The next morning Vrekant refreshed the supply of trencher bread from his pantry and there was a very informal breakfast on another two dozen slices of trencher bread and what remained of the stews. The first two pots were not the only ones with enchantments on them, but rather they all had them, and the food was just as fresh today as it had been the day before. The only thing making it less appealing was that the best recipes had already been consumed.

The emptied stewpots were completely clean. There was no sense stopping short in the enchantments, and it wasn't like vrash farmergons would keep compost.

Aleicree wasn't skipping or delaying this meal. They'd be all day on the wing to Shibanyet.

The crowd wasn't reduced just yet. Even as zie wondered why so many of the farmergons had come back the next morning, Aleicree met Soltia at the serving table. "Why are you here again?" zie asked. "I thought you decided against going."

"I'm going to keep two of these stewpots safe while their owners are away," she said to Aleicree as the two of them were loading trencher bread for the morning meal. This was a theme, as the group departed with the stewpots strapped to different backs than those with whom they'd arrived. The enchanted crockery was either too valuable to leave behind, or else it was something of a communal resource in the first place.

Nobody was carrying their enchanted stewpots to Nidrio. Carrying enchanted goods across theome boundaries risked spontaneous disenchantment.

Eighteen farmergons gathered in Vrekant’s front yard, nearly all vrash, trodding four-legged on every corner of the grass. They crowded the yard with scales of every colour, some of them catching the light with metallic sheens or polished armour. Vrekant, Azosta, Limist, and Aleicree joined them, a knot of de facto leadership with every eye watching them. Aleicree cringed from all the attention. Azosta and Limist shied back from Vrekant and Aleicree, stepping out of the limelight as they did. Only Vrekant seemed comfortable with so many dragons watching him.

“Give each other space,” Vrekant called, turning to face the milling crowd. “Space out! Space out! None of us are used to flying in large groups, so take off one at a time, but don’t delay! Take off promptly when the dragon next to you has done so!”

Under his direction, the dragons lined up in rough rows, the first few standing with their wings half-mantled as they crouched, thighs tense for a great spring into the air.

“Aleicree, take the lead!” called Vrekant, returning to the front.

Aleicree leapt into the air, summoning zir amicus breeze to lift zir into flight.

Behind zir came a steady flapping of wings, one after the next as the dragons leapt into the air. Aleicree did zir best to extend the breeze, an enchanted head-wind ruffling the grass and trees to give them better lift. Zie could feel Vrekant on the ground helping with the wind. Zir awareness of the wind gave zir a disembodied perspective as the farmergons strung out in a long line of takeoffs, until finally Vrekant took off last at the rear.

The wind slewed gradually into a tailwind that would be better for the speed of their flight, and their line was somewhat disarrayed as the travelling group came together into a more imminent formation. When zie could feel through the wind itself that they were all flying steady in the breeze, Aleicree gave into a certain temptation, and flew faster ahead of the group to turn in the air and look back on them all. The travelling dragons crowded the sky.

The long flight made for a quiet day. They couldn't talk in flight. There was some playing, with Fiata in particular using her independent amicus breeze to fly circles around the rest, but most of the travelling dragons conserved their energy. Aleicree and Vrekant worked together to adjust the wind as they flew, keeping the journey swift as they flew over the rainforests of Kanjamund, over the pass of Mount Ardaziel, and then over the northern coastline to Shibanyet.

When they arrived after a day on the wing, the flock of twenty-one other dragons descended behind Aleicree, who was going towards The Royal Lion of the Sun again. Zie didn't know any other inns in Shibanyet. They went inside, and the maitre d' offered them rooms at a group rate, knowing exactly how many rooms to offer as though it'd all been predetermined.

A few of the farmergons recoiled from the offered price, decrying it as too expensive despite the discount. They flew away to find rooms elsewhere. Aleicree trusted that Fate would bring them back together again without confusion. Most of them took up rooms at the Royal Lion of the Sun.

Perhaps this had all been pre-ordained. Perhaps this was why the room here had been given for free earlier. Giving Aleicree, Limist, and Azosta free lodging on the way out brought back a paying flock a month later that filled the rooms at the Royal Lion.

The public hall of the Royal Lion of the Sun was completely packed that evening, and observably less smoky this time due to all the non-smoking dragons packing it tonight. Several friendly local dragons tried to offer pipes and could make no headway, but they got drawn into conversations nonetheless, and it was a friendly night… at least, for dragons less introverted than Aleicree.

Zie stayed instead near the shy Rhis, and the two were wallflowers together, sitting at a table near the edge of the room with Azosta, who appreciated the bastion of relative silence. They ate roast fish together, and between bites Aleicree thought to ask, "Do model cities hurt necromancers?"

Rhis' eyes widened. "Don't mention necromancy in a model city," he said. "There are anti-necromantic organisations in all of these."

"So they do!" said Aleicree.

Azosta said, "The theome itself does not. Only mystic theomes are that reactive. Yet the land gods who work Fate as hard as they can - have you ever heard of land gods being rated by their level of Fate control? - they’re also the most tolerant of anti-necromantic agitation." Aleicree wondered if he included his own anti-magic views under the category of "anti-necromantic agitation".

They returned to eating in silence, Aleicree now rather frowning at Shibanyet. It was such a pleasant-looking place, but if it was dangerous to Rhis, zie didn't like it anymore. Azosta and Rhis both seemed potentially vital to Nidrio's future.

Aleicree shared a room with Azosta and Limist that night. They were zir guests and they were destitute, so zie was responsible for paying their way. Inviting them into zir room was the cheapest way. They slept on a rug on the floor, although the Royal Lion of the Sun was generous enough to offer extra pillows for them.

The next morning, the twenty-two travellers gathered again like the gears of a machine meshing together. Shibanyet's tightly controlled Fate had woken them all on schedule and made it so that finding each other in the air was as trivial as looking around, for they had all taken off at once and in the same direction. Few of them had any breakfast, but they felt strong and able as they took flight over the Rainy Straight to the north and west of Shibanyet.

Limist led the flight to Fathesti, with Aleicree and Vrekant behind him maintaining the wind. It was a rainy day on the aptly-named Rainy Strait, and they might have been turned back if not for the two windmages creating a great wedge of helpful wind for the group.

There were clouds all along the shoreline of Tachamund. It took hours to fly out of the damp and gusty airspace. They saw the grasslands and farmlands of the Tachamundi coast beneath them, plaiting the land in shades of green and yellow from the crops. The ocean stretched out to their right and behind them as they followed the coastline northeast.

Eventually the land started rising gradually upwards. The terrain remained largely grasslands, but now instead of the land running to the ocean there were cliffs and escarpments. They passed over an unsettled region of grassy hills. Without suitable places for a port to be founded, these areas were isolated from the trade routes of Nidrio, and few dragons came to them.

The winds rippled the shining grass far below the flying dragons, a reminder of the emptiness of much of Theoma. All this land was unclaimed by any save ruminant herds feeding on the grass and the terrestrial predators that preyed on them in turn. Had their travel party been destitute, they might have descended on one of those herds to feed, but they left them alone. Dragons could be pretty wide-ranging. The open, unclaimed look of the land might have been deceiving. There could easily have been the occasional hunting party coming through here to claim bone, hide, and meat from the herds.

They pushed on towards Fathesti.

The cliffs gave way to grasslands that ran to the ocean again for a while, and then the land rose up more dramatically than before. These were the Graggle Cliffs, a region of highlands that abutted the ocean like an impassable boundary for a great distance.

Yet sparse forests touched the cliff tops here, and the land was still green and verdant in this region though the land gods had lifted it up well over sea level. Aleicree wondered what kept the forest sparse, and what kept it off of the grassy hills farther southwest. The trees grew and spread, didn't they? What kept them from taking over all of this uninhabited territory?

The obvious answer was "the land gods", but that was unsatisfying. These were nature gods who hadn't invited in civilization yet. All the land gods worked with subtlety. The nature gods usually had some carefully worked ecology waiting to be discovered by someone with an interest in that kind of thing.

The land gods didn't just set the world just-so and force it to stay that way. They created self-maintaining systems that made the world work the way they wanted it to.

Aleicree wasn't really interested in the ecological systems, but zie wondered what "self-maintaining systems" looked like in the construction of the Fates of cities. The land gods must have ideas for how whole cities could grow and change over time. They were the ultimate gardeners, whether they worked in urban or natural environments.

They didn't go far over the Graggle Cliffs before Limist started descending. Looking ahead, Aleicree saw a small complex of buildings attached to no roads at all. This place must be supplied entirely by flyers. The multistory buildings looked very modern and well-built as they rose up white against the grassy backdrop of the land here, standing upon a hill with a dramatic view off the cliffs to the southwest and over a great decline in the landscape to the northeast.

The flock landed before the hotel. Black letters on the left side of the front of the building read Fathesti Lodge, one word above the other. Across from the hotel, there was a butcher's shop and a general store with hides on display. There was (thankfully) no tannery in the vicinity, but these shops as good as confirmed Aleicree's guess that the herds on the uninhabited coastal grasslands southeast of Fathesti were hunted.

The journey was a little shorter than the trip between Sorjek and Shibanyet, and the heavy winds of their wet start had sped them on their way. It was only afternoon when they flooded into the Lodge. As with the Royal Lion of the Sun, the first floor of the Fathesti Lodge was dedicated to a dining area. This one was empty, but the twenty-two visiting dragons changed that in a hurry. They went up to the front to negotiate an overnight stay in ones and twos (and in Fiata's case, a trio), then found places to sit amidst the tables.

Menus written on leather lay dormant on each table waiting for guests to pick them up and review them. The pricing was unusual; meat was cheap and vegetables were dear. A great deal of steak was ordered that afternoon by ravenous dragons who hadn't eaten a thing all day and who weren't used to meat being the cheap part of the menu.

There was no alcohol on the menu, which Aleicree saw with surprise and enthusiasm. Did they not want to haul it in, or had the hotel's operators decided they were too far from civilization to deal with drunken dragons?

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Feeling a sense of responsibility for the group and being at peace with zir own hunger, Aleicree paced the hall checking in with the different tables. Each group greeted zir enthusiastically. Several of them - sitting in groups of three around four dragon tables - offered zir a seat that zie waved off. Aleicree resisted the temptation to search out Rhis or Azosta... or tried to, but couldn't help spotting them across the room anyways. They had sat with Ardent, who Aleicree hadn't heard from since just that one meeting. Those three were probably fine; Ardent was ardently interested in arcane lore.

Rettle's party occupied two adjacent tables and had a "spilled over" look with the group clearly paying attention to each other on both tables. They didn't look so quiet this time. Limist was sitting with Relevar, Saranz, and Farard. The four looked to be getting along embarrassingly well, nuzzling and joking, with a flushed Relevar as the centre of attention. Vrekant was sitting with a cluster of dragons who Aleicree would have to fetch out zir notebook to actually identify. Some of these farmergons just did not catch my attention, zie thought guiltily.

Aleicree ended up sitting with Fiata, Medem, and Wrevaskel, just because zie came to their table last while walking the room. "Welcome! Sit, eat, this place is wonderful," said Fiata in greeting zir.

Aleicree raised the menu-hide to flag down the waiter, who was also the counter staff. This place was running on a small staff. After zie'd put in zir own order for a serving of steak, zie looked across the table and asked, "What are the odds the three of you move to Nidrio as new founders?"

"Such a thing could not be probable," said Medem, "But it's not inconceivable."

Wrevaskel leaned in towards Aleicree. "You're the child of a land god. Does that make you royalty? Are you looking for a jeweller?"

"I didn't know you wanted to get back into jewellery," said Fiata, nudging Wrevaskel.

Aleicree shrank. "I'm not royal," zie said. "I'm just a seagon."

Wrevaskel sat lower in sympathy. "Oop. Sorry, Aleicree. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." He sat up again. "I know it's only been a few years, but I want out of farming. Treading water is an uncomfortable experience."

Medem shook her head. "We weren't profitable as jewellers either."

Wrevaskel pointed at Medem. "The reason we stopped being jewellers is the reason I want to stop being farmergons." He looked over towards Fiata and added, "If jewellery is ever profitable again, I want to get back into it."

Aleicree un-shrank in curiosity. "Why were you unprofitable as jewellers?"

Wrevaskal smiled. "Rings for fingers, fins, ears, tails. Necklaces and neck-loops, bracelets and wing-piercings. You'd think there'd be enough work, right? And there was, just barely. But those things are bought rarely. Precious metals are just too expensive."

"Too many farmergons, not enough miners," said Medem with a laugh.

"Or not enough trade with the Deep-Under," Aleicree said, thinking of the letter zie'd gotten from Ekis about a trade journey with Denziu.

Fiata frowned. "The Deep-Under is a myth."

Aleicree's eyes widened. There was a momentary silence about the table.

Medem nudged Fiata. "If our host mentions the Deep-Under as a place to trade with, it's presumably not a myth."

Aleicree's order arrived. Ripping off a piece of steak, Aleicree decided the secret to their cheap meat had to be local hunters, because it was a gamey mammalian flavour, with the fat worn off by the fear and scarcity of wild living. Zie looked across the table to Fiata. "The Deep-Under is real. One of my siblings is going there. Although, unfathomably, zie's picking up magic lanterns. As though they weren't already the most common magic item."

Wrevaskel asked, "Do you know why zie's choosing that?"

Aleicree shook zir head and sighed. "I think Denziu is just humble to a fault. Instead of going for something expensive, zie's fascinated with a basic commodity. You know, zie used to literally sell dirt, and zie was fascinated with that, too."

They chatted about the Deep-Under as they ate. Aleicree shared what little zie knew about it, telling them it had its own land gods, and that zie had no idea how many of them there were down there. Zie'd heard they did have unique lanterns, powerful enough to light farms and parks so that plants could grow far from the sun's life-giving energy. The other three dragons at the table were an attentive audience, even Fiata, who seemed willing to believe that if Denziu was going down there, it must be a real place to visit.

When the meal had been cleared away, some of the farmergons went out of the lodge to walk, fly, or browse the nearby general store until the sun went down. Fiata and her paramours were among them. There was little to do in Fathesti. It was a hunting lodge and a stopover point, with perhaps five residents. Staying in the dining room and looking out the window, Aleicree wondered if Nidrio would spend a while as a welcoming stopover point where visitors came by in transit to other places. It was near enough to Zyrine for flyers to stay in Nidrio while visiting Zyrine.

Aleicree extracted from zir pouches paper and zir lev-i-quill. This lodge was a fine, sheltered place to write letters, and the crowd was tolerable given that zie was at least facially acquainted with everyone in the room. Zie started writing to Shiowatha and Jazhou. Zie knew where the Serene Chordalite was in its journey, for having perfect wind at all times took it at top speed through its entire circuit, and so zie knew where to address the letters to have them delivered promptly. As for the contents of the letters, Aleicree had already told them years ago all about Praoziu and Nidrio itself. Now zie told them zie was leading back a flight of twenty-two dragons to visit Nidrio for a feast, and that organising the flight was how zie had spent zir vacation in Sorjek.

"You're welcome to visit any time," zie wrote in a passage shared between both letters. "Indeed, we may need to find a new way to stay in contact. Staying out here for this past month has made me realise that I have lived a lonely life aboard the Serene Chordalite. I am no raucous celebrant when we have shore leave. I haven't connected with many of the seagons. By some quirk of my psychology, I have worked long without thinking of myself, and I have not been happy these past five decades. We have made over three hundred and fifty circuits of Tachamund's shores, and I earned no memories worth keeping. I have nothing to show for my work save a coffer full of coinage. I will not do many more empty circuits as the windmage of the Serene Chordalite. It's time my life became fuller."

Returning from their excursion, Fiata, Medem, and Wrevaskel found Aleicree still seated at the same place, still drafting letters to Captain Kagnir's ship with zir lev-i-quill. Fiata and her two vrash lovers surrounded the seated Aleicree. "Do you know who you're rooming with tonight?" Fiata asked. "There are two beds in each room here."

"I had thought to room with Azosta and Limist, who I am paying for on this journey," Aleicree said.

The three dragons about zir looked at each other, then Wrevaskel said, "Would you consider joining us for the night? We'd love to get to know you better. Any friend of Vrekant's, you know."

Aleicree blushed. "But if there are two beds and four dragons in the room..."

Medem said, "You'll spare us having to make someone sleep alone." She clearly didn't get the problem that was making Aleicree blush.

Fiata was more percipient. "If you're not comfortable with that, you don't have to. I would even be willing to sleep on the floor."

"Don't do that," cut in Wrevaskel. "That's more comfortable for a vrash than it is for a vashael. Let me sleep on the floor if Aleicree won't share a bed with one of us."

Aleicree smiled. "I could join you for a while, at least. To talk in private. Let me go talk to Limist and Azosta, first."

Zie got up. Wrevaskel moved out of the way so Aleicree could move out into the dining room of the Fathesti Lodge. Zie discovered then that zie could not find Limist, nor Relevar, Saranz, or Farard. Asking a nearby table that still had loitering dragons sitting around it, Aleicree was told that the four of them had already retreated to a room.

Something similar proved true of Azosta, Rhis, and Ardent. They hadn't gone upstairs together, but they had gone out for a shared flight. Asking the dragon at the front counter, zie was told they had registered for a shared room.

Aleicree returned to Fiata. "They both have other rooms already," zie said. "So I'll have to pay for a room alone if I don't join someone else."

Fiata smiled. "We'd love to share the cost of a room with you. We're not rich. A one fourth share will cost you less than a whole room to yourself. Join us!"

So Aleicree joined them. They talked for a while of sailing, and Aleicree found zie had a few more memories to share than zie'd thought. They talked for a while of magic, and Aleicree wondered if zie would in zir next career be a mage of some description. Lastly, when the window had long darkened and they were up by lamplight, they talked for a little while of affection.

Fiata, Medem, and Wrevaskel said they were all very open. They had respected Aleicree's boundaries all evening, but they were used to cuddlier nights. Aleicree for zir part said that zie hadn't much practice with affection since a few attempts in zir academy days, and zie certainly wasn't used to being very open. Yet after a little thought, and a few friendly nuzzles, Aleicree said zie might, while on land, be persuaded to try.

Standing next to the bed they’d shared, Wrevaskel nudged Aleicree awake the next morning. The hour was impossible to judge, because the grey light through the window came through overcast skies. No glorious sunrise on a morning like this.

Wakefulness came slowly. Aleicree yawned, stretched, and climbed into the warm spot in bed that Wrevaskel had vacated. That got him to laugh and shove at zir with both hands. "Wake up, expedition leader. You need to be downstairs."

Aleicree groaned, "Do I need to be downstairs already?" Despite zir words, zie clambered out of bed and strapped on zir harnesses to go downstairs.

Across the room, Medem was rousing Fiata, who looked similarly inclined to sleep in.

As it turned out, Aleicree did not need to be downstairs that early. Fiata, Medem, Wrevaskel, and Aleicree came downstairs into an empty first floor dining hall. There was a sleepy-looking waitergon up already, and the four of them ordered a platter of fried meats with gravy to share.

"We're the only ones up," Aleicree said.

Fiata said, "I guess nobody else woke with the dawn."

“Was that dawn?” Medem asked. “I just woke when I heard Wrevaskel stepping out of bed.”

Wrevaskel looked around the empty dining hall of the lodge. "Why'd everyone wake up at the same time in Shibanyet, but not here?"

Aleicree knew this answer! "Because Shibanyet is a model city theome where Fate interferes constantly," zie said. "We were being blessed to come together. Fathesti is a missing theome. Fate didn't wake us up."

Medem said, "Guess we have some time to kill." She tapped her claws on the table. "Kinda makes me wish we'd brought a board game."

They talked about whatever came to mind for an hour, then two. The hall gradually filled with dragons as they woke up and came down. Whenever they woke, none of the dragons skipped breakfast that day, taking advantage of the delicious cheap meats while they had the opportunity to eat on them. Even Aleicree ate more than zie usually would, pushing for more of the fried meat and then adding a large honey tart to the table to share.

The dining hall was full again of loitering dragons and conversations, though a few of the farmergons had wandered outside to the general store again. Such a little tourist trap this way. Aleicree was more curious about the butchery. Fathesti Lodge suggested that dragons came here to hunt, even in its name. Were there also dragons who came here to stock up on meats without hunting? The farmergons seemed enthusiastic about the meats in the Lodge's dining hall. Some of them would likely stop in at the butchery during the return trip.

After all this waiting for the last of the dragons to come downstairs, Aleicree went over to where zie saw Limist and Relevar had come down to order their breakfast. Zie set a hand on the table near Limist and said, "Hey, could you start knocking on doors? We need to get moving. It's just as far from here to Nidrio as it was from Shibanyet to here."

"Sure," said Limist, disappearing up the stairs.

A few minutes later the whole flock was downstairs and the late-risers were ordering their breakfasts.

Having already eaten plenty, Aleicree stepped outside to get a last look around Fathesti. Zie stepped into a breezy, wet morning. Clouds had rolled in overnight. Aleicree leapt to the air and flew to the roof of the Fathesti Lodge, with zir amicus breeze lifting zir to make the climb trivial. The roof turned out to have low stone walls surrounding it, as well as a partial roof to keep the rain off, looking very much as though it were intended to serve as a viewing platform. There was an access from the building's stairs, but Aleicree had come up by the air.

Being at the top of a multi-story building on a hill near the Graggle Cliffs, the view was pretty amazing... by the standards of being on the ground. Aleicree saw farther every time zie took to the air. Still, this view was here, and it was part of being here that zie hadn't appreciated, so zie looked out over the forests and grasslands that stretched inland as the land sank away from the Fathesti Lodge's highpoint. There was a wedge of forest reaching for them, stretching off north and west. The grey light from above dimmed the whole countryside to a dark green. Aleicree wondered what untapped resources existed in those forests... or were they untapped? After all, the Fathesti Lodge was here. Perhaps dragons already flew through this area to explore it.

After a few minutes, Aleicree climbed up onto the stone wall, spread zir wings, and went for a brief rounding glide to come back to the lawn before the Lodge. Zie walked inside again and went into the dining hall, and went from table to table telling dragons it was nearly time to go.

Soon, the whole flock was gathered out front of the Lodge, and they took off again, this time due east with Aleicree in the lead.