Down By Bluebell Creek | Glowfic Constellation

"It's easier to prepare the herbs for immediate use and that takes some skill - we have a couple of people who can do that so we don't keep many of the potions around, they're more expensive. I'd rather not run down our stocks but we can stop on the way somewhere, or I can order some more in if you're sticking around a while. Mostly everyone here either knows how to be responsible for themselves, or will be keeping an eye out for those who aren't, I don't expect anyone to get right in your way unless you invite them over.

Feel free to make a mess anywhere that isn't covered in bluebells, the stream where the banks are covered in bluebells, or like actually someone's house or something. Oh, probably don't dig up the main road either, but I figure you can tell where the cart track is."

"It's not urgent to get those. I'd just like a quick way to get back on my feet if I have to. Anyway. I'll get to work now."

Getting to work appears to involve staring off into space for a while, then shearing off a few tree branches with waves of force and feeding them to a large metal box that simply appears much like that odd armor vanished, then appearing that strange helmet and peering around while the metal box makes a fairly loud noise. While also looking around for a good, convenient spot to put a well-of-sorts.

As advertised, she starts to attract onlookers, although nowhere near as many as her original appearance - no more than a dozen people of all ages, mostly not getting too close, a couple of young adults bold enough to ask what she's up to and if she'd like any help.

"Hey, what'd be the best spot for a well sort of thing up in the village? Fetching water ain't something anyone should have to do the hard way. It'll be super easy to use, promise."

"How big is it? There isn't much open space actually up in the Steading, people keep putting up houses when there is, but there's walkways everywhere..."

"There's the patch where Llwyn tried to make a herb garden and it didn't really happen? If it's not so big that the rosemary won't grow round it..."

"Yeah this place doesn't seem all that into urban design. Really just a couple of feet, a place to stand on either side and enough room to walk up to it."

"Can we even get it up there? There's a lot in the way, it's not a straight line in."

"Did you see her take down those trees? But yeah, I don't know. It could go over by the path to the corpse glade, it's not as central but it'll be nearer than here and we won't maybe make someone's house fall down."

"Yeah, sorry, we're not that great on planning in general. Briar brain and all that. What, it's totally true, just because everything they say isn't doesn't mean some things just are."

All of the local participants in this conversation have the characteristic vine veins or bark patches - in fact all of the locals other than Allegra seem to have this to some extent, possibly excepting some of the children.

"I just need to run a pipe. I can dig if digging's called for too. 'Peller's very handy. It doesn't have to be super central. If it's a lot closer to peoples' houses than the river that's probably still fine, right?"

"Yeah, let's take it over by the corpse glade, it'd need to be a super fancy pipe to get round all the houses and we should probably ask Llwyn before uprooting his garden anyway."

Some people drift away, others join in the gawking. They point out the little path that goes out the village the other way from the main cart track, away from the stream.

"So, are you joining the Steading, or what?" asks a younger woman, eventually. "Have you seen the egregore yet? I'm sure one of them will be by once the word gets round."

She scopes out the consensus-decided-upon site and starts figuring pipe lengths. Having a computer in your head is pretty handy for that.

"I mean, probably not, but I've gotta pay back the hospitality and fancy magic meds. An egregore sounds. Kinda worrying?"

"Nah, Liaven is great. Okay, can be kind of scary, mind, some of the hosts like seeing what you react like, but they all just want to help you find the right place for you."

"I hear Anvil has fancy standpipes, is that what we're building? I guess they don't have buildings to work round though, 'cept the Forge and the Senate."

"Any idea where you might be off to? Allegra would know best, she's been everywhere, but I was with a Striding for a bit, I know a few places."

"Standpipes? Maybe. I mean- The fancier stuff tends to need more time and more maintenance, I'm trying to give y'all something that'll last even if it's ungodly primitive by my standards. Good old dependable bioplas, not too many moving parts. Most of the places Allegra mentioned went in one ear and out the other. Gonna look at one of those starfall things, very carefully. At some point. Gonna just explore and see what there is to see. What is Liaven anyway?"

"Liaven's our egregore."

"What starfall things?"

"You don't have egregores?"

"Of course they don't, they're just an Empire thing. Faraden and that don't have them either."

"So, right, an egregore's what makes us... Us. A nation. We all swear them our oaths on citizenship, and they keep us together and make sure that we don't forget who we are, don't end up one bland Empire without anything we started with."

"It's a bit different with us Navarr because we swear to fight the Vallorn. We were here first, you see, before the Empire was even thought of - Terunael was the last big Empire round this way, and then..."

"Then we fucked up and summoned the Vallorn, trying to fight off the orcs, and now here we are. Part of the Empire."

"But yeah, there are ten nations, although you ain't an orc so the Imperial Orcs won't have you. You might belong in one of the others, though we'd love to have you - and you probably have better things to do than hang around here and pick up mana crystals and make trinkets."

"I think the Urizen were around the same time as Terunael too? And maybe the Ushkans?"

"When did the Vard and Steinr show up, I can never remember? They fell from the sky too, just like you."

"We don't have those. The UN is... Global empire, I guess. There's literally not any nation that hasn't joined it or been destroyed by Ants. And they have all of the emergency powers right now. Well, it's not great, but it's the only thing winning us the war right now, so. Yeah. And the Vallorn, yeah, that came down from the sky. Those starfall things. Uh... Sounds like I need to know more about what those actually are. And I didn't fall all the way from the sky, just like a few thousand feet. Was tryna learn Wave Force, screwed up and did a portal instead, I guess? I don't think doing it again is a good idea."

She's keeping walking as they go. The big metal box by the creekside is visible again, having spat out several white plastic pipe sections from its side that are now piled up next to it. And is slowly extruding another one.

"Allegra was actually in the vision where we found out what happened, more than we used to know, but we all know the basics. The Vallorn are ritual magic that went wrong - or possibly just too well. It summoned the raw power of Spring, which ate our cities and kills anyone that gets too close - the air is poison, every kind of life is strengthened and trying to kill you..."

"And that can include you too, if you're not careful! It's worse for us, the magic really likes a Briar, it turns us into dreadful husks that can restore life to the other Vallorn creatures. And you're trapped in there, your soul doesn't go on, you're just stuck doing the Vallorn's bidding until someone puts you down for good."

"One of the big reasons for the Empire is - has anyone told you about the Trods? They're magic roads, the original Navarr and Thorn died making them, they draw the magic away from the Vallorn when the Navarr walk them - that's what Stridings do."

"But when the Vallorn tries to spread we have to fight it back the normal way, with fire and killing all its creatures, and when it's weakened enough we can take bits back, too. And there's always rumours of other things, of the heart stones that the original rituals used, if we could get deep inside we could do something to them and stop it."

She could make a lot of fire. Like, a lot. The first thing you integrate is a fusion reactor.

Unfortunately, this would very definitely kill her.

"Man, I don't get this place at all. Which is to be expected I guess."

"Yeah, sorry, I guess this is a lot."

"Why don't you tell us some things about where you come from?"

"I don't think even Urizen has things that make stuff like that. What is that even made of?"

"Here's an aerial view of part of Perth Arcology."

"It's bioplas! Okay, so a long while ago we started getting clever about making machines do the hard work for us. First it was mechanical hammers and stuff, and then eventually mechanical brains. Computers. If you tell a computer what math to do in itty bitty nitty detail, it'll do it. Really really fast. So we started using computers that controlled machines to make things, so we didn't even have to anymore. Just design new things. I grew up in the 'states - well, long story, but we became refugees and moved across the ocean. Hang on, can I..." She appears a slim metal object the size of a book page and taps at it. Then turns it around.

"The Urizen have ushabti, but..."

"Ooooh..."

Lenora now has about ten people who are not big on personal space trying to crowd around her book to get a good look.

"Looks like... Holberg, but like ten on top of each other..."

"Like the Spring realm's hit a border with Autumn..."

She grins and doesn't mind the crowding and swipes through more pictures. Different high-up views, lots of busy streets and buildings, the maglev trains running along elevated tracks, dog-size drones running along aquaponic rice paddies, a giant mural wall with six different people painting on it, the titanic faux-sky concrete barrier walls, a close-up look at the faux sky panels. And then a view of the entire massive structure from outside, a metal and concrete mountain bristling with towers and airfields and other infrastructure, with expanding rings of defensive positions around it.

"A lot of it isn't even open like that, there's so much - factory halls, emergency shelters, maintenance areas, just so much - crammed under it all. Under the raised parts. The Ants attack major population centers pretty regularly so it needs to be extremely heavily defended, of course. And here's the Academy grounds-"

Pictures of a stately university complex, red-brick facade and a grassy park area, students in uniforms, some of them carrying technological items with them or doing various strange things. Mostly young women. Almost entirely young women, in fact.

The audience is absolutely transfixed and mostly watches in hushed wonderment.

"Is this, like, a portal?" one of them eventually asks. "Like the Sentinel Gate, but too small to go through?"

"It's a computer. More like a book that changes what's on its single page."

"Like - one of those flick books that looks like things are moving, but very fast?"

"They had a thing like that in Tassato, but they'd put it together as a wheel so you spin it and you can see the picture move - they said it was showing how horses run but I don't think anyone actually knows that, it was probably just made up."

"You take a picture of what something looks like, and then you do it a lot really really fast, and then you flickbook it and you can see what something looked like in motion." Turn, tap tap tap tap tap.

"Aha!" Here's a looping clip of Lenora flying a slalom course, chase-cam style right after a different black-haired girl who is flying with a blue halo and jets of fire coming from her legs. It's very very fast, with fast electronica music overlaid. After the final turn the clip ends with a high-speed aerial high-five, the asian girl's face a wild grin as they pass each other.