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Usually Sadie's YouTube recommendations were half of lovely, whimsical art projects, and half of cottagecore homesteading and farming vlogs, perhaps with some ASMR or a ten hour loop of soundtrack music thrown in.

Right now it was all plumbing tutorials.

She was drowning in plumbing tutorials. There was some helpful advice in there, certainly, general advice about sealing cracks or binding pipes together or getting rid of clogs. Other things, like how to swap out parts on modern sinks and toilets, seemed like it might not be so useful for her current project, but she watched them anyway, until her brain felt like liquid in her skull. She took breaks, but even when she came back, it still felt like all of the videos were blurring together.

It might take more than YouTube for this one.

There was someone she thought she could maybe ask, and after watching the third sink tutorial of the day, she grabbed her phone and began scrolling through the contacts.

She did text Solieyu sometimes, mostly pictures of her plants or other small assurances that she hadn't been stabbed again. This time she asked,

Do you know anything about plumbing?

There was a moment's pause where she imagined him sending her yet more links to videos, so she added,

Or ancient things?

She dashed across the apartment to grab a little scrap paper. There wasn't time for fancy calligraphy letters so she just scrawled out,

Or do you just want to go up to my Wonder? I know I offered you a trip, once. I'm working on a project there now and I'd love for you to take a look.

She sent that one off with her finally-upgraded ring.

There were nearly ten whole minutes to prepare this time, and yet, when Sadie opened the door for Soleiyu, she still said, "Oh, um, hello, lost kitty," in a horribly stilted, off-pitch way. Acting just did not come naturally to her at all. She breathed out audibly when she looked around and saw that there was nobody who she would have to pretend for, and she stepped back into the apartment, waiting for the Mauvian to follow.

There was still a tutorial playing on the TV in the background. This one was at least for fountain maintenance, which seemed slightly more relevant.

Sadie moved to put a small tupperware of sandwiches into a bulging canvas tote, the last of the packing for today's trip, and then she sank to the floor to be more on Soleiyu's level.

"How are you?" she asked gently, reaching out to him. "I feel like it's been so long since I've gotten to see you, really." He looked out of breath, which made her brows press together. She hadn't expected him to sprint to see her, just for the possibility of looking at some magic pipes.

"Um, you didn't say anything about the plumbing," she added. "Or magic, that might be more relevant? But it's okay. Either way, I'm just glad that you're here." Seeing her friend was enough to have her feeling all warm.

Once Soleiyu was all the way inside, Sadie wasted no time in giving him all of the attention and love in the world. There wouldn't be so much opportunity for cuddles if they were off working hard in the depths of her Wonder, so now she scratched behind his ears with both hands.

Although, happy as she was to just sit here on the floor with him, she didn't wait too long before getting to the point.

"You could maybe call it a fountain," she said, glancing back towards the screen, "But, um, bigger. Much bigger. Also, the pipes are already there, just very old, and broken, and with a chance they're magical."

They hadn't rusted, which was something.

"It's probably easier just to show you," she said, and after a moment, she nodded. "Um, you can hide auras, can't you? Then we don't have to go outside."

"You can touch things," said Sadie. "I think anything that was going to break already has."

Without moving from her spot in the middle of the apartment floor, she shimmered and shifted into Pendour. Even though Soleiyu said he had her covered, she did not want to risk things, so a second after that, she pulled him closer with one arm, grabbed the bag of supplies with the other, and then whispered the oath that would send them off.

She blinked, and when she opened her eyes, they were sitting on the mosaic tile of her Wonder.

Everything was contained in a glass dome beneath the sea, like the opposite of a fishbowl. Giant crumbling arches attempted to support the structure, but Pendour had stopped worrying about that situation years ago. To their left, a grand staircase rose up to the second level. Her first project, the gardens, were off in the distance to the right. In front of them, too far to see immediately, was something that looked important, ringed in arches in aqueducts.

Everything in sight was covered in faded mosaics and crumbling sculpture.

"Welcome to Neptune," said Pendour, her smile soft and proud. "I hope it lives up to your expectations. I was just cleaning, some."

"There's, um. There's time," said Pendour, but slowly, softly, because she had a habit of offering friends trips to her Wonder, or maybe telling Irving she'd come up to talk to him alone, only to use up her limited trips to this place if she found a new senshi or knight on the streets who was curious about space.

Sometimes she'd even travel on a whim if she found interesting flowers at the garden center that wouldn't fit in her Earth plot.

"But I think what I'm going to show you would be a big part of the tour, anyway," she said.

There was an alcove under the stairs near where they arrived, and Pendour paused there to add a worn pair of boots to her bag. Then she started towards the center of her Wonder. She still carried Soleiyu in one arm, but loosely, not about to stop him if he decided to scamper off and investigate something.

After a few minute's walk, it became clear that all of the arches and aqueducts were ringing a massive, empty basin. "This is the cove," she said, the quiet pride still in her voice. It was the central feature of Pendour, and the ancient artists had taken it very seriously. The columns holding up the aqueducts were mostly intact and featured elaborate, nearly impossible swirls. The mosaics in other places were simpler and abstract, but near where the water's edge should be, they were still visibly in the shape of various animals, mostly sea creatures.

"See? I cleaned this out," she said, her smile going wider. "The bones are all laid to rest, now."

She spoke like he should know all about the bones, forgetting that she hadn't brought it up before.

Her gaze flicked to the top of the aqueducts. "You can see where the waterfalls are supposed to come out," she said, nodding to a few notches in the stonework. The largest one, right at the back, didn't even seem to have dried out completely, but it was an awful mess of algae that hung down several feet, instead.

Her eyes went all distant and dreamy. "This part doesn't seem too broken. I think it would be so lovely, if I could get it all running again."

Pendour gave the algae a thoughtful glance.

"Well, if the water's back, we could always scrub out your fur, afterwards," she said, and she waited about a second to give a soft little giggle. "Um. That was a joke. You don't have to do anything that you don't want to, Solieyu." She gave a little extra scratch behind his ears, then.

They took a path around the side of the cove, under the aqueducts. "I'm hoping I won't have to scrub that out by hand. I didn't bring the tools for it yet. Maybe the water will wash it all out if we can get it on?"

According to what she'd picked up from the videos, that wasn't always how it worked, but Pendour was still holding on to hope.

Behind the last waterfall and, of course, the long trails of the green weeds that were currently in its place, there was a door that was ringed with even more pearls and swirls than the others. Pendour nudged it open with her shoulder.

Inside was a chamber that had clearly been a beautiful bedroom at one point, in the style of the rest of the Wonder, but it was currently tossed. An ancient, crumbling rug was thrown to one side. A trapdoor cover was on the other, leaving a stairwell that had once been secret open before them.

Pendour took a second to check the room for any lingering ghosts, but it seemed empty enough right now. "All the pipes are down this way," she said.

"Maybe?" said Pendour, heading down the stairwell, although she did not sound entirely convinced.

The thought of pouring herbicide into an ancient, sacred space like this made her head swim. It probably wasn't morally wrong, but it did not seem quite right, either.

She distracted herself by holding Solieyu closer, giving him a few more scratches as they approached the lower level. "I'm so happy to show you," she whispered. "I'm so glad you like it."

They stepped out into what was clearly a maintenance area, although the Neptunian penchant for combining form with function was not completely lost here. There were no mosaics, but the glass dome descended this far down, letting dappled light in through one of the walls. Pipes branched out in all directions. They were made of a deep blue metal that seemed immune to rust, although plenty of them had cracked or disconnected simply from gravity or time. One of the largest pipes was in especially bad shape. There was a large pump in the middle of things, and what looked to be a control panel with valves on one wall.

Pendour took a calming breath in through her nose, feeling a little bit in over her depth, here.

"See, this is where it all comes together," she said.

"Please. That's partly why I brought you here, you know," she said. She set Soleiyu down after one final cuddle where she leaned over him, like a proper hug. Then she knelt, and worked on switching out her pearl-adorned heels for the work boots.

"Well, also because you're a good friend and very fun to explore with, but I thought you might know a thing or two about all this."

She went silent for a few seconds as she laced up the boots. When she was satisfied that they were on properly, she turned to emptying her tote bag of its contents.

"I think I picked up a little bit from the videos I was watching? I brought silicone. It's good for leaks?" she said, and then pulled out no less than five tubes of it. She'd brought up a few little connectors, too, although she didn't even mention them, since they might not fit. Then, she fished out something smaller from the very bottom of the bag.

"Oh, and I brought some magic," she said.