The spinnerbike trip felt like someone else's dream. We wound between the gently rising hills along a semblance of an ancient track. I could not tell whether it was merely the result of animal traffic or some nearly-erased remnant of a world that was destroyed before our history begain. Was I forging a new path or following a forgotten one? I might never know, and that left me feeling stuck between disconnected and nostalgic. We rode under a completely starless sky, and the open void above us felt oppresively close. This territory was completely unfamiliar to me, and the experience of picking a path was very different to riding along the established railway tracks. Cones of brilliant magelight lit our way, and the light was sometimes reflected back at us from the eyes of startled nocturnal creatures. I had to remind myself that even if some of them were wild demons, they wouldn't attack us just for being here.

"You alright back there?" Skids asked through the helmet ventril.

"Yeah, just thinking about demons. The non-hexed sort."

"Yeahhh," Skids said in an oddly relaxed way, especially considering how tense sa's shoulders were. "We sure destroyed a lot of those last year."

I thought about that for a moment and had a worrying realisation. "I never found out what happened to those. To the bodies, I mean."

"All the demons we shot up? A team of drones collected as many useful parts as drall could before a regular demon patrol found and tidied up what was left."

"By useful parts you mean brains for making more scryers and such, right?"

"Exactly. And other assorted magical actuators and aetherically active parts that are difficult to manufacture."

"Ah." That made a lot of sense. While mages did create many of the components of thall's various magical mechanisms, certain delicate and minutely structured parts required manipulation on a much smaller scale than could be achieved efficiently. I knew that these were reused and repaired for as long as possible, but had not considered the degree to which mage civilisation relied upon scavenging the bodies of demons.

We crested a hill and for a moment only darkness lay before us. I could not see whether a smooth slope, a sharp cliff or treacherous rocks awaited us.

"Ow, not so tight."

I released my unnecessary grip on Skids' shoulder. "Sorry, you had me worried for a moment. I didn't realise how tight I grabbed you."

"Not your fault. My shoulder's kinda sore."

Skids let the aetherspinner fall silent and the spinnerbike coasted down the hillslope. I held off my response so I could try to listen for the sounds of nature through the noise of the wheels.

"Did you sleep on it wrong?" I asked once we were accelerating along the next mostly flat section.

"Nah. I was having trouble sleeping so I slipped out to a club for a while."

That was an answer I had not anticipated. "A club? How did you hurt your shoulder, dancing?" I'd seen mages dancing and was very concerned about its safety.

"You've played chroma against Dead Drop and dancing still worries you? Seriously Charity, you never cease to amaze me."

"It's just so... No, I'm not arguing this again. What happened to your shoulder?"

Skids chuckled, and even on the spinnerbike I felt the deep rumble. "I was thinking about my past. And my future and present."

"So, everything?"

Skids showed no signs of hearing my interjection. "I realised that whatever happens and whatever I get back and whoever I was and whoever I become, these years are important to me. It's not something I can forget or throw away. But I couldn't stop worrying that I might lose it, somehow."

"So... the shoulder?"

"I'm getting to that."

"Are you?"

"I wanted some sort of symbol to represent—"

I realised where sa was headed. "You got a tattoo, didn't you?"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Skids sighed and I felt sa deflate. "Yes, I got a tattoo."

"May I see it?"

"No."

"Aww, but..."

"I can't take off my jacket while we're riding, you goof!"

"Oh. Right. Later."

"Later," Skids promised. "And no, I won't describe it to you."

"You're going to leave me hanging like this?"

"You seem quite capable of hanging on tight, Charity," Skids teased.

"Fine."

We rode in silence for several minutes.

"How goes the project?" Skids asked after navigating some tight corners.

"Huh?" I'd slipped into a semi-aware state and was hearing little more than the whine of the aetherspinner driving us onward.

"I know you're working on something you haven't told me about."

"True. There's a good reason for that," I said in a warning tone.

"Oh, it's a surprise? For me?"

"No. Actually it has nothing at all to do with you, specifically. Or..."

"Or?" Skids sounded worried at my tentative change of opinion.

"Now that I think about it, there's no reason why it mightn't potentially relate to either of us," I said, becoming worried myself.

"Just what are you getting at?"

"Is our communication completely private? I don't want anyone who's trying to spy on chroma secrets hearing this instead and passing it along."

There was a long pause as Skids considered the question. "Sports espionage is mostly limited to long-range voice and visual pickups mounted on winjeels. Tampering with ventrils and scryers to relay a conversation would land the perpetrator in major trouble. Besides, we're out of chroma season and on a leisure trip, so there's no tactical reason to spy on us. Anyhow, our scryers should alert us to unexpected transmissions."

"Should alert us," I repeated. "And what about scrywriters wanting a news story?"

"We made it clear that we won't be commenting while we're away, so anyone who tries reporting on us while we're away would obviously have breached our privacy. So no one would dare try that."

"Could anyone be spying on us for some other reason?"

"What other reason is there?"

The question forced me to stop and think. Back among the Pure, the clerics kept a close watch on their flocks for infractions or any sign of rebellion. Those who helped root out wrongdoing were rewarded. Mages kept each other in check to a degree, but there wasn't a feeling of being continually watched and judged. While some seers set policies and regulations, these were followed out of utility and convenience. Mages who didn't follow those rules found it was inefficient and inconvenient because most others were. There was no special group in authority looking down on the others with a critical eye. Certain activities were very much frowned upon, but no one was listening to our every word to ensure we didn't dare step out of line. "I guess there isn't one."

"There's got to be a story behind that long pause."

"Just a life of having to appear as pious as possible while strongly disliking the rules that said I couldn't learn whatever I wanted."

"Ah. So have you decided whether it's safe to talk about your secret project? Or are you worried Liberty might be spying on you?"

Liberty could not travel safely with the rest of our luggage, so the fuzzy creature was ensconced in a purpose-built carrier strapped between my shoulders. "Ensuring Liberty's creators in Ganayanda can't spy on me or any of my work was one of the first steps of the project, actually," I said, letting myself begin to relax.

"I think that's impressive?"

"Yeah, I had to make a sort of... unplexer."

"Let me guess, it turns a hex back into a more... descriptive form?"

"You've been paying attention! Yes, that's about what it does. It's still extremely basic and doesn't tell me what a hex's purpose is, but it lets me read what it does, which gives me a better chance of figuring it out than staring at pages of hex symbols. And it lets me give names to... well, to things that are being reused. That really helps a lot in figuring out the structure of... Anyhow, it's been a big help. And it should help with the main project, but... well it hasn't been going so smoothly."

"Do you mind telling me what that is any time soon?" Skids was sounding frustrated again.

"Alright, alright! There's no rush; we've got a whole trip to talk."

"Charity, don't make me stop this spinnerbike."

I kept my laughter to about a second before answering. "I'm attempting to figure out how the growth pods work. Specifically how they choose parents for new mages."

There was a very long pause. Skids expertly navigated multiple long curves, avoiding an eroded gully, but said nothing.

"Skids?"

"Charity. What did you do? How in all darkness did you get your hands on a growth pod hex? Metaphorically speaking."

"I didn't do anything! A mage asked for my help and gave me a copy!"

"A mage. Does this mage have a name?"

"I think it's best that I don't say any more."

Skids sighed. It was a very long sigh. "You just can't help yourself, can you? Always getting mixed up in something. So when you said it's not going so smoothly, have you figured out anything yet?"

"Nothing meaningful. It's extremely complex but since I don't know the context the hex is operating in I can't see what it's doing, just what it's calculating. And it's doing so much that I haven't been able to look at much of it yet and can't get my head around what I have seen. It's just too big."

"Well, remember you can always do something else for a while if this is frustrating you. There's no obligation to do this. Or, there better not be."

"There's not," I quickly confirmed. "But I am curious."

"Of course you are. And that reminds me, a lot of us are curious about you. You never explained how you did what you did in the chroma match after breaking your wrist."

That was another thing I hadn't felt comfortable talking about, mostly because I didn't understand it or what it meant. My ability seemed to be something beyond the capabilities of mages, so I had fears about how thall would react to it. I was less worried about Skids, who already had some context to understand it, but had still put off broaching the subject. "Yeah I better tell you what's going on with me," I finally said. "I think it's a development of something that's been happening to me for a long time."