“Don’t know that either, but if I give you a heads up, you might not turn him away, or think he was something…other than what he is,” Wanderer replied, fixing Kur with her somehow concealed yet firm stare. It was something he seemed to beam right back for a moment before the softly glowing, orangish eyes blinked, a faint smile singing in his tone.

            “Calm down, wasn’t about to. Might have to give the boss some heads up, though. Or maybe I shouldn’t, she does like a surprise.”

            “Maybe tell Tiamat in parts? Like a riddle?” Wanderer’s somewhat cheeky suggestion was accented with an innocent smile, one that surprised Orochi not at all given that her proclivity for travel likely brought her into contact with plenty of chaotic-type gods and goddesses. Though they weren’t all the exact same, it probably wouldn’t be hard to pick up a trick or two. Kur certainly seemed to give the matter some serious considering, though before he could answer, Wanderer suddenly seemed to pick up on something, revolving on her stool so quickly that her wrap billowed out against the table. The switch sent all heads looking to where she had suddenly turned, though Hina and Silap had a somewhat tougher time seeing around Orochis’ bulkier, reptilian frame.

            Still, it wasn’t as though the source kept them in suspense very long, with Teller stepping round to get to the bar nary a moment later. Kur quietly offered the elder goddess his barstool, sliding over one to give her some room and let the two sisters sit together.

            Pater was quick to come with a drink, though on closer inspection Orochi was able to smell that it was water, not any sort of ichor or booze. Oh well, to each their own. Teller certainly didn’t seem to mind, quietly sipping at the glass before putting it back on the bar with a small but relieved noise.

            “How’re you feeling?” Wanderer asked, some of Orochi’s heads finding excuses to look away though their ears were as sharp as ever. Sharp enough that they heard even Teller’s softer reply.

            “…It’s been alright. Not progressing but not growing much better.”

            The news itself was…good, though not as positive as it could be really. Orochi had forgotten where exactly they’d heard it, and which head, but they did remember someone saying something to the effect of “a cure means a full recovery.” This didn’t exactly feel like a cure. More like a prolonged wait. Not that any of them were going to say that out loud.

            Another round of footsteps came from the upstairs part of the bar, a tink-tinkle noise following the person as they came around and became visible to the whole of the party. Then again, Drove’s ragged brown coat and wide-brimmed hat were hard to miss, the fact that his clockwork frame easily towered over most notwithstanding.

            “’Lo, all. Can I join you?”

            “Sure!” Wanderer chirped, gesturing as Kur too indicated the bar stool on his other side with a casual “by all means.” Though Drove’s metallic, clawed, digitigrade legs had a moment of needing to shift around to accommodate the bar, he was able to settle in comfortably, asking Pater for his own drink once he was ready.

Though, before any more conversation could happen there was another clatter as another figure approached the group at the bar.

            Wanderer’s blindfolded face immediately brightened upon “seeing” Rush, a hand quickly brought up to wave to the younger god.

            “Oh, hello!”

            “Hey, sorry to interrupt, but you did say something about letting me know where we’d be setting up? Hopefully before I left?” Rush’s words still had that devil-may-care tone, but the last question nudged it more towards polite impatience. And, seeing as the Wanderer likely did remember the promise, even if it had been made in a hurry, she hastened to reply.

            “Oh! Oh, right. Um…Atlantis still has a lot of warehouses, right? We could just clean one out…”

            In a rare turn of events, Silap was the one that spoke up. “I would not recommend that just on the grounds that I’ve been hearing about some elements moving into that part of town.”

            “What kind of elements?” Teller’s question was pertinent, Orochi themselves hadn’t heard of anything like that. Then again, their particular look didn’t make it easy for them to mingle, or visit the more confined buildings of the bigger cities.

            “Nothing concrete, but I would look elsewhere. Maybe somewhere a bit more…remote.” Pater put in, his addition confusing Orochi at first before it collectively dawned on them that the bartender likely would’ve heard any gossip that Silap had too. It came with the territory, as it were.

            “Hmm, alright, well…that would leave the other cities…Kitezh might be good but I think the factories up there are in some serious need of fixing.” Wanderer’s words were, fair, but some of Orochi’s heads couldn’t help a wince at that. Hopefully they wouldn’t need to supervise, that particular city’s climate was, well…

            “Half the year you will be snowed in.” Pater’s words pretty much summed up what all of Orochi was thinking, the dragon collectively happy the bartender had said something.

            “Mmhmm. So someplace where the weather isn’t too drastic, not difficult to get to and from if needed…” Hina listed off, though Rush immediately picked up the line of thought with a bit of a switch in perspective.

            “Run through the rest of the cities. We’ve got Avalon, El Dorado, Shangri-La, Lemuria…take your pick. All of them have relatively mild climates, though I think out of all of them Lemuria’s the harder one to get to.”

            But as Wanderer listened, she seemed to have another thought, one that came voiced as more of a question as she “looked” around at everyone.

            “…Wasn’t there one more? Another of the South American variety?”

            It was a little concerning that out of all of them, Kur was the only one that seemed to have a definitive answer. Then again, one of Orochi’s heads murmured amongst the others that this must not have been a particularly influential place to begin with if they were having trouble placing it. It might’ve had the rotten luck of not being able to find a god or goddess to act as a guardian…

            “Yeah, think there was, but no one’s come from there in a while. Not a good sign.”

            “Rotten shame…” Drove murmured, echoing Kur’s heavier words. The rest of them looked between each other, similar lines of thought trailing between the members of the group like an ethereal spider’s web. Either the place was so remote no one could get to and from it, or the city itself had gone under. Which, while it was difficult to lose one of the old cities, stranger things had happened. Even if it boded terribly for the lot of them, there was nothing one could do but accept that. Well, accept and keep moving, even if the notion felt like rats trying to escape a sinking ship…

            “Alright, though we have options on the table now. Which one are we going with?” Teller’s words were gentle, even if they were effectively steering the conversation away from the somewhat darker, haunting topic. With the crisp, if not laconic air of a planner in a war meeting, Rush took over again.

            “Avalon I think would be the best outta all of them. Feel like there’s too much of a crowd in Shangri-La that might want an in on this. Same with El Dorado, and the climate’s kind of humid. Not good for mechanical projects. Avalon’s pretty isolated, and the majority of the folks there are small-time, or they’re trying to get away from something. Generally speaking, as long as you’re not introducing some kind of element or trying to raze the place to the ground, they’ll leave you alone. The only negative is that this is near the ocean, but if we’re keeping the construction hidden, it’ll be easy to deal with.”

            “That should be fine! I’ll be sure to let Viracocha and Hephaestus know. Perhaps we should meet there in a fortnight?” Though Wanderer hadn’t said anything that had rung as odd, Rush still looked like there was something confusing in what seemed like relatively plain, simple instructions.

            “…A what?”

            It took Wanderer a moment to figure out where the issue lay, but she did speak up again with a more sheepish smile. Orochi didn’t understand why there needed to be a correction, the words had made perfect sense to them…

            “Sorry, fourteen days from now, two weeks. Does that work?”

            “That’s fine. I’ll see you then. If you’ll excuse me,” Rush declared as he stood, giving a somewhat joking bow and waving to Drove as he turned to the door. “See you ‘round, old man!”

            Though the moniker hardly had an ounce of respect in it, Drove simply laughed before waving and seemingly responding in kind.

            “Same to you, grease monkey!”

            Orochi found one of their heads absently watching as Rush got to the door of the bar. Though to their surprise, the scene he’d apparently wanted it to open up to was not Atlantis, or any of the other cities. Instead there was a brief sliver beyond the door of the swirling, star-dappled sky and long, grassy plains that the In-Between occasionally resembled. At least when it wasn’t doing its best impressions of a roaring storm or some other inhospitable landscape. Still, brave move, especially for what seemed like a young god traveling alone, on foot. Just as quickly, the sight was taken from Orochi’s eyes as Rush stepped through and closed the door behind him.

 “You’ll still need to talk to one of Avalon’s guardians,” Pater mentioned, answering Drove’s nonverbal cue for another drink.

            “Avalon has guardians?” One of Orochi’s heads asked, even as another few rolled their eyes with a hissed of course it does, you think it would’ve lasted this long without at least one?

            “Every city does. Last I heard, Calypso had declared the city hers. I have not heard if she’s sharing the responsibility, or has stepped down, so I assume it’s still in effect.” Pater’s words had the tone of an explanation at first, before his eyes singled out the Wanderer with a more direct bit of instruction. “Talk to her first before you finalize this. Otherwise this won’t work at all.”

            “Right!” Wanderer’s reply was punctuated by her hopping off her stool, seemingly intent on getting through this bit of business right then and there. Orochi couldn’t help wondering if she would have gone through with it if her sister hadn’t reached out and gently grabbed her hand.

            “…You know you don’t have to leave right this second, right?” Though the Teller’s words hardly had an ounce of reproach, Wanderer still looked sheepish all the same.

            “Right, yes, right…sorry…”

            “It’s alright. But slow down for a hot minute, would you please? You got here only a few hours ago.” Even though it was hard to tell with a face covered in parchment wrappings, it certainly sounded like the Teller was smiling. “I do want to catch up.”

            Wanderer was definitely smiling, something a little softer as she hopped back onto the stool to be next to Teller. The pair fit together like a puzzle, Wanderer being a constant blur of energy as she launched into a story of some escapade or adventure, something that had apparently happened in Kitezh, Teller being the calmer, but active listener as silvery eyes crinkled at the edges. It was just barely visible considering the wrappings but the rest of her body language practically telegraphed it to the whole of the group. The whole tale passed by just a little too quickly for Orochi to pick up on any specifics, but Teller seemed to follow it easily enough, given that nary a moment later she was nearly bent over with laughter. Wanderer was similarly afflicted, settling in next to her sister, shoulder to shoulder as the noise wound down. For the most part, Orochi had been left on the outskirts of the conversation, and all eight heads were more content to watch the happenings with the laize-faire of someone that was a little too big for private moments without going into another room. But, for the moment, it did seem like the night had one more matter of interest for the dragon, as they straightened up at the sound of their collective name.

“By the way, Orochi,” Wanderer speaking up caught the eight-headed dragon’s attention like a fish on a lure, all looking down at the comparatively smaller entity. But, while the summons had definitely gotten their full consideration, the Wanderer’s head of steam had faltered as she seemed to look between all of their heads. “…Should I be addressing someone in particular, or…?”

            “It doesn’t really matter.” One of the heads, San, spoke up. “We’re all listening.”

            “Right, makes sense. My question though is, do you have anything you’re doing for the next…er, guess it’s going to be a while…”

            “…Why?” This had come from another head, Roku, eyes narrowing as another, Yon, spoke up.

            “Just tell us what you were thinking of. We’ll tell you if it’s feasible.”

            “Nothing major, I was just thinking that it might be a good idea to have you present to keep an eye on the construction, as it were. We really don’t want people stumbling into this, if at all possible.” Wanderer’s words summed up the job itself quite nicely, though for the moment the eight-headed dragon did want to get more of an idea of what they would be agreeing to. From what they all remembered, none of them had been to Avalon. At least not recently.

            “Ah, guard duty…question, what is Avalon generally like in terms of weather? I highly doubt we’ll be indoors for much of this.” San put as diplomatically as possible, the rest of the heads looking between themselves as they mentally translated; we’ll be too big to fit into any shelter you can provide.

            “We could try—” Wanderer started, only for Roku to cut her off.

            “No, trust us, you won’t be able to.”

            “I’d say it tends to be relatively balmy. You remember what we’ve told you about Albion and Eire? Some rain, but it never gets extremely cold. Not like the stories Woden tells.” Hina’s words had Orochi’s heads looking between themselves, before a decision was made.

            “We’ll do it."