“Harry agrees with the plan to set up another association hall far from the school annex to bring in people for fertility implants. He recommends we do it sooner rather than later,” Engineer Whitman told Todd. It was the engineer in Grandmother that spoke those words. She was unwrapping a newly manufactured robot as she spoke. A line up of four others sat on a shipping pallet on the other side of the workbench. They were a different design than usual. The supports under them were small and fixed, instead of the usual walking legs. They were equipped with four arms that reached out and up to hold propellers very similar to Companion’s wooden toys that flew when spun.

  “What are these devices?” Todd asked. Harry went back to Home Square early that morning. Grandmother sent Todd a note to meet her at the engineering workshop after classes were out for the day. Todd’s last class was in the structure. He didn’t get the note until he went to the apartment to store his weapons. From the amount of work that was complete it was Obvious Grandmother arrived at the workshop much earlier.

  “They are survey drones,” Grandmother replied. “It was intended for them to be used to complete a detailed survey of most of the continent. Control really doesn’t like them. They were targeted and brought down within minutes of crossing the boundary. Command couldn’t figure out what was happening. They thought it was a problem with the communication links to the Speedwell and stopped using them. They experienced problems with contacting the satellites too, so the communication links were suspect. Since we have a pretty good idea of the size of the staging area from the advance ship’s scans, I’m going to try keeping them inside the staging area and look over the boundary for another entrance.”

  “How do they survey?” Todd asked.

  “They have a bunch of different sensors. The main one is a set of cameras that can see both near and far,” Grandmother said. “One worry is I don’t know the shape of the boundary as it goes up. If it arcs over the structure, I could fly them farther out by keeping them high, but if it arcs over the staging area, higher up will shorten their life.”

  “What did you need me for?” Todd asked. It looked to him like Grandmother had the task well in hand.

  “I wanted your help coming up with a plan for upgrading the rest, assuming we will find one. I’d like to use the students for the travelers in a path well traveled. I’m hoping we can transport them through the staging area and it will still count,” Grandmother replied. “A rest crystal doesn’t have an interface. When do you think the upgraded rest graduated to an association hall?”

  “At the seventh furniture cluster,” Todd responded. “The one in the center.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Grandmother responded. She kept one hand on the drone as the propellers spun up one at a time for the current test. “So we will need seven sets of chairs and benches. I’m not going to worry about quality. Iron frames with sheet iron for the seats and table tops seem fine to me, or wood if we happen to have it.”

  “The scavenging class has started to bring in components. They are still only in tier one space so the quantity isn’t large. We could do a night run in tier two space. If we took the transport to Home Square or Londontown we could skip a night’s sleep and get it done,” Todd responded, as he stepped over to start unwrapping the next drone.

  “Londontown,” Grandmother decided. “We can load up some of the extras we have stashed in the inventory apartment there. Any unique items we find I can sell in the store.”

  “When do you want to go?” Todd asked. If they went to Home Square the unique items could be sold in Alex’s store. Todd thought Grandmother chose Londontown because she was avoiding Harry so she didn’t have to tell him the rest wasn’t ready yet.

  “I want to finish these drones today. Components won’t be useful unless we have a target,” Grandmother said, after a little thought. “I need to go to Home Square next free day to pick up the rest of my purchases. Let's go tomorrow night to Londontown. We can leave right after classes end. I’ll warn Ben we will be out for the night.” This rush to get it done only reinforced Todd's hunch that Irene didn’t want to disappoint Harry.

  “I have one composting plant seed. With a portable stove we can add the simplest food preparation area. Do you think a set of bunks would spawn a sleeping room? We got our first bunkroom using beds that were close matches to the inn furniture. I’ve never seen a bunk anywhere. It is a unique design by us to match the Speedwell furnishings.”

  “I think it would work,” Grandmother responded. She was unhooking the drone from the test rig. “We bought the upgrade on that first barracks room by using them. Although they did have pallets on them. Do we need a bunk room?”

  “Since it is an arrival station people might end up having to wait there for an escort. I think food, sanitation facilities and a bed are the least we can offer," Todd replied.

  “I’ve slept on a lot of rest area floors,” Grandmother countered as she set the tested drone onto her shipping pallet. “You're right,” she conceded when she straightened back up. “We should provide something better. We will need bowls for the water source in the kitchen and the sinks in the sanitation facilities. Did you get a chance to see the plant room I added to the annex yesterday?”

  After the late night chemistry demonstration, Grandmother checked the hall’s interface hoping to add a separate chemistry room. She couldn’t find one, but she did find an upgrade to the hall that required a large payment of plants. She thought it must be a grow room of some kind. The alternate payment list of icons were all solid, which meant everything was already in the hall someplace. Grandmother decided to buy it. Changes didn’t take effect until the space was empty, so she didn’t see the results herself.

  “Yes,” Todd responded. “It is very nice. It took some of the plants from the gallery in addition to all the ones we brought in for chemistry. I thought all the plants in the Gallery were already bound, but I guess not. It has several water sources, so it may have gotten some of your bowls too.” He sat the next drone onto the testing platform.

  “No!” Grandmother said. “Oh well I’ll have to check them and order up replacements.”

  “It either took the larger bowls or the higher tier materials made bigger sources,” Todd reported. “I looked through your remaining set but I don’t know how there were of each material.” She asked him to look at everything they set out for the chemistry experiment. Since they weren’t bound to a room all the equipment could start to decay. Touching an item once a day slowed that process down. The workrooms protected related items from wildspace decay without touching them, but only those items related to the work done in each rooms. That was why Grandmother wanted a chemistry room.

  They received the library when they tried to spawn an enchanting room. They never managed to get anything else. Suddenly Grandmother wondered if the library was an enchanting workshop and the plant room was a chemistry laboratory. If that was true, they should shift all the remaining chemistry apparatus over to the plant room and see if it decayed at wildspace rates.

  “Are there any empty areas in the plant room where we store the rest of the chemistry equipment?” Grandmother asked.

  “Yeah,” Todd responded. There is an open area in the center against one wall. I thought it would be a nice place for a bench.” The comment made Grandmother think the plant room was like a garden. Maybe they needed one of those in the new arrival station too. She shook her head, she was getting off track. They could always add the plant room later, just as she did for the annex.

  “So we need benches, chairs, tables, bunks, pallets, bowls with water, a portable stove and a planter for your compost plant seed. Is that about right?” Grandmother asked.

  “I’d like counters for the kitchen,” Todd suggested. “We might need the plants for the gallery. We added the same amount as the existing galleries before the debris for the central furniture set spawned. Obviously we didn’t try it without them. We could, but it might be faster if we pick up some plants while we are near a green. Unfortunately I am out of planters. I used the last of mine for the chemistry set.”

  “There is always something,” Grandmother responded. “There are the three extra large ones in the apartment in Londontown. I’ll take a wide mouth bag and see if they compact for transport. Three isn’t enough, but we can try it. If it doesn’t work we know what to add on the next try.”

  “We can try using non-integrated planters from the manufactory,” Todd suggested. “We can at least gather the plants with them when we visit Londontown.”

  “Squirrel!” a human voice called in the darkness. Unkell came awake with a jolt. She was high in a tree, secure in a quick nest. This was the green attached to the human square, but they didn’t move through the trees in the night. “Come here girl,” the voice called again. “We’ve got to head back soon.”

  A chattering sound came in response from very near Unkell. She swept her gaze around and reset her hold on her club. With a start of surprise she spotted the source of the noise. It was a forest spirit. It jumped from a neighboring tree to the branch tips of the tree Unkell was in. It began to burble at her. She thought there weren’t any on this continent. The last forest spirit she saw was back on Grove.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I can hear her over there,” a second human voice responded. This voice was deeper than the first and was probably male. “She sounds happy, maybe she wants to stay here.”

  “If she wants to stay she can,” the first voice commented. “The way she has been drawing us in this direction makes me think she wants to show us something. A structure squirrel will eat her in one bite. I can’t just leave her.” The voices were drawing nearer.

  Unkell looked in their direction. Two human warriors in leather armor were strolling along the forest floor. They were studying the branches above them along with the ground approaches. They were strangely camouflaged with bits of greenery hanging off of their bodies. The larger warrior was armed with a short sword and a glass shield. The thinner one was carrying a staff.

  The forest spirit was jumping from branch to branch, making a racket and working its way down to the ground.

  “There you are!” the thinner one declared, when they spotted the forest spirit. The little animal ran up the warrior’s staff and sat on their arm. “Did you find another berry avocado?”

  The forest spirit burbled something to the human, before jumping back down to the ground. It ran across the forest floor and straight up Unkell’s tree. The warrior looked up at Unkell and narrowed their eyes.

  “Unkell,” the warrior said in greeting, “sorry to bother you. We were looking for Squirrel.” The larger warrior came to an even greater level of alertness at her side.

  “Is she here?” the warrior asked softly. He could not see past the effects of the invisibility potion.

  “Camping in the tree,” the candidate responded. “I can just barely see her in the dark. Squirrel likes her.” It was the candidate, even though she was wearing unmarked armor. Unkell thought her companion was the same courier as before. He was the same size and his magic was red.

  The forest spirit was close now. Running up and down the tree’s trunk, scolding her. Unkell canceled out her invisibility potion. The forest spirits vocalizations grew happier. It ran around her one last time on the branches before running back down to the ground. Unkell secured her belongings and swung down out of the tree to land beside humans.

  I really should have moved on, Unkell thought to herself. With the fresh supply of vanishing fern spores she brewed a set of invisibility potions. Even a copper candidate wouldn’t be able to see through the spell. It took at least a silver or gold one to do that. It took a thousand years to go from copper to silver. Unkell felt certain the candidate could only be copper. It would appear that she was mistaken.

  “Greetings,” Unkell said to the humans. She said the word in her own language so she knew the humans heard only a growl. The courier surprised her by slightly tilting his head, as if he was trying to puzzle out her words. Her mask identity potion wore off sometime in the night. With her invisibility potion effects dismissed she stood before them in her natural form. Neither one of them showed any surprise.

  “This is awkward,” the candidate said. “We really weren’t looking for you. Please forgive our disturbance.”

  “Well I’m up now,” Unkell growled, knowing the humans wouldn’t understand her. “What are you two doing wandering around in the dark? And why are you both covered in plants?” she made a gesture at the offending items.

  “Yes,” the candidate replied. “We’re gathering plants. We’re working on upgrading a ruined rest to an association hall. We are all out of integrated planters, but Todd here insisted we pick up plants while we are here at the green.”

  “When we did it last time I used all edible plants,” the courier, Todd, explained. “This time around we are looking for rare ones that might be useful in chemistry.”

  “I thought you didn’t know any herbalism,” Unkell countered. She pointed at one of the plants hanging from the courier's frame and made a drinking motion, then showed an empty hand to the two of them.

  “Does that mean this one is useless?” Todd asked. He pulled the offending plant out of his harness and studied it. The pot it was in was a unfamiliar material. “Squirrel picked it out. I suspected she might want to eat it.” Unkell looked at the plant more closely. It was a dusty rose. Its flowers were a tier two red ingredient.

  “Uh-uh,” Unkell said in her closest approximation of negative in the human language. She mimed putting the plant back into his harness. She pointed at the plant, held up two fingers and then pointed at the red on Todd’s leathers.

  “So it’s a tier two red ingredient?” the candidate asked.

  “The flowers,” Unkell explained. Holding her hand up and spreading her fingers like the opening of a flower.

  “The flowers?” the courier asked. Then he really shocked her by saying, “Grr grah?” Which wasn’t really anything, but was an obvious attempt to repeat her words.

  “Uh huh,” Unkell grunted in agreement. “Flower,” she repeated, in her own tongue. Todd put the plant back into his harness and tried to say the word again. It sounded something like fleur to her. Closer but still missing components. Like with her name he was missing the lower register guttural components. She didn’t think the humans could hear them, or maybe they just couldn't speak them.

  “Flower,” She said again. She held up her free hand and growled in the midrange of her language. As she dropped the register of her growl she lowered her hand. She kept going until she got to the lowest tones. She closed her hand when she stopped growling.

  “Ah! Unkell is speaking partly in a range lower than we can hear,” the candidate said to her courier. “I suspect that the selkie can make noises higher than we can hear. We got lucky that they speak in a range we can detect. It’s easy to shift sound ranges with technology. It is so easy that there might be a spell that does it.” The candidate turned back to Unkell. “This is a fascinating conversation, but we really do need to get going. The students will be up soon.”

  “Good day to you Unkell,” Todd said, as the candidate called the forest spirit to her. The little animal hid in one of the candidate’s pockets.

  “Ugh,” Unkell grunted, noncommittally, as she watched the two humans head in the direction of the square. She pulled out a mask identity potion and drank it, carefully returning the empty container to her satchel. She swung her club up onto her shoulder and followed the two humans. It was moments before they noticed. They changed their pace allowing Unkell to catch up.

  It was a short walk back to the square. The night guards on the green entrance waved them through without comment. They swung by the furniture shop. Unkell waited in the courtyard when the humans went into the shop. They reemerged carrying half a dozen gathering bags each. The bags were in a variety of colors. Unkell noticed how they all discolored wherever the candidate touched them.

  They went straight from the furniture shop to the transportation room. Again the guard let them pass. The candidate opened her travel map and selected a crystal to the east that Unkell didn’t recognize. Todd stepped through the portal, heavily loaded with plants and bags. Now Unkell understood why they were wearing them. The candidate waited a moment and then activated the portal again.

  “You are welcome to come with us,” the candidate said. “If you came with us just to get access to the transport room, that’s fine too.”

  “I don’t know why I followed you,” Unkell said, being painfully honest since she knew the human didn’t understand her. “I think it is the forest spirit. It reminds me of home.” She turned and stepped through the portal.

  “You did come,” Todd said. He was waiting for her when she stepped out into the transport room on the other side. “Grandmother will be happy.” Todd opened the door of the transportation room and flicked light spells onto the ceiling. He scanned the room looking for threats, before stepping into it.

  Unkell followed him. Todd strode across the room and went down a hallway. He turned a corner before boldly opening a door. He stepped inside and did a quick scan, before he started unloading his plants. Unkell followed him in to find a herbalism grow room. Most of the grow beds were empty. Todd was adding his plants to the wall racks. The far side of the room featured a large growing pond that was completely empty. Unkell did a quick count and thought the room contained just the purchase plants.

  Interestingly a brew station was set up. It was a different setup from what her people used, but she could see how it would work. The amount and diversity of glass bottles and metal bowls was impressive. There was even an aluminum set of bowls. It was missing a distiller, but that was a tool that could only be purchased by at least a tier two herbalist. The candidate arrived and began unloading her own plants.

  “We need to hurry,” the candidate announced. “My first class is in the Speedwell. Let’s just drop the bags in the storage room and run out.”

  “I told you we didn’t have time to haul that chair back,” Todd commented.

  “I know,” the candidate responded.

  “My first class is in the Speedwell too. I have quick cooking,” Todd added.

  “Unkell, since no one knows you're here. It will be safer for you to come with us out to the Speedwell. I’m not certain we’ll catch anyone to tell them. We might pass them during travel. I’m afraid there could be a misunderstanding,” the candidate explained, quickly. She was lifting the plants out of the back of Todd’s harness. She turned to let Todd unload her.

  “Uh huh,” Unkell responded. She came this far. She saw no reason to stop now.

  “Good,” the candidate responded.

  “You're clear,” Todd replied. They hustled out of the room and went down the hall to another, where they literally tossed the bags into the room from the door. They jogged out of the hallway and across the main hall to the exit doors into the structure, where they broke into a run. Unkell’s kind were known for their ability to run, but she needed to push herself to keep up.

  They ran through halls and out a structure entrance without pause. They crossed a small stream and ran up a slope under the trees. They stopped suddenly, within sight of two pillars that rose up on either side of the road.

  “Wait here,” the candidate said. “I’ll be right back with the cart.” She jogged forward.

  “I was severely injured by a jaguar just over the boundary once,” Todd explained to Unkell. “Grandmother isn’t affected by the border the same way as the rest of us since she reached tier six. The cart isn’t far, but if we leave it here the structure eats at it.”

  A light appeared not far up the path. It began moving toward them.

  “That’s the cart,” Todd observed. “We’ll ride in it back to the Speedwell.” A large object approached them. Unkell saw that it was made of metal and glass. When it stopped beside them, Todd opened a door in the side and ushered her into it, before circling around getting in the back.

  “How are we doing?” Todd asked from the back.

  “We’re fine,” the candidate announced, even as the vehicle started moving. Unkell grabbed a hold of the structure around her as the unusual motion startled her. “We should make it before breakfast is over.”