"Bath?" Lisa halted her advance through the main corridor. "What's up?"

Bath frowned. "Lisa. None of the sigils have changed; why do you want to go back to the control room?"

Lisa smirked. "You sound awfully guilty of something," she said, placing a hand on her hip. "What're you up to?"

Bath squirmed. "Um," he began. "Why?"

Lisa rolled her eyes. "You've accosted me in the hallway. You've been sending me away on, quite honestly, a stupid wild goose chase to find out what's going on with the sigils. I went along with it because I am genuinely curious about the air currents and the books and whatnot. However, now you're clearly trying to stop me from returning to the control room."

Bath gave Lisa an expression of disbelief. Seeing his expression, she just laughed. "Sorry, but I know you too well." She stepped in close and punched him on the shoulder. "Remember the last time you tried to do something behind my back?"

Bath gave her a blank expression. Lisa groaned. "Really?" She shook her head. "I'm not talking about doing stuff as Dragon of the COTD. I know you do a lot without consulting me, which is fine: I trust you."

Bath nodded his head. "Well, I think I remember. We were in our senior year of high school."

Lisa smiled. "You were trying to throw me a surprise birthday party."

Bath grimaced playfully. "Ugh, yeah." He rubbed the back of his head. "I was still socially hopeless back then."

Lisa frowned. "You were not," she argued. "Well, you were embodying the archetype of an awkward teenager." Lisa paused. "Actually, now that you're bringing it up...how have you improved so much at acting in less than a year?" Bath had expertly adapted to stepping into different roles as the situation demanded, where before he was only able to passably emulate the behavior of humans his age.

Bath cocked his head. "Effort?"

Seriously? Effort? "Okay, sure." However, this isn't the point of the conversation...what were we talking about? "Bath. I'm going into the control room. Sorry, lemme through."

"Wait, first: you know how I promised that you'd be the first to get the V-Tap?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"Well..." Bath gave her a guilty look. "I planned earlier today to give three to other humans."

Lisa balked. "Wait, what? Why?" If anyone is going to test out the V-Tap first, it's me: Bath has given me the best constitution boons possible, not to mention he'd never let anything bad happen to me if the V-Tap interacted poorly with the human body. As the Church of COTD, she didn't want anybody else to bear an unnecessary risk.

"I didn't want to use an experimental brain-implant on you," he said, giving her a stoic expression. "If something egregiously terrible were to happen, I would be able to restore you to full health...however, I've never succeeded in destroying someone's brain and reconstructing it exactly as it was before."

Lisa didn't think much of Bath's implied human experimentation. The two of them had wracked up a huge body count by now, if anyone was counting: between the spearrows, the war between Basalith and the United States...the death that inevitably followed the wake of change...millions had died as a direct or indirect result of their actions.

Back in high school, when she learned that Bath had killed people in his misguided attempts to terrorize humans into buying electric cars, she hadn't even batted an eye. Her reasoning back then was that judging Bath by human ethics and morals was misguided, wrong.

But what about herself, doing the same kinds of things? Letting people die in the name of a better future?

"You've never...succeeded at reconstructing a human brain?"

"Right."

Lisa frowned and pushed past. I thought he had a plan to resurrect people even if their brains were destroyed? Something about...crystals. She shook her head to clear her mind. "We can talk about this later."

Bath didn't stop her from going past, only sighing as she pushed open the violet doors. His avatar dissipated, leaving only the real Bath in the control room over a woman's prone body.

Since Lisa already knew that Bath had tried to give three others the V-Tap earlier in the day, she wasn't too surprised to see him literally operating over a woman's body.

Who is that? Lisa wondered, not recognizing the woman's face under her locks of deep black hair. And why does Bath have to install the V-Tap? She'd been under the impression that the implantation process automated. Moreover, why does he think it's so dangerous that he's going back on his word to let me receive the implant first?

She walked over, stepping close to Bath's right side and peering over his shoulder. She looked down at the woman's back and neck where two clean, deep incisions had been made. She swallowed and looked up, locking eyes with the previously-unseen AI Ninety-Seven off to the side.

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Her eyes snapped over onto Bath. Really? How long has AI Ninety-Seven been here? she mouthed, knowing that he'd understand.

However, Bath feigned ignorance, continuing to diligently cut into the woman's body with a finger. Or so it appeared, on the surface. Lisa quickly caught on to the fact that he was just sawing his finger in the same place. In actuality, he was reaching his essence tendrils into the woman's body like an infesting root.

"What are you doing to her?" Lisa murmured under her breath. Bath didn't look away; however, this time he formed a small disembodied mouth beneath Lisa's ear, whispering to her directly.

"I'm temporarily stalling the restorative and elastically defensive properties of her body," Bath explained. "AI Ninety-Seven was unable to give the implant to anyone because their skin and regenerative abilities prevented the android from making the initial incisions and inserting the implants."

"How are you stalling her defenses?" Lisa asked, morbidly curious. She shuddered at the image of Bath's essence growing into her body like a voracious parasite, even if she knew it was just him.

"I continuously rip her defenses apart," he replied. "It isn't that difficult. It's easier than the alternative, which is changing her cells back to normal and then changing them back after the procedure." He paused, adding, "Not that either is that difficult," as an afterthought.

Lisa winced. "I think you should try to use the other method," she whispered. "This is kind of...gross." The woman's flesh looked like mincemeat where Bath repeatedly slashed into it...and that was only what Lisa could see out of the two small incisions in her back. Lisa knew that under the skin, Bath was doing much more extensive damage.

The mouth beneath her ear smirked. "What does it matter, in the end, if both methods work just as well? Besides: Fartuun can't feel anything."

Lisa clucked her tongue. Fartuun: Dean's technology specialist. The vanguard was small enough that Lisa knew most of its members by now. She was especially familiar with Fartuun, what with the help the woman offered when she, Dean, and Virigard went to rescue Bath. Moreover, Fartuun had one of the highest positions in the entire vanguard.

"Why isn't she saying anything?" Lisa asked, frowning. "She's still awake, right?"

"I've temporarily crippled her senses," he said. "She can't see, hear, or feel very well."

Lisa snorted inwardly. Define "very well." "That's probably for the best," she conceded. In this case, ignorance was bliss: Even if Fartuun couldn't feel pain, Lisa figured that being able to feel and hear Bath snaking around inside of her would be an unpleasant experience. I feel more sympathy for Lepochim, Lisa thought, recalling when Bath had tortured the deepthink for his treacherous behavior on Lime World by skewering him with poisonous essence spikes.

"Are you almost done?" Lisa asked, speaking a bit louder now that she knew Fartuun was effectively deaf.

"Hmm, maybe," Bath replied ambiguously.

Another two minutes passed. I'm just wasting my time here, Lisa thought, shaking her head. "I'm going to talk to AI Ninety-Seven about the sigils."

Bath smiled. "Excellent. I'll come with."

Just as Lisa began to walk away, Bath split in two, his body distending down its lateral line like a cell undergoing mitosis. Lisa gagged in repulsion as Bath's face stretched like putty as his two new bodies separated from one another. As one of the Baths pranced over to Lisa's side, she gave him a disbelieving look. Throughout the entire process, Bath's right hand remained glued to Fartuun's back, ensuring that the operation continued uninterrupted.

"That was disgusting," she grumbled.

Bath chuckled, wagging his eyebrows. "I never knew you were so squeamish."

Lisa tsked. "Like hell I'm squeamish. That's just really gross."

"The operating, or the splitting in half?" he asked, grinning mischievously.

Lisa glared daggers as he pulled her arm forward. "Both." With an eye roll, she went along with his pull until the two of them were situated in front of AI Ninety-Seven's contemplative visage.

"Radiances," AI Ninety-Seven muttered as they approached.

He seems distracted, Lisa noted. Can androids even be distracted? "AI Ninety-Seven," Lisa began. "I'm not sure if you've realized, but the Dragon and I have managed to alter a sigil on the floor of this room."

The android turned, giving Bath a withering expression. "I did know, and I made my opinion quite clear to Radiance Dragon."

Lisa turned her head slowly in Bath's direction. "What opinion?"

"AI Ninety-Seven said that changing the sigils is a bad idea and to stop," Bath said.

...Is that it? Lisa turned back to AI Ninety-Seven. "Please repeat the message you told him."

"...I told Radiance Bath that the Egdelek Arc is one of several arcs that contain profound mysteries. In order to form stable sigils, books from the other arcs must be acquired. I discouraged him from moving around any books in the event that sigils might enter into unstable states."

Lisa felt her heart pound. The sigils can go into unstable states? And just by moving around books, if I'm hearing right. This sounded too incredible to be real.

"What is the scientific basis behind the sigils?" Lisa probed.

"It is a profound mystery," the android replied, voice clinical.

Lisa's mouth popped open. "Why are you transporting this library?"

"To deliver the books to a secure location," AI Ninety-Seven stated blithely.

"Is it perhaps the case," Bath began, gazing at the android with piercing eyes, "that you are not permitted to explain the scientific basis behind the sigils?"

"No," the android replied, recoiling. "Such information is beyond my reach."

So, the information exists...Lisa thought. "How many arcs are there?"

"I do not know."

That's frustrating. So, essentially, if I'm understanding Ainsley correctly: we're supposed to leave the books alone until reaching the Arc drop-off point.

"Can we study the books at all?" Lisa asked.

AI Ninety-Seven nodded. "Studying them should be fine, though I think you'll find their contents bland."

"If that's the case, can you tell us what, exactly, causes the sigils to change? I wouldn't want to accidentally change one of them while perusing the libraries."

AI Ninety-Seven looked between Lisa and Bath. "Just keep the books within their respective rooms," it finally said.

Lisa gave Bath a look. Didn't we change the sigil just by shifting books around within the same library room? "That's all?"

AI Ninety-Seven inclined its head. "That should be sufficient."

Lisa smiled. "Can we remove books from the library, as long as we don't bring them into any other rooms?"

The android blinked. "That should be fine; don't remove more than ten books at a time," it said.

We removed the room's entire contents, Lisa thought sheepishly. Maybe that's one of the reasons the sigil changed.

"Well, then," Bath interjected, grabbing Lisa's arm. "We'll be off."