Service pod, descending · 3725 Rainmoon 21

The service pod is for kegs, not people. Zip fits because Zip is mostly knees. The last person to go down from X-14 to Veridia did it twenty years ago, and nobody on the ring remembers why.

Below, the world is white and green. Snow on the forest, forest to the horizon, and in the middle of it a city that seems to be hiding in its own trees. Meldan. The pod lands in a clearing in the Elenar Forest and opens like a tired mouth.

It is cold. Zip owns one jacket and it has the Brewhouse logo on it. Zip walks toward the lights.