Bel walked along the row of tables, their surfaces now cleaned of dust and covered with the stone tablets from the teleporter and her books on Technis and his technology.

  She had thought that the designs on the tablets were pretty before, but her new eye revealed their true nature. The flat lines and arcs on the tablets now leaped into the air, twisting and curling into rainbow patterns that were both more confusing and more meaningful. Bel could almost taste the intention behind the intricate patterns, a confusing product of the new senses that came with her spirit eye.

  She paused before a tablet with a crazed mess of squiggles on its front. She knew, instinctively, that it was describing motion through an area of something thick and to a place somewhere in the west. It was also disconnected – Bel could see a dangling set of lines thrashing through the air around the tablet, like grasping hands that were reaching out but finding nothing to hold on to.

  A voice interrupted her thoughts. “You are still down here?”

  Bel looked up with surprise as Manipule clicked her tongue and strode across the room. Oculaire accompanied her, taking over during Bel’s distraction to guard Manipule and her egg. Orseis trailed after them, carrying several bowls of food in her tentacles.

  Bel felt a sense of queasy worry when she looked at the large, clay egg. “Aren’t they close to hatching? Is it really okay for you to wander around with that?”

  Manipule glared at Bel. Bel immediately wished that she could choose the option of turning to stone, but she had no easy escape.

  “And I would not be coming down here with food for you if you had come out!”

  Bel looked at Oculaire for help, but the winged gorgon gave her a look that laid the blame at Bel’s feet.

  Manipule shook her finger at Bel. “I could wait forever and you would still be here, starving yourself to death.”

  “But–”

  “And you said yourself that you won’t do anything before Beth arrives! What is the point of not eating for days until that happens?”

  Bel glanced at en empty bowl that she’d perched at the edge of a table. It had a few dried bits of grain crusted to its edge, the last remnants of a meal that she’d finished half a day ago. Her stomach churned at the thought of fresh, warm food.

  “I got distracted,” Bel explained as she massaged the gaping void of her empty stomach.

  Manipule snorted. “Beth will arrive to find your desiccated remains down here. You must leave sometimes, if only to breath the fresh air.”

  Despite her harsh words, Manipule smiled as she took a bowl from Orseis. “Clear off a table and we can eat.”

  Bel only hesitated for a moment before clearing the tablets from a table, carefully stacking them back in their original shelves by the teleportation device.

  Orseis put down the rest of the bowls and Bel quickly grabbed one for herself, thanked them for the food, and began cramming it into her mouth. Her hunger made itself loudly obvious with the groaning of her tummy.

  “Where are you going?” Manipule asked.

  Bel looked up and saw that Orseis had turned to leave.

  “I already ate mine,” Orseis said, waving her tentacles at one of the bowls. “So now I’m going to go fishing.”

  Manipule removed the bowl’s cover and was dismayed to see it had already been emptied. Bel guessed that Orseis had eaten it the moment Manipule took her eyes off of the young girl.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to stay with us? Maybe tell us about what you’ve been getting up to with the humans?”

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  Orseis shook her head. “Nope. I want to go fishing.”

  “You don’t even want your dessert?” Manipule pulled out a small bag and shook it enticingly.

  Orseis’ eyes widened. “Are those rock candies?”

  Manipule shook the bag again. “It sounds like it.”

  Bel shook her head with admiration as she watched the gorgon trick Orseis into doing what she wanted. Manipule cleverly lead Orseis through a lesson in manners that ended with her receiving a treat, and the little cuttle-girl seemed oblivious to the obvious manipulation.

  As she watched, Bel’s improved lung capacity meant she didn’t need to pause for breath as she finished her food. She wanted to immediately return to the tablets, but she would be as rude as Orseis if didn’t show a bit of gratitude.

  “How are things going with you, Manipule? Are the gorgons settling in well?”

  When Manipule took a long breath and heaved an equally drawn out sigh, Bel realized that the other gorgon was eating in the dimly lit room so that she had a private place to vent about something. Bel cast a desperate look towards Oculaire, but the other gorgon had been beat a surreptitious retreat towards the room’s entrance.

  “I traded with the humans for this candy,” Manipule began. “I think that we are not so different, and Crecerelle has been working to bring our groups together.”

  Bel nodded, waiting for the complaints to begin.

  “However, the other gorgons object to these children interacting with them.”

  Manipule wrapped her arms around the clay vessel, her expression pained. “I think it would be a good chance for us to start differently here on the surface, if our children play together.”

  Bel grimaced with guilt. She’d been worried about her own problems – and they were real problems – but she hadn’t spared any thoughts for the gorgons that she had lead to the surface.

  Manipule smiled at Bel’s expression. “It is okay. Fortuit is a good egg-mother, so I am sure she will find a way to bring our children into harmony with the humans.”

  Bel frowned. “You aren’t going to help raise them?”

  “Well…”

  Manipule hesitated, squeezing her fingers together as she looked away.

  “Now that we are done travelling, we do not require two egg-mothers in one community.”

  Manipule shrugged. “I can stay as a backup, of course, and everyone participates in raising the next generation, but these young ones are more Fortuit’s burden than mine.”

  Bel blinked. “So that alternative is…?”

  Manipule smiled nervously. “That I come with you, of course! If you go with Orseis to the Old World, who will look after her?”

  Bel opened her mouth with surprise. She looked at the cuttle-girl, who was happily crunching on a large piece of candy.

  “Hey,” she objected, mouth still full, “I’m an adult. I can look after myself. I’ll be fine in the Old World.”

  Bel cringed. Why did my mother think she should go to Earth?

  Manipule reached into her bag, pulling out another piece of candy. “So you don’t want this last piece?”

  Orseis’ tentacles writhed with agitation. “I didn’t say that! Even adults want candy!”

  Manipule glanced between herself and Bel. She looked at Orseis and raised her eyebrows.

  “You two just don’t have a refined palette.”

  “For candy?”

  Orseis nodded. Then she scowled. “Just give it to me.”

  Manipule shook the candy. “I’m not sure. Only children get things for free. Adults have to earn them.”

  Orseis balled up her tentacles and turned a frustrated fuchsia. “I’m not a child, but it’s okay if you want to treat me like one. Since I’m small and cute.”

  “So you don’t mind some parental supervision, since you’re so small and cute?”

  Orseis pouted. “A little supervision is okay.”

  “Great,” Manipule praised her, handing over the piece.

  Orseis snatched it up and immediately stuck it into her mouth, and Manipule gave Bel a significant look.

  Bel put her hands together in a silent show of thanks. “So you’re asking to come along to the Old World?”

  Manipule nodded. “I could take the metal egg you found here with us. We could start a new family of gorgons on the Old World.”

  Bel detected a quaver in the other gorgon’s voice, and wondered if she was nervous about the idea. Manipule was a little bit clingy, but she was also incredibly helpful, except for the time she’d gotten Orseis drunk. Bel looked at the little cuttle-girl, remembering her lonely, bawling state when she had been inebriated.

  “Having you along would make things better,” Bel agreed.

  Manipule relaxed, and Bel saw the tension leave her body.

  I guess she really was nervous that I would say no. I’ve been hiding down here and neglecting everyone, haven’t I?

  “Do you two want to go on a trip?” Bel asked suddenly.

  “Where? Is there good food there?”

  Manipule rolled her eyes at Orseis’ response. “Before Beth comes here? I shouldn’t travel with the egg in this state.”

  “If Fortuit is going to take care of them when they hatch, couldn’t you give it to her now?”

  Manipule frowned. “I could. I would feel guilty, but perhaps parting with them now would be easier than parting later.”

  Orseis waved a tentacle for attention. “A trip where though? I thought we were staying here to avoid fights with bandits and Technis’ people.

  Bel gestured towards the teleporter in the back of the room. “I think we can use that to go directly to the Central City, or somewhere close to it. There are maps in those books that I got, and they show where the teleporters used to be. I want to test it going somewhere else before trying to go straight into a fight, though.”

  Orseis’ eyes lit up. “Oh! That sounds fun! I’m in!”