Because of New Mogadishu's evacuation, Fartuun received a second opportunity to name a city-seed.

"Liberty," she said, smiling into the wind. "Liberty City."

"Why?" Dean asked, glancing over. The wind was strong enough to stir even his short, coiled hair.

Fartuun looked to the side. "COTD's motto is self-determination," she said. "Over my recovery these past two days, I've given this concept some thought."

Dean sighed. "You've been working too hard," he chided, walking forward and leaning on a jutting slab of gray rock. "Damn, this is a nice view."

"The northern part of Drift Jag is almost like Earth's taiga," Fartuun remarked. "If you swapped out pine trees for sparse brush." She looked away from the verdant valley below, shooting Dean a look. "And what do you mean, I'm working too hard? Coming from you?"

Dean stared intently at the serpentine tangle of creeks below. "You're the technological coordinator of the vanguard. You coordinated the construction of space ships. You've even led a team onto the Egdelek Arc to investigate its library rooms and runes."

"It's not like we need to sleep much anymore." She ran a foot over the smooth stone of the bluff. "I like what I'm doing. And that's the point I was getting at before: I can do this, what I want to do, because of COTD."

Dean cocked his head to the side. "That's true. You don't have to worry about money."

She let out a dry laugh. "I don't have to worry about a place to sleep," she said, shaking her head. "Or food."

"It's the little things that matter most," Dean stated.

"Those are big things," Fartuun replied. "Dean, you spent a month in Somalia when you established Jerboaland. I don't think you realize the extent to which Jerboaland stabilized the region."

Dean narrowed his eyes on one of the valley's patches of cream-colored sand. "Lots of people call--or called--Somalia a failed state," he said. "High unemployment, few economic opportunities, inept government."

"It's hard to do much of anything if you don't know whether you're going to eat," Fartuun said, shaking her head. "The city's name, Liberty...it represents my freedom: The freedom to do this. To not have to worry about people with guns."

"What do you mean, exactly?"

"Armed militants used to walk through the streets," she said simply. "Who was going to prosecute them if they killed people, hmm?."

Dean paused. "How exactly did Jerboaland stabilize the region?" He hoped that Jerboaland had fixed things: while he knew of a few basic improvements Jerboaland had wrought, he valued Fartuun's opinion.

"Somalia's been getting better over the past few years," Fartuun prefaced with a sigh. "But it's still highly disjointed. Just two decades ago, the country fractured into several different autonomous regions." She took in a deep breath. "Jerboaland unified the entire country by a network of underground tunnels. I don't think I can understate how important the tunnels were to a country without adequate infrastructure."

Dean nodded slowly. "Makes sense."

"Jerboaland physically connected the country, providing rapid mobility and unrestricted access to housing, resources, and education. How could that not stabilize the region? In a country without an established government, how could COTD not take control?"

Dean remained silent, regarding the landscape below.

"Did you always used to be so stoic?" Fartuun asked.

Dean's mouth was a thin line. "Am I stoic?"

"Uh, no," she backpedaled. "I think I was looking for a different word."

Dean laughed dryly. "I've never thought of myself as stoic," he added. "Just quiet."

Fartuun hummed softly. "Quiet. Makes sense, then, how often you use the thought-to-text tech."

Dean's lips quirked. "That's almost worse, in a way," he admitted. "I mostly use it because I have too many people to talk to and not enough time to write out messages and hold verbal meetings."

"What?" Fartuun said, cocking her head to the side and crouching onto her knees, her skirt and white tabard flowing around her feet. "I thought you liked thought-to-text. That's how we always communicate."

A sound not unlike the barely-audible creaking of a door escaped Dean's lips. "Forget I said anything."

"No, really," Fartuun persisted. "Tell me what you don't like about it. You were the technology's first alpha tester, after all."

"I don't like how there's no filter," Dean explained. Seeing Fartuun's expression out of his peripheral vision, Dean felt slight red come into his cheeks. "For instance, if the thought-to-text edited out filler words like 'ums' and 'uhs', that'd be useful."

"Oh, so a style filter," Fartuun clarified, speaking slowly. "Making your thoughts more eloquent. Y'know, I think I can try to have some of our engineers and computer scientists look into reverse-engineering aspects of my V-Tap to do that."

For the first time in a solid three minutes, Dean's eyes locked onto Fartuun's. "How is it, anyway? You haven't brought the implant up, and I wasn't sure..."

"Most of its features are disabled," Fartuun replied. "Only for now, though, until I complete the tutorial."

Dean's eyebrows rose. "You haven't finished it yet?"

"It takes two weeks to finish," Fartuun said, holding up two fingers. "After then, I'll be able to access all the memory functionalities."

Dean nodded once. "Makes sense."

"No, not really," Fartuun retorted. "It's normally supposed to take only four days. Unfortunately, because of the damage my body sustained from the V-Tap implantation process, the V-Tap needs more time to integrate itself into my nervous system. For that reason, the tutorial has been going at a snail's pace."

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"So, twelve days," Dean breathed, looking back down into the valley.

"Twelve days."

---

The vanguard spent the rest of the day relaxing and exploring the mountainous terrain of Drift Jag. The planet was fairly empty, even though its climate was temperate and its atmosphere permitted ample sunlight. Because there was little to do while they waited for the next day--and the next planet--the idle members of the vanguard decided to try their hands at wingsuiting.

"Humans did this before COTD?" Erzey gasped, looking out from her station atop a medium-level plateau. "They made tiny wings for themselves and glided down mountains?"

"Seems so," Bath replied.

"That's...so dangerous..." Erzey mumbled, eyes wide with awe.

"You've been fantasizing about joining them for the past hour," Juselin muttered, his eyes crinkling with a veiled grin.

"Only if you accompany me," Erzey insisted. "We can all jump from here. You've both been paying attention, right?"

Erzey and Juselin both gave Bath expectant looks. He nodded his assent. "We'll need to strip again," he said. Seeing their perturbed expressions, he revised his previous statement, saying, "Nevermind. We can wear dragonleaf wingsuits over our clothes."

"A wingsuit?" Juselin echoed, his eyes narrowing. "Is that what they're called?"

"According to humans," Bath replied. "First, take a strand of dragonleaf." He took one from his own robe, pinching it between two fingers. "Create a harness that will wrap around your body, holding excess folds of cloth in place." He directed them by example, swiftly forming a dragonleaf girdle. "Next, extend out from the skeleton we've created and envelop your body in aerodynamic plates."

The Delelens gave him confused looks. "Aerodynamic plates?"

Bath smirked playfully, growing a set of chitin-like armor over his body. The Delelens soon wore matching sets of light-weight, ash-green armor.

"I feel like we're peacekeepers," Erzey commented as she inspected her fledgling wingsuit. "Why do we need this protection?"

"It's not for protection," Juselin murmured. "It's to reduce our drag as we move through the air."

"Right," Bath said. "Ideally, we'd also have goggles, but we're limited by what we can make with dragonleaf. Finally, we need to account for the most important part of all: wings."

Bath gave them both a stern look. "You see all those other sapients flying?"

"Yes," the Delelens chorused.

"They haven't paid attention to the physics of flight." Bath began to grow a pair of dragonleaf appendages encircling his first and second pairs of arms. "We verdora are aptly equipped with six limbs. This being the case, we can create a modified wingsuit that will allow us better control and the ability to flap and gain altitude while airborne." Of course, this new model also took into account the enhanced strength of the verdora: without close combat boons, having three sets of limbs versus two wouldn't make a difference. Flying with only natural human or verdora strength was impossible.

"Do you see how I fastened the sheet of toughened dragonleaf like so?" Bath remarked as he moved his first and second sets of limbs. "I reinforced them along the middle for added strength. Try to make the wings such that you have two sets of wings, one for your primary arms, and the other set supported by your secondary and tertiary arms."

They're following along well, Bath thought, pleased at the Delelens' progress. After another fifteen minutes of fiddling, Bath deemed his followers ready for flight.

"I've never flown this way, either," Bath cautioned. This was actually true: flight had evolved on Earth to use two wings, such as in birds, or to use two sets of wings in conjunction, such as in insects. There might have been a few outlying creatures over the past millions of years, but Bath had never paid them any mind.

The Delelens returned his solemn expression, flexing their wings back and forth.

"To adventure," Bath cheered, breaking the poignant silence of the moment and rushing off the plateau's edge.

---

"Guys," Lisa gasped. "What the hell is that?" Three sapient-sized, ash-green constructs were flying through the air, their two pairs of wings fluttering like the beating legs of a millipede.

The other kursi looked up from the mountain, squinting into the brightness of the setting sun. "Those are suits. With...wings," Priscilla muttered. "Verdora wingsuits, I guess." She shook her head. "The weirdest wingsuits I've ever seen."

Everyone's eyes shot over in her direction. "What is a wingsuit?" Khalid asked, frowning.

"It's where you jump off a mountain and use a suit outfitted with wings to glide down to its base."

"You've never tried it?" asked Zhou nonchalantly, his gaze already returning to their current mountain's peak.

"And you have?" Ida scoffed.

"Sure."

Priscilla gave Zhou an appraising look. "Y'know, why don't we have a race? Let's try gliding to the bottom of the mountain from its peak. Whoever wins..." she looked around at the kursi entourage. "Actually, no: whoever loses has to teach Khalid how to do it." She began to laugh, the sound somewhere between a cackle and a giggle.

At the present time, Eyrin stood completely enraptured by the wingsuit display above.

"Hey, Eyrin, we need to go," Lisa said, nudging him as the others restarted their ascent. At her touch, the kursi prince snapped out of his reverie.

"Do you know who those people are?" he said, breath short.

"Uh..." Of course Lisa knew. She'd recognize Bath's shell anywhere.

"They're fairly far away," Eyrin stated, "but I can just pick up the traces of a...remarkably familiar shell."

"Interesting," Lisa intoned slowly. "It wouldn't happen to be your protege, would it?"

Eyrin's eyes locked onto hers. "I can't blame you for being attentive," he said, his smooth eye ridges raising slightly. "Yes, the verdora I've taken a liking to is flying above us." Eyrin shook his head in a gesture of incredulity. "How is he...?"

Lisa shrugged. "You can ask him later."

Eyrin narrowed his eyes, staring intently upward. "Thaddeus!" he boomed. Seeing no response, he spoke once more, his voice elevated even higher. "Thaddeus!"

"I don't know if he..."

Suddenly, the two verdora accompanying Bath began to dovetail down towards the mountainside. Bath darted between them, obviously trying to get their attention.

"Hey!" Lisa exclaimed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Eyrin huffed. "Getting his attention. Look, I've already released their shells from my influence."

Lisa didn't know what to say. "What if you made them lose control of their wings and they fell from a distance exceeding a thousand feet, er, rods?"

"Then it would be a test for Thaddeus," Eyrin replied, voice cool and detached. "I would be shocked if he were unable to rescue them."

While Bath was currently flying their way, it would probably take him a minute to arrive. Lisa decided to use the time to probe what Eyrin thought about "Thaddeus."

"You seem confident in his abilities," Lisa remarked.

Eyrin gave her a knowing look. "Thaddeus is an enigma. Despite his uncultured Wilderness upbringing, he's managed to assume the position as de facto leader of the vanguard's verdora."

"That's fairly impressive," Lisa acknowledged.

"It's a feat of legendary proportions," Eyrin replied sourly. "The vanguard is entirely composed of young verdoran nobles, you understand."

Eyrin refocused his attentions on the fast-approaching triage of winged verdora, cutting the conversation short. "Thaddeus," he called out, no longer raising his voice.

"Eyrin," Bath replied, beating his wings in such a manner as to keep himself aloft in the air. Lisa marveled at the thought that, with her close combat boons, she, too, could fly. While her magnetism-powered flight was superlative, it didn't feel like flying so much as floating and accelerating in a certain direction. Using my magnetic sense to fly almost feels like I'm on a swing that never reaches the top of its arc, hurtling further and faster into space.

Lisa couldn't believe that only now sapients were experimenting with using winged suits to facilitate flight. Then again, who knows what things are like right now on Earth. For all she knew, everyone on Earth had a wingsuit.

"I apologize for using a rather...unorthodox method of seizing your attention," Eyrin said, glancing briefly toward Lisa. "However, I am compelled to inquire upon the design of your flight apparatus."

"It's a wingsuit," Bath said, expression inscrutable. "Juselin, Erzey, why don't you seize this opportunity to teach Eyrin how to fabricate one."

The twins' eyes bulged slightly, their skin darkening a shade. However, they quickly regained their composure.

"Climb up the mountain; we'll meet you and instruct you there," Juselin stated. At Eyrin's nod, he, Erzey, and Bath flew away, their wings beating rhythmically against the orange backdrop of the sky.