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Mark walked out of medical bay 3, feeling a lingering pain in both of his arms and his thighs, while a line of people stood to the side, snaking its way into the room Mark had just come from. It was vaccination time, and Mark had just been inoculated against at least 17 different things. A list of those various things held on the wall across from the room split into 4 different categories of necessity. The categories were based on the threats that a person might be exposed to in the settlement project.

Mark qualified for the full suite of vaccinations. Union could heal a lot, and Healthy Body would keep Mark upright through most of the horrible things out there, but healing was easier on both his Power and his Body if he had better foundations to heal upon. A nurse from the Aluatha Army saw Mark come out into the hallway, smiled, and gestured to the right, speaking in a heavy accent that Mark recognized as Deep Aluathan, "Communication magics are right this way, good sir, if you be needing them."

Mark nodded, said, "Thank you," and walked to the next room, because yes, he did need some language-learning magics. Another nurse in the next room asked for his name and birth date and Mark gave them, and then he got to stand near an older woman in a plain dress. She was not in the army. Or maybe she was just a contractor? Hard to know. The woman asked about communication magics, and Mark said yes, and soon, he felt a little twitch of Power slip into his body and seem to unlock something inside. It felt weird.

The woman noticed Mark's reaction, and like she had said it a hundred times already, because she probably had, she said, "I have opened your mind to learning and language. You'll feel strange for several hours, as the meaning of things becomes malleable and you learn to put new words to old concepts at increased rates. Please join the rest of your people in the movie halls and conversation rooms. The only languages allowed to be spoken for the rest of the trip to the settlement are Xerk, Aluathan, and Okuanan.

To say 'thank you' in those three languages, you say—" She said three weird bursts of sound that caught Mark off guard, followed by a whole string of weird sounds that felt like language, but could have just been gibberish for all Mark understood them. Then she spoke in English again, asking, "Do you understand?"" I, uh... I can Union with Understanding. Should I? Will it interfere with the magics you just cast, I mean."

Mark almost wanted to say something else, but his tongue felt weird and his head felt strange, too. The older woman grinned a little.

"Not many people can do that with Union. You're on the Inquisitor track at your age?" Oh. She didn't know who Mark was. Mark smiled a little, saying, "Something like that, yes. So it should be fine? I was told it would be fine, but I want to make surely double." …' surely double'? Mark narrowed his eyes at nothing in particular, wondering at his odd word choices, but the woman didn't seem to care." Go for it! No way to grow in Skill without expanding bounds.

Darklight knows I never would have gotten anywhere without some stranger experimentation in my younger days." …' Darklight'? Mark wasn't sure what that was, but he understood the rest of it. He nodded, thanked the woman, and then left. Mark walked on. Before he got to the main movie hall, where words flowed through the air like foreign ambassadors trying to make themselves understood, he took out his phone and whispered, "Full Xerk speaking mode translation."

Mark blinked as he tried to understand what he had just said, himself. … That hadn't been proper English, had it?

Quark spoke in weird, undulating tones that made no sense at all, but Mark assumed he would figure them out, soon enough. Mark found Sally and Isoko in one of the upper balconies of the movie hall. Upon slotting himself into the welcoming seat, Sally whispered up a storm, smiling as she did so, while Isoko managed to ask questions that didn't make any sense at all.

Mark wasn't sure of much right now, but he was sure of one thing: Sally was taking great joy in being so much better at something than both of them, Isoko was catching up fast, and Sally was trying to explain the movie, so far. People were talking over the movie, which no one seemed to really mind. A lot of people were explaining a lot of things, and Mark understood almost none of it.

But Mark felt the inklings of understanding creep upon him as Sally whispered about the movie, and as she fell silent, and the movie started to make sense. The subtitles helped, a lot. What helped more, though, was when Mark started breathing in a Union of Understanding, as Lola had once taught him could be done. It wasn't a big Union; nothing too serious. Just a light touch.

Such a light touch helped immensely, though, because everyone was trying to understand the movie, everyone had some understanding magics cast upon them, and some of the people in the room were understanding the film a whole lot more than others. Mark was hesitant to plunge too deep into Understanding, though, because he knew he was hurting some people's individual progress, but overall, the whole group of people in that theater were progressing quicker, now that Mark was here.'

Understanding' wasn't something that could be 'taken away' or 'granted', unless Mark directly tried to do that, which was not what he was trying to do at all. Mark's current Union was more like connecting to plants. Plants enjoyed being connected through Union, even if they were gifted the bad half of a Union, because plants did well when they were a part of a larger system. Mark could absolutely kill plants if he wanted to; that was called blighting them.

But just connecting to plants and giving them weakness was fine, because they liked all of the castoffs of people, anyway, and when Mark Union'd plants to the world, they also expanded their root base many, many times over.

This was Mark's first experiment creating a Union of people and Understanding, and it seemed to be progressing about how it worked when Mark connected to plants; everyone benefited— Something 'clicked' in the air, and Mark felt individual people in the group start to truly understand what was happening on the screen. It was, Mark imagined, someone touching upon fluency, and then falling away from fluency. But they had found fluency, somehow. It was still there for them, lurking in the dark of possibility.

They had found a path forward, and they were leading everyone else toward that same fluency, now that Mark was connecting everyone in one great big Union. Or maybe something else was happening. Mark wasn't sure. Somehow, Mark felt as those near-fluent people became nodes in his Union that spread their newfound understanding out to others, triggering other people to understand faster.

Sometimes those new understandings in secondary people cause a feedback in the propagator nodes that boosted those first people to further heights of comprehension. Mark watched, and felt himself, as the people on the screen began to make sense. Mark suddenly realized something about the story on the screen. The man who had been flying around, throwing lightning, talking to the enemy across the way, was the protagonist. He was not the bad guy, as Mark had first understood.

The guy had just fried, like, 20 people to get to the guy he was trying to get to, which was not very 'protagonist' of him, but Mark suspected that the people were still alive, and the lightning guy was suddenly talking about righteousness and the rule of law as he attacked a man who Mark had thought had been the good guy. The 'good guy' rebutted the 'bad guy' with words of warning, that he was going to kill even more people if he had to, in order to get his revenge. So that good guy was clearly not the good guy.

It wasn't till half an hour more watching that Mark realized that the story line was more complicated than that, but by that time, Eliot had shown up. Eliot whispered in Xerk, "Hey." Mark smiled, saying, "You're back!" Isoko readily got up, since she was on her phone and not really watching anyway, saying, "Good. Let's go do something else." Sally was up and ready to go, too.

When Mark got up from his chair, he noticed that other people were hanging out by the wall, watching the movie but without a place to sit, so he gestured toward them and his own chair. Some people Mark had met, but couldn't quite place except he knew they were part of the settlement, cycled into the chairs Mark and his people had occupied, Mark's team went on into the ship. As they got into the hallway, Mark was about to ask what had happened— The air chimed, all conversations stopped.

Aurora's mostly serious, but slightly cheerful voice came over the speakers, "Attention, everyone! We are now all citizens of the Aluatha Empire, under the Settlement Codes of Conduct, and we'll be leaving dock in 5 minutes. We should be arriving at our destination, which has already been staked out, in 2 days. Thank you for being here. I look forward to growing strong with you all." People started cheering. Mark whooped and hollered right alongside them.

Aurora's voice was almost drowned out by the grand cheer that went up from the ship, but Mark heard her say something about wine and meat in the mess halls, and Mark was the first to point the way, saying it was time to eat! The food was a fully-catered meal, courtesy of the Empire, with little fruits cut into fancy shapes resting on beds of ice, and meat carved to order from big stacks of fire-roasted skewers, and spices and desserts and even great big steaks.

Mark grabbed a steak for his second trip to the buffet, but he found it impossible to finish. Sally happily grabbed the steak off of his plate and chowed down. Eventually, they made it back to their rooms, all of them talking in Xerk the whole way, discussing the weather and laughing about conjugation and tonal shifts. Apparently the words for 'shit' and 'rain' were rather similar, and it was easy to get them confused, and many jokes had been made about that similarity over the centuries.

But when they got behind the closed door of their rooms, Mark turned the lock, activated the silencing magics, and asked Eliot, "So what the fuck happened, dude! You met with the Second Princess on your own?!" Eliot had been bursting at the seams for the last two hours, pulling away from the topic of the ceremony every time they got close, or whenever anyone else came up and asked about Second Princess Walaria. He had managed to keep his words to himself, so far. He deflected.

He had said that it was just another leader to talk to, like all the others. He had lied. But now Eliot burst, exclaiming, "Holy fucking shit she was terrifying! She's a Witch. I know she is. Like a Skilled Witch. The strongest witch I have ever seen or heard about." He started talking fast, "I never put much truth to the idea that the entire line of royal children and family were descended from dragons, but they have to be! I looked into her eyes and saw the death of all she did not approve."

Of all the places Mark thought Eliot would have gone, that was not one of them. A descendant of dragons? Was that… like… a real thing? Sure, Mark had heard stories… Also, she was a Witch? Mark said, "So, like—"" Hold the fuck up," Sally said.

"Dragons and people can mate?"" Surely not," Mark said, with complete disbelief." A dragonspawn?" Isoko asked, understanding something that Mark and Sally didn't understand at all. Everyone rounded on Isoko. Eliot exclaimed, "Yes! I've heard of them, but I never thought I'd see one! She had to be one, too!" Sally and Mark just looked at Eliot and Isoko, their words dying in their throats. Isoko said, "Let's never piss her off, and there is no problem.""

She was fucking terrifying, Isoko," Eliot said, "It was like being glared at by Addavein!"" Okay. Well… Maybe that is true, in the broadest of ways," Isoko said, "But the dragonspawn myth isn't a real thing outside of stories—" Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings." Oh that is so untrue, Isoko," Eliot said.

"The leaders of Xerkona are dragonspawn." Mark was even more lost. Sally seemed lost, too. Isoko made a disapproving humming sound, and then said, "Aside from myth… I'm more interested in the whole 'Witch' angle. What did she say? Everything a Witch says and does is part of their wyrd, and the fact that you were included in a private conversation means that she touched you, and now you're acting in her sort of direction."" No no. Wait wait," Mark said.

"What's a dragonspawn?"" A dragon isn't always kaiju-sized," Eliot began— Isoko made another disapproving sound. Eliot rolled his eyes at her, and continued, "Sometimes the union of a person and a demon becomes a person-sized dragon. The histories of the Settlement of Xerkona hint that the prime leaders of the Settlement are a trio of person-sized dragons called the Fates. They've been steering the humanity of Daihoon away from certain disaster for centuries, or something like that.

They're more myth than reality, but I'm sure that if they were real then it was people like them that gave birth to the ancestors of some lines of humans. They might even be Second Princess Walaria's ancestors." Eliot looked at Isoko, saying, "She felt like a kaiju, Isoko.

I'm only able to manipulate man made things, but I'm getting a lot better at deciphering the reasons why I can't manipulate this or that, and the damage a dragon or a kaiju does to the integrity of 'made by man' things is a whole category stronger than normal monster damage. It's like a flavoring, and Second Princess Walaria has that sort of flavoring. Diluted, for sure. Distant and almost not there at all. But it was still there." While Mark was still digesting that— Isoko said, "She's a Witch, though.

Those kinds of people can spread their power in truly strange ways. She probably just wyrded herself into feeling like a kaiju." Mark had questions, but Isoko seemed subtly excited in that way she got when she talked about magic, so Mark had even more questions. Eliot picked that up, too.

"You like Witches?"" Well! … I mean…" Isoko had a moment, and then, full of tension, she said, "If we're ever going to venture out into Endless Daihoon to look for the elves and resurrection magics, then we need some person with truly strong, witch-like Powers. Probably even a Witch. In the histories of how Addashield went to the Moon, to the Demon City Arakino, with Malaqua and others, they had a Witch.

The Witch's name is unknown, but—" Isoko lost a lot of what she was going for as she breathed out, simply saying, "If anyone has records of what it took to actually get through Endless Daihoon, it's Second Princess Walaria Aluatha, or someone close to her. You are in a position to get that sort of classified information if you wanted, Eliot. You should try to get that sort of information." Mark felt his heart beat hard, sounding like thunder in his ears.

Isoko rarely ever brought up her ultimate goals, to venture to Daihoon and see about resurrecting her sister, Riku, but her goals were always there, in the back of her mind. Eliot seemed unsure, and probably because he didn't want to confront Walaria or go anywhere near her. Mark could tell that much; Eliot was terrified of truly strong monsters. He'd be better once they were inside the settlement, though, and behind all of his own Castellan, Hearthswell-based spellwork.

Sally was heavily conflicted, but Mark had spoken with her in private and she wanted to go for this whole 'resurrection magic thing', too. She didn't believe it was actually possible, though. Mark made a decision. He looked at Eliot, asking, but not really, "Can you get more information about all of that, Eliot?" Eliot made some rapid decisions, too, saying, "Yeah. I want to ask them about it too, but I'm never talking to Walaria again, if I can help it. But we're in luck!

Walaria is sending at least three Skilled Witches to the settlement. One of them I know is going to help with some hidden Fate-Classed Seers that will be at the settlement with us, another Witch is coming to help some rather amazing alchemist-types that I didn't know we had, either, and a third one is for Aurora herself. I expect the third Witch will be there for Aurora's use and to keep an eye on the settlement as a whole, and to personally inform Walaria about whatever happens.

I'm sure that someone else besides Walaria knows about how Addashield and Malaqua navigated Endless Daihoon." Eliot's excitement briefly faltered under the idea of talking to Walaria again, or getting anywhere near the woman, but his excitement returned when he said, "My gods, you guys! There're so many hidden True Powers here! There's—"" Are you sure you should be talking about everything you heard?" Isoko asked, interrupting Eliot.

"Because… You know. Witches. They got weird powers and they do weird things. Wyrd things. If you were told in any way whatsoever not to share what you're sharing right now, then do not share what you want to share." Eliot frowned a little as he thought. Mark didn't know much about Witches except what he had seen on the screen here and there. Mark asked, "Is that actually a problem, though? Powers have ranges, and unless a Witch is a Seer as well then we're out of their range… Er.

But if a Witch wants to help some Seers, then… I guess they probably have a weirdly long range, too?" Sally spoke up, "A wyrdly long range." Isoko shook her head, saying, "I don't know about all of that, only that grandma always said that she hated tangling with Witches the most. They were sneaky when it came to everything outside of direct combat, and to treat with Witches like you would treat with supervillains. Direct combat is their biggest weakness, though." Eliot waved a hand, saying, "It's fine!

I was never told to not share anything, and you guys gotta know about everything. Reeni Thumb— the Agriculture and Resource Management lady— is something like 250 years old and out of retirement because she expects to put the beat down onto Addavein, and then pull him apart into Addashield and Kanda, and then put the beat down on Addashield after she rescues him! She hasn't gotten far with it at all, but she's done some chimera experiments to try and validate what that demon Leash told you, Mark.

She turned a fish and a chicken into a chimera and then pulled them apart again, and they didn't die for a while. Hours, maybe!" Mark had to sit down, so he sat down. Sally seemed dumbfounded as she asked, "So that shit was real? People are actually looking into it?"" They were looking into it months ago, Sally," Mark found himself saying. He asked Eliot, "A fish chicken?"" Not much success, from what I understood," Eliot said.

"It wasn't like I got to ask questions and speak. Aurora was mostly talking like an underling, giving protocol-derived answers to Walaria's questions. She kept saying things like, 'we thank you for your generosity' when Walaria said she'd send more people our way, but Walaria spoke like an older sister, or cousin. Like she was all happy that Aurora was finally headed off to college, or she had found a man to marry."

Sally sat down, thinking, while Mark got to thinking and Isoko looked away, her mind elsewhere— Isoko turned and asked, " What did Aurora thank Walaria for? Specifically." Eliot said, "For her generosity." He excitedly added, "So Walaria asked about the pillars of the settlement project, which is Daihoon code for superheroes and such, and Aurora said we had 23 of them and many proto-pillars. And then Aurora talked about the proto-pillars most— You came up, Mark. Aurora talked about you being adamantium blooded."

Mark felt a spike of worry that rapidly faded. He nodded, then said, "Okay. Thanks for telling me." Sally's face turned dark as she glared. But she said nothing." Who are the proto pillars?" Isoko asked." We've got a multi-man! Apparently the guy wants to be a construction and tech worker and he's already on site and Aurora never told me about him until right then, and Walaria was surprised about us having a multi man. She tried to buy the guy's contract with the settlement, but he's staying with us."

Eliot grinned.

"A multiman is gonna make building a lot easier, because one person's training means a thousand people being trained, but at the same time, one person's faults means a thousand faults, and…" Eliot spoke for a long while about people that Mark had not met, or never realized just how strong they were.

Mark wasn't quite sure why a multiman would ever be a good idea in any sort of working situation, but Mark was probably worried about the magnification of one person's faults spread out over a thousand people, more than he was happy about one person's skills spread out in a thousand ways. But as for the other people Eliot spoke about... It was dead simple to understand why some guy who could duplicate items would be a Big Deal." How does that even work?" Sally asked.

"He can duplicate magical items?" She looked to Mark.

"Like adamantium?" Isoko added, "That means he has mana copying abilities, right? Because magical items need mana crystals and mana crystals are mana?" Mark found himself saying, "He'll probably come to me if he wants to go that route, but I doubt it works that way at all. If the guy just wanted to be rich then he'd already be copying adamantium. He probably can't copy stuff like that." Sally relaxed. Isoko hummed, then said, "Probably correct." Eliot was grinning as he exclaimed, "I have no idea how it works!

We could probably figure out who he is, though. Aurora said their names, but I forgot. It's him and his Alchemist sister on board, and she wants to be a healer while he wants to be rich. There's only so many people it could be, and there's a settlement registry that is open to the public." He asked, "So let's do some digging to find out all of the secrets of our neighbors!" He added, "Or, if you'd prefer to keep the surprises going, then I can do all of that on my own." Mark had a moment.

Isoko and Sally had their own moments, too. Mark eventually spoke up, "I probably already met all of them, but I probably brushed them off, which was wrong of me. Let's do some sleuthing so I can at least pretend like I didn't brush them off when I see them again." Eliot grinned.

"Sounds good to me!" With no objections from Sally or Isoko, Eliot spun some screens into existence on the wall. Names and faces populated the screens, some of whom Mark had seen before, but not really interacted with. But they were his neighbors now, and they all already knew who he was, so, Mark supposed, it was time to figure out who they were, too.