Despite my…personal little drama, General Hisakane was eager to get everyone heading back to Hinaga underway. Only two ships were planned to sail to the capital, while the rest of the fleet would remain at Goryuen to keep watch over the Solstice Flame naval forces keeping close to the shore. Shacklock, Kazuma, Shurenga, Sena, and a number of other Order officers would be aboard the Kawamaran’s flagship, while the rest of us would be aboard the Kaminari Maru. Including Venix, which…surprised me a bit. I had thought the Antium man would want to stick to Kazuma’s side, as he had for nearly the entire last week. I could even tell that he wanted to, from the discontent evident in his posture. But he wasn’t officially a member of the Order, so he was still with us.

  For now.

  When we met him on the beach, Captain Satoru was surprisingly relieved to see us in one piece. I think the man had thought the ‘invading barbarians’ that comprised the Order would all slaughter us or something. Still, he had no problems taking us on as passengers once more.

  He'd promised he would, after all.

  I was…a bit grumpy from the surprise that had met me on the beach, but I did my best to compartmentalize it to take care of Aveline. She was my responsibility, and nobody else would care for the little girl in the same way I would. I did my best to distract her from how overwhelmed she so obviously was with everything going on, making sure she stuck close to my side. And then, with everyone aboard both ships, we didn’t waste time before getting underway.

  As the Kaminari Maru sailed away from the island on which she had spent millennia in suspended animation, I did my best to keep her out of the way of the crew. Despite the hustle of everything going on, and how I could tell my new charge was a little frightened by it, there was another emotion evident in the slight frame of the Netherim child.

  Wonder.

  And I could take a guess as to the cause.

  Which was why I took her to the relatively deserted bow of the ship and helped Aveline to sit up on the railing, keeping a strong steadying hand on her. She barely noticed the palm that took up nearly her entire back, instead leaning forward in a surprisingly fearless manner to gaze at the open ocean depths that stretched on in a seemingly endless horizon before us. I could read the fascination she felt in every line of her body.

  I smiled to myself, watching her. I could perfectly understand that emotion. “Is this the first time you’ve seen the ocean?” I said, leaning forward while making sure to keep a grip on her. I was thankful that the rocking of the Maru around us didn’t seem to bother her, despite it being more pronounced just at the tip of it.

  Aveline spared me a single glance before her gaze was stolen once again by the remarkably clear, almost gemlike waters that surrounded Goryuen. "Sorta,” She said with a small smile, her arms tightening on the odd grey disc she carried almost everywhere. “Mama showed me pictures in my lessons, but it’s not the same as seeing it for real.”

  “It’s really not,” I agreed. A thought struck me, then, and I asked her a question I’d been wondering about for a while. “Have you ever been outside of the bunker before now?”

  “Ah…” Aveline trailed off absentmindedly, before shaking her head. Her long, almost platinum blond hair nearly got into my mouth, from the way it was streaming behind her in the sea air. Wordlessly, I withdrew one of the small leather hairbands I’d created for her a few days ago and gave it to the little girl. Aveline pouted momentarily but seemed to recognize the need and bundled up her hair in a ponytail. I’m sure it wouldn’t be for long, though. She seemed to lose them at a suspiciously fast pace, even though she’d outright asked for them.

  Which was why I had like ten of the things on me at any one time. I…think this was going to be a thing with her.

  “No, we weren’t allowed out into the Garden,” Aveline said absentmindedly, her eyes trained on the water. “I don’t think anybody was allowed outside, even though we all had to get ad-justed.”

  I nodded before pausing. That word, Garden. She’d used it multiple times to refer to the outside world, I was just now realizing. I’d just been too preoccupied with escaping the bunker the last time it had come up to ask about the term. I think Travers might have even used it as well. I hadn’t even properly parsed the way they were using it, as in the past I’d heard the Kawamarans refer to Goryuen in a similar manner. Only, they had called it either the ‘Imperial Garden’ or the ‘Garden of the Wyrm’.

  What did the Netherim mean by ‘Garden’?

  “Aveline, can I ask you something else?” I said, drawing a curious look from the little girl. At her nod, I continued. “What do you mean by ‘Garden’? Are you talking about the island?”

  Aveline blinked at me and shook her head. “Um, no. The Garden is everything out here.”

  I blinked back at her. “Everything? As in…the outside world is the Garden to the Netherim?”

  “Uh-huh,” She replied, nodding her head. “Mama told me that the Generim live out in the Garden, while the Netherim live in the Homes. This place is the Emerald Garden.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath as I made the connection, then. “This place,” I said quietly. “This planet?”

  Aveline shrugged, seemingly unperturbed or not realizing the depth of what she’d just implied. “I think so? I heard Mama talking to other adults before about other Gardens. There were, um…Sapphire and Topaz Gardens too? Maybe more? I dunno.”

  Gardens...and planets.

  So.

  The Netherim had been on the other planets that Vereden had been connected to, once upon a time. That was the only way I could properly parse Aveline’s words. I’d been outright told before that the portal network that was now nearly dead hadn’t been constructed by the gods, like some Veredenese seemed to believe. I was starting to wonder if it had even been a product of the Netherim, honestly.

  Maybe their mysterious ‘Administrator’ had set it up.

  In either case, though, they had made use of it. Possibly to found their bunkers on those six other worlds, to further their work. Whatever the hell that had been. Travers hadn’t exactly been forthcoming about what exactly his people had been doing down in their hole.

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  “If Glee still worked, I could tell you more if you wanted,” Aveline said, suddenly sounding sad. I saw her look down at the strange metal disc she was holding in her arms with a downcast expression. “But he hasn’t ever since I woke up…”

  I quirked an eyebrow at Aveline. “Glee stopped ‘working’? Is that…your toy? What is it?”

  I have to admit, I was a little curious about what kind of toys the Netherim had given to their children. Too bad it had apparently stopped working.

  Aveline nodded without looking up at me. “Uh-huh. Glee was my friend when Mama wasn’t around. But…I can’t turn him on anymore. That isn’t his real name, though,” She looked up at me with a sudden realization. “Um. Can you…look at him, Mr. Hart? I saw you fix things before, with your glowy hands. Miss Shurenga already tried and couldn't do it.”

  I smiled down at her, both my Core and I amused at ‘glowy hands’. Aveline had watched with fascination as I did some repairs to my equipment through Aetherial Melding not long after escaping the bunker, since most of my armor was…nearly scrap, honestly. All the punishment that our hard marches had rendered it incapable of sustaining the enchantments. Although I’d repaired the physical damage, I’d have to get the Magical side of my kit redone.

  Not really a priority, though, since I’d been benched by Renauld.

  “Sure,” I said tolerantly, picking up Aveline and setting her down on the deck of the Maru. “Hand him over and I’ll see what I can do.” I sat down in front of her cross-legged and patted the space in front of me. The little girl eagerly copied me and held out the odd disc-like object.

  Taking it from her, I cast a critical eye over the dulled grey steel. It was hard to tell what this thing was, honestly. Its shape was almost equivalent to the stereotypical alien UFOs from popular media back on Earth. I think it was meant to be mostly smooth and shiny, but ages spent buried in the depths of the bunker had rendered it dull. My fingers brushed over the surface, only to pause when I felt something inscribed on the backside. Flipping it over, I saw that there were precisely inscribed words on the steel exterior in English.

  ‘G.L.E.A.M Ver. 3.2 Ser. #384032. Issued to: Aveline Montblanc.’

  A…‘G.L.E.A.M’? The hell was a Gleam supposed to be?

  Reading the words, a faint memory tickled in the back of my brain. As I examined the ‘Gleam’ closer, nearly calling for Aetherial Melding, my Core idly chased down what had caught our attention.

  When it found it, both of us mentally tensed in surprised realization. I know where I had heard the term ‘gleam’ before, although I’d had no idea what it referred to at the time.

  Travers' last words to me, before he destroyed his phylactery and collapsed into dust.

  ‘Though this is goodbye, I left a gift within the gleam.’

  Within the GLEAM…

  I gazed down at the small UFO in my hands with a sudden, intense curiosity. Travers had left something inside of this…device. Something intended as a gift either for me or for his daughter.

  Possibly both.

  What could it possibly be?

  Now…how to get at it? Was this mysterious gift physically inside of the Gleam? Would I have to destroy it to get it out? Was this a puzzle box or something?

  I was about to ask Aveline that very question, but it turned out I didn’t have to. The entire time, my fingers had been exploring the surface of what I had thought was just Aveline’s toy. They must have slid over some kind of hidden activation button, though…

  Because all of a sudden, the little UFO lit up.

  Hidden seams that crawled across the surface of the device suddenly filled with curious blue-green light. The glow was dim, but enough for me to feel the refined Aether within this discus. The entire thing trembled for a moment before it wobbled out of my unprepared hands.

  To my surprise, it didn’t hit the deck below us. As if it were actually a UFO, the Gleam stopped in midair, floating in place. I gazed at the innocuously flying device in stupefaction for a moment, but Aveline had an entirely different reaction to the sight.

  “Glee!” Aveline said excitedly, clapping her hands together in…glee, I suppose. “You’re alright! Mr. Hart fixed you!” She straightened up, then, and spoke in a childishly clear voice, enunciating each syllable. “Gleam, enter Companion Mode!” Nothing happened, which…apparently wasn’t correct, judging by the frown on Aveline’s face. “Um. Enter Lesson Mode? Study Session! Um. Um…Story Mode?”

  Still nothing, and now Aveline was starting to lose her enthusiasm. In fact, I could see the start of tears in her emerald eyes.

  I reached over and grabbed her hand sympathetically, which she clung to like it was a lifeline. “I’m guessing that wasn’t supposed to happen, huh?”

  “Nuh-uh,” Aveline shook her head, causing her ponytail to sway back and forth. “Glee is supposed to respond to my voice and change mode. Um, well mine and Mama’s.”

  I eyed the floating ‘Gleam’ curiously, aware that a few of the crewmen of the Kaminari Maru had stopped to stare at it in the background. Luckily, Captain Satoru soon got them back underway, although not without a curious look himself. “What kind of commands did Cecily give it?”

  “Um,” Aveline tilted her head in thought. “I think it was…‘review daily activity log’?”

  We both looked at the Gleam. Nothing happened.

  Aveline sagged, though she still clutched at my hand. I gently pulled the limp child over to my side and lay one arm around her back in a slight hug. Thankfully, she had grown comfortable enough with my presence that she accepted it. “How about I give it a try, huh? Maybe it just doesn’t recognize your voice anymore.”

  The little girl shrugged in my arms, despondent.

  Alright then.

  I turned my head back to face the Gleam and spoke in a clear voice. “Gleam. Review daily activity log.”

  To both mine and Aveline’s surprise…

  It worked.

  ‘Glee’ shuddered for a moment in midair, before something unexpected happened.

  A small section on the top of it flipped up, revealing itself to be an LCD screen. And something had started to play on it.

  A video, displaying a familiar face. One I’d thought I’d seen the last of, down in the bunker. Travers, in his human-seeming illusion. Behind him, I could see the false setting of his clinic. For a moment, I wondered if this was from before the betrayal of Lucretia and the fall of the Netherim.

  But no. I could see the form of Aveline herself lying on the bed she’d slept on for hours. The rest of them were empty, so it had to have been after I’d rescued her, and while I was out saving my companions.

  The disguised Lich studied whatever camera must exist on this thing, and began to speak. His voice drifted out of a hidden speaker, just as unseen as the camera.

  “If you’re watching this, then you must have succeeded, pretender,” Travers started, with a degree of familiar scorn in his voice. “You’ve found your fellow fools and managed to flee this hell with…with Aveline.”

  Said child tilted her head in confusion. “Dr. Travers? He…doesn’t sound very nice right now…”

  I repressed a laugh, eyeing the video message with curiosity. “He, uh. He didn’t like me very much.”

  In the meanwhile, Travers had started to pace before the apparently hovering Gleam. “I debated with myself whether or not I wanted to leave this for you, pretender. Eventually, though…eventually I realized that if I didn’t, nothing would be left of my people beyond a small child. Nothing but ruins and children would remain to indicate that the Hidden Ones, the Netherim, had ever sought to populate these Gardens, these…Arks. And so, I’ve left you a gift.” Even though Travers didn’t need to, he still took a deep breath before speaking again. “Though you called this device a toy, it is anything but. This is a G.L.E.A.M, a Guided Learning and Enrichment Assistance Module. We created these to act as independent, autonomous teachers for our young, as our work meant we were often too busy for the task. They were meant to act as companions as well as instructors, capable of storing vast libraries of information within and dispensing them appropriately. In terms you’d understand…they’re essentially mobile computer archives.”

  I sat bolt upright, then, as the implications of the departed Liche’s words rolled over me. My grip on Aveline loosened, my lips parted, and my eyes focused intensely on the screen as Travers spoke next.

  The disguised Lich smirked at me. “If you’re not a fool, you’ve likely understood what I’m talking about by now.”

  “Within this unit, I’ve included the sum total of the Netherim people’s knowledge about Aetherological Science, Construction, Engineering, and Medicine.”