Lisa jumped awake when Bath appeared in the dorm room on the couch.

"Ahgh," she grumbled blearily. She hadn't fallen asleep due to fatigue, but rather due to boredom. Reading textbooks all day long to catch up on her studies was mind-numbing.

"Hello," Bath smiled, scootching in next to her. "Productive?"

Lisa grunted. "No. What took you so long to get back? They pulled out hours ago," she remarked, referring to Basalith's forces.

"Who pulled out?" He wagged his eyes devilishly.

Lisa pushed against his arm and sat up. "You're such a--"

He quickly morphed into a wolf, wrapping her in a bundle of fur. "I'm a what?"

Lisa burst into a fit of giggles, partly due to Bath's absurdity, partially due to the fact he was nuzzling her stomach to tickle her. "Bastard!" she squealed. "Damn it. You're impossible."

Wolf-Bath gave Lisa a lazy grin, teeth white beneath a pale, lolling tongue. She rubbed his head, then curled into his body with her textbook. Bath peered over at the book along with her.

"Seriously, what were you up to?"

"I was sending the seven kursi attackers from the battle into interrogation."

Lisa gave him a baffled look. "We have interrogators?"

"Not humans. They're one of the quasi-sapient varieties."

Lisa nodded. "And you're having them...interrogate humans? They're only a few days old, right? I wouldn't want Nimesh interrogating anyone."

Bath smirked, the expression strange on his wolven face. "Nimesh is a wolf. These are jerboas, a quasi-sapient species I've taken...certain liberties with."

Lisa sighed. "I can't keep up with what you're doing."

Bath nuzzled her arm. "You have your responsibilities; I have mine."

Lisa smiled back. "Thanks. Anyways, when are we going to do our bucket list? Sounds like the world's ending any day now; we gotta get started."

Bath chuckled. "I should be encouraging you to learn," he admitted, humor gleaming in his eyes. "But I'm in the mood for some post-battle adventuring..."

---

"Victoria Falls," Lisa said softly, eyes alight with wonderment. She and Bath lay suspended in the air along a "secluded" part of the falls. Or so Bath said, though Lisa suspected he had a hand in relocating anyone within the immediate area.

The water fell in a rush of white, splattering onto the rocks thousands of feet below. A loud, rumbling roar like mellowed thunder filled the space. The water above and below shone clear and blue.

"Watch me," Bath instructed. Lisa first felt him shift the magnetic field around them where they hovered, as though little ribbons of magnetism were spiraling outward and around them. Then she saw Bath's hair begin to rise, as though buffeted from below by wind. Lisa felt her hair rise a second later, the magnetic field next rippling her clothes in alternating patterns.

She felt for the field, then synergized her own magnetic sense in time with the field's rhythmic pulsations. Bath smiled, then drew them closer to the falls. As they neared the tumbling cascade, the water started to dance around them, swirling over the magnetic, ribbon-like patterns.

Bath gave Lisa a grin, then began to alter the trajectory of the magnetic force ribbons to dart closer to their skin, rather than covering the two of them in a sphere-like shell.

Catching on, Lisa moved her arms and tried to draw the water in a circular shape between the two of them, then in a spiral around her body. Lisa began to realize how much more sensitive dipoles, like water, were to changes in her magnetic sense. As she and Bath altered their own magnetic fields, even by slight amounts, the drops would spiral out of control.

As they continued this practice, floating along the falls as they did so, Lisa felt like she was beginning to understand her magnetic sense in a new light. It wasn't just moving whatever "magnetic sense" was that she needed to focus on. Now, as she worked with Bath, intertwining her magnetic field with his, constantly sensing his own changes and responding with adjustments of her own, Lisa was feeling much more prepared to visit places--such as foreign worlds--with distinct magnetic fields.

---

They visited other places: bustling bazaars and marketplaces, renowned capitals, historical landmarks. They did all of this over the course of a few days, departing after their daily classes ended. Lisa and Bath both agreed that it was best to let the world stew a few days, let world leaders figure out their decisions on whether or not to join COTD.

"Let's wait a week," Lisa originally proposed.

"Sure," Bath replied casually, guiding Lisa from Victoria Falls to Lake Malawi.

Lisa was trying her best to ignore all the chaos stemming from COTD's proclamation. Most tourist areas seemed relatively unaffected, with people determined to get the most out of their vacations before the world irrevocably changed. Lisa greatly sympathized with them.

Bath didn't seem to care one way or another how people around them were acting. Lisa felt somewhat put out when they visited a huge bazaar in Istanbul and Bath didn't care that half the stalls were missing and people were hiding in their houses.

"You don't value any of these cities, aside from their architecture," Lisa complained as they moved on to a different section of the seemingly-depopulated area.

"People come and go; architecture is a work of art, creativity. These cities could be empty and I wouldn't care."

"People add something as well," Lisa argued, shaking her head. "The people in a city dictate your entire experience. Take New York, for example. People-watching in New York City is an experience of its own."

"True," Bath said as he sidestepped through a small cluster of people. "Just one I don't particularly care for."

Lisa rolled her eyes. "Think you've seen it all?" She had no doubt that Bath had seen an incredible number of things, but was fairly certain he lacked first-hand knowledge about different cities' distinct personalities.

Bath sighed, his head inclining skyward. "Do you search out the beauty of a rainbow?"

"I appreciate them when they're in front of me," she replied, frowning. "Though I don't chase them, if that's what you mean."

"Right. I appreciate different kinds of people, different group dynamics, when they're in front of me, but I won't go looking for them, nor will I miss their absence."

Lisa's mouth popped open. 'So we're all like rainbows to him? We're that transient?' But she supposed that made sense, considering how long humans lived, how malleable culture was to change.

Bath looked back, wondering why she had slowed. He gave her a knowing smile and grasped her arm in his hand. "Lisa."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She snorted, dispelling her brief melancholy. "What?"

"Don't be so caught up on what's changing, and what might never be the same again. Take it from someone who knows."

Lisa's mouth edged into a lopsided grin. "Yeah yeah, Mr. Mass Extinction."

---

Lepochim was surprised by the zeal with which humans were learning professions. Many only took three days to gain control over each profession's five boons; by this point, a few people were already learning their fifth or sixth professions. Even the slowest people had finished their first profession and had moved on to their second.

"Today's the day," he thought to himself, smirking. He called two kursi down from the sky where they'd been circling on devilbats.

"You two," he said, "apprehend Maya, leader of Dawn faction. Don't say anything, don't give reasons why. Just take her, and bring her to me in the Spire." The Spire was the area in the Anima where Lepochim, Lisa, and Bath had their meetings.

The two flew off. Olm, already knowing the plan, didn't ask questions, flying off to the Spire without needing further instruction. Within a few minutes, the two kursi returned. Maya sat dejectedly behind one of them, face ashen and arms pressed tightly around the kursi in front of her.

She tentatively slid off the devilbat onto the balcony, then bowed her head before Lepochim.

"Personal servant of the dragon, you have brought me before you. This one is willing to serve."

Lepochim rubbed his chin. "Perfect. Maya, leader of Dawn faction, you have wholeheartedly embraced the true meaning of self-determination. You have amassed power, both physical and intangible." Maya's eyes seemed to grow wide as saucers. 'Worm,' Lepochim thought with disgust.

"Nevertheless, true leaders don't see power as an end. This is the trap that you've fallen into. Therefore, we're reassigning you. You speak Spanish, correct?"

Maya nodded hesitantly. Reassigning her?

Lepochim clasped his hands, his face serious. "Good. We're sending you to Central America. We're going to give you a city-seed and a spineroot seed, to create your city and defend it. You're allowed to bring twenty people with you, their abilities spread out through the professions."

Maya gave him a confounded expression. "...Why?"

Lepochim's steely facade gave his grin a sinister edge. "The entire region of Central America has collectively surrendered."

---

Now that Maya was out of the picture and reprehended for accumulating power as an end, rather than a means to a greater objective, Lepochim moved on to the next task: choosing the other ambassadors.

The people chosen by himself would be the first sent out. He'd already decided to send out the leader of Dusk faction, Herod, as well as the Knight, Dean...these being the only people whose names Lepochim took notice of. The rest would be decided by a little tournament.

"Time to put the arena to good use," he murmured softly to himself, a small, dark grin on his face.

--

The tournament was to begin the next day. Lepochim orchestrated a huge bracket for all qualifying individuals, namely those who were learning at least their fifth profession. He would instruct qualified individuals to enter the tournament in groups of five.

It was, in part, a trial of combat, that much was made abundantly clear. Anybody who became an ambassador of the Dragon needed to be able to fight. There were other aspects to the competition, though these were less clear.

Lepochim was planning to send out the vast majority of all groups of five as ambassador squads; this tournament was more useful in determining who would be sent out first. Ideally, the best groups would be the vanguard in the effort to spread COTD's dogma. Moreover, the last-placing groups would be given more time to strengthen themselves before being sent out.

He infused some of his own training expertise from Sigenolf-74's ranking tests into the final tournament model, ensuring that the tournament would be more than just a series of simple 5 vs. 5 brawls. He spent...oh, around three hours finalizing the details. Having already confirmed the details with his peacekeeper kursi, all they were waiting on was for the teams to form.

---

"So we're allowed to have up to twenty quasi-sapient companions join a single person," Kayt read aloud, the details clearly carved into her bedside table where she'd read them upon awaking. "Thankfully, I just have Nimesh." One less thing to worry about.

It had already been three days since the battle. Kayt was feeling somewhat better than she had originally. Like most people, she realized that the memories of the battle that disturbed her were feeling...further away, as though the memories were of events three months, rather than three days, past.

'This is my life now.' She was telling herself this daily as a new kind of mantra. The Dragon had descended from the sky, the impossible had become possible...If only the dead could come back to life. Kayt hated the feeling of blood on her hands, even if she only killed people in battle, people who had signed away their lives to the U.S. government.

'Maybe, if it were a battle, I wouldn't feel guilty,' she thought bitterly to herself. 'But that...was a slaughter.'

Shaking her head, Kayt finished reading the message on the table. "I need to find four others. Hmm..." Kayt thought over what profession she wanted to join a group as. She'd actually only just made the cutoff for the tournament, having started her fifth profession Wednesday night. Right now, she had finished the land-shaper, close combat fighter, tactician, and administrator professions. She was an Apprentice caretaker as well, though she hadn't started training.

While she'd been a land-shaper during the battle a few days ago, she was feeling a strong inclination to enter the tournament as an administrator. "That means I just need to find a fighter--ranged or close combat--a land-shaper, or a caretaker." Tactician, while being a combat profession, wouldn't help nearly as much in the tournament. Besides, she was an Expert tactician and could work out tactics before a fight commenced.

---

Edgewood groaned at the sight of his mutilated bedside table. "Am I really supposed to find a land-shaper to erase this message for me?" he grumbled to himself. 'How else am I going to get rid of it?' He read the tournament stipulations fastidiously, eyes narrowed in concentration.

"What!? Only twenty quasi-sapients!?" Edgewood snarled. "The hell!" He had been working on raptor formations for twenty-five, fifty, one-hundred, three-hundred, five-hundred, and one-thousand raptors each. He could call on all the raptors to fight for him if he wanted; they all defaulted to him at this point. He had a wonderful working relationship with their matriarch, Krra (or so Edgewood thought she was called).

'I really should get the land-shaper profession,' he sighed to himself, 'if only to ease quasi-sapient communications.' Right now, his completed professions were as follows: close combat fighter, specialized educator, childhood educator, adolescent educator, and adult educator. He found that each educator profession paved the way for the next. While specialized educator took a few days to bring up to Expert, his most recently mastered adult educator profession had just taken a day.

Now, he was training as a Beginner scholar, hoping to increase his ability to absorb and synthesize new information to pass on to his pupils, namely his raptors, though potentially, anyone and anything.

Edgewood exhaled deeply when he finished reading the guidelines, then rubbed the bridge of his nose. "So I'm limited to just twenty raptors?" He rolled his shoulders, then thrust himself out of bed and walked over to his closet. "I guess I'd be too OP with a thousand raptors behind me. Twenty should be fine.

"...But, I need to find four others. Definitely a land-shaper, probably an administrator, maybe a long-range fighter or a caretaker. I'll be close combat, of course."

---

"Dean," Lepochim said coolly as the human test subject approached, eyeing the human with mostly disguised disgust.

"Servant of the Dragon," Dean replied back, annoyed at the yellow-eyed grinch's judging gaze. "Why have you called me here?"

"You're being sent away," Lepochim stated crisply, steepling his fingers.

"...What?" Dean hadn't been expecting this. "Where?"

"Don't you speak...oh, African or something?"

A horrified expression came over Dean's face. "No!? I'm American!" Was this an extremely bad joke?

Dean couldn't believe his eyes when genuine confusion swept over Lepochim's face. "Really?" Lepochim hadn't taken the time to learn Earth geography, nor had he lowered himself to learning about Earth's culture. Since Ritus had been based in Virginia, his knowledge of Earth was largely limited to the U.S. This served him fine, most of the time.

'Was he doing this intentionally?' Dean wondered, rather, hoped. "Yes, really. I do know Spanish," he said, having taken it in high school.

"No no...we already have someone in Central America...Hmm...Can you still go to Africa?"

Dean gave him a look. "I mean, sure...most people there speak English, anyway."

Lepochim coughed. "True, true. That's right. Great. We'll send you off to Somalia."

Dean quickly shook his head and began to protest. "But they speak--"

Lepochim gave him a chilling smile. "That's where you're going to establish your city-seed and spineroot defense. No buts. Ideally, you'll expand out to encompass nearby states. Somalia, being the first nation to accept the Dragon's offer, will get special treatment as the African region's new base of operations."

Dean couldn't believe what he was hearing. COTD was sending him into Somalia? He'd never been to Africa in his life, nor had he ever taken serious responsibility for anything. They were going to have him go into a foreign country--one that most called a failed state--and create a new city-state?

"This sounds like the worst idea I've ever heard," Dean blurted out.

"It'll be fine," Lepochim chided him. "As a reward for assuming the role of an ambassador, you get to name the city."

Dean felt sick, like someone was telling him that he was going to have to take a test for a class he hadn't taken. This servant of the Dragon was clearly set in his decision, leaving Dean helpless to his fate.

"I'm only eighteen," he protested weakly.

This seemed to give Lepochim pause. He looked at the young man before him in a new light. Sighing, Lepochim spoke once more, though now his voice had a resigned quality to it. "Be that as it may, you're going to Somalia. However, you're allowed to take twenty people with you and as many quasi-sapients as will follow your lead."

Dean swallowed. That did make him feel a bit better. "Okay."

Lepochim gave him a thin-lipped smile. "Dismissed."