After a hectic day for the Waystationers, the sun was finally starting to set. Already, the land owned by the crew was unrecognizable. Flat and clear of everything larger than a blade of grass, with the exception of a large area of space at the furthest point from the road.

Bert watched the orc working to use a very old method to claim the land. They were carrying a set of sky metal spears connected back to the land train with long steel cables. Turning to look behind him, he watched as the Waystation absorbed the latest batch of supplies gathered by the Express.

Wendy and her crew had been working non-stop, and it showed. They had managed something he thought impossible.

Time was too tired to throw fireballs at things.

Their chosen bit of forest had apparently been home to more than one native species that objected to their forest being eaten down to the rocks on the ground.

Lily’s report had included the little armored skeleton riding a Pretty into battle while throwing fireballs like a machine gun.

Bless.

The little pyromaniac was currently lying flat on his back on the roof of the Express and snoring loudly while smoke rose slowly from his hands.

“Any sign yet?” Lily asked tiredly as she appeared out of thin air next to him.

“Wagons are heading this way,” Bert assured her. “I’m sure she’s with them.”

“I wish I were,” Lily winced at her own words. “It’s not that I don’t trust her. I do.”

“But you have trusted her before, and it didn’t work out well?” Bert asked.

“Yes.” Lily slumped a little at the admission. “I just feel like if I trust her now, I’m being an idiot.”

“Look,” Bert said, putting an arm over the teen’s shoulders, “If we’re wrong about her, then we are wrong. But if we are right and choose to trust her… she’ll never forget that we did.” He thought for another moment. “Either way, she’ll never forget it. Besides,” He smiled at Lily as her eyes teared up, “What is our other choice? Give up on her? I don’t do that.”

“Me either,” She sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Thank you. I think I needed to hear that.”

“Want to know a secret?” He asked.

Lily nodded.

“Me too!” He winked, and they turned to see the wagons rolling into the Waystation’s land.

“I think I messed up,” Rose fidgeted anxiously as they walked over.

“What happened?” Lily asked.

“I got carried away a little,” Rose said. “There was this guy who wanted a bunch of places cleared out, so I said I would do it, and I hired all these people…”

“Sounds good so far,” Bert said encouragingly.

“Well,” She looked back at the wagons, “I figured if we were clearing it for him… we could negotiate to keep the materials cleared.” Rose pulled back the tarp over the first cart. “He said that was fine, and I offered him a discount on the job to say thanks.”

“Well done, Rose!” Lily said happily, “That was really nice of you.”

“How many carts are there?” Bert asked as more carts rolled in.

“Well, word kind of got around,” Rose said with a wince. “And all I was thinking was that it would give us a ton of materials.” She let out a whistle that pierced the air and got two back in response. Another line of carts started to form next to the first one. “So I hired some more people, and then I started offering people another discount to load the carts themselves….”

“Did you run out of money to pay people with?” Bert guessed.

“No,” Rose blushed slightly. “I actually have more than I left with,” she said, holding up two large coin purses. “It’s just that I may have indicated that well… I might have said we would take anything. Old furniture, clothes, metal, armor, building rubble.” She hung her head. “I think we just became the town dump.”

Bert laughed happily as the two girls stared at him in shock.

“Sorry?” Lily asked.

“We’re garbage men,” Bert said happily. “We can take all that stuff, and Rose even made money doing it!”

“You’re not mad?” Rose asked. “This stuff is total garbage.”

“It is now,” Bert said happily. “But it won’t be by the time we are done!”

“We?” Rose asked worriedly.

“Oh, yes!” Bert said with a smug grin. “You just brought yourself a HUGE amount of work!”

Bell and Bud returned an hour or so later, each with a pair of carts loaded with approximately a tenth the amount Rose had brought in. They stared in shock as the anxious Rose directed her people to unload the carts into several large piles.

Several of the wagon drivers had hung around to get a second payday working as sorters for the apprentice Garbage Man.

“I thought I had done well with getting anything at all,” Bud said as he watched the two dozen busy people working as sorters.

“Can we afford all this?” Bell asked as Bert grinned proudly at Rose.

“She came back with way more than she left with,” Bert said happily. “We’ll be able to pay this lot three times over.”

“Proud of yourself?” Bell asked with a laugh. “Now you have a miniature you bringing home trash as well?”

“Pretty chuffed, yeah.” Bert chuckled.

“How much of this metal is actually going to be useful?” Bud asked, always the realist.

“Probably about twenty percent will be useful,” Bert estimated. “But so much of it can be turned back into metal bars and such for use in other things. We’ll have a town, a fort, and even stock for traders to use.”

“Are you going to need to move Way Way for a bit?” Bell asked thoughtfully.

“Not for at least an hour, probably a lot more,” Bert replied. “It’s going to take that long to take over the land, and then we have to build the keep.”

“No, is what I heard,” Bell said with a theatrical eye roll. “I’m going to set up a bit of food and stuff in case people want a meal; send the orcs to set up some tables and stuff, will you?”

Bert agreed happily enough and waved over the rocs. Tru could take control of that, so he left them to it and went to get ready for the build. It was going to be a long night, but if they wanted to get fields planted and do all the other little bits and pieces by the end of the day tomorrow, then there was little choice.

Bud was on his way back after scooping the sleeping Tim of the Express, so they walked back to the Waystation together.

They passed Lyra and Gavin on the way in. The newlyweds were having a quiet argument as an ever-growing number of Tumble-Mores followed them.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Bert and Bud left them to it.

==============

“Can we do something a little more stylish?”

Bert laughed as he dropped into the ever-growing Mana-Tides of the Waystation. To his surprise, he found himself standing on the deck of a large floating platform instead of floating above the ocean of shifting mana.

“This is new,” Bert commented.

“I thought it would be more comfortable for you this way,” Way Way’s voice came from a figure draped in a cowl and robe, much like the ones in the Waystation itself. “Now I have a better understanding of having a physical form other an a building. I wanted to ensure things were easier when you visited.”

“This is great, thanks,” Bert said. “Very thoughtful of you.”

“I do try!” Despite the drab appearance, it was still the Way Way he knew.

“This is certainly more stylish,” Bert admired the deep red wood of the planks, polished to a fine shine.

“I meant with the buildings!” Way Way said cheerfully. “We always build the same stuff. I want to learn something new!”

“Something stylish?” Bert thought. “I think we can add a few touches here and there to make it look better.”

“No, I want something REALLY new.” Way Way scolded him, “This is going to be a city built and controlled by the Fae; it should be special.”

“I think we can do that.” Bert nodded. Way Way was right, after all. Something special was called for. Also, it would piss off Fiona. Bonus points for that.

A table rose out of the deck and rippled and shaped itself into a copy of the area the Waystationers now owned. The robed figure waved its hand over it, and the colors shifted and refined until the table held an exact scale model of the real thing.

“Impressive,” Bert said honestly. He had always had a weakness for models.

“I love being able to see as you do,” Way Way said. “It lets me understand things better.”

“Then let’s make something worth looking at,” Bert said as he started to plan.

What were the Fae? Bert wondered as he started to plan something awe-inspiring. They were known as creatures of nature, beings of magic and mystery. He thought of the Fae rings, of standing stones, and the burrows that were said to lead into the Fae realm.

Circles were obviously a theme there, so he reshaped the raised area into a circle. That was a decent start, but it needed something more. He raised a ring of earth around the edge and opened a tunnel from the center to the lower ground below. That way, anyone entering had to come through an earthen tunnel, like the barrows. It also created a very defensible killing zone.

He shaped and hardened the earth into something as strong as stone before making a smoky metal archway at each end with large doors of hard, dark wood.

Way Way gave their approval, but they were clearly confused about what he was doing.

Considering he was making this up as he went along, so was he.

Moving on from the entrance, Bert raised large pillars of dark stone threaded with beams of dark steel around the edge of the plateau. It was the start of his wall. Once they were all locked in place, he raised tick wooden beams shaped to look like interlocking tree trunks and wove sky-steel mesh around them. In the name of style, he added ornate steel leaves from the mesh, each one razor-sharp. He pitied the poor bastards who tried to climb that.

As a final touch, he shaped the earth behind the wall into a sloped rise that ended in a stone-clad path as a parapet around the wall.

That created an eminently defensible rise that did not yet hold anything inside it.

Moving on to the keep itself, Bert considered his options. A series of walls, all rising to a single tower as a series of fallback options, seemed to be the normal idea, but what was the fun in that?

Another thing the Fae were known for was forests, so, what better than a tree?

A wide base was essential but with the placement of the entrance…

Bert started with three large, wide, curving ramps that all rose and arched until they met at a single point. Next, he clad the whole thing in stone, followed by a rich wood carved to look like a natural tree. With the three entrances arching over the tunnel’s exit, he added murder holes, allowing those inside to slaughter anyone coming up from below.

From there, he worked up, adding rooms in what was basically a tower made to look like a tree. To keep the natural shape, he adjusted the sizes and placement of the rooms. Once he had a decent collection of rooms, he opened exits at various levels, curving off a series of branches, each one hiding a walkway to the end of the branch where a platform was hidden in a number of branches, each of which ended in leaves of steel that formed a mech to catch projectiles fired up at it.

By the time he was done, the whole thing looked like a fairytale version of a world tree that rose several stories above the base. It had much less space than a conventional keep, but it was more about the statement than anything else.

“It’s so beautiful!” Way Way said happily, then waved their hands, adding in everything from plumbing to beds in a single move.

Bert gaped at it. Way Way had even added a set of hidden reservoirs for water and a storage room for food. The changes were elegant and took advantage of every spare bit of space they could without affecting the stability.

Another wave, and they added a set of deep, strong anchors to hold the thing upright in even the worst conditions.

“That’s incredible,” Bert said in admiration. “I never would have thought of half of that stuff.”

“I have the advantage of actually BEING a building, not just living in one!” Way Way said kindly. “It all just makes more sense to me.”

“Still, you are amazing,” Bert said seriously. “I worry we don’t acknowledge that often enough.”

“Thank you!” Way Way glowed. “Now, shall we move on?”

Bert looked down at the model in wonder. He and Way Way had been working on it for hours, adding and removing things, changing others, and then they just started to decorate the thing for fun.

Why have street lights when you could have glowing mushrooms that lit up at night with energy absorbed during the day? Each house and building was built around a large tree, even the barracks itself. Instead of having a line of houses, they had a grove, and instead of a market square, they had a market circle complete with standing stones around the outside. An inner ring held market stalls of carved stone that would make a dwarf weep at the craftsmanship.

Even the crafting shops had their own grove.

All setup and ready to go, thanks to Ruby and her recovered materials. All they needed was the people.

A full half of the land was taken up by farming land, complete with a cottage, barn, storage silo, fields, and grazing lands for cattle. Each field was separated by small beds ready to be planted with hedges.

The final touch was the wall around the whole place. It was amazing that they had enough stone for it, but the stone was something they rarely used, and they cheated slightly. They made the walls large and strong… and made a honeycomb inside each one of metal to strengthen the whole thing.

Bert collapsed back into a chair that Way Way had summoned for him a couple of hours ago.

“We should get started with the actual building,” Bert said with a sigh. “There is so much to do, and we’ve just been fine-tuning this for the last couple of hours.

“I know,” Way Way’s voice was tired as well, which he just realized was strange. “I started building it all hours ago.”

“Oh,” Bert said. He didn’t know what to say. “That’s new.”

“I have changed a lot recently,” Way Way agreed. “I’m worried I will change too quickly and lose you all.”

“Why?” Bert asked the nervous-looking figure. “Afraid we won’t be able to keep up?”

“NO! I just worry that…well… I used to only do what I was told. Now, I think more, and I am doing things on my own. Is that okay?” Way Way asked.

“Of course it is,” Bert thought of the best way to put it. “It’s like you’re growing up. That’s a good thing; of course, you want to be more independent. That doesn’t mean you lose us.”

“It doesn’t?” Way Way asked.

“You won’t lose us, I promise,” Bert said as soothingly as he could, “Things will change as you go from what you were and are to what you will be. Relationships change, but they don’t get lost. Not if you don’t want them to be.”

He felt another of those amazing hugs and then said goodbye and rose out of the tides. Way Way would just call him back if they needed him.

=============

Bert and Bell sat on the roof of the Waystation and watched the town rise around them as the sun slowly rose. Snuggled in together, they marveled as the Waystation moved to another position all on its own.

“Way Way is really changing,” Bell said happily.

Bert had told her all about his conversation earlier.

“That’s what is worrying them, I think.” Bert sighed.

“They are just being silly,” Bell traced her fingers over the back of his metal arm. “We would never leave them.”

“Exactly what I said,” Bert confirmed, feeling more and more distracted by how warm she was as she pressed against his side.

“You know when we first met, I thought there would never be a good time again,” Bell said. “I never even imagined I’d see the day Way Way could move themselves. No matter what, they will never get stuck, never be alone.” Her voice cracked slightly.

“Neither will you,” Bert reminded her. “You’re stuck with me now.” He ran his hands through her hair.

“Oh, I think I can live with that,” Bell giggled, and they forgot everything for a while, lost in each other's embrace.

It was sweet but poorly timed as they forgot they were sitting out in the open on top of the Waystation. A fact they were reminded of when a voice called out from below…

“FOR FUCK SAKE! GET A ROOM!” Wendy roared in abject disgust from below.