Two hours later, Terra and I walk toward the cave where the gate of the Rich and Destitute is located. Terra tells me the Helping Hands finished their work there a few days ago, and Gen and the Elderly Rats have been living there since. She also told me that the Wretched Rats corpse has been frozen and is being studied by a group named the “Free People’s Beast Directory Project” or “BDP.”

I do not know what to think about the latter information, but I am looking forward to seeing Gen and the Elderly Rat. Though it’s hard to think about our reunion because I am busy gawking at the stacks of papers Terra and I are carrying. The papers that are all bound together with strings are full of potential candidates for the hundred greater tokens. I have even had to use the cattail to help support them because otherwise, my arms may literally collapse.

{Terra, are all these papers necessary? It’s only a hundred tokens.}

“Well, you asked for the information of everyone I would recommend.”

{Aye, but I only expected a few sentences on each. This seems closer to a memoir on each of their lives.}

“It is only a few sentences. It’s just that there are several thousand potential candidates.” She chuckles, sighs, and then continues, “And don’t even get me started on the groups that have either been formed in the camps or decided to migrate here from out of state. They have been gaining members and influence fast.”

{I only have one hundred tokens! What am I meant to do with several thousand names!}

“Don’t worry. I put together a list of top recommendations for both individuals and groups. Just hang onto everything in case you ever have questions. They may or may not be in there, but they are all listed alphabetically so you can just search for them to see if you can find a bit of info on that person or group.”

My shoulders relax, and I nod. {Aye. As long as there is a list of top recommendations, I suppose it’s not an issue then. I appreciate the thoroughness, if nothing else.}

“Ah, no way did I put all that together. I outsourced the gathering of information to a Consortium subsidiary firm and then had Wolf with the Helping Hands organize everything with some code he threw together.”

{I do not know what code has to do with anything, but aye, that makes more sense. I was curious how thou had the time for all this. How are things with the Consortium?}

“The relationship has taken a lot of the burden of preparation off of me.” She smirks and looks at me with me. “You and I have a meeting with them in two days to iron out the haze shipments.”

{I see.} 

‘I was somewhat hoping I would not have to participate in that.’

“Ah, speaking of meetings, that reminds me. I also have a meeting with some government military officials that I’d like you to be there for too.”

{What!?} I recoil, almost dropping the papers. {Military! Why art thou so unconcerned about something so serious!?}

‘Prithee, nay, not nobles!’

Terra nods. “I was given an official letter by government agents a week or so ago. It was a request for a meeting, and I agreed to get them to pull out the agents from the Department of Homeland Security that had been searching for you.” We turn into the Ramble, a wooded area of Central Park. “And it’s not that I’m unconcerned, this is something I wanted to avoid, but it’ll be remote with Lincoln and Pierce acting as Consortium middlemen, so no need to worry right now.”

‘...So Lincoln and Pierce are going to help us deal with the government? Interesting. I shall have to remember them whenever those sorts of people are around.’

As we approach the cave, Terra explains what she means by ‘remote’ and what the meeting is intended to discuss. Apparently, the topics of this meeting will be about my prophecies and something else they refused to mention in the epistle they gave Terra.

“Anyway, the Helping Hands finished your cave a few days ago. This can serve as an entrance you can use as your leisure or allow exceptional candidates to use it. Well, in all honesty, you can do whatever you want with it. It’s yours after all… Actually, it’s technically the city's property, but that hasn’t stopped us yet. So ignoring that it’s yours, though, I still say it’s better to send the general populace to the other gate at my hotel. It can handle more people than this one.“

Arriving at the cave, I am greeted by a thick door coated in fragments of stained glass in the pattern of a fairy with butterfly wings. The sounds of howling, squeaks, and objects clanging against walls echo from just beyond the elegant door.

“Hey! Stop throwing shit at the rats!” I hear Lorcan's voice shout. “Dammit, monkey, drop the pudding cup right now! You better not…” 

There’s a thunk and the sound of something splatting against something.

“Gaaah!” Lorcan shouts in frustration. “Fine! I don’t even care! That was the last one we had, and you just wasted it!”

“Gen, your Elderly Rat friends, and Lorcan are here too. They…” With a stiff, lying voice Terra continues, “Gen and the Elderly Rat get along so… so great.” 

{They… they do not get along?}

She laughs, her voice relaxes, and she says, “Just kidding, they actually do get along well. Too well.”

The door to the cave swings open. What I find is Gen standing atop a table with his arms in the air and screaming at Lorcan. Around the table the Elderly Rats swing their arms and dance in a circle around the table, cheering and encouraging Gen to continue making a scene.

I shake my head, and Terra kicks the side of the door frame with her heels. The sound echoes and everyone freezes. Their eyes all slowly drift toward the door, after which their heads follow. Gen falls onto his backside and stares at Terra. The Elderly Rats glance at Gen and then also drop onto their backsides, mimicking Gen.

{What didst thou do to them?}

Terra moves through the doorway, searching for somewhere to set down the papers she is carrying. {I didn’t do anything really.} She glances back and tilts her head. {They sort of just… well, picked up on their own, and started doing things like that when I’m around.}

‘That sounded a little ominous.’

While Gen and the three Elderly rats watch Terra I study them for any changes they might have undergone since I was here last. First the ape, Gen, his hair seems to have grown thicker, his arms a little longer, and his joints seem slightly less stiff. If Gen and I were still scavenging rubbish like we once were, it seems it would be much more capable of assisting me. On occasion, his eyes will glance at the Elderly Rats who all glance back. It is as if they are talking to one another with their eyes.

The Elderly Rats on the other hand. It has been a while since I have seen them, without all the armor, but they seem to have developed a habit of wearing worn scraps of wood. Around their forearms, they tie long planks, and on their back, they have slabs of wood bound to them by strings, wires, and ropes tied around their chests. All three of them carry some item that seems capable of being used as a weapon: one stick with a rock tied to it, one board with nails, and a piece of metal bent into a hook.

Gen and the three Elderly Rats watch Terra as she moves around, but they begin to drift from her to me who is still standing in the doorway. They all pause, look me up and down, and then tilt their heads, looking at me up and down again. The four of them remain quiet for another moment, and then all eight of their pupils expand. 

The sounds of ‘oohs’ and squeaks reverberate as they leap to their feet and charge me. I take a step back as I realize their intention, but it is too late. Gen jumps toward my chest, and the Elderly Rats grab my legs. As the air is filled with the papers I carried all the way here, and my vision is being turned skyward, I understand something at that moment—Gen and the Elderly Rats get along too well.

---

---

It’s now ten or so hours later, and I am sitting alone at a table surrounded by papers and books. After being tackled by four hairy people, I went to the RVs to change my skirt and clean my armor. That did not take long, but I did choose to go ahead and separate from the others then. Terra and Lorcan decide to go get some sleep. Lorcan also took both Gen and the Elderly Rats with him after they managed to tear them away from the arc suit. Since they were just as muddy as my skirt was, Terra told Lorcan that he needed to give them a bath.

With normal sleep being something I am incapable of, I began doing other things. I went into Fairy’s Pantry for several hours and helped Earl search for her beast spirit. When I questioned Earl about its appearance Earl seemed unusually vague. It felt as if she was hiding something from me. In the end, the two of us mostly kept to the area around the gate’s entrance in the Ancient Forest and found nothing. I did manage to increase my Strength stat by pulling at the limbs of a fig tree while I was there, which was a welcome sight.

As of right now, I am sitting in an unfamiliar room within the cave. It was just under three weeks ago now that the Helping Hands began fashioning the cave into an actual, hospitable place and they certainly managed to do it.

Of course, the gate door and the wall are the same as they were and still tell the story of a poor man and a rich woman who eventually make it to the same point—the gate itself. There the man in ragged leather and the woman in golden armor cross swords and hold the gate closed.

However, both the floor and ceiling have been changed. There is now a large chandelier that hangs in the center of the gate room, and the floor has been smoothed out and covered with white marble. The same has been done in what was formerly the rubbish room, except the rubbish room has furniture and they have erected a small wall effectively turning it into two rooms. 

The entrance room has a few couches, paintings, wall carvings of Fairies, and other such things one would expect the Helping Hands to make. Terra says it is to make this entrance feel special, but in reality, its purpose is really to just funnel people into the gate room. People do not like to linger in rooms that feel too fancy for very long. 

As for the other room, that is where I am now, reading and sitting at a polished mahogany desk. This room is a private area that I think Terra may have been using on occasion to stay out of the public eye. It consists of this desk, a lap-top with some other devices, a small bed, and then, my favorite part, a wall of carved bookshelves filled with books. The books cover subjects like sustainable ecosystems, both common and famous species of animal, architectural designs, and medicines.

I shut a book called “Mutations in the Animal Kingdom,” return it to its shelf and then sit down. It’s time I do something I have been avoiding.

While everyone else sleeps or goes about their own day, I need to select some names for an expedition into Fairy’s Pantry before it is full of beasts. It seemed fairly evident to me that tempers are rising around the camp. People arrived over a fortnight ago, and while the city falls apart around them, they remain idle, waiting for me. It’s time to give them some signs that things are moving forward.

With my deputy clippie next to me, I start to scribble names onto it. My goal is to first select twelve individuals and then sixteen groups that have some influence in the camps for the initial excursion into the Tower. They all shall get to see the Fairy’s Pantry, and also help carry the supplies that Byron will need to keep the insects alive and assist me in my experiments. 

Some of these people and groups I shall be assigning tokens as well, yet the primary purpose of all of this is to pacify and build relationships with them. Some of Terra’s recommendations, I am less than happy about having to humor, but I am not a dullard. We must mollify as many factions as we can until we are totally isolated from the world. [1]

Taking some time looking through the stacks of papers, I find one that already seemed to have been partially put together by Terra. I decide to use the half put together list and simply add some people I believe deserve to attend as well.

I stop and read through the names once more. The last three added by Terra and the two Consortium Solicitors added by me are not individuals I necessarily chose but are important additions to the expedition, so I do not count them amongst the twelve. Of everyone on the list, it’s the bottom three government officials added by Terra that I am the most worried about and the wariest of. I intend to allow Terra and the Consortium to handle them while I merely observe or listen in from time to time.

With those twelve names down, I move on to the list of groups. Each of these groups helped the camps in some way, but there was not a single person that really stood out individually. Still, we cannot ignore them, so the people Terra hired narrowed the list down to the ones that are important to our future or have the potential to be vital to it.

There are at least three hundred groups on this list, but I ignore most of them, particularly the dozens of odd religions on it since I only plan to select sixteen groups in all. As I did with the individuals, I intend to grant what I think are the top sixteen groups some tokens based on how much favor I wish to garner with them. Though I will need to approve who they wish to nominate for the tokens, it should still hopefully calm some of the fervor in the camps. 

As for this list, it is already assembled so I merely need to write the number of tokens I will reward them on the right side and that will secure their invitation to our little expedition.

With the last group for the expedition written down, I throw my arms up and slump in my chair. My eyes move across the lists one more time. ‘Aye. Thirty-two of the greater tokens have just been assigned to groups. I still have to approve who they nominate, but this shall be an excellent motivator for the camps. Perhaps after I have seeded Fairy’s Pantry with insects, I shall take a more active approach for the rest.’

One of the Cosmic Systems walls appears.

‘Huzzah! ...But alas, my mind is too heavy to enjoy it.’ Turning toward the wall, I stare at it and allow my mind to settle. I do not feel physically tired, but I do feel mentally exhausted. This has taken me multiple hours. ‘Come to think of it, where has Terra been all day? It has to be midday outside by now.’

There is a knock on the door, and it swings open. Terra walks in with half-open eyes. ‘Oh.’ I tilt my head, staring at her. ‘Was she sleeping all this time, or did she not go to sleep until a while after we separated?’

“I have something for you,” she says, suppressing a tiny yawn. Raising her hand, I see a big iron key. “This key should open that coffin of yours, but...” Here tiredness disappears, and she shakes the key while peering at me. “But if you plan to open it, I’m coming with you.” 

---

Standing in the gate room, I glance down at my hands, where the large iron key sits. To be honest, the keys of this era seemed flimsy to me, but the bit at the end of this one is at least the size of a man’s fist. If the size of the key’s bit is any indication, unlocking what it goes to will take a lot of force.

Hearing the sounds of boots against the marble floor, I look toward the gate room’s entrance. In walks the familiar woman with both a bag and tent on her back. Terra said she wanted to come with me if I planned to use the key sooner rather than later. Depending on what Earl says when I speak to her, I do plan to open it. This coffin is something that has been hanging over my head for a while now, and I wish to resolve it so that I may move on.

Except none of that explains the smirk on Terra’s face when she walks through the doorway and removes her Speaker of Speaker’s helmet. I am about to say something, but what I see next leaves me lost for words. From around the corner struts Lorcan, wearing a big pair of dark spectacles, an unlit cigarette in his mouth, a long jacket tied around his waist, and a giant bag of supplies on his back. 

Following behind him and mimicking his strut is Gen. Gen wears matching spectacles, a smaller version of Lorcan’s jacket, and a bag big enough for a child on his back. Yet, it continues with the Elderly Rats, whose legs are too stumpy to strut, so they instead waddle in. All three of the Elderly Rats wear the same spectacles and jackets as Lorcan and Gen. The only difference is their bag is a small coin purse that appears to have been stuffed with wafer crumbs and that they are pulling a small wagon with their wooden armor in it.

All four of them stop and stare at me while Terra locks her eyes on the gate in front of her and pretends not to pay them any mind. 

“Sup.” Lorcan pushes his red hair from his eyes and says, “We doing this or not? I gotta be back by the morning to take care of ma, so I don’t have long.”

I look at Gen, who stands with a half-open mouth staring off into space, and then at the Elderly Rats who have taken the bags off their back and are eating their crumbs. Following my gaze, Lorcan raises his foot and nudges the belly of the Elderly Rats. “Hey, that was supposed to be for you to eat later!” He looks back at me and says, “Is there some reason you’re staring at me? Something on my face?”

Raising my hand, I point at all four of the hairy reasons.

“The glasses? You don’t have much experience with children?” He sighs as if the reason is obvious. “Don’t you know kids love to wear the same thing the adults are? These bozos are pretty much children, so copying me and wearing the same things as me makes their day.”

‘A man who knows how to take care of children? Odd. But wait… Aye, I have seen the Elderly Rats’ offspring. They are not children. They are just mischief-makers. It’s the same for Gen.’ Deciding it is not worth pursuing, I wave him away and command it, ‘Please, open.’

The gate doors creak.

Above our head, the chandelier goes dim and then out. With the room in total dark, silence permeates the room. A tiny amount of vapor and soft violet light leaks from between the crack in the door, reflecting on the glass walls and the chandelier. There is a certain sense of wistfulness that the air of Tenebrous seems to impart upon me. It is buried deep beneath my hate for it, yet I cannot help but wonder if the others will feel the same. I glance at the people around, finding everyone staring at the door with tilted heads as violet light reflects off of their pupils. It would seem the feeling is mutual.

The woman in golden armor and the man in the raggedy armor separate their glass swords, and the gate slides ever more open as the two knights drift apart. 

As it was foretold in the Knight's adventure, the first thing that new arrivals see is a single fig tree rich in fruit. All around this fig tree is a circle of yellow and purple flowers that sway ever so slightly. Past that are more fruit trees filled with plums, and then further away, trees so big that together we would not be able to link our arms around them.

A land of adventure, nay, a world—my world—has just been opened to all who stand in this room. This is the type of place I dreamed of with Sir Mouser in the squalor of London.

Staring at it, the wistfulness is swept away and replaced with something else, pride. ‘...It really did not really sink in until just now, but… I did something rather crisp making the Fairy’s Pantry, did I not?’ 

Straightening my back, I puff out my chest and march through the gate as if it is nothing new to me. ‘Aye, I created something rather special, and now I must be the Knight who braves it. A place made by me for me… I shall ignore the fact that there are tens of thousands of people that will also use it.’

With the sounds of my ‘titanium’ boot’s against the marble floor, the others seem to be partly removed from their stupors and follow behind. When we pass through the gate, everyone’s eyes immediately turn up and toward the tops of the enormous sequoias and redwoods with mouths agape.

Lorcan removes his dark glasses.”Damn, I wish I could see how tall those things are.”

Terra glances at the bags in Lorcan’s hands and then holds up a finger. “We’re going to need more lights if we’re going to be here; I’ll be right back.” As if she is worried everything will disappear, she almost starts running, but she stops herself just short. With Lorcan around, she must maintain her Galtry demeanor, but I still see her start running after passing through the gate room.

‘What do they mean lights?’ I look around, finding everything is illuminated; although, it all has the same violet hue as everything does with my night vision. ‘Ah! My negating membrane has been up this whole time. I have yet to look at Fairy’s Pantry without my night vision active.’ 

Closing my eyes, the forest becomes darker. Here, in the depths of the redwood forest, it is reminiscent of the late hours of twilight with a very light purple hue. ‘...Hmm, I wish I could get a bit more light around here. I did not consider the trees, and now that I think about it, I also did not consider that there would be a cloud around the empyrean itself. So it’s both cloudy, and we are in tree cover; naturally, it would be a bit dark.’

Noticing a glow next to me, I look over to find Earl performing a clumsy curtsy. “Greeting: Welcome back, Mistress. I see the Mistress has brought some fleshies to witness the Tower’s glory.” She glances at Gen and the Elderly Rats. “The Mistress has also brought some beasts for them to battle.”

I ignore Earl’s latter comment and say, {Aye, I appreciate the greeting, Earl. It was a perfect curtsy.}

Earl grins, and her lantern squeaks as she repeats her clumsy curtsy. “Response: This one practiced.”

{Aye, thou did well.} I glance around and then ask, {Earl, is it possible to make it brighter? It is a bit too dark.}

Terra walks back through the gate just as the world around brightens. The trees, flowers, fruit,  and foliage become clearer—it is now more reminiscent of early twilight.

{It’s incredible, Constance,} Terra says in my head.
The Elderly Rat stuff some crumbs in their mouth, staring at huge fern leaves. “Squuaaa.”
“Aoooo,” Gen says in a small voice, looking upward at the trees.
“Goddamn, this shit is insane.” Lorcan removes his dark glasses and squints. “Now I wish I hadn’t drunk so much bourbon last night.”

“Statement: This is as bright as the empyrean can make things, and it can only do so for what would equate to just over half a day in the material realm. Therefore, this one has set Fairy’s Pantry to a twelve-hour day and night cycle.”

{Aye. That is something I should have asked earlier, I suppose.} Glancing around, I do a spin and then say, {I wish to enjoy the scenery for a moment, but I wish to go to the coffin, and then I shall assist thee in finding the beast spirit.}

“Response: The snack is just outside the forest buried in some of the hedges. This one shall lead the Mistress there so that she may consume it.”

{Oh, I meant to ask, doth thou believe it is safe to open?}

Raising an eyebrow, Earl tilts her head and says, “Answer: This one doubts the two Kiln sealed within would share a coffin if they were active.”

{Two?!}

---

Drops of dew fall from the tops of oak trees onto the flowers and brush beneath them. I stand in front of the iron coffin that sits upright with its backside entombed in thick thorny bushes that grew around it during the making of Fairy’s Pantry. The empyrean’s violet light reflects off the coffin's exterior as everyone remains silent, waiting to see what comes out. 

I raise the big iron key and slide it into the coffin’s mechanism. Without obstruction, it slides in perfectly, making a loud clink as it does so.

‘Two. There is not one but two Kiln in here.’ Pushing the cattail into the arc suit’s glove, I prepare to turn. ‘I shan’t hesitate, though. Let us see what the coffin holds within.’