Gaius sighed. “I wonder if she’s alright. Appearing here probably has its own price.”

Shaking his head, he turned to La-Ti, who was snapping his fingers over and over. His little apprentice was standing at the exact same spot Nakama had vanished in, his eyes furrowed as he stamped on the ground over and over again. If some bystander had seen him, they would probably assume that La-Ti was throwing a tantrum, but he was actually just trying to emulate Nakama.

Rolling his eyes, Gaius tidied up his bed, which had been messed up, and placed the sculptures the two children had been using to play make-believe with into a small basket.

He was still worried about his little sister, however.

There was a reason why he assumed that Nakama had been spending quite some time to find him. He could sense mental fatigue from her little frame, something that could only happen from spending long hours on a single task. And the fact that she had been very obedient revealed that she too knew her limits...although it did mean that she had matured somewhat.

Furthermore, if resting here did work, she would have stayed. Since she didn’t, it was obvious that she had tried resting during her trip here and found out that it didn’t do anything to refresh her mind.

“It’s harder than it looks,” La-Ti said, a little pout on his face.

“She doesn’t belong here in the first place,” Gaius replied. “My sister could return easily because she belongs to another world. For you, you’ll have to work it out on your own…or you could try asking your Grandpa Weiwu.”

His apprentice glanced at him blankly.

“What?” Gaius asked. “Did you perhaps think that he was a normal old man? I hope not, or else I might have to think twice about letting you come along. The world outside is a complicated one.”

“Oh.”

“Well, if you see him drop by, you can try asking him about it,” Gaius replied. Lowering his voice, he made some mysterious waggling gestures with his fingers and added, “That old man is actually what you’d call a god. He has mysterious powers that we cannot understand.”

Gaius naturally didn’t tell La-Ti that the people on Orb could do wacky things like flying, although he had a feeling that he should really get to it before the poor kid fell victim to culture shock. Making a mental note to ease the kid in, Gaius got up.

Someone had arrived. Making his way into the courtyard, Gaius looked at the newcomer, who was a familiar face. Geo-Gai, the administration official who had helped him when he first arrived in Cybral, was standing around and admiring the place.

“Gai-Us!” He waved his hands in greeting. “Great to see you. I’ve some good news for you.”

“Good news?” the boy asked. “Is it a large commission from 2558’s administration?”

“Something like that, I’d say.”

Gaius took a seat, gesturing at the open ones. Moments later, La-Ti walked out with some light refreshments on a tray, but before the apprentice could retreat back into the house, the boy gripped his shoulder lightly. “Stay.”

La-Ti glanced at Geo-Gai, and then nervousness creeped up his face. It was something Gaius was used to; the little apprentice was nervous whenever he saw anyone who wasn’t around his age or so. However, since he had expressed his desire to follow Gaius into Orb — assuming that was actually possible — the boy wanted him to get used to talking to adults.

Even if he couldn’t follow Gaius up, learning to interact with people who weren’t children would be essential to him if he wanted to make a decent living. After all, those who were likely to drop big bucks on sculptures were going to be adults. Making him stay here during their interactions would be a good start. After all, La-Ti evidently liked to emulate his mannerisms where possible, and providing him with a template in how to deal with adults would set him off on a good start.

“What commission is it?”

“It’s something quite important, actually.” Geo-Gai lowered his voice. “On paper, it’s just a request for you to create multiple statues of one of those mystical dragons.”

“Dragons?” Gaius asked, catching himself before he followed up with ‘Again’. “And how am I supposed to sculpt something that doesn’t exist and has no visual records?”

“A model will be provided, but…” Geo-Gai looked around. “It’s a lucky chance for you. Apparently, the dragon in the image that will be provided is apparently real! Rumour has it that it’s actually a god. If you can please it with your work, you might be able to follow it into the outside world. Just don’t forget about me when that happens, though!”

Gaius rolled his eyes at that last bit, but he was almost certain that this commission was also about Aldnath, the Dragon of Time. “If you’re asking me to go to a certain city half a month away, I’m afraid I’m already doing that.”

“Certain city?” Geo-Gai shook his head. “I’m not sure what you’ll be talking about, but we’ll be delivering you the materials here. We hope to have six life-sized sculptures done four months from now.”

“If it’s really important, I might need the specifics of each sculpture,” Gaius replied. “A photo is good, but having a description and a general understanding of the, uhh, dragon you want me to sculpt will be essential to an excellent work.”

“Expected nothing less from our city’s best Craftsman.” Geo-Gai rubbed his nose and got up. “I’ll pass your words down to my bosses. If we’re lucky, they’ll send someone down soon to get you up to speed. And frankly, I also want to see how a dragon looks like.”

“Dragon, eh?” Gaius drank from his own cup of orange juice. “It’ll be a sight to see, that’s for sure.”

His thoughts wandered off to Nakama again. She would definitely be more suitable to carve the likeness of Aldnath into wood, but Gaius didn’t really want to waste her time on work. Finishing off his glass of orange juice, Gaius leaned backwards and enjoyed the morning breeze.

“Staying for lunch?” Gaius asked.

“I don’t see why not.” Geo-Gai looked around. “So long as no one reports me for slacking off…”