"After all these years... Eugenna wasn't a bad master, she never hurt me needlessly, and kept me well fed, but... I have been a slave for most of my life and...

And now I'm free.

I now understand you're not my master but... I do feel in your debt. Can I do something for you, in exchange for the gift of freedom I'd never be able to repay?"

"Repay for the clothes I'll buy, mostly. Because that means I'll be able to help the next person, similarly. And I think you helping others like yourself, would also be the most fair thing to do."

"I... I think I would like that. Possibly even more than singing."

Ma a a noi piace pensarlo ancora dietro al motore
Mentre fa correr via la macchina a vapore
E che ci giunga un giorno ancora la notizia
Di una locomotiva, come una cosa viva
Lanciata a bomba contro l'ingiustizia!
Lanciata a bomba contro l'ingiustizia!
Lanciata a bomba contro l'ingiustizia!

She finishes her song, basks in the applause for a bit and then starts towards the back of the bar, as her shift is ending.

She takes a look at some of the fellow waitstaff, who are all smiling at her as they're making their way home in their snowsuits with insulated helmets. It's cold this far north, certainly so outdoors. It's not many days to go until the coldest day of the year, in fact. Her current outfit is up for it, at the very least.

"Hey William, what are you doing for the weekend? I would like to visit the city a bit more, but I could really use a local guide..."

"Just the Winter's Bone celebration, actually. I really like the fireworks."

"What is Winter's Bone?"

"It's when you spend all day outside on the coldest day of the year. In your snowsuit, of course. It's just 2 days off, now."

The snowsuit would mean that she wouldn't actually be cold, but still, such a weird way to celebrate.

Well, as they say, when in Egorian do as the Egorians.

"May... may I join you?"

"Yes absolutely! It's for everyone to enjoy. What are you thinking of doing once you're home? Enjoying some documentaries, or some music?"

"I really like watching documentaries, I especially love the ones talking about far away and exotic lands. It's still wild to me that on Thomassia everyone can move across the world so cheaply and safely, I had lived my whole life in a single province of a single country."

"The mobility of the modern world sure is magic, isn't it? How are you enjoying your life here? Hopefully, the weather isn't too annoying."

"And the communication! I can talk to anyone on the planet! For free! And have access to all the libraries and information and...

And I'm really happy here, you are all so kind and patient with us.

This weather would be incredibly worrying at home, but the clothes make it actually very pleasant. I like the crispness of the air, the way it tries to bite at you, and yet you are warm because the ingenuity of mankind is greater than any obstacle Creation throws at us."

"Yes, yes, you're explaining it perfectly! You're going to love the Winter's Bone celebration." William smiles and waves at Zenobia, before starting to make his way back to where he lives, inside one of the many towers with a fantastic view of the surrounding mountains.

Zenobia walks home. It's been weeks since she was assigned her own home, but it still feels a bit surreal to have such a large place just for her alone.

Not that she's complaining, this place - which the locals consider "modest" - is better than what her previous owner, a rich merchant, had. It's just taking her a while to get used to being free, to being able to have a work she actually enjoys, and to be in a country where every commoner can live like a queen.

She drops her bag on the table, her clothes on the floor, and gets into the sauna. She found that being naked can feel comfortable now that there is no one looking at her, no one having power over her. The sauna, like most rooms, has a floor to ceiling window, but even if she knows that it's possible to set it to show the outside without people being able to see inside, she still doesn't feel comfortable enough to do that when undressed.

As soon as she's done showering she puts on some comfortable clothes, and sets the windows to show the outside. It's still weird to live in a place so cold and yet every place is warm, with no drafts, with heating coming from the floor of every room. She enjoys looking at the falling snow, making the landscape soft, and the sounds quieter.

She turns on the projector, and searches for some new documentary to watch, or possibly some movie, if she sees anything that looks comfortable and uncomplicated.

Well, as always, thomassians have a wide range of shows showing battles from history, especially those involving cannons on ships. But among the comfortable and uncomplicated things, her best option would probably be an animated movie about a family moving to a charming small town and learning about its history in the countryside. The city and the landscapes and the animation and everything else is just incredibly beautiful, and hearing the stories of the characters talking about how the world has changed before them produces in a really happy and nostalgic feeling.

Oooh, that sounds like just what she needs! She'll put it on, and sink into the sofa to watch it.

It's just... a pleasant experience. There's so many beautiful, relaxing visuals. And hearing the old people talking about how their lives have changed so much since they were young is so incredibly nostalgic, and meaningful. The very end of the movie has a grandma walk past the graves of her parents, one final time, before settling in to spend her final days with the newcomer protagonists.

After the credits are over, they show her taking her final breath, before the cryonics technicians go through the elaborate process of preserving her body and brain as perfectly as they can, and drive off from the small town, taking the old woman into her next life some day in the future.

What... what are those people doing? That is a really elaborate coffin! Why is she not going to be buried in the local graveyard? Why is the scene put after all the authors and actors and wizards technicians names? She's so confused.

She'll have to ask William about it. One more question to add to the pile! It's so weird being able to ask questions and have people eager to answer you, going beyond what you asked to help you understand more about the world. One day she'll hope to know enough to be able to help people in the same way. She can answer questions about Cheliax, sure, but her coworkers have learned that it's a very sensitive topic and rarely ask anything at all.

She decides to text him, actually.

Uh, silly question but. I just finished watching "Looking Back, It Feels Like Yesterday" and there is a thing I don't get. Why is there an extra scene at the end of it? Why is she not getting buried next to her parents?

We call the way that she gets taken off "cryonics", that means they try to keep her body as perfect and unspoilt and "fresh" as possible, because it might be possible to find a cure for aging so she'll get to be alive again in the future. So there's a very high chance that she'll get to see her family again once they've figured that out. Her parents have probably rotted away into just skeletons, though. So they're not coming back.

So they're basically making it easier to resurrect her. Makes sense, she guesses.

Is she scared they went to a different afterlife and she won't be able to reach them? Because she seemed like a really Good person, so if her parents were also Good they should be able to meet each other, even if she went to Nirvana and they went to - say - Heaven.

Well, she's probably not ending up in an afterlife? She'll go back to just being alive again.