Nyz looked at the five-story apartment building in front of him. On Nyzkal Island, nearly all homes were apartments like the one before him. Rather than taking up unnecessary space by allowing people to live in individual houses, the island's future residents would help conserve space by living communally. In addition to the apartments, grassy areas and recreational facilities were shared by residents.

While most cities did have most of its residents living in apartment buildings, they also had places where the wealthy lived on their own, larger properties or slums where families would cram into a single home.

It was an inefficient use of space in the opinions of Nyz and Kal, which was why they decided everyone would have shared spaces and apartments on their island. Even businesses would be forced to share space at times. Only Nyz, Kal, and their facilities had space exclusively to them, and that was partially out of necessity. Their space held access to some of the greatest secrets on all of Ilbrathi, in addition to the entrance to several areas that needed to be kept secure at all times.

The apartment complex before him was the one Sen had chosen to live in a few days prior, after overcoming her shock at being on a man-made island in the middle of the ocean with no hope of escape. Taylor took it in stride, having already accepted that he was part of Nyz's and Kal's community, but the Asterox guard took a little longer.

"She's not there," Kal's voice came over Nyz's ear comm. "She went to the Grand Park."

Nyz turned and began walking towards the center of the island. The center of the island consisted of a park three miles in diameter, with the immense World Tree as its center. The rest of the park was nothing but grassy spaces, ideal for playing ball with some friends, going on a picnic, or just relaxing in general.

It didn't take Nyz long to find Sen once he was in the park, as she was laying in the grass, staring up at the tree's canopy above.

"Those things are disturbing," she said when Nyz looked down at her.

"Surely you've seen trees before?" He asked.

"Not the tree," she sat up, the pointed. "Those."

Nyz followed her finger to one of the island's caretakers. It was a humanoid figure of pure-white flesh with no eyes, holes on its face, or hair, but its body contained muscles and the appropriate genitals of a man, its primary tool erect. The figure itself stood only four feet in height and moved with a fluid grace, though if one were to look at it, they would assume it was modeled after a short adult male.

The one Sen indicated was following one of the island's automated grass-cutters, a low device that ensured the grass remained at the perfect height, cut in in different directions each time. Even without eyes, the figure was able to follow the device easily.

"It's a simulacrum," Nyz told her. "A type of golem. Kal made them to ensure the island is clean and maintained, even before it's ready for residents."

"Yes," she said. "Well, it's disturbing, especially to have one show up at my door each morning to drop off food. Do you guys just teleport that in, too?"

"No," Nyz answered. "Part of the reason the island's base is so thick is that we have three levels of farms beneath it. They're maintained through a mixture of magic, sun lamps, and the simulacrums. Though the dicks are new. Actually, I think these are an entirely different batch. Kal?"

"Yeah," Kal responded through the commpiece. "They're new. I made them about a month after your birthday, to replace the old. Once we have actual residents here, I'll switch to ones without any genitals, so that children aren't subjected to seeing things society considers wrong. But since it was just me living here, I figured 'why not?' and made them."

"Yellow."

"Let me have my fun?" Kal asked. "Please?"

"Fine," Nyz muttered.

"Yellow?" Sen asked.

"Kal said they're a new model," Nyz stated. "Anyway, they're essentially mindless, performing the tasks magically programmed into them. That one's job is probably something like ensuring the mower is fine and clearing any sticks from its path. Once there are residents, there will be some around to pick up litter and note who left it so that they can be appropriately punished."

"Okay," she said. "Why do they have dicks?"

"Because Kal wanted eye-candy."

"How did he pick their design?" She asked.

"He modeled them off of me," Nyz answered. "They're scaled down to seventy percent of my size, but it's a perfect scaling. These ones, he made about a month after I turned eighteen. Before that, the simulacrums had no genitals."

Nyz didn't mind the previous versions, though he did mind the current version. However, he knew that Kal was lonely most of the time, and decided not to push having them replaced before they began populating their island with people.

"Oh?" She asked. "So did he keep 'it' the same size? Or did he decide to size it up, considering six and a half is bigger than the average and those look a little thicker than normal?"

"It's a perfect scaling," he stated. "I take it you know this from watching porn?"

"A perfect scaling?" She scoffed. "Wouldn't that make yours something like-"

"Can we change the subject, please?" He asked.

While there was such a thing as being desired for above-average tools, there was a spot where it went from desire both for looks and for sex to desire just for looks, and Nyz fit firmly into the latter category, something he learned the one time he tried to have sex. As a result, there was a bitter taste in his mouth at the thought of having sex and when it came to how big he was down there.

"Uncomfortable, are we?" Sen asked with a smirk.

"I'm not the one who's bothered by a magical construct's dick."

"The simulacrums themselves are disturbing," she said. "Wait. Did you say you have three levels of farms beneath the city?"

"I did," he answered, and she stood and met his gaze. "What?"

"How?"

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Kal designed it," he told her. "It's a layered farming technique. Each farm has one thousand feet of height and is sustained through a mixture of magic, sun lamps, and the simulacrums. You'd have to ask him if you want the full details, I'm not entirely sure how he manages to keep them running. However, they produce enough food to feed millions."

"Just three farms?"

"Spanning several miles in diameter," he stated. "Able to grow food at all times of the year, and with soil more fertile than anywhere else. Yes, just the three farms. We're currently doing a mixture of exporting some of it and preparing for long-term storage of others. NyKa Foods is our company."

NyKa Foods provided the same travel rations Nyz, Kal, and Taylor had in the beetle to Scavengers, military, and corporations, in addition to exporting packaged foods. It was one of the reasons why Nyz was confused when he heard Kal wanted to begin another sales avenue, they already had plenty of income.

"If you want," Nyz said. "I can show you the farms. They're segmented based on the environment necessary for the crop or livestock."

"No, thanks," she told him. "Long-term storage? I take it you're not referring to just travel rations?"

"I'm not," he confirmed. "We're also preparing for emergencies, in case those come up. With the latest in magitech food preservation systems, we can suspend food in stasis for years. That's in addition to crops like rice, flower, and so on which can already be stored for years without that."

"Stasis magitech?" Sen asked. "Asterox hasn't even developed that yet. Actually, some of that stuff you guys have is beyond Asterox's abilities. Like the Beacon Ring surrounding the island. A blue glow? And it pushes the fog away even further. Then there's the lack of any explanation for why the fog isn't on the rest of the island. I guess it's because the glow keeps it from getting close enough to develop here."

"Right," Nyz nodded. "Because the FDKG rings the entire island, there's no gap in the protection that the fog could use to leak in. As a result, we don't need to have it anywhere else, or spaced regularly. Cities with the FDKBs don't, either, but they have the additional ones just in case an event like Troak occurs again."

"FDKG?" She asked. "Didn't you mean FDKB?"

"No," he said. "Fog-Destroying Kal Glow. It's an improved version of the Fog-Destroying Kal Beacons."

"Dispersing, not destroying," she said.

"Are you sure about that?" He asked. "Kal says it's 'destroying'."

"Kal can say what he likes," Sen scoffed. "Just because his name happens to be in the-"

"It doesn't 'just happen to be in'," he stated.

"Yes, it does," she said. "Asterox named it after one of the kids at the academy, while your Kal-"

"Actually," Nyz interrupted her again. "They named it after its inventor, an eight-year-old supergenius named Kal. The very same supergenius who created this island. The thing is, Asterox doesn't tell people the truth. They run that academy for the sole purpose of exploiting its students. They say it's to help develop their natural abilities through their genius, but that's not all they're doing. When they 'name something after' one of their students, that's the student who invented it. Kal invented the FDKBs. He improved them several times since then, but since he'd already abandoned the academy, Asterox is left with the original version.

"They don't disperse the fog," Nyz stated. "They destroy it. They obliterate it. But he didn't tell them that, he just said it dispersed it, making it impossible for the fog to drift too far into its invisible range."

"Oh, really?" She scoffed. "Asterox would never do that, besides, even if they did, it would get out. The kids grow into adults, you know."

"Some of whom disappear because they're uncooperative," Nyz said. "Some of whom are put into psych hospitals, or charged with slander and libel because they can't prove the truth. Asterox has had the FDKBs for a decade, Sen. Why are they the same as they were a decade ago when we have an even more powerful version of them?"

Sen opened and closed her mouth several times as she attempted to come up with an explanation, before finally settling on one.

"You two are thieves," she said. "I'm sure you stole the records and wiped the drives, probably even killed the magitech researchers."

"You're reaching," he said. "But no, this is the truth. I remember hearing Kal's crying voice when I called him to tell them what they'd said about the beacons, which he'd been so proud to develop."

"A call?" Sen laughed. "You're delusional, Nyz. They don't let the kids have contact with outside of the academy due to incidents in the past where parents were attempting to get them to steal other students' work or were causing their kids to have meltdowns that ultimately ruined their ability to learn and grow, resulting in the children having to leave."

"You're the delusional one if you believe such a thin tale," he scoffed. "Asterox Corporation is a lying, thieving company which exploits genius children and silences those who try to claim their work as adults. I can give you logs of former students who have died under suspicious circumstances, mysteriously disappeared, were entered into psych hospitals, and so on, most of whom at one point or another tried claiming that they invented something supposedly named after them. If you left here, I'm sure you'd be able to find those records on your own. The conspiracy theories already exist, as much as your company wants to put them down."

Sen stared at Nyz, and he could sense her fury at his comments, though she did her best to conceal it. He knew why she hated his comments about Asterox, and he didn't care. He hated Asterox and everything to do with it, and she was a prisoner there, which made him care none about her opinion.

"What do you plan on doing with the acid magic shots?" She asked.

"Finally decided to ask?" He asked. "It's been a few days, and you've had plenty of opportunity. I was pretty surprised you hadn't yet."

"Well," she said. "You broke into a top-secret Asterox facility to steal the acid, yet are just staying here. What are your plans for it? What are you going to do with it?"

"The acid was a diversion."

"A diversion?" She asked. "For what? What could be so big that you'd need to break into a top-secret Asterox facility hidden deep in the Fog Zone, then steal something from its main vault to provide a diversion for?"

"Kidnapping you," he answered. "Sen Silva. Or rather, Sen Asterox, daughter of Hayden Asterox, current owner of Asterox Corporation."

Sen stared at Nyz, eyes widening as he heard her breath catch in her throat and her heart skip a beat.

"Yes," he smiled. "Even if your coworkers weren't aware of your identity, we were. You were the primary objective. The cylinder was just to make them think we didn't know who we were taking."

"What do you want me for?" She asked.

"To force your father into action," he answered. "If we continue to be unable to locate a certain item Asterox currently has in its possession."

"So you're going to use me to steal," she said.

"To steal?" He asked. "Well, you could say that. But considering we're only trying to steal back what is ours? Your family's company is lucky we haven't already razed it to the ground."

"Steal back?" She laughed. "What, you want them to admit the Beacons were invented by some eight-year-old? I don't believe it for one moment, and no one else will. Want to know why? Because it's ridiculous and false."

"We don't care about that," Nyz told her. "Once the island is ready for other inhabitants, the public will quickly shift to thinking that the Kal who invented the island and made the FDKG ring around the island was the one who actually invented the FDKBs."

"If you don't care about that," she said. "Then what is it you want to steal?"

"Kal created," Nyz told her. "Four Orbs of Power. Each one outputs an immense amount of magical power. He made the mistake of making them off of the island, partly due to what was required to make them being sensitive. They were made separately, over time.

"One of the orbs," Nyz said. "Powers the FDKG ring, and that's it. The second orb powers both the farms and the city. The third is hooked into the island's atmospheric regulation and gravity controls. Once we retrieve the fourth orb, we'll be able to finish the island. It's the most important one, as it's meant to power the island's defenses.

"Kal always made them alone," Nyz told her. "Without me around. He always brought them back to the island alone. Just as he finished making it and was setting up the teleport, however, Asterox attacked. It seemed they'd noticed something going on, saw the orb, and decided to steal it after realizing that it was an unlimited power source."

"That's absurd," she said. "An unlimited power source? What are you really trying to steal, Nyz?"

"Don't believe me if you don't want to," he told her. "But I'm being one hundred percent honest with you here. You aren't in any danger from us, we're just holding you until we get what we want, to ensure that we can you use against your father. Anyway, I was looking for you to let you know that I'm heading off the island. Kal has a mission for me, and I'll be gone for a few days to a week or two. If you want me to pick up something for you something before I return, let Kal know so he can tell me."