"I guess it depends on what they do. Do you want to help?"

"Well, I dunno! Depends how!"

"If you could make this planet less wastelandy we could find another dumping ground, presuming hospitable planets no one will mind us moving into are fewer than empty ones. If you're tougher than a mage you could scout. You could introduce us to the folks back home and we could ask if they've got space."

"They've got tons of space out in Ceir if you don't mind the invading murderous aliens. But making the planet less wastelandy might be fun."

"I kinda mind invading murderous aliens but they sound solvable."

"Then maybe you could talk to my dad. —He's the king of Aluvanna, I forget if I said."

"I don't think it came up."

Shrug. "Well, he is. He's not great at being a dad but he's all right at being a king. Anyway, I'm gonna go fuck around with the wasteland."

He heads back to the portal.

Cor follows.

Once they're both back out in the wasteland, the portal vanishes tracelessly. Tias climbs the hill. He squints up at the sky, and wisps of cloud begin to form, twisting together until they pile up into a big grey blanket and a light rain begins to fall.

"Wow, it really doesn't wanna rain here," he comments. "Also I have weather powers, that's cool."

"How can you tell it doesn't want to rain?"

"I dunno, it just... feels that way? It's like, you know if you sit still for too long you get stiff and then moving is weird? It feels kind of like that, except with weather."

"Huh. It was awfully dry..."

"Yeah, that probably has something to do with it. Hmm. Wonder what else I can do..."

He surveys the land, fanning his wings to let the rain run down his feathers. Weather, check, what's the next step in making this place less depressing? Maybe some grass? He reaches out mentally, and winces.

"Oh wow, it was a little reluctant to rain but it's way more reluctant to, like, grow any plants. I'm not sure there's a single living thing within a mile of us. I'm not sure there's a single living thing anywhere."

"Can you tell what your range is?"

"Soooort of? I can tell what's in it... I'd probably have a better guess about how big it was if there were, like, things, and not just lots of dry dirt with some hills on it. Oh, I found another dead tree." He waves vaguely off to the side. "Can't see it from here but it's that way. —I'm not even sure it's a range so much as a, a focus? Because I keep looking harder and there keeps... being more."

"Can you detect the curvature of the planet?"

"Dunno. Oh, found a lake. Nothing living in it, but it's water and I didn't put it there." He stares into the distance, eyes unfocused, and reports his findings with little gestures to one side or another indicating their direction. "Wasteland, more wasteland, a couple of hills... that might be a mountain? Kind of a pathetic mountain... oh, the ocean's that way, looks like. And super dead. Oh, okay, I see what you mean about the curvature of the planet. ...huh."

"Yeah, your planet does it differently. Magma? Downwards?"

"Mm..." He flexes his hands. "Yeah, looks like. Oh, wow, it goes down a long ways. In Suranse there's some in the middle of the shell but not nearly so much of it."

"My planet is estimated to have a diameter of about eight thousand miles."

"I think mine might be smaller than that but I don't remember the numbers. ...something's up with that mountain I mentioned. Like, there's something in it, and it's... I can't really tell what it is but it's weird. I don't think it's alive, though, alive is a different thing."

"Interesting. How far?"

"Uh... a ways. You probably don't wanna walk it. I'm not even sure I wanna fly there."

He contemplates this state of affairs for a moment, and then the whole hill shudders delicately and starts sliding across the ground. (Tias grins the grin of somebody who is really enjoying his newfound capacity to scoot hills.)

"Goodness."