, okay?"
'I can't heal with food, why can't you understand?' Tired of even complaining, Mono's words drifted as a whisper even in her own head. The mechanisms keeping her alive in this body were failing with every passing day, and from the look of things, she had at most another week before this vessel consumed her as it did its previous host. 'Dying for a second time, I wonder what that would feel like?'
Growing increasingly tired, Mono's mind drifted yet again. Her lips parted for the spoon, and her teeth chewed through the meaty gravy. She hadn't a clue what was going on, and yet her body kept acting. A false sense of comfort had washed over her, and just like the last few days, she allowed herself to relish it in the company of a family.
'They're not your parents, you goof. Snap out of it…' Even in her dreams, Mono tried to reason with herself. She wanted to break free from this prison that she'd trapped herself in, but something was keeping her bound, for she may have been maimed in the legs, but her hands should've been enough to convey or at least get herself working once more.
Then why? Why hadn't she done so? Her rat-faced brother had the tools lying in his room anyway, then what was stopping her? The answer wasn't as simple as she would've liked, or at least not one that she liked.
'I need to get away from them before I grow soft.' Her mind wandered more and more, dwelling in the past as much as it did in the future. A prodigy from the start to the very end, what could she expect from herself but the absolute best? The king desired an army, but it was far too late for that. The people needed a queen, but she was completely aware that she wasn't the right choice for that. There was always somewhere or something that she was needed for, and that calling had stripped away from her what little she had left of her humanity. 'At least that's what I thought.'
Opening her eyes again as a tear rolled down her eyelids, she leaned into the touch of a mother, more gentle than cotton and warmer than any meal. An inventory, a genius, a mentor, and a queen, she'd always been what was required of her, leading her to neglect every human feeling buried deep within.
"You're crying?" Using her sleeves, the rat woman quickly wiped the tears and leaned closer to her daughter. With a deep look of concern, she asked Mono what her parents or at least her mentor, should've asked her long ago. "Is everything okay, sweetheart? Are you hurt? Do you need anything?"
The innate hatred had turned to dust. Mono was far too tired to be angry or frustrated, and the only thing that remained with her was the sight of a future that never happened and could've never happened given the circumstances. Instead of an inventory and being the mother of automatons, she watched herself designing clothes for all kinds of folks throughout the land.
With a waltz, the fabric fluttered through the air and the sight of her parents, whose faces she could not remember, brought a gentle smile to her lips as she inched closer and closer to the release of death.
'Grace was right.' As a chuckle left her mouth, she said.
"We're not supposed to live this long..." She was going insane, or at least she was, until a gentle hand came to her, expecting nothing in return but a smile on her broken face. "Aha-aha, after all that, I'm gonna die , huh? A hundred and fifty-something years and dying in a sewer."
With a sigh, she chuckled some more, realizing just how ironic her life was. After chasing perfection in her craft and trying to reach greater and greater heights with metal, it was the warmth of the flesh that she desired in the end.
"Au revoir…" She whispered, reminded of her parents one last time.
In doing so, she finally remembered what her name truly meant. Laughing to herself at the realization, she couldn't believe how much she'd misled herself. After all, her name wasn't a name but rather the last phrase she remembered being uttered by her mother.
'One final goodbye.' Right before she was handed over to Aura.
"By Elana drapes, how did you–?!"
'What the hell?' Almost ready to give up completely, it seemed that fate still had other plans for Mono Au Revoir. As it had for her parents and her great-grandparents, who fought alongside the storied hero…Hawthorn Nightsilver.