[b]Alexa![/b]

"I've always wanted to see Rashiden," said Cerberus so easily it surprised her. "Have you heard of it, the Old Capitol? In ancient days when humanity and the Azura were united under a single republic they had the might to move the stars. And so they rearranged all the stars close to Rashiden so that they would form new constellations visible only from the planet's surface. All the great histories of the galaxy would be written in stellar ink."

The words are spilling out of her now. "I want to see the spires of Ceron, with its dreamcatcher windmills that dredge the dreamworld for the spirits of the greatest warriors that they might be reborn as wolves. I want to see Alced the world without a world, an atmosphere with no planet, an ocean with no bottom, air and water free-floating and liquid in space amidst the garden islands as the Alcedi dive and prey. I want to see the ziggurat of Eut, the pyramid suspended so close to a star that if you stand on its pinnacle you can reach out and touch the surface of the sun through the energy field. I want to see the [i]Golnostir[/i], the great cruise ship that travels the galactic void to the Canis Major galaxy on a hundred year voyage. I want to see the Draupnir, the great ring of rings, a sun encircled by a world. I want to see the Flower Array, the brightest star in the galaxy surrounded by a network of mirrored solar panels, surrounded by a network of planets that convert that power into quadranix. I want to see the Greenforge and its endless conveyor lines, to see the ever-burning refineries of Waterspines, the dead hypercomputers of the Stacks piled up to orbit. I want to see the Intergalactic Clearing House, the planetary shipyard and storage centre that stores millions of tonnes of every raw resource and commodity in the galaxy. I want to see the waterslides of Jan-Frii! I want..."

She trailed off.

"Of course, none of that's possible, really," she said. "I'm an AI, in the oldest sense. Electronics and silicon. That means I'm cursed by Zeus. Hades keeps me safe here, but outside, a single ELF lights up anywhere in my postcode and - poof. Gone, forever. Or at least to some lower depth of the Underworld where I'll never be seen again."

[b]Dolce![/b]

Jil tried to stand again but each motion seemed to have 5% too much force behind it. She frowned, focused, and then stood up normally - and paused as she could feel the rush to her head.

"You're right," she said. "And wrong. You. You, go over there and let her know [i]exactly [/i]what I think of her. You watch, she's not going to do anything about it. She'll back down. I know her type. Anyway, when she does, I want you to punch her for me. When you do I'll," she rummages in her pocket and produces a lighter. "I'll throw this molotov cocktail at her friend. That'll show her who's in charge."

She starts folding up a napkin to make a wick for her drink before inspiration strikes and she uses the drink umbrella to form it. She then starts hefting the glass experimentally, checking weight and aerodynamics with a critical eye. A few drops spill over the edge of the glass and she licks at them out of a sense of honour.