"So...you're heading out?" Charmaine asked for the third time.

While Sai clearly had some past issues with Charmaine, she wasn't taking it out on the rest of the group as she led them to the exit to her castle fortress. In fact, she seemed almost like she didn't want them to go so soon.

"Yep, we have our next destination all picked out," Esther said.

"Which is...?" Charmaine asked. "Maybe I could help you on the way."

"It doesn't matter where we're–" Sai started.

"My village," Serril said. Sai looked like they were trying very hard to not audibly groan at Serril giving the information so freely. "It's not far from here."

"A village not far from here..." Charmaine said. "You don't mean Aranae, do you?"

"That's it," Serril said.

"I've been there, good trading post," Charmaine said. "Pain in the ass to get a pass if you don't know the right people."

"Well, we have Serril for that, so..." Sai said.

They reached one of the paths through the outer walls of the fortress.

"Guess this is it," Charmaine said.

Ash felt bad about leaving Charmaine like this. The princess seemingly was alone in this place, and her first guests were leaving after only a brief encounter. It was possible she wasn't telling the truth, or she wasn't to be trusted, but Ash's gut said she was.

"Do you...want to come with us?" Ash asked.

"I don't know if that's a good idea..." Sai said.

"We probably need all the help we can get," Esther said. "I'm fine with it."

"Great!" Charmaine said. "I maybe already packed my stuff." She held up a backpack.

The party left the fortress, following a dirt pathway. Serril and Charmaine were in front, chatting like they were old pals, with Esther in the middle and Sai and Ash in the rear.

"You didn't have to ask her that," Sai said.

"Sorry," Ash said. "Maybe if you explained what was with you two, it'd be easier to...sorry, that's not fair."

"No, you're right," Sai said. They gritted their teeth. "I'll tell you later when we're not around a lot of people."

The pathway forked into other roads, and the group followed the one that led to a cave mouth.

“I mentioned that my village is underground, right?” Serril said.

Ash didn’t realize that caves were so humid. Or at least this one was. She was sweating pretty quickly. Serril seemed to be relishing the climate, leading the group ahead, sniffing the ground to make sure they had the right path.

“We won’t have to be in the tunnels too long," Serril said. "And since I’m here, we probably won’t get attacked.”

“Probably?” Esther asked. “Alright, maybe now is a good time to explain what’s going on with you. Why aren’t you with your people?”

“They sent me away to find something.” Serril said.

“Can you be slightly less vague?” Esther asked. “We told you our thing.”

“I mean, fair is fair.” Ash said.

Serril sighed, and stopped sniffing around for a moment.

“Ever since Verdant Sun, Aranae has been completely overfilled. It was a refuge for dragons that weren't allied with the Colony, and now we’re a refuge for some of the other tribes too. My father sent me to find another place so we weren't so stuffed. Unfortunately, I ended up in that dreary Colony city on my travels.”

“Yeah, right in my office.” Sai said.

“And Sai was kind enough to hide me.” Serril said. “Avoiding me a fate of assisting Verdant Colony research.”

"We're all trying to get away from the Colony, huh?" Ash asked.

A string of lights guided the way when they were closer to the city. Ash realized she'd never seen a dragon in person before Serril. They were lessons about them in class, but they always made sure to mention that they had aligned with the Verdant Colony, even if not all of them did.

It felt like it took about an hour before they reached...a dead end.

"And here we are," Serril said.

"Really?" Ash asked. "It looks kind of...like we can't get through that."

Serril climbed about halfway up the rock wall, and knocked in a strange pattern. He whispered something, then hopped down. A few moments later, the stone wall rumbled, opening a pathway to the group.

Ash wondered if she stepped through a portal when they walked through the archway to Aranae.

In a weird way, it was kind of magical. She’d never seen anything like it. Though it was underground, it didn’t look that way, there was a sky, a sun…it was bright. Metal buildings, slightly rusted and imposing rose around them.

And perhaps even more of a culture shock came from the city’s population. Half of it were the dragons, rushing around, climbing all these buildings, tapping on strange devices on their wrists, giving away their emotions with their tails.

The other half were something so rare in Ash's life up until then it might as well have been alien; Eteros villagers.

The mostly robotic Eteros have a few different subspecies (I think that’d be the right word here despite the cybernetics of them), and their wildlife was common in some landscapes, but the more humanoid peoples were rarely spoken of. They were about waist height with the group, and moved more rhythmically.

With the masses of people walking around, it was pretty clear Serril wasn’t lying about the overpopulation here. Ash felt almost claustrophobic looking at the masses scuttling and running about.

“Originally this place was carved out by the  dragons," Serril explained. "Then a few years ago, Eteros moved in. If it makes you feel better, the groups here were ones that didn’t support the Colony."

A few dragons were staring at Ash and the others, mostly with looks that said, “Come on, really? More?” The Eteros Ash couldn’t read the expressions of, their glowing eyes blinked a bit when they looked at them. In the stories at least, there weren't a lot of willing overlap between Eteros and humans.

“I’ll give you guys a quick tour on the way.” Serril said. “First up, you’ll notice the pipes leading upwards. Those bring a lot of things around, but most importantly the bigger ones bring water down from above down for us.”

Ash stopped for a second to look at the pipes when a villager bumped into her which hurt more than she expected because of the metal. A few angry beeps at Ash hurt her feelings more than anything.

 “You’ll want to keep moving here.” Serril told her. “Next, look up!”

I had seen the stationary screens we had around in Quatra and my town but nothing like a simulated sun and sky.

“It’s all screens.” Serril said. “Just wait until night!”

“You weren’t kidding about how crowded it is here.” Sai said as another group of Eteros villagers pushed past him.

“Well, we’re by the shops. It’s a bit more crowded here.” Serril said. “If you need anything, let me know, I’ll help you haggle.”

We passed through the set up stands and shops and it got slightly less crowded. I could at least uncross my arms without smacking someone. We passed by a large block of buildings connected with walkways.

“Alright, here are the housing units. The last building on the right is the one we want.”

They all looked the same so Ash wasn’t sure which building Serril was talking about. He led them into one building and they promptly darted around long hallways with humming oppressively bright lights. There was a dragon a bit stronger looking than the others standing by a doorway that Serril stopped at.

“Serril," The dragon snarled. "I didn’t expect to see you here today.” She glanced over us. “With…guests.”

“I need to see my father.” Serril said.

“Of course. I must warn you though, he’s in one of his moods.” The dragon said.

Serril knocked on the door. An older dragon looked up from his desk, none too pleased at the company.

“Serril…”

“Father, please listen.”

“I ask you to find more space and you bring... more back with you.” Serril’s father said.

“Father, they’re just passing through. It’s important–”

“They cannot stay here unless they work, you know that right?”

Ash did not know that, but Serril immediately nodded.

“And they cannot just work a single night and leave. They need to contribute.”

Ash expected Sai to interject but they still looked defeated after their reunion with Charmaine.

Esther actually started to say something but Serril cut her off.

“I understand.” Serril said.

“They’ll be working in the scrap fields," Serril's father said. "I expect you to explain it well. Bring them there now. Once they’ve begun working, I expect you back here for a more thorough explanation, and an orientation for our very temporary guests."

The group left feeling defeated. Ash could barely force a smile when the dragon at the door wished them “A lovely stay in Aranae.” They were quiet half-shoving through the droves of Eteros and dragons before Serril finally started talking again.

“I’m sorry.” Serril said. “It’s my fault.”

“How long are we going to have to work?” I asked.

“Are we getting paid for this?” Sai asked.

"I’m not sure how long, but we’ll get paid in housing and food.” Serril said. “If you’re getting paid actual currency, that might take a bit longer. But you don’t want to stay here too long.”

"That's right, we don't," Esther said. "We need to keep moving, not stop for a job."

“Is there a temple here?” Ash asked.

“Yeah, it’s on the way.” Serril said.

The Aranae temple was built into a wall of the caves, and was covered in etchings. Esther touched one of the glyphs around the wall.

"Esther..." Ash said. "The sword..."

"Hm?" Esther turned to the sword sheathed on her back, which had begun to glow. She unsheathed it.

Suddenly they heard a massive boom, as if many metal parts fell to the ground at once.

Ash turned to see all the Eteros villagers kneeling, their glowing eyes all staring at Esther. They made a humming noise together, and then spoke. For the first time since arriving, Ash understood what they said. One phrase, all together, as if a confirmation of what they saw in front of them.

“Child of the Xionis.”

 Esther could only stare forward, as if this were a moment she’d waited a long time for.

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