Once he was certain he could drink not a drop more, he headed back towards where Rittan and Haiko were talking quietly to one another in the shade of a pillar.

“—about out of twine,” Haiko said, humming, “We used up far more than I was expecting, even given how much we made last night—I hope I’m not being too wasteful with it.”

They’d already added a series of beams across the outer frame for when the palm leaves would be tied down—and he couldn’t see any part of it that wasn’t bound with twine.

“It’s better to use more materials and ensure that it is secure than for it to collapse because we’re too sparing,” Rittan said, “Besides, we can always make more—hello, August.”

August dragged his eyes away from the bamboo framing above to meet his gaze.

“Hey, the ceiling is looking really good—sorry, I forgot to leave the palm leaves out for you guys,” August said, taking another glance upwards. “I made a bunch of twine before I went to sleep last night, so I’ll put it all in a pile for you in a minute.”

“Thank you,” Rittan said, following his gaze upwards. “We’ve been quite liberal with using it, but even so, I’m not sure the twine will last for a significant amount of time.”

“It will dry up quickly in the sun, and if it ever rains, it will probably start to deteriorate eventually,” Haiko said in agreement. “I suppose we will have to figure out a different method to use in the future, but for now, I think it should work.”

August eyed the twine holding one of the supports to the pillar—it was already rough looking, to begin with, but they were right; it wouldn’t last forever.

“I’m capable of making metal nails out of the Efkini chain now,” August said, dropping his gaze back to them. “It uses up a lot of mana, but I’ll start making a stockpile of them whenever I have some to spare—we can nail the main supports to the pillars, and then since the others are all resting on top, the twine won’t have to hold as much weight.”

“The solution to our problem has arrived on the swiftest of wings,” Haiko said, raising an eyebrow. “I’m curious, though—what happened to your hand?”

August glanced down at his hand and the makeshift bandage he had wrapped around his thumb—he’d just about forgotten about it, as the stinging had mostly become background noise, drowned out by the effort of trying to saw through the too-thick log. For a brief moment, he was tempted to make a joke about Kalter pushing him into a thornbush, but he could see her watching them from the other side of the furnace, still in the process of stacking up the next wall.

“I split one of the nails in half by accident, and it stabbed me in the thumb,” August said, shaking his hand as if to show it wasn’t really a big deal. “I’m pretty clumsy, I guess—I actually came over to ask if you wanted to do the summon now because my mana is idling at full, and I kind of want to use some of it soon.”

Rittan straightened up at the news, the topmost pair of his hands came together in a soundless clap, and his smile settled far more comfortably on his face—the drastic shift in his posture seemed to catch Haiko’s undivided attention.

“That’s wonderful,” Rittan said, smiling. “There is no time like the present—and I suppose it would be wasteful to make you wait any longer.”

August nodded at the words, glancing past everyone to the summoning pit beyond. He’d have to get around to making something more dignified eventually because dropping them all into a hole in the ground wasn’t exactly a good first impression—even if it did prevent them from accidentally destroying him during those first confusing moments.

“Sorry,” August said, taking a step around them. “But I’m going to use the summoning pit again, just in case.”

Haiko and Rittan both turned to follow him, clearly intent on being present during the process.

“That’s probably the safest way forward,” Rittan admitted, entirely without judgment. “Kalter, Boko—will you be joining us?”

The two of them had been close enough to have overheard at least part of the ongoing conversation, so they seemed aware enough about what he was talking about. Boko, in the process of using a [Bone Axe] to cut the next piece of bamboo down to the correct size, straightened up.

“You bet,” Boko said, dropping the length of bamboo between the pillar and the guidepost. “I want to see what this actually looks like.”

“I’m coming,” Kalter said, placing her own axe down. “We’re doing the scientist’s assistant?”

“Yes,” August said, glancing over at Haiko. “Haiko, I’m probably going to see some information about her appearance and what she was like when you knew her.”

Haiko reached up to touch her chin as the group moved to circle around the back of the undercover area and towards the summoning pit.

“Melon was about as tall as Kalter, although she’s quite a bit slighter in build,” Haiko said, turning to look up at the sky for a moment. “Her hair was dark grey and cut fairly short, hanging somewhere just past her chin—I remember that her eyes were quite large as well, a rather pretty girl.”

That last part didn’t really mean much when they’d all apparently been biologically engineered to be attractive—but it gave him a pretty good mental image to start building upon.

“That’s pretty good,” August said, “What kind of clothing did she wear?”

“Junil liked to dress her up in all sorts of things,” Haiko said, more than a bit of amusement in her voice. “The last time I saw her, she was wearing a custom-fitted suit and a pair of black sunglasses, like she was some kind of security personnel; before that, she was wearing a sundress.”

August came to a stop a few feet away from the summoning pit, adding a black suit and sunglasses to his mental image—something that was harder to do than he expected, considering they had more than one set of arms to deal with.

“Melon always made sure to keep quiet when they were out in public, but Junil left her with me once when she got called away to deal with something, and I discovered that her silence was a rule they’d establish to avoid causing a scene in public,” Haiko admitted, “Melon might actually be the most curious Voithos I’ve ever met—I could hardly keep up with all of the questions she was asking.”

August dropped down to one knee beside the pit as she spoke, sliding his hand into the pit to rest against the crumbling wall. Rittan moved to stand directly beside him, with a clear view of the bottom of the pit.

“Melon,” August murmured, dropping down to one knee beside the pit. “Tall but with a slight build, with short, chin-length, dark grey hair. She wears sundresses or suits with sunglasses, and she is very, very curious.”

August set about pulling it all together in his mind, making sure he had a solid image of who he was looking for.

“That’s really all it takes?” Boko said, voice low. “He just needs to know a little bit about them to pull them out of Limbo?”

“August first did this without knowing anything about me at all,” Rittan said, moving to match his volume. “I think knowing about us just helps him target an individual rather than pulling someone at random.”

“Okay, I think I’ve got it,” August said, sinking his fingers into the dirt. “[Summon]—”

August tried to pay attention to the feeling of the mana this time rather than let himself be distracted by the light—all he caught was a flash of warmth condensing in his hands and then passing out of his body completely. It skittered across the surface of the soil, leaving runic symbols behind as it went, and he could feel some of it through [Predator] as the energy coalesced in the bottom of the pit, but all of it was happening so quickly that he couldn’t make out anything in any kind of detail, just a series of flickering patterns that shifted around and through each other—a body burst into existence within his mind, a head washing into existence before the rest of it followed. The complexity of what little he could actually observe was far too much for him to comprehend, and for a moment, he was left wondering how any one race could have this much control over reality—it was a monstrous amount of power to have at his fingertips.

“Junil?” Melon mumbled. “Did you come back for me?”

“I’m afraid things aren’t quite that simple,” Haiko said, coming to stand beside the edge of the pit. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Melon—and welcome to Devil’s Nest.”