"Welcome to Illudis," the sapient seemed to purr while gesturing to an enormous, towering mountain beyond the opened door. The traveling trio realized almost immediately that while the gate had been secreted away in a sturdy building, the place where they were being taken was the surface of the foreign planet.

Bath used his essence to create little insect-like creatures that walked over the purple ground. The ground was covered in reedy, purple strips that bobbed to the right and left independent of any breeze. Bath's insects went to work devouring small organisms as Lepochim carried him with the group.

The giant mountain off just a few miles in the distance was beautiful: white rock narrowing into a snowy peak, its surface covered in numerous opulent terraces. Crimson and gold banners and streamers tastefully intertwined and decorated the seamless terrace balconies. The terraces were stacked over the mountain, making it appear as though the mountain were a tree and the human settlements climbing fungi. Elegant, regal fungi, at that.

All around the mountain sped flying egg-shaped vehicles. As the group approached, they noticed that the pods traveled along paths marked out in the sky by neon strings. The pods traveled along the strings, as though the strings were train tracks.

The sky was blue, like Earth's, and Bath knew that most humans would be able to breathe this planet's atmosphere without difficulty.

Bath had many, many things he wanted to know about this planet. Being the first planet truly compatible with unmodified Earth life forms, Bath was starting to see his plan falling into place. All he wanted was to take Lisa aside and use her encyclopedia to find out information about this world, but knew patience was warranted at this current moment.

Besides, he needed to return to Earth first before setting anything into motion. He wasn't in any rush. On the contrary, time throughout the galaxy seemed to move a lot slower than he thought. On Earth, 100 years was a long time. Abroad, where galaxies near the core existed in peace for millions or billions of years...thinking about how slowly these societies changed sickened his mind. The very idea that a world order could exist without being overthrown for over a million years...Bath found the idea contrary to his every instinctive value.

The area around the mountain was mostly open plain. Far off into the distance, near the horizon line, the Travelers could barely see the outlines of mountains and a lake. The plain itself was quiet and devoid of life forms that would pique Bath's interest.

After about thirty minutes of walking, the escort stopped them at the base of a tall wall encircling the bottom of the mountain. An imposing white gate with crimson and gold accents stood before them. The escort approached the gate, then said: "This one brings wayfaring Travelers, gatemaster."

"They are expected. You may all enter," the deep voice commanded. The gates swung open slowly, revealing the pure-white mountain's surface ahead and a huge bazaar. Bath, Lisa and Lepochim all stepped through the gate after the escort.

On the other side of the gate, an enormous throng of people were buying and selling goods in small, makeshift stalls. The number of people couldn't have been less than ten-thousand. Even though the path to the staircase leading up the mountain lay on the other side of the huge crowd, the escort had the ability to part the sapients ahead with just a passive-aggressive glance.

Lisa also noticed the escort applying a bit of force on each person's shell, coercing them to get out of the way. She'd noticed when the escort arrived that it was kursi, which was slightly annoying since Lisa then couldn't breach the sapient's mental defense. If all the people on this planet were like the slugs on Lime World and used anti-kursi equipment, Lisa wouldn't feel as annoyed. But here, she could feel the shells of all the sapients around her; the only thing keeping Lisa from this escort's thoughts was the escort's own power. Lisa could only grumble about her poor luck.

Soon, the escort and the Travelers all stepped onto disk-shaped platform.

"To the Waymaster," the escort stated clearly into the open air. The platform suddenly began to hum. Within a few seconds, it was accelerating upwards. When the disk reached a fairly high altitude, it halted in front of a terrace with fairly austere decor when compared to other terraces around it.

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"This is the Waymaster's headquarters," the escort explained as she walked towards the headquarters. Like all other buildings they had seen, the headquarters was a block of rock that seemed carved out of the mountain itself. The escort brought them indoors and through a series of passageways before leading them to a heavy door that appeared to be made out of a strange, grainy material.

"Waymaster, this one asks permission to enter with guests."

"Enter," a sinuous baritone called out from beyond the door.

Without a word in reply, the escort opened the door and gestured for the three Travelers to enter first. The sapient, clearly a male from his translated voice, looked to be a similar species, if not the same, as the escort. His skin was a pale blue, his mouths covered with an elegant red scarf draped around the lower half of his face. He had a slightly darker blue mane of hair around his head that extended out in thin lines of blue over his neck and disappeared under his robe. The sapient appeared to stand on his back pair of legs, though like the escort, his entire body was covered in a dress-like shroud that stretched from his neck to the ground.

"Welcome, travelers," the Waymaster said warmly as Lisa and Lepochim entered his office. The office was a beautifully decorated room with numerous articles of exotic furniture and a wonderful view of the far-distant lake from a bay window. "It is a pleasure to see ones such as yourselves. This planet is fairly remote and rarely receives off-world guests," he explained.

"Begging your pardon, Waymaster, but, may I sit down?" Lepochim asked awkwardly while cradling Bath in his arms. Lisa nearly snickered, but kept her composure.

In this room, both the Waymaster and escort had shields up around their shells, a fact which Lisa was annoyedly growing accustomed to. It seemed like everyone they met on this adventure was a kursi, which didn't make a whole lot of sense considering what Lepochim said about the percentage of kursi throughout the universe being so small.

Perhaps the number of kursi she encountered was skewed by the fact that she was spending all her time passing though planetary gates. After all, on Earth, hundreds of kursi had been at the Ritus gate headquarters; contrastingly, essentially nowhere else on Earth had a single kursi.

Lisa, Bath, and Lepochim hadn't even considered the fact that Bath...in his square likeness...still had a shell, even if it was ominous and black. This would give him away as a living organism to any kursi.

A fact which the Waymaster wryly addressed. "You can tell your third companion to come out; I sense his shell."

Bath sinuously transformed into his human form with a uniform matching that of Lisa and Lepochim.

"Hello, Waymaster," Bath said calmly, ignoring Lepochim's rather peeved expression.

"Hello, Waymaster," the sapient replied in kind. Bath's mouth curved up into a genuine smile, his eyes shining with surprised light.

"Oh? You've heard of me, then?"

"We received notice that a new Waymaster was making his way around his neighboring planets," the Waymaster stated. "I happen to be the Waymaster for 15 or so planets in this rim of the universe; one of my rather...dour holdings is planet 39981."

Bath searched his head; the planet name seemed familiar.

"Lime World," Lepochim hissed dejectedly from behind. Bath's eyes gleamed with recognition. "Ah, 39981. I have you to thank, then, for granting me and my Traveler translators and an encyclopedia."

The Waymaster waved his head dismissively. "Don't mention it; both the translators and the encyclopedia are worth very little. Anyways, aside from calling you here to meet the newest Waymaster in this area of the universe, I have a proposition to make. I have a policy of visiting the planets of Waymasters and would love to journey to your planet. I believe you told my subordinates on 39981 that it was called Earth."

Bath nodded. "Yes, we are all from Earth. Do I understand correctly that you have a map of gates required to reach Earth?"

The Waymaster's eyes crinkled. "Of course. What is a Waymaster without his maps?" The Waymaster pulled out a small chip from his pocket--clearly he'd come prepared--and held the chip in between two folds of cloth where finger-like apendages were covered in his robe. "This is a copy of my own gate map," the Waymaster said. "The gate map you currently possess is deprecated and nearly useless. This map should allow you to go anywhere you wish within the surrounding 39 planets."

Bath looked at the sapient with a complex expression on his face.

"So, how about it? Go on a trip with me back to your Earth?"

Bath had an overwhelming sense that this Waymaster was pursuing a nefarious agenda, but couldn't find fault in any of his actions so far. Bath glanced and Lisa and Lepochim and gave each a look, asking for approval. Both gave him a small shrug.

Bath's lips curled up into a cold smile. If the Waymaster understood human facial expressions, would have been alarmed by Bath's predatory demeanor. Perhaps he would have rescinded his own proposition to accompany Bath to Earth, abandoning his confidently-orchestrated plans.

But alas, he didn't suspect anything odd.

Then Bath finally spoke, his voice saccharine and sincere: "I'd love for you to accompany us."

Lepochim and Lisa both involuntarily shuddered.