WSP 044

Rivals

Town Hall had an official meeting room. It didn’t in the past—the previous mayor never wanted to talk to anyone for the most part and the building was largely just a formality. Now it had been extended, grown, and renovated into something that looked rather presentable, though it was still made largely out of wood and didn’t have much in the way of decorations.

But it had a meeting room, so Vaughan’s cabin was no longer the nicest place to host guests in Willow Hollow, which was good because it was still a significant distance from the town proper. Said meeting room was the only one in Town Hall that was sufficiently decorated—mostly with Crystalline decorations formed by Suro, but there were also well-cushioned chairs and even a proper chandelier. Anything in the actual palace would put this room to shame, but most people in Willow Hollow probably thought the room was well suited for a princess.

The central, long table had a decently-sized meal set out on it, and the visitor from afar, Enrique the astronaut, was eating it up like a ravenous wolf. He clearly wasn’t actually starving, just loved food and had no sense of politeness at the dinner table.

Fortunately all of the people present at the meeting didn’t judge him for this, in fact Lila and Via were the only people who would eat neatly even in private. Vaughan, Blue, Jeh, and even Keller never had any qualms breaking free of the social norms when nobody cared.

“He’s certainly enjoying himself,” Blue observed.

“He’s probably never had half the things here,” Vaughan added.

Jeh nodded. “He commented about that early on, something about ‘so many new things to taste.’ I think. He mumbled it.”

“What an odd man…” Lila commented.

“Are any of us normal?” Jeh asked. “Your astronauts are an immortal child, a rare black gari who was raised in the forest, and a thrill seeking tiny dryad.”

“Fair point, I suppose you would act somewhat similarly were you to be in this position.” Lila paused. “Jeh, you do know to eat properly in front of foreign dignitaries, right?”

“Duh. I’m not stupid.”

“That implies he is,” Keller commented.

Jeh blinked, processing this. “Then it’s a good thing he can’t understand me!”

Seskii came in with another tray of food—for all the dishes had been her doing. “Dessert time!” She deposited a slice of cake in front of everyone.

Enrique looked at the slice of cake like it was a gift from Heaven. He let out an elated shout and said something before digging right in.

“He knows what cake is and loves it,” Jeh translated.

“Cake is universal!” Seskii said with a wink.

“Well we’re certainly on his good side,” Vaughan said, smirking. “It remains to be seen if he’ll go the other way.”

After Enrique finished his cake, he did start to slow down on the food until he eventually stopped eating and let out a massive burp. He looked to Jeh and asked her a question. She nodded and turned to the others. “He’s ready to talk now.”

Via cleared her throat. “It is a pleasure to see you enjoying yourself. I hope it endears you to our Kingdom here. As you already know, I am Princess Via Kroan. This is Lila, Mayor of Willow Hollow, the town in which you find yourself. That back there is Keller, one of our Agents. And the other three here are Vaughan, Blue, and Jeh, the primary forces behind our great Wizard Space Program.”

Jeh relayed it to Enrique. He responded, and Jeh translated back. “Thanks for the meal! I’m Enrique Fanova! I was sent into space by the great blimps of the equally great city of Descent! Though apparently word of our great home has spread even to here!”

And so it went. As always with translated conversations, it took a while to convert what one person said to another, but eventually everything went through, though Jeh did have a habit of inserting snide comments of her own. She was not a professional translator, after all, but she was what they had.

“So… how should we do this?” Via asked. “You are our guest, you decide if you want us to talk about ourselves or you to talk about yourself.”

“How much do you know about the glory of Descent?”

Lila glanced at Keller with a raised eyebrow. Keller shook his head. “We dunno anythin’ beyond what Envila told us, but we do have it on our maps, thanks t’ Jeh.”

Enrique piqued up. “Oh? How’s that possible?”

Jeh put her hands on her hips. “I flew around the world and took pictures already. Heh.”

“Oh wow! Actually, that makes sense… yeah, you got the artificial star in orbit. That’s beyond what we can do. …How did you do it? What was it?”

Vaughan answered. “It was a smooth, polished ball of metal that served no purpose beyond being visible in orbit to test orbital mechanics. As for how, we had Jeh here take up one of our ships with a spinning device on top that kept rotating the satellite until it was going really, really, really fast. Then we released it.”

Enrique stared at Jeh blankly since she was the one who had translated that. “I… huh, the blimps always told me the best way to do that would be to enter an orbit yourself, release the object, and then leave it.”

“That takes more time,” Jeh pointed out.

“I guess? Why’d you care about doing it fast?”

Jeh tilted her head. “So we can get more science done faster?”

“And why’s it matter if you do it now or a year from now?”

Jeh blinked. “Um. Blue, why do we care about how fast we do things?”

Blue cleared her throat. “Because every moment we spend not advancing further is a moment we spend without that advancement. We want to go to other places, but if we take too long we never get to go anywhere. If we hadn’t worked this fast we wouldn’t have gotten to the moon already.”

“Also we’re just really excited,” Vaughan added.

Enrique, once again, simply stared at Jeh for a few moments. “...You went to the moon?”

Jeh grinned. “Yeah! I even have a moon rock!” She pulled a gray rock out of her furs and laid it on the table. “Tah-dah!”

Enrique stared at it. His nose scrunched up. “So the moon is boring?”

Jeh paused. “Mostly, yeah, it’s just a bunch of gray rocks. There are some other things there but we didn’t bring them back.”

“Man, here I was thinking I was going to see cool things…”

“It still looks amazing,” Vaughan said. “Imagine, if you will, a large expanse of gray pocked with unnatural circular depressions, pointed mountains, and deep powdery sand unlike any beach on Ikyu…”

“It's very itchy,” Jeh added after her translation.

“Fascinating…” Enrique shook his head. “To think, such a small town with no infrastructure could do such a thing…”

Via shook her head. “They could not do it alone, they needed funding from the Crown to get to the moon. Though you are correct to say what they have accomplished is impressive, for they made it to space without us even knowing about it.”

“Wow… and they were able to land like that?”

Jeh tilted her head after translating. “Hang on, Enrique, why is it so weird that we know how to land?”

“The blimps told me that landing was difficult, so difficult that they didn’t trust anyone to actually do it, so when we come in I just have to aim at Descent and the landing pad takes care of it. Which is so much nicer than blasting through the atmosphere at high speed tethered to some other unknown ship…”

Blue tilted her head. “How does the landing pad work?”

“I dunno. Uses a lot of Orange though.”

“But how do you leave the ground if you don’t have the power to land?”

“It’s also a launching pad.”

Vaughan scratched his beard. “That would certainly be one way to do it, store most of the power needed for lift and landing on the ground… you could get by with much smaller drives that way, it would require less will. But you’d need either phenomenally large will at the pads or a lot of wizards.”

“The great blimps handle it all.”

“Envila told me the blimps rarely deal with the lower parts of Descent,” Jeh said. “How come you know them so well?”

“Oh, I never deal with the lower parts either.” Enrique leaned back in his chair. “I was raised in the floating city by them. One of those chosen to receive the blessing of care.”

Via raised an eyebrow. “I’m afraid I don’t know what the blessing of care is.”

“Well, you don’t have any blimps here, do you?”

Via shook her head. “No, we have balloon whales, but they aren’t spirited.”

“What is the greatest race you have then?”

Vaughan and Lila visibly tensed. Via, however, didn’t even flinch. “In the eyes of Kroanite law, all races have equal legal status; though in practice I am forced to admit that my race, the garilend, are given slight preference due to being the royal family. Beyond that, I’d have to say Crystalline Ones.”

“Oh, your people are those Colored Seekers I’ve heard about?”

Via shook her head. “We are primarily an Aware nation, though we have a sizable population of Colored Seekers, there’s a large group of Red Seekers in this town actually.”

“It’s just so strange for me to think of people who don’t always have the blimps nearby. I just… wow, having to deal with things yourself and knowing there’s nothing to fall back on? I’m amazed that anyone manages but only Descent has blimps so… huh, never thought of it like that before… so weird…”

Vaughan and Blue exchanged a look but said nothing.

“Question,” Jeh said. “What’s your ship called?”

“Oh, it’s nothing fancy, just ‘Ship Four.’ “

“What happened to the other three ships?”

“One was scrapped, the other two exploded.”

“Ah. Yeah, we’ve lost a few too.”

“What do you call your ships?”

“Small ones like the one you saw are Skyseeds. The bigger ones are Moonshots.”

Enrique rubbed his hands together. “Can… can I see?”

Jeh glanced to Via. “What do you think?”

Via nodded. “I would be glad to show you our more prestigious craft.”

“Fair warning,” Vaughan butted in. “The first one is kind of broken, and the second one isn’t finished yet.”

“I don’t care, all of that sounds amazing!” Enrique said.

“Before we go, though…” Via said, leaning in. “I do have to ask if your government has any intentions of any sort toward our own.”

“We didn’t even know you existed until today!” Enrique said. “In fact, I think I’m the only Descender who knows about you at all! …Well besides this Envila, but she also isn’t in Descent!”

“What do you think your blimp rulers would think of us?”

“You’ll be just as fascinating to them as you are to me!”

Via kept her warm smile and level face. Inwardly, though, she was starting to twist her stomach into knots. She really wasn’t sure how to feel about that. How do you react to a foreign power that considers you fascinating first and foremost?

~~~

“This thing flew?” Enrique gestured at what was left of the Moonshot. It was currently resting under an open tent in Vaughan’s backyard—and while it had been polished and cleaned up since its ordeal in the Tempest, it was still dented, missing a few knobs, and had a clearly gutted interior.

“It had a rough time on the way back down,” Vaughan explained. “Long story, to keep it short, the drive wasn’t working and we had to perform a manual landing in the ocean.”

“And you survived?”

“Barely,” Blue muttered. “The next one hopefully won’t have the same problems.”

“But it got you there and back! I’m shocked!” He ran up the ramp without warning and poked his head into the interior. “Wow… every side is the floor! That’s amazing!”

“When you’re floating for a long time you kind of want orientation,” Blue said.

“Wow…” he poked his head even further in… and proceeded to fall into the interior. “Ow…”

Blue sighed, walking up the ramp so she could see well enough to levitate him out.

Jeh took the moment to stop translating constantly for everything and look around. To her relief, she saw exactly the people she was looking for—the Sourdough Twins. She waved them over.

“Scurfpea is doing fine…” one said, answering Jeh’s unspoken question.

“...she’s with Ashen right now, resting.”

“Good,” Jeh said, letting out a sigh of relief. “I just… so much has been going on and… I don’t know, she’s not like me, things could go wrong…”

“Yes. They can,” one of the Twins said.

“But she knows the risks, we all made sure of that.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to give her too much to do…” Jeh grumbled.

“True. But the situation was an unprecedented one.”

The other twin nodded. “We think you made the right call, but you should have considered her more even so, not just assumed.”

Jeh blinked. “So you’re telling me I made the right choice for the wrong reasons?”

“Oversimplified,” one countered.

“But otherwise, basically, yeah,” the other added.

“Okaaaay…”

At this point, Enrique was out of the Moonshot and dusting himself off. “Well, sorry about that, guess I’m more clumsy than I realized!”

“Don’t you need coordination to fly spacecraft properly?” Jeh asked. “Or, uh, don’t you at least have to learn? Like I did?”

“I mean, I had to learn, but… it’s not very hard to drive?” Enrique shrugged. “I just point where I want to go and go, the only hard part is landing because I have to aim and not go too fast.”

“Man, your ship must be very balanced…”

“It is! Specifically crafted by the blimps for yours truly as a wondrous gift! It was literally made for me!”

“Wait, are you the only astronaut?”

“Well… they’re making others, but I think right now, yeah.”

Jeh paused. “I guess I was the only one for a while… but there’s three of us here now and several in Axiom, if we had to build a ship for every astronaut…” Jeh turned to Blue. “That’s a nightmare, right?”

Blue turned to Vaughan. “I think so?”

Vaughan nodded. “Increases the cost and decreases the utility of each ship dramatically.”

Enrique slapped his knee and laughed after Jeh relayed this to him. “You’re concerned about money, of course. Pff, who cares about money when you serve the great blimps?”

“Surely they have money too?” Blue asked.

“Well, I think so?” Enrique scratched his head. “I’m not exactly sure what they use it for… but that doesn’t matter, I’m too small to worry about such things.”

Blue raised an eyebrow and glanced at Vaughan. He just shrugged noncommittally.

“Anyway, now that I’ve crashed into your crashed ship, where to next?”

Vaughan scratched his beard. “The laboratory and the shell for the Moonshot II I suppose. Perhaps we should have gone there first, it would have been a shorter walk…”

“But then things would have been out of order!” Jeh said. “We gotta do it in order! First Moonshot first!”

“If you insist. Let us all make the walk back, then…”

Blue hung back with the Twins while the others continued their journey.

“Taking notes on his culture?” Blue asked.

The Twins nodded.

“Anything interesting you’ve noted?”

“Tons of things…”

“...Too many to list.”

“What would be relevant to me?”

“Anything he knows about science or engineering is incidental,” one offered.

“The blimps making his ships don’t think him smart enough to be part of the design process.”

The first scratched her chin. “We suspect they only use him because they haven’t figured out how to send something as large as themselves into space safely.”

“Hmm…” Blue frowned. “I probably should have asked Envila about the blimps when she was around.”

“Oh don’t worry!” one said.

“We did that for you,” the other giggled.

“Well, tell me the details later, we do need to catch up with the others.”

“The most important piece of information is that the blimps think they are the greatest race on the planet.”

The other twin nodded. “They literally call the city of Descent Descent because they view it as them coming down to grace those restricted to the land.”

The first tapped her chin. “You know, that might be why they are trying to get to space, they want to go higher and higher to establish their superiority.”

The second giggled. “Ironic, then, that they have to send races that aren’t them up first!”

“Hmmm…” Blue said, clicking her tongue in thought as she followed the others.

~~~

Scurfpea woke up from perhaps the best sleep she had ever had. She let out a huge yawn and stretched every part of her in one big motion, from her fingers to her toes. Even the leaves on her head flexed slightly. She opened her eyes and beamed at one of Ashen’s facets. “Good morning Ashen!” Then her smile faltered. “Wait. Don’t remember sleep time…”

You passed out from overexertion.

“Over-eh-whatnow?”

Using too much energy. Exhausting yourself. Passing out.

“Ooooh… yeah.” Scurfpea looked up at the sky and blinked. “Was hard. …Did I crash?”

No, you didn’t crash. Do you not remember?

“Memory fuzzy… was in space, had to work to land. I remember… ground near. Then… fuzzy.”

Well, you clearly used more of your strength than even I thought. That’s not good.

“Not good?” Scurfpea tilted her head. “But I did it!”

You could have injured yourself.

“But I didn’t!”

Scurfpea, this is serious.

Scurfpea crossed her arms. “Everyone had the talk with me. I know death is up there. I know pain. I know.”

Scurfpea, even though you’re going up there you should try to avoid such things.

“Well. Yeah. But if it happens it happens!”

You could do more things to make it not happen. Like not overexerting yourself to the point of passing out. That sort of thing could give you a permanent injury. You are not Jeh.

Scurfpea’s expression turned uncharacteristically mad. “Why is everyone like this!?”

Huh…?

“I knew that could happen! I did it anyway!” She threw her arms in the air and started waving them around as though she were trying to punch the air. “Why is it different from going up? Both dangerous!”

I… Scurfpea, there is a difference between a necessary and unnecessary risk. A risk that must be taken and one that does not need to.

“Jeh needed me.” Scurfpea crossed her arms.

If she had known you would use that much of yourself she would not have asked you to do it.

“...Hmm…” Scurfpea narrowed her eyes and scrunched up her brow. “...Brain hurting. Heart hurting. Too big.”

You are very young. I am surprised you got as far as you did.

“Hmph.”

Perhaps you can just trust us that you don’t have to push yourself that hard? That you should tell us when you would?

“...Alright.”

Good. Thank you.

“But… what of… past?”

The past? Are you talking about before you came here?

“Yes! Had to do that a lot to survive.”

…You should never have been subjected to such things.

“But I did it!”

You really are remarkably resilient and capable.

“...What?”

I was giving you a compliment on your survival.

“Thanks!”

I just hope you realize that one as young as you is never supposed to see those things.

“I wanted to though. I left home to see things!”

I doubt your Glen wanted you to.

Scurfpea shrugged. “Oh well. I’m here now!”

You are… and you have much to learn about life.

“And space!”

Yes. And space too.

~~~

Vaughan sat down and let out a huge, long breath, sagging into the cushion. Now that there wasn’t actual discussion occurring, the ambience of the room felt more like that of a lounge than anything. The fact that Via was in there sipping tea only made it feel more luxurious than necessary, especially for a town as small as Willow Hollow. She had changed out of her simple robes into a dress that was… well, the fanciest that Willow Hollow had on offer, which was to say it was brightly colored and had frills but nothing else. Might as well stop trying to hide, after all—though she had not yet reshaped her hair, as that would simply take too much time, so the four-bun design remained.

Keller was standing behind her, arms locked behind his back. Vaughan knew him well enough to recognize the “I really want a smoke right now but there are people here who can’t stand the smell” look.

Via put down her tea and looked Vaughan up and down. “I take it Enrique is a bit exhausting?”

“You can say that again.”

“I take it Enrique is a bit exhausting?”

Vaughan raised an eyebrow.

Via chuckled. “So, I’m going to guess… that he’s just so full of energy.”

“He’s got as much energy as Jeh,” Vaughan said. “And the fact that she translates makes it even worse, I think, so much to keep track of and then they sometimes start going back and forth and then I have to ask them to back up and…” Vaughan put a hand to the bridge of his nose. “He never seems to stop.”

“Perhaps he was chosen because of that,” Via suggested. “His endless energy may suit him for the job.”

“That would certainly fit…”

“But ya didn’t leave him there t’ complain t’ us,” Keller observed. “Ya’re thinkin’ somethin.”

Vaughan nodded. “Good eye, Keller.”

“It makes him suited for his job,” Via said, smirking.

“But yes, I do have a thought.” He leaned forward. “We’ve been dancing around telling Enrique our future plans besides the obvious of going back to the moon.”

“Shouldn’t have even told him that…” Keller grumbled.

“Then you are really not going to like my suggestion,” Vaughan said.

“I can already tell.”

Via cocked her head. “What’s your idea, Vaughan?”

“...Just realized how weird it feels to talk to you casually like this…” Vaughan shook his head. “I’m thinking we should tell Enrique about the space station.”

Keller visibly tensed. Via simply leaned forward with curiosity. “Why?”

“We’re going to build it, that much is certain, but it’s going to take a lot of resources. And once we start it’s not exactly going to be easy to keep hidden, it’ll be much larger than the satellite and Descent noticed that and cared enough to start their own space program. Furthermore… the thought that really sold me on this idea is that the space station can be neutral ground. Everyone could go up there and meet without having to worry about things like not being able to land without proper ground infrastructure. I’m thinking… cooperation.”

“Cooperation…” Via scratched her chin.

“This is a bad idea,” Keller said. “We only have Enrique as an example of what Descent is, and it’s obvious that he’s not really aware o’ anythin’ they care ‘bout. They could be conquerors, we wouldn’t know.”

“Descent is a single city that has no holdings,” Vaughan pointed out. “We know that from Envila.”

“My point still stands. We don’t know who they are, can’t risk tellin’ them things like our plans. They may not conquer us but they may steal our resources, science, or just manipulate us for political gain.”

“I think the risk is worth it—extending an olive branch in peace to further potential cooperation and make our task easier. That space station is going to be a difficult construction, but it could be useful not just for us, but for potential allies. We do already know that Mikarol is working on a space program.”

“The Emperor said he was going t’ work on it,” Keller pointed out.

“But no doubt we would offer him this opportunity.”

“...Most likely.”

“I’m just thinking this is good in every way, and it’s not even as big of a risk as we might think. Sharing our plans can get us friends, but in the worst-case scenario? What are they going to do? Shoot us down? They could do that no matter what we did unless we develop some kind of space stealth and hide our ships moving through space.”

“All we have t’ do is think about how t’ do it.” Keller folded his arms. “Ya’re smart enough t’ come up with somethin’, I’m sure.”

“It’s easy enough, paint it black. The only problem is now we can’t see it.”

“Have Benefactor track things with th’ transmitters.”

“And on the opposite side of the planet?”

“Just don’t dock.”

Via placed her teacup down and put her arms behind her head. “This really is a risk we’d take if we told him, and the blimps may react in an unexpected way. Given how he may return to the sky at any moment, though, we do need to make a decision now.” She paused. “I need to make a decision.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“You are the princess,” Vaughan pointed out.

Via gave him a pleasant affirming smile that completely hid the screaming she was doing internally.

“So… what’ll it be?”

“I’m considering the sides of the argument,” Via said. “And, really, simplifying it in my mind. I think it boils down to this: do we be trusting or cautious? What kind of nation is Kroan?”

Vaughan let out a long, drawn-out breath. “That’s a big question, Princess.”

“But that’s what it boils down to.” She paused. “I know Wyett would listen to Keller. Tenrayce could go either way, and she’d probably convince Wyett to come around. Mom would be trusting, and Dad… he would have…” Via paused. “But they’re not the ones making the decision, I am.” She turned to look out the window, furrowing her brow.

Eventually, a smile came to her face.

“I want new friends. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt.” Via turned back to Vaughan. “Tell Enrique anything you wish about the future plans of the space program. Naturally don’t tell him anything about the black cubes or the mysterious organization, as that is not relevant at this time and might just put him in danger.”

Vaughan grinned. “Thank you, Princess.” He stood up and bowed. “I’ll go right away.”

“Let’s hope this space station idea pans out. I’m going to start drafting up a letter to the Emperor as well, he’ll probably want in on this.”

“Do we know of anyone else starting a space program?” Vaughan asked.

Via turned to Keller. “Do we?”

Keller shook his head. “Shimvale doesn’t appear to be tryin’, and the Hegemony is workin’ entirely through us.”

“I’ll probably send them a letter anyway. That tunnel through the continental shelf has to be completed at some point…”

“Several years from now.”

Via blinked. “Great eights, that’s a long time. We can build a craft that goes to the moon in a year but we can’t dig a tunnel to the bottom of the ocean?”

“Not quickly, gotta move all those rocks, ‘parently.”

“I’ll talk about diverting more funding, resources, and research to the tunnel with Tenrayce next time I see her. Mainly because neither you nor I actually have any idea how to do it.” She chuckled.

“True enough.”

~~~

At the best table in Shakin’ Slime’s Scrumptious Snacks, Enrique tore a piece of meat off a shishkabob with his teeth, staring intently at Jeh as he did so.

Jeh tilted her head, waiting for him to respond to what Vaughan had just told him.

He didn’t. He just kept eating. One piece off the skewer at a time.

“...Well?” Jeh eventually asked.

“This food is absolutely terrible.” He took another bite.

Jeh blinked. “I… then why are you eatin—nevermind, that’s not the point, I meant about the space station.”

“Oh yeah, it’s cool. I’ll tell everyone about it.”

“You don’t even know what the point of it is, Vaughan just barely finished explaining it!”

“Oh yeah. They probably will want more than that…” Enrique took another bite. “Hmm… I’m really not sure what they’d want to know, actually. Uh… that’s awkward.” For a moment, he looked concerned. “I’m not sure I can give them what they want…”

Jeh turned to Vaughan. “I could just go with him.”

“I think his… ‘masters’ would want more technical knowledge than you have. You don’t really know much about our space station plans besides ‘put a house in space,’ right?”

Jeh scratched her chin. “True…”

“We could send you with a scroll, though,” Vaughan suggested.

“Oh, thank you!” Enrique lit up. “That’ll solve all the problems!”

“I still have to go with him to read it,” Jeh said. “I don’t know how to write in Desc.”

“I don’t think we’re wrapping up this sequence of events without you accompanying him back anyway,” Vaughan said. “You’re the one who knows the language.”

Jeh blinked. “...I get to go to Descent! Woo!” She thrust her fists into the air. “You get to show me around, Enrique!”

“Oh! Oh.” Enrique paused. “Oh, that’s not something I’ve ever done before…”

“Just do what we’re doing for you here, it’ll be great.”

“Oh.” Enrique blinked. “What have you been doing?”

Jeh stared at him, dumbfounded. “You’ve been… in the middle of it.”

“Wasn’t exactly paying attention.”

Jeh facepalmed. “How are you flying a spaceship if you’re this oblivious?” As she was talking to Enrique in Desc, Vaughan did not forcibly cover her mouth. He would have if he had known what she was saying at the time prior to her translating it.

Enrique tilted his head. “Because I pay attention to it…?”

“Then… why aren’t you paying attention here?”

“Didn’t think I had to.”

“Wh…” Jeh just shook her head.

“Very glad for the scroll by the way, I really don’t like having to pay attention to things.”

“You don’t like flying in space?”

Enrique thought about this for a moment. “No, I do, it’s serving the blimps, and that’s more than enough. They love the stars, and I love the stars!”

Jeh translated this and looked to Vaughan with a ‘help me here’ expression. Vaughan shook his head.

Enrique took another bite of the shishkabob. “Wow. And this is considered fine dining in this town… Aha! I got it! I’ll show you fine dining!”

“Yes. Yes, that is one of the things you could and probably should do,” Jeh deadpanned.

Vaughan coughed. “Anyway… if you want us to send you with a scroll, that’ll probably take a day to set up for you. We’ll need to get you a place to sleep.”

“Oh, that’s fine.”

“Won’t the blimps be worried about you if you stay too long though?”

“Oh, no, they won’t mind.”

~~~

“Enrique hasn’t come back yet.”

“Yes.”

“It’s more than twice the time we predicted his trip would take.”

“Yes.”

“He’s probably dead.”

“Most likely.”

“Shame, I had such high hopes for that launch.”

“We’ll just launch another one.”

“It’ll take time to train Claire properly to take his place.”

“Not long.”

“No.”

“Then we have lost little aside from the ship.”

“Which will take less time to construct than Claire will to fully train.”

“Give my regards to the contingency department. They have outdone themselves.”

“Quite.”

~~~

Enrique had slept on the couch in the main hall of the Cabin. Not because that was where they’d chosen to let him sleep—Vaughan had spare beds of course—but because when Enrique saw it he assumed it was where he was sleeping so he flopped right on it and passed out immediately. He hadn’t looked tired prior to this, but he sure was asleep the instant his head hit the couch.

It was now noon the next day.

He was still asleep. Peaceful. With a smile on his face.

Vaughan, Blue, Margaret, and Jeh were all awake, staring at him.

“...Should we wake him up…?” Blue asked.

“It doesn’t particularly matter when he leaves…” Vaughan said, scratching his beard.

“But I’m itching to go to Descent…” Jeh muttered.

“Waking him up could be rude.”

“Or it could be necessary,” Margaret said. She put her hands on her hips. “For all we know he’ll sleep for several days.”

“Humans don’t do that,” Vaughan pointed out.

“And neither do gari, yet I’ve had days where I woke up and just pretended like I was still asleep to myself and then didn’t leave the bed that day.”

“He didn’t seem the depressive sort…”

“He didn’t seem like any sort you know, from what you told me.”

Jeh sighed. “I guess we just wait.” She turned her back on them. “I’m going to go play with the Twins.”

“Have fun,” Blue said.

The moment Jeh reached her hand out to the front door, Enrique sat upright and opened his eyes, smiling brightly. He held out his hands in front of his face… and then frowned.

“Oh. Right. I’m not home.” He awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. “I shouldn’t expect that…”

“Expect what?” Blue asked, tilting her head in bafflement.

“Food, of course! For as long as I can remember whenever I woke up there was food ready to be placed in my hands!” He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. “Of course the blimps aren’t here, they wouldn’t be able to do that…”

“Well, we certainly have food,” Blue said. “There’s leftover oatmeal from breakfast.”

“That’ll do nicely!”

He did not complain about the oatmeal as he ate it. He ate rather quickly, as though he was ravenous, even though he had been given so much food yesterday he likely should have still been stuffed. “So, what are we doing today?”

“Um…” Vaughan held out the scroll they’d made last night to him. “We give you this scroll then you and Jeh go back to Descent?”

“Neat!” He grabbed the scroll and didn’t so much as look at it before storing it away. “I’m very interested in seeing how you launch!”

“Slowly,” Jeh said. “We already have your ship strapped to mine so we don’t have the same problem we did coming in.”

“Oh, it might not be good for us to return to Descent like that…”

“We’ll decouple above Descent, at which point you can go down and then I’ll go down later.”

Enrique thought about this. “Sure, I think the blimps will be able to flash a signal up to you to let you know to come down.”

“Amazing, he’s such an idiot except when he’s talking about space travel…” Blue muttered. “...Don’t translate that.”

Jeh rolled her eyes, but complied with Blue’s wishes, and Enrique didn’t even ask what Blue had said. Instead, he just stood there. Awkwardly.

“Uh… would you like to go now?” Jeh asked.

“Yes! But we can wait if you want.”

“Alright, let’s go!”

Most official mission launches from Willow Hollow were planned well in advance and public, this one was decidedly not planned and spur of the moment, so when they made it to the launchpad there weren’t that many people there. That said, a Skyseed was sitting there, with Enrique’s cube ship strapped securely on top of it with lots of cords and clasps. This particular Skyseed’s door was situated sideways so it wasn’t blocked.

“...How am I going to get in?” Enrique asked.

“I levitate you in,” Blue said.

“Oh. Neat!” Enrique turned to Jeh. “You sure you can control this thing?”

Jeh grinned. “Enrique, buddy, I’m so good I could drive a half-busted Moonshot through the Tempest. This is going to be much easier than what we were doing coming down since it’s all one piece and I can use the drive’s power to move you.”

“You have a ton of will.”

“Highest I’ve ever seen,” Vaughan said.

Jeh put her hands on her hips as she translated that, a smug grin forming on her face. “...Anyway let’s just get in and go.” She walked up to the door and started unscrewing its seal.

Margaret pointed up in the sky. “There’s something coming down.”

“...Scurfpea hasn’t taken anything up has she?” Blue asked, squinting her eyes at the sky. Sure enough, there was something shiny with an Orange aura around it coming down.

“No, Ashen still has her resting.”

“A messenger then…”

Jeh sighed. “Fine, we’ll wait…” She explained to Enrique what was going on.

“A messenger? Wow, you have a lot of ships if you use them for messengers…”

“We’ve been doing this a while,” Jeh said. “...Wait, didn’t we tell you this yesterday?”

“Maybe.”

They all waited patiently for the craft to arrive. However, the moment it got low enough to resolve its shape, they immediately knew it wasn’t a Skyseed, or even the kind of ship Enrique had been flying. It was a sharp, angled structure made mostly of glass, but the hard edges were metal, forming an overall octahedron shape. There were various knobs along the eight faces similar to those on the Moonshot, but they were made of glass. The ship was also significantly larger than most Skyseeds, though most of that was clearly for storage, as there was only one occupant: a humanoid rigid with a flat, rectangular face that flashed all sorts of colors.

Also rather obvious was the proud logo of the Mikarol Empire painted right on one of the ship’s faces. This made it more difficult for the occupant to see, but Mikarol was known for putting their logo on everything. If something was theirs, everyone was supposed to know it, especially if that something was impressive.

The craft landed smoothly on the grass next to the launchpad. The occupant gave a wave, and the flat face shifted colors to display a simplified and cartoonish smug expression.

Blue sighed. “I can already tell th—”

One of the faces of the ship flew open, interrupting Blue’s snide comment. The astronaut within jumped out with surprising speed for a being made mostly of metal, landing square in front of Vaughan. “Greetings!” she said, with a voice that was grainy and choppy, as though each syllable was pronounced separately and then smashed into the other syllables at high speed. This ignored the accent, which was clearly Mikarolian, and since it was noticeable enough to be heard over the rest of her voice’s oddities she certainly wasn’t fluent in Karli.

She proceeded to pop one of her arms out of its socket, hold it in her other hand, and extend it to Vaughan to shake. “Pleasure to meet you, Wizard Vaughan! I am Xanava, here to declare the start of the space race!” Her face shifted to display a symbol of two hands shaking.

Vaughan glanced at the disembodied arm, uncertain at first, but he did shake it. Somehow the lifeless limb was able to hold onto him and shake just fine. After this Xanava popped it back into its socket and a green check appeared on her face. “The Emperor is really looking forward to where this goes! Now…” She caught Blue staring at her face in shock. “Oooh! Someone has never seen a flauxi before!”

“S-sorry,” Blue stammered.

“Your rudeness is funny! Do not worry!”

“Er…”

“I think we have, actually…” Vaughan scratched his beard. “I’ve just never seen one of your kind without a helmet.”

“Only soldiers? Really?” Xanava put her hands on her hips. “You did not visit Mikarol even once?”

“Well… no.”

“Then take your ship! You can! Do it right now! Maybe.”

“We kind of have something else going on at the moment…”

“Yes! I noticed.” Xanava moved extremely quickly and suddenly her face was almost touching Enrique’s. Her face switched to display one giant eye looking intently at him. “Who are you?”

“Uh…” Enrique backed up, glancing to Jeh. “What’s she saying?”

“Oh, right, forgot to translate,” Jeh coughed. “Sorry, was… distracted.” Jeh proceeded to relay the information.

“What a language…” Xanava deflated, turning her face to the sky and flashing various colors at it. “I hate learning languages. This language is pain already. Suffering. Agony.”

“Your language isn’t much better,” Vaughan commented.

“Yes and no! The Empire’s language is trash. My language—” and she immediately stopped speaking in words and let out a series of clicks and beeps with extreme speed that made everyone’s ears hurt. “Superior.”

Jeh shook her head. “Can you slow down a bit so I have time to translate?”

“Slow down? Me?” Xanava’s face swapped to display a laughing face with tears coming out of it. She slapped her knee, disconnecting her lower leg. She proceeded to toss the limb over her head where she caught it and slapped it back on. “Does that answer your question?”

Jeh put her hands on her hips. “Well, I can’t explain Enrique to you or you to Enrique if you keep this up!”

“You underestimate my powers of observation!”

“It doesn’t have anything to do with observation! If you keep talking I can’t keep up! I still haven’t translated the last few things you’ve said and I’ve already forgotten the first parts!”

“Sounds like a you problem.”

“But… that doesn’t…”

Xanava patted Jeh on the head. “Just playing with you all. Go ahead, I will be quiet. Well. I will not say words. My body is rather loud when it moves.” She then proceeded to start dancing by rotating her entire torso around like a whirlwind and spiking the ground with her feet. Though she did stop talking.

While Jeh filled Enrique in, Blue held a hoof to her chest. “I didn’t think it was possible for anyone to have that much energy…”

“Seskii,” Vaughan said.

“She knows how to keep it under control.”

“Do I really?” Seskii asked, suddenly behind Blue somehow.

At this point Blue was used to this, so all she did was twitch as opposed to screaming in terror. “Hey, Seskii, can you keep up with the rigid over there?”

“Oh, yeah, wouldn’t even be that hard. But you are the ones she wants to talk to, I’m just a fruit juice seller and secretary and other things she doesn’t care about.”

“Right…” Blue furrowed her brow. “We should probably get Via…”

“Oh, she’s already coming.”

“Oh?”

Seskii’s words were true, for at that moment Via and Keller came around the corner of a nearby building, a handful of scrolls in her hands. She was walking rather leisurely at first, but the moment she saw Xanava she quickly straightened up and put on her “regal” expression. “Ah. Can someone please tell me who this is?”

“Can you not see?” Xanava called. “It is obvious!” She gestured at the logo of the Mikarol Empire. “Tah-daaaaaaah!”

“...Ah. You have brought us…” Via tilted her head. “What is this?”

Xanava’s screen switched to a black squiggle that randomly changed shape. “What. What is it? It is a space ship, idiot! It even looks like one of your Skyseeds! Moron!”

Everyone gasped. Keller tensed.

Via grinned. “I like this one.”

Xanava lifted her finger as though to say something, but for once in her life she thought better of it, glancing around at the expressions of everyone. Her face shifted to an island in the middle of a calm ocean. The tree on the island made a shrugging gesture that matched Xanava’s own body language. “I sense I have made a mistake.”

Via locked her arms behind her back. “I am Princess Via Kroan.”

“Ah. There it is. The mistake. Just so you know, chopping my head off will not work as an execution mechanism. I have replacements.”

“Oh, no one in the royal family would execute you for being called an idiot. It just so happens that I am quite stupid and appreciate it when people are honest with me. Though I do have to say, you appear to have almost no tact whatsoever.”

Xanava gasped, face attempting to show eyes bulging out of the sockets of a simplified skull, but as her face was flat the image didn’t really work. “I can not believe it! She plays ball!” She pointed at Via. “She plays ball. Royals never play ball!”

“I dunno,” Jeh said. “The Emperor seemed like he did.”

“The Emperor is my boss.”

“So…?”

“He might execute me for calling him an idiot.”

“...Is he?” Seskii asked.

“Not answering that,” Xanava said.

“I could just tell him you did…”

Xanava threw her arm at Seskii. She caught it nonchalantly.

Xanava tilted her head to the side. “Huh.” She returned to her ship, pulled a spare arm out of it, and affixed it to her body. “There.”

Enrique scratched the back of his head. “All astronauts are strange…”

Jeh nodded in agreement. “Looks like nobody gets to be normal.” Naturally, she translated after this, conveying what Enrique said to everyone else.

Xanava started talking over her. “Anyway, can we talk ab—nevermind, you!” She pointed at Enrique. “You have claimed that all astronauts are strange!”

Jeh relayed the information but Xanava kept talking anyway.

“This is not true!” Xanava crossed her arms. “The guy before me was a textbook boring chiseled soldier! He blew up!”

“And you were next in line?” Via asked.

“Oh, no, they just decided that they needed a flauxi and all the flauxi that are good at soldiering are needed in the army to do army things, we make very good soldiers, but some of us are not suited for that. I am not suited for that.”

“Because you can’t follow orders?” Jeh asked.

“Actually no, I lose consciousness at the sight of blood or bodily fluids.”

“...Can I drool on you to knock you out?”

“Interior bodily fluids. Good idea though. Disgusting. I wish I could try it out on you. But, alas, no fleshy mouth, only stabby receptacle.”

“Stabby receptacle…?”

Xanava tapped a little hole just below the base of her neck. “Stabby receptacle.”

Keller coughed. “As delightfully insane as this all is, we can’t spend all day gawkin’ over each other.”

“Oh, grinkalink, a business guy.” Xanava hung her head back and flashed colors at the sky again. “Why must you people be everywhere?”

“We’re effective at gettin’ things done. You ain’t.”

“You can not argue with logic like that.”

“Exactly. ‘Cus it’s good logic.”

“I did not say that.” Xanava snickered, a noise that for her sounded a bit like static being run through a salt shaker.

“We still need t’ get stuff done. You haven’t even asked about Enrique yet. He’s an astronaut from the other side o’ the planet. We need t’ get him home.”

“Other side of the planet? That’s where I am from!”

“Ever hear of Descent?” Jeh asked.

“Nope!”

“Would you like to? We’re about to head there.”

“Yes!”

“Everyone slow down!” Via shouted, grabbing everyone’s attention. “While I appreciate your eagerness, Xanava, you don’t know everything, and we need to discuss the stance of your government on a few issues.”

“I am not a politician.”

“The issues in question are concerning a space station.”

Xanava paused, her face showing a rainbow spinning wheel for a few seconds. Wordlessly, she ran back to her ship and pulled out a notebook and pen. She twirled the pen in her fingers and set it on the page. “Okay, important stuff the Emperor will skin me for if I fail to get right, go.”

“Skin you…?” Vaughan tilted his head.

“For a flauxi that means removing everything except our core and reproductive system, the only parts that can not be replaced.” She shrugged. “Torture artists can get very creative with us. Or, well, they would with me. You all just get your skin removed and re-healed with Green repeatedly.”

Everyone stared at her blankly.

“Yes, horrifying, quite, now… space station?”

Via proceeded to fill her in. For once, she didn’t interrupt or talk over her, probably because she actually considered these details important and was trying to write everything down. Via discussed the outline of the space station, Enrique’s arrival, the upcoming trip to Descent… everything that seemed relevant.

“...We were going to send a message to Mikarol,” Via said as she concluded. “But it seems as though that may not be necessary.”

“You probably still should,” Xanava said. “In case we get stuck in this Descent for whatever reason. I do not trust the sound of these blimps at all.”

After Jeh translated this, Enrique let out a gasp. “How… how dare you disrespect the blimps so!”

“...I hate arguing with someone I have a language barrier with, Jeh, you argue with him I am not engaging.”

“But. Uh.” Jeh tilted her head. “I don’t want to argue?”

“You do not trust the blimps either.”

“No, but I don’t want to be rude…”

“Disappointing.”

“I suppose we could send Margaret over…” Vaughan turned to Margaret, who had started sketching in her sketchbook a few minutes ago. “You up for it?”

Margaret looked up. “I think I can make a trip to Mikarol. You’ll probably need to make a copy of that scroll for me, though…”

Via sighed. “Yes, we will need that. Do we have a scribe who can do that quickly?”

Seskii grinned. “Give me an hour.”

“That’s… fast.”

“I could do it faster but that would be weird.”

“I… what?”

Seskii winked. “You all have fun, I’ll get all the letters copied. You want me to copy the letter to the Angler Hegemony too?”

“That would be excellent, thank you. It’s…” she patted down her robes. “I swear, I had it on me…”

“This it?” Seskii asked, holding the recently-rolled-up scroll.

“Yes!” Via chuckled.

Xanava stared at Seskii, her face displaying a single eye. “I feel as though you threaten me with your presence.”

Seskii just chuckled at this. “As I already said… have fun!”

~~~

“So, if we’re all going to be flying together, we need a plan,” Jeh said, rolling out a map of the world on the launchpad for Xanava and Enrique. She pointed at an X on the map. “This is where Descent is.”

Xanava folded her arms. “That is closer to the Empire than it is to here.”

“Well yeah, but if we go west it’ll take longer. Probably. Actually, we should probably measure…” Jeh started getting out her pen and notebook so she could calculate the difference between the two coordinates.

“Do not bother,” Xanava said. “It is shorter to go east, you are correct.”

“...Did you take into account the curvature o—”

“Yes.”

“...Okay then.”

Enrique scratched his head. “You two can calculate that?”

Jeh sighed. “Yes. We can.”

“Every time he opens his mouth I wonder how he is an astronaut,” Xanava said, displaying an image of a stick figure being buried by mathematical symbols.

Enrique shrugged once Jeh translated for him. “I don’t understand how you can be astronauts and trained in other things. Almost everyone who does work for the blimps is trained only in that work. As long as I know what to look for I’m fine.”

“You need to learn to deal with the unexpected,” Jeh said. “Like, say, what if you were shot down?”

“I’d be dead,” he said, smile not faltering.

Jeh tilted her head. “Shouldn’t you try to survive and make your way back? I did.”

“Really? Wow. That’s amazing! I could never do that.”

“We have a word for you where I come from,” Xanava said. “In Karli it translates as cannon fodder.”

Jeh translated. “Huh, it’s three words in Desc…”

“Languages suck.”

“Suuure… anyway.” Jeh returned to the map. “We go east, over the WIld Kingdoms, Shinelands, and Eastern Ocean.”

Xanava pointed at the Western Ocean. “But this is the Eastern Ocean.”

“East of you.”

“Obviously, the Empire is the center of the world.”

“Oh really?” at this point Jeh stopped translating and really got into the argument.

“You want to claim this palace is?”

“No, I want to claim Axiom is.”

“Your little kingdom does not even do any proper conquering!”

“Why would we need to!?”

“You have a lot of Wild Kingdoms that could do with some proper organization!”

“We have trade routes!”

“Yeah, well, we have…”

Enrique tapped Jeh on the shoulder. “Um. What are you two arguing about?”

Jeh let out a dramatic sigh and relayed the information.

Enrique nodded slowly. “Neither of you sound like you know what you’re talking about.”

Xanava laughed. “Okay, wise guy, do you want to claim Descent is the center of the world?”

“Oh, no, we’re just one city.”

Xanava stared blankly at him. “You know what, for a guy who praises the ‘great blimps’ so often that was not what I was expecting from you. You win.”

“Oh, what do I win?”

Jeh shook her head. “No, not win as in ‘prize’, win as in ‘victory’.”

“But you get a prize when you have a victory…?”

Jeh slammed her hands on the launchpad. “Can we talk about our plan!?”

Xanava snickered. “Go right ahead.” She displayed an image of a big hand pushing a stick figure over a cliff.

Jeh chose to ignore this. “Right. So. We go east. Cross the ocean. Then we need to cross… all this unknown stuff. There’s the giant Red Crystalline One here, and what we think is the demon nation here, but neither of them have ever shot anything down or even reacted to us. Then we get to Descent, which will be easy to find because of the absolutely huge mountain range. While flying I need to keep Enrique strapped to me since his ship can’t get to orbit on its own.”

“Loser,” Xanava said.

Jeh didn’t stop to translate for her, continuing with her explanation, which was interspersed with comments to Enrique. “Xanava, you just need to keep in sight range. We are going to stop above Descent. Once at a suitable altitude, I detach Enrique and he goes down to Descent and tells them about us. We’ll drop down an hour later, or when we see a light signal from below.”

“And then you will do all the talking and I will mock everything relentlessly that you will not translate.”

“Please don’t make it harder on me.”

“What part makes you think I will listen to you?”

Jeh sighed. “Saying everything twice is really exhausting with you around.”

Xanava’s face displayed a thumbs up.

“Yaaaay…” Jeh looked up, finding Margaret sitting in the grass nearby, sketching on her notepad. “Hey, Margaret, you’re technically part of this too.”

“I know how to fly to Mikarol,” Margaret said. “You guys are the ones with the crazy trip.”

At this point Seskii jumped out from behind the Skyseed. “I’ve got copies of the scrolls!” She gave one set to Xanava, Enrique, Jeh, and Margaret, and then proceeded to run all the way to where Via was sitting and trying not to engage with the crowd that was forming.

“Thank you, Seskii,” Via said, taking the scrolls gently and opening them up. “All is in order. Although, I must ask… what happened to the original?”

“Dog ate it.”

“...What… How?”

“It was funny.” She winked and ran to the astronauts. “This means you’re clear to go!”

“Great!” Jeh shot bolt upright. “C’mon, let’s get a move on! Everyone in! Blue!”

Blue looked up from the conversation she was having with Vaughan. “Hmm? Oh, right, levitation. Iiiiin you go!” She picked up Enrique and placed him in his ship. With his muscle memory he strapped himself in with an absurdly large number of belts and buckles. There may have been a lot of things he didn’t know, but he did know how to strap himself securely in his own ship.

“By the way,” Xanava said as she climbed into her ship. “This ship of mine is called the Skyripper.”

“Cool!” Jeh said. “Enrique’s is just Ship Four.”

“Lame!”

“Anyway, just something you should know Xanava.”

“What is that?”

“You wait until we finish counting down to launch.” Jeh finished sealing herself in. “Alright, hit it!”

“TEN!” The crowd called.

Xanava launched immediately and at a high acceleration.

“XANAVA!” Jeh shouted, kicking her drive on and lurching into the air. Her competitive spirit overrode her reason—that being that she should go slow since her ship had another ship literally strapped to it. She did not go slow, she launched into the sky and started wobbling. By sheer force of will and determination, she used her Orange to stabilize and catch up to Xanava.

And then Xanava started going faster.

“Oh, you think you’re so good do you? Trying to race a ship that’s hindered!? Well, I’ll show you something else, Xanava, I’m Jeh, the best pilot in the world and I a—”

“C-c-can we slow down?” Enrique stammered.

Jeh ground her teeth and grimaced. “...Fine.” She slowed her ascent down and made the ride much smoother. “I’m blaming you if she tries to gloat.”

“O-okay.”

Back on the ground, Vaughan lowered the telescope. “Jeh’s slowed down.”

“Good,” Blue said as she let out a sigh of relief. “This is not the mission for being goaded into a competition…”

“That Xanava sure knows how to push people’s buttons…”

“I’ve seen agents like her,” Keller commented. “When ya get up high enough, you start lookin’ for fun in the strangest places.”

“Should I mention the reckless launch to Mikarol?” Margaret asked.

“No, no need to poke them, they probably know exactly who their astronaut is anyway.” Via paused. “Now we wait.”

“It’ll be fine,” Blue said.

“I am taking a risk,” Via said, taking in a sharp breath.

“Well, you’ve still got the rest of your vacation to look forward to.”

“I suppose…” She glanced at the crowd still gathered around, though now that they were done watching the surprising launch, they were of course staring at Via. She cleared her throat. “There is no more for any of you here, disperse, go about your days as normal!”

It took them a little while to realize that she had technically just given them a command, but the moment they figured it out they all scrambled back to wherever they’d come from.

“Now, um… any ideas how I can have a vacation now that everyone knows who I am?”

“...Camping?” Vaughan suggested.

Blue groaned. Via, meanwhile, clapped her hands together. “Oh, that sounds delightful!”

~~~

Queen Riikaz trudged through the deepest wilds in all the Wild Kingdoms. Here, there were no actual Kingdoms and hardly any tribes.

She had been traveling for weeks, long enough that the blood that had coated her from the ritual was all gone. This was actually rather convenient as it meant she could wash herself again, and she had this morning, but it was a reminder that she had been at this for a long time.

And still, she had not found the Tower of Knowledge. She knew she was closer than when she’d started—the legend of the Tower was known by more and more tribes the further she walked, and many individuals had personal experience losing a day and suddenly knowing something that helped them get their life on track. This told her that the Tower or something very much like it existed, and that it was still active.

But she had not found it. No one she talked to had ever found it by looking for it, though there were stories of passing travelers who had managed that. But were those travelers just stories? Or were those travelers simply liars, spinning tall tales to puff themselves up in the eyes of others?

Riikaz did not know, and the nature of the Tower of Knowledge made it hard to judge fact from fiction. All she could do was continue exploring the wilds, looking for signs of foot traffic, unusual animal patterns, out-of-place plant growths…

Of which she was finding none.

It is said only the pure of heart is let in, Riikaz thought. I knew I might not qualify… but this is the best I’ve got! For a society so deeply concerned with secrecy, the only way to be sure we know is to find knowledge they can’t get their hands on!

She put her hands on her hips and looked around. She was in a very ordinary-looking clearing, there weren’t even any rigid trees or giant mushrooms nearby. Just green trees that hadn’t seen spirited activity since the day they took root until her arrival.

She checked her mental map. She was near the center of the area she’d identified as “the Tower’s location.” Curiously, it was further south than Benefactor had been, but Benefactor admitted she had barely begun her search before she had to be stopped.

It had to be somewhere close by.

If you’re even allowed to remember seeing it, she thought to herself. It won’t be found if it doesn’t want to be…

She sat down on a nearby rock, letting herself rest for a moment. She found herself looking down at the dirt. Absent-mindedly, she started drawing random shapes in the ground with her spear. Little crawling bugs emerged from the ground as she disturbed their rest, skittering over little pebbles and tangles of purple-green moss. Her eyes followed the moss upward until she found herself looking at the sky, where a flock of colorful birds were flying, sun glinting off each of their silvery feathers.

What a beautiful world You’ve given us. She chuckled, to herself, leaning back and just looking up at the leaves, the sky… and in her mind, the space beyond. Even more than we know. She found herself frowning. Am I not supposed to be out here? It’s looking more and more like the Tower doesn’t consider me pure of heart. And I know I’m not, but if the Tower was as rigid about this as You are, it wouldn’t let anyone in! Or it would let everyone in. You’re really weird about that, You know?

Still… even if it won’t let me in, You could. I’d… like that. Riikaz frowned. But… that’s not how You do things, You do things Your way, not our way. Riikaz sagged, looking at the ground once again. I know, I want to avenge him. But… we have to do something about these people. They want us gone. My motives should only matter for my spirit, not for the fate of everyone else. I… she clenched her jaw. Don’t let my weakness and rage bring their downfall.

A breeze blew through the clearing. A cricket chirped somewhere nearby. An unusual purple fruit fell from a tree, and soon bugs were crawling all over it.

In the midst of it all, Riikaz sat.

“...It’s time to go back,” Riikaz said, standing up. “...I’ll find another way.”

She turned around, back the way she came…

…and stood on a marble path that led right to a massive set of marble double doors. She was so close to the door she almost ran face-first into it.

“Wh-what!?”

“I wish to make it clear that you have not passed my test,” a voice came from behind her.

Riikaz whirled around, coming face to face with a humanoid rigid in long, flowing purple robes. He had a flat face of a species Riikaz had seen before in Mikarol but couldn’t remember the name of. However, his face was not lit up or displaying anything, for it was dark; instead, a pair of oversized tinted triangular glasses were essentially glued to his face. He was slightly taller than Riikaz was, not something a humanoid race was generally able to accomplish.

“Your… test?”

“The test of the pure heart, no doubt you are aware of it. You do not qualify. But the situation is unique.”

“Wait, so you didn’t grant me entrance because I decided to turn back?”

“No. Honestly, I was surprised you did that. But I’ll figure out why when I review the books tonight.”

“The books…” Riikaz turned away from the rigid and looked back at the building she was standing in front of. The Tower.

It was the largest structure she had ever seen. It was so tall she couldn’t see the top. Its cylindrical base was easily larger than most mansions, and the double doors so large most dragons could fit in them. It was constructed entirely of marble… or what looked like marble at first glance. Riikaz was fairly certain the material had a faint pinkish aura around it that only existed when she was looking at it out of the corner of her eye.

She quickly turned back to the rigid and dropped to a knee. “I am honored, Custodian.”

“You guess my identity correctly. Come. You have much to learn, and then much to forget.” He held out his metallic hand and touched the marble doors.

They moved at his touch as though they were weightless. The silence of their motion sent a chill up Riikaz’ spine.

But she did not falter. She followed the Custodian into the Tower of Knowledge.

There was no noise as the doors closed behind them.

~~~

SCIENCE SEGMENT?

There’s not really any science this chapter, as it’s largely politics and astronauts. However, I will spare a moment to mention that in real life astronauts don’t tend to be as crazy. Usually, our astronauts are chosen from individuals who are the best of the best, usually in the military (though this is less of a requirement as time goes on). There’s a pretty big reason for this: in space, your life can depend on keeping your cool and following procedures exactly. You have to be able to follow orders precisely and think on your feet. To put it simply, Jeh, Enrique, Xanava, and Scurfpea are not the kinds of people our governments would like as astronauts. Margaret is the closest to a professional, but her emotional tendencies would likely also remove her from consideration.

Of course, differences are to be expected. The Wizard Space Program was started in Vaughan’s backyard, and Jeh was who they had available. Mikarol tried the military route first as Xanava mentioned, it just didn’t end up so well for that guy, so they shifted gears to try something new. And Enrique… well, we’ll find out more about that in our trip to Descent.