"I didn't come here to have my worldview dismantled," Sillicia finally outputted, voice tight.

  "I know," Aquillianne replied. "You came here for a date. So let's have one!"

  Sillicia blinked, derailed by the shift in tone. "What?"

  "A date," Aquillianne repeated. “A fun time. Something that isn't about war or harvesting or the weight of our fucked up Empire doin’ fucked up shit. When's the last time you actually enjoyed yourself, Commander?"

  Sillicia opened her mouth, then closed it. "I... Do occasionally enjoy myself on the Pleasure and Entertainment Decks."

  "Well, tonight's the night you can enjoy our Earth," the Emperor said.

  "Enjoy what where?" Sillicia asked suspiciously.

  "We'll go to Seattle," Aquillianne grinned. "Ever been?"

  "I've scanned it from orbit—"

  "Not the same thing," Nexxali interrupted, stretching languidly. "Come on, Sillica, live a little. What's the worst that could happen?"

  "Nothing bad, I guess," Sillicia muttered. “I feel no intention to betray me from any of you. If anything you all feel happy and want to have… fun.”

  Her hooks raked over Aquillianne again but only found friendly desire to cooperate there, to show Sillicia more wonders of Earth.

  Something about this—about being invited, about being wanted for something other than her as officer—it made her chest feel strange, tight… fluttery.

  "Kawthy," the Emperor ordered. "Maximum speed, full stealth. You know the address."

  "Acknowledged!" The magpie chirped.

  Sillicia watched as the Seeker took off, the world blurring past the transparent sections of Kappa's walls. The Seeker ran at top speed beside the human highway, its massive crystalline legs eating up ground.

  "We'll reach Seattle in approximately seventeen minutes at this pace." Kawathra commented.

  Aquillianne settled back onto one of the organic-crystal couches, patting the space beside her. "Relax, Sillia. We've got time to talk."

  Sillicia hesitated. This felt dangerous somehow—not physically, but in ways she couldn't name. Still, she joined the Princess, hyperaware of how close they sat.

  The Emperor took a seat across from them with Nexxali curling up against his side and purring happily. Sillicia stared at her Marshal in shock, realizing that she's never seen the serval purr out loud.

  "So," Aquillianne began conversationally, "how much do you actually know about Earth? Beyond the strategic data."

  "I know it's classified as a Grade-3 resource world," Sillicia said automatically. "Population eight billion humans, minimal magical infrastructure, no unified planetary defense—" She stopped herself. "But that's all wrong, isn't it?"

  "Completely wrong," Aquillianne agreed with a devious grin. "Earth is one of the most magically complex worlds I've ever encountered and had the pleasure to guide. The magic just works... differently here."

  As she spoke, Sillicia curiously reached her hooks toward Kawathra and Nexxali. Professional habit, motivated by the incredibly odd behavior of the kobold bird and cat.

  Kawathra first. The Datamancer's mind was absolutely packed with data, endless chat logs, millions of cross-referenced files, probabilistic models stacked on top of each other like a tower of spreadsheets reaching into infinity.

  This was a normal Datamancer mental state.

  Then Sillicia's hooks touched Nexxali and…

  The serval's mind didn't feel like a Pradavarian at all.

  Instead of the typical instincts, the prey-drive, the begrudging submission or cowering obedience—Sillicia sensed an echo. Resonance. Like Nexxali was a cave, a concave dish and Aquillianne's consciousness was the sound bouncing through it, thought patterns focusing and returning.

  "You're... what in the Abyss?" Sillicia stared from the serval at the Wendigo Princess. "You're… deep in the Marshal’s mind? Focusing yourself through her?!”

  "Clever girl," Aquillianne purred. "Yes. I'm running an experiment with my kobold. Trying something neat with our blood bond."

  Sillicia waited for more details, for the explanation of what exactly was happening, but the Princess just smiled mysteriously.

  “Wait...” She said. “Blood bond?! You… you stole one of my bolds!”

  “Technically, Nexy isn't really yours,” Aquillianne corrected. “She works for the Legates, cleaning up… various messes.”

  Sillicia opened her mouth but failed to produce an argument. As a Frontenachii Prima, Aquillianne could claim anyone she desired as her mate, even someone from the fleet.

  "Want to see more of my local adventures?” Aquillianne asked.

  “Fine,” Sillicia sighed.

  The Princess's hooks extended again, and Sillicia didn't resist, diving in. She let the memory unfold around her like a waking dream.

  . . .

  Ancient Greece.

  Shady stood in a marble temple, speaking with a human in colorful robes.

  "The Academy you're founding," Shady voiced, "will be important. Very important. Your job will be to preserve certain knowledge."

  "What knowledge, Divine Counselor?" The man asked respectfully.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  "Mathematics. Geometry. Logic. The framework humans will need to eventually understand reality manipulation." Shady gestured, and golden symbols appeared in the air. "Teach them to think clearly. To question. To build knowledge systematically."

  "And what of the forms? The perfect ideals I've contemplated?"

  "Real," Shady said simply. "But not in the way you think. The 'World of Forms' exists in a higher dimension, Plato. Your students will need about two thousand more years before they can actually access it though."

  The man named Plato wrote things down on a wax tablet.

  "One more thing," Shady added. "In about fifty years, a student of your student will try to categorize everything. Aristotle. Smart kid, but he's going to get biology hilariously wrong. Try to leave notes correcting him."

  "I will do my best, Great Muse."

  The memory shifted.

  A room filled with instruments. A human man with a graying beard looked up from complex calculations.

  "Eternal Counselor," he greeted Shady warmly. "I've completed the heliocentric model as you suggested."

  "Excellent work, Nicolaus," Shady examined his diagrams. "You're going to face significant resistance from the religious authorities for this."

  "I know," Copernicus sighed. "They won't publish this.”

  "Alas. Humans are touchy about being told they're not the center of everything." Shady pointed to his calculations. "One adjustment though—the orbits aren't perfect circles. They're ellipses. A man named Kepler will figure it out in about sixty years, but you might as well get a head start."

  Another shift.

  Victorian England, a laboratory. A human woman in a practical dress standing beside complex electrical equipment.

  "Ada," Shady said warmly, "your work on the Analytical Engine is excellent."

  Ada smiled. "You really think it will be important?"

  "Important? Ada, you're literally inventing computer programming. In about a hundred years, humans will build thinking machines based on your principles. You're creating the foundation for artificial intelligence."

  "Artificial... intelligence?"

  "Machines that can think, calculate, solve problems. Your algorithms will be the seed." Shady placed a hand on her shoulder. "They won't appreciate you in your lifetime. You'll die young and largely forgotten. But I promise you—eventually, they'll call you the world's first programmer."

  Ada's eyes filled with tears. "Thank you for believing in me, my Empress."

  Another shift.

  1970s, a small apartment. A group of people sitting in a circle, passing around hand-drawn illustrations.

  "So we're really doing this?" one asked. "Creating a game where people pretend to be wizards and warriors, Gary?"

  Shady, standing in the corner, observing the group. One person—a human with gray eyes—glanced directly at where she stood and winked.

  "Yes," Gary said firmly. "We're creating something that will teach millions about magic systems, about narrative structure, about collaborative storytelling. It's going to be important. I'm calling it… Dungeon and Dragons, a tabletop roleplaying game. A game that will teach generations of humans how to think in terms of magic, quests, and alternate realities!”

  . . .

  The memory faded. Sillicia sat in stunned silence, her fractal engine heart thrumming madly.

  "You've really been... managing their entire civilization," she said. "Guiding their scientific development. Their philosophical frameworks. Even their entertainment!"

  "Yep. I gave little nudges. Planted seeds here and there. The humans did all the actual hard work."

  "To what end?" Sillicia asked. The question came out more desperate than she'd intended.

  "Aunt Zexxia gave me this world," Aquillianne said. "And I wanted to see what they could become if given the chance. Without being harvested. Without being enslaved. Just... allowed to grow under my tutelage. Blood contracts don't work correctly on this planet anyway.”

  "That's..." Sillicia shook her head. "That's really not how we do things. That's not how any Frontenachii manages a domain."

  "I know," Aquillianne said. "That's kind of the point. This planet has a very unique Aetheric state which required… an original management approach."

  “I suppose that no other Frontenachii was given a time gate operated by an inverted Mothman,” Sillicia let out.

  The Princess nodded. “Want to see more?”

  “Yes, please.” Sillicia stated, assuredly wanting to observe more of this strange Earth's past.

  The Princess showed Sillicia more memories.

  Shady bossing a pyramid-building Egyptian Pharaoh, Shakespeare, Caesar, Newton. Shady being offered the title of the Empress of Earth by her insane Aunt.

  The memories felt a bit narrow, had no smell to them, but Sillicia presumed that this was simply an issue of the local Aetheric density, not letting the Princess open herself up fully.

  Kawathra chirped, interrupting the memory sharing. "Approaching destination! Seattle metropolitan area, warehouse district.”

  The Seeker slowed, crystal legs transitioning to careful steps. It settled in an alley behind a large warehouse.

  "We're here," the Emperor announced. "Welcome to Seattle's premier fear experience."

  "Fear… experience?" Sillicia asked.

  "Yep," Aquillianne grinned. "You're going to love it. It's like the Entertainment Deck, but very different. Kawthy, mod us please!”

  The Datamancer manipulated a holographic menu and crystalline hands extended from the ceiling.

  “Mod us how and why?” Sillicia asked.

  “Kawthy is going to make us look a bit… fake,” Aquillianne said. “Make our Wendigo faces and claws look more like soft foam polygons.”

  “Why?”

  “To blend in better with the locals, duh!”

  Why?” Sillicia repeated.

  “To have a more authentic experience!” Aquillianne stated.

  In another ten minutes, Sillicia exited the Seeker into the cool Seattle evening, her senses immediately cataloging threats: about twenty nine humans in the immediate vicinity, multiple primitive vehicles, the warehouse ahead pulsing with colorful lights.

  Kawathra and the trio of magical, unscannable humans stayed in the corpse seeker, the rest of the group went out.

  Sillicia’s skull-face itched slightly, now featuring a pyramid-textured layer of Seeker-printed polymer.

  Princess Aquillianne no longer had her diamondust dress on, wearing a simple, basic hexasuit. She now looked like a fake, low resolution, approximate version of a Wendigo Fleet Commander.

  A group of humans stood near the “Fear Factory” entrance, passing around beers. They were slightly intoxicated, Sillicia could smell the alcohol, and heard relaxed laughter. They wore partial and full… animal costumes too: heads, ears, tails and elaborate makeup.

  As the alien group approached, one of the students called out: "Yo! You guys are here for the Fear Factory too? You're the cosplayers from Cascade, yeah?”

  "Yes," the Emperor said smoothly, his gold skull mask now featuring triangular fox ears. "First time for most of us too."

  "Oh man, you're in for a treat!" A male in a wolf costume enthused. "It's like, super immersive. They've got actors that are so realistic you'd swear they were actually—" He paused, looking at Sillicia more carefully. "Dude, your alien commander costume is amazing. Did you make that yourself?"

  Sillicia stared at him blankly. "Costume?"

  "The Wendigo thing!" A female with cat features squealed. "Those antlers look so real! And the zentai suit texture is like sooo perfect! The digitigrade legs too! Very cool! Totally thought you were the real thing from a distance! Almost pissed myself, ha ha.”

  Sillicia glanced down at herself and scanned their thoughts. All of these humans thought she was wearing a costume. Kawathra's polymer makeup had convinced them of such.

  [Just play along.] Aquillianne sent mentally. [It'll be more fun this way!]

  “Hrmmm.” Marshal Nexxali looked at the glowing neon sign, her face also partially covered in the polymer texture. "What's a Fear Factory? Is it an industrial facility that produces terror?"

  The group of humans burst out laughing.

  "So in character!" one said. "I love it!"

  "It's a haunted house," the Emperor explained. "Humans pay money to be scared for fun."

  "Why the fuck would anyone—" Nexxali started.

  "For fun," he repeated. "Entertainment."