Anarion

Return to Thellamie

Yuki winks at Juniper as she walks away. Because, well, maybe she does want her to come and get her. She's not sure, exactly. The idea of it made lots of different scenarios bloom in her mind. Heart duels with the Serigalamu. Standing back to back with Sulochana holding off a group of foes as they cover each other. Epic last stands in the middle of a restaurant. But at the same time, imagining being tied together with Juniper, squirming uncomfortably as the Baygum picks her up. Being sat on her lap with Juniper on the other leg. It sounded like fun whichever way it went, and she had lots of things she might want to try. Maybe not everything, she wasn't sure. But Juniper seemed to be having a lot of fun, and that tail wag still stuck in Yuki's head. Whatever other silliness she had going on with the Khanate and their flair for crashing events, she was enjoying herself.

But then there's a show. Yuki hurriedly joins Sulochana on her bench again, lying on her left arm this time so the right still has a chance to have some bloodflow without falling asleep. She doesn't want to block anyone's view of the special event, so she lets her head rest sideways on the edge of the raised bench, flexes her legs, flexes her arms, shifts her weight from arm to shoulder so it's not pressing on her elbow, flips her pigtail behind her so it doesn't get in her mouth. She's still getting used to her body in this world, it's a grown catgirl, come off her own work in fencing and track and lots of other things. She feels strong within herself, though so far most of everything that's happened has just been startled reflexes. But if she wants to jump or run, well, she feels that strength inside her. But for now, she saves it and lounges, and only the curling of toes tells you she's still got tension running through her.

She doesn't jump when the lightshow starts. No, far from it, she's enraptured. First staring at Civelia and Heron, the light rushing through them. At the beautiful purples and pinks. She goes to a fireworks show every summer, they do one at the baseball stadium. There's a band there, they play classical music and new stuff and sometimes they'll go for a whole hour. Bright sparkles and all sorts of colors in the sky. She'd go with her family to the baseball game together, and they'd usually invite uncles and aunts and buy out a whole row along the third base line for that one day. Watch the game, watch the fireworks, everybody would get hotdogs with lots of fixings (or no fixings when she was younger and pickier). This feels like that if the world were full of faeries. If the fireworks came down to you and played around the heads of your friends mere feet away.

Her gaze follows to Sulochana, and to the yipping Khatun in turn. She realizes that it's at least two, maybe more than two. And it sounds like this wasn't supposed to happen. It's Yuki and the gray-haired woman who are thinking it at the same time. Different plans, Yuki's excited, curious, wondering what it means that the crown is split, wondering if this relates to her being here, to Hazel being here.

The older woman is calculating. Look at that face. Yuki's got her eyes trained on her, half rising already. If she actually tries anything, Yuki will pull Sulochana down before the shot goes off. But she doesn't think the woman will do anything quite that brazen. Not yet at least. Does she want the crown for the Khanate? For herself? Will her ire turn towards Juniper's girlfriend or is it only to Sulochana?

Yuki's up in a flash. All those muscles tense from her interaction with Juniper ready to burn some energy. She's up and she's over and she hasn't drawn a blade or raised a hand. But she's in front of the silver-haired woman, fearless. "You know what this means, don't you? Or you have some idea?" Her eyes are eager, her face is open, but she's making sure to stand in a line that puts her between the woman and Sulochana. "Can you tell me what you're thinking?"

[Rolling to figure out the woman. What can Yuki tell from her movement and language? What is she hoping to get from the ritual? 4+5+1=10, so Yuki gets her questions.]

Return to Thellamie

“Juniper?”

Yuki’s eyes are saucer wide as her friend suddenly steps into view. At Sulochana’s high bench no less, striding among the well-connected or wealthy Nagi who have the best seats with only the barest concern for not blocking their view too long. It’s bold, but then everything about Juniper screams bold at this moment. Except the tail wag, and the glow. That screams happy and it’s that tail wag that sets the mood for Yuki. Because hey, if this was Juniper’s true heart and living every second of being the pet puppy on display for everyone was making her this happy, then it made Yuki happy too.

She lifts her head up, one pigtail dangling below her, one swing past her ear to floor into her face. She rolls a little, groans when she realizes that her elbow had fallen asleep where she was lying on it, and swings out legs first instead, using her momentum and weight to send herself standing without needing to push with the asleep arm. Then she moves into the hug, ignoring the pins and needles as feeling comes back to her.

Juniper is…gosh. The furs have the scent of wolves. Yuki doesn’t have a dog at home, and she’s more of a cat person (maybe that’s why she’d been sent to Kel, come to think of it?). But she likes dogs, and Juniper has the right feel. The furs are soft, and the smell on them, it’s powerful, covering her, making her feel like the Serigalamu feel as she envelopes Yuki. She was taller than Yuki before, but as they both grew up, the gap there only widened, and Yuki feels her face close to Juniper’s chest as they embrace close. It’s warm and it’s not just her arm that tingles as her face presses close.

And then there’s the lick. It’s timed perfectly. She had just shifted herself, started to bring her head up to speak up for when Sulochana had been cut off when the lick pushes past her left pigtail and brushes her cheek. She lets out a distinct meep! and manages not to jump or hit her head on Juniper’s chin.

This wasn’t a Thellamie thing, and sure wasn’t an Earth thing! At least, she didn’t think it was. She’d had one boyfriend (oops) and two girlfriends, only one of whom had kissed her and nobody had every licked her! She blushes, turning her skin dark, and starts to bury her head into Juniper as a hiding reaction before realizing what she’s doing and blushes even hard as she tries to look up without pushing Juniper or doing anything even more awkward. In her head, she’s considering the merits of trying to summon a hole to the Outside to swallow her up right here with how much of an idiot she’s making of herself right now.

But then, a few things start to catch up. The string, meaning Juniper is taken. The maid knight. She had said that maid knight. Did she mean Eclair, the one from last time? That was The only one they both knew. That maid knight. If she’d blessed this relationship, it was serious and Yuki should support it. But a glance back at Sulochana also showed her a snake girl who was not well-pleased at having her plans disrupted and was wearing a face that said both how dare you and poor Miette at the same time.

“You dummy!” Yuki punches a fist into Junipers side, though not hard, more a play punch than a real one. “You said you couldn’t make it! Or at least I thought you did!” And now she has a glare in her eyes. “Surprises are great, and I am so, so happy to see you, but we could have coordinated on the restaurant instead of both of you trying to make me a local dignitary at two different restaurants at the same time. …Oh my god this is why all the famous people on TV have secretaries isn’t it? Never mind, that’s a rhetorical question.”

“Juni, I will…come by your dinner at some point. I do want to meet the Baygum. Sulochana is going to be the one to decide when we go over and if she wants to come. If you want us earlier than whenever that is, you’ll have to come to us.”

She hmmphs like she’s heard her mom do sometimes, a strong exhalation of breath with a finality to it. It’s not something she’s done much herself, high school plans were always so chill and she’s always been careful since starting college not to double book herself. Not a lot of chances with mostly chill friends to hmmph at anyone. But even so, she rather enjoyed it. It felt powerful and a little bit more grown up than she expected and she understood a little why her mom did it when she got exasperated with someone.

Yuki wasn’t a fool. She understood that telling the Khaganate to come get them wasn’t just a figure of speech and it might happen. But she rather thought that would be fun and a fine enough introduction to the Baygum if that’s what happened. And if not, then Juniper would have to settle and Sulochana would have to be just a little flexible but still in control. It seemed like a good compromise to Yuki.

Return to Thellamie

Yuki looks at her tablet, reads it over carefully, listens to Sulochana. She nods as her friend is speaking. Nods again when there's the undercurrent of I won't let her hurt you and looks right in Sulochana's eyes and smiles. An act of particular intimacy with a Nagi, to gaze straight into their eyes, particularly if they're feeling jumpy.

But then, Yuki wasn't feeling jumpy anymore. She had been startled, of course. She wasn't sure if there was danger, or if Azaza's presence might have been related to her and Hazel being called back into the world. She might be, but the way Sulochana wrote "STAR" in the chat, that said something about Thellamie, about what people thought of Thellamie and it sounded like Stars still being around in various forms over time, that was normal. It was part of the world, even if it was risky too. So Yuki was reassured, even though Sulochana obviously wasn't.

Yuki pulls her tablet out to reply, lowering her face before she can give away anything with the impish grin that's spreading on it
>[.snowkitten]
>No need to apologize. It's part of the world, right? So that's normal and I'll learn how all these things work. Now that I'm here the second time, now that there isn't such a rush. Well...probably, we'll see if somebody makes a rush. But I think it won't be MY rush this time. It's not the same, I'm not the same, and everybody has gotten older and knows how to do things differently. I mean, heck I even learned fencing, and maybe I'll have some good heart duels while I'm here without any extra help!

Yuki furiously types all of this and then sends in one block, causing Sulochana to look down at her tablet as it beeps at her to read Yuki's message. There's a light sound, the softest swish of silk, no more than a breeze blowing in from the palanquin curtain. But when Sulochana looks up, she's find Yuki's face in between Sulochana's arms and face, as Yuki's hand gently extras the necklace and fastens it around her neck, then looks up at her friend. She pulls the silver up, blows on one time with her breath so it fogs and lets the fog naturally fade so it remains just a little cloudy.

"There, beautiful." Yuki looks again right in Sulochana's eyes. "Listen, Suli..." she uses the short name she'd used all those years ago. "I'll be excited for you if...you know" she inclines her head toward their destination without saying the whole crown thing out loud again. "But whatever happens, whatever power you have, it doesn't mean you have to do everything, okay? You can relax sometimes, and not just because you've already arranged everything just as you want it and are taking a break before a new problem comes out. It's okay to accept help when you need it. That's what you told me once and I didn't forget. So many people helped me in Thellamie, and then more when I got home so I could focus on studying and sports. And even then it's not like I've decided what I'm going to do with my life. I'm not a princess at home, I don't rule anything except a medium size collection of stuffed animals, and they're very easy to deal with. Except for Pink Bunny, who's terribly uncommunicative." Yuki blushes, lets herself focus on Sulochana again. "Promise me that if you're having a hard time, you'll say that you need help. Okay?"

Return to Thellamie

Yuki can tell that they have started to cover some distance as Sulochana parts the curtains of the palanquin to receive the gift box from the artisan. The scent from outside the palanquin has changed, the whiff of air from the outside no longer smells of the scent of sand and stone that characterizes the looming Viperiat. Rather, they are closer to the market and she can smell the scent of baking dough on the air. The warm scent of cones, waffles, and fried sweets that characterizes the market at all times, multiplied in intensity when there’s a festival. The Nagi know how to make their food enticing.

It makes her think of Hazel for a moment. She hopes he had a good ice cream and that he found something nice from the street vendors after that. She imagined he might have gotten caught up with any number of Nagi attractions, which was a fine enough way to enjoy the world. She figured he wouldn’t get too over his head and it wasn’t likely that any Nagi would do more than tease an unusual foreigner like him. Certainly not in public and at a festival! Even so, she would need to check on him soon.

Her attention is, of course, pulled back to the box before she has time to write out a proper message. She’ll for sure chat Hazel after this, but she can hardly ignore Sulochana presenting her a gift. And what a gift. She holds the box in her hands for a moment simply marveling at the gold and silver combined with the beautiful dark wood. Her father likes woodworking. At an amateur level, mind you, his day job was tax accounting. But on weekends, he’d often make things in his workshop. He had started with whittling, years and years ago, carving little pieces of wood with a knife. And when he’d gotten space, he’d built up some tools, a bigger saw for cutting larger things, and made some himself. Again, nothing this fancy, but he had made them a nice salad bowl, and he’d made Yuki a little treasure box for her room and carved her initials into it along with a little vine pattern around the outside. It had taken him two whole weekends to do that because he had gone slowly to make sure he didn’t make any mistakes. He would love this box though. The way the metal was inlaid into it and the deep color of the wood. He liked that, and he’d want to learn all about the inlaying process. It made her smile to think about it, and so for a moment, despite Sulochana’s obvious twitchy anticipation, she simply looked over the box, ran her hands across it, felt the way that the metal joined with the wood and tried to understand it.

But she also didn’t want Sulochana to explode, and so she took out the necklace. Stared in jaw-dropping awe at the mother of pearl. This was surely too rich for her. She knew Sulochana was a princess, of course. And even that wealth was a little different in Thellamie. They didn’t have the same range of electronics as she had at home, the tablets were new and special, whereas she understood vaguely that precious metals were a bit less precious here and could be found more readily, particularly as people explored the outside and found new pockets of special materials. For that matter, she’d heard that sometimes Heron would just drop into a town with enough valuables to completely upend the economy while buying them out of all the useful trinkets and adventuring tools.

But even so, even so! This was incredible. She lets out a little squee as she looks it over, and happily goes to model for Sulochana. It’s only as the tablet is held up that she sees the eye. Her reaction is all instinct, and it is mainly bumping her head on the ceiling of the palanquin because the part of her that added the fluffy triangles wants to be up high and feel safe and trying to suddenly and instinctively stand up and jump away inside a palanquin just means bumping your noggin, shouting a sudden “ouch” and then rubbing her head sheepishly and settling back down as the eye fades. She quickly rubs her hand against the spot on the silver though, smudging it with a bit of the natural oil of her fingers as she looks down, then back up at Sulochana.

“Did you see…um…is it safe to use her name? The um…the star who was here before, I saw her eye in the mirror. Is that um…normal? Do all the fallen stars stay here? It’s safe, right? Is it safe to use her name if I see her like that? It just startled me, but that must be why you have all the velvet in the Viperiat so intensely. How does that work now? Do people know why she doesn’t appear in the tablet screens?”

Yuki has a lot of questions, very quickly, and she’s also looking at Sulochana’s face, trying to quickly figure out if this is a special Yuki thing that she’s going to have to worry about now or if this is an Azaza thing and if so just how far it extends and what it means years after her defeat. Her mind is whirring and she’s realizing that there are a lot of questions she could have asked before coming back here and had never really thought about.

Return to Thellamie

At first there’s just the physical intimacy of the moment. Yuki relaxes into the coils, the fingers brushing her head, working through her ears. Her arm pulls the silks of the palanquin close around them, nestles into a pillow as she relaxes her legs and lets the cool coils work around them. She purrs and she lets herself close her eyes and relax into the moment as Sulochana speaks.

But oh, what awful things. Yuki is still purring, low and deep below her throat, almost in her belly, but her eyes are open again, looking up at Sulochana’s, meeting her gaze. “I so sorry, I didn’t know. Everyone was so focused on Azaza. And before, it was such a whirlwind of places. Arriving in Kel, the temples and churches, rushing through the stone roads, the Viperiat. I just assumed…well…I don’t know, I was so much younger. Earth has environmental problems too, and overcrowding. But it always feels like a problem that we make ourselves. Like a problem of people disagreeing about how they should live, and if we could just all agree and work together, we could build more homes, higher and in new places, enough to give everyone some space even if it’s not as much space as a few people really want.”

She’s silent for a few seconds, mulling. “Well, this isn’t about Earth. I’m here again, and I’m going to learn about Thellamie’s problems. And…I’ll help however I can. Whatever happens. Famines shouldn’t ever have to happen. And you shouldn’t have to deal with something like that alone. Not ever.”

Yuki looks right at Sulochana with earnest eyes. Eyes that say that she’s older and that she read about famines in 11th grade history and has opinions about them, and that maybe this is the kind of conversation that’s going to impact her college major, And even though Sulochana probably doesn’t know what a college major is, she can tell that there’s a sincerity there that isn’t just momentary and that Yuki means what she’s saying. And maybe Sulochana hasn’t noticed, but the hand that was holding the silks is warm and it’s resting on her coils and Yuki is here, now. Intent, focused, however her friend needs her.

[Comfort and support with heart: 2+3+2=7.]

Return to Thellamie

Yuki pulls her gaze away from the market as the DM pops on her tablet. Whitemarket is so wonderful! She’s knows not to just pop into a store and try to buy it out, but the point is the advertising and the Nagi do it so well! The showpieces are beautiful. The perfume shop may be overpriced, but the window gives visions of long, beautiful gowns in several cuts matched with flowers and sweets that promise the allure of the perfumes they’re selling. The glass shop may be overcharging, but they’ve got the most beautiful piece of stained glass for the door, a scene of the sunrise over the Viperiat that promises that they have the taste to make it worth your while if money is no object. And the artisans here, the swirling clay vessels and curved flowing wood of the nagi crafters offers such a unique aesthetic. It brings a smile to Yuki’s face just to gaze on it. Doubly so since she had been in chains the last time she was led through here, SELI.

But, she does want to pay attention.
>[.snowkitten]
>@rockamt good luck, give’em an extra kick for me, sounds like a jerk!
>Miss you though, and you too packsis, hope I can make it out to you! <3

She looks at Sulochana’s DM. Blank face. There’s some skepticism, but she’s thinking about what to say. Starts to type something, but feels the tail before anything more than “snowkitten is typing” can pop up and decides that’s the better route. Easy as it would be to slip into DMing someone three feet away from her while they both lounged on separate cushions.

She takes the invitation and shifts herself onto her side on one elbow leaning against Sulochana. She puts her own face just below Sulochana’s so she can nuzzle Sulochana’s neck and under chin with the top of her head and her ears. She does this quietly for a moment, before tilting her head back to look up at her friend. “That sounds exciting. You already rallied the Nagi together to help stop Azasa. I bet, well, I don’t know what the crown of light will look like, but I bet with a blessing like that, everyone will support you, even the ones who can’t see past their own feet, er coils like Purnima. Then you can do, well, hm, what would you like to do with the crown of light? Build something cool, maybe?”

Return to Thellamie

Yuki takes out her tablet as they exit the main corridors of the Viperiat so that she can take a picture of the space with its new dark tapestries sucking up the sound and light where before the mirrors had created a dazzling rainbow of reflections. It’s different and she’s not really sure when she’ll have another chance to see the Viperiat. It could be tonight with Sulochana, or it could be never if adventures sweep her in a different direction. So she needs a picture! Well, several actually because Sulochana is late, so she doesn’t so much stop to take a picture as turn around and walk backwards, her heels echoing off cool stone as they come down and she snaps picture after picture. She can look at them in the palanquin, delete the ones that are blurry, or uneven, or get the tapestries too dark because the angle doesn’t capture the light coming in from the open stable door. As long as she gets one or two solid ones, she’ll send them around to the chat group excitedly. The Viperiat that she had opened, now redecorated, consecrated from her own work!

Of course, there’s a bit of oddity to it. This was obviously Sulochana’s space now, her home in a way that it was never Yuki’s. That was how it always should have been, but it’s weird to be the conquering hero of a space and then come back and feel like it’s not yours. You’re supposed to feel good about stuff you conquer, right? Going out to the stables added to the weird trespasser feel, even though she obviously wasn’t since last time she had shoved open the main gates after her daring breakout.

She glanced to the side, wondering if she could see the main gates at this angle, but the heavy stone bulwarks and rounded corners of the architecture meant she couldn’t see what the main gate itself looked like. Come to think of it, it probably didn’t see much use anyway, it was so wide it could march in an army, way too intimidating for regular business. That’s why they brought people in via the stables, or maybe a service entrance, or a servant’s entrance, things like that. Much more intimate, much quieter, felt in keeping with all the heavy tapestries.

Yuki was so caught up with her photos that she nearly walked into the palanquin before Sulochana’s gentle coil stopped her with an angled shove that avoided tripping her while arresting her momentum into nearly sitting on those thick, white-pink coils striped with gold for the ceremony. Sulochana really could make herself beautiful in such incredible ways.

Yuki blushes sheepishly and puts the tablet away as she climbs into the palanquin with Sulochana. The rest of the description is only now catching up with her with the photos done. Yukisworld, really? This was definitely Keli’s fault and she would pay for it. In gold in fact because the way you got a foxgirl was in business payouts. Between that and the ransom they had received for her, she was definitely owed some luxury and a little pampering!

“I swear I told most of you that my planet was called Earth, right? Yeah, nothing to be done at this point I guess. Not if you’re using it without even thinking. So Yukisworld fencing, it’s more like a sport than maid knight fighting. You use long piercing swords that are bendy and uh…supple I think is the word for it. Everybody wears special protective clothes, and you get points for scoring a hit on someone’s body but nobody gets hurt. It’s good practice because since the swords are so light and easy to move around the duels go really fast and you usually score a hit in just a few moves. Parry, riposte, score!” She excitedly thrusts one arm in the palanquin in demonstration as she’s speaking, rustling the velvet curtains. “It’s actually pretty different from my heart blade though. I tried summoning it right when I got here and I think it got even bigger and heavier than when I was younger, like it sized up for me at least a little, maybe even more than a little. And like, it’s not really heavy, you know what I mean, but the way I want it to be it has momentum to it. It helps you swing it and when it’s going it puts weight behind it beyond just what I’ve got in my still pretty little body.” She blushes again, but no point denying that she’s just never going to be tall. At best or maybe at worst, she’ll put on a freshmen fifteen in her sophomore year and just get thicker without gaining any more height.

“Aaaanyway, my heartblade is a big heavy axe with a long shaft, but even though it’s a way different weapon from fencing, I still feel like I learned a lot about moving my own body around, how to step and balance and stuff like that, and I think that’s still super useful no matter what weapon I wield.”

She smiles, glances out of the palanquin to see what the market looks like, turns back to Sulochana. “So how are things here? Is it all backstabbing politics and tricky schemes all the time? Tell me what’s happening with Civelia, this is a big deal, right? Juniper said she couldn’t make it from so far out, but told me that every priest of Civelia is going to be in special prayer today even if they’re not here, then she DMed me a kneeling priest and five wolf emojis, which probably means this is important, right?”

Return to Thellamie

Yuki blushes as Sulochana plays with her hair. It's so nice, much better than the crushing coils of a moment ago. Firm and safe, but then her hands are so delicate and the feeling through her hair is soft. And then when they brush her ears...she missed her ears in Thellamie. The feeling sends little shivers running through her and she leans into the hug and purrs.

There's a moment where there's nothing but the sound of Yuki's purring. The hug is perfect. Hugs are wonderful. They're special. Hugs are for long lost friends to say "I care" better than any words. They're for telling someone "you're safe" and "I missed you" and it doesn't matter that she's prattling and thinking and needs to be somewhere because for a little bit, there's just the hug.

But then Yuki does relax and she feels Sulochana tense, and so she looks up at her friend that she has not seen in years, even though they've chatted. "Better late than never. Or better Nate than lever, if you're willing to read a very long and boring joke for a bad pun. Come on, let's get to the ceremony so you can put in an appearance with Civilis! I can tell you about my summer camp fencing class on the way. It's uh, it's not really assassination, I'm sorry to say, but we did learn how to stab things! I also learned to ride a horse there! It's a lot of fun, although I'm not sure how that would work with the Nagi. I think you'd need special horses, or a different kind of mount. Maybe a giant crab or something so you could coil up on top of it while it scuttled where you were going. Do you have those here, I don't remember any from last time. By the way, who was that other Nagi? Do I actually need to be worried or anything?"

Yuki gets Sulochana moving with a gentle hand and prattles as they walk because it's good to see her friend, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't hustle!

Return to Thellamie

"I feel as if I had been caught between a hammer and an anvil!" said Yuki with a grunt from between the coils. And then she giggled despite herself, as she tried to imagine whether one of the Nagi could ever bring themselves to skewer anyone. It seemed unlikely.

And, well, she mostly needed to worry about negligence, which is why she had called out even as they were about to duel. Being crushed because everyone was too distracted was really the only way, there's simply no way an angry Nagi who actually remembered her would just crush her when they had so many better options to punish a girl.

So when she had her breath back, she just kept going, grunting through shallow breaths, "you all...seem to be just fine with...my meddling...based on your...decorating choices" she manages, a grin still on her face.

The new suit of Kel mail had been such a good choice. Her old half plate was far too small, a child's size. Granted, she'd only gained a few inches since last time and it was obvious that she was always going to be short. But her shoulders, her chest, and her legs were all a lot broader in college than they'd been when she was in the summer of twelve years old. And it meant that now, she was going to be bruised, but nothing was broken or even liable to crack under the weight with it evenly distributed through the mail coat.

"So...are you...going to let me up...before you duel...or what?"

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Epilogue: A planet

On the edge of the galaxy, to the galactic west of the NC-301 system, there is a yellow star. For many, many years, this was all there was in the system. Eons ago, the yellow star had been a part of a great nebula within its sector of the galaxy, but it had drifted from that nebula, a wandering child of dust and gas all gathered about itself like a blanket. It had drifted off to sleep all on its own and that sleep had lasted until it was small and bright and burning. No great asteroids or strange magnetic fields disturbed that sleep, and so it sat whole unto itself, with no celestial bodies around it to speak of. Around its weight gravitated only loose rocks and debris, at its edges some larger bodies that drifted towards it, a distant outer shell.

So empty was this system, that as the Hybrasilians and Terenians passed through it on their wayfinding, they never gave it a name. Because it did not have a name, it remained beyond the touch of the gods.

Until now. Now, there are new gods. Gods who live in steel and titanium. Gods who live in flesh. Gods who build with dreams and paper. Can you call them anything else when they have combined their will and their arts to make a world?

The planet that the powers of the galaxy have made is unique.

It is not like Akar the Arena, which was a fully formed barren world filled with nanobots to ever shape and change its surface to the whims of a public demanding spectacle.

It is not like the secret worlds of the ancients, upon which the Zaldairans settled, worlds that had lived for so long that the work of hands and the work of nature had combined together with their automated industry and incomprehensible mechanical deities.

It is not like the great cities of the Terenians, that have eclipsed the way their worlds once appeared, replacing the surface with glass and steel that ever grasp for the sky, creating a view from space of oddly straight lines and circles of blue-gray metal woven together.

It is not like the shaped worlds of the Hybrasilians, that have combined the powers of nature with the craft of biochemistry to sustain their populations and their industry amidst their vast tree dwellings carefully cultivated by artisans.

It is not like the dead worlds that so many try to mine and fight about, their surfaces glorious but barren, settlements forced to be in bubbles meant for temporary extraction by small groups of workers.

No, this planet is alive and it has been left to its life. Left to be wild. To grow without constraints, to take shape as it pleases, in both the small and the large. The madness of a weaver and a mosaic maker at cosmic scale. It is not finished. It may never be finished.

***

The planet did not start this way. It began its life as a small, barren asteroid built around a strong iron core. Like the arena, it was shaped through the efforts of the great Zaldarian shamans who can sing to the nanobots and cause them to work and shape at speed. For raw material, it received resources from the Terenians, the bounty of the greatest miners of the galaxy combining their efforts to bring together materials from within the system and from across other systems to provide the planet everything that it could need to take shape. And for life, it received the gifts of the Hybrasilians, the seeds of the great trees, wildlife from megafauna to microbes, and the waters of their worlds.

Each empire turned their greatest resources, their unique talents to the task: Hybrasilian bio-shapers crafted designs and Terenians offered powered labor and their massive fleets to provide supplies as the Zaldarians set the nanobots to work. From an asteroid’s metallic core, they built layers upon layers over it, each exposed to the light of the system’s yellow sun that watched with avid curiosity. Layers of rock, of dirt, of soil, and finally of crust upon which land and water could rest, compacted together until they could be strong enough to hold themselves together. And when that had its strength, they brought atmosphere: the gasses of nitrogen and oxygen, and just a little carbon, and above them ozone held to warm the surface and capture the light of the little sun.

And then they shaped what had been formed. They took natural mountains that had arisen through the shaping and cut channels for rivers that did not yet exist. They carved beneath great and dusty plains, still bereft of life, that they might have reservoirs and aquifers. Water was foremost in their plans for it was water they needed first, water that might allow life to take root.

And when they were ready, water they brought in spades, great blocks of ice from the asteroids of the Terenians, carried on their transport ships. With water, Hybrasilian seeds, and Zaldarian, and Terenian. A mix of life from many planets across the galaxy.

A mixture of this sort had never been tried. Some Terenian planets cultivated crops that had originated on other planets, and Hybrasilian crafters had much experience carefully altering the biology of local flora for their needs. But a truly combined planet had only been theorycrafted, never implemented. The Hybrasilian shapers worked to make sure that everything was carefully cultivated. They created planned symbiosis, shared nutrients, a complex nitrogen cycle and bacterial processing and reprocessing that would in turn sustain the composition of the atmosphere and the clarity of the water. Once planted, they rapidly grew the seeds of life using the power of technology. Running through generations: accelerated and accelerated through the plans of the greatest scientists that the three empires could produce all collaborating in their vast efforts.

***

But then, the true magic. With all these things in place, they let it go free.

Unlike the Arena, which had its nanobots remain, this planet had them removed when they were done with its crafting. At least, mostly removed. Even the greatest Zaldarian shapers could not entirely remove the integration of nanotechnology with the fundamental life cycles of the planet because they were too integrated with the environmental and evolutionary systems that had been cultivated. What could be said then is that the spark of nanotechnology runs through the soil of the planet and life has evolved to work with it. But it is no longer shaped or even capable of being actively controlled in such a way as happened with its shaping. Instead, the planet has a stable surface and the evolution of the technology is left to its own devices.

Unlike the heartland of Hybrasil, the Hybrasilian shapers stopped their work once life was present and reproducing. The trees are not shaped into great homes for cats to live in multiple tiers. No fields are cleared for agriculture or industry. Life is not managed, and there is no promise that all things will be sustained no matter their own foolish choices. All they have left is the shape of their work, the plans for symbiosis and coevolution that they must now trust will endure.

Unlike the Terenian mining worlds or their great cities, they have removed their generators and extracted their mechas and their ships. They did not leave piles of unused equipment, nor massive settlements empty of their people, nor active generators full of crystal fire to each life for new arrivals. What remains, in rare places, are the leftovers, bits of scrap metal, of old parts, of crates and boxes and mecha feet that showed a little independence in the course of the upheaval of such heavy work. They can be found on occasion, overgrown with plants among the terrain.

In the place of the three great civilizations, life has been left to thrive wherever, and however it might. Conditions are good for this. The distance from the curious yellow star is correct for water to shift from liquid to vapor. The tilt is right to go from hot and muggy at the equator to cool at the poles. The planet has been formed with three small lunar satellites that orbit in sync, so as to pull currents and windstreams to create pockets of temperate zones and pockets of extreme weather, with variation over a twenty (20) year cycle and what scientists estimate will be a two hundred and forty (240) year cycle still to be experienced.

***

What lives here is not kind, but neither is it cruel. It is what came of rapid growth that was then left to its own devices to survive.

Low, hardy trees that cling to stone where they must, while the hot zones are full of tall graceful trees that sway and bend, but do not snap even in the strongest winds of the storms that sometimes sweep through them. The midland zones are full of all different sorts of tall trees, great forests of mist and canopies that hide who knows what. They all know how to scatter their seeds far and wide, to spread and change.

And within these lands there are animals that burrow and save for the seasons. Animals that hibernate. Animals that know how to pounce without hesitation. Some are small and numerous. Some are large, territorial, and powerful. Some, perhaps are even greater than that, titans hidden in the deep places and the tall places who have claimed a land over which they are lord in all but name. Perhaps even a few, integrated with the remaining nanobots, who represent an ecosystem unto themselves. The rumors of the Hybrasilian shapers are that it’s possible that whole islands could rest on the back of giant turtles if the conditions turned out just right.

And above them all, clouds that fly rapidly and carry rain near and far. Warm tropical rain and cool boreal rain that sticks to the mountains and the plains and flows to the seas. The clouds move quickly, and they leave gaps and parts for the curious yellow sun, burning so brightly, to peek through. And so, high and low, this planet is a world full of rainbows.

***

There is a single spaceport, built south of the equatorial zone, where it is still warm most of the year, but far enough out of the fiercest storms and inland from the waves about fifty kilometers. It is built in a solid plain, and south of it there is a moderate plateau with caves and changing tree types as one climbs. Above the plateau is a great mountain range, stretching inland. Down from the mountains, a river runs, making great haste to pool in the plateau, and then running down its sheer sides in waterfalls to strike the plains where it happily slows and ambles its way past the port city built on its banks to the great oceans fifty kilometers away.

This port was built last of all, after everything had settled, after the nanobots were gone, after everything else was removed and the scientists extracted. It was built with more traditional methods, with earth shaped by working mechas and a handful of transport ships planned to remain so that the planet would not be entirely isolated.

The port as it now stands is a mix of prefabricated units made of metal and plastics and some hand-built buildings of wood, stone, and brick, stockpiled with enough food and fuel for a few months. There is space for up to a thousand new arrivals (if they don’t mind double bunking), spare parts, tools, clothes, and various odds and ends in plenty. About a hundred souls, all vetted with Mirror, work the port. A mixture of a few people ready to explore, and several people who want to build something of their own and have no intention of going far until there’s a safe road.

The rest is left to the people who come here, the people who choose to settle such a place. The surface is unmapped beyond a rough orbital topography scan. The places that are rich or poor are unknown. The beings who inhabit the world, the gods who may dwell within, they too are unknown. What grows well, what is best to eat, what would make the best clothes. These are things to be discovered.

***

Around the planet, there is a special perimeter. The system has only one jump entry route and in order to be admitted to the system past the guards, you must send word first and be permitted entry from the planet. You must be permitted entry by Mirror or those she delegates to the task. Otherwise, the perimeter guard will turn you back, offering enough fuel to get to the nearest habitable system two jumps away if you’ve arrived in error and cannot gain entry. If you arrive and make foolish demands, you will get less than that.

This, then, is the manifestation of Mirror’s wish. The wish for a planet. The wish for a home. The wish for possibility. The final thing it needs is a name.