Bath looked on patiently as Lisa practiced utilizing her new boon. He enjoyed moments like this, basking in the light of the sun, spreading his toes into the sand, smelling the various scents drifting on the wind. He'd always marveled at how quickly the sun seemed to drift over the land; now was no different. He traced its crescent path through the East, its hazy glow through a small patch of thin clouds, then its high ascent in the sweltering desert azure. He loved to mark the spot at which the sun reached its apex, the quarter-point of its cycle around the Earth.

Back when he was younger, he chased the sun as a game. He'd follow it as it moved so as to avoid either night or day entirely for indefinite periods of time. Now, even though the humans developed accurate descriptions of the Sun rooted in science, Bath didn't look on its glowing form any less fondly than before. 'A first friend,' Bath thought nostalgically. He hadn't understood the concept of loneliness until the evolution of birds hundreds of millions of years after his memory began. And even then, he chose not to embrace such a sentiment, content to fill his role as apex predator in Earth's planetary ecosystem.

'And now look at me,' he thought to himself. 'Cultivating such a flimsy thing as friendship.' Even as he said this to himself, a smile came over his face as Lisa nearly smashed her butt into a sand dune, only pulling away at the last minute with a pitiful shriek. 'The dawn to my dusk; it's fitting.'

"Isn't it boring to stare off into space all day?" Lisa asked from afar while she practiced staying in place a few feet above the ground.

Bath looked her way. "What?"

"You've been looking at the sky for the past several hours," Lisa pointed out. "If you were looking at me, I know you would've been laughing nonstop."

Bath chuckled. "Perhaps." He looked up to the sky again, as though the answer to her question lie in wait. "The sky is a true miracle," he said at last. "A little blue dome keeping us all from the vacuum beyond."

Lisa gave him a surprised expression. "Feeling contemplative?"

"I like deserts," Bath admitted. "I've spent lots of time in them. You've never seen how deserts form, nor have you seen how they end. It's beautiful." The process was akin to an animal dying, being worn down to its bones, and then growing flesh again. It defied reason that the same stretch of land could be verdant one year and a sickly the next, then dry and dead; and then, after thousands or millions of years, green again. Deserts were death and resurrection.

"Deserts are just dead wastelands," Lisa retorted. "And yes, I'm aware deserts have lots of animals. I like nature documentaries. But compared to, I don't know, a rainforest, deserts are so..." Lisa searched for words, the resulting waving of her arms causing her to spin in place like a top.

"I understand," Bath interrupted with a calm smile. "Though I still enjoy them."

He walked over to her, then put a hand on her arm, enjoying the sensation of feeling with flesh rather than essence. He halted her spinning movement, giving her an amused chuckle before backing away. "Hurry up; we only have tomorrow, then we'll be returning to Alens."

"How does Alens help you further your goals?" Lisa suddenly asked.

Bath just gave her a look. "Why must everything I do coincide directly with my stated goals?" he asked. "I want to learn." In actuality, the simplest answer was his natural curiosity. 'I could be creating more boons, or personally destroying world governments or leaders...but what, in the end, is the point?'

First and foremost, Bath wished to experience the world, to live in it to the absolute fullest. He wanted to save Earth from the accelerated climactic effects of Global Warming because Earth was still, at this time, in a beautiful, vibrant age. He realized now just how correct he'd been in his thinking; the kinds of scientific progressions humans could make left even him with a feeling of awe. To see future progress cut short by environmental calamity seemed a terrible waste.

Similarly, his goal to reach the Core Worlds was largely fueled by his simple desire to experience as much as possible of the world at large, to leave no wines untasted...or, perhaps in his case, no species undevoured. If he truly did live for millions, billions, trillions more years...how could he ever be satisfied, knowing now that his experience was limited to a little speck at the fringes of the universe?

He didn't know when, but sometime along the long road to forming Basalith, Bath realized sharing his experiences with another was more enjoyable than reminiscing alone. Accordingly, he was eager to elevate Lisa to a level at which she could walk unaided at his side as they traveled the universe, experiencing everything fully together.

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"Lisa," he called out. "Try focusing more of the magnetic sense into your hips and chest. It should help you stabilize yourself as you move."

He returned his gaze to the sky, plunging his feet into the dune so that his calves were half-obscured in the sand. There was something inherently better about embodiment. Sure, Bath could dissipate himself so that he was just a tiny speck-like existence swimming in his own essence, feeling the world through essence tendrils alone...but the thought made him uncomfortable.

'Through essence alone, the world is a surface.' Thoughts didn't need to explain how different reality with all of its nuanced sights and sounds was from a 3-D impression.

Bath continued to give Lisa pointers as night shrouded the desert in darkness once again. She'd need to sleep at some point, but not for a few more hours. He'd considered bestowing upon her an enhancement to fully eliminate the need for sleep, but had decided against doing so.

When the time for sleep came, the Lisa sat down on the Dune and beckoned Bath over to be her pillow. Bath walked over, shifting into the form of a white wolf and curling around her.

Neither spoke, content with silence and each other's company. When Lisa's eyes shut and remained closed, her breath cycling in a steady rhythm, Bath watched the rise and fall of her chest and felt the compression and expansion of her ribs on his stomach.

He waited, unmoving, until Lisa's breath broke its pattern and her eyes squinted open.

"Ugh, how long was I asleep?" she asked.

"3.5 hours," Bath replied. "Ready to continue?"

"Let me go to the bathroom," she admonished. "Can you give that fake toilet paper and toothpaste stuff?"

Bath snorted, then fulfilled the request. "Here."

"Thanks!" Bath smiled fondly as Lisa marched off to a far off dune for "privacy." She always underestimated just how far 3.6 miles was, which was good for her since the toilet paper and toothpaste Bath had generated were both made from his essence. If she left his 3.6 mile radius of influence, they would both disappear.

However, he let her believe that she was going beyond his range...let her believe that he wasn't the one who actually had to re-internalize the soiled essence products. 'What makes her so sheepish about going to the bathroom when I penetrate every inch of her body with my essence?' Bath shook his head; modern humans had some pretty useless social norms. He remembered when he'd told Lisa that the public bathhouse was, well, open. As in, people all bathed together, naked, in a large bathing pool. "That's so weird!" she had spluttered. "I wouldn't want just anyone to see, you know, everything!"

Lisa quickly returned from her bathroom expedition. "I'm ready," she began, "for breakfast!"

"Already prepared," Bath grinned. "Desert cuisine, bon appetite."

"This is going to be better than yesterday's breakfast, right?"

Bath shrugged. "No promises."

Lisa shook her head as she approached. "You're hopeless."

After eating what was apparently another unsatisfactory meal, Lisa began to practice using her magnetic sense once again.

---

Lepochim began this week's final kursi update. He planned to do three updates on each Sunday so that he could address 1/3 of the kursi at a time. This way, he could ensure that the kursi would have sufficient numbers to populate all the training rooms and patrol high-traffic areas.

"Hello, group three," he stated crisply. "It's time for the first weekly update of the year." His eyes scanned the brown-robed forms before him, his yellow irises standing out sharply on his black corneas. "First, I will allow you all time to discuss problems that you have encountered."

Lepochim waited expectantly. After a moment of hesitation, a kursi raised his hand.

"Yes."

"I've been finding it difficult to control the citizens when they fight against one another in large groups."

Lepchim nodded his head in a knowing fashion.

"Anything else?"

The room was quiet.

"Good. I'll be addressing that question in my update, so pay attention. As you all no doubt have realized, Basalith is rapidly increasing in population. Have any of you noticed that the city's walls have been expanding outward?" Seeing only blank faces, Lepochim continued. "Well, they have been, thanks to Bath's latest...creation." Lepochim had to admit that he held a great deal of respect for Bath's abilities after the synthesis of spineroot. Lepochim had never seen its like even across all the worlds he'd traversed both on campaign and on his way to exile.

"The city will expand as needed in response to population influx. The city will also be protected from aerial and ground attacks of all types. Essentially, the city is, to human technology, impregnable.

"That's the first update. Update number two: the two factions have, as I'm sure you've noticed, proliferated wildly throughout the city. Your defensive boons should be enough to protect you from any kind of conflict, even with people receiving all kinds of miscellaneous boons. Don't shy away from breaking up fights. Additionally, you're all going to be receiving a peacekeeping bat in a day.

"Why?" he asked rhetorically as half the kursi gave him confused, alarmed expressions. "Bats don't look cute or adorable." 'Like those damned squirrels. What was Bath thinking?' "Moreover, they're giant quasi-sapient bats adapted for riding. They look..." Lepochim waved his hand as he sought an appropriate description. "Dragon-like. Anyways, you'll be receiving them soon. I'll provide training on Monday evening.

"As a final update, the Arena is in full-swing ahead of schedule. Many of you have probably already noticed this. The Arena is to be one of your most useful tools. Whenever there exists chaos that you cannot calm down alone or in small groups, issue an Arena summons to any parties embroiled in conflict. In this way, you are to streamline chaos to one area."

"In response to the earlier question about having difficulty controlling groups of people: when groups have unified goals, it's inherently difficult for a kursi to diminish said goal in any noticeable capacity. This is the reason why we have the bats and the Arena. Further questions?"

Seeing none, Lepochim dismissed the group.