PART 4

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The Ritus headquarters had already been repopulated by its numerous members. Needless to say, none of them expected to see Bath anytime soon--perhaps ever--after he stepped into the gate and left.

They scarcely had a moment to react as a huge black torpedo-like vessel entered the gate room and nearly ripped one of the walls in half. Inside the cabin, Juserin frowned as the spectacle was shown on the viewing screen.

"Why are they so unprepared?" he asked incredulously, giving Bath a sidelong glance.

Lisa snickered. "It's because they don't belong here anymore."

Juserin's face (at least the part visible above his mouth sash) continued to display extreme levels of confusion. "Surely Waymaster Bath has his own personnel to man this gate," Juserin stated firmly. "They should be receiving all of us right now...rather than this spectacle."

Bath looked at Juserin and gave him a small smile. "Waymaster Juserin," Bath said calmly, "I haven't yet had time to secure my holding and attain proper gate personnel. Allow me a few minutes to deal with the ruckus outside this ship. Actually," Bath inclined his head, "give me 2 minutes exactly."

Juserin nodded, then gestured for his servants to open the voyager's door. Bath stepped out onto the ground outside and stretched his limbs. Not because he needed to, nor because it felt good, but because he understood the psychological play that exists between predators and prey.

Stretching gave the impression that he was in no rush and under no stress.

Next, he gave them a wide grin, then boomed throughout the entire mansion through the use of rapidly deployed mouths: "I have returned, Ritus. I have a message for you. It is not an ultimatum; it is not a request. It is a statement of fact."

He sensed the people of Ritus listening attentively with expressions of great horror. After all, he's an ordinary person's nightmare. Just a few days ago he'd single-handedly knocked and kicked out all people in the headquarters without batting an eye.

That was power you didn't want to provoke. The members of Ritus were all too aware what was going to happen now that Bath had returned.

"From this day forth, all of you work for me. If you resist, I will imprison you until I can enslave you. I will be fair to all those who serve me.

"I will not tell you my intentions from the beginning, nor will I explain any commands that I give you. You are to follow the will of myself and any I call my companions without hesitation."

The members of Ritus' expressions slowly turned from horror to shock to, finally, relief as Bath finished speaking. They were all just glad he wasn't going to inflict a punishment somewhere between torture and death on them.

Of course they despised Bath for making them all into his own personal servants. What did that even mean, anyways? Altogether, being wholly unprepared for Bath's appearance and his words caused a great clamor to fall over the Ritus headquarters.

The first voice to ring out was a girl's. "I submit to Bath," she said softly, though Bath grinned internally as he amplified the girl's voice across the whole complex.

It was Angelina. At her side was her father, Jessup. Bath saw through a pair of eyes hovering in the corner of the room, a reading room of some sort, that Jessup's face was red-purple with fury.

In the end, after exhaling enough air to fill a balloon, Jessup was the next in line to submit to Bath. After all, he'd been in the gate room when Bath had played with him and the others like toys and Lepochim had called him an all-powerful World Devourer. He had no illusions of what Bath could do if he so chose.

Since their leader chose to submit, a torrent of submissions rushed from the members towards Bath. In the end, not even a single one chose another option.

Bath smiled contentedly, rather frightening the three Ritus members in the room.

'Let's see...' Bath thought to himself, a hand on his jaw. "Ritus, tonight is to be a grand feast to celebrate the arrival of Waymaster Juserin to planet Earth." There was no room for discussion in his words.

"We will be back at 7 pm." With that, Bath returned to the door of the voyager. The door slid open and soon Juserin, Lisa, Lepochim, and two servants exited the ship.

The three humans of Ritus accordingly grimaced in fear and suspicion at the aliens, but Bath paid them no mind. Despite not understanding human expression properly, Juserin was able to discern the humans' fear and scorn.

"Isn't this world civilized?" he asked quietly as they walked together towards a door that would eventually lead towards the headquarters' exit. Bath had already ensured that the surrounding area was clear of all people and electronics that would detect the visiting verdora.

"Newly," Lepochim grumbled. Lisa gave him a fwap on the shoulder, invoking a particularly surprised expression.

Bath just chuckled inwardly at the display. Perhaps he wouldn't be the only one subject to Lisa's punishing slaps.

"In all seriousness, Juserin, this world is newly civilized. Tell me, back on Illudis, how old are most of your structures?"

"As in our buildings and machines and whatnot?"

Bath tilted his head in a nod.

"Perhaps...one thousand years old. We build them to last, and the fashions don't change all that much over time. White on more white, with gold and crimson being the standard."

"Nearly all the structures on this world have been created in the past century," Bath remarked. "Almost all advanced technology on this planet has been created within the past fifty years."

Juserin's eyes crinkled in surprise; he was really growing rather put out by how many surprises these newcomers were bringing to his stable life. "Fifty years...what kinds of technologies are on this world?" He wasn't very familiar with Earth at all and had only done cursory research the day before they all left. Of course he had asked many questions about Earth on the way, but these mostly pertained to Earth's natural resources and environmental conditions.

He'd assumed that Earth would be like most other civilized worlds. But actually, Earth was practically a newborn chick hatched from the egg.

Juserin started to question his decision to come to this world. Juserin was well aware of the fact that many sapients closer to the Core considered Illudis and his other planetary holdings to be planetary backwaters. Seeing Earth, he felt like he finally understood the origin of the word: This was a true backwater.

"Actually, on this world, people don't know about the existence of life on other planets," Bath added, curious as to what response this would incite in Juserin. He knew that Juserin planned to engage some kind of imperialistic behavior once he came on Earth; whether that be scouting the planet out to conquer it later or signing some kind of trade agreements between Earth and his other planetary holdings to make a trade consortium, Bath wasn't sure. He did have faith that Juserin's actions were economic in nature, which was why Bath didn't bear him any ill will.

"You're joking."

"He's really not," Lisa and Lepochim said in sync.

"Juserin, I'm telling you all of this first and foremost because I can't have you walking around anywhere on Earth. If you were to just randomly appear, you'd surely cause an enormous uproar." Which would be counterproductive to achieving his plans.

"Secondly, you see the situation on Earth; I'm fairly certain you don't feel like undertaking a huge modernization and re-education operation to get the residents of this backwater world into the present."

"This is, of course, what you would need to do to conduct trade with any people on Earth, not to mention if you were to go as far as to wrest my position as Earth's Waymaster away from me by force."

Juserin's eyes narrowed as he considered Bath's words. He wasn't surprised Bath had guessed his intentions; he assumed Bath had suspected all along and was just helpless to change the reality of the situation. Of course, Juserin was fairly merciful and had planned on granting Bath some level of autonomy over Earth.

That was before he'd actually arrived on Earth and realized that there was a host of questions he really should've asked with regards to the sapients on Earth.

"So where am I allowed to go?"

"Oh, you can go wherever you want, just as long as I accompany you." Juserin shot Bath a perplexed glance; Lisa thought the expression of confusion would soon be permanently affixed to the verdora's face.

"Didn't you just say..."

"Oh, I said you can't just go walking around randomly. Waymaster Juserin, I have the inborn capability to make you appear in any way I want," Bath said with a coy smile. "It'll require you to let me cover you in an organic substance I call essence. This essence will conform to your body and then, like a mask, create the outer appearance of a human overlaid upon your own figure."

"It's perfectly safe and guaranteed to work as long as you stay within my range of vision." Of course, the vision thing wasn't true, but he didn't want Juserin running off and getting into trouble. Besides, his long-range manipulation did have distance limits and Bath couldn't afford Juserin unknowingly going beyond his range.

Juserin stared at Bath in contemplation. "This is your ability? Not a technology?" Juserin had never heard of such an ability before. What kind of sapient was Bath, after all? The Waymaster was a mystery.

"It's a unique ability, incredibly rare to manifest," Bath said with a casual wave of his hand. "Anyways, do I have your consent?" Juserin supposed it would be fine...and Bath did say it was perfectly safe...Besides, he'd clearly seen Bath use the ability on himself to disguise himself as a cube when he'd first arrived.

Of course, Juserin didn't know that when Bath arrived, he'd actually be in the shape of a giant metallic beast carrying Lisa and Lepochim in his chest cavity. Were this the case, he might have been more wary of Bath and his capabilities.

"I agree to let you use your ability on me," Juserin said nobly, as though his decision was on behalf of the good of all the verdora people.

Bath was starting to think of Juserin like an old, benevolent grandfather. When in his element, Juserin was confident and regal. When stuck on a place like Earth, the verdora seemed confused and as out of his element as an elderly man before a new computer. Moroeover, he seemed almost as honest as Bath knew he must have been before spending a significant amount of time as a human. He didn't suspect that Lisa was completely BSing her research background, nor did he question why Bath, clearly not a human, was Waymaster of Earth and able to change his appearance.

Bath recognized the value of such an honest, unquestioning soul. As he continued to think about how to achieve his goals, Juserin was starting to fill a key role in his plans.

"Allow me a few seconds," Bath called out as he sent a cocoon of essence in Juserin's direction. He also sent out a stream of essence to Lepochim to smooth out any small differences in his appearance that might make him stick out.

Bath was already intimately familiar with the structure of the verdora body and quickly got to work covering Juserin in a human skin complete with contemporary street clothes. This required, in part, Bath to bind a set of Juserin's limbs to his sides and to create a permanent strand of essence to support Juserin's frame. Verdora frequently walked on two pairs of limbs, so this supplementary strand was necessary to enable Juserin to properly imitate human motion.

If Juserin had any questions about how Bath knew so much about his own body's contours (especially when most of his body was concealed under a formal robe), he didn't express any. This was fine with Bath--one less explanation to fabricate.

"So, now that I can be seen in public, where are we to visit first?"

Bath had talked this over with Lepochim earlier. Apparently, proper Waymaster etiquette was to give a tour of one's world when another Waymaster arrived. Of course, this hadn't exactly been the treatment Bath had been given, but that could be written off by the fact that Bath was in a rush to return to Earth. Had Bath planned to stay longer, he would have received a much more extensive tour of Illudis.

According to Lepochim, this initial introduction to Earth was supposed to illuminate Earth's splendor and might.

Bath had asked Lisa to make them an itinerary. Looking at it now, Bath could vouch that Lisa's list of places to visit was a great sampler of Earth's sapient culture.

"First, we need to enter my ship," Bath said with a flourish of his right hand. Upon it was suddenly a solid, rotating cube that was slowly expanding out. "Let's head outside."

All followed Bath to the exterior of the headquarters. They ended up standing in the middle of a grassy field close to the driveway.

"Let me expand the ship. One moment."

Lisa had to admit that if she hadn't known better, she'd definitely think the "ship" a piece of extremely advanced technology.

'Wouldn't have been able to do this twenty years ago,' Bath thought as he formed his body into the shape of a large metal-plated bird. He hadn't even known what vehicles were before he'd learned more about human society and the industrial revolution.

In mere seconds, the bird was fully expanded. The part of Bath that was the bird let its head down and opened its beak to receive Juserin, two servants, Lisa, Lepochim, and the part of Bath that looked human.

After all had entered, Bath quickly altered the ship's exterior from metal--which was heavy and unnecessary--to normal skin and feathers. Then, he took off, flapping enormous wings to boost them into the sky above the clouds so that people below wouldn't be able to see them.

Of course, he was going fast enough that he'd scarce be more than a blur, but it never hurt to be cautious.

As human Bath looked down at the list Lisa had written up, bird Bath steered in the direction of the first destination: Rome, Italy.