Sierra & Oddball

Sierra, despite her workshop being a cheerful chaos of plans, tools, and piled-up instruments, navigates it with disconcerting ease. She is described as a goldsmith, and her delicate hands work meticulously, with the precision of a watchmaker, to craft and assemble, shape and create. To aid in her endeavors, she can rely on Oddball, a drone of her own design that came to life after being exposed to the currents of the Tumult. Beyond her engineering skills, Sierra is also a talented Alterer, having become an expert in manipulating Constructs, the modules used by the Axiom to control Alteration. It is thanks to all these strengths that she was selected to serve as a vanguard in the Expeditionary Corps.

Yet, at the outset, nothing destined her for such a career. Born within a Lyra caravan, she followed her father Efrén from city to city, leading a nomadic existence. Her father managed a small shadow theater within the troupe, delighting children with stories of princesses and ancient heroes, fables and tales from ages past. She listened as her father spoke of mythical cities: Madrid, Venice... and also the one known as the City of Light. When she wasn't helping her father manipulate threads and lights, silhouettes and sets behind the narrow backstage, Sierra watched the audience, marveling at the faces of the children, alternately joyful, sad, worried, or laughing.

It was by no means a solitary existence. She could rely on the other children of her Clan, with whom she played daily once their everyday chores were done. They claimed to be explorers, traversing mountains and valleys in search of wonders. They pretended to discover new places, with dangers, of course, but also incredible marvels. In the City of Light, buildings were made of gold or tears of the Sun. In their imagination, its streets were covered with trees bearing golden apples, their treetops populated by splendid birds... Come dinnertime, Efrén laughed heartily as he listened to his daughter recount their epic adventures of the day. He often teased her, saying that she could have easily become a Bravos, much to his daughter's vexed gaze.

She woke up much later, with a parched throat and a fevered mind. Lifting the sheets, she saw that there was nothing left of her legs but stumps surrounded by foul-smelling bandages. She began to panic, scream, and cry, with her father's embrace unable to console her. She remained bedridden for many weeks. The Sahanka of the Khamsin Clan had come to their aid, but despite their efforts, the Clan's healers couldn't save her legs. They had to resort to amputating the affected areas, as their integrity had been entirely compromised by the Tumult. Efrén did everything he could to feed her, to massage her painful thighs with ointments. He listened to her moan, scream at the world, despair... but he didn't allow her to wither away. And one day, he carried her to the front of the lodge that had been loaned to them so she could once again gaze at the sky.

But this small joy was accompanied by new sufferings. The pain of watching other children play outside without being able to join them. The frustration of being unable to move freely. Efrén tried every means to occupy her mind: asking her to help rebuild his theater, to sculpt and paint new puppets... Even though she most often agreed, all these activities brought her no happiness at all. Then one day, her father woke her up at dawn and asked her to get dressed. He took her in his arms and carried her throughout the journey. She saw a bustling city below the Sahanka. Verbera, located on the edge of the Muir Concordia. The city seemed to be in celebration, with music resonating through its streets. There were brass bands, parades, processions, and floats…

Efrén informed her that they were here to find her a wheelchair or any device allowing her to regain a semblance of autonomy. And what better time than the Prodigium to find something like that? The Axiom's World Exposition overflowed with fascinating machines, incredible mechanical wonders. The fair was a mishmash of odds and ends, of spectacles and presentations each more extravagant than the last. She discovered numerous scientific marvels: the fascinating and terrifying kelonic plasma arcs, articulated cranes capable of lifting gargantuan weights, all in a deluge of smoke and hissing vapors. All her senses were once again alert, trying to assimilate all these feats.

When they arrived at the prosthetist's workshop, he warmly welcomed them. He listened to Sierra at length, with an expression of sympathy. Then he excused himself for a moment before returning with various prosthetics, from the simplest to the most complex. The artisan, named Hamisu, spoke to them about these Grafts, the most advanced of which responded to the will of their wearer. But their cost was prohibitive, and Efrén could only afford rudimentary devices. However, when the prosthetist attached the racing blades to Sierra's thighs, she began to hope. To walk again, and perhaps to run... After a few adjustments, she was able to take her first steps. And although unsteady, the simple act of standing brought tears to her eyes.

They spent the rest of the day enjoying the Prodigium and its technical wonders. They watched the parade of floats, each displaying new creations from the Axiom: new models of airships, image projectors, material recyclers... They ate ice cream on the beach, looking into the distance, across the sea, at the distant silhouette of Arkaster, the capital of Asgartha. But what captured her imagination the most was a simple trinket displayed in a store window. A slender silhouetted doll, no taller than a hand, repeating a few dance steps in a loop. She watched it, captivated, amazed by its mechanical grace, astounded by the precision of its movements…

Back at the caravan, she began to imagine new tools to enhance her father's performances. Why not use gears and pistons to maneuver the puppets? Why not use powder and smoke to impress their audience even more? Every day of their stop in Verbera, she sought out Hamisu to learn two or three new things about mechanics, pyrotechnics, or kelonic batteries. Efrén took advantage of this stay to finalize their new caravan and simultaneously performed many shows in the city to fund his projects. The goal was to leave as soon as the Clan was back on its feet, but somewhere, Efrén suspected what was going to happen.

The closer the departure day approached, the more Sierra's expression darkened. Even if he didn't entirely agree with the approach — he believed that all these additions harmed the simplicity of his art — he had accepted that his daughter build a smoke machine or spark projectors or visual effects to accompany his plays. He could see that the young girl had a knack for these things, even if he wasn't as enthusiastic about them as she was. One evening, he went to see Hamisu himself, asking him to sponsor Sierra within the Axiom. The old man agreed to his request, if it was truly something the young girl desired from the bottom of her heart.

In the morning, after helping Sierra continue her rehabilitation, he asked her to sit with him over a cup of coffee. It was at that moment that he suggested she join the Axiom if she wanted to continue her technical apprenticeship. She was, of course, free to follow him when he left, to pick up their life where they had left it. But Efrén felt that what she had discovered here had given new meaning to her life. Tears rolled down Sierra's cheeks, and she embraced her father. Even though she took the rest of the day to think about it, everything was already clear in her mind. Yes, it would be heart-wrenching, and her father would be terribly missed, but the prospect of being able to continue building and crafting filled her with joy.

A few days later, she stuffed her backpack and hugged her dad one last time. Father and daughter cried hot tears, and Efrén promised her that he would visit whenever he passed by the vicinity of the capital. She lingered for a long time, watching the caravan move away until it disappeared on the horizon. Then she turned towards the city, Hamisu's workshop, and the station that would take her to the capital. The prosthetist taught her all the basics she was supposed to know to qualify as an Apprentice. She learned about the properties of Kelon, the basics of programming, and how to melt metal, use various machinery, and more.