Lisa continued to practice for the remainder of the evening, then turned in to check in on her pet projects, the first being the wasp quasi-sapients. She felt somewhat irritated that Bath had been moving so quickly on his own projects when hers were going along at a much slower pace. 'It isn't healthy to compare myself to him,' Lisa thought to herself in self-admonishment.

"Nevis," she called out as she entered the sweet-scented, hexagon-thatched Hive. The queen swiftly approached, hair and antennae swishing along with her hips.

"Lady Church," Nevis smiled, her eyes creasing at the edges, gracing Lisa with a bow of the head. "Ready to see the progress we've made on project Big WD?"

Lisa grinned. "Let's go."

The Hive was characteristically silent as Lisa walked next to the queen to a large, hexagonal room filled with whiteboards. The room was furnished only by a large conference table, lacking chairs. Lisa sat on the edge of the table while Nevis strode forward to the whiteboard, an expo marker in hand.

'This feels surreal,' Lisa thought as Nevis began to draw out a complicated diagram, her formerly-concealed second pair of arms coming out to assist in the drawing. Lisa waited patiently for the wasp to finish, knowing from experience that the queen disliked interruptions.

"This is Basalith, and this is Earth," Nevis stated clearly, pointing with her index and middle fingers. "And these are the nearby planets, which I've labeled with their given and official names." The wasp pointed at a slightly green planet located a deceptively distant from Earth. "For instance, Lime World, planet 39981."

Lisa nodded along. "Based on the galactic encyclopedia and my own personal experience, how should we, COTD, proceed in traversing each world and establishing a set route between planets?" Lisa was, in particular, worried about a planet like Gray Land.

"The first planet in our path, planet 39789," seeing Lisa fidget at the unfamiliar name, Nevis clarified, saying, "Magnet Planet, as you call it, is fairly easy to traverse. We can send out the snakes, horses, and wolves as our main ground force. The devilbats should also suffice to transport individuals ahead."

"Sounds simple, as expected. Lime World, I assume, will be similarly easy to traverse once we subjugate the small sapient force just outside the gate."

"All planets require specific boons to adapt to different atmospheric conditions," Nevis added. "How would you like to go about distributing these boons?"

"I gave this a bit of thought," Lisa said. "I think we should erect isolation chambers just before and just after gates. That way, people can wait in line and begin adapting to the new environment." Lisa knew that, for now, Bath still hadn't come up with a foolproof way to automatically change someone's entire physiology to work in significantly different atmospheric conditions. Even she would rely on him to catalyze certain transitions in her body's chemistry to properly adapt. "Bath can simply saturate the air of these chambers with airborne microbes like those he keeps in the boon pools."

"Of course," Nevis nodded, head moving with the same sinuous grace of an ocean wave. "Then we should discuss the issue of Illudis and Juserin. Have you come to a conclusion on how we will approach?"

Lisa sighed. While she didn't feel any compunction for Earth's leaders, she knew Juserin, had stayed at his mansion, and had even discussed kursi mind-manipulation and exchanged bits of culture. Everything would be so simple if Juserin joined them and COTD willingly, but Lisa doubted that this would happen. Juserin had seen them as fellow traveling gatekeepers; why would he debase himself and submit?

"...I really want him to join us," Lisa just barely said under her breath. She reestablished eye contact with Nevis' hourglass form. "We're going to tell him the truth," she said finally. "If we're serious about conquering the universe, bringing him over to our side will be incalculably useful."

Nevis smiled, revealing sharp, curving, almost mandible-like teeth. "Understandable. The gains in political savvy would be worthwhile. Moreover, with luck, Juserin can retain some control over all the worlds within his grasp, saving us the need to work from nothing."

"Exactly. Conquering foreign worlds won't be as easy as conquering Earth, where we know the Earth's culture, political climate, and technological capabilities. We'll have to wait for a better encyclopedia," Lisa said wistfully. While the encyclopedia had far too much data to read alone, it only offered cursory glances and summaries of most worlds. What they really needed, for planning purposes, was an in-depth, CIA classified-level report on each planet.

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

"Having decided how to proceed with Juserin, we have a few other matters to consider." Nevis now pointed two of her hands at the whiteboard, pointing with her fingers to nine separate planets. "The first planet after Illudis is 39811. The planet is, according to your report, extremely small and easy to cross. Next, we have planet 39786, a truly glaring obstacle."

Lisa kicked her feet. "Yup. It's on an asteroid, of all things."

"We're still working on a solution to that problem," Nevis stated firmly. "Worst comes to worst, we simply wait for the gate on that planet to change and hope for an easier planet to travel through..."

Lisa chewed her lip. "No; Bath said he's figured something out. I think we'll be okay."

"How does it work?"

Lisa gave her a blank stare. "How am I supposed to know?"

"You are his companion, his balance. Shouldn't you know?"

Lisa snorted. "If I knew everything Bath was doing, I'd explode," she admitted. "He can multitask and effectively be in several places at once."

Nevis gave her a wide-eyed, thin-lipped expression. Lisa wasn't surprised the wasp queen neglected that Lisa couldn't multitask like Bath, the queen being quite the multitasker herself.

"However, I can get along just fine aiming at a few key targets at once and getting assistance with the rest," she beamed appreciatively. "Now, let's continue going over the planets Bath and I visited by voyager..."

---

The dust swirled up around Dean as he impacted the floor. He straightened his knees, standing back up to his full height. 'I'm supposed to lead this city, and yet I haven't even walked through its streets.' That was a small, first goal. One he planned to use to make an impression.

He looked up, at the sun, and felt a warmth in his chest. A flash of insight came to him, and he set out at a casual walk. His first instinct was to sprint, to race through the city and quickly retreat back to the Spire.

That was exactly why he chose to do the opposite: a slow patrol through the streets. To any Somalian observers, this walk appeared brisk; Dean would, in fact, make good time through the city's streets. Since Jerboaland's roads and buildings were laid out in geometric patterns in the same continuous, fractal model as Basalith, Dean found it easy to merge his inspired vision into the topography of Jerboaland.

As he walked, he cleared the street with loud, thudding steps. People naturally parted before his thunderous approach. However, when Dean came by, all they would see was a young man dressed in a formal, military-inspired white suit with blue accents, his eyes probing, hands periodically dipping down into the dirt below to sculpt out deep gashes. The motion was graceful and coordinated effortlessly with each stride.

This, perhaps more than anything else, was what led to the silence following Dean's path through the city. People scurried out of the way, halted, and stared, enraptured by the display of power before them, their belief in COTD kindled as they saw the young, official-looking man prowling like a lion.

When Dean finished, his eyes lightened, brows no longer furrowed. 'At least I've left my mark on this city,' he thought to himself. 'And at least it's something worth appreciating.' Dean decided that he didn't want to be known as the simple Knight, a tool of COTD, some brutish powerhouse to beat adversaries into submission.

He wasn't naive; he knew that eventually, he would need to act out the part of the Knight. COTD was going to other planets, and Dean doubted most of them would be open to foreign conquerors waltzing in and seizing power. He'd fight; even if COTD was somewhat crazy, even if he still held serious reservations about Bath's treatment of humans and, specifically, himself.

But Dean wasn't content to remain a background figure, to be called upon when useful...to be sent away like an obedient subject to a foreign city. Since COTD was a thing, and he was already at its top, he was determined to abuse the situation to his advantage, to do what he loved.

Dean first smirked to himself, then his lips parted and he laughed out loud before finally dashed back towards the Spire.

---

"Residents of Jerboaland," Dean announced, utilizing a director boon to magnify his voice. He was leaning out over the Spire, luminescent lichens casting him in a faint glow. "In this city, we will begin our own legacy. As many of you have heard, Basalith has quickly become a breeding ground for warriors. But that's not what we need. Here, we will sow peace."

He looked out steadily over the city's dimly glowing form, unable to make out anything more defined than silhouettes. "Here, in Jerboaland, we're going to find purpose not through duels, or trials of combat, but through matches. Sports. Socc--er, Football, tennis, basketball, anything and everything. We'll adapt and create our own sports as we go, and I have no doubt they'll spread far and wide, wherever COTD goes."

Dean knew most of the people below wouldn't understand his words, since many only spoke Arabic or Somali. However, he knew the few who did understand would translate, and those present would upload his announcement online, where it would be translated for anyone to read.

"The Church of the Dragon has come here to help. Think of Jerboaland as a new beginning; I know we'll be able to carve out a future together."

Dean cracked a grin as the lines he'd carved through the city--later traced over in a flammable material by the jerboas--sparked to life. Soon, inside the gashes roiled orange flames, shining like a brazier in the darkness. Standing on the Spire's balcony, Dean couldn't quite make out the full image he'd inscribed; the people below were undoubtedly puzzling over the inscribed flames.

But from above, where one quasi-sapient falcon circled in search of airborne enemies, the image was clear: a giant, flaming circle, splitting off into swirling rays, like eddies of light encircling a vast whirlpool of light at the circle's center.