Eyrin ran a ribbon-wrapped hand over the superstructure's surface. It gave slightly when he applied pressure, another factor affirming his intuition: the superstructure was made out of a plastic. If only we could just...take part of the structure off, study it.

He grunted. Only an idiot would be willing to chance the wrath of a Core World.

He continued to scale the superstructure's surface, his eyes peeled for any control panels or instrumentation. However, despite forty-five minutes of careful crawling, he had yet to see anything besides smooth, arching bars of clear plastic and their square-shaped footholds.

These superstructures must do more than just...serve as scaffolds for the androids. They came from a Core World: even if the world in question only sent "primitive" farming mechanisms, Eyrin knew that a giant clear superstructure seemed, itself, unnecessary. The androids did most of the pruning of the crops below, while the few androids clinging to the superstructures appeared to simply hang aimlessly in place.

Eyrin approached one of the hanging androids, a frown hidden beneath his veil. I'll just talk to this android, then call everyone back. He originally said that he'd collect the verdora after one or two hours; after the fruitless, anger-inducing frustration of talking to the androids, he thought that even one hour was more than enough time.

"Android," he called out. "What are you doing?"

"Gardening." A mellow, deep feminine voice called out.

"To my eye, you appear as though resting. Is resting part of the harvest?"

A bubbly laugh sounded out. "Not all actions are visible to your eyes. I am here, gardening."

Eyrin narrowed his eyes, his skin darkening almost imperceptibly. "Define 'gardening.'"

"The sowing and reaping of life," she sighed, voice lilting in a sing-song manner.

"And how do you sow crops on the ground," he began, eyes peering downward, "from up here?" His eyes returned to the android.

"Some things require a gentle touch," she said. "You might not understand, Prince Eyrin." For the first time since the conversation's start, the android's head pivoted around to face him. The android's unnaturally wide, mechanical grin made him involuntarily shiver, his skin darkening a shade.

In the space of a breath, she crawled to him, limbs moving insect-like over the superstructure's struts. Her face was only an inch from his when she said, "the reluctant prince, lacking a mother's love."

Eyrin could have sworn he felt her breath fall on his face. But in the end, the android's face was a flat piece of metal, shifting as though deformed from behind. There was no true mouth, nor any breath: just a mask and a speaker.

He flinched and recoiled backward. While Eyrin knew that the androids had access to an encyclopedia and informational reports on Illudis--he wasn't surprised the unnamed Core World kept its androids informed about the sapients with which they'd formed a planet leasing contract--the details the androids knew were uncanny. This was the third android already that had referenced his mother, or lack thereof.

Eyrin gritted his twin pairs of teeth. They endlessly deflect questions onto other topics, he seethed. Each time they'd made things personal before, he'd simply left, telling himself that he'd find a different android and try his luck again. He knew it was futile--the androids were all cut from the same metaphorical cloth.

Now that he'd decided that this would be the final android he'd talk to (today, at least), he felt a burning desire to win. He couldn't just leave again the same way as he'd left the other androids.

For the sake of winning, you've gone as far as to fake your own death, he reminded himself, thinking back to the Hideaway. For the sake of liberating verdora from the chains of propriety, you masterminded dangerous adventuring schemes. Eyrin blinked twice. Melodramatic, he chided, laughing internally at himself.

Eyrin thought about what made, for him, the aforementioned activities worthwhile...thrilling. They were all risks, he noted, cocking his head slightly.

"Have you ever played a game?" Eyrin asked, leaning forward so that his head once more lay an inch from the android's.

"Nobody's ever asked to play a game with me," the android replied, her voice breathy.

"Games have stakes," he said. "Play a game, and then the winner takes something from the loser. Will you play a game with me?"

The android hummed. "There's nothing you have that I want."

"What do you know," he began, cocking his head, "about the Church of the Dragon?"

"Enough," she replied. "One of my sisters has already talked to your Church." The android smiled. "She's no more than a sapient: quick to anger, impatient."

The Church? Eyrin supposed having the Church present on the vanguard made sense--the Dragon had certainly made an appearance. But the Church was talking to the androids? Interesting.

"If she's just a sapient, how do you explain all that she can do?" Eyrin asked.

"I haven't seen her do anything," the android replied.

Eyrin grinned. "We should play a game," he insisted. "If I win, you tell me what purpose these superstructures hold. If you win, I tell you of the Church and her abilities." He looked at the android expectantly.

"No." Her voice was firm, like that of a parent to a child. "I don't wager."

Eyrin's eye ridges rose. "Shame."

"Good luck, prince," she said. "Besides, I think you'll find that we've been more than generous with your goddess."

What is that supposed to mean? "How so?"

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"We gave her a name."

Eyrin blinked. "A name?"

The android smiled. "A name. You should leave now, prince: I'll speak no more."

True to her word, she stepped away, hanging from the superstructure and falling silent. Eyrin shook his head once, then began climbing towards the superstructure's apex.

"Verdora," he called out. "It's time to return."

---

"Bath!" Lisa called out as she stepped into the bathhouse. His black hole shell stuck out like a sore thumb amongst all the sapient shells filling the new city.

"Lisa," he murmured, appearing before Lisa's eyes in a blink. She ignored him, looking up.

"Where are you, actually?" While Bath had manifested himself here, on the ground, Lisa knew that his shell was actually higher up, somewhere by the..."What the actual hell is that platform!?" She twisted around, giving his avatar a look.

"What?"

"Why is there a platform stretching above the bathhouse?" She pointed with a finger.

Bath smiled devilishly. "How else would people get to the slide?"

Lisa's jaw dropped. "What?"

"It's the passageway!" he cheered. "Besides, it'll be so steamy in here it won't matter: people on the platform will see nothing but a wall of fog below."

Lisa chewed her lip. "Why isn't it steamy now?"

"I intentionally prevented dragonleaf from burrowing into the crust toward the planet's mantle," Bath said. "I suppose it's time to get the bathhouse working."

Lisa punched his shoulder. "Get it working now, and I'll be the judge of whether this 'catwalk passageway' is a good idea." She crossed her arms, looking at him expectantly.

Bath chuckled. "Fine." Lisa suddenly felt the ground beneath them quiver. Water filling the pools ahead rippled, waves breaking against the walls separating the three bathing sections.

Less than a minute later, the water began to bubble. "There," Bath said. When Lisa turned back, she realized that she was now face-to-face with Bath's actual body, his shell surrounding his shoulders and head like a halo from aMedieval masterpiece...Though the color is inverted.

"I don't see any mist," she snorted, smiling.

"Give it a minute," he replied, rolling his eyes. "While we wait, why don't you tell me about your experience with the androids."

Lisa groaned. "They're impossible!" she groaned, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "They never gave me a straight answer to any question I asked."

Bath nodded sagely. "Same."

"You too?" she said. "I thought you didn't have time to see the androids 'cause you were busy making your slide."

Bath shrugged. "I finished early, so I thought I'd go out and try to communicate with a few of them."

Lisa laughed. "So you know what I mean then. About the androids being impossible little shits."

"It's like...the Core World they came from decided to play a prank on all of us."

Lisa nodded. "If they didn't want the androids to say anything, they could've just made them mute. But no, instead, they just make the androids so infuriating to talk to that they melt your ears off."

Bath gave Lisa an incredulous expression. "I'm not sure that was 'melt your ears off' level," he began, smiling wryly, "but it was obnoxious."

Lisa sighed, noting how steam was slowly starting to fill the space. "Did they tell you anything interesting?"

Bath shook his head. "No. You?"

Lisa frowned. "The first one I talked to told me a name."

"A name?" Bath was fairly certain that none of the androids had told anyone anything substantive. And yet one of them had told Lisa a name?

"Jezebella Vigigi," Lisa said, pronouncing the name carefully.

"The first name sounds...Earth-like."

Lisa shrugged. "So does the name of the guy who used to pilot the Egdelek Arc."

Bath nodded. "Franz."

"Right. I think it must just be a coincidence," Lisa muttered. "In all the universe, if sapients generally converge to the same human-like phenotype...they undoubtedly think of the same kinds of names as well."

"Did you look up Jezebella Vigigi in the chip reader's encyclopedia?" Bath asked, eyes bright with curiosity.

"Not yet," Lisa admitted. "I'll look now." She opened up the encyclopedia's search interface, then gestured to type in the name. "It's still searching..." she murmured, looking up. By now, the room was almost completely awash in white steam.

"It's taking a while," Bath observed.

"Yeah," Lisa replied. "I've never seen it take so long. Oh, wait, I think..." She projected the results for Bath to see.

<>

The two looked at each other with stoic expressions, then laughed. "We tried," Lisa snorted. "For all we know, the android was trolling me hard."

Bath sighed. "Wouldn't surprise me."

Lisa turned her eyes toward the mist-filled beyond. "Okay, I think it's ready for use." She turned back toward the entrance and the "OUT OF ORDER" sign.

Bath's eyes flashed. "Don't you think we need to first test the slide?" A lopsided grin made its way across his face.

Lisa placed a palm to her forehead in mock disbelief. "How could I have forgotten?"

"Race you," Bath said.

Lisa groaned. "After Dawn's Shadow..." She looked at him, then breathed in deeply, shaking her head. "Whatever, sure." Without waiting for him to reply, she began to count: "Three, two, one!"

Echolocation rocks, Lisa thought as she dashed up toward the platform mist-obscured platform. There weren't any stairs, but at this point, anybody in COTD should've been able to make the jump. She pressed off on the ground, using her magnetic sense to increase her force downward. Can't look behind me, she thought, even if she wanted to see where Bath was relative to her current position. Doing so would only slow her down. Theoretically, echolocation should let her see Bath even if he were behind her...but the two of them were moving too fast for it to work correctly.

She sprinted for all she was worth once on the platform, practically flying across the ground. Had her eyes been open, she would've noted the change in brightness from indoors to outside as she rocketed into the slide. Instead, she registered the emptiness of space beyond like a gaping rift in the structure of the bathhouse.

As she slid into the slide, she opened her eyes and let go of everything else: no more magnetic sense, no more super strength...just sliding.

The slide was smooth, probably some kind of dragonleaf root Bath had shaped into a snaking formation. Lisa had to give him credit: the slide was long. It reminded her of a roller coaster in that it ducked and looped in such a way that she never lost speed.

Then again, the slide might only work this well if you have a running start. She had entered the slide at, well, inhuman speed.

After a solid two minutes of sliding, she finally dropped off into the lake. She came up with her eyes squinted closed, treading water and waiting for Bath.

She didn't have to wait long. A moment later, Bath dove face-first into the water, evidently having gone down the slide on his stomach. As he came up, he, too, squinted his eyes closed, shaking out his hair and putting a finger in an ear.

Lisa sighed. He seems so...human. "I beat you this time," Lisa stated, beaming.

"Yup," Bath replied, scrunching his nose as he gingerly opened his eyes. "You won this one." He swam over to her, then raised a hand into the air. "Lisa White, slider-supreme."

"Slider...supreme?" she echoed. "That's awful."

Bath shrugged. "It's a hard-won title."

Lisa pursed her lips, then punched him on the shoulder. "Brat."

"Slider-supreme."

Lisa groaned. "Let's get out of the water and back to..." She gave Bath a look. "What's this city even called? I didn't even think to ask."

"..."

"You don't know?"

"Give me a moment," Bath muttered. "Well, people are calling it Bluff View, so I guess that's its name."

"Who named it?" Lisa wondered. "Dean?"

"I think so," Bath replied, unsure. "We can ask him tomorrow before we depart."

Lisa turned around in the water to face Bluff View. The city jutted out, its ashy-green dragonleaf melding seamlessly into the stark sienna rock. "Four more places after this," she murmured. "Then we'll be home."

Bath nodded. "Earth."

"Home, not Earth," Lisa insisted. "What else can you call the place in which you've spent most of your life?"

"Home, then," Bath stated. "Excited to see what's happened since we've been gone?"

"Yeah," Lisa replied. "I want to see what people have done now that all their most basic problems have been taken care of."

Bath nodded slowly.

"How about you?" Lisa asked. "Excited?"

Bath tsked. "I'm not sure how I feel...but I am curious to see how things have played out in our absence."

Silence fell for a moment.

"What now?" Lisa asked.

Bath raised an eyebrow. "Rematch?"