(THE LIVING PLANET, LANTERN BET) CHAPTER THREE

While a subset of humanity scrambled to find a way to communicate with Earth Bet, the planet itself had more pressing matters to attend to.

Namely, figuring out what the hell it was supposed to do with the ring.

The first problem was obviously its size. The thing had clearly been designed with humans in mind, or at least beings with fingers small enough to slip through the band without any difficulty. Earth Bet, unfortunately, had neither fingers nor any reasonable way of wearing jewellery, which meant the ring had been left to its own devices.

Literally, it seemed, as it had ended up around a thin branch on a random tree in a coastal forest somewhere in Brazil. Earth Bet couldn’t even remember the name of the place, assuming it had ever bothered to learn it in the first place. There were far more important things to keep track of than the precise location of a tree, especially when one considered how many of the damn things were scattered across its surface.

Fortunately, the ring was far enough away from most humans that Earth Bet didn’t have to worry about some curious individual stumbling upon it and deciding to take it home. That would have been rather unfortunate, considering the circumstances.

But as it happened, a few animals had already discovered it, much to its eternal amusement.

Earth Bet could feel them moving around the tree, occasionally batting at the strange green object with their paws or climbing the branch to get a better look. One particularly persistent creature had apparently decided that the ring was some sort of toy, returning to it whenever something else failed to capture its attention.

Earth Bet found the whole affair amusing. It had been given a mysterious cosmic artefact that was apparently capable of granting it the power to protect its inhabitants, and the first creatures to take an interest in it were treating it like something they had dragged out of a rubbish bin.

Still, it wasn’t worried about losing the ring. Despite its inability to move or do much beyond exist and observe, Earth Bet could sense the ring wherever it happened to be. The sensation was strange and difficult to describe, but the connection was unmistakable. Even if some human decided to pluck it from the branch and carry it halfway across the world, Earth Bet doubted it would lose track of the thing.

Besides, as amusing as the animals were, they weren’t going to help it figure out what the ring could do. At least, not by playing with it.

There was something else Earth Bet had been keeping an eye on, anyway.

The Simurgh.

Ever since the attack on Brockton Bay, it had been paying closer attention to the Endbringers, and it had noticed when the Simurgh began moving toward Antarctica, where her brothers had gone. The planet wasn’t entirely sure what the three of them were doing there, but the fact that they were gathering in the same general area did little to reassure it.

Earth Bet could only imagine what its humans would make of the situation if they knew. Then again, maybe they already did.

It had no easy way of finding out. The planet could feel the Simurgh moving across its surface, just as it could feel the devastation she had left behind in the past, but it couldn’t reach out and grab the Endbringer, force her to turn around, or make her explain what she and her brothers were planning.

If Earth Bet had any way of warning its humans, it would have done so already. It could have told them where the Endbringers were going and perhaps given them enough time to prepare for whatever came next.

Unfortunately, it couldn’t talk to them.

Or so it had assumed.

The possibility occurred to it several days later, while it was paying attention to the animals around its ring. The ring still offered no explanation for itself, and Earth Bet had made little progress in figuring out how to use it. In the meantime, the Endbringers continued doing whatever they pleased, entirely beyond its reach.

Maybe, Earth Bet mused, it was approaching the problem from the wrong direction.

It could sense its humans. It could sense its animals. It could feel their movements across its surface, the warmth of their bodies and the countless little disturbances they created simply by going about their lives. That much had been true long before the ring arrived.

But what if it could do more than sense them?

The possibility was worth considering.

Maybe it could influence them somehow. Nudge them in a particular direction, make them notice something they would otherwise overlook, or even guide them toward a place where they might discover something important. It had no idea whether any of that was possible, but then again, until recently, it hadn’t known that it could think, either.

The idea of doing something to its humans, however, gave it pause.

Earth Bet loved its inhabitants. It had spent its entire existence listening to their voices, seeing them live their lives across its surface and wishing it could do something to protect them. The thought of reaching into their minds and forcing them to act against their will made it uncomfortable in a way it struggled to explain.

They were its people, yes, but that didn’t mean it had the right to control them.

Animals, on the other hand…

Well, that was a different matter entirely.

Earth Bet wasn’t particularly concerned about violating the personal autonomy of a squirrel. Besides, the little creatures had been playing with its ring for days now. The least they could do was help it figure out how the thing worked.

And if it could use them to warn its humans about the Endbringers, all the better.

It still had no idea whether its humans knew what the Endbringers were doing in Antarctica. Perhaps they were already monitoring the gathering from a distance, or perhaps they had no idea anything unusual was happening. Either way, Earth Bet couldn’t be sure they would have enough warning if the situation took a turn for the worse.

It wanted to give them that warning if it could.

The ring had given it the possibility of doing something about the suffering it had spent so long witnessing. Earth Bet still had no idea how to use its newfound power, but it didn’t need to solve everything at once.

It could start small. It could learn whether it was capable of guiding the animals around its ring, communicating through them, or using them to carry warnings to the people who needed them most. If that worked, maybe it could eventually find a way to reach its humans directly.

With that thought to bolster it, Earth Bet turned its attention toward the animals gathered around the little green ring and began to learn how to do more than simply sense them.