Whitesun was only a human city by virtue of the fact that Lisa was its primary architect: humans still hadn't made their way to Illudis. In actuality, Lisa had been planning to sit back and lead Juserin through the city-seed growing process. However, despite being a kursi, Juserin lacked the capacity to properly communicate with the city-seed, necessitating Lisa's intervention.

"That's so odd," Lisa had murmured out loud. As far as she knew, the city-seed growing process was fully automated. Only after the city's completion would Juserin actually need to manipulate dragonleaf to do his biddings.

Wondering if Juserin's kursi compatibility was the problem--the verdora encyclopedia entry revealed that Verdora ranked in at 7230/10000 symbiote affinity to humanity's ambiguous 8/10--Lisa had decided to just start growing the seed herself. She had reached out her hand and touched the seed where Juserin had dropped it, next to the city gates.

Juserin looked on in awe as Illudis' former capital underwent a fundamental transformation. The blinding, salt-white of the mountain gave way to dragonleaf's domineering advance, green rapidly overtaking the crimson and gold decorating the mountain's terraces.

As Lisa watched this occur, she couldn't help but lament the unsightly green, crimson, and gold color combination. Almost a second after she felt a sense of repulsion, her eyes lit up. She placed a hand on the closest extension of the city-seed's dragonleaf backbone; then, she utilized her artist visualization boons to create the image of a stunning sunset city within her mind. The dragonleaf seemed to understand, translating Lisa's desire into reality before Juserin's dumbstruck eyes.

'He cannot be that surprised,' Lisa had grumbled internally, feeling slightly smug at the Waymaster's reaction. Crimson vines and leaves intertwined with golden woody boughs, blending in and enhancing the already-majestic Illusta. 'In his eyes, I'm a deity, after all.'

Time passed; eventually, the city was near completion, Basalith's building structure slanting over the jutting surface of the mountain.

"How did you do this?" he breathed, eyes slightly convex saucers popping out of his pale blue face. "Earth has nothing like this." While Juserin hadn't visited everywhere on Earth in person, his voyager had taken video footage of the planet's surface. He had wasted no time in analyzing Earth's culture, technological advancement, etc., eventually concluding that, no matter how knowledgeable Lisa seemed about kursi, she and Bath came from a hopelessly underdeveloped world. Juserin had written them off as a non-threat and possible ally. And now, scarcely a month and a half later, the same two travelers were back...as gods...taking over his home.

"This? It's just a city-seed. On Earth, anyone can grow one. You should be able to use it."

"But I cannot," Juserin replied sullenly, a puzzled expression coming over his face. "Is it something only humanoid species can use?"

Lisa shook her head. "No."

Juserin paused, then continued his line of questions. "You said that all humans can grow these...how?" Juserin looked at the location where the seed was originally planted. "You told me to touch it, then try to communicate it by touching its shell. Very few humans are kursi; how could they control the city-seed?"

Lisa gave him a sagely smile. "All will be revealed in time." On the inside, she was thinking: 'I really need to write some original lines.'

Juserin bowed his head. "Very well, I will wait patiently." He sighed. "I see now how your knowledge of kursi was so inspired. Of course a goddess would have already received enlightenment."

Lisa coughed gently. "I hope my wisdom was useful."

Juserin nodded rapidly, his jaws practically bouncing. "Yes, infinitely so. I have made impressive gains with regards to my shell manipulation."

"Tell me what you know of gods and goddesses," Lisa commanded, her voice soft and clear.

Juserin's two maws seemed in disagreement over which would speak first, leading the first few words to come out garbled. "They are myth." He said this as though it would answer everything.

"Myth," Lisa murmured, eyes narrowing. "Tell me more. I am unfamiliar with this world's mythology." Lisa was actually quite puzzled: she'd spent an inordinate amount of time pouring over the encyclopedia's records on Illudis and the verdora. Perhaps because the encyclopedia came from Illudis, it contained boundless information about the verdora and their history. And yet, despite the fact that Lisa had specifically sifted through the data for hints about verdora religion or mythos, she hadn't found anything, not even a creation myth.

"You asked me about religion when I visited Earth," Juserin murmured, as though mumbling his thoughts aloud. "I didn't understand what you were asking. Do you know the two elements that compose the word 'religion' in my native tongue?" Juserin asked, his voice growing in volume and intensity.

"Tell me," she replied, genuinely curious by where Juserin was going with this line of thought. 'Does religion's translated name have something to do with verdora mythology?'

"Djalet's line." Juserin then laughed softly, though his eyes appeared slightly manic. "How could humans know of Djalet?" He took in a deep breath, cutting off his laughter. Then, he exhaled, as though to steady himself. "You asked about myth. Djalet is the judge at the center of the universe. He has a rod, at the end of which is a long, thin line, such as the kind you'd use to capture an aquatic animal." Juserin gave Lisa a serious look. "He'd send out his line, hook sapients with a hook, and draw their souls out of their bodies."

'Soul?' Lisa blanched. 'They don't have a religion, and yet they have this kind of mythos?' She clenched her fist. 'I refuse to believe that they never developed a religion.' Lisa felt frustrated by her own lack of knowledge regarding the development of societies and cultures. 'I should really spend some time studying anthropology.'

"When he let the souls off the line, they'd come back to their bodies different than before. These were the kursi." Juserin shifted his eyes skyward. "When sapients die, Djalet is the one to cast out his line and catch their souls. These he keeps, and doesn't send back." Juserin sighed. "That is the myth of Djalet and his line."

"Why does the encyclopedia you gave to me lack any information on Djalet?" This was, unequivocally, a religion: no wonder religion was translated as Djalet's line in Juserin's native tongue.

Juserin flicked two of his arms out, causing the right drape-sleeve of his robe to billow out. "It's nothing more than a primitive fantasy. There is no Djalet at the center of the universe, nor is there a fishing line that collects the immaterial leftovers of dead people. Why would Djalet be in the encyclopedia?"

If Lisa wasn't constantly self-regulating her facial features, she would be gawking. "Isn't Djalet a figment of your cultural history?"

Juserin scoffed, though hastily bowed his head in deference as he remembered who he was talking to. "Perhaps thirty-thousand years ago," he explained, "perhaps even longer than that; I'm no expert on the Septcidaric period. Djalet is culturally irrelevant: in fact, when you said Djalet's name on Earth, that was the first time I'd heard it voiced aloud in countless years."

Lisa pondered this explanation. When put that way...perhaps she did understand why they didn't include Djalet in the encyclopedia. Earth's ancient history could fill multiple textbooks, even though it only spanned the last few thousand years. Tens of thousands of years, on the other hand, represented a stunningly long amount of time.

Lisa swallowed involuntarily. 'We're going to conquer places...like Bright Galaxy, Lepochim's home world. Planets with millions of years of history.' Illudis was, for all intents and purposes, an incredibly young planet with a diminutively short historical record. The only planets worse off were planets even closer to the fringe like Earth, or planets that never developed sapient species.

"Do you have records on Djalet? Mythology piques my curiosity."

"There is an archive," Juserin said slowly, eyes scanning the area around them. "I may have trouble finding it, now that this city's restructuring is effectively complete."

Lisa shook her head. "We have all the time in the world," she replied. "First, now that the Spire's complete, I'm going to take you to get your first boons." She looked Juserin up and down. "Grab my hand, and I'll take you with me up the Spire."

Juserin swallowed. "Very well." Then, in the most reluctant gesture Lisa had ever seen Juserin make, the verdora extended his cloth-covered hand over Lisa's. She smiled warmly, then gripped his hand in her own.

Juserin whined involuntarily as Lisa lifted them both off the ground with her magnetic sense. They picked up speed, taking a minute or so to reach the Anima from their current position. She dragged Juserin impatiently through the air, acutely aware of the Waymaster's frailty.

'At least he'll be a bit sturdier after an hour of constitution boon bestowal," she thought knowingly to herself.

---

"This is so cool," Tycho whispered to himself as he and Grey proceeded ever deeper into the labyrinth, mapping out its many twists and turns through Lime World's crust. He glanced over at Grey. "How many meters are we at now?" he asked tentatively. After being in Grey's company for the past two days, he'd realized that the brown-robe would answer simple, fact-seeking questions.

"Thirteen-hundred kilometers," Grey responded flatly. The duo made fast progress through the dark passageways, neither relying on their sense of sight to navigate. Grey's powerful vibrational perception and spatial memory--both enhancements--enabled him to create a near-perfect map in his mind, while Tycho stuck around as a safety precaution in the event of a dead-end or tunnel collapse.

While Grey considered Tycho's presence in a wholly pragmatic light, Tycho thought of the entire trip as an adventure. While Tycho had given up on gleaning any details from Grey, he had the general sense that Grey was looking for something.

Several hours back, Grey had stopped to give someone a phone call, asking them for reinforcements to explore the seemingly endless passageways. Suddenly, Grey stopped; Tycho didn't need to ask to understand why: his sensitive ears easily detected the sounds of footsteps above.

"Dig up to the surface," Grey instructed. Tycho nearly bounced into the ceiling with excitement. He wondered who was above...

Tycho dug upwards until he breached the surface. "Hello!" he shouted jubilantly, eyes squinting in the harsh light of the surface. Then, without warning, he gave out a little squeak and tried to duck back into the tunnel. Unfortunately, Grey was directly below him. As the man climbed out of the tunnel, Tycho was forced out of its safety with him.

"Barkhad," Grey said, nodding towards the man and his snake, Kisserin. A cross expression came over his face as he screwed his eyes upward. "Tycho," he grunted, "get your ass out of my hair."

The Jerboa snapped out of his fear-induced stupor and dive-bombed into the tunnel. Grey rolled his eyes, giving Kisserin a pointed look. "You pranked the kid?"

Kisserin's tongue flicked playfully. "He and a small armada of jerboa dug into my burrow."

Barkhad gave Kisserin an amused look. "Really?" Barkhad smirked, then returned his gaze to Grey. "Into the tunnel?" he asked, eyeing the jerboa-dug passageway.

Kisserin gave Barkhad a rather pitying look. "You'll be blind down there," she remarked. "Grey, why did you invite Barkhad when you can just have me?" the massive snake asked. "He's just going to be a burden on my back."

Grey snorted, ignoring both of them as he re-entered the hole leading to the labyrinth. "Grey," Kisserin hissed from the surface.

"Downward," Barkhad said, motioning with his elbow while keeping both arms wrapped tight around Kisserin's smooth bodice.

Kisserin hissed disdainfully, then began to slither through the tunnel, enlarging it as she went.