Lisa was slightly confused by Zhou Wang's behavior. He's supposed to be one of Lepochim's top kursi, mainland China's Prime Peacekeeper (第一保安, diyi baoan). And yet, Zhou Wang reminded Lisa of a surfer dude.

He's literally just drawing in the sand.

However, the other kursi, all of whom had already been traveling with Zhou for the past few weeks, didn't comment on their leader's truancy. In fact, they had given her a few weird stares, one of them, Ida, even pulling her aside to tell her to "calm down."

Lisa had to admit, she'd been a little hurt by the reprimand. I'm not out of line, am I? It just felt so weird for the "elite" kursi of COTD to be standing idle. As their de facto leader, she expected more.

"Zhou," she finally asked, walking up to him as he finished etching a smiley face, "what are you doing?"

He didn't look up from the rouge-colored sand, instead tilting his head as though to regard the smiley face from a different, more enlightening angle. "I am practicing."

"...What?"

Zhou sighed as he used a finger to smudge out the smiley's left eye. "I know you're a special circumstance, appointed by the Church and Dragon themselves, but I can tell one thing: you're young."

Is it that obvious? "Is that a problem?"

Zhou finally made eye contact with her, shooting her an easy-going smile. "Not if you're powerful, which I'm sure you are. Young kursi are refreshing," he added, turning back to the sand. "I like young kursi. Why else do you think the vanguard is composed of kursi aged under three-hundred years?"

Lisa paused. I haven't actually thought of that. "I'll bite; what's the problem with older kursi?"

Zhou tsked, walking forward while dragging his right big toe through the sand. "Older kursi are unstable disasters," he stated, his voice devoid of its previous lightheartedness. "Humans...they aren't meant to live longer than a few hundred years. After a while, too much bad shit happens to them, and..." he made a messy zig-zag in the sand. "They either commit suicide, become inhumane autocrats, or go crazy."

Lisa's pupils dilated. What? "You sure that's true?" she said, following him as he drew cloud-like swirls. "I know two kursi who're at least one or two thousand years old, both of them...highly functioning." I guess I can't say for sure that they aren't crazy, but I don't think they are. "And, moreover, what about Juserin, the verdora Waymaster?"

Zhou froze in place, his head cocked in contemplation. "Are they a couple? The two kursi you know?"

"They are."

Zhou snorted. "Figures. Some lucky kursi end up finding a partner who won't age and die like the rest. They might be fine for now, but if one of them dies, the other's going to follow soon after."

Lisa gulped. Aunt Lauretta, Uncle Bern... Even if they infiltrated her family and implanted false memories, they were still her aunt and uncle. She grew up with them, visited their lake house, confided in them...the last thing she wanted was for the two of them to die. Or, for that matter, go crazy.

"What about Juserin?"

Zhou shrugged as he made a sharp stroke in the sand jutting into one of his swirly clouds. "He's a verdora. We should ask little Eyrin what he knows; Juserin is his father."

Lisa nodded. Little? He's damn tall on two legs and more than twice my age. At least a foot taller than Juserin, I'd reckon. "I wonder when he'll be back."

"Speak of the devil," Zhou remarked. "He's coming this way now."

Lisa looked over her shoulder. Sure enough, Eyrin was walking towards them, a sour expression on his face. When he was close enough to hear--much closer than Lisa was used to, considering that Eyrin didn't yet have perception boons--she called out to him: "Eyrin, come over here." She then gestured for Zhou Wang to take the lead. He raised an eyebrow, but then gave her the same lop-sided, easy-going smile as before.

"Pleasant to see you both again," Eyrin said, his voice clipped.

"Yeah, you too," Zhou said. "I have a question for you, about verdoran kursi."

Eyrin's skin darkened almost imperceptibly. "About what?"

Zhou's eyes glinted. "Tell me...how long do verdoran kursi usually live?"

"Is that a joke?" Eyrin asked, shaking his head. "Kursi don't age."

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"What is the average age of all extant kursi on Illudis?" Zhou asked, rephrasing his original question. "For instance, Juserin is the fifty-somethingth of his line. I presume that the other Juserins died sometime in the past."

Eyrin's veil pooled inward as his maws popped open. "I'm not entirely sure," he replied. "Generally, once a kursi's age exceeds one thousand...the number becomes irrelevant, and we stop counting."

Zhou didn't seem satisfied by this answer, his expression stiffening. "Give me a ballpark estimate. Actually, I'll give you information in turn: The average age of human kursi is around five-hundred, if I had to estimate."

Lisa glanced Zhou's way. It is? She didn't know what she expected, but Zhou made it sound as if all of Earth's kursi were young because the others died off. Then again, COTD had recruited a lot of kursi; it was impossible for all of them to be relatively young. Jeez; how many of Earth's kursi are emotionless tyrants or flat-out crazy?

"That is...troubling," Eyrin said softly, his skin darkening further. "So young...I don't know the average age of verdoran kursi, but I presume it to be in the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands. The number is difficult to place, since a few extremely ancient kursi live in solitude and skew the average."

Why don't they just use the median, or mode? Lisa wondered. One kursi of over ten thousand years on Earth would skew the average by several years.

"So, they do live for longer," Zhou murmured. "Well," he said, snorting, his expression reverting back to its good-natured default, "I hope we can learn a thing or two from your kind. I'm getting up in years," he added, chuckling.

How is Eyrin's shell so steady? Lisa wondered. It hasn't flickered once in this entire conversation from its neutral gray, even when he initially approached with a pissed-off expression. She wondered if he had some kind of control technique; if so, she was definitely interested in learning it.

Eyrin cleared his throat. "This conversation has been interesting, but I have an urgent matter to attend to. Do either of you know where I can find the leader of this expedition?"

"...You mean, the Knight?" Lisa asked.

Eyrin blinked twice. "Yes, the Knight, the dark-skinned male with the strength and speed of a natural disaster."

The corner of Lisa's mouth quirked up. "That's definitely him."

"He'll be at the front of the camp, the furthest away from the gate, planning our path," Zhou added as he returned to tracing what was apparently a mountain range into the sand.

"Many thanks," Eyrin said, inclining his head politely as he made his exit.

"Y'know what," Lisa said when he was sufficiently far away, "I have a feeling that underneath all his decorum, Eyrin's funny."

---

I still don't know how Lisa talked me into this... Bath thought, staring expressionlessly at the surrounding verdora, all of whom seemed to be in their own cliques. But at least I can spend my time elsewhere. To keep busy, he had already sent a whiff of essence into the air to follow around Dean: He was interested to see how COTD's Knight would lead the vanguard and, perhaps more interesting, deal with the complaints of the verdora.

Currently, Dean was discussing the establishment of five city-seeds on their way to the exit gate in the arbitrarily-assigned northern hemisphere. The discussion was technical and boring, especially since most of what Dean was telling his subordinates were details that he and Lisa had confirmed before departure.

Nothing else in the camp offered any interest; the most lively goings-ons were the shenanigans of a few jerboas playing tag underground, but Bath didn't have much interest in watching their game. Absorbed in the other parts of the assembled vanguard, he almost didn't realize when two similarly-robed verdora approached his main body.

Perhaps because of his self-confident air, perhaps because he had already had a private conversation with Prince Eyrin alone, the approaching verdora introduced themselves first. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance," the left one said in introduction. "I am Juselin the Eighth house Delelen of Thirgard."

The right one then spoke: "A pleasure to make your acquaintance; I am Erzey house Delelen of Thirgard."

So they're related, Bath thought. Even if they weren't wearing matching green robes, the family resemblance is strong. While most humans thought all verdora looked alike, much like they considered most animals of the same species indistinguishable from one another, Bath had devoured enough verdora to have an excellent sense of distinguishing features between sexes, between verdora from different regions, etcetera. He ensured that his own verdora body included features common in Illusta/Whitesun, such as close-set eyes and fringed ear holes. These two verdora--a man and a woman--had ridged eyebrows and distinctive scales around their noses.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance," Bath replied, smiling politely: He knew they'd recognize the smile by the riding-up of his veil. "I am Thaddeus house Clanemic of Illusta."

He noticed Juselin subtly knock his sister in the ribs.

"We wish to know more about your auspicious house," Erzey said, beaming back. "While we know everyone else here, we don't know you. Moreover, you say you're from Illusta...have you never attended any social gatherings?"

Bath had the impression that Erzey was sincere in her questions. I didn't realize Juserin chose verdora who all knew one another for this expedition. "House Clanemic is a little-known house," Bath began, "located fifty or so miles from Illusta proper." He gave Erzey a devilish smile. "You might say I'm from the Wilderness."

Erzey gasped. "Oh, indeed? You must tell us about the Wilderness."

"But why are you here?" Juselin interjected, blinking once. "What kind of connection do you have to Juserin?"

"I was chosen to join this expedition," Bath began, "because..." I had a story, he thought, Lisa made one up...why can't I remember it? Oh. She wrote one for me, but I forgot...to read it...hmm...y'know what, screw it. "I have a certain family heirloom that protects me from kursi manipulation. Juserin decided that I would be an excellent addition to the trip, ensuring that Prince Eyrin and the human kursi do not abuse their abilities."

Suddenly, the two seemed even more interested in him than before; several surrounding kursi, who had been feigning inattention while listening in, started to actively look his way.

"An heirloom?" Erzey said, smiling. "How incredible."

"Yes," Bath said, grinning. "The legacy of my great grandfather. But, enough about me: I assure you that my life is nothing remotely worth discussing, devoid of any interesting adventures. Tell me about yourselves."

Just as these words left Bath's mouth, his attention was stolen away by something moderately more interesting: Eyrin was approaching Dean to discuss the testimonies.