This is my take on Rhys' quest. I have taken some artistic freedoms, but I mean to be true to the core of the story as PSIII tells it. I hope it will be welcomed by my fellow authors here at fringes.
We begin with a dialogue between Rhys and Mieu. I very much would love to envision Mieu like this. She'd slowly drive the young, royal out of his mind.
Enjoy!
Zed
----
Ch 1 - Women
It was night in the small village. Prince Rhys of Landen had rented a room at the local Inn for the night. The Prince seemed troubled as he sat on the bed looking at his cyborg companion, Mieu. Mieu was made to look like a woman, in her time probably to keep from upsetting the locals. But as Rhys had come to learn she was nothing like a normal woman. Her unblinking eyes and her flawless and slightly too white complexion set her apart. She was a machine made in the image of man.
“Tell me Mieu, is it wrong to change one’s mind?”
“How so, Master Rhys?” the cyborg asked looking at the young Prince.
“Maia, she sort of washed into my life that day. I don’t really know anything about her. I mean I was struck by her beauty, but really is it not madness to marry a woman you randomly find on a beach?”
“In my knowledge humans often act on other instincts than logic,” Mieu replied and sat perfectly still.
“Maybe…”
“My former masters called it intuition,” the cyborg offered.
“This is not intuition, it is rather the lack of it,” Rhys mumbled rubbing the temples of his troubled head.
“Maybe if you slept it would help. It seems to me that sleep often have a benevolent effect on humans,” Mieu suggested.
“Maybe, yet I can’t. You know, Lena sprung me from prison. She risked her very life and the peace between my father and her father’s kingdom to give me a chance to find Maia,” Rhys reasoned.
“Yes that was kind of her,” Mieu agreed politely.
“Yes, yes, but that is beyond the point. Lena, she has always been weak for me even when we were kids…” Rhys told the cyborg.
“Is this where I say you are presumptuous and giggle?” Mieu asked.
“Could you focus on your social skills later?” Rhys grumbled.
“So it is not the correct response?” Mieu enquired.
“It is if you want to annoy me!” Rhys grunted and hugged his knees to his chest.
“I see then that was not the appropriate response, I am sorry Prince,” Mieu apologized and cooked her head to one side making her synthetic red hair follow the movement of the hydraulics in her neck.
“Naw… you’re right. That would have been an appropriate response I am just… … I am just not feeling myself right now…” Rhys grumbled and shoved off from the bed and walked onto the balcony only to lean on the railing.
“I am confused,” Mieu confessed. “So, my suggested response was correct, yet you still respond with hostility and apathy?
“Write it off to human emotions Mieu and count yourself lucky you’ll never have them,” Rhys mumbled and leaned his head on the railing of the second floor balcony.
“Still wouldn’t that defy good emotions such as happiness?” Mieu insisted.
“Not now, Mieu, please… I am not looking for an existential debate,” the Prince replied, staring out into the night.
“But logically-“ the cyborg started to objected.
“Not now, woman! I order you to be quiet!” Rhys thundered and rose from the railing to give her a long hard stare.
“Technically I am not a woman,” Mieu intoned.
“I said enough!” Rhys grumbled.
“As you wish, Prince,” Mieu agreed and did what she did best, remain eerily still.
“You know, you might be the perfect woman, Mieu,” Rhys hummed after a moment of silence.
The cyborg offered him no reply.
“And there it is,” Rhys smirked and slumped down on the bed. “Heck, it might turn out alright after all, huh? I mean I don’t have to discern all these moral questions right away, right?”
Mieu looked at him.
“Right, you are. We’ll take it one day at a time, and tomorrow we’ll go check out that cave on the island. That will give me something else to think about!” the young royal proclaimed and pulled the blanket up to his neck. Moments later he was sound asleep.
Mieu watched over him, her eyes never blinking.
