Juna looked down into the depths of the tree for a dizzying moment. A distant pool of water reflected the blue glow of the walls and the far-off gleam of the sky. The tree smelled of damp wood and leaves, tinged with the faint sweetness of honey. There was a sense of order and tranquillity about this beautiful, strange place.

The tree teemed with life. Iridescent bees swirled in shafts of watery sunlight. Small lizards scuttled out of her way, and thousands of insects filed up and down the trunk of the tree, carrying bits of leaves and litter. She startled a tiny, slender serpent, no bigger around than her little finger, and perhaps twenty centimeters long. The snake hurled itself into the air, gliding away on brilliant ribbed wings.

About a fifth of the way down, they stepped onto a narrow balcony and entered one of the many low doorways that opened onto the central cavity. The door passed through a half-meter-thick wall opening onto a room shaped like a wide slice of pie with the tip cut off. It was a good-sized room, bigger than the common room in her group marriage’s house. She felt a small twinge of regret, as she always did, at anything that reminded her of her failed marriage.

Two small, deep windows set into the meter-thick trunk provided more air than light. The same glowing fungus that illuminated the rest of the tree covered the low ceiling, filling the room with shadowless blue light. Coils of rope and nets hung neatly from pegs by the door. Shelves growing out of the walls held a variety of baskets, gourds, and leaf-wrapped bundles. The only things marring the sense of neatness and order in the room were several large insects that scuttled purposefully over the glowing ceiling. The floor stepped up to form a raised platform across the wide end of the room. Three aliens were seated on the edge of the raised platform. Their ears spread wide as Juna came in.