Riley looked towards the magnificently carved coffins on the other side of the barrier. The burial receptacles of the S9 victims were meticulously arranged and the grounds surrounding them were precisely maintained to a standard that any Japanese rock gardener would envy. "Seriously Tattletale, I am NOT going in there. I'm not even touching that barrier. Krakatoa is nobody you want to talk to. I told you what she did. I know I did. She's insane. Two hundred bloodthirsty fragments of a twice-triggered headcase."

"Overseer, not Krakatoa." I corrected, "And I'm not going to ask you to enter. You are only here because it's my turn to watch you, and I come back here every season to try this again." I really wish I were doing the negotiating instead of Dragon, but Dinah said she will be more generous with Dragon, when she finally chooses to trade, so that's that.

"I still think you are making a very serious mistake." Riley whined plaintively. "Dragon said the US military tried to send a tomahawk missile with a nuke in it into her base, and it never detonated. What if you piss her off and she drops it on us, or maybe she decides to try for Golden Morning Part Two?"

We've gone over this at least ten times Riley, I thought to myself. "We're pretty certain that she's restricted to that area. You know full well Khepri would have yanked her out of there in an instant if she could have."

Riley fired back. "Maybe Khepri couldn't just reach in there. It's pretty clear Scion didn't bother her, for whatever reason. Seriously. Scary, scary cape, Tattletale. You're playing with something that I know damn well you don't understand. You've never seen her, and all we know about her from her parents and surviving friends is from before two triggers."

My power told her that Riley really was as scared as she sounded. "Riley, what did Dinah say again?"

Riley calmed down a lot, while muttering something under her breath that I pretended to ignore, then said, with gravitas "Still. Seriously. Scary cape. She turned Manton's projection into a real person, then blew it up. I remember seeing Siberian explode into gibbets as my head flopped through the air. I do not know why she let us live. I think..." Riley started talking more and more to herself, glancing nervously towards the coffins every now and then. The bright red flags on stakes every few feet around the perimeter of the invisible barrier fluttered in the light breeze.

I sighed and ignored Riley's muttering and spoke louder. "We've told you this before, Riley. Manton Effect. She didn't really blow you up, she just pushed you out of her sphere of influence. Her shaker ability created effects that made it seem like you were blown to pieces. For the Siberian, she simply denied Manton the ability to properly form his construct inside her area."

Riley shuddered, her arms crossed over her chest. Clearly deep in thought and ignoring me.

I poked her in the arm and she jumped, but started listening to me again. "Dragon and I have spent days working with Dinah. Unless you think we messed something up? Zero percent chance of her being able to leave her sphere of influence? Zero percent chance of her lobbing that nuke back out at us? 99.98% chance that anyone we send in to trade will not be killed, provided they don't start a fight or have a power or body modification that gives them pointy ears or green skin? If you enter, yes, there's a near certainty she'll try to kill you, but you're not entering. There's a 74% chance of her responding favorably to a request to trade this season. So stop your whining."

Riley shuddered. "You're going to do it anyway." She turned away. "I don't want to look. If I'm going to die here, I don't want to see it coming."

I threw the paper airplane at the barrier. Unlike humans, it passed through. On it was written a message.

**

Overseer,

Your parents would like to see you, and pay their respects to the remains of your sister. We can have them here in one hour. We have trade goods with us now. Several vehicles full of exotic woods, precious metals, rare gemstones, and hundreds of samples of the best alcoholic beverages from ten dimensions. We also have various portable electronics with replacement batteries, equipment for a geothermal power source, and a fuel cell power storage system. As we have said for the last thirteen seasons, we really need your trade, especially tools. Trillions of people across hundreds of dimensions are struggling. You and your dwarves can make a difference to the lives of more people than you can probably imagine.

**

Five minutes later, a young, dark-skinned woman in sky blue armor approached hesitantly. I watched her look closely at the gathered rag-tag convoy with dozens of guards through the barriers, fifty vehicles of forty different sizes and shapes, from semi-tractors hauling exotic wood to armored cars carrying gems and bullion, all the way down the tech tree to horse-drawn wagons stacked high with small barrels and casks of alcohol.

I stepped forward, closer to the barrier, drawing Overseer's attention with my movement. I knew what the answer was already, but waited for her to actually make the gesture. After seeing the nod and beckoning hand, I waved Dragon and Colin forward and they started the convoy moving.

As the trucks and carts began moving, the woman in blue armor turned her back on us all with a flourish of dozens of long, tight braids. As she walked towards the entrance to her fortress, she swung her arm over her head in a very clear gesture to follow.

Smiling, I dialed a phone number where two parents were waiting. They had suffered rejection eight times before they had stopped coming with the convoys, afraid that somehow their daughter knew they were there, despite Dinah's and my attempts to convince them otherwise.

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith? Your daughter would like to see you." After two minutes of excited babbling from a male and female voice on two landline phones had calmed down, I continued. "Transport will be at your location in five minutes."