WSP 057

  Beyond the Gronge Field

  Once again, winter had come to the Kingdom of Kroan. The snow had not come in droves yet; it was only a centimeter or so thick. Enough to blanket the landscape, not enough to stop people from going about their business. Which meant that the Space Program was still holding meetings, and today’s meeting was special.

  And it wasn’t just because Jeh had made everyone absolutely incredible hot cider tea for the winter day.

  Mary breathed in the aroma of the cup clutched in her hands. “My… I wouldn’t have even thought to use the spices in this way…”

  Jeh winked. “It just smelled right! Though…” She frowned. “I feel like there’s an even better drink for cold days.”

  “What are the chances we even have the ingredients?” Krays asked.

  “...Okay, good point. Mystery drink may remain a mystery forever… Wait, hang on, Xanava could probably ask Sandy…”

  Suro choked on the scone he was eating. “Th-that sounds like a terrible idea.”

  “Sandy likes me pretty well.” Jeh assisted. “Not a terrible idea.”

  “I mean, contacting her for something as simple as… a drink?”

  Jeh folded her arms. “She may be crazy and mostly evil, but she’s still a person who eats things.”

  “I… suppose.”

  Lila coughed. “The off chance of some kind of political fallout resulting from such queries is probably reason enough not to pursue it, Jeh.”

  “Ah…”

  “Though if you ever just happen to be around her—say if she shows her face at the upcoming Conference—there probably wouldn’t be any harm in asking then.”

  Jeh made a mental note.

  “The Conference…” Margaret said, narrowing her eyes. She fixed Lila with a knowing glance. Lila waved a paw at her. Later.

  “Do we know who’s coming yet?” Vaughan asked.

  “Impatient, much?” Krays jabbed. “In the old days messages would take months to travel!”

  “How much things have changed, we expect messages to arrive quickly…” Blue said, tapping her hoof to her chin.

  “To answer Vaughan’s question,” Alexandrite spoke up. “Yes, we do know who’s coming, or at the very least who has received an official invitation. Us, Mikarol, and Descent, of course. The Angler Hegemony has apparently been building more than just personal exploration craft for Gronge, and intend to be present as well. The… demons of the Dark Lands, unfortunately…” Miranda’s hands clutched into fists as he said this. “...And they apparently invited a few others.”

  Blue clicked her tongue. “Let me guess… the Holy Flame can make it to space?”

  “Apparently. We know very little about what they stand for or even their culture.”

  “Envila thought the land was mostly uncivilized,” Jeh offered. “She visited it briefly, only found molten fiery wastes and packs of hostile fire elementals.”

  “That’s a disaster waiting to happen…” Vaughan muttered.

  “Tenii is sending some of our Elementals over there ahead of time,” Blue said. “To try and establish connections before the Conference.”

  “Things can happen so fast now…” Suro shook his head. “It’s unbelievable, we can just do that…”

  “We have more information on another invited faction,” Alexandrite said. “We dragons have occasionally come across explorers from a land known as Drakenrust, a gathering of dragons. All references to them indicate we thought they were just an informal gathering, but they’ve been invited. We don’t exactly know where Drakenrust is located, but now that we’re actively looking for them, it shouldn’t be too hard to trace before the Conference.”

  Blue frowned. “I wonder…”

  “Yes?” Alexandrite asked.

  “Dragons have breath attributes that produce their ‘element’ from nothing. If you could get a… oh… wind dragon…”

  Vaughan waved a dismissive hand. “The pressure difference would be too great.”

  “I don’t know, dragon scales are pretty tough…”

  Alexandrite chuckled. “If only I was a wind dragon, we could do tests. But alas, I am a water dragon, and all I could do was drown myself faster. Though, we can hold our breaths for—”

  “Do not hold your breath in a vacuum,” Jeh said.

  “Eh?”

  “I felt like I popped from the inside.”

  “...Oh. When did we test that…?”

  “A while ago. We test a lot of things.” Jeh grinned.

  “I don’t even remember that one…” Blue rubbed her head. “But all right, that… might prove problematic, but…”

  “There is one more,” Alexandrite said. “Well, besides the Tempest, but they’re just where the event is being held.”

  “Oh?” Vaughan tilted his head.

  “The list of attendees includes ‘Cirbet.’ “

  “...What the heck is Cirbet?” Krays asked.

  “No one has any idea.”

  Big G let out a low whistle. “That’s gonna be a nasty surprise, I bet.”

  Vaughan sat back. “So we’re going, the Empire, the blimps, the anglers, the demons, the dragons, the fire elementals… and a complete unknown.” Vaughan chuckled. “That’s going to be a fun week…”

  “At least we’re doing it at neutral territory,” Lila said. “The Guardian Spirit will keep things from getting too out of hand.”

  “I hear she only barely agreed to host it,” Blue said.

  Big G sighed. “All this stuff happening so fast, gives people no chance to react, to consider… this can’t be good.”

  “Just you wait until we get those two-way communication devices,” Suro chuckled. “Talk to anyone in an instant.”

  Mary frowned. “That… things are going to go even faster… but we’ll be able to talk with distant family and friends…”

  “Arcane devices are a double-edged sword,” Vaughan pointed out. “We seek to explore the stars. Mikarol used spaceflight to conquer Vraskal.”

  “The more classic example is Green,” Blue offered. “You can use it to heal. Or you can break people.”

  Lila closed her eyes. “The more powerful something is, the more potential it has for good, and the more potential it has for evil. That is simply how things are.”

  “...Are we making things worse for everyone?” Mary asked.

  Lila shook her head. “I don’t think we have the perspective to see that for sure. We uncover knowledge. The knowledge is used by the upright and the wicked. Truth, in and of itself, is a good thing; but truth can still be used as a weapon.”

  “At this point, it’s not like we can stop it anyway,” Keller spoke up from his leaning position in the back of the room. “The box is open. Spirited will seek the stars. Might as well do our best t’ keep it steerin’ toward the better trajectory.”

  “Well said,” Seskii said, giving him a smile. “We have to do our best with what we have. We’re in a position to make some real change in the world. A big burden, to be sure, but it’s what’s in front of us. So let’s do our best!”

  “Yeah!” Jeh cheered.

  Lila chuckled. “Such beautiful energy…”

  “So… we should get to business then,” Blue said, trotting over to the whiteboard. “It’s time… for legitimate consideration of building the interplanetary ship. This… there’s a whole slew of problems we have to overcome.” She drew a big numeral one on the board, scribbling The Gronge Field after it. “The Gronge Field ends slightly past the orbit of the moon; there won’t be any ambient magic after that. We thought at first this would essentially ruin any chance we had of doing anything, but recent experiments with magic vacuum and magic generators suggest otherwise—we can generate our own magic out there, we just have to carry it with us in the form of crystals.” Blue pointed the chalk at Jeh. “We don’t know what happens when anything other than a Crystalline One leaves the Gronge Field. We’re going to have to test that on our next trip to the moon.”

  Jeh grinned. “Which we don’t have to wait for winter to be over to do, do we?”

  “...Strictly speaking, no, as long as the weather’s not stormy. The Moonshot II isn’t being put in storage this time. We’ve got enough devoted resources to keep the entire lab area warm and protected.”

  “I helped set up the overhang,” Mary said. “It’s like… a tent in the middle of the lab. I’m not sure it’ll protect much from the snowstorms…”

  Krays snorted. “Are you doubting my handiwork? My husband’s anvil couldn’t break it.”

  “Still looks flimsy.”

  “And yet it’s stronger than you are. Unless you want to drape yourself over the Moonshot II and save it from the storms.”

  Blue rolled her eyes. “Regardless, going beyond the Gronge Field to experiment is our next order of business. We need to know what happens. Can we generate magic well? Are there unforeseen problems? Some spirited need magic to survive, but what about those of us who don’t?”

  “I’ll get you all you need to know,” Jeh said with a smirk.

  “Indeed. Though… you will have to be more careful than usual, you can actually hurt yourself out there.”

  Jeh nodded. “I know. In case something does go wrong, just make sure the orbit takes us back into the field, right?”

  “Yes, Wanderlust should be able to do that easily.”

  “Then even if something does go wrong it’ll be fiiiiine.”

  Blue sighed. “I’m not entirely sold on the safety but I am unsure how else to test it… regardless, magic is just problem one.” She wrote down a big two on the whiteboard. “Problem two is long-term survival. We can restore air. Some suggest that we might be able to restore… water.” Blue shivered in disgust. “But we can’t do food. We need to be able to store large amounts of food. In absolutely perfect conditions, we can cross the Solar System in a month. The ship is not going to be ideal, and it will spend large amounts of time at its destinations, studying them. A year’s worth of supplies is probably necessary. Hover Clover may be nutrient-dense, but it doesn’t make a full diet.”

  “Grow plants in space!” Scurfpea offered.

  “Tha…” Blue paused. “Actually, I had thought that would take up too much space and take too long, but you’re a dryad. You can turn magic… into food.”

  “Yep!” Scurfpea beamed, grinning. “You need me.”

  “Kid really wants to go deep into the unknown,” Vaughan chuckled. “We don’t exactly have another dryad on staff… Unless someone wants to invite Sandy.”

  Blue shivered. “Oh, geez, no… though we will probably need help from the other nations to make this thing. Even if we can grow food, we need soil for the plants and seeds. Have to also store all the magic for the magic generators. Even if we can keep magic from leaking out into space, it still takes time for it to recongeal after use. The problem is if you can aerosolize just one color of magic you can easily force it to recompound, but magic crystals don’t actually work without all seven in the Gronge Field around them…” Blue sighed. “Look at me, trying to make a perpetual motion machine.”

  “Pepper would laugh at you,” Vaughan said with a wry smile.

  “Of course she would.” Blue went to the next point, drawing a big three on the board. “Anyway, the next one is… well, kind of halfway solved: landing ships. The City in the Sky already uses Skyseeds in exactly the way I’m thinking we’ll use landers. Little ships that can detach from the main one, which will not be designed to deal with atmospheres or land: it will always stay in space. The landers, though, will take us down to the planets so we can observe them. But they will have to deal with lots of unknowns, which means… durability is the issue.” Blue frowned. “This is actually the biggest problem. We simply do not know what we have to design for. We know none of the worlds out there are breathable for most spirited, though apparently some rigids just need air of any kind, not whatever it is the rest of us breathe. We know that some worlds have stronger gravity, so the ships will need to be reinforced against that. Judging from what we know of Qi, it’s going to have extreme storms, so we’re finally going to have to figure out how to manage a ship in extreme winds. But beyond that… we don’t know anything. Designing for absolute unknowns…” Blue turned to the others. “This is what I intend to bring up at the Conference. Get everyone there to brainstorm about what threats we could face, so we can design the landers to deal with them.”

  “Extremely high and low temperatures,” Krays said. “There. I found one you missed.”

  Blue blinked. “Good point, in space heat doesn’t transfer, but on the planets it will. Arcane heaters can handle the cold worlds, but the hot worlds…” She frowned. “The cooling problem is solved in space, but on the ground, the apparatus required to get it to work… an entire enclosed chamber… hmm, the inner planets might be the most difficult for us.”

  Vaughan chuckled.

  “What?”

  “I’m just realizing that I thought I might not live to make it to the moon. Now it’s seeming likely I’ll get to go even further out.”

  Blue beamed at him. “The wonders of the universe await.”

  “I wonder who’ll be coming with us,” Jeh said, absent-mindedly.

  Blue furrowed her brow. “Well, you, both due to your skills and innate ability to survive. Apparently, Scurfpea, unless we can find another dryad. Beyond that… I don’t think the rest of us are strictly necessary, even me. By the time the ship is built, others will be trained in navigating by the stars and quick calculations.”

  Jeh faltered. “You… might not be coming?”

  “Ship can only hold so many,” Blue said matter-of-factly. “The larger the crew size, the bigger the ship has to be.”

  “We were able to cram six people in the Moonshot…”

  “And it was cramped. And for a long stay, supplies will expand more than the living space people need.”

  “Hmmm…” Jeh put her hands behind her head. “But you, you and Vaughan, are like… the explorers.”

  Vaughan chuckled. “I can probably personally request our presence. Apparently, my name carries a lot more weight now, and we do have experience. However, we are making a ship with international collaboration, the crew will consist of… well, at least Mikarol and Descent, but there may be others if the Conference goes well.”

  “I’m not designing a ship to hold a dragon,” Blue muttered.

  Alexandrite scratched his chin. “Perhaps a young dragon? Yes, even younger than me, we start out much smaller. You’re already putting Scurfpea on the ship, and she’s assuredly a child even if Jeh isn’t.”

  Scurfpea threw her hands into the air. “I’m gonna get to see so much before I put down roots!”

  Jeh turned to her. “You still want to put down roots?”

  “Yeah. But maybe…” a twinkle lit up in her eyes. “Maybe I can put down roots on another planet.” She looked to Blue. “I dunno exactly how old I am, but Dryads have to put down roots before about forty if the books you have are right.” Scurfpea snapped her fingers and stood up. “I’m under twenty, so you have about twenty years to get this ship into space!”

  “...Yeah, that’s not even that hard of a deadline,” Blue said. “There are only a few more problems that need solving… Magic, food, and durability are the main ones. I suppose…” She wrote down a four. “In-space assembly techniques. The space station is modular and can be detached and rearranged. The ship is intended to, once assembled, not be unassembled. We’re going to want some welds on it and things like that. I can imagine that doesn’t go well in space.”

  Krays raised a hand. “Hey, this is totally going to out me as a huge nerd who pays too much attention to the numbers, but didn’t we used to have an issue with how to actively control a ship this large?”

  “That would have been an issue, yes, but the schematics from Captain Auburn mostly solved that. The systems automatically correct for so much, we just have to design it properly. Someone outside has also somewhat solved the remote sensing issue. The telescope module for the City in the Sky, if it works, should be scalable to a smaller design for the ship. In fact, new technology we’ve… borrowed will solve some of the other issues.” She frowned. “Keller, we do have to talk about this to actually include them in our designs.”

  “I’m aware. Just make sure everyone knows that some o’ the stuff we have is secret. Mostly. In all honesty, Sandy prolly already knows.”

  “Yeah.” Blue shook her head. “Anyway, one of the devices we’ll be able to use is a two-way communicator. It… well, it won’t be able to reach from Ikyu to the moon, but it will be able to reach from the spaceship to the landers. We won’t have to rely on Benefactor anymore once those devices get made. We also have some new material manufacturing techniques—apparently, it’s not as hard to get large quantities of aluminum as we thought, lots of rocks apparently have the stuff. Just when we were getting enough space presence that mining the Shinelands was becoming viable, too. And, lastly… the devices I understand least. Actual ‘robots.’ “

  “Hmm?” Lila asked.

  “Like the things we found on the moon. Rigids but not spirited or self-replicating, manufactured for a purpose. I… think the designs we have are a bit beyond us, but who knows if we’ll have advanced far enough to make use of them by the time the ship launches.” She looked thoughtful for a moment. “It’d be much better to not put anyone in danger if we could help it, a way to send something in without risking anyone… One of the ideas I’ve seen thrown around is a remote imaging device. Throw it in somewhere, it takes pictures, and then leaves.”

  “How would it get will and power?” Vaughan asked.

  “I…” Blue flushed. “I’m really not sure how they work. The devices for them look the most technologically complex at the moment. I do know it doesn’t use magic alone as its power source, it uses… something else from specific materials arranged in a weird way.”

  “Like the interior organs o’ rigids,” Keller said.

  “Eh?”

  “I’ve taken more than a few apart in my time,” Keller continued, tipping up his hat. “Lots o’ the stuff in there isn’t found outside the Shinelands, yet they can make it just fine if they eat the right stuff. I bet some o’ that stuff is gonna be like aluminum, easier t’ get than we think. Just gotta know ‘bout it.”

  “Maybe…” Blue said, scratching her chin. “I don’t have access to every blueprint we got, of course. Maybe the Wizards at the Academy will discover something within them.”

  “Regardless, we can’t depend on these ‘robots’ for our design,” Suro pointed out. “If their use is uncertain, we have to assume we won’t have them.”

  “Right,” Blue agreed. “So… magic, food, durability, construction. There’s actually somewhat of a meta issue: redundancy. If something breaks out there, we need to have backups.”

  “Isn’t that part of durability?” Big G asked.

  “Eh…” Blue tilted her hoof side to side. “Maybe. I think it’s worth special note, though. These are the four currently unsolved issues. We think we can generate magic, but we need to know more. Scurfpea might be able to generate food, but we need to know more. We need to design for so many unknowns that durability is the current sword that hangs over our necks. Construction techniques need to be tested. And we need to make sure the ship can have something fail and keep going.” She looked to everyone with a grin. “And you know what, I think we can do it.”

  “Getting cocky, are we?” Seskii asked.

  “We’ve made it this far,” Vaughan said. “I see no reason why we won’t be able to pull this off.”

  “And the primary block to building this would be money,” Blue said. “Fortunately, space travel is the Hot Big Thing in World Politics right now. Even if people are using it for somewhat nefarious purposes… everyone will want to fund us.”

  Jeh nodded. “And this ship… will make it easier for us to get off Ikyu.”

  Blue frowned, but nodded as well. “I… suppose that is the long-term goal, now.”

  Mary shivered. “I still can’t believe… our goal is to go somewhere else, just in case the world is destroyed…”

  Seskii closed her eyes and nodded. “It’s a little grim, isn’t it? But, but, remember, ultimately that’s not why you all decided to go to space. You wanted to go because it was fun and it taught you new things! Who knows what kinds of wonders you might find out there?” She chuckled. “Believe me, I don’t think you can even guess.”

  Blue smirked, giving Seskii a knowing glare. “The wonders of the universe are in our grasp!” She turned to look at the scrawlings on the whiteboard. “...It’ll just take a few years.”

  “Might as well get to it then!” Jeh said. “We can do the Gronge Field tests the quickest. I say we start planning that so I can get thrown past the moon.”

  Blue rolled her eyes. “Of course… well, we do have to consider the possibility of your safety not being absolute, so…”

  ~~~

  Despite being Mayor of Willow Hollow and “official” head of the Wizard Space Program, Lila often found herself spending time at her Sanctuary. Not because any work needed to be done—her son was doing an excellent job at that—but because it was a place of comfort for her. She came here somewhat often at night when she couldn’t sleep. Some days, that was because she was troubled or having doubts. On other days, it was simply because there was too much excitement in her heart.

  Today was one of those days.

  What kinds of things will we see up there? She wondered, looking up at the sky. The Sanctuary had no roof, even though they now had more than enough funds to build one. She liked it this way, as the ring of stones. It reminded her of humbler times.

  The stars twinkled as if in response to her.

  Here I am, talking as if I’ll go up there one day… Lila chuckled. I’m the Mayor, I’m a Keeper still, my duty is with the people here. She paused. But one day, there will be people living far from Ikyu. They will need Keepers. She looked down at her paws, tilting her head. I’m not exactly young…

  …But maybe, in time, I can sail the seas once again. Not as a warrior. But as a Keeper in a sea of stars… She looked at Dia’s triangle, beaming. I have had doubts. That Your word has lied, or misled us… but the intricate clockwork of events is hard to ignore. She tilted her head to the side. Well… hard for me to ignore. I know many who can do it easily. She found herself dwelling on the non-Aware, those who didn’t believe, those who ignored the signs…

  But not all of them did ignore the signs, did they? The Red Seekers simply attributed it to the Red. The Gonal had other gods to serve. And yet, they were wrong, of course. Creeping doubts began to nag at Lila’s mind.

  Unlike many in her position, she didn’t push them aside. She faced them head-on. How do I know Dia’s the right attribution? Not any other way? She flicked her tail to the side. Just because Dia’s word was what helped me time and time again does not necessarily mean the force that guides us is Dia’s hand, just that it found the word useful to help. That there is wisdom in those pages, not necessarily that everything in them is absolute.

  She looked back at Dia’s triangle. And we all know translation and transcription introduces errors, even in spite of that, so I can’t use the word to prove itself. Why is it right? Back when… when I first sought You, the only religion I really knew was that of the Guardian Spirit, and I am fully aware she’s just a person now, even if I thought her a myth. The Gonal also believe in You, but think you are not absolute, and that existence is at war. The Seekers also see a world at war…

  Lila chuckled. And when I look upon the world, I see cohesion and patterns, not a place where reality itself fights reality.

  “Or you could just be being protected selectively.”

  Lila was not all that surprised to see Seskii standing next to her.

  “I see you’re becoming more comfortable around us,” Lila said.

  Seskii frowned. “Well… yes.” She sighed. “I just… you’re the spiritual leader of everyone here, I…” She sighed, shaking her head. “I am breaking so many of my own rules right now.”

  “Maybe your rules shouldn’t be as rigid?”

  “You’re really amazing, you know that?” Seskii smirked, leaning against one of the Sanctuary’s stones. “I know that, and you’re right. Still makes me nervous.”

  “I suspect you came here to offer something?”

  Seskii nodded. “Reality is at war with itself, Lila. This is going to become… more and more obvious.”

  Lila frowned. “You seem to be under the impression that a single intellectual mistake will shake my faith…”

  “No, I know your faith is stronger than that. But if you build your house on a faulty premise… You will teach it to others. And it may cause their house to fall.”

  Lila nodded slowly. “Well then… I thank you for coming.”

  “You’re welcome.” Seskii rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. “I, uh, hope I don’t cause you a lot of discomfort…”

  “Discomfort is how we grow. You should know this.”

  Legitimate shame crossed Seskii’s features as she turned her head to the ground. “...I do.”

  Lila nodded, turning back to Dia’s crystal. “My faith is not built upon hard logic and reasoning. I attempt to use it where I can, because my faith also tells me the truth has nothing to fear from scrutiny, and to hide from it would be hypocritical. But my ultimate source of belief comes not from deduction, but from my soul.” She put a hand to her heart. “I have been touched at the very core of my being by a source beyond it. That touch was warm, good, and loving. Even if the word turns out to be unreliable, if the name Dia means nothing, I will still have that.”

  Seskii kneeled down to Lila and put a hand on her shoulder. “That… is beyond precious, you have no idea.”

  “I know you believe.” There wasn’t even a hint of a question in Lila’s voice. “Why do you, if you do not share this?”

  Seskii closed her eyes. She stood up and gave Lila a goofy smile, shrugging. She turned to walk away… and stopped herself, sighing. “It’s not time for the transition yet, huh? Trying to tell me something?” She sighed, turning back to Lila. “...Lila, I tell you this in confidence, as… as my Keeper.”

  “Always.”

  “I Know.” Lila’s heart skipped a beat as the word was spoken. ”And because I have been gifted Knowledge, my soul remains untouched.” Seskii’s face twisted into one of barely restrained anguish. “I… may never know the peace and contentment Aware souls know. But at least I never have to doubt!” She laughed awkwardly.

  “...If you could make the choice…”

  “...I’d rather be like you,” Seskii said, locking her arms behind her back. “This… is not better.”

  Lila closed her eyes. “I… can understand. I remember what it was like before I was touched. The sleepless nights, the guilt, the shame that wouldn’t go away. Even if your faith never falters, the torment in your heart must be…”

  “You do learn to live with it, eventually,” Seskii said. “By brute force. And time. And…” she chuckled. “Necessity.”

  “You’ve needed someone to tell this to for a long, long time.”

  Seskii nodded. “I… I need to apologize to you.”

  “What for?”

  “For thinking you small and incidental.”

  Lila couldn’t help but chuckle. “Apology accepted, Seskii. And do not feel the need to tell me all your secrets, I have a feeling you know which ones actually haunt your soul.”

  “And some of those I still shouldn’t say,” Seskii said. “And… it’s not because I don’t trust you, I think you’re the most trustworthy person I know in this age.” Seskii snorted. “Oh, look at that, me dropping things haphazardly, I’m losing my touch.” Her face became serious again. “There is a real danger that comes from knowing too much. In a sense, you already do.”

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  “If it means easing your burden, I will gladly take up more risk upon myself.”

  “Thank you,” Seskii said, giving her a little bow. Her eyes twinkled. “Ah, now it looks like it’s time. You’re about to have a visitor.” She waved, stepping behind a rock… and vanishing.

  Lila was unsurprised. Though, in the back of her mind, there was an idle curiosity forming. Now I really am curious… who exactly is she? This benevolent trickster who has decided we’re her family… I will not pry, but what kind of cat would I be to completely ignore curiosity? She shook her head—thoughts like that she could and would push out of her mind, especially since she was about to have a visitor.

  She went to the archway and saw Margaret walking up in a hood. “Ah, Margaret.”

  Margaret looked embarrassed. “You can really tell that easily?”

  “You’re tall, even for a gari, and black gari are rare. The cloak doesn’t hide your feet.”

  “...Right.” Margaret removed her hood, looking at Lila with a scared expression. “I’ve been… waiting for a moment I can talk to you alone.”

  “You only had to ask.”

  “Well, I’m nervous, and… and…” She looked up at Dia’s triangle. “Lila, do you… do you know how to exorcise demons?”

  Lila’s eyes widened. “I… have been trained, but I’ve never actually done it before.”

  “Jeh discovered that Kirkkok is still attached to me. I… I want him gone, if you… can.”

  Lila nodded slowly. “I can give no guarantees. The procedure is not one spoken of in the word. The word’s demons are… very clearly not the shadowy beings we deal with now; they are beings of pure spirit sent to corrupt. These shadows are quite different. But if I was taught correctly, this should work. Come, there’s no time like the present.”

  “N-now?”

  “Yes. The Sanctuary is abandoned; no one will see us.” Lila flicked her tail, gesturing for Margaret to follow. “Sit down on the ground here.”

  Margaret sat down.

  Lila opened up the central podium and took out a pen-like arcane device, complete with a glove fit for mounting it on a cat’s paw. She turned a crank, ensuring the Magenta powder within was extremely fine. She drew a circle in the dirt around Margaret, leaving behind the grains of Magenta in the ground. She then handed the pen over to Margaret. “You will need to draw Kirkkok’s summoning sigil with this.”

  “You… know how sigils work?”

  “Quite. We do keep records of the other religions around, you know. We may not know much about the demons, but we do know about how the Gonal follow Eyda, and there are many records of such sigils.”

  Margaret nodded and started drawing. “It actually doesn’t have to be Magenta, it can be anything. The shape you make is like a beacon to them, a specific shape for each one. Of course, if they aren’t bound to you, they can just ignore it.” She frowned. “I… am unsure how summoning him will help.”

  “If I were Pepper, which I am not, I would trap him in a specialty Magenta ball trap. But that wouldn’t sever him from you, just trap him. Our ritual intends to banish him.”

  “How does it work?” Margaret asked as she finished the main hexagon of the sigil.

  “All I need to do is cut the tether with Dia’s Triangle made of Yellow.” Lila pulled out a small chest and opened it. Inside was a triangular plast case that made sure the Yellow inside retained its perfect shape. She had to use another glove to attach it to her paw properly.

  “There’s not usually a tether when I summon him…” Margaret said.

  “That’s because you have a connection. I don’t. I’m going to summon him.” Lila took in a sharp breath. “He is bound to you, so this is actually safe, just order him to stop if he tries anything.”

  “Unless he has different orders from a higher demon.”

  “Well… yes.” Lila frowned. “But I think you’d rather as few people as possible see this.”

  Margaret looked down at the ground. “...Yes.”

  “Then let me know when you’re done.”

  “It is done,” Margaret said, setting the pen to the side.

  “Now stay seated, and try to remain calm.” Lila pressed her free paw into the edge of the circle and pushed her will into it. “Come, Kirkkok.”

  The effect was nearly immediate. The circle flashed Magenta for a moment, but then it became a solid, oily black. The oil condensed between Margaret and Lila into the shape of a bird with a gelatinous slime on his head. The yellow eye manifested on the slime. “Oh, hey, this is—”

  Lila cut the tether between Kirkkok and the ground. The magic circle went dark.

  “...What are y—AH, OH! AGH! ACKPTH! NOOOOOOOO…” He collapsed to the ground and became a puddle of sludge that quickly dissipated.

  “...Dramatic,” Lila commented.

  Margaret picked up the pen and started drawing again.

  “Margaret?”

  “That was an act,” Margaret hissed. “He wasn’t suffering at all. I know that game of his.” She drew the sigil far faster than she had previously, and with much more anger. She all but threw the pen aside. “Do it again.”

  Lila nodded, placing her paw on the circle. “Come, Kirkkok.”

  He appeared again.

  “Well, crap,” he said. “They’re going to have my head for this…”

  “Good!” Margaret said. “They’ll look into my head during the Conference and maybe they’ll disintegrate you!”

  “Hey, come on, let’s not be hasty…” He put his wings up in an attempt to calm her down.

  “Hasty!? Hasty!? You killed my father!”

  “That was not my intention, and you know it!”

  “I don’t care, I want you gone!”

  “Well, whoop-de-do, guess what, the fine print doesn’t let that happen! I’m stuck here!” He crossed his wings in defiance. “Believe me, I’d rather be off doing other things too, but I’m stuck with you, a bond that doesn’t even want me anymore!”

  Margaret grabbed him by the neck. “How do we get rid of you!?”

  “...I don’t actually need to breathe, this doesn’t—”

  Margaret started shaking him. Feathers started falling off and vanishing into dust.

  “Ergh… I can’t actually… die…”

  “This hurts, though, and I know you don’t like pain.”

  “Ermph… just… fine! Let me go!”

  Margaret slammed him into the ground.

  “...So, look, a higher demon has to disconnect me from you. I don’t have the authority to nullify the contract. I don’t know of any other way to do it!”

  “Then seek the answer.”

  “My ability to query reality is extremely limited, gosh! It would have to be a factoid that’s extremely close by and somewhat obvious for me to…” Kirkkok blinked. “Oh.”

  “Oh, what?”

  “Um, well, how shall I put this?” Kirkkok shuffled awkwardly. “Apparently, a magic vacuum would do it. And you just happen to have one of those in the laboratory.”

  Lila and Margaret glanced at each other. Lila frowned. “Getting something living into a true vacuum is very difficult, as it’ll bring magic with it, and you’re quite large…”

  “I could just leave the Gronge Field,” Margaret said.

  Lila blinked. “...That… huh. And the next major experiment was going to be just that.”

  “In fact, we already knew enough information to figure this out…” Margaret said, facepalming. “We didn’t even need him!”

  “Gee, thanks,” Kirkkok muttered.

  “You’re not welcome.”

  “Look, this is good for me, too. I can go do other stuff. And not get disintegrated by a passing demon at the conference because I revealed the ritual to remove us was a sham.”

  “How have you managed to keep that illusion up all these years?” Lila asked.

  “Er…” Kirkkok rubbed the back of his head. “Making it seem like it works, and killing everyone who thinks otherwise?”

  “So we’re targets now,” Margaret said.

  “I could remove the memories…”

  “ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Margaret all but shrieked.

  “Okay, okay… well, maaaaybe because the Dark Lands are trying to be all diplomatic, they’ll not hunt you down? …I also can’t exactly tell anyone right now, since I’m still bound to you.”

  “I’ll send a series of letters across the Sanctuaries,” Lila said. “Making it impossible for the demons to kill everyone who knows.”

  “Good idea,” Margaret said. “Kirkkok, return from whence you came.”

  “Back to boredom…” Kirkkok vanished.

  Margaret curled her hand into a fist… but she was grinning.

  “Margaret…?” Lila asked.

  “Do you realize what we’ve just accomplished?” Margaret asked. “This… is actually a serious blow to them. We not only proved the ritual to be one of their ploys, but now we actually have a way to get rid of them.” She rubbed her hands together. “They are not going to like that.”

  “...Careful, lest you let vengeance take your heart, child.”

  Margaret turned to her. “I wish I could say this in a way that wouldn’t offend you, but I don’t see a way to do it. I don’t buy into Dia’s morality. Vengeance is justice.”

  “By whose authority?”

  “Mine,” Margaret said, with so much conviction behind the word that it was off-putting.

  “...From a practical standpoint, my advice still stands. Vengeance is an ugly thing to color a heart with. It can consume you. And against an enemy so prevalent…”

  Margaret’s expression became dark. “Tell me, Lila.”

  “What?”

  “If I could trade the beauty of my heart to end as much evil as I could, would it not be worth it?”

  “...Not if you become the evil yourself.”

  Margaret’s expression softened; she actually listened to the words. “We’ll… see.” She turned to leave, but stopped, placing her hand on the arch. “Thank you, Lila.”

  “I’m afraid my ritual was a sham.”

  “But you didn’t even hesitate to try. Thanks.” With that, she left.

  Lila sat down and looked up at the stars.

  And the world grows even more complicated. Never seems to stop, does it?

  ~~~

  No living thing has ever left the Gronge Field.

  This was not, strictly speaking, true. Wanderlust had been throwing some of the biological samples past the Gronge Field just to see what happened. It really did seem to be absolutely nothing. The hamsters and plants came back more or less the way they had left and lived just fine after being returned to her atmospheric interiors.

  No spirited has ever left the Gronge Field.

  Not precisely true either, Wanderlust had left briefly just to see how it worked.

  But Crystalline Ones were always the exception among spirited.

  Originally, the plan had been for just Jeh to go out. But Margaret had insisted, and Lila had approved it. Jeh figured she knew what it was about, but no one else had any clue why there was so much insistence.

  The crew to the moon this time was Jeh, Margaret, Scurfpea (happy at long last her requests were listened to), and Seskii. In her words, “I haven’t actually ridden on any of these trips yet, I want to have some fun!’

  They currently stood inside Wanderlust, the Moonshot II’s hatch wide open for them to move around. Scurfpea was having a blast, jumping around, sliding across the Orange crystal, and looking at all the things Wanderlust had set up for display. No longer was it just samples from throughout the Solar System: Wanderlust had bothered to add some ornate columns made from her body, extra furniture, and some trees. They were pretty small and not very thick around the trunk, but they were taller than one would expect. There had been some Blue acceleration used to increase their rate of growth during one of the previous visits.

  Now, though, that wasn’t needed. Scurfpea came to a stop next to one of the sad trees and put her hands out, infusing it with the Dryad attribute of growing. It got taller at first… but then started wilting. “Oh no! Wanderlust, we need better soil!”

  “I will gather some more,” Wanderlust said, speaking in Karli, having managed to learn it through careful study and discussion with Benefactor. “Clearly, you use up what little nutrients we have growing these things… This may make it difficult for you to produce all the food.”

  “Then we just need more, better dirt!” Scurfpea put her hands on her hips. “Plants become dirt, so when plants get too old, we make more dirt!”

  “The logistics… well, it’s probably better than trying to grow things at the normal speed. It takes a lot of Blue to do what you do, and it’s not controllable.”

  “I’ll grow all the happy peaches!” She threw her arms in the air and jumped to the window that looked out at the moon. “So… amazing! I made it to the moon!”

  Seskii appeared next to her and gave her a headpat. “Great, isn’t it? And just think, you’re going to go even further!”

  “Woooo! My Glen would never have imagined I’d go out this far!”

  “Definitely not. Actually…” Seskii put a hand on her shoulder. “Have you thought about them in a while?”

  Scurfpea nodded. “They didn’t think I’d even leave at all.”

  “Ah, so you have been growing up.”

  Scurfpea nodded. “Yep! Also, hanging around you all makes me use my brain more. The other dryads in the Glen didn’t talk all that much, or do all that much, or… it was sooooo boring.” She hung her head back. “I don’t get it, I can move around right now, I won’t be able to later. Why not explore?”

  “It’s dangerous?”

  Scurfpea rolled her eyes. “But Jeh taught me that’s part of the fun!”

  “Jeh isn’t always the best teacher.”

  Scurfpea giggled. “Oh yeah, she runs into things a lot!”

  “I do think I can tell you why, though.” Seskii turned to the scenery of the moon, where they could see Ikyu hanging in the sky. “When dryads put down roots, they become slower, but they also become smarter, wiser, and stronger. The vast majority see their earlier life as… something that needed to be overcome to become the way they are. When you are a young dryad, you are freer, but it is also easier for you to be hurt. If you’re hurt badly enough, you never get to put roots down. So they try everything in their power to protect their young and ensure they will make it to the age where they can put down roots.”

  Scurfpea nodded. “I guess that makes sense…”

  “They’re probably worried about you, you know.”

  Scurfpea folded her arms. “If I went back, they wouldn’t let me leave again.”

  “Most definitely not.”

  “And you guys need me now!” Scurfpea beamed. “I make you food, you take me to the stars!”

  “Did the Sourdough twins teach you the art of negotiation?”

  “Yep! Or they tried. I don’t get why they like money so much, just like I don’t get why my Glen was the way it was.” Her usually happy and chipper demeanor lessened slightly. “I… hmm.”

  “What is it?”

  “I… am having a hard time remembering much about it. Every day in the Glen was kind of the same, and the elders all kind of said the same things… I remember leaving on my journey, but…”

  “You were a very young dryad. You still are. Most species can’t remember their earliest years. It probably doesn’t help that Glens tend to frown upon forging personal connections with the children, asking that all elders treat the child as a unified front.”

  “...I don’t think I like that,” Scurfpea muttered.

  “Scurfpea, do you want to put down roots?”

  Scurfpea nodded. “Yes.”

  “Why? You want to explore the stars, spread out as far as you can, and you love the way the mobile races move around.”

  Scurfpea fixed Seskii with an adorably innocent grin. “I won’t get to explore the future if I don’t put down roots!”

  Seskii blinked in surprise before letting out a laugh. “Scurfpea… that is a wonderfully precious thought. You want to explore space and time?”

  “Yep! While I can move, I’ll go to the stars! And when I can’t, I’ll see what happens with all these changes!” She squealed in excitement. “I almost can’t wait to see what happens!” She took off in a run again, sliding across the Orange floor.

  Seskii chuckled, looking back out the window at Ikyu. She reached behind her back… and stopped herself.

  “You’ve reached for something several times since you arrived,” Wanderlust observed. “Yet you have nothing there…”

  “You’re simply too observant,” Seskii said, shrugging. “You’d find out all my secrets.”

  “I fail to see how that… applies?”

  “You’ll figure it out one day. Maybe. Possibly.” Seskii locked her hands behind her back and grinned. “Nice view, by the way.”

  “Thank you!”

  “Such a humbling sight…” Seskii held out her hand, as though she were holding Ikyu in her palm. “So small… yet so significant.”

  “I thought everyone was marveling at how insignificant it was due to how small it was?”

  “From this distance, it sure looks insignificant. And yet, we know that’s a lie.” With a chuckle, she jumped into the air and moved as though she were lifting Ikyu and dunking it in a hoop of some kind. “And she scores, and the crowd goes wild!”

  “...What are you doing?”

  “Sportsball.”

  “What?”

  “Stop trying to figure her out, it never works,” Jeh said, walking up to Seskii. “Enjoying your trip to the moon?”

  “I’m loving it!” Seskii said, performing a cartwheel all along the ground and coming to a stop at one of the walls.

  “You know, given how crazily you move normally… you just look normal in this gravity.”

  Seskii bowed. “All for the sake of the show, my little pilot.” She stood up and turned to Margaret. “Though… not all of my audience is paying attention.”

  Margaret was standing, staring at the Moonshot II wistfully. Jeh walked up to her. “...You’re itching to go, aren’t you?”

  Margaret nodded. “Yes. So much, yes. I just… I’m ready to be rid of him.”

  Jeh crossed her arms. “Well, in that case… Wanderlust! Time to launch us!” She hopped into the Moonshot II and strapped herself into the pilot’s seat.

  “Of course. I’m sending you two on a gentle trajectory in and out, you’ll return in a few hours. Make sure you have the compressed air.”

  “Everything’s in order,” Margaret said as she strapped herself to the sofa. “We just have to take the ride.”

  “You have magic generators, so send a signal if you need to be bailed out.”

  “We will,” Jeh said.

  “Sure we can’t come?” Scurfpea asked, eyes wide.

  Seskii put her hand on Scurfpea’s shoulder. “Margaret wasn’t even going originally. Plus, Scurfpea, you got to go to the moon today. Isn’t that enough?”

  “...Yep! Sorry for complaining!”

  “What a good kid…” Margaret said, shaking her head.

  “In that case… launching time!”

  The launch wasn’t anywhere near as intense as the one Wanderlust had used to send the previous Moonshot back to Ikyu; this one only needed to lazily divert from the Moon’s orbit so it could peek out of the Gronge Field for a few minutes. They were spun around in Wanderlust’s rotation chamber, released… and went flying away from the moon without much fanfare.

  “Okay, well, we got a few hours…” Jeh said. “Heh, just the two of us in space again, just like the space station.”

  “It was never just the two of us…” Margaret looked down at the sigil for Kirkkok she’d made. “...He’s still here.”

  “I’d wait to summon him, I’d rather my ear not get yapped off this whole trip.”

  “Right.” Margaret took a deep breath in and let it out. “Soon, I’ll… actually be free.” She looked out the window. Her eyes hadn’t adjusted yet, so she couldn’t see any stars, even though it was the section facing away from the sun. “And then we’ll go to the stars…” Margaret frowned. “Though, since you and Scurfpea are going to be needed for the mission, I… probably won’t be on it.” She turned to look through the other window, back at Ikyu. “...I’ll still be there. With… them.”

  “They’re already talking about building moon mines,” Jeh said. “They’ll build stuff elsewhere.”

  “It takes a long time to build enough infrastructure.” Margaret looked at her hands.

  “But you’ll be one of the first there,” Jeh offered. “There’s going to be other ships, not just one.”

  Margaret nodded. “We… we are trying to get people off Ikyu.” She nodded slowly. “I… I know how to tend to an estate. How to build a house. But… I’m no inventor, and the rules are going to be different.” She closed her eyes and sat back on the couch. “Someone has to fly them there, though.”

  They continued drifting through space. Every ten minutes or so, Jeh could cut her arm and observe how long it took to heal. The further they got from the moon, the longer and longer it took. Eventually, it would take so long to seal up that she would bleed a bit before it completed.

  “I wonder why my regeneration works differently from Green… no materials needed to make it work,” Jeh wondered aloud.

  “Maybe all the materials are already there, marked by you as part of you?”

  “Maybe… anyway, we’re getting close, you should probably bring him out.”

  Margaret nodded, pulling out the sigil. She realized rather awkwardly that she was going to have to pour a lot of will into it to get it to activate this far from Ikyu. She had to focus so hard she started sweating, but the sigil eventually lit up and Kirkkok manifested.

  “Was wondering if you were going to summon me at all.”

  Jeh readied her pen. “Have to see what happens to you as we leave.”

  “I’m going to dissolve and return to the Gronge Field. …Still a stupid name…”

  “Don’t try anything funny,” Margaret said.

  “Can’t while the connection is active, connection won’t cut until you’ve left.” He ruffled his shadowy feathers, and the eye on his head looked bored. “Let’s get on with it.”

  “Can’t move the ship faster,” Jeh pointed out. “Also, won’t you be free after this?”

  “I’m going to have to fly back the long way. It’ll be… a while.”

  “Good.” Margaret stretched her arms. “It’s the least you deserve.”

  “I do wonder why you even think we demons deserve things. We don’t have souls, we aren’t spirited.”

  Jeh frowned. “What are you then? You can talk, you can get angry, you can have wants, desires, you can even fight each other or change your minds.”

  Kirkkok ruffled his feathers. “We are Eyda’s servants. That is all we will ever be.”

  “Even if she hasn’t said anything to you for…” Jeh waved a hand dismissively.

  Kirkkok nodded. “You say we can change our minds. We cannot change our minds on that. We are not permitted to.”

  With that, they finally passed the Gronge Field. Krikkok vanished in a puff of black smoke that didn’t even leave behind any residue.

  Both Jeh and Margaret gasped at the same instant, though not at Kirkkok vanishing. They had both just felt something, akin to the sensation of the floor dropping out from under them, even though they were already weightless.

  Margaret quickly checked herself over. Besides the immense feeling of unease, she felt completely normal for being weightless in space. “Jeh?”

  Jeh pulled out a knife and cut her arm.

  She didn’t heal.

  “Well, that was expected…” She tried to move the arm she’d just cut, but it wouldn’t respond. She groaned. “Must’ve cut a ligament or something…” She pulled out some Green with her free hand. While she could light it up by pushing will into it, it didn’t do anything. “As expected…”

  Margaret touched her hand to a magic generator. It was shaped like a pinwheel flower with seven petals, one of each color. As she burned it with her will, it started to spin slightly and send a Rainbow glow into the nearby air.

  Jeh’s skin started healing itself, but slowly.

  “So, that confirms that magic generation definitely works,” Jeh said. “We’re probably trailing so much into space considering how fast we’re moving with no gravity around…”

  Margaret nodded. “Make Colored Crystals line the walls, prevent leakage. Put some generators in spacesuits…”

  With the magic generator active, they were able to confirm that all seven Colors of magic could be used. But only barely. Jeh had an easier time than Margaret, likely only due to how much will she had.

  Everything their experiments performed in magic vacuum suggested was proven correct out here. It was quite difficult to make the experiments on the ground actually empty, even Gronge’s experiments made it clear that any time an opening was made, a significant amount of magic flowed through, and that there was some of the Gronge Field inside living solid beings. But low vacuum and true vacuum seemed to function essentially identically.

  Except for the sensation that happened when they’d left.

  “Nothing… weird,” Jeh said, scribbling down the notes. “Everything, everything, is as expected…”

  “We both know that isn’t how it feels,” Margaret said, frowning.

  “I don’t feel it anymore.”

  “We felt it when we left.” Margaret frowned. “You’d think the sensation would be too gradual to notice, but it’s not.” She frowned. “We’ve been generating magic, why aren’t we feeling it again? We lose the magic again after we stop generating it, why not feel like it was torn from us?”

  Jeh shrugged. They knew the magic they were creating wasn’t sticking around. It was spreading out into space through the walls; otherwise, they would have been able to cast things after a magic generator had been burned, not only during. So they had regained and lost magic several times. Yet the sensation had not returned.

  “Guess we’ll have to see if i—”

  They returned to the Gronge Field. Jeh’s stomach flipped again, but this time there was an additional effect. Fear surged through her body. Jeh’s hair stood on end, and an immense sensation of dread and foreboding filled every fiber of her being. She broke out into a cold sweat.

  Take us back. It’s safer out there. Get away. Run.

  Jeh shook her head. “Okay. Um. Uh…”

  Margaret’s pupils had shrunk to pinpricks.

  “Margaret…?”

  “This is Her world…”

  “Margaret!”

  Margaret snapped out of it, blinking rapidly. “I… we… all of us can sense it, can’t we? How… wrong it is? We’ve just… lived our entire lives with it, we don’t know anything else…” Margaret turned to Jeh. “We… are the only ones who have ever felt freedom.”

  Jeh swallowed hard. “We can’t survive out there though…”

  “You might be able to.”

  Jeh frowned. “We’ll… have to see what we find out there.”

  ~~~

  Claire was the only permanent resident of the space station. There was always a Mikarol and Kroan representative there, but they swapped out every week or so, though this was sometimes delayed due to winter weather.

  Claire hadn’t set foot on the ground in a month. Given how her legs were starting to feel, she suspected the ‘landing sickness’ would be rather extreme for her if she did go back.

  Good. They’d have to make her nearly useless to call her back.

  She’d never return to Descent if she could help it. Space was her home now. They could reach her no longer.

  It would be much better if they still didn’t have two-way communication. But, alas, they did. It was difficult to set up and required the station to be flying over Descent at the time, but she had to give a report at least once a week.

  “Yes, great blimps,” Claire said. She was supposed to bow, but she didn’t. They couldn’t see her, the transmissions were voice only. “Everything is running smoothly.”

  “No other uninvited interlopers?” Came the voice from the other side.

  “All other visitors have been from Mikarol or Kroan only. The demons have made no further appearances, and we have seen no signs of any of the others supposedly invited to the Conference. I spend significant time looking through the observation windows; I have seen no other spacecraft besides ones that meet up with the station. Even the Moonshot II dropped by, despite this not being an actual destination.”

  “Why did they stop by?”

  “To offer ‘greetings’ apparently.” And annoy me. They didn’t even dock, just wrote messages. “They should have detailed reports on biological activity outside the Gronge Field soon, but apparently most of what they found was as expected.”

  “Very good. Are you enjoying yourself up there?”

  Ah, it’s one of the “pet-keeper” ones today. “I am, thank you. It feels like I belong in this Station, like it’s my calling.”

  “How good for you! Continue to monitor and give reports! We look forward to coming to see you ourselves one day!”

  “...Of course.” I fully intend to be on the interplanetary ship, and there is no way they design that for your people. “Anything else?”

  “Actually, yes! We are finally finishing training on additional pilots for the new ships, expect to get more supplies and news from Descent. And to see some new faces!”

  “Of course.” They’ll be better than Enrique, naturally; the Blimps do learn what sorts of people to train rather quickly.

  “Any requests for something we should send up?”

  “More crystal dust, I always want more reserves in case shipments can’t come and we have to deal with… unexpected variables.” I am prepared to defend this place. We have so few defenses, I need every edge I can have.

  “I meant anything not practical?”

  “Books on the latest space research and Solar System sciences? I do enjoy reading about what’s out there. Even if it’s also practical.”

  “Consider it done! We’ll get you a nice star chart book and everything…”

  Claire had to admit, she did like the pretty pictures. She was actually looking forward to the installation of the telescope module so she could look at the things herself.

  Now that she was up here, essentially free… a childish excitement she didn’t know she still had in her was rising to the top once more.

  I sure lucked out.

  ~~~

  Sandy and the Emperor of Mikarol drank in his secret meeting room.

  “So, here’s the list the Demons have given us,” the Emperor burped. “Everyone who might show up.”

  Sandy sipped the wine from her glass and examined it. “Oh, the obvious players… Kroan, Descent, and us.” Sandy glanced up as the Emperor grimaced. “Oh, why so tense? Our agreement has produced wondrous fruit for both our desires, you must admit.”

  “...I do have to,” the Emperor sighed. “And now I drink with you in secret, like a trusted ally. Even though I do not trust you.”

  “Riikaz would stab you in the back if you went too far, and you know it.”

  “She would do it for her honor, though. You have none.”

  “I have very little honor. Not none. Which you should well know at this point.”

  The Emperor frowned. “You are surely not simple, that’s for certain.” He shook his head. “Or perhaps I am just getting too old for my ire against your ways to drive me to action…”

  “If my throne actually made people younger, I would offer it to you.”

  “...I am old enough that I need no extended life.”

  Sandy nodded. “A day will come when my age catches up to me as well. Given how little I spend in the chair these days, it may be sooner than I would have expected. To the stars, and all that…” She looked down the list. “Considering the Angler Hegemony separately is both an expected and suspect move, as they are not unified, but they are also at peace. Nations in the water don’t have as many struggles as those on land do, as there is plenty of space in the vertical direction. Drifting cities are quite common, and very few locations are particularly more valuable than others far from the coasts. I do wonder how they will react to being treated as united…”

  “They rely entirely on the Kroan Tunnel to reach us,” the Emperor pointed out.

  Sandy swirled the wine in her glass. “If relations sour, that could easily turn ugly. There are other ways to bypass the Leviathans, but not by normal people. And not reliably.”

  “How do your people get down there?”

  “A few invisible infiltrators make the journey, and then they set up bases down there by recruiting. We use communicators to compare notes, but very rarely do any of us actually make the journey from the depths to the surface. Leviathans are a huge problem. They have senses we don’t fully understand; while invisible people have an easier time hiding from them, the success rate is not perfect.”

  “Hmmm…”

  “The Holy Flame…” Sandy’s eyes moved down the list. “I am concerned about her, she and her people are obsessed with religious dogma. They, for instance, have several cubes, but consider such magic as stored within them to be high blasphemy.”

  “Why?”

  “All magic not inherent to a being belongs to the Holy Flame, according to the belief system she has set out. She has the most magic, so she is the highest being. Crystalline Ones would be next on the pecking order, but all Red ones must fuse with the Holy Flame, and all the other Colors are her sworn enemies. She’s essentially creating a version of Red Seekers. Elementals and other beings of magic are her favored people, particularly fire elementals. No one there is permitted to use magic besides Red magic, all other crystals are ground to dust and sealed away. Attributes are seen as fine, but ancestries are the worst of all abominations to those who even know about them.”

  “She is not going to appreciate what we do…”

  “No, she is not. I am somewhat concerned she will start shooting things out of the sky now… but she is no fool.”

  “I do wonder, how is it she got so large? I thought such a thing was impossible unless she was a… survivor.”

  “Her people existed before the Second Cataclysm,” Sandy explained. “But was one of those Jenny took particular issue with, shattering her personally. Turns out her people were planning to resurrect her when everything went down, having secretly stored a lot of Red in a single area. The Red they stored still exploded, their plans all put to naught, but enough of them survived that they put her back together. The reason we never dealt with her is because she doesn’t really know much about what was happening; her people were quite primitive and isolated back then.” Sandy frowned. “I wonder what they can do to reach space. Clearly, the Holy Flame herself has power, but what knowledge do they possess that led the Demons to extend an invitation?”

  “It’s times like this I wish I could Query Reality as they do…” the Emperor said.

  “It is a truly evil art, and has its limits. Otherwise, why would they ask for a Conference?” Sandy tapped her head. “Anyway… Drakenrust. Ah, I suppose that makes sense. Largest military force on Ikyu.”

  “...What?”

  “You tell me what power ten thousand dragons with military training can wield.”

  “Ah. I see.”

  “Drakenrust was just the largest dragon breeding ground. Due to how dragons are, they probably have the widest reach of any nation in the world. They just have little interest in conquest as you think of it, particularly because there are no more large empires next to them. I am curious how they can get to space, however, they aren’t really much for inventions or infrastructure. They just have physical strength, biological advantage, and numbers.” She scratched her chin. “But they also have very interesting attributes, and some of them have tricks up their sleeves.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I expect them to try to make a show of power, and find out how they can convince everyone else that they are the dominant species.”

  “The Blimps are going to hate them.”

  “Absolutely. In fact, you may find that they already have a little history…” Sandy chuckled, and looked like she was going to go on, but she froze.

  “What is it?”

  “This last group…”

  “Cirbet? Yes, that was the one I was meaning to ask you about, who are they?”

  Sandy looked up from the paper with fear in her eyes.

  “What monstrosity is it?” The Emperor said, suddenly on his feet.

  “I… have no idea.” Sandy’s haunted expression only deepened. “A group on this world that the demons can Query Reality about, that has interest and the ability to make it to space… that I have never heard of.” She stood up quickly. “I will investigate the archives. But… something tells me I won’t find anything.”

  “...A complete unknown, even to you? How is that even possible?”

  “I do not know. This is deeply concerning.”

  ~~~

  SCIENCE SEGMENT

  Designing for unknowns is terribly difficult. Nightmarish, even. As the Wizard Space Program sets to embark on the task of making a spaceship that can explore strange new worlds with limited information, we have to ask how we dealt with unknowns. In some cases, what was thought to be over-designed was not: we sent super industrial probes to Venus early on. They melted very, very quickly. We had no idea it was so incredibly hot and pressurized down there.

  My favorite story of designing for unknowns, though, is the Huygens lander, directed at Saturn’s major moon Titan. Titan has a very thick and “Fuzzy” atmosphere that all but completely obscures the surface, preventing us from knowing what’s down there. Some theories said methane could form oceans, while others said it could have great sand seas, while still others said sandy seas were impossible. But we were going to send a lander there. So it had to be designed for all possibilities.

  It was going to have little control over where it landed, so it was going to have to be durable. It was designed to take as many pictures and readings as it could on the way down in case the terrain was just impossible for it. It had to be designed for a hard landing, perhaps even on a rough or inclined surface. So we made it durable, flat on the bottom, and have parachutes that could glide down gently onto, hopefully, anything.

  We also had to design it to float. In case there were seas of liquid methane it landed in. And it had to have all the stuff to survive entry into the atmosphere as well. Each of these things increases cost.

  In the end, we landed in what appears to be a dried-up, rather flat riverbed. No need to float. No need for all the durability for extremely rough terrain. Pretty nice place, all things considered. Not even any danger of being buried in a sand dune. So it may feel like wasted effort to have made all these plans for everything when it was a rather simple landing, all things considered.

  However, most of Titan’s equator is covered in dunes. It was somewhat likely we would have landed near one. So that part of the design very much could have been needed; it was just luck that placed us somewhere else. And as it turns out, Titan does have seas! They’re just restricted to the moon’s poles, so Huygens was never in any danger of landing in them, aiming for the equator as it was.

  Still, this was a wide range of conditions we had to design around when making the mission, knowing basically nothing, as Titan’s atmosphere shrouded everything. The Wizard Space Program knows even less, and while they have magical cheating powers, they have to consider everything.

  Can they even consider the true extremes of space? Can they even dream up what sorts of wild possibilities are out there?

  Can we?