"What I think we should do," Renko said to Shota, "is for me to make the parts and you to assemble them as I make them."

"Are you ready to do that? It sounds awfully complicated!"

"I am if you are," Renko replied. She had been spending lots of stolen time with her mother recently. She had gathered the components of metal, she had wrapped the seed in soil and rock, and laid it in the earth correctly so it could grow until her mother was finally pleased. Just this ...