"All right, six it is."

Good.

Is there a place like Fiction Closet for things that are true?

"...Summary Bank, maybe? It's not exactly like Fiction Closet though."

That doesn't sound like what I want. I want to write about my life because it's annoying how much the stories I read are getting wrong. But it's not fiction.

"Oh, memoirs. Huh. I don't know of a memoir site. I suppose people might have personal blogs with that kind of thing but I'm not aware of anyone aggregating them with truth in particular as the filter - there's no way to check at scale, you realize -"

Yes. That's annoying too, but there's nothing to be done about it. I suppose I could put it on Fiction Closet anyway, and simply declare that it's true?

"You could, I don't think they're very strict, or you could get a blog. Like Quoteme but for longer things."

I already have the Fiction Closet account. That seems easiest. The internet is really a mystery to me. And so many people! Praise and recognition is nice but after a year on Amenta I'm going to be very ready to not talk to anyone for a season or longer.

"Should I be leaving you alone more of the time?"

Not necessary. It's more that I miss my old territory, I think, where I could keep everyone out. I feel... Homeless. Visiting the desert is nice, but it's not mine. I find myself wishing I could fight someone and take their land. It's probably an instinct, because a homeless Draak is a vulnerable, undesirable, and starving Draak in the ancestral environment.

"That makes sense. Would it help if you owned the warehouse?"

...A little bit, yes. And the loading dock. It'd be a very small territory but it could soothe the part of my mind that itches at not having a place that is mine. Slightly better if it's explicitly because of my progress in Enkindling to reduce the severity of springs. I do still intend to leave Amenta sooner or later, of course.

"I'll look into it. You're not blue but since you aren't collecting rent I think that should be fine."

I will surely either abandon or return it whenever I am done here, so I don't care what happens to it after that. Whatever is easiest to arrange, I suppose?

I do see why Seeker was so selective in the visitors he brought with him. I know Draak who would have simply declared that some section of desert or jungle is theirs, and dared anyone who wanted to object to come kill them. It is the way things are done at home. These systems of history and ownership and payment and words to decide territory, and rules and rules and rules on how the territory is to be used, are unfamiliar, even offensive. If a Draak did want payment in exchange for use of their territory, here or on Newhome or whatever other new homes lie across the ocean of stars, what would you do then?

"Our laws about in-caste income don't really account for aliens; I assume that anyone giving a Draak land and expecting them to collect rent on it would work that out ahead of time, and it'd be a little farcical for anyone to actually bring charges even if they didn't do that. On your own planet of course no Amentan nation's rules apply."

Taxes are something many will have to adjust to, too. I'm not sure how they're going to collect resources for common use back home and glad it's not my problem.

"Maybe something more like a crowdfunding model will work better for Draak than taxation."

I think so, yes. The Elders will figure it out. They are the strongest and wisest of us. I am content in a lesser place that fits my temperament, I am not beholden to shallow Vanity which might drive me to ruin or evil.

"...is that a common effect of vanity?"

One might think 'I am great and mighty and perfect, therefore everything in the world should be mine and all should serve me and any who question me should be destroyed.' That is evil. Ruin is simple overconfidence leading to doom.

"I see."

I will go meditate on Enkindling and then amuse myself until tomorrow, now. Tomorrow, six attempts. If all is well, the next day, perhaps more.

Part of her amusing herself is writing and posting the beginning of that memoir. It uses simple words and is kind of amateurish. The first chapter is titled 'What it's like to be an egg'.

...Time had no meaning. There was no motion and no sensation except being surrounded on all sides. Warm. I could not count sleeps but I counted the times my parent sung to me. Preparing me for life outside the shell. I wondered how beautiful the world would be...

...The two first lessons given to every Draak in their egg are the first thing any Draak learns, are that you are a destroyer, you must destroy other life to survive. You are a creator, you must one day create new life yourself...

The numbers on the story go up!

That means people are reading it, and might be less blatantly wrong about Draak in the future! She Quotes something to this effect and then sleeps in preparation for six de-springings the next day.

She is presented with three purples, a yellow, a grey, and a green over the course of the day, their arrival times staggered.