Lux skipped town. Slipped out the back, Jack, made a new plan, Stan.

She wouldn't answer calls. She sent me a message telling me she had to live her own life without me acting like her bouncer. It was nicer than it sounds, but that's the gist.

Ouch.

It was terrible. This person that had been conjured into existence because of ME was running loose in a frightening world infested with Humans. She'd get herself killed or worse. I had what was probably a panic attack over it: panting and sweating and acting the fool.

I had the Temu Avengers here, right? So why not just go find her and … what? Bring her back? Kicking and screaming? But I was pretty sure Lux was a better fighter than I was; she had put Todd in a cast, after all. I'd get my ass beat.

And I had Molly to worry about. Poor burned-up Molly, that Todd had torched because I'd brought him right to her.

After brooding about it and irritating the Walshery surrounding me, I decided to let her go. Don't get me wrong: I swanned about with the back of my hand glued to my forehead and protesting the cruelties of destiny. During an afternoon rainstorm I went outside and brooded like Batman on a roof. I was just like Todd, but I wasn't sloshed on Alien Hooch like he'd been.

"All done?" Lir asked a few days later.

"Yeah, sorry. How's the ulna looking on Right Front Lower?"

"Better and better. And you know what time it is?" His ears went into Malevolent Amusement mode.

"Magic lessons where I get hurt."

"Hooray!"

They weren't just for me. Molly was soaking this stuff up too, because she was such a good girl. She'd observe as I went into the Stalk, where Lir would try to get me and bite me or claw me because he was such a delinquent, but the Stalk meant I was effectively invisible, inaudible and in-smellable, whatever that word might be. Inodorous. Instinkable.

The way Molly's mind worked was very not-me. I'd find myself merging with her and going into a kind of trance; we could feel the water, the earth beneath us. The little dorky Human and his nonhuman friends scampering around our hide. Molly loved us, though. It was immense and powerful, the love from her, like a fluffy weighted blanked made of tectonic plates.

She couldn't walk. But she was growing huger by the day. We were tending her, healing her. Teaching her Magic.

But huge. It was hard to judge exactly how large she was, stuck in the water on her side. But Molly was already gigantic. And growing very, very fast.

Mabruk the Gardener buzzed up the length of Molly's body, shut off his propeller when he reached me. "Question for you, Rebound. What do you think of a splint?"

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"A splint that turns into a graft," I finished for him. It was happening more and more, with all of us. Sharing thoughts. "I think you a got-dang genius, Mabruk. Question for you: Do you ever have like…ballast issues? Where you have so much stuff that you can't float, if you follow me?"

"No, Gardeners have runes for that. I could carry a hardware store. Doesn't cancel out the mass, but it lessens the pull of gravity. Same principle as your flying truck."

It's what I'd thought. "Can the same thing be applied to Molly? Make it easier for her to walk?"

He stopped. "Maybe. How comfortable are you are you treating her like an experiment?"

"I don't know…"

EXPERIMENT! Shouted Molly in our minds.

We both flinched. "All right," I said. "She's in. What do you need from me?"

Mabruk needed lumber. Lots of it. I went out with Lir to harvest. Mabruk stayed to prepare the graft area.

We both listened to an audio course on Runes and their creation. It was likely going to be very dangerous. Lir and I were terribly excited by the idea: would we summon a demon or something cool like that on accident? What fun!

We buzzed a small forest in the shallows. The trees were straight and tall, and reminded me of how Molly's legs had looked before Todd had tried to kill her. "This wood here," I said. "The trees feel right."

You again! Why why does this happen WHY? A spike of fear in my head, alien but not something I hadn't already met.

"Who's that?" Lir demanded from my shoulders.

"Why are you out here, Mama?" We were suddenly in a cloud of the hand-sized wasps, to Lir's alarm. "I thought we found a place you liked."

It burned! The Humans burned it! We had to start over and now you're going to kill my babies because you're a MONSTERRR! Her terror and pain stabbed into my mind.

Lir was putting up shields, bringing Magical weapons to life, getting ready to fight. I raised a hand. "No, we're cool, don't worry." I addressed the Queen. "That's not fair, ma'am. You shouldn't have had that happen and I want to make amends. What if you came to live with us?"

Lir bit me hard on the ear.

"Ow, Lir, don't be a jerk. Mama Wasp, I need someone like you to help me care for my Winnie, to look after it. We have mites."

Of COURSE you have mites! All your walking forests have them! But when I burrow a nest to eat them I always get torn out by the foul Humans living there! This is unfair and you're a tyrant, a GENOCIDAL TYRANT!

I made a phone call. "Guys, Lir wants to bring a hive of Bark Wasps to control the mite problem."

He started in shock. "WHAT? I never said–"

"He's super excited about the idea." I filled them on on the Bark Wasps. "The Queen needs a safe place to stay, and we could use the help. What do you think?"

Ruhk spoke. "I can bang together a place for her hive so there's no burrowing. I vote yes."

Mabruk: "Don't sting me, otherwise let's help a single mom out."

Amalthea: "Sting away! I'm armored, who cares?"

Lir: "You guys…" He felt the worry and pain of the Queen in her hive. Her hope. "Let's do it."

I…is this sincere?

"Afraid so," I said. I found the nest, stuffed clumsily into a nest of bushes. "Want me to lift it out?"

No. Wait. I felt her digging in my mind. Taking Inventory, Adaobi-style. Testing, seeing if I was deceiving her.

Finally: I want this to be good. I accept. As an incentive: all of you will die last. This is my oath.

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