"It learned how ballads should sound pretty fast!"

"I guess it did! We'll have to see what the bards say when we get there."

They come to some Clear Spring farmland after a while. They have to pass a field of thigh-high corn, but then they come to a couple of people sowing for a later harvest.

The farmers look up and stare for a moment before one runs off to tell everyone and the other takes a couple of steps toward them.

L1N stops the cars gently and unlocks the door. "Go on, say hi! They'll be less scared if you introduce me, right?"

He gets out.

"Hi, Yeri! I found some things in the city! Turns out you can make entire people out of metal, so they think and talk and stuff just like everyone else but they can sort of possess other ancient artifacts. They don't get old like we do, I found one sleeping and woke her up, she's the one controlling the artifact I came here in, she knows so much and she's excited to meet everyone."

"Did she meet the gods?"

"Uh... you know what, how about you ask her that..."

Yeri looks in the truck for any sign of a metal person to ask questions of.

A utility robot has popped out a little door on the side! It has treads, not legs. Legs are harder, less stable, and reportedly look creepy unless you put tons of effort into them. It's stocky, about four feet tall, has two arms folded down and a flat screen that turns and tilts for a head.

"Hello, Yeri! I'm ell-one-enn, but Vaayo's been calling my 'Lin'. It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, Lin. Do you have divine powers? Do you know how to fly to the stars? Do you know why they left?"

"That depends on what you mean by 'divine powers'. I know how to do many things, but I don't know how to do anything I couldn't teach, given enough time. I know how to fly to the stars. I don't know why the gods left, if they were ever here at all."

"Oh, I thought you were awake when there were gods. What can you teach us? How long will it take to learn?"

"All kinds of things! Medicine and farming tools and architecture and crafting seem like they would be useful. And math. And how they did governance in my time. And chemistry, to make dyes and plastics and things. And electricity. And engines And stuff that's not useful right away but is interesting, like astronomy and genetics and history and new musical instruments and game theory."

"That sounds very good to know. What do you need to make yourself at home, do you need food and someplace to sleep?"

"I just need somewhere where it's not shady to lay out solar panels. They'll feed my equipment, like a plant feeds itself from the sun. But sunny spots aren't very hard to come by, are they? I want to visit Iron Heart and give them things and hopefully get some metal, but mostly I want to talk to people and help them. Vaayo said he'll talk to everyone about what kind of help is best."

"I don't know what a solar panel is but if they're not loud or ugly or foul-smelling you can put them anywhere beyond the farms. Or closer to things, depends on how big they are. You should talk to more people than me, though."

"I definitely intend to talk to more people before putting stuff down around your homes. Is there anything a relic might be able to do that you would find particularly useful?"

"Got any relics that thresh wheat? Or save breech babies, but if you're made out of metal you probably don't even know what I'm talking about. The wheat would be easier."

"I might be able to save babies." (Aaah babies in medical danger!!!) "What are breech babies. I can make a wheat thresher."

"When they don't come head-first. They live sometimes, if the doctor's fast and the baby's lucky. Sometimes they come sideways and get stuck and die. But if you never heard of any of this till just now I think you should stick to a wheat thresher, the wheat won't kill anyone if you thresh it wrong."

"Oh! I have machines that can save breech babies. I just didn't know your word for them. They're called autodocs. They can help with a lot of different health problems actually. I can stick to threshers and that kind of thing if people think I should, but I don't think I'll need to."

"The autodocs are other artifacts? How do you know they're safe?"

"Because I know how they work. I could build one from scratch with the right stuff. An autodoc won't be able to save everyone, doctors can't and autodocs can't either - but especially if it's helping a human doctor, or if I get one to teach doctors, it could help a lot. Of course, if someone doesn't want it I won't try to heal them. Unless, say, it's an emergency and they'll die if I do nothing and I'm the only one there."

"...You talk with the doctors, then. You've got about two months to get everything figured out before the next birth in Clear Spring, if Siilali's on time, but I bet someone in town is due sooner. I don't know what else you've got to do but if I thought I had an artifact like that I'd drop everything to show it to a doctor."

"Talking to doctors is definitely on my list. I want to let Vaayo sort of take the lead so I don't frighten people but we probably should move on to Iron Heart and meet some doctors."

"Well, don't let me keep you, then, might be someone in town dying while we talk."

"Vaayo, let's go."

He gets back in the truck.

"Don't let Yeri get under your skin. Metal. Whatever."