There was one reason why Bath chose not to immediately genetically edit-away verdora danger mania: he wanted to observe whether or not it could be useful. Based on the conversation he overheard between Eyrin and his devilbat, Bath speculated that after being exposed to enough danger, a verdora's danger sense would build up tolerance.

How else would escorts operate? If escorts, the agents who led other verdora into "leisurely" danger, were as affected by danger as their clients, they would be unable to properly fulfill their duties. In fact, Bath had a feeling that "escort training" had, at its heart, a series of dangerous situations that potential escorts had to overcome.

And if they failed? Considering that some of the training was likely high-stakes and truly dangerous, Bath wouldn't be surprised if at least some escorts-to-be perished.

I really can't disagree with the verdoran leaders' decision to outlaw danger seeking and escorts: leading verdora into danger is bound to lead to unnecessary deaths. The entire scenario reminded him of the drug trade on Earth, with respect to the hardest, deadliest drugs like heroin.

Bath snorted. COTD solved that problem. Bath had no compunctions modifying the human body so that humans no longer got high off of the most destructive drugs. While he didn't specifically target drugs like weed, higher metabolism and healing undoubtedly muted the drug's influence. Drugs like meth, ecstasy, cocaine, and the like would, however, have their effects almost completely nullified.

Technically, an incredibly skilled caretaker could get enough PP investment into the human body to give back the ability to get high off of these substances. If humans want to get high that badly, he thought, not my problem.

Towards the final stretch of their journey, Bath noted that Cia, the jockey at the head of the horse entourage, was slowing down. She continued to glance back, as though nervous about something.

It's unsurprising that she'd feel uneasy; we verdora must sound like demonic hyenas. As Cia slowed down, their crazed cries resounded even louder, no longer minced by the wind. Yes, their danger mania could definitely be useful, he thought, thinking back to the Basalith tournament in which he devised psychologically haunting challenges. Next time I hold one of those tournaments, I'm definitely going to include creepy cackling hyenas. And clowns.

The beginning of the slow-down marked the climax of the verdora danger mania: Cia's slow cantor led the group of verdora into a sober haze. He could hear her mutter about "crazy blue dogs" under her breath as she led them forward to where the kursi had stopped. The rest of the vanguard, currently flanking the verdora pack, shot ahead to reach the location of the kursi and begin setting up camp.

Are you done now? Kendrick asked in his deep voice.

Bath was pleased that his verdora facade was convincing. Yes; I apologize for my incontinence.

Kendrick snorted. Glad to see you're serious about this relationship.

Bath couldn't tell if Kendrick was being sarcastic, and elected to stay silent. After a minute, Cia led the verdora to the edge of what was quickly becoming a new city-seed. She stopped, then directed her horse to turn around with a flick of her reins. Facing all of them, she cleared her throat, then announced, "We've all arrived at the Equinox gate. I've been informed that this city's name is Jure."

Bath smiled. An interesting choice of word, he thought. Dean's definitely going the diplomatic route. Bath knew that "Jure" means crimson in standard verdoran. The first syllable of the name Juserin actually shares an ancient root with the word, such that any verdora seeing the city's name would immediately associate it with Juserin. Additionally, Jure perfectly described Vast Desert in all of its monotonous red glory.

"Since you're all new additions to the vanguard, and since none of you have obtained all basic COTD boons, you will all live in a dragonleaf apartment complex next to the Spire for your protection and convenience. Follow me: I'll lead the way, in case you're still unfamiliar with the standard Basalith-style city layout."

You know the way, don't you? Bath transmitted to Kendrick, who promptly sent back the image of a giant, yellow middle finger emoji.

Like the back of my ass, he replied, neighing.

Bath's eyes suddenly widened. He'd been trying to place the familiar-sounding voice of Kendrick's for a while, and now he was fairly certain he knew what it sounded like.

"Lisa," he hissed, needing someone to share the information with.

"I'm busy damn it," she muttered under her breath.

"Just listen." Bath's disembodied voice sounded positively giddy: the horse quasies were his creation, after all. "My horse's mental voice sounds just like Charlie from the YouTube video Charlie the Unicorn."

"I don't think I've ever heard you so immature in my life," she snorted back, suppressing a laugh. "You're such a proud dad,"

"You're no fun," he replied back, sighing dramatically in her ear.

---

The Church and Dragon stood in the office of the Spire, Lisa reclining into a couch and Bath leaning against a wall. Dean sat in his office chair, regarding the two of them.

"So, what's the status on operation space ship?" Lisa asked, commencing the conversation.

Dean massaged the bridge of his nose. "Well, it's happening. Our contingent of eight-hundred engineers are working to reverse-engineer the voyager Juserin gave us access to, and they seem fairly optimistic."

Lisa nodded. "Having a model to work off of is far easier than making a space-faring vessel from scratch."

Dean swiveled in his chair. "Thank God we have the voyager," he muttered. "Our old space technology is wholly insufficient for our current needs."

"How many more days?" Bath asked.

Dean frowned. "The engineers haven't been able to give me a solid number, though I'd estimate that it'll be a week or two until we get an initial working prototype."

Bath looked at him, expressionless. "We're in no rush," he replied. "This gate is an excellent trial for our hardworking engineers."

"Good to know," Dean said, looking at Lisa. "Are you guys just going to hang out, or...?"

She smiled. "No worries: Bath and I have matters to keep ourselves occupied."

Dean nodded. "I probably don't even want to know," he chuckled nervously.

Lisa shrugged. "We're definitely not going to drag you into something like what happened with the tortus," she said, assuring him.

Dean raised an eyebrow. "You sure you can make that kind of promise?"

Lisa's mouth popped open. "Well..."

Bath smiled, a cruel, icy veneer over his face. "Vast Desert is an empty red shell. There will be no trouble."

---

Three Days Later

Thaddeus glared daggers at Eyrin. "This seems incredibly dangerous."

Eyrin smiled back. "Isn't that the point, my escort-in-training?"

"I suppose," he replied, his eyebrow crests pulling together.

The two of them stood over the edge of a deep fissure four miles away from the eastern edge of Jure. "You're going first," Eyrin said, pushing Thaddeus lightly across the back.

"Fine," Thaddeus grumbled, stepping gingerly forward. "I just...jump?"

"Jump, then catch the wall with your wraps," Eyrin instructed, holding up his first set of hands. Good thing these land-shaper boons allow me to create cloth products out of plant fiber, he thought. I was able to create a second working set of my ribbon wraps.

"What's so special about these wraps again?" Thaddeus asked, his skin already darker by several shades.

Eyrin sighed. "I told you: they adhere to surfaces when subject to high friction force."

Thaddeus held out a wrapped hand, inspecting its dragonleaf ash-green color. "Why are yours black, while mine are green?"

Eyrin's skin darkened slightly. "There's one way to become an escort," he murmured, stepping forward, walking with a predatory gait. "The way that I, and countless others before me, became one." Thaddeus tensed under his gaze, seemingly frozen in place. Eyrin's smile tightened.

Then, he pushed, and Thaddeus soundlessly fell into the fissure. Eyrin waited patiently for the verdora to resurface. I would never have attempted something like this back on Illudis, he thought. The chance for success is usually too low. If he really were to fail and die, his death might be traced back to me. He sat down at the edge of the fissure, staring intently down into its dark depths.

But this verdora, Thaddeus...Eyrin grinned. I have complete confidence in him. Which was rare: Eyrin lived his life by the assumption that anything that could go wrong, would. But even assuming the worst case, that Thaddeus remains frozen and falls the entire distance to the bottom of the pit...

Eyrin shook his head. "He's indestructible." He'd seen Thaddeus improve over the past few days at what could only be described as a maddeningly-fast rate. He'd continued to master boon after boon, surpassing the other verdora and distinguishing himself from the rest. He wasn't so far above so as to seem preternaturally gifted, but he was the most talented of those present.

Considering the fact that Thaddeus also had a mysterious artifact protecting him from kursi shell manipulation, Eyrin recognized that he was far more than he appeared to be at first glance. However, more than anything else, Eyrin wanted to befriend Thaddeus because he liked the somewhat-oblivious verdora. Eyrin gave Thaddeus a genuine smile when, a minute later, he climbed up and out of the fissure, grinning wildly with danger mania.

"How was it?" Eyrin asked, gesturing for Thaddeus to come over and sit.

"Exhilarating. For a moment I thought I was going to die."

Eyrin grinned. "I'm glad it was a good jump."

"How do you bring other verdora along?" Thaddeus asked, sitting down. "Can you show me?"

Eyrin smirked. "Come," he said, reaching for Thaddeus' wrapped hand. "You're accompanying an escort grandmaster."

"What do you mean?" Thaddeus asked as he stumbled behind. "A grandmaster?"

Eyrin laughed. "Remember, I'm a kursi," he said. "I've been an escort for the past thirty years." So long that I even needed to kill my old identity off and come back as Kade. If I stuck around any longer than fifteen years, and I would've stood as a threat to Adursa.

Just thinking of the shadowy verdora brought a bitter taste to his mouth. Eyrin hated Adursa, but she was the leader of the entire escort network: while he wanted to kill her, he recognized her presence as a necessary evil keeping the various escort branches in line. Moreover, while he faked his death to avoid conflict with Adursa, dying also allowed him to continue concealing the fact that he was a kursi.

In general, Eyrin most disagreed with how Adursa handled politics within her organization, pitting rival branch heads against one another in danger challenges. She schemed and manipulated so that, at the end of the day, she remained secure in her own power while her most talented underlings lay dead.

She was exactly the kind of sapient Eyrin despised. In fact, she stood for everything he hated about Juserin.

"Ready?" Eyrin asked, looking toward Thaddeus. The young verdora nodded. With a knowing grin, Eyrin jumped, pulling Thaddeus along with him into the deep fissure. He waited until they had fallen seven-hundred rods: that was usually the cutoff point in a depression of this size, approximately fifteen-hundred rods. Thaddeus was currently falling just above him, his hand still secure in Eyrin's iron hold.

Then Eyrin twisted, planting the feet of his third set of limbs against the wall. He pushed off at an angle, spinning his body while tucking in his limbs and pulling Thaddeus into his chest. He proceeded to whip out his two ribbon-wrapped hands, planting them expertly against the fissure's walls. He held onto Thaddeus with his second set of limbs while using his third set of limbs to adjust his trajectory and tweak his center of mass.

Eyrin and came to a stop around eleven-hundred rods underground. He smiled down at the verdora currently cradled in his arms. Thaddeus matched the expression with a grin of his own.

"I'll never be able to pull that off," Thaddeus said, referring to the display of agility in which Eyrin effectively back-flipped off the wall into a tight spin.

Eyrin snorted as he began to climb up the wall's surface, his ribbon wraps providing excellent traction against the sandy rock. "Stop being modest. You're my protege: what kind of protege remains in his master's shadow?"