The way beyond rose in stages along a bone-white bridge above the lava. There were statues of dragons on either side of the bridge set upon blocky pedestals. Far across the lava, rising up the walls in tiered ridges, there was a city of too-square stone, the buildings bone-white and accented with long lines of green tiles. Massive stained-glass skylights above the city bathed the whole chamber in a green ambiance which bled into the lava-orange light below to create a vague smoke-colored haze in the middle.

  The Theocracy workers busied themselves loading the airplane onto a horse-drawn cart as the knights assembled at the near end of the bridge. One of the workers turned and saw them and this caused some discussion and fright but they kept at their labors without interruption. Dame Jill Aden was the last to arrive on the bridge and without further instruction the knights proceeded to follow the airplane. They had not gone far before Fia, daughter of Fjenna, stopped them all with a wave of her hand.

  "A soul," the oculomancer said. "A soul is here, but I do not see anyone."

  Their confusion at this comment was short-lived. With a magenta flash of light, the ghostly woman appeared in the center of the bridge, standing upon a sunburst of green tiles under the gaze of a pair of marble dragons. She had the dark green eyes and shining green scales of a Green Dragon whelp, but her hair was unusually light, sea-green and glowing in the dim light of the cavern. She was clad in a pale dress embellished with the dark green pellegrina of the Theocracy priests.

  "Renna," Fia gasped.

  The apparition's suspicious eyes locked on Zachary. "What is a Varelion?" she asked.

  "Who's asking?" Zachary snapped.

  "I am the Spirit of the Lawgiver. My people are in terrible danger, and my chosen Messiah seemed to think you share some relation with the source. Who are you? And who is the Blue Wolf?"

  "I am Sir Zachary of House Varelion, the Knight of Summer. The Blue Wolf is my niece Alyesha, who has taken the name of her ancestor, the Empress Sasha. Spirit of the Lawgiver, why do you stand in our way?"

  "I want to negotiate," the Spirit of the Lawgiver replied. "Send your niece away from this land of Renna and leave my people in peace."

  "My niece cannot be negotiated with," Zachary said flatly.

  "My power will grow as the blood of my people is spilled," she warned. "I will continue to establish the kindred bond with the men of your world until there is not but smoldering ruins where your civilization once stood."

  "Then it is my duty to kill you."

  Zachary burst forward. His amplified strength carried him to the woman in a heartbeat, distorting the whole cavern in his narrowing vision. He planted both feet just short of the woman, one arm trailing, his muscles straining from the weight of Renna's Blade. He wanted to strike, he was prepared to strike, but he felt a sudden uncanny, intuitive sense that his attack would not strike true. Indeed, he lost his footing, sliding heaven-ward and slightly away toward a darkening indigo sphere on the edge of his vision. His world turned upside-down as he fell upward into the void above the bridge.

  He crossed far over the guardrail, suspended helplessly over the lava. The indigo sphere shimmered and then collapsed into nothingness just before he reached it, and he felt gravity restored to the downward direction. A dark shape erupted from the bridge. It was a huge hand, palm flat and broad, wrist narrow and twisted, constituted of absolute darkness framed by a purple outline. It plucked him out of the air and yanked him back toward the oculomancer, who stood alone at the end of the bridge. The other knights had rushed forward at first but at some point in Zachary's flight they wisely decided to halt their advance.

  "Fools," the Spirit of the Lawgiver hissed.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  "This... should not... be possible," Fia stuttered.

  "Is she a witch?" Zachary asked as he clambered to his feet.

  "No."

  "An ethermancer?" Even as he asked he knew it was wrong. His blade had been but an arm's reach from the woman during that attack, and she still managed to create a heaven-aspect weave. He glanced at the oculomancer and saw panic. Not good.

  "Retreat!" he called.

  Sir Torrey and Dame Jill both dashed away to the sides. Zachary felt a powerful force on his blade which had the effect of ripping it from his hands. It clattered onto the bone-white bridge and slid, spinning like a top, until it was sucked up into the waiting grasp of the Spirit of the Lawgiver. She regarded the sword with disgust.

  "Light Elemental!" she bellowed. "This cannot stand! Ingrid decreed that no soul should be tethered to a beating heart in a box. Forgive the kindred bond for this dream-soul and allow this profanity to be destroyed."

  The heart in the glass diamond-cube began to glow brilliant gold, radiating beams of rainbow light in a circle that blotted out the rest of Zachary's vision. Then the whole sword exploded in a pinkish cloud of misty blood, sending fragments of glass raining down on the boots of the knights. The apparition with the sea-green hair discarded the twisted wreck of the greatsword and then vanished in a flash of magenta light. She did not reappear.

  "What was that thing?" Sir Torrey asked.

  "I have no idea," Fia said. "I will need to consult with the spires."

  "Can you guess?"

  "She said 'your world,'" Dame Jill observed. "It's almost like she is not from this world at all."

  "Either way," Fia said, "this goes way above my head, to say nothing about you."

  "We should get back to work," Zachary said.

  "What about your weapon?" Sir Torrey asked.

  Zachary regretted the loss of his weapon, but he was also somewhat relieved. The greatsword had never felt comfortable to use. "I will use my hands," he said. "At least until I can find a spear."

  The knights went on. At the apex of the bridge there was a gaping mouth-like tunnel leading to a broad underground basin carved into the bone-white stone. Ethersteel rafters spanned the entire chamber, which served to support flat-bed cars mounted on rails just below the ceiling. Heavy chains ending in sturdy hooks were suspended from the carts, some of which supported the weight of airplanes as they were ferried between the many workshop tables. Hundreds of workers shuffled about the basin carrying ethersteel parts and tools. The cacophony of sound was almost as unbearable as the smell of sweat and horse manure.

  "The finished airplanes will be in the far corner," Fia said. "At the very end of the assembly line."

  Zachary and Sir Torrey led the way, casually throwing aside the workers foolish enough to stand in their way. Shouts from ahead announced the arrival of enemy knights armed with rifles and crossbows and sabers and spears. Dame Jill Aden had erected a wind-aspect barrier just ahead of the party as shots rang out. Black flame engulfed Fia's hand, and as she reached out to grasp the enemy so too did a bolt of black lightning, terminating in a huge shadow with five fingers. The thing snatched one of the enemies by the head and the head vanished, the body immediately wilting as four jets of black-red blood burst out of the stump, two thick, two thin. Snap snap snap the shadowy hand went, plucking the heads from more knights until their decapitated bodies danced on the bloody horizon below.

  "Keep going!" Fia insisted.

  The knights went on. Screaming workers cleared the way and soon the far corner was visible. A crane rotated, burdened by the weight of an airplane, rotating slowly toward an empty flatbed railway car. A pale sea-green light floated above a wooden platform below white-green banners beside the indigo light of a railway switch. It was the Spirit of the Lawgiver, standing beside a boy with brown hair and green eyes and of that race so common to Lucia's domain in eastern Lyn. The face seemed familiar to Zachary, and at once he recognized the man as belonging to that number which had worked for Kiera as haulers of men in need of healing.

  "That must be Quinn," Zachary announced. "Advance! Quickly!"

  The young man saw Zachary and his face betrayed understanding and then outrageous fear. "Start the train!" Quinn bellowed, his voice amplified by ethermancy. "We leave! We leave now!" Then he turned and leapt a good twenty feet across the station platform onto the empty car and then fled out of sight. The Spirit of the Lawgiver remained.

  "Is this your doing?" Fia demanded. She waved her hand back toward the factory floor.

  "I have not violated Ashe's command," the Spirit of the Lawgiver replied. "The boy Quinn is responsible for all that you see. Quinn, and Quinn alone."

  "You're not going to get away with this!" the oculomancer warned. "The witches of the spire already know about you. About this place. Soon the Elder Saint will know."

  With a flash of magenta light the Spirit of the Lawgiver appeared above the flatbed car, levitating playfully with her feet dangling at an angle. A metallic shudder reverberated through the train track, and the wheels began to screech and roll forward. "Somebody very clever is manipulating Titania's luck," she said. "There is not much to do except follow the airplanes and see what happens."