Bath and company were all exceptionally curious to find out how the as-of-yet unnamed Waymaster planned to arrive on Earth. Most curious of all was Lepochim.

He spoke up for the first time: "By what methods are you planning to travel?" Lepochim was well aware how long gate-traveling took normal sapients, being a Traveler himself who'd traversed through many gates in the past. He was actually rather annoyed that Bath had such an absurdly easy gate-traveling experience; the Waymaster wouldn't be able to simply fly at high-speed across every planet between here and Earth without running into obstacles.

Most worlds near the Core tended to use rather sophisticated aerial ships to travel at high speed through gates. They would have authorization frequency chips--gatepasses--on the ships that would allow them to pass through certain gates without drawing undue attention. As a result, many worlds with stabilized gates had highways that flowed seamlessly from one gate to the next for hundreds of linked planets, all under the purvue of Waymaster conglomerates.

Of course, buying a gatepass was somewhat pricey, though affordable for many Core dwellers, meaning that the people who distributed the passes--Waymasters--were wealthy individuals of great influence. Being a Waymaster almost guaranteed one enter the elite upper sphere of intergalactic influence. Many people in high places benefited from currying favor with Waymasters, and the benefit was mutual. The position of Waymaster had served many in the past as a springboard upon which to enter coveted intergalactic politics.

There was only one requirement to be a Waymaster: having ownership of at least one gate. The direction in which the gate allowed travel didn't matter--though of course two-way gates were most valuable--and the number of people who knew about and used the gate also had no bearing. Thus, because Bath had forcefully seized the Ritus headquarters, he was officially in possession of a gate and thus a Waymaster, even if his gate was almost worthless.

"Which way am I planning to travel?" the Waymaster said thoughtfully, though his stare fell rather disdainfully across Lepochim. "I have a voyager prepared for the journey."

Lepochim's eyes widened. Voyagers were a kind of ship that shifted between aquatic, terrestrial, and aerial forms. They also had extremely durable exteriors that would likely--though Lepochim didn't know for sure--stand up to the magma pools of the previous planet.

Voyagers were exemplary ships for traveling and exorbitantly expensive. Just the cost of shipping one from the Core to this distant planet made Lepochim shudder.

"How long do you expect the journey to take by voyager?" Bath asked, his tone rather relaxed.

"We're going to be passing through four more planets, so perhaps...a week?"

Bath frowned. "We need to be back within six days."

"Six...days? Why?"

"I made a bet," Bath grinned sardonically. "Regardless, taking more than one day for each planet seems rather luxurious. I propose we plan to arrive on Earth five days from now, using today to rest and explore this fine planet and then setting off tomorrow." Bath wanted to leave them a margin of error of a day.

Lepochim looked confusedly at Bath. A bet? Really? Hadn't Bath already called the bet off? Not that Lepochim believed Bath would have honored it if he lost. Why did Bath actually want to get back within eight days? Lepochim didn't believe for a second that it was because of "school."

Lisa, too, was rather curious by Bath's insistence on returning to Earth within eight days.

The Waymaster looked rather taken aback by Bath's proposition. "That is...fine."

"Excellent." Bath's flashed a teeth-filled grin. "Well then, we'll take our leave. Have you accommodations prepared for us?"

The Waymaster chuckled, suddenly feeling more comfortable as he assumed his position as host. "Of course. What do you take Illudis for, some kind of uncivilized backwater?" Lepochim nearly choked as the Waymaster continued on. "Come, I'll give you a tour of the property."

Despite the fact that Lisa had caught on to Bath's opaque scheming, she was fairly impressed by the Waymaster's power and thankful for his hospitality. Traveling with Bath for the past two days--staying tucked away in his thoracic cavity for hours on end--was fairly boring and monotonous. Even after he made her a viewing window to see the outside world, after the first hour or so of observing the environs of a new planet, Lisa grew bored.

The possibility of traveling by vehicle--she assumed a voyager was a ship of some kind--sounded absolutely wonderful. She was also curious to see what kinds of information she could milk out of the Waymaster. Though Lisa had spent the past day combing through the encyclopedia, she was completely overwhelmed by all the information it contained and wasn't sure what she should be searching for. Talking to a sapient was much preferable to reading dense encyclopedia entries that all seemed to assume she had a basic knowledge of things like intergalactic politics and gate systems and sapient hierarchies...

The Waymaster led them through his lavishly furnished abode, one that served as both his office, diplomatic staging-ground, and residence. He delved into the history of many possessions as he passed them by, describing many events and planets in the process that Lisa, Bath, and even Lepochim had never heard of. He showed them a luxuriant bath house as well as an entertainment room with several games (all of them foreign and left unexplained by the Waymaster) and a viewing screen for watching films.

'We're going to need to build our own impressive headquarters,' Lisa thought enviously to herself as she compared the Waymaster's opulent residence to the comparatively pathetic Ritus headquarters. Not only was this place full of carefully decorated rooms and inhabited by many personal servants and followers of the Waymaster, it also contained a series of restaurants and even two schools. There was even a lush garden of bizarre, moving plants kept alive within the house by UV lamps and a zoo of fairly exotic lifeforms from other planets.

Even Bath was fascinated by these lifeforms and their rather distinctive characteristics compared to most creatures he'd encountered so far. One of them was a floating disk that kept itself aloft by rapidly swishing innumerable thin tentacles around its flat form. Another was a rock-like creature that seemed to crackle with fire that smoked out from its mouth and nose.

They made his mouth water and his heart race.

As the Waymaster finished up his tour by depositing in front of a cluster of three rooms, Lisa finally asked: "Esteemed Waymaster," she decided politeness would go a long way towards stroking the man's clearly enormous ego, "what is your name? Calling you by your title of Waymaster seems so uncordial."

The Waymaster stopped and gave her a calculating glance, then turned his face up to look at Bath. "My name?" He seemed reluctant to divulge the information. "Very well. My name is Juserin. In return, what is your name, Waymaster?"

"Bath." Bath said his name slowly and confidently, his face calm as usual, making him almost appear bored. "Waymaster Juserin, thank you for your exceptional hospitality. At this point, we will take our leave to refresh ourselves for the journey ahead."

"Waymaster Bath, think nothing of it. Help yourselves to anything in my house; if lost, don't hesitate to seek out a servant for directions. They're everywhere."

"Very well. Thank you." And with that, Bath strode into the central room of the three. Lisa and Lepochim gave each other a glance and then followed suit a second later, entering the left and right rooms respectively.

---

The three separately enjoyed the amenities in their lavish rooms. The bathrooms in each were absolutely enormous and outfitted with several fixtures that Bath and Lisa were unfamiliar with, such as what appeared to be a full-body dryer and a rectangular pit filled with foam cubes. The bathrooms had many similarities to those of Earth, namely a separate bathtub and shower as well as toilets, sinks, and mirrors. However, the bath tubs were cylindrical in shape and deep, so standing in them appeared to be the norm. The toilets, too, appeared to require one stand over a shoot that led to some kind of residence-wide waste-disposal system.

Lisa was particularly unhappy with the slight variances between these and Earthly amenities. She was most disturbed by the toilet, which didn't work like she expected at first glance. She shuddered just thinking about going to the bathroom again. It was worse than just going outside behind foliage as she'd been doing previously. Clearly, the anatomy of the sapients on this world was different in many, many ways.

Even the sinks were distinct, the counter having two levels upon which two separate sinks rested. Lisa figured that this design was intended for use with two sets of hands, which made sense considering Waymaster Juserin and his fellow sapients all had six limbs total.

Overall, however, Lisa enjoyed the alien luxury of the bathroom and spent the next two hours soaking in the bath and reclining in the strange foam pit. 'When we make our super headquarters,' Lisa thought to herself, 'we need to get one of these.' The foam pit at once dried her and allowed her a space to lie suspended in complete comfort.

Meanwhile, Lepochim took a quick shower and used the full-body dryer. He was out of the bathroom within 10 minutes. Upon leaving, he found that clothes had been deposited on the large, circular bed in his chambers. Upon inspection, Lepochim found the robe to be a modified version of the robes normally worn by sapients on this world. The robes were of fine quality, white with crimson accents. He was happy to have actual clothes instead of the weird, organic suit Bath had slapped onto his body.

"Lepochim, come to my room," Bath called out from his own bedchambers. Lepochim heard him through the wall and sighed, but left the room to go over to Bath.

Bath was in the room sitting on his large bed. His eyes were bright as he asked, "Lepochim. Tell me what you know about this world."

At the same time, Bath appeared in Lisa's room. "Lisa?"

"I'm in the bathroom," she called back. Bath nodded, leaving her alone for the time being. He could inform her later about what he learned from Lepochim.

Back in Bath's room, Lepochim began to explain what he knew about this "tiny, backwater pinprick."

"The Waymaster of this world is likely only wealthy because one of his planets has a gate that serves as a critical node in a greater power's trade road. What I mean by that is some wealthier Waymaster stationed much closer to the core has a trading enterprise. Some of his business is far out from the core, and rather than conquer all of the nodes necessary to complete his trading routes, he's simply bought gatepasses for all of his trading vessels. As a result, this Waymaster has a small but steady stream of cash as the gatepasses get renewed every hundred years or so."

Bath blanched. "Every hundred years...? So, this man his lived for a while." Bath's eyes narrowed. Someone who was in a position of power for periods of multiple hundreds of years (as Lepochim seemed to imply the Waymaster was) undoubtedly had a high sense of caution and refined planning abilities.

Lepochim gave Bath a knowing smile. "I mentioned before that kursi don't age, remember?" Bath nodded; he hadn't thought much of it. With regards to Lisa, he had a general idea of how to keep her from aging using his own power, and therefore hadn't been very impressed by that particular kursi boon. Though, Bath had to admit, for most, the fact that kursi stopped the aging process was incredibly beneficial.

"Tell me about what it means for a Waymaster to have control over multiple planets and how so-called gatepasses function," Bath asked.

"The closer you are to Ildr, the harder it is to keep control over a gate because of the immense economic and political stakes," Lepochim explained, going on to detail the gatepass system of accruing profits as well as the political power given to those in possession of gates. "If this planet wasn't so far removed from Ildr, he'd be quite a figure to reckon with. Fifteen planets is a sizable holding."

Lepochim gave Bath a tight grin. "Alas, despite this Waymaster's declaration otherwise, this tiny, backwater pinprick of a planet is too far removed from civilized space to hold much value. This man's gates are all worth less in total than a one-way gate closer to the Core."

"So, in essence, this Waymaster is a large power in this region, but in the vast scheme of things is an absolute nobody. You're even less than him, you know," Lepochim pointed out, his tone oddly serious. "You should be careful not to screw things up for yourself. You have a lot of potential, World Devourer or not, to get out of this fringe region and make your way towards the center of the universe." Which was, of course, what Lepochim wanted; he naturally wanted out of this trivially insignificant stretch of space. Personal motivations aside, what he said was true: Bath knew this because, despite what he told Lepochim, he still had a spindle of essence circulating Lepochim's body to detect the verity of his words.

He clearly believed that what Bath should be doing is traveling inward, towards Ildr.

Bath thought those plans rather...unambitious.