As it turned out, pushing daylight back by six hours had a nasty effect on society, working hours and one’s biological clock. Gaius, who normally slept for around seven hours, found himself waking up at the crack of dawn…which, given that the sun was late by a few hours, actually meant that it was noon.

It was confusing to think about, but the two had slept for far longer than they had bargained for. They had been hiding in their room for the past day after the opening battles at the Heaven-cleaving Fortress, waiting out the spatial disjoint, but their biological clock clearly hadn’t adjusted to their new realities.

Isabelle, however, was still sleeping. From her mumbling, Gaius could tell that she was dreaming about feeding Nakama and La-Ti ice-cream, although he couldn’t quite get why she was having that dream. Making a mental note to feed her some ice-cream when they had time, Gaius reached out and poked her cheek gently.

“Wakey wakey. It’s noon…although it doesn’t look like it.”

She rolled over, but after a few pokes, Isabelle eventually woke up. Gaius was inwardly disappointed, since her cheek was nice and squishy, but he was able to poke them anytime he liked anyway.

“It is?” Isabelle rubbed her eyes. “Oh, right. The sun blew up.”

As she rolled off the bed to wash up, Gaius couldn’t help but think that those words were the most succinct summary of the largest event to strike Orb for the past hundred thousand years. Giving her a mental thumbs-up, he dried his damp face with some qi and laid back down on the bed.

“Nexus,” Gaius spoke out loud. “Is the spatial disjoint over?”

A sculpture poked its head out of Gaius’ backpack. “Essentially, yes. Although, to be safe, I recommend waiting for another hour.”

“Okay. Are Xanadu, Nakama and La-Ti prepared?” Gaius asked.

“Their bags are packed and everything. To be safe, I’ve also gotten them to pack even more items in a handheld luggage,” Nexus reported. “I’ll teleport them over to the Library after you and Isabelle arrive, just so they don’t go around messing up the Library.”

For some reason, Nexus had taken on an odd tone at that last bit.

“Did something happen?”

“Well, an event that illustrated the dangers of autonomous artefacts happened in your very home,” said Nexus. “Like an uprising by artificial intelligence, except that the word ‘intelligence’ is a misnomer in this case.”

He didn’t quite like the sound of that. “Be more specific.”

“If you so wish, Master Gaius. Let’s see…so, you know those toys you brought back from the Southern Assembly? One of them happens to be something called Risk, right? It came with lots of soldier figurines, no?”

“Uh huh.”

“La-Ti and Nakama were playing Risk, when one of them hit upon the brilliant idea of bringing in toy blocks to make fortresses. However, since those soldiers were actually artefacts that were capable of semi-autonomous movement, it didn’t take long these little soldiers took over the fortresses.”

Gaius smacked his ear twice, and then slapped his face. Now that he was more awake, he stared at the sculpture. “Sorry, can you repeat that last bit? You said something about taking over.”

“Yeah, I did.”

He took in that astounding piece of news for a moment, and then remembered it was Orb. “Okay, what happened next?”

“La-Ti and Nakama were delighted at first, but after a few more rounds…” Nexus’ words died off.

“Go on,” said Gaius. “What happened?”

It was nothing important, seeing as how Nexus was more amused than anything else, and at this point, he was more interested in hearing what happened next.

Nexus cleared his throat. “Well, they tried to rebel. Unfortunately, Xanadu was watching them play, and before they could throw more than two blocks at La-Ti, she had already suppressed the rebellion. As we speak, those soldiers are now being trained by Lightning and Stone, putting a new spin into the definition of children’s toys.”

Gaius opened his mouth, but there really wasn’t any words that came out. For some reason, Nakama had this really odd thing with intelligent artefacts. She had a sentient knife, a sentient crystal and now, by the looks of it, a tiny toy army.

“Tell her to bring it along when we go over to the Library. I want to examine them,” said Gaius. “Isabelle’s going to be interested too.”

“Me?” A voice came from the bathroom, and the sight of Isabelle wiping her hair dry came into view. “What about me?”

“Oh, something interesting.” Nexus chuckled. “Alright, I’m going back to Nakama first. She wants my help for some homework.”

Before Gaius could say anything, the artificial intelligence had left the sculpture. Eyeing the lifeless sculpture, he pushed it back down into the bag, and then turned to Isabelle.

“What happened?” Isabelle asked.

“You’ll know when we get to the Library,” said Gaius. Pulling her down onto the bed, he took the towel in her hands and started wiping her hair dry gently. Isabelle’s long hair was nice to look at, but Gaius had an inkling that she kept it long because she somehow knew that he liked it.

The least he could do was to pat it dry, a deed far harder if she did it by herself.

Isabelle, who was used to it, shifted slightly to accommodate him. They spent the next few minutes in relative silence, enjoying the companionship the other afforded.

All good things, however, came to an end, and so it was for drying Isabelle’s hair. Folding her towel neatly, Gaius handed it back to her and wondered if he should take another shower instead.

“We’ll be going soon,” said Isabelle. “And you’re not leaving me behind this time.”

“Yeah, I know.” Gaius sighed. “I’m still worried, though.”

“I know, but I’m also worried for you,” Isabelle replied.

Resting his head on her lap, Gaius looked up at her. “Thank you.”

“We made a promise, didn’t we?”

He nodded, and then got up. “Let’s get ready to leave.”