The map-making party of three Ponspectors stood at the entrance to the cave. It was narrow, dark, and twisting - all the qualities of a potentially scary encounter. Luckily, they were graced with the presence of the Heropon and one of his glorious sidekicks.

"Heropon Riki not afraid of cave!" Riki's bellowing echoed down the hole in the rock. "Come, map-makers! Melly carry fire for us to see, no fear of darkness!"

Without a word, Melia summoned a flare that hovered above her head, casting an orange light into the cave. The Ponspectors followed Riki into the cave, as Melia brought up the rear.

While mildly amused by Riki's typical antics, Melia was not exactly happy to be part of this expedition. Riki had roped her into it in an attempt to cheer her up, an unwelcome signal that she had failed to conceal her negative emotions, but there was very little for her to actually do aside from follow the group around as they wandered haphazardly and filled in parchment with lines and symbols. The change of pace was welcome, but it quickly turned into a realisation of how much she was wasting the rest of her life, doing effectively nothing but keeping other peoples' houses warm.

After about five minutes of walking and drawing, natural light started to become visible again in the cave. The group made the last turn to exit into a large clearing surrounded on all sides by rock.

"Ooooh! Riki and friends find secret area!" Riki hopped off into the center of the area while the Ponspectors excitedly huddled around their parchment, drawing in the locations of the several trees and small pond that were present.

Having been on her feet for quite a while, Melia decided to have a rest. She walked over to the nearest tree and plopped herself down against it, watching Riki attempt to climb a taller one.

This is indeed quite a nice area, she thought. But we must be at least an hour's walk from Colony 9, and farther from anywhere else, so it seems rather unlikely for it to see any usage or purpose.

Going all-in on the "take a rest" front, Melia closed her eyes and half-heartedly tried going to sleep, knowing that the rest of the group wouldn't leave without her.

It seems far less windy inside this indentation, her thoughts continued. The wind must simply pass overtop without disturbance. I wonder what kind of geological process-

"Melly could build nice house here."

Train of thought derailed, Melia opened her eyes to see Riki standing directly in front of her. She wasn't quite sure that she heard him properly. "I beg your pardon?"

"Clear area! No monsters! Pretty trees! Clean pond! Only one way in or out! Far from distraction!" Riki hopped up and down. "Perfect place for Melly to live while waiting for bird-city!"

After a few seconds of decoding Riki's statements, Melia smiled and shook her head. "Oh, Riki. I'm perfectly fine with sharing accommodations in Colony 9. I need no house of my own."

"Riki not so sure. Bird needs own nest eventually. Hom Hom needs own house eventually. Melly is both."

Deep down, Melia was not comfortable with constantly moving from one house to another, acting as a burden upon the entire colony (in her mind) as each new face invited her to stay over. But she was equally incapable of imagining the idea of her acquiring a house to herself, which would almost certainly have to be abandoned upon the completion of New Alcamoth, and the very concept of living alone was foreign, inviting, and scary all at once.

"I appreciate the sentiment, Riki, but I am quite capable of controlling my own living arrangements."

Riki stopped bobbing around. "If Riki cannot change Melly's mind, then oh well."

Melia stood up. "I see that the scribes appear to be signalling to us. They must be done with this area."

The two of them walked back over to the cave and left the clearing behind.

Having said goodbye to Désirée, Melia started walking away very slowly, with a suitcase in each hand and a bag over her shoulder. She had been dreading this day for quite a while - not only was Désirée a very nice person to stay with, but her next stop was Shulk's house.

Melia was secretly glad that Shulk was constantly too preoccupied getting his own place in order to consider putting his name onto the "who wants Melia next" list posted on the front of Dunban's house, but once Shulk finally got things in decent enough shape, the very first thing he did was to sign up. She was not exactly looking forward to being alone with him in his presumably terribly-messy house for days at a time, and it would be unimaginably rude to simply turn him down without being able to provide a reason.

About halfway to Shulk's house, Melia noticed Fiora jogging towards her. It didn't take very long for the two to meet up.

"Hello, Melia. You doing all right?" Fiora seemed to have a smile on her face at all times. It was honestly a bit creepy.

"I am fine." Melia adjusted her bag, aware that her intentionally slow walking speed made her look like she was struggling with the weight.

"That's great. Listen, there's been a change of plans. Riki wants everyone to meet him at the transport centre. I don't know why, but he seems pretty adamant about it. Let me take your stuff to where it's going."

Melia was hesitant, but it seemed like a chance to delay the inevitable, so she took it. "All right." She handed her luggage over to Fiora.

"I'll drop your stuff off at its destination and catch up with you. See you later!" She dashed off.

Still somewhat apprehensive about the whole situation, Melia started walking towards the transport centre. Come to think of it, she hadn't seen much of Riki in the past three weeks since the map-making run. Maybe he had continued to follow the Ponspectors around, had discovered something incredible, and had set up a transporter connection to it. A massive collection of ether crystals seemed most logical for such an action.

Arriving at the transport centre, Melia saw Shulk messing with the internals of a new transporter, with Reyn alongside.

"Now get me the Eryth screwdriver." Shulk held his hand out as Reyn passed him a tool, but he quickly pushed it back. "No, this is a Tephra screwdriver, I need the Eryth one, the one shaped like a square."

"Sorry." Reyn rummaged in a toolbox and extracted the correct tool before noticing Melia. "Oh hey Melia, did Riki call for you too?"

"I suppose." Melia watched Shulk take the screwdriver and continue working.

"I dunno what that furball's on about, but he ended up busting the pad he wanted us to go through! You believe that? I think Shulk's nearly done with it, but man."

Shulk extracted his hands from the device and closed it up. "There! Should be back to working now." He turned to Melia. "Ladies first, I guess?"

It wasn't a very Shulk thing to say, but Melia thought nothing of it. "Very well." She stepped onto the transporter and let it work its magic.

She appeared inside what she would call a small gazebo, though it was quite difficult to tell exactly what it was, as it was covered in a large blue tarp that rendered everything almost pitch-black. She felt like the transporter had taken a wrong turn. Looking down, she saw what looked to be Riki's round shape in the darkness.

"Riki? Is that you? What-"

"Melly is here!" Riki cried out. "Melly's timing is perfect! Melly put on blindfold!"

Melia felt a piece of cloth being pushed into her hands. A blindfold? In this darkness? This is quite bizarre.

"Riki, what exactly is-"

"It a surprise! Melly do as told! Riki's Night Vision gems know if you cheat!"

Broadly speaking, Melia was not a fan of surprises, but she didn't seem to have a choice in the matter. She reluctantly tied the blindfold onto her face, blotting out what little light there was.

"Good, good! Riki say...OPEN COVER!" There was a great crumpling noise. Though she remained in complete darkness, Melia could sense that the tarp covering the gazebo-like structure had been removed.

"Melly take Riki's hand as he leads you to surprise! Watch first step!" Melia felt one of Riki's oversized grippers grab her arm and start pulling. Trying to avoid falling over, she started walking in the same general direction.

Stepping off the wooden gazebo, Melia could feel grass underfoot and the afternoon sun on her face. After slowly moving what felt like aimlessly for about a minute, Riki stopped and turned her around.

"Melly count to ten and take off blindfold. No cheating!"

Melia could hear Riki scurrying off.

Well this is a fine quandary, she thought. Someone tells everyone to meet somewhere, drags me out into what feels like the middle of nowhere, tells me to expect a surprise, and then leaves. After a few more seconds of standing around, Melia decided that she was close enough, and removed the blindfold.

It didn't take long for her to recognise that she was in the clearing she'd visited with the mappers three weeks ago. She could see the cave entrance more-or-less directly in front of her, though with some sort of device in the rock face beside it. About halfway between herself and the cave, she saw the gazebo with the transporter inside, which was painted a pleasing combination of beige and blue. Riki was likely hiding behind a tree or in the cave. Deducing that the real surprise was behind her, she turned around.

Sitting in about the center of the clearing was a house. It was painted in the same beige and blue as the gazebo, though with additional trimmings in the form of a deep lavender. A bench was sitting on the front porch in front of the window, covered from the inside by a blue curtain. The door was on the left side. Compared to all the Colony 9 houses being mostly grey or brown, it was an unusual sight.

Melia was not quite sure what to think. So Riki has gotten a house built here, her internal monologue began. But since it's clearly not for him, who could it be for? And why would he consider it a surprise for me? ...Perhaps he wishes me to meet whoever now lives here? Or to gather opinions before having them move in?

She cautiously walked towards the house, feeling apprehensive about walking onto other peoples' property. Its colour scheme was certainly inviting; Melia suspected that Riki got help from someone else when selecting it. She noticed the door was left slightly ajar, with a pair of keys in the lock.

So the owner of this house has not arrived yet, she concluded. She then looked around. That rascal Riki is still nowhere to be seen. He must intend me to explore for whatever reason. Perhaps I am...a test subject? To gauge how the intended occupant will react when he presents it to them?

With no guidance on what to do, Melia decided to creak open the door as little as necessary and step inside. The front room was a combined kitchen and dining area. A large table took up most of the room, with several matching chairs. A counter crept across the right wall up to the front window, broken by a stove, oven, and refrigerator. An empty fireplace sat in the right half of the back wall. The left half the room contained a coatrack and a door with what appeared to be bathroom tiles inside. A closed door, presumably leading to the other half of the house, was in the back-left corner. Everything was either off-white, or the same sky-blue or deep lavender from the exterior.

Whoever Riki had this built for is quite a lucky person, thought Melia. This is far above the standard of most houses in Colony 9, even if it lacks a second floor. I feel he should have let a Homs do the measuring, however, as these counters and cupboards being a comfortable height for me indicates they will be too low for most.

Melia peeked her head through the open door, which did indeed lead to a bathroom. Again, this sink will be too low for the average person, though I suppose consistency is most important. The frosted window is an interesting touch, making it possible to leave the curtains open safely. The design on the shower curtain is quite...is that a handheld shower head?

Momentarily throwing respect to the winds, Melia walked up to the surprisingly large bathtub and snatched the secondary shower head from its perch. The extendable hose followed effortlessly. I haven't seen one of these in MONTHS, it's like no Homs has ever conceived of the idea. While no one could describe Melia's current state as "dirty", she felt that all the shower heads in Colony 9 hovering far above her head left her less clean than desired. Perhaps if I'm lucky, whoever lives here will invite me to stay sooner rather than later. Coming back to reality, she replaced the shower head somewhat sheepishly and went back to the front room.

To her surprise, the front door was now closed, while the door to the other room was now slightly open. Riki must have snuck in and rearranged the doors in order to direct me around, Melia thought. I do not think that the house's future owner will appreciate that; they would want to explore at their own pace. She walked up to the door and pushed it open wide enough to enter what was apparently the bedroom.

The bed sat in the back-left corner along the back wall, with a desk and matching chair next to it along the left wall. A second chair, more like a "reading" chair than a "working" chair, sat against the right wall. Both the left and right walls were windowed. The fireplace from the front room was also accessible from this one. The middle of the back wall held what was presumably a closet door. The walls were filled with empty shelves and all painted sky-blue, while the carpet, ceiling, and bedspread were an ocean-like navy, and the trim was deep lavender. Everything in the room exuded a feeling of both crisp freshness and inviting warmth.

This...this is... Melia looked around the room in awe. This is exceptional. This is easily the highest level of quality I have ever seen in a Homs-constructed building. Who could possibly deserve...?

She found the answer to her unspoken question quite quickly. Sitting on the desk was what looked like an empty ink pot with a quill sticking out. Like everything else about the house, it looked quite new, but unlike everything else there was something strangely familiar about it. She got up close to investigate.

The quill was one of her feathers, and the neck of the ink pot was encircled by a lock of her hair.

Riki's image suddenly appeared in her mind. "Melly could build nice house here."

A flood of emotions started welling up in Melia's head and pouring out her eyes. She thought that Riki was just making an offhand comment, but he clearly took it very seriously, and must have recruited several helpers for both design and construction. It had to have been extremely expensive to do all this work so far from a settlement within just three weeks, and even more challenging to successfully keep it a secret.

Melia decided to just sit down for a moment and let the tears run out. She wasn't exactly sure what emotion they were connected to, given how she thought she was completely uninterested in the concept of owning a house, but it seemed like some form of relief that her living situation had just become much more stable. It took several minutes, but she finally stood up with a mostly-dry face and turned towards the front door, figuring that Riki and his helpers would want to show off how it was done.

Upon opening the front door, there was a great noise. Melia saw at least fifty people standing in front of the house, all cheering. A "WELCOME HOME" banner was hung between two trees. Someone uncorked a bottle of champagne.

Melia had to try really hard to not start crying again. She had expected maybe ten people plus Riki to have been involved, but instead she got a small army of helpers, the vast majority of which she recognised as having stayed with at some point. Carpenters, plumbers, electricians, even the barber had pitched in (which would explain her hair on the ink bottle).

"Riki welcome Melly home, and say thanks to all volunteers!" Another cheer went up.

Melia didn't have any words. They are all volunteers? This was all done for free? Over fifty people plus Riki kept this a complete secret? All for something I said I wasn't interested in?

Riki was suddenly standing beside her. "What Melly have to say to us all?"

The crowd went quiet. Melia much disliked being put on the spot like this, but luckily she had several years of training in public speaking.

"I...cannot begin to express the amount of gratitude I have for you all." Wait for the applause to end. Say something that compares the past to the present. "Mere hours ago, it was not even a consideration of mine to find a more permanent place of residence. I was content to..." ...to what, to be a burden on everyone? No, to...something about being sociable. "To pass from one house to the next, meeting each member of the community." This is to sound grand, not be completely true. "But now I realise that I do indeed need...a place of my own." Far too cliché, but I doubt anyone will care. That should be long enough.

After the applause died down again, a small party broke out. Someone had brought a barbecue and started cooking up a storm as champagne was passed around.

As Melia wandered through the crowd and got engaged in conversations, she slowly learned the nature and extent of the project. The very next day after discovering the clearing, Riki had begun going around collecting volunteers to "build a house that Melly doesn't know she wants". Those who had previously invited Melia to stay over were polled to gauge what she might like or dislike in a house based on their experience with her. With thirty-three Homs, six Nopon, nine High Entia, and five Machina gathered, the design was cobbled together in just three days, and construction began almost immediately. After lugging a transporter into the clearing by foot, all the workers and materials were brought in through the other end, hidden in a back alley at the edge of Colony 9, with the bulkier objects being moved in the early morning. People worked almost around the clock, in groups from five to fifteen and sometimes thirty at a time, during their off-hours and weekends. Even today, with Fiora intercepting her luggage and Shulk faking a transporter malfunction, everything went as smoothly as could have been hoped for. With effectively all other buildings in the settlements being only designed for function and not form, this one house probably had more raw work put into it than anything else in recent memory.

As time wore on, the crowd started to thin. With the high rock walls surrounding the clearing, the sun vanished early, covering the area in a cool shade. It did not take long for Riki to be the last visitor remaining.

With everyone else gone, Melia bent down and gave Riki a hug. "Thank you, Riki. You gave me what I did not know I needed, and not a moment too soon."

Riki chuckled. "Riki always looking out for Melly and Hom Hom friends. Friend sometimes see what other friend miss. Why else would friend be friend?"

There was a moment of silence between the two. After about a minute, Riki escaped the hug.

"Now that Riki has finished helping Melly for now, he have other friends to help! Heropon's number-one-job is to help others! Riki say goodbye for now, and hope you enjoy new house!"

Melia watched Riki's irregular bounce as he hopped towards the transporter and vanished. Having not gotten the chance to investigate the pad closer, she followed along. The gazebo that housed it contained nothing else but a button in a safety casing. Curious, she lifted the cover and pushed it, which caused the transporter to turn off. This is an unusual feature. What purpose could there be to disabling this? She turned it back on.

Stepping off the gazebo's wooden floor, the gizmo near the cave entrance caught her eye, and she went to see what exactly it was. There was a sort of control panel embedded in the rock wall on the right side of the cave. Attached to it was a sheet of paper with text presumably written by whoever installed it.

This is the cave entryway control system. The blue button opens and closes the door. The yellow button locks and unlocks the door. The red button is the emergency release, which sounds an alarm and opens the door even if locked, leaving it disabled until repaired.

Intrigued, Melia peeked into the cave to find that a matching panel was just on the inside, though without a lock button, alongside a bunch of ether lamps that gave permanent light to the entire cave. Stepping back into the clearing, she tried pressing the blue and yellow buttons. A large metal shutter slowly slid in from the right side of the opening and sealed it off, followed by a definitive clicking noise. A subsequent blue button press had no effect.

This should stop any unwanted creatures from getting in, Melia thought. Although I suppose it would also stop other people from visiting...and if I also disabled the transporter...

The thought slowly manifested itself in her mind. She realised that she had never before lived in a place where she could lock others out of; her chambers in the palace were always open to at least guards and cleaners, and of course she had no security in other people's homes. But here, she had a whopping three layers of locks: the house's front door, the transporter, and the cave shutter. Just the first gave her an entire house to herself, and combined with the other two, she basically possessed an entire clearing where she could do whatever she wanted, completely free from interference or discovery by others. She could roll around in the grass, eat fudge all day, go skinny-dipping in the pond, and a whole host of other things she'd always dreamed of doing but could never do without risk of scolding or embarrassment. The realisation made her a little giddy.

With a range of possibilities bubbling in her mind, Melia dreamily wandered back to the house, disabling the transporter on the way. Walking up to the front door, she tested the doorbell, which rang with a soft yet decisive tri-tone. Pleased with the sound, she removed the keys from the lock. One key was a blend of blue and purple, while the other was a brilliant gold. The gold one shall be the main key; I should offer the spare to someone else to keep safe.

Locking the door behind herself, it did not take long for her to decide what to do with her newfound freedom. She walked into the bathroom, shed her clothes, grabbed a towel, stepped into the shower, and turned the water on max heat and full blast.

It felt like a thick layer of wax was melting off her body. It was immensely satisfying for her to pick up the handheld shower head and give herself the most complete go-over since the party's adventure had concluded. With no more self-imposed restriction on using other peoples' hot water or soap, she remained in the shower for a good half hour, thinking about how the water and heat were probably sourced from a buried ether deposit as opposed to being piped in from somewhere.

Finally leaving the shower and drying herself off, Melia didn't bother getting dressed, simply wrapping the towel around herself. Realising she was somewhat hungry, having turned down the burgers and hotdogs from earlier, she started looking through the kitchen cupboards to find everything was already fully stocked with a wide variety of food and dishes. She selected a fruit from the fridge and started eating it as she wandered around the house testing the light switches. She hadn't noticed before how the lights were covered by perfectly seamless hemispherical domes, another unusual thing that the High Entia volunteers almost certainly contributed. She also saw that beside the fireplace was a miniature control panel for both the transporter and cave shutter; she could open or close them without having to leave the house.

With her fruit finished, Melia entered the bathroom to check the cupboards more thoroughly, finding that she had everything she needed. She could easily spend several days here without needing to go shopping in a colony, probably even up to two weeks with sufficient planning. She then spotted a loose feather in the bathtub, which probably fell out during the vigorous shampooing. That may explain the source of the quill, she thought, as while she wouldn't have noticed losing a feather in the shower, whoever she was staying with certainly would have.

Back in the front room, she picked up her luggage that Fiora had left on the table and started moving it into the bedroom. The door in the back was indeed a closet: a surprisingly large walk-in closet containing a dresser, washer, and dryer. Relishing not having to share space with anyone, she spread her clothes liberally throughout the closet. The rest of her luggage was mostly keepsakes and knickknacks from Alcamoth, small trinkets that she spread around the bedroom as decoration.

The shelves still seem quite bare, she thought. Perhaps tomorrow I will go out and buy some books, now that I have space to put them.

Melia went to both the windows in the room and flung them open, allowing a cool breeze to pass through. She then laid down on the soft carpet and just relaxed, letting the wind run over her. At this point, she was putting serious consideration into taking the three-storey mansion the New Alcamoth design committee had set aside for her and repurpose its plans into a concert hall, or possibly erase it altogether - she felt more "at home" than she had ever been or expected to be.