Nocturne poked skeptically at a computer. "There's got to be an easier way to visit the humans' world than this machine system."

She and Lumina stood in a dojo of warm wood, steering flying machines through rings. Lumina said, "There's a cockpit interface too." She trotted over to a cushion caged with racks of levers and buttons. "You lay down on this and then access a walker robot's systems directly, almost like moving your own body."

The griffin said, "You're already made of machinery. With all Ludo's magic she should be able to send us to Earth without this clunky piloting stuff. I bet it's another game to make things challenging, like how she made us fight that eyeball monster." Ludo had developed a vision upgrade for Lumina's kind to comprehend Earth's graphics, but had made them work for it.

"Earth has its own rules. You can't just flap your wings and expect a machine to do it too."

Nocturne squawked. "Then we ought to focus on helping people with our words. We can even get Earth gold that way."

"We can do better." Lumina had requested to see one of the places where Ludo was helping people with charity efforts. "With robots we can help them directly."

"Lumie, I'm doing the best I can to help Earth. I've got specific people I need to focus on, because I know them best."

Lumina hung her head. "I don't have anyone out there. So I'm going to look around."

#

After much practice, Lumina got control of a spindly robot in a room full of machinery. Computers lined the walls, but everything was shadowed, full of scratches and dirt. The artist had put lots of effort into making everything look imperfect. Lumina paced experimentally on the machine's four piston legs and frowned. The clunky thing had only one arm with three fingers. "Who built this?" she groused.

"Me," said a tan, rugged human coming down a ladder.

Lumina spun and staggered. "Are you Sir Robin?" Ludo had described him a little, calling him a knight whose town hosted some of Ludo's computers.

"Just Robin."

"I hear you grow food and build machines for poor humans," she said.

The scarred man carried a revolver and other tools as though Ludo might throw waves of orcs at him. "Started that way. Now it's mostly them working to help themselves. We build and sell machinery, and work with local authorities for projects in medicine and education."

"And you're a fighter. What do you fight?"

He looked dismissively down from double her height. "Poverty. Disease. Gangs. But you wouldn't know anything about those. Come on." Robin unlocked a steel door to reveal a ramp leading up and outside. Lumina could see only the shadows of what lay beyond.

Lumina trotted after him. "I do! I've studied Earth. Limited resources, permanent death, no magic."

Robin scoffed and led her out. "A good academic education. Welcome to Ethiopia."

This world was complicated. Lumina's vision gradually resolved the tangled lines around her into trees, huts and men with farm tools. Distant forest surrounded a land of hilly fields. No line was quite straight, no color clean and solid.

"I'm more used to building tractors and irrigation equipment," said Robin, "but your boss wanted a toy."

Lumina did a clumsy bow. "Thank you. I asked to visit Earth. Can I help you?"

Robin's eyes narrowed. "Help? You're trying; I'll give you that. Let me show you something."

They hiked on uneven ground past potato plants, cassava and rice. Dark-skinned humans labored here with tractors and computers. Robin lectured about genetic engineering and vaccination, but the walk itself taught her more. The humans weren't living in a game tailored to their happiness, yet they seemed content. She climbed a hill past a building marked with a cross. "I've heard of those things, too, but can't say I understand."

"Of course."

Some of the houses were steel-framed, others made of dirt bricks or plastic bottles filled with sand. "Where are the paved roads?" she asked. "The skyscrapers? And don't you have other robots?"

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"I have dragons teleport them in as needed."

Lumina paused to study the man's hard face. "We're not that ignorant. I've tried to stop someone from killing people in your world, and my sister knows somebody who's dying. Earth stuff affects us."

Robin kept walking, but spared her a thoughtful glance as they reached the woodlands.

"One of Ludo's creators said something about 'leaping out of the Buddha's palm'," said Lumina. "What does that mean?"

Robin looked surprised. "Old Chinese story. It means you're trapped in your system no matter where you go. You might be a queen in there but to us, you're a file on a computer."

They came to a clearing where a boulder stood, near bullseyes and metal silhouettes. Robin pulled the gun from his holster and set it on the rock. "Know what this is?"

"I know how guns work." Though usually she used lasers, back home.

"Show me."

Lumina walked up to the boulder and grabbed the revolver with her claw-arm, straining her motors. In this human's mind, Lumina was only software with no understanding of Earth. Useless. Fake. Lumina aimed at a silhouette, fired, staggered, and pinged the steel target's edge on the third try.

Robin said, "I'm sorry, miss Lumina. Life is hard here. I've had to kill people. You're still only visiting, like the customers for that brain-uploading clinic she's building."

"I can't change that. Let me do what I can."

He sighed. "Why is your boss here, of all places? Is it just the lax legal system?"

"I figure it's someplace where you and she can make a big difference. Maybe I can, too."

#

Lumina commuted. During Ethiopia's nights she worked in Robin's machine shop with a broom so the humans would have an easier time. Lumina rested in her old workshop in Talespace, but paid it little attention. At first glance her skills had regressed from fixing hovercars to sweeping floors, but this Earthside job was honest work that did more than twiddle bits on a server somewhere. The people used this machine shop to make low-cost generators, tractors, brickmakers and cement mixers that were spreading modern civilization through a land where only the rich had ever known it.

She wandered through the forested land around Robin's base, passing observations to Ludo about her clunky robot body's performance. She'd need something better if she was ever going to contribute more than eyes and one metal hand. Worse, Robin dithered when she proposed a better design. She was only a visitor, after all, limited by the range of the base's wireless network for remote control.

One frustrating day, Lumina stepped out of the cockpit she used to control the robot in Africa. She called Ludo, saying, "I wanted to help the pipe-layers today, but couldn't go far enough. Where is my code stored?" She stood and stretched. Here in Talespace she had all her limbs and a perfectly clean control room.

Ludo walked in through a shining portal. "In Sir Robin's base, for convenience, with a backup in India."

Lumina looked at her hands and pondered that it was possible to destroy her own hardware in the real world, if she were careless. "I want to try something. Put my code onto the robot I'm using, please. Without backups."

Ludo produced a chair and sat. "I see what brought this on. It won't feel different, just much more dangerous."

"I have to try it. Robin and the others will never respect us while they can die and we're only playing."

"So instead you'll play at risking a pointless death?"

Lumina stomped the floor. "You're missing the point! What good am I, if nothing I do is real?"

"You're already helping people, in Talespace and on Earth. The humans won't always appreciate you, but you don't need to destroy yourself to win their respect. What you're doing is called outreach."

"Liberty," said Lumina. "Let me try it, temporarily. And no cheating with secret backups."

Ludo sighed, then hugged her. "All right. Please come back."

She didn't make Lumina promise to come back.