"Pretty sure they molt, yeah, from the way Zithra was talking about it—she's my bee-girl friend, she gathered some up and brought it to me when I asked her. She's not a kind who has any herself, it was from other bee-girls."

"Huh, that's really neat!" She's just not going to ask how he feels about the eggs thing. She kind of wishes she hadn't remembered the eggs thing.

"Is it made of the chitin for armor reasons or storage reasons or both?"

"Armour reasons, I think the storage thing is separate? But you'd have to ask Hazel."

"I'll do that!" Bounce bounce, she walks happily along with Hazel. She really wants to tell him or Hazel about the weird constellations, but Hailey said they're not quite sure of either of them yet, so she won't. Even though it's hard.

Ruby is so cute!! Torok grins delightedly at her bounces.

"Hey Torok? Wanna speed the trip up?"

"...sure, how?"

"Maya's really good at the spatial-compressing go-fast thing."

She bounces excitedly at the thought.

"Neat! Do I have to do anything special to keep up?"

"No idea! Walking alongside her and being really firm in your head that you're walking with her might work, but holding hands will almost certainly be sufficient. Matching the timing of her stride might help? But that's all guesswork, we've never tried it with a 'passenger' before."

"I think it is fueled in part by my unique nature. The dream Sable created me from was one of a loving companion who was also a powerful and swift warship, and that 'shipgirl' nature sticks with me. I am made for travel, on a deep and fundamental level, and my destination is always in my heart."

She holds out her hand.

"That's pretty cool," he says, taking it.

She smiles warmly, fixes her heart firmly on their reaching the city together as swiftly as she can take them, and remembers what she is.

Her drives are nimble and her hull is light; she can get there by candlelight.

Step.

Step.

Stride.

Torok holds her hand and matches her stride as best he can.

Within just a few hours' walk at that steady pace, they reach the city. Its appearance is sudden; from a distance, the gentle rise and fall of its massive sandstone walls blends in with the dune-strewn horizon, until Maya and Torok crest a final dune and see the huge gate standing open at the bottom of a sandy slope. It'll take another minute or so to reach that gate, but a gate guard carrying a gleaming pike is already stepping forward to watch them descend. Her uniform of loose white cloth and stiff leather armor seems both fashionable and practical.

She steps down the dune toward the guard with Torok, smiling slightly. "Hello there," she calls out once a bit closer.

"Hey there!" says the guard. "One at a time, please!" She gestures invitingly with her pike. "Stand right here for just a second while I check you over for corruption."

...Torok shrugs, lets go of Maya's hand, and steps up.

The gate guard plants her pike firmly upright in the sand with one hand while pulling what looks like a rough spar of smoky quartz out of her pocket with the other. After waving the rock through the air around Torok a few times, almost in the manner of a metal detector though at longer range, she gives a satisfied nod. "You're clear. Next!"

She steps into range and holds still for the check.

The guard waves her rock in its inscrutable patterns, then nods. "Clear! Welcome to the city. If you make a left just inside the gate, the tourism office should have a guide available to show you around."

"Thank you kindly." She steps close to Torok, links arms with a slight smile, and says, "Shall we?"

"Yeah!"

And in they go to the city. Maya takes a quick glance around after entering the gate.

"Do you think the guide is the best shot at finding what we're looking for, or at least getting a good start?"

"Kinda hard to say. I've never been here before. I guess probably having a guide is better than not, because they'll show us a bunch of stuff we wouldn't have known about to start with?"