Welcome to Gaia! ::

I think you have a point, and I'll touch on Hylie's origins later. As for now, I've made it so that outside the opening scene with Cosette and Hylie, there isn't a mention of "levels" anymore. Merribelle is back next chapter, as are both Lydia and Tania. History for Malgrave (that vampire breeder guy) will definitely come into it, so you can look forward to that. This chapter may turn out to be a 3-part piece instead of a 2-part that I had imagined... we'll see.

Thanks for taking the time to review things though, and I think you were right about the levels issue--I was just hitting the same joke too many times in one story. Keep looking back for the next section this Sunday night!

Here's chapter 14... let me know how you like it! biggrin

Fourteenth Movement -- Heart of Darkness

This chapter is a continuation of the Thirteenth Movement, Hylie's Inferno, please read that chapter before beginning this one.

The streets of Ziphlin were as alive as usual on a bright day. As one of the few remaining hidden cities of the old empire, the citizens of this little village revered Cosette--or at least feared her--as their empress. Ziphlin was an old city, built of stone and mortar, towering up to the sky. The buildings crooked quaintly as they reached up to the clouds, while the streets were filled with the bustle of a bazaar.

"Have you been to this place before?" Cosette asked Narshe out of the corner of her mouth. The townsfolk tied not to stare at Cosette, whose visits, while regular enough, were still a point of gossip among the commoners. Cosette was dressed today not in her normal attire, but in heavy brown leathers. These were bound together tightly with metal clasps and various belts, covered in different pouches and buckles. Her arms bore thick gloves, and her legs long boots, both of a darker, heavier sort of hide. This was not the attire of an aristocrat, but of a jungle explorer. Narshe was also wearing thicker clothes than normal, and carrying a small array of suitcases and trunks.

"You shouldn't worry about it." Narshe stopped at a booth in the bazaar, admiring some colored crystals for sale. They would be useful for her current research, if initial impressions didn't deceive her. "I'm not fond of him myself, but that's no reason to disregard his usefulness."

"Hmph." When he had first come to the villa, Cosette never imagined that she would be asking Lord Malgrave for help. But, who better to lead them into the heart of the Dark Continent than a man born there himself? Anticipating her meeting with the dragon had made Cosette loosen some of her resolves. Normally she would not dare to ask him for any favor, no matter how small.

Down another street they walked, and another, until the populace began to look at them more with hunger and less with wonder. They were certainly getting into the parts of town which those of higher breeding were wont to avoid. Shady merchants peddled wares which Cosette had only seen reference to in her more dangerous books of magic, and vendors selling various sickly looking pets for the purpose of extispicy, a ritual Cosette's trained eye could tell that the animals were hardly fit for.

The two moved down another street, and found the buildings beginning to thin. Ahead of them was a clearing just at the edge of the town, and beyond that...

"A dirigible?" Cosette's eyes widened at the sight of the thing--a huge balloon that she had thought before was the top of some stadium loomed above, with its cabin resting against several rubber stops over the cobbled clearing.

"Our ensign for the journey, milady." Malgrave stood before the dirigible, beckoning them both towards it. "The airship, I'dad Al-'oda. It will carry us as close to the destination you directed as possible. She's captained by an acquaintance of mine."

"Aye, milord, lady." A young man stepped out of the cabin as if on cue, and bowed to Malgrave and Cosette respectively. A black and red eyepatch with a strange design covered his right eye, and a few light scars crossed his face. He was a man who had seen many scrapes with death, despite being only in his mid-twenties. A sharp hide tunic and pants were his outfit--again dyed with red and black designs that must have had some sort of Asian origin. Shocks of wiry black hair fell over his face, but the majority of his long mane was pulled back in a band behind his head. In general, he had the air of a world traveler, but the refinement of a ruffian--one who lived by wits and strength alone. "My name's Ghaith." His Romanian was shaky, and by his skin tone, Cosette placed him to be of Middle Eastern origins.

Malgrave turned to him and spokea few words in Arabic. The two spoke too quickly for Cosette to catch the exact words, but it must have been something to the effect of starting the journey, because Ghaith stepped back and opened the cabin door, while Malgrave moved to take some of the luggage Narshe was holding.

Cosette stepped in, and surveyed the interior of the airship. It was a spartan thing to be sure, with simple cushions on benches around the interior, a few rooms in the back, and a ring of windows to give view to the pilot. Several maps were posted along the wall separating the cockpit from the smaller rooms, depicting the world and smaller portions of it, often interspersed with marks of "here be dragons", and Ghaith's own notes in Arabic, usually with a currency value underneath. Cosette imagined that he must be a treasure hunter, or bounty hunter, or something even more fascinating--so numerous and widespread were the notes of places he had visited.

"Setting off!" Ghaith called to the rest of the ship, once Narshe and Malgrave were finally aboard. He stood behind the wheel in the cockpit of the room, and pushed forward on several levers, pulling a few others, and looking around to make sure all of his passengers were securely on the benches outlining the room. With a roar of engines coming from somewhere at the back of the ship, the thing lifted from the ground with a jolt.

In moments, they were sailing upwards and over the town of Ziphlin, the place becoming smaller and smaller in bird's eye perspective. After a few more minutes, a cloud passed between them and the earth, and they sailed on a sea of white away from Romania.

* * *
The journey was a long one, and Cosette and Narshe were both well-prepared, being no strangers to travel themselves. Cosette had a large bag of spellbooks, as well as a few novels to hold over her travels. With the help of a small cantrip called Lenvel's Translation, she had converted her English copy of The Hobbit into a Romanian copy, and was happily drawing near to the climax encounter with the great dragon. She sat in the main room of the dirigible for several hours each day, reading and glancing out the window to survey the world below.

"What book?" Ghaith asked her one day, as he sat at the sole table in the cockpit, doing some calculations over a few navigational charts. She was so absorbed in the story that he had to ask again to get her attention.

"This?" Cosette looked up, then pulled silvery bangs from out of her face and over her shoulder. "Just a story."

"About dragons?" Ghaith eyed the illustration on the cover with his one good eye. He still wore the patch over the other one.

"Not yet. The dragon comes at the end." Cosette flipped the book around to glance at the cover herself, careful to keep her page marked. "Kind of a deceptive cover, really."

"Heh. It seems close enough to me." Ghaith's voice was rough, but had a protective quality to it. One that made you feel secure.

"I noticed your charts..." Cosette had been looking for an opportunity to have this conversation. "Have you ever encountered a dragon in your adventures?"

"Me? Aye, I've seen my fair share." The man gave a chuckle. "Lost this eye to one in the Caucasus four years ago." He flipped up his eyepatch to reveal a deep gash where his right eye should have been.

"What kind of dragon?" Cosette sat forward, excited to hear the story.

"Nothing too impressive, a gray beast about the size of this room." Ghaith nodded from one end of the room to the other. " It smelled like ash, and blood as hot as lava. I had a team of hunters with me then, but it wasn't me that came out of it the worst." He shook his head.

"I might do something about that eye for you." Cosette scratched her head, trying to think of a spell that was lurking just out of the corner of her mind.

"Really?" His left eye opened a bit wider. "It's been a hard three years without it, and healing like that's a bit too expensive for a poor boy like me."

"It's not healing per se..." Cosette thought aloud. "Let me get my books." She ran off to her room, and returned with three different tomes, two bound in leather, and another in black scales. Ghaith moved his charts to give Cosette a second seat at the table, and the girl slammed down her books and flipped excitedly through them until she found the pages she was looking for in each.

"I was thinking it would be so interesting to try this spell, but it's not the kind of opportunity you get everyday..." She ran a slender, pale finger across the yellowed pages of the book, until she found the diagram she was looking for.

"What sort of spell?" Ghaith asked, interestedly.

"A few hundred years ago, a very distant relation of mine named Valtris had his eyes gouged out by a rival. In order to regain his sight, he bound a certain rune to himself--The Evil Eye--or 'ayin hasad' in your language." Cosette explained.

"The Evil Eye." The man rested his chin on a hand upon the table. "I've heard the stories... the power to curse with a look. It sounds to me like dark magic."

"That's my specialty." Cosette smiled, her golden eyes glowing. "But let me alleviate your doubts--the eye is only as evil as its master. That's true of all things, even magics."

Ghaith seemed to think quietly to himself for a moment. "Alright."

"Alright then!" Cosette was excited at the prospect of yet-unworked magics. First dragons, now this--it would be an eventful trip indeed. She began writing out diagrams and reading the passages from the book more carefully. "You can finish your charts, this may take about an hour to prepare." She told him, brushing more hair out of her face. A few pale salmon-colored freckles were obscured by the blush of excitement on her features.

As Ghaith prepared several more charts, occasionally referencing devices and almanacs upon the table., Cosette bustled about, pilfering various tools from Narshe's makeshift laboratory in their cabin room, and pulling more obscure books, once going as far as to summon one from her library at the villa.

After an hour of work, Cosette had the necessary preparations complete. Ghaith had long since completed his work, and took to simply watching her prepare the spell. Despite his initial hesitation, he seemed interested in the process.

"Now, to begin, I'll need to put you into a trance." Cosette lit her ornamental pipe, sucking in air to get it burning properly. The thick, surreal smell of Ritherwhyte began to fill the cabin, making Ghaith's one remaining eye water slightly. "So..." Cosette opened a palm toward him, and closed it slowly. As she did, his body crumpled back in a dreamless sleep upon his chair.

The girl stood, placing a small tray-like altar upon the table before her, and tapping it at each of its four corners, then in the center. As her fingers flicked up from the central ring, a column of green flame streaked up, glowing an alternating sequence of violet and vermilion. A figure seemed to twist and grow from the flames, darkening and solidifying. It was a robed figure, whose robes were so oversized that they hung from its arms and dragged limply into the flames. The figure grew and grew until it was two feet tall, hovering over the table, about eye level with Cosette.

"Dark Empress... the Fatespinner Rikjak heeds your call. To the bearer of Solomon's Key, I can naught but obey." Rikjak's black robes flowed like a fire, reweaving themselves out of nothing and back again. He nodded his head, though no face or features could be seen beneath it. Only a darkness which seemed to staunchly resist the light filled his robes.

"By the old ways do I seek to form a pact with you, Bearer of Knowledge. Grant this mortal sight, and he will share with you visions of the mortal world." Cosette spoke as her books had instructed, improvising a little for the situation at hand.

"Hmm..." Rikjak seemed to consider the man without turning to look at him. "The evil eye grants great power to those with the wisdom to bear it. A mortal who has sought many mysteries is a fine host for my sight. It seems we have an accord." Under Rikjak's hood, a red glow like an eye seemed to open. Then another, and another, until beneath his hood was only a swarm of red dots staring in so many directions. The little demon's body shuddered, and he sunk his head down. A single red drop, like some sort of tear, fell down into a cup-shaped groove in the altar below him. The drop solidified, until it became a ruby-like gem with a small black spot inside. Little crackles of black electricity seemed to shock between the black orb at the center and its rubylike shell.

"I await your next call, Black Queen." Rikjak bowed into his own cloak, and in a burst of black flame, he vanished into nothing, and the fire upon the altar died.

Cosette breathed deeply and took a deep breath of Ritherwhyte. That was a slightly strange experience. She had not expected quite so quick a response or so willing--it was almost as if the demon were waiting for her to call it. She made a motion with her hands as tough plucking up the gem, and it hovered before her.

"Ghaith, shall you accept to your mortal form the burden of a Fatespinner's Pact?" Cosette asked to the entranced man before her.

"Yes." He replied automatically and emotionlessly though his trance.

"Then permit this vessel to accept the gift of the most dark ones." Cosette maneuvered the eye above his face, and pulled his eyepatch aside. As she lowered the crystal, it began to grow warmer, and the man's flesh seemed to ripple and part like an ocean to accept the new part. Stepping back and releasing her hold on the thing, it nestled into Ghaith's skull, flesh closing over it once more.

Ghaith's body shuddered and he took a deep breath, as though surfacing from a long dive. Breathing heavily a smile spread across his features. "Lady Garidion... I can see... I can see everything!" A red glow seemed to emanate from his new right eye. "Lord Malgrave and Lady Narshe up on the deck, I can see them! The words in your Romanian books make sense to me!" He stood and looked down at his hands. Possibilities, futures, adventures and treasures near and far... all within this sight...

"Then we shall call it a success." Cosette nodded, proud at her work.

"A success indeed." Ghaith looked her up and down, looking through her...

Cosette took a second to follow his eye's gaze. "Ack!" She turned away, embarassed.

Ghaith turned away as well. "Sorry... that must be where the 'evil' part comes in." He looked up to catch his own reflection in the mirror. "This'll scare away customers if I'm not careful though." He picked up his eyepatch and placed it back over his right eye. "Again, many thanks."

Cosette turned around, her face still flushed red. "Yes, ah... no trouble." She began putting her books and tools away hurriedly.

* * *

"You pulled through on the ship." Narshe leaned over the railing beside Malgrave. The two of them stood on the top deck of the I'dad Al-'oda looking out over the sea of clouds and earth so far below. "I was surprised."

"I'm nothing if not a man of my words, Narshe." Malgrave's hissing voice was calm, though still grating.

"Yet you left the Imperial Family, you abandoned clan Landraner to pursue your own life." Narshe's eyes narrowed as she looked over to him.

"You presume too much lecturing me, Narshe. You may be the head of the clan, but I am your elder. I demand that respect." He returned her scowl with his own. "We all left. An entire clan of vampires is unnecessary to raise one spoiled heiress each generation. Clan Landraner died with the Imperial Line." Malgrave snarled.

"Cosette is the Imperial Line. You serve her as well as I do!" Her voice was raising.

"I despise Cosette, and I despise Carmine!" Malgrave shouted back. "I was a knight of the old empire. I had honor, and power, and responsibility! My place in this world is not at the side of some girl-child and her nurse!" He turned away from her.

"Why do you come back when I summon you each generation?" Narshe asked him, turning back to the view.

"I was a servant of his Dark Majesty Enlu. It was he that told me to be his daughter's guardian, and were it not for my respect of his memory, you should not have heard from me ever again." Malgrave kept his back turned to Narshe. "You can't blame any of us for leaving the Imperial Family. The Garidion line doesn't have the power to keep servants of our caliber any longer. If you were to quit them, they should die out altogether."

"I won't be the one responsible for that. Besides, I don't even know what else to do anymore, after seven hundred years." Narshe sighed, still upset.

"We're old, Narshe. Perhaps not in body, but in mind and soul. This too is our curse. Memories you can't escape, responsibilities death cannot absolve... we have to grasp after every thread of meaning in a world that moves while we stand still." Malgrave spoke softly. "I don't grudge you to stay, but you must not blame us for finding a new meaning when our old one died. The old empire is a ship too small to carry us all through eternity."

"For now..." Narshe let the topic drop off, and it disappeared into the wind and clouds.

* * *


The airship I'dad Al-'oda settled down in a clearing deep over the heart of the yet-unexplored British claim known as the Congo. Many had braved these jungles, but few had returned alive, and none in any state to tell the tales of what mysteries rested within the deepest heart of the Dark Continent.

Far from trepidation, however, Cosette was filled with confidence and excitement at meeting a dragon. After eighteen years of living off of storybooks and fairy tales, now she would meet one of these most majestic creatures herself. It was thrilling.

Ghaith settled the airship down, and secured the thing to the ground. As they struck land and disembarked from the ship, the figure of Tania slipped from the jungles like a shadow to meet them.

She did not speak, but beckoned the four travelers near. "The Great Beast Nidhoggr bids welcome to you." Tania spoke at last as they approached.

"And you'll guarantee the safety of our craft?" Cosette asked.

"The Wild makes no guarantees. Live by your own power, that is the law here." Tania looked back up defiantly. This was her realm of power--and she knew it. There would be no apologies or spared words in this encounter.

"We have insurance against troubles." Ghaith nodded to Malgrave, who nodded as well to Cosette.

"Come." The younger girl beckoned. She was dressed in hand-sewn hide garments, dyed with various primitive inks and painted in tribal designs. Her face was painted decoratively in reds and blacks, and the bonecrafted jewelry she wore had been polished to perfection. Cosette wondered if this wasn't the girl's pathetic attempt at 'dressing to the occasion'. As she led them into the forest, the brambles and grasses seemed to scurry away, while trees lifted their boughs and parted way. The animals of the jungle did not run at their approach, but watched intently through the tall grasses and underbrush that skirted out of the travelers' paths.

Tania's steps were inaudible--the subconsciously practiced clip of a hunter and a survivalist. Cosette was surrounded by a cloud of pungent Ritherwhyte, curling out from her pipe and all around to fill the air. The trees seemed to shudder away from this as well, though not as willingly as they did for Tania's command.

After what must have been an hour of walking, they finally reached a clearing in the jungles. It was a ruinous temple of some sort--obviously built by the tribes of Africa in honor to the spirits of nature they worshiped. Cosette could still see many souls, bound in service to those gods for all eternity. These gods were not the kind she knew in Europe--they were the aspects of the Wild who knew neither master nor law.

In the clearing was another party, or rather, two parties. Sitting on the stone steps of the ruin was Merribelle--the Messiah of the World Church, and her Savior Knight Martel. Merribelle's dress was the red robes and large hat she always wore. Immune to heat or tiring or any unpleasantness, she sat beside Martel, a handsome blond man dressed in heavy clothing, and holding a long sword at his side. Martel's sword was unlike any Cosette had seen--it was shaped like a long staff with a crossbar, but the length of each bar was bladed, making it effectively a four-bladed sword, with one arm much longer than the others. These two were not speaking. Rather, Merribelle seemed to be quietly praying or meditating, or both, as Martel kept a lookout for any disturbance.

The temple rose like a great cavern from the earth, and before its mouth, sat Lydia. She was not alone--rather, an entourage of no fewer than ten servants were with her. She sat at a white table beneath a thick umbrella, drinking something lavish looking while her servants fanned her rhythmically. She was wearing her customary purple silks, combined with various gold and silver trims and sashes. This was topped with enough jewelry to account for the total income of several small countries, for a completely displaced picture of luxury within the savage jungle.

"Ah, cousin Cosette, we've been expecting you." Lydia snapped her fingers, and one of her servants pulled a chair back from the table.

Cosette looked back to Narshe, who gave her a small but resolute nod. With a deep breath, and as little of a scowl as she could manage, Cosette took a seat beside her most despised relative. Her comrades took refuge beneath the shade of the temple entryway nearby. Tania herself disappeared into the ruin, motioning for the others to stay behind.

"I daresay little Merribelle was displeased to see me." Lydia held up a long cigarette holder, and one of her attendants placed a cigarette into the thing and lit it. With a puff, she rested a hand on the table and placed her chin lightly upon it. "I do hope we can share a more civil conversation." Lydia's dark eyes blinked. Her expression was impossible to read under the veil which masted the lower half of her face.

"I'm not at all surprised to see you." Cosette sneered, "The Great Beast and the Whore of Babylon are supposed to make quite a couple."

"It will be worth allying to these beasts if I can see you two take the role of the slain prophets." Lydia countered her reference with another, dropping any pretense of friendliness. "Nidhoggr called us here for some reason--it's to choose one of us to ally with. The Wild is weak, but with my power behind it, hmmm..." She smiled at the thought. "I suppose you can read the future well enough."

"Yes. You'll soon see what I already know." Cosette leaned back in her chair. "I don't want to spoil the surprises for you though."

"Master bids you come." Tania's voice bellowed, despite her small stature. As each member of the parties stood, she made a motion with her hand to halt them. "Only those selected by master may enter this place... the Chosen are bid to come." She corrected herself.

"Well, I'm looking forward to the show." Lydia stood and held out a hand. The table and chairs melted away, as Cosette stood just quickly enough to avoid falling. The servants around Lydia seemed to boil down like wax, each one dissolving--like the table and chairs--into a single golden coin. With another snap from their master, the coins leapt from the ground and into Lydia's open purse.

Merribelle spoke a few words in Martel's ear quietly, and went to stand before the door. The young man nodded resolutely, taking a soldier's stance by the side of the door, he was ready to rush in at the first sign of trouble.

"Are you ready?" Narshe looked to Cosette, a flash of worry in her features.

"I've been waiting for this." The excitement in her eyes was unmistakable.

* * *

Hylie Mignon, Heliska, Valdimap, and the tiny Gruphul crushed through the jungle unconcernedly. At Hylie's command, the plants seemed to wither away or burn to ash, clearing the way for their advance to the place their Overlord had appointed. As they walked, Heliska sang a quiet song, one which inspired the birds in the trees to slay their young, and pitted the creatures of the jungle to maim and kill each other without cause. Gruphul listened carefully to pick up her notes, while Valdimap scribbled some words and diagrams on a few yellowed pages he had brought.

"So much to be done once Master Knale holds this world in her grasp." Heliska sighed, she looked back to her companions. "What are you doing?"

"This?" Valdimap's low hiss of a voice seemed to perfectly compliment his yellowed skin. "My memoirs. I've been neglecting them."

"Demons don't need memoirs." Hylie spat. "I can't even read, and see how well I'm doing." She turned another tree to ash with a wave of one hand.

"Let me take a look at those." Heliska kicked Gruphul into a nearby bush to clear her way, and snatched the papers out of his hands. "Then I cut them, very deeply. The cut was super-deep, and it was so awesome. I relish the scream as my enemy--" Heliska read aloud. "This is disgustingly bad. You have good topic material, but your writing style..." she shuddered, "take a few hundred more years reading human novels before you write another word of this garbage."

"And what do you know about it?" Valdimap snatched back his work, and hastily made a few revisions.

"I," Heliska held her head back, "am an artiste--a connoisseur of the finest arts of both daemonic and human cultures."

"Hmph." Valdimap snorted loudly.

"We're close." Hylie turned back to her companions. "Let's get to the preparations shall we. We've got a dragon to kill!"

To be continued next movement...

Yes, it was one of my favorite novellas--about a trip to Africa no less. I'm impressed that you caught the reference. ^_^

Ah, so many compliments. Thank you! biggrin

I also liked the original "Heart of Darkness" (hope you don't hold it against me) but it is very much a book that you have to read into. I'll reread soon to get those grammar errors you mentioned. I wish you could put your finger on what felt wrong? Was it the trip to Ziphlin, or the lack of commotion surrounding it? Perhaps I should put the city into greater detail, since it's meant to be a place both like and unlike our world.

I'm glad that you enjoyed the parts with Ghaith. We'll have to see how he and Cosette turn out... as for Merribelle, I agree that she didn't get treated well enough in the section posted. I'll have to make up for that in the next coming chapter.


I'm sorry things aren't going to well for you right now. But try to think on the bright side, even when everything seems darkest. There's always another day, after all.

Here it is! The conclusion to the second movement. This was a tough chapter to write, but I think it came out well. Any comments?

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Fifteenth Movement - Into the Dragon's Maw

This story is a continuation of the Fourteenth Movement, "Heart of Darkness".

A forgotten temple of ancient pagan gods, and deep within, an awaiting dragon. An ally in whom any sort of faith might be ill-placed. A sister whose loyalties were questionable at best. A rival intent upon her destruction at any cost. These were the things surrounding Cosette on this warm evening in the depths of the Jungles of Africa.

Tania Maph'tali, the young African shamaness and self-proclaimed servant of the great dragon Nidhoggr, stood before the gates of the forgotten temple, waiting for Cosette, Merribelle, and Lydia to step forth and enter.

Merribelle stood from beside her knight, Martel, and brushed off her robes with a slight motion. The jungle dust that had settled over her red ceremonial vestments puffed off in small wisps, and she straightened her hat a bit, golden locks of hair bobbing with the motion. Walking forward solemnly and resolutely, she stood before the temple door.

Lydia's purple silks swayed with the motion of her body, and each step she took clinked and clacked with the sounds of heavy golden jewelry and coins colliding. Her tanned skin was not as dark as Tania's, but perhaps it provided more protection from the jungle heat than Cosette's was. Lydia walked before the temple, and looked down with a smile of calculated malice towards Merribelle.

Cosette was sweating visibly in the suffocating heat of the canopied jungle. She had tried to fan herself off with a lace fan she had brought back home, but the humidity in the air made this action an exercise in futility. Annoyed at herself for not thinking of it earlier, she muttered a few words to herself, mimicking a spell she had seen Narshe use. The air around her turned frigid, and the grass at her feet withered. A small casting of "Winterkill" would produce the cooling effect she desired, while at the same time intimidating Lydia. Maybe.

Cosette's brushed leather safari gear squeaked from its long years of disuse, as she walked before the door to stand with her younger sister and elder cousin. The three of them now faced down Tania, who turned to lead them into the heart of the earth--the domain of the Great Dragon Nidhoggr.

Tania's robes were clean, but not pristine--it was apparent that she did her own laundry by hand. Her dark skin was riddled with tattoos and tribal markings, scrawled upon every inch of her arms, legs, and partially exposed torso. In one hand she carried a stone-tipped spear, with several ornaments of bone and jewel tied around it. It looked more like the kind of staff a tribal medicine man would carry than a spear used for war.

Cosette expected a grand golden chamber where the dragon would await them, hoarding beneath it a pile of gold and bones. Instead the entryway did not lead to a grand hall, but a cramped pathway. While the teenage Tania and Cosette's younger sister Merribelle were able to walk normally, Cosette and Lydia were forced to duck their heads slightly to proceed.

Merribelle cupped her hands and whispered a prayer. As she did, a small wash of light filled the passage, allowing the travelers to see the way ahead. The path was smooth, though not slippery, and headed down at a slight incline, deeper and deeper into the bowels of the earth.

"How is it that they called you here, sister?" Cosette looked down to Merribelle.

"I am not your sister. I renounced all ties to those wicked wretches you call ancestry." Merribelle scowled. Her voice was as matter-of-fact as ever.

"I didn't renounce my ties to you." Cosette suppressed the urge to slap her younger sister. There could be no worse insult, at least to Cosette, than an insult to her pedigree.

Merribelle turned her head back to the path and continued walking ahead solemnly. "Nidhoggr's motive is the protection of the earth--the gift that God gave to all living creatures. The Church admires these ends. We believe that he deserves our attention. And what does it take to entice the Witch Queen to the heart of the Dark Continent, praytell?"

Cosette hesitated, looking for an answer more impressive than, 'a chance to see a real dragon, of course.' Finally she answered, "I was impressed by the Beast's display of power--Power I might see at my disposal."

"Ah, so we're not so different--you and I." Lydia cut in. "Who do you think the dragon will choose as his new ally? And do you think the others will leave here alive?"

Cosette and Merribelle fell silent, unsure of how to answer.

* * *

"Hm... and what should they find, I wonder..." Malgrave rested his chin on his wrist, arms crossed and leaning against a pillar of the temple. He seemed not to be bothered by the heat of the sun.

"Your lack of concern is disparaging." Narshe scowled at him from her seat upon the steps. She had conjured a canopy of ice to shield her from the harsh heat of the place, but the spell was rapidly becoming higher maintenance than its worth, as she continually had to recast it to avoid the thing's melting.

"Of course, Cosette is everything to you." Malgrave hissed, "It would be such a shame if you had to find a new routine after six hundred years."

"Cosette is the key to reviving the Empire. She's the only chance you have at bringing back those days that you yourself relished." The vampire stood and turned her back to Malgrave, looking into the darkness of the temple's mouth.

"Why was it that she was called?" Ghaith asked at last, as though the question had been bothering him for some time, but he was hesitant to ask something to which the answer must be so obvious.

"Really? There was no given reason, so I only assumed they merely wanted to speak to her." Narshe pondered. "Though they might be in there all day." She looked the handsome youth up and down, and ran her tongue around one fang slowly. "Of course, if you're bored, I have all kinds of things we could do to pass the time..." The vampire said as she tapped her fingers together coyly.

"No, Ghaith will be coming with me." Malgrave opened his bag and set it down upon a broken column of the temple that might have passed as some sort of makeshift table. He took several instruments and vials from the bag, then closed it again. "I didn't come to Africa just on your errands. I hired Ghaith to take me her because I need to collect certain herbs for my experiments. It's just a coincidence that you were headed for somewhere in the vicinity."

"Experiments?" Narshe eyed the bag curiously. "Like you used to..."

"No." Malgrave smiled sinisterly. "Well... not today. I'm also an alchemist, you know. Potionmaking is a skill which comes in quite handy with my work..."

"I see." Narshe looked disappointed somehow.

"Don't get discouraged. You always have the Savior Knight to try and charm." Malgrave gave a hissing laugh, throwing a look over to Martel, who sat stoically upon the temple steps. Sharing a few instructions with Ghaith, he pointed off into the jungle, and the two of them disembarked, disappearing deep into the green shadows of the Congo.

* * *

They continued on, deep into the ground for what seemed like hours. Cosette's feet were beginning to complain to her about the shoes she had chosen, and she was sure a few blisters had already formed on her delicate skin. In the darkness of the cavern and the light of Merribelle's spell, her skin seemed pale as a ghost. Were it not for the bright gold in her eyes and her brown leather gear, she would have passed easily for some sort of apparition.

Each of the three travelers, and their host as well, could not hide the anticipation or anxiousness they felt for what must come ahead. Nidhoggr, the Malice Striker, the dragon who first fed upon the root of the world... what sort of being would he be? And what business did he have with the three members of the Imperial Line who came to stand before him today?

At last the tunnel opened back up, and expanded into a ledge of stone stretching around the circumference of an underground lake. Merribelle tossed her light spell up into the air, and it hung above the four of them like a personal moon, following and showing the way. The expanse of the cavern must have been several hundred meters in any direction, and seeing the opposite banks was difficult in the light mist arising from the liquid. The water in the lake seemed pure, untainted by the touch of man or beast since time primordial. It bubbled of its own accord, perhaps with some eerie power of primal life. In the reflective light of the small moon above, the water seemed like a liquid crystal, illuminating the cavern with twisting alien designs. The water was clear and pure, and ran deep into the darkness of the abyss below, giving no clues as to how far it must reach.

Cosette glanced up, and then around the cavern. The stone ledge stretched in a full circle before descending into another cavern, leading deeper in. I've seen this somewhere... she thought to herself. A birds eye view would be necessary to know for sure though. As Merribelle and Lydia paused for a moment to stare down into the depths of the vast lake, Cosette placed a hand to the ground spoke quietly. "Powers, grant to me perfect understanding. I seek to see though the eyes of the sky."

A small rush of wind drafted down above her, and the dust at her feet swirled around and settled back into a map of the cavern from above. A picture Cosette had seen in many book before. It was a ring, flared on the outside with the frills of a great sea dragon's back. The great beast's jaws were gaping wide, swallowing its own tail in a never ending circle.

"The Ouroboros..." Merribelle murmured, having turned at the sound of Cosette's spell. She traced a line from her forehead to chest, and then across. "What do you mean by invoking more ancient beasts, Cosette?"

"What is it?" Lydia pushed around to get a better look.

"The mark of Ouroboros. That is to say, the sign of the Sea dragon Iormungandr, whose body is so great that it encricles the whole earth, stretching back until he consumes his own tail." Cosette spoke solemnly. "It looks like this place is a temple to that beast, if not to Nidhoggr as well."

"What's the meaning of this?" Lydia gave Tania a sharp look, but the young girl swung her black braids around in a practiced motion and continued onward into the next level of the cavern, through a gate of stalactites and stalagmites that resembled quite vividly a dragon's mouth.

The path continued onward and downward for a much longer stretch, until finally the four came to another great chamber--one that seemed to open like another world within the earth. Cosette, Merribelle, Lydia, and Tania found themselves standing at the height of a cliff, looking down upon a narrow path leading from the cavern, and up into the roof of the place so far overhead that light did not reach it. Was there even a night sky? Cosette looked up and was surprised to see stars above--scintillating lights above another reality that stretched onward forever. However, that wasn't the most striking thing in this strange new world. The first thing to catch everyone's attention was the tree.

Despite that they must have been a great distance from the thing, another hour's walk, by Cosette's best judgment, they could see a massive tree rising up from the ground and stretching towards the sky. The thing was magnificent and terrible and beautiful. Its roots curled up from the earth, forming vast valleys and hills the size of small towns. The tree's true expanse was unfathomable, as the clouds of the night sky and distance obscured its true reaches. Judging from its trunk, however, it must have stretched beyond any mortal description. Pulsing lights seemed to flicker about the tree, scurrying up and about, while vines stretched from the branches like serpents. The tree's branches reached out almost to where they stood at the edge of the cliff. The three travelers were awed with wonder at the sight of it, unable to speak but for its grandeur.

Suddenly it hit Cosette that she had been in such a place before. It was not similar, for she had certainly never seen such a magnificent sight before. However, the feeling was the same. It reminds me of Archeme's Clock Room... another world within this one, or another way of looking at the whole world--as a great machine or as a great tree--it's not too dissimilar...

"Come, Nidhoggr awaits." Tania proceeded down the slopes of the cliff.

* * *

Upon reaching the bottom of the cliff, the four found themselves in a field of thick grasses that ran all the way to the roots of the tree. Tania held up a hand to stop them without turning around. "Master, we have come." She spoke loudly as though to the whole tree.

A voice rose from the earth beneath the tree, like a rumbling or quaking of the whole world. As it spoke the ground seemed to shake. "Thou hath done well, child of my soul." Cosette took a step back at the sound, and then at the sight of the earth tearing apart. The dragon's bellowing voice was long, slow, and deep. It was a voice that had had dear ages to consider its words, and did not weigh time too heavily.

The whole ground writhed and ripped apart, as the ancient dragon revealed itself. Lydia and Cosette fell to the earth, though Merribelle managed to stand her ground by some miracle. In a splitting of the earth wide enough so that Cosette's entire villa might have fallen into it easily, the beast emerged. A hazel light glowed in the darkness, then showed itself to be the creature's eye, as only its head managed to poke through the earth. Nidhoggr rested its chin upon the ground, with a row of teeth forming a wall as far as Cosette could see in either direction, and two large hazel eyes filling the entire expanse of her vertical view.

"Welcome, O masters of the human world." Nidhoggr spoke, and a flush of hot air rumbling up from the Great Beast's throat blasted the four who stood before him. "Mayhap thou hast imagined many reasons for which I have called you." Nidhoggr's hot breath, and incredible presence were overwhelming. Cosette's heart beat fast. It would be a small motion for the dragon to leap forward and devour them all in one fell swoop.

"What do you demand of us, dragon?" Lydia answered, standing back to her feet in a fluid motion. "What service can we do the tree?"

* * *

Not too far away on the surface, four wholly unnatural figures stood huddled around a strange metal object in a recently devised clearing in the jungle. Hylie Mignon spoke in a loud voice to her Daemonic compatriots, "You're sure this is the location master set?" She was beginning to get excited, and a red aura of infernal strength was noticeable in the air around her form.

"Of course. I've even carved it exactly as the diagram shows." Valdimap held up a chart in one arm, and pointed at it with another, while his three remaining arms held a collection of five longswords forged of a sharpened infernal metal that glowed red-hot of its own accord and smelled of brimstone. "See?" He looked back to the device behind him. It was a tall pillar of grayish metal, coming to a precise point as it touched the ground. To balance the pillar were four smaller posts, made of the same material, and jointed ever so slightly to the main piece, as if they were all hewn from one single hunk of metal.

"You'll start the enchantments?" Hylie turned to Heliska.

"Of course. I have all the tools Rikjak gave me." The mourner's red jacket swished in a warm jungle breeze as she stepped toward the device. Like the sound of a chorus, she began to chant twelve distinct incantations. As she did, lights began to form in the air and be sucked into the device, which glowed with a dull violet and red miasma. Arcane designs began to trace over the surface of the thing, and runes that could be recognized as spells of creeping destruction, deadly poison, and disease.

* * *

"Forsooth, thou shouldest know," Nidhoggr's lumbering voice blasted them each once more. "Yggdrasil, the World Tree, doth bear a great many diverse weights. The weight of your kind waxes heavy upon the tree... we fear that it soon shall grow too weak to support us, as it hath done for so many ages."

"Hmm..." Cosette looked defiantly into the beast's great red eyes. "Listen to that, the great beast who gnaws the roots of the tree fears our interference with nature." She put her gloved hands upon her hips and spoke up to him as loudly as she could. "Look at the size of you! You alone must burden this tree as much as we do! You don't care about the tree! What you're really afraid of is that we'll interfere with your food source!"

"Truth or nay, my power gives me right to concern myself. The only rule of the Wild is strength!" Nidhoggr's teeth bore open slightly as he spoke, teeth like a great fence that towered over Cosette, and a blast of hot air threatened to knock her back again, had she not braced herself just in time. "Thy masters have already wrought the outcome of this convocation, it bears upon you only to see and face the consequences of our decisions!" He bellowed again.

"Let's cut pretenses." Lydia spoke out, gripping her hand around a jeweled scepter she held. "Nidhoggr and you and I have made an agreement to destroy The Church once and for all, did we not, Cosette?" Lydia looked over to the Cosette's sister in her priestesses robes with a smirk. "Looks like your time has finally come, fool child."

"The dragon's other servant intimated to me that we three were working together to put an end to Babylon's evils--today." Merribelle narrowed her eyes at Lydia, then turned to Nidhoggr. "Where is your other servant, beast? Where is the woman in the cloak?"

Cosette gave a confused look toward Lydia, then Merribelle.

"Fools!" The beast blasted them once again, "You have been deceived most skillfully. Soon, my brothers Iormugandr and Vidopnir--along with our ally, the Great Overlord Knale Sye Kolor--shall descend upon you each. Our strengths together shall crush you, and then shall your masters fall!"

Cosette was about to make a defensive motion, but realized that neither Lydia nor Merribelle were looking at her. They've all been played by Knale into a trap--a trap where she can eliminate one or the others without even getting her hands dirty... But why am I here? Has she decided to kill me too? That didn't make any sense to Cosette. For the present, however, it was best to at least pretend that she was not party to the one who must have set this thing in motion.

"Hark, Ratatosk heralds their coming even now." Nidhoggr gave a chuckle that rumbled through the earth. A little creature scurried across the ground at a blazing speed, running up before the dragon. It looked like... a small squirrel? "What word bringest thou, Ratatosk?" Of course... Cosette had read somewhere the legend of the courier that relayed messages--mostly insults, between the eternally quarreling brother dragons.

The little squirrel chirped for a few seconds.

"Iormugandr is busy? We had an accord!" Nidhoggr bellowed, "this is the consummate day of our grand plot!" The little squirrel chittered back. "Doesn't care? And he did blaspheme upon my name?" The dragon was becoming angry. "Vidopnir is occupied as well? He refused to come outright? And he insulted Mother!?" The dragon and squirrel bantered on. "But Knale said they would most certainly come! She silenced a millenia of our quarrels for this one pact--to destroy the infidels who do threaten our tree!"

"This is bad comedy." Lydia hissed through her veil. "Such an illegitimate bore could never even aspire to challenge any of us. Cosette, Merribelle, let us put aside our quarrels and silence this treacherous beast for good."

"So I have been played false." The beast roared, "it is of no consequence! My strength alone is sufficient to crush you mortals, while you stand in this place."

"You can't even move." Merribelle observed. "You're so tangled in the roots of this tree, it's a wonder that you could even rise to meet us."

"I grant my strength to my avatar, Tania." Nidhoggr roared. "Daughter of my soul, destroy these who defile your master's realm!" A rush of power seemed to surge through the air, congealing upon Tania and making her presence seem to grow.

"Yes, father." Tania spun her spear behind her back and faced the three women with a fire in her eyes that could only have been loaned from the dragon. "I have been taught by your servant," She locked her brown gaze upon Cosette's golden eyes, "to understand the ways of power. To use destruction as a tool, a craft, and an art. I will not fear you any longer."

"Beautiful speech." Lydia clapped. "It makes for a fitting epitaph!" She stomped her foot to the ground, and the earth surged up in a wave of alchemical power, transforming from grass and rock and stone into a pillar of living gold. The gold at the top of the pillar formed a chair, which padded itself with silks and decorations. Lydia seated herself, and looked down to Tania from her perch. With a disinterested snap of her fingers, she summoned constructs--armed golden golems encrusted with diamond-plated armor and platinum weaponry--out from the base of the pillar. With an eerie and unfitting silence, these creatures surrounded Tania, and began to advance upon her menacingly."

Tania responded by taking a step forward and glaring up at Lydia with all the menace of a predator intent to savage a prize kill. The resulting weight and power of her action caused a shockwave both in the air, and through the earth, which shattered Lydia's golems into dust. Merribelle threw up two hands, and a wall of intense light shielded herself, Cosette and Lydia from the force of the blast. "God smite those who dare to test his chosen!" She thrust both arms forward, and the barrier exploded in a flash so powerful Cosette broke a sweat, feeling its oppressive heat in the air all around.

The light washed over Tania and subsided. When it was gone, only the whites in her eyes were visible. She had been struck completely blind. The girl's nostrils flared as she tried to determine the state of the battlefield by sound and smell alone. Raising her free arm, she called up great strips of the earth, like fingers grasping around her three enemies. A storm began to form overhead, and lightning flashed in the dark clouds of the sky, still low beneath the majesty of the great tree. As these all moved, Tania herself rushed forward, moving by instinct and sound alone, she struck at lightning speed against Merribelle.

The spear collided with Merribelle's face and stopped dead, as though it had been slammed against a weight heavier than the entire world. Though Merribelle herself was unharmed, the force of the attack formed a shockwave in the air which knocked Cosette away, and forced Lydia to shield herself in a wall of gold. "You can't harm me, the sacrosanct Messiah! Each sin you commit against me only serves to weigh the wrath of god heavier upon you." Merribelle lifted a hand to cast another spell of retribution on the girl.

"Your instincts are weak. You have no idea what's going on around you!" Tania growled, and she jumped back as the earth beneath her foe snaked up, as the spires of earth above fell inward, sealing her tomb there in stone. With Lydia behind her wall, and Cosette too far to offer any assistance, she would be trapped indefinitely within a grave of earth.

Cosette watched in horror at the sight, realizing how much more dangerous a foe the girl she had scoffed at before had become with her master's full strength channeled through her. If I am to Knale what this girl is to the dragon, then where is my power? How can I match this?

Carmine's whispering voice from within her seemed to answer back. Knale is not the one you must look to for power. I am.

Where Cosette knelt, her vision blurred, and the great World tree before her seemed to fade out, replaced by the menacing great tree of the Dark Empire she had seen before in her dreams. Let me show you one of my secrets, Cosette. It will grant you the dark power you need to defeat this paltry foe.

Carmine stood before the tree, and Cosette, now unsure whether she were awake or in a dream, felt her spirit flow toward Carmine's. Somewhere in her vision, she saw the earth tearing up, revealing more of the flesh of the great beast beneath, while the sky and earth together clashed against Lydia, attempting to shield herself in metal and crystal. Cosette felt lightheaded. She couldn't be bothered to worry about the real world in this place. It was as if time and events did not matter--the whole world could take a second or an eternity to do as it pleased.

"Do you have the strength to bear my burdens, I wonder?" Carmine seemed at once old and young, oppressive and distant. She looked into Cosette's haunting golden eyes with her own, and ran a finger along the trunk of the great tree, upon which were written in blood thirteen secrets the girl could not understand. Cosette nodded, and Carmine read aloud.

"The first secret is written thus: Barl'at muf'tashin, elemat herus. That is to say: For a time is granted unto you great power, at the price of your left hand." Carmine's voice cackled and strained, as though she were reading words of great power. Her body seemed to shudder as she finished, and the words erased themselves from the tree, running down into the darkness below.

"Go now... go now." Carmine pushed her away. The woman's age was apparent now, as all pretenses and illusions fell away. "Go now and destroy the enemies of our line!" Cosette was falling back into the real world again.

Lydia was falling beneath Tania's assault, and Cosette could see her exertion as she fought back against the entire world. Her cousin was struck, just as she watched--Tania's spear pierced her side, and sent a gush of dark liquid through the air, just as a bolt of lightning hurtled down, channeling through her spire of gold to shock the Arab princess. The dark liquid that had burst from her would ignited with the smell of petroleum, and she screamed as her body began to catch aflame.

Cosette lifted a hand carefully from her place across the field, and a blast of red lightning surged through the air, crashing into Tania's chest and vaporizing a large portion of her flesh and clothing. Light showed through a newly burned hole in her chest. The shamaness's body shuddered with shock, but her organs began to rapidly regenerate and fill the hole, replacing it with a thick scar in only seconds.

"Perhaps a blight will put a stop to you?" Carmine's voice seemed to chirp in chorus with Cosette's, as another burst, this one black, cascaded from her fingers and across the ground, snaking towards Tania. Her foe responded by leaping in the air, and throwing a hand down to summon a great burst of lightning from the sky above Cosette.

Anticipating her move, Cosette leapt as well--the bolt would not strike her with no ground to form an outlet. Summoning a quick spell with mere force of will, she hovered there in the air, Tania in contrast held aloft by massive feathered wings which had burst from her back.

The two swooped and dove in the air, as discharges of lightning and magic burned apart the air between them and lit up the tree in the background with brilliant display.

"I will erase you and your kind from father's perfect age!" Tania growled, her voice carrying like a thunderclap through the air, as she summoned up another strip of earth to try and swat Cosette from the air.

"You too were born human." Cosette dodged the clumsy attack, hurling a spell which broke apart into a thousand screaming knives of glassy green peril. These chased Tania through the air, until she slipped behind the spire of earth left by her own attack against Cosette to block them. "Why do you think yourself so different from us?"

"I did not choose to be what I am. I live by father's breath, and I will die at his word, for his ideals." She struck again, this time calling a flock of falcons from the clouds above to serve as living weapons.

"You're just being used!" Cosette cast a spell of purple sparks into the air all around her, and the birds which closed in upon her withered and died, dropping from the air like a macabre rain.

"As are you!" Tania rushed in, her arm growing into a large claw as she filled it with a surge of primal fury.

"The difference is," Carmine's voice spoke alone from Cosette's lips, as she reached out a hand and twisted it--summoning a curse to shatter all the bones inside Tania's body, "I'm on the winning side." The Dark Empress laughed, as her adversary's body stopped abruptly in midair and dropped like a rock.

* * *

"Now. It's time." Valdimap held up a pocketwatch to display for Hylie, who was too far away to see it. "Hurry up and do it!"

"Alright, I've been waiting for this part. You might want to stand back." She waved Heliska, Gruphul, and Valimap away. "No, further than that." She kept waving until they were out of sight in the jungle.

Hylie's hands clenched with anticipation, and the red glow of infernal, destructive power around her seemed to grow greater and more brilliant, until she was blazing like a small sun. When she had gathered as much power as she could muster, the Destroyer leapt into the air above the monument-sized stone structure. With a forward flip, she extended one heel, focusing all her strength into that one point. In a moment of fury and force to match the most destructive human weapons, Hylie's heel connected with the top of the cone-shaped structure.

In an instant, a blast wave surged out and turned the forest to ash for half a mile in any direction. The device shattered its supports and drove itself into the earth like a comet cutting through the atmosphere.

Hylie stood alone in the center of a crater that spanned as far as she could see, above a hole that seemed to dive down into an abyss deeper than her simple mind could fathom. She nodded her head with a smile. "I call that a successful mission!" She shouted out to her comrades.

* * *

Below ground, in the realm of the tree, the sound of the blast could be heard overheard as well. The stars in the sky seemed to shatter apart, as a huge light from above fell toward the earth below.

Nidhoggr rolled its eyes back, and glimpsed the incoming object with what could only be considered panic. From her vantage point, Cosette could see the beast in decent perspective with the tree. With the earth torn up from around the tree's roots in their battle, the creature's scaly hide was clearly visible, caged in by the tree's roots just as Merribelle had observed. So great was its bulk, that it could not move beneath the grasp of the tree above it. Nidhoggr gave one last roar of trembling rage as the enormous bullet of fiery apocalypse fell from Heaven, and pierced deep into his heart.

Tania's form upon the ground, regenerating from Cosette's last spell, gave a shudder, as though her own heart had been pierced by the bullet. Nidhogger's eyes were glazed over, and his face seemed lumpy and broken, just as Tania's bones were. Cosette realized that she had been fighting the full might of the dragon with Carmine's magic. She had challenged alone a creature which had been seen as a god by centuries of men. And, by some miracle of intervention, had won.

"Thou wicked one..." Nidhoggr's voice rumbled low in his throat, as a living dearth began to spread from the bullet like cancer, eating him away from the inside. "...what future will be wrought... by thy foolishness." Cosette floated down in the air before his great maw, and felt Carmine's powers draining from her. The enchantment of the first secret broke as she hit the ground. "I did make a foolish choice in my youth..." Nidhoggr sighed. "This tree granted me strength, but it has become my cage as well, and now it is my death." The beast chuckled. "Thou art like unto me, so as I die here, I will share my little wisdom with you... do not seek power without regard to its cost."

Cosette fell to her knees. The cost. She felt blood rush out of her left hand, as it seized up. She tore off her glove with her right hand, just in time to see her flesh spot and decay, until the pale, shiny skin of her hand became corrupted, and blighted. Her nails grew and hardened into curved claws, and blotches of deep brown and red scarred her skin, now laced with blue and green veins that pulsed quietly in time to her heartbeat. Cosette screamed, not in horror or pain, but the realization that she had been cursed--cursed with this corruption which she could do not but endure for the rest of her days.

"Mayhap it is already too late... for the both of us..." The great dragon gave a last rumbled, like a laugh, before his eyes slipped shut.

Nidhoggr, the Great Beast, was dead.

"F... Father..." Tania's body crumpled to the ground. The wings and claws with which she had adorned herself faded away, leaving only the girl, naked and dying, by the root of the tree.

"I think the beast is right." Lydia's voice crowed from behind Cosette. "It is too late for you." Cosette whirled around to see her cousin standing over her, Tania's spear raised in her arms, ready to thrust down over Cosette's head. She was burned badly in places, but the silks about her were reweaving their burnt parts. Cosette had underestimated how badly Lydia had been hurt in the battle.

A crack sounded through the air, as a steel longsword slashed Tania's spear apart, and Lydia jumped back just in time to avoid taking the blow herself. Martel, Merribelle's knight, stood between Cosette and Lydia, his weapon readied for battle. Behind him were Narshe, Ghaith, and Malgrave, weapons drawn and spells ready.

"Eh? So that's how it is?" Lydia took another step back. "I'm too tired to deal with this much annoyance." She shook her head. "Always so lucky, Cosette. Someday, it will all run out." The woman turned in a dash of slightly singed silks, and seemed to spin apart into the air. "Someday." She spok, before vanishing completely.

"Cosette! What happened? Are you alright?" Narshe knelt beside her, and saw the girl's hand with a gasp. "No... Carmine." Cosette always wondered why it was that her mother, Rozalina, had always worn gloves, even to sleep. Now she understood. This was a condition Narshe had seen many times.

"How did you know to come?" Cosette nursed her hand, more out of self-pity than pain.

"Martel sensed Merribelle was in danger." Narshe answered.

"Where is milady? She spoke to me, and told me in a vision that I must protect you." Martel's calm yet careful features scanned the field. He looked back into Cosette's eyes with his azure sight.

"There." Cosette pointed with her remaining hand at the lump of earth and stone which had been heaped upon her younger sister. "I can bring her out." Cosette pulled off her other glove with her teeth, and traced a diagram in the dirt with her finger. Biting her own small finger, she squeezed a few drops of blood into the earth, which glowed slightly. "Bring forth she of my blood." Cosette spoke weakly, as exhaustion began to creep over her.

In a small flash of light, Merribelle's form grew from the diagram to stand before Cosette. She looked flustered and annoyed and slightly embarrassed. Unsure of how to express gratitude, Merribelle surveyed the field, and her eyes rested upon the broken form of Tania. A tiny breath still moved within the girl's form, though it was fading fast. Looking back to Cosette again awkwardly, Merribelle nodded slightly, and moved towards the girl, placing a hand upon her body and suffusing her with a holy light. Tania's wounds closed, and her breathing restored pace as she drifted off into a deep sleep. "This soul has been stolen back from the grip of the beast." She spoke solemnly to Martel. "A victory for God is wrought this day. Let us together make leave of this accursed ground."

Martel nodded, and sheathed his sword on his back before he lifted the sleeping girl into his arms. He followed Merribelle toward the cliffs which lead out of the massive underground space.

Merribelle turned back to her. "You too are anathema, Black Cosette. I cannot commune with an accursed being--even one that calls herself my sister. This will be the last meeting that I may tolerate you--an abomination in the eyes of God."

* * *

Overlord Knale Sye Kolor sat atop the World Tree, in the nest of the great dragon Vidopnir. She was seated at a table and speaking to the dragon--playing a game of chess with him no less. Vidopnir's brilliant wings reflected the sun above like a kaleidoscope of color. He was not as corpulent as his brother, able to sit on the ground before a table, albeit a large one, and to manipulate the heavy pieces with his claws. Knale, who could not reach to even the middle of the table, made a pushing motion with her hand to manipulate her queen, pushing it forward into her opponent's ranks. "That's checkmate."

"Ah, an excellent move. You're quite an amusing opponent." Vidopnir made a hissing laugh through his long, beaklike snout. "But that reminds me, was that thing with Nidhoggr not today? The whole trap business? I do hope we haven't missed the appointment."

"Oh, no." Knale looked down to the large watch that was chained over her cloak. "We rescheduled for next week, remember? The lighting would be better then."

"Ah, that is an important point." Vidopnir noted. "Brother never considers the important details when he sets up these little events."

"Shall we play another?" Knale smiled her peaceful smile that set the world at ease. All was right on schedule.

Thanks for catching that.

There's no Dark Magical Orchestra this week, since I'm preparing the second book for print. Check the site (www.darkmagic.theanimearsenal.com) for updated artworks and etc.

At last, back on schedule with a once-a-week offering of Dark Magical Orchestra. The second book comes out this week! Look for it on the website! ^_^

And enjoy this introduction to the THIRD SYMPHONY:

Sixteenth Movement: Dark Magic and the New World

-------------------------------------------------

1947, Queens, New York...

Hallie curled up as quietly as a mouse under her bed at Saint Mary's Home for Orphans, a tiny building crunched between two other tiny buildings on a tiny street in the vast jungle of New York City. Life had been difficult for her, all alone these years, though time had done nothing to harden the girl. Instead, it made her feel weaker, tired, and afraid. There must be more to life than loneliness and pain, right? Poor Hallie did not know the answer. No one had loved her before. No one had taken the time to have an interest. She was a small girl--insignificant, one might say--in the scope of the world around her, but in her own small world, there was no time to think about those things.

It was not belonging, but an escape from more pain that she was seeking. He was coming soon, with that heavy paddle. He would beat her again--she didn't know why.

She had always been different. Her hair was a snow white over paper white skin and bright red eyes--an albino. She had been told once she had an unfortunate face, one which only attracted trouble. For certain, the eerie color of her eyes and skin, her soft features, and the confused, hurt, yet wonder-filled gaze she always displayed on her face pushed others away from her.

*Click*

A door opened, and she heard boots clop into the room. A smell like alcohol always hung in the air here, but it was stronger when he came near. Hallie had always shied away from him. She didn't trust the man into whose hands she had her fellow orphans had been placed. Perhaps it was this distrust that provoked him against her--but maybe it was just that face.

There was another step, and another. Hallie shut her eyes and tried not to whimper. The last home had been no better than this one, and before that it was worse. Her heart leapt as she heard the smack of wood on one of the beds. She resisted the impulse to start--that would give away her position. Still, as she heard it, the bruises on her body flared with memory of her last beating again.

There was always abuse--physical, verbal, social, mental--she did not fit in. She didn't belong in this place. It was just a matter of time until the red bird came to carry her away again, leaving flames in its wake. Hallie didn't want to hurt anyone. She hated the sight of it--the burning, the screaming, the smell of charring flesh. She could be saved if she called, but it was salvation at a terrible price.

*Smack*

There was another cracking sound, far too close now. Heavy boots stopped walking right before her eyes. She could hear the other children outside playing. Laughing and shouting over the dead silence of the bedroom where she lay.

Someone save me... she prayed in her head. She felt her blood heating up. Is he coming? Is anyone coming? Hallie's blood red eyes widened as the bed she was under tipped back, revealing her like a frightened turtle deprived of its shell. The girl tried to curl up, and did so just in time to absorb the toe of the heavy boot before her in her bony legs.

"Don't scream!" A harsh voice whispered from overhead. There was another cracking sound of the paddle, but Hallie felt this one so hard that she could barely hear it.
Why her? What had she ever done? Hallie whimpered, trying to keep from screaming. The heat in her blood was rising, and the stars in her vision from another blow of the wooden paddle to her arms obscured thought and sight alike. Blood ran from her pale skin.

It's coming... She thought. She must have spoken it aloud too, because the beating stopped for a moment. She saw something like that magnificent creature in the faraway reaches of her vision. It was a majestic red creature, with a long slender body and vast, prismatic wings. Its tail seemed to curve down and twist into infinity--into the darkness of her mind deep below. It stared at her proudly, awaiting something. She needed only ask.

Save me... She whispered, Vid... op... nir...

The girl's eyes opened to a scream. The man before her had burst into flames--not the red burning of a natural fire, but white, liquid fire had taken on a life within him, and was struggling to get out from as many points as it possibly could. Eyes melted, teeth carbonized, and flesh turned to black ash in moments. The smell was repulsive, and the sight far more hideous.

The flames did nto stop there. They never did. They bounded across the floor, and licking up beds and walls and climbing to the ceiling like savage beasts devouring an unwary flock. It was only a few minutes before the whole place was ablaze. The buildings on either side would be licked up as well, stone or wood or metal meant nothing to this hellfire.

The flames circled around Hallie, as if to console her. She was not burned, she did not even feel the heat of the burning building. She did not need to fear collapse--these things were trying their best to help her, to move her from a place she had come to hate. But this was no solution. This flame--it would not save her in the end--the cycle would continue. This was just a temporary relief from her suffering, and it came at too high a price--every time.

Hallie cried. Her tears chasing away the flames bit by bit. The other children had fled, and the fire department was too busy to rush down to that end of town. The strange white fire died of its own accord, leaving Hallie alone once again, in the ashes of her former life. Her throat was sore from sobbing, her body weak from bruises, and her mind tired of this wretched, wretched life--always surrounded by loneliness, then pain, then destruction, over and over again.

A foot stepped quietly over the ash. It was a woman in a wide sun-hat, wearing black despite the time of year. Her dress was of an odd fashion, and a black veil covered her face. All Hallie could see, looking up from the ground, was the woman's red lips, set in a quiet, wistful smile. She stretched out a black gloved hand to the girl, and spoke in a kind yet imperious voice. "Well, well... such a mess. You must be Hallie?"

The girl looked at the woman in black, wide red eyes filled with wonder.

"I'm here to take you away from this. You needn't suffer any longer, my dear."

"Who... are... you?" Hallie spoke slowly--another trait which had estranged her from her peers.

"My name," the woman answered, as she took Hallie's hand and lifted her from the ashes, "is Rozalina."

* * *

1950, Suceava County, Romania...

"Lady Garidion," Malgrave's voice hissed as a knock rang upon the door to Cosette's room. "We have guests."

"Hm?" Cosette sat alone at her desk, writing in an old leather-bound notebook. She found that keeping a journal put her thoughts in order, and she had been beleaguered by far too many thoughts in the recent days. A phonograph at the far end of the room played some soothing classical music, and her pipe smoldered with Ritherwhyte in a pipe-rest upon the desk.

She took a glance over at her left hand. It was wrapped in a heavy silken glove, which was fastened to her wrist with some lace bands and silver buckles, as thick as they could be without being obtrusive. It was a glove she had found in her mother's old room. The existence of such a thing confirmed her suspicions that her mother Rozalina had indeed suffered the same affliction as herself.

Beneath that glove was her left hand, transformed into some unnatural mess of dark, blotchy flesh, claws, and pulsing veins. Certainly, it was still a functional hand, and perfectly under her control, but the sight of it made Cosette sick, and the smell was worse.

She didn't want to deal with Malgrave's request right now. She didn't want to think about anything. Maybe if a few more words made it to the paper, Cosette could bleed a few more thoughts out of her overburdened mind.

"Milady, Narshe is anxious." Malgrave whispered, "she wants to know if she can eat them now, or if you want an interview first." This got Cosette's attention, and she quickly stood and whirled around to the door.

The heiress quickly tied back her silvery blond hair in its customary black ribbon, and fluffed the skirts of her dress a bit as she pushed open the door to her room and hurried out, stopping and turning back to grab her pipe. Malgrave followed her down the hallway and into the balcony of the foyer, his heavy musketeer boots clopping out the pace of their approach.

"Ah, miss Garidion. Thank you for gracing us with your presence." A man in a long brown coat with an official-looking badge pinned to the breast stood in the foyer, waiting with Narshe and five other men in uniform, apparently from the local police force.

"That's Lady Garidion." Cosette corrected, as she carefully walked down the steps.

"I'm sorry, the People's Republic doesn't recognize old titles any longer." The man corrected her. "I'm Inspector Petri, from Bucharest." He proffered a hand. Cosette looked at it like it was something disgusting.

She turned her head instead to the large mural of the world painted upon the far wall of the foyer. It had been updated now and then as the world got bigger, over the past few centuries. It had not, however, been updated with the fact that her Romania had become a 'People's Republic'. That was indication enough to Cosette that she owed no respect to the man before her. No real government would dare to even pretend at legitimacy before holding a country three centuries.

"What brings you to my villa, Inspector?" Cosette stood in the center of the foyer, with Narshe and Malgrave behind her, while Petri stood opposite with his regiment of five, each armed with automatic guns and standing at ready attention. Malgrave's hand fingered the rapier at his side almost instinctively.

"I've been authorized to investigate disappearances in Suceava County. Talk of the town has led me here." The Inspector stood confidently, arms folded behind his back. He had about him the semi-professional air of someone who knows they've already reached the right conclusion, but wants to make sure things look official for the report afterwards.

"The government authorizes you to trespass on my property as you wish?" Cosette asked. "In the old days, trespassers could be dealt with as the master of the house dispensed."

"As you may or may not have been informed, the Republic owns all land now. It's we who grant you permission to live here--quite contrary to the feudal tyranny we endured in the past." The inspector paced, "but I can see you live a fairly backwards existence so far out here. It is little surprise that you don't know."

Cosette gave him a look that could kill small animals, and he shivered a bit meeting her icy gaze.

"About the disappearances, then." The inspector pulled out a notepad, "each year, we've had at least two or three missing persons case from the surrounding towns. This has been going on almost since records began to be kept. It's really surprising that it hasn't been investigated until now, don't you think?"

"Astonishing." Cosette said plainly. Narshe was pointing at the men in uniform and whispering something to Malgrave. The heiress clearly heard the word "tasty" in the conversation.
"Certainly people go missing from everywhere in the world--nothing unusual about that. But as far as the talk goes, it all leads here." The inspector waved a hand to denote the grand old villa. "I certainly don't believe in the talk of witches and vampires and demons I've heard--but I find that these things often bely hard facts."

To counter Cosette's silence, Inspector Petri continued, "now, we would appreciate compliance as we search your villa for any evidence of wrongdoing."

"And if I refuse?"

"Well, refusal isn't too valid an option, you see." The inspector inclined his neck to indicate the armed soldiers behind him.

"Inspector Petri, do you believe in mysteries?" Cosette asked, taking a breath from her pipe.

"Solving mysteries is my job, young woman. Quite difficult if I didn't." The man gave her a critical look.

"Not like that... I mean real mysteries--the kind that can't be explained or understood." Cosette asked carefully, "do you think that there might be questions that don't have answers in the world?" Her eyes seemed to glow a threatening gold. "Questions that are better left alone? For everyone's sake?"

"Supposing I did?" The inspector looked around the old manor, filled with rich tapestries and artworks. A gleam of gold was in his eye. "Do you have some evidence I could carry back--to convince me that this is such a case?"

"What are you asking for?" Cosette completely missed the nuance of his request. All the better--it would have insulted her beyond even these formalities of kindness. "I was simply saying that you might be better off leaving well enough alone. The 'people's government' isn't in charge out here." She put her hands on her hips and stared back up t him, trying to convey with her eyes what her voice wasn't able to force through the man's skull.

"Is that some sort of threat, Miss Garidion?" The inspector put a hand to his chin with a disappointed look. "In that case, we have work to do. Gentlemen." He motioned to the men behind him.

Nothing happened.

The inspector turned to his men to find them all asleep in a pile on the floor. The slightly blue glow in Narshe's eyes died down as she stared at them. "I reserve the fat one, Hulbrenth."

"I have seniority--you know first pick belongs to me. It's fine anyway, since the one there on the left is obviously far more flavored. You can almost smell the trace Roma blood. What a delicate blend!" Malgrave stepped forward, a hungry glint in his otherwise calm gray eyes.

"What's the meaning of this?" Inspector Petri reached for his pistol, but a quick flick from the side of Malgrave's rapier left his wrist too smarting to move.

"Well, you've only got yourself to blame." Malgrave hissed. "The rumors, the disappearances, and even Lady Garidion's far-too-kind hints that you should get out. I think you deserve what's coming, really." The vampire leaned in and licked his cheek, causing one man to jump back in surprise the other in disgust. "Bleh, I can't stand the taste of officials."

"He has other uses to me if you don't want him..." Narshe gave a sinister smile. "I'll just freeze the others up. Go ahead and take ours from the pile."

"Is that what you do then? Freeze them?" The Inspector still gripped his wrist. "Miss Garidion, what is this?"

Cosette suddenly remembered that she had left the phonograph running in her study, she turned and walked back to remedy that. She never realized how intricate the designs on the wallpaper were until now, and made an occupation of studying it as she walked.

"We prefer to eat them fresh, in all honesty." Narshe shrugged. "Freezing is pretty rare."

"Eat them?!" The inspector was horrified. He dropped his wrist and went for his pistol again, but another *whap* from Malgrave's rapier set him straight.

"Well, yeah... that's what revenants do." She replied, in a way that said 'What are they teaching kids in grade school these days?'

"Now now, try to relax, inspector." Malgrave rasped. "Ressst isss good for the blood." His eyes glowed a colder, brighter gray. In response, the inspector's own eyes glazed over and slipped shut. He dropped limply into a pile beside his men.

* * *

In Cosette's study, the girl was distressed. They were coming--the new Romania had caught up to them at last. The results wouldn't be pretty if they waited it out, either. What to do? Cosette thought. The answer was obvious, of course. She would move the villa. It was simple as that--a few hour ritual and they'd be off. At least magic solved some problems easily enough.

The problem was where. It was a question of priority, really. A world map was spread out before the young empress, and she scanned it up and down. The real point was organizing thoughts, and she had her journal spread before her, along with several old papers. I need to learn more about this. She looked at her gloved left hand unhappily. So who to ask?

Cosette fingered the Key of Solomon resting upon her breast, glowing a slight green glow from the stone inlaid at its center. Knale was, as always, out of the question. It takes alot of resolve not to ask the person with all the answers--Cosette took a moment to admire her resolve. She saw through Knale's kind smile. Demon's didn't fool her. Besides, the person she really wanted to talk to was...

Mother. Cosette's mouth moved without sound as the idea dawned on her. A search for her mother was the perfect idea. Or it would have been, provided she had the slightest idea where to start looking.

People should be the easiest thing to find with scrying. Usually they are. Usually a hair, a scrap of cloth, even a strong memory are all that's necessary to locate someone across the vast globe. Cosette however possessed an entire mansion of her mothers things, but nothing pointed to where she had gone. Rozalina had taken her old diaries with her--it was almost as if she did not want to be found. Any spell to locate the woman was blocked out, almost actively, by some obscuring force.

Where would I have gone? Cosette had always compared herself to her mother. Perhaps if she were to put herself in the woman's shoes, she could find what she was looking for... Cosette tried to recount the events leading to Rozalina's disappearance.

Her mother and Narshe had joined the efforts of the Second World War. uUsing her magic to turn weather and plague upon the German aggressors in the Western front, Rozalina had been a key force in Allied victory, though her influence would of course be lost in the pages of history. That was certainly her intent. It was once the war in Europe had ended that she sent Narshe back home alone, and headed off--off to somewhere else. Where would I go? The girl pondered.

"Suppose," a voice behind her knocked her from her reverie. "suppose time flows like an impromptu theater, where, as each act closes, a cast of new actors flock to the stage in order to participate in the next scene, picking up the story where the past group left off." Knale's silky voice spoke quietly through the room. Cosette merely listened.

"You were a member of this cast, and then, you realized that your act had ended--your chance to influence the outcome of that play was gone. What would you do?" The Overlord paused for effect, folding her hands as she sat in an armchair in Cosette's study--incidentally the one Cosette had 'found' in England. "Perhaps you would go and find the other actors, before they came onstage, and coach them on how you want the play to turn out. That would be my course of action, at least."

"And how would you know the way to the dressing room?" Cosette asked at last, grudgingly.

"There are ways... I'll leave that part to you, my pet." Knale gave a slight chuckle. "Quite a fine acquisition, this chair of yours."

"Are you a connoisseur?" Cosette asked.

"Oh, most definitely." Knale nodded gravely. "I have quite a collection of my own. Modern, historic, even a few of my own design. I'm actually the proud owner of Gilgamesh's throne, to brag a bit."

"I'm impressed." The girl couldn't really help herself. It wasn't often that she talked to someone else with a similar fascination to hers. Their discussion clipped on from upholsteries to cushions to designs. It was a relaxing conversation, really.

"You know, the thing about a chair is history really." Knale went on. "The thing itself is nothing compared to the life it's lived."

"Quite so." Cosette nodded. "Take this," she tapped the arms of her own chair, "it's been in my family for centuries, made specifically for the Dark Emperor himself."

"I was there." Knale countered. "It's actually modeled after one commissioned by Nero Caesar."

"You don't say."

"Oh yes." Knale tapped her head, like she had forgotten something. She took up the chain of her large watch and looked at it with an expression of marked disappointment. "Oh, the time. It never stops." Shaking her head, the demon smiled a prize-winning smile to Cosette. "Well, I really must go. But you should try sitting here to do your thinking. You'll find alot of great men and women have, if you do a little research."

With a whip of her cloak, Knale had stood and vanished, leaving behind only the dust illuminated in the air by the late-afternoon sunlight. Cosette was alone once more, and now with a little relief from her furious thinking. All at once, those thoughts were rushing back. Suppose Knale was right... mother went to find more people like me, and Archeme, and Tania... people who are... she couldn't come up with an appropriate word... chosen? The course of action is simple then. I just have to find these people, and they'll lead me to her.

That's where the problem comes in. Cosette sighed. There's no real way to know. I can't just poll the minds of 'gods' or 'monoliths' or whatever they are... she stood and paced a bit, then sat back down in the chair Knale had used, and stared off into space. The clock wanted this chair too. Cosette remembered back to the short excursion in England when she had acquired it. Archeme had been there looking for the thing.

No she hadn't, she was looking for some machine. But it wasn't a machine... Cosette's eyes widened. She realized that she was staring at the relic, already. It sat right in front of her on the opposite shelf of the room. Knale had been looking at disinterestedly throughout their entire conversation, as a matter of fact.

Damn! Cosette cursed to herself. She was being played again, doing exactly what the demon was telling her. Knale was even being bold, mocking her. It didn't need to be subtle--Cosette would follow it either way.

She picked up the object which looked like some sort of heavy kaleidoscope, but made entirely out of solid glass. It was inlaid with a number of crystals, of all different colors. Cosette didn't feel any kind of magic from the thing. It was also clearly not a machine, or Archeme's supernatural senses would have detected it instantly as well.

She looked the device inward and outward, up and down. She cast spells on it, hexed it, even tossed it down at one point--surprised afterward that it had not broken. What was the secret of this thing? She remembered going through similar exercises when she first acquired it, all to no avail. The answer must be in these crystals. The colors were arranged in a way such that each one had some sort of order. At least, Cosette felt a sort of order to it. In no way could her mind or eyes filter it out.

The crystals... Narshe knows all about crystals! She's been studying them as long as I can remember at least. Cosette took up the trinket and dashed down stairs and into the foyer. "Narshe!!!" She yelled, summoning the vampire from her reclusion in the downstairs study.

A few moments later, Narshe's form emerged from her laboratory, looking up at Cosette in anticipation. "How may I ssserve you, missstressss?" She cooed, wiping a little bit of blood from the corner of her mouth.

"I have something for you to look at." Cosette brandished the odd glass cylinder as she climbed down the stairs to meet her servant.

"Oooh, interesting..." Narshe studied it with care. "What do you suspect it is?"

"A compass? A map? Some sort of device to locate things."The little empress explained.

"Ah, well then, you're lucky to have me around, aren't you?" Narshe smiled the happy smile of someone whose talents are finally being put to real use. "You see, crystals are really amazing things. They aren't really devices in the traditional sense, they're more like tools for manipulating light. Do you know that information is all around us?"

"Well of course. That's how divination works, right?" Cosette looked at the device. "I just need to know how to get the information out of this thing."

"No no, crystals don't hold any real data." Narshe shook her head, "all the data is in the Aether, the medium that light travels through in space. You see, a crystal doesn't hold information, but a properly cut one can, under proper conditions, pull information out of the Aether and translate it into something useful to us. Like divination, the information is always current. I'm actually working on cutting a crystal history book that writes itself at the mom--"

"--so what do we do to activate it?" Cosette caught Narshe before she could ramble on any longer.

"Well," The vampire cleared her throat. "You just have to shine the right kind of light through it."

"The right kind?"

"Wavelength, frequency, intensity... you may even need a combination of several." Narshe mused.

"And you have to test them all out?" Cosette's eyes widened. "That could take hours!"

"No, years. Centuries even." Narshe smiled. "This is why you're lucky to have a specialist." She pressed a proud thumb into her full breast. "Lesser arcanists would start plugging away at the combinations, but I've developed a spell just for the cause. I call it 'Stardust Prison'."

"Wow... that's..." Cosette looked skeptically at Narshe, trying not to snicker at her servant's naming skills. "...fitting." Something like 'Stardust Prison' just fit Narshe too well.

"Well, we can try it right here. Let me get some meteor dust." Narshe pulled a coffee table into the center of the foyer, and hurried back to her laboratory, returning with a silken pouch full of what sounded like steel fillings. "Just set it there." She instructed. "Stand back, and you may want to cover your eyes."

The arcanist reached into her pouch of meteor dust and began to chant softly. Then, in a grand motion, she took a handful of the stuff and cast it into the air. The pieces of dust seemed to fall slowly through the air, then stop. There was a slight pulse first. Then, each piece exploded as a firecracker of color and sound and light and energy. It was like seeing and hearing a hundred high powered fireworks go off, right in front of your face. Radiance blasted in from every possible angle, at each possible intensity and color, assaulting the crystal. In only three seconds the show stopped. It was another three minutes before Cosette could see or hear again.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Hylie shouted, dazzled from the display. She must have been anxious to find something broken, because a look of disappointment was plastered heavily on her features. "I THOUGHT THE VILLA WAS FALLING DOWN!"

"NO, IT WAS NARSHE'S BLASTED SPELL!" Cosette shouted. Her ears were still ringing so loudly she could barely hear even Hylie's bellowing voice.

Narshe sighed and hung her head. "It looks like natural lights don't have any effect."

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Cosette shouted at her.

"I SAID: IT LOOKS LIKE NATURAL LIGHTS HAVE NO EFFECT!" Narshe shouted back.

"Oh." Cosette put a hand to her temple. Things were finally coming back down to earth after that... display.

"I WANT TO LEARN THAT SPELL!" Hylie looked over to Narshe expectantly.

"You don't have to shout, we can hear you now." Cosette said.

"I LIKE SHOUTING. IT'S MORE ATTUNED TO MY NATURE." Hylie shouted.

"I order you to desist that!" Cosette yelled imperiously. Hylie silenced herself with a sour look.

"If natural lights don't work, then what?" Cosette tapped a foot impatiently. She crossed her arms and set her features with the look of someone deeply disappointed in modern science.

"Well, there are other spectra, but they're just as vast, and not as easy to create." Narshe murmured thoughtfully.

"It's like lights in hell. They're totally different than here. We have a different kind of sun." Hylie explained.

Narshe continued "It's really all in the nature of the information. You have to have light from an aether which would contain that information. Obviously what this crystal filters is information from some other world."

Cosette thought to herself. She wanted information that the monoliths knew... so she needed the light from a monolith. She remembered the faint glow of Nateel's strange device, or the feeling in Archeme's clock room that time and space were somehow different. Even the light that nurtured the World Tree in its hidden, underground world would probably work. Of course, none of those things were close at hand. What she needed was the a monolith that responded to her.

"Get me the Iron Throne." Cosette pointed at Hylie.

"What!?" Narshe's eyes went wide. "You can't... I mean, it would be unwise to just move something like that, mistress."

Hylie was off without protest, walking down to the depths of the villa to bring back the chair which had awakened Carmine within her--the throne of iron upon which the Most Dark Emperor himself had ruled. It was covered in red runes, and glowed with a kind of anti-light--a darkness so tangible that natural lights shied away from it. The throne was placed in the center of the foyer, with Cosette instructing Hylie to take special care of the flooring.

With an expectant gleam of triumph, Cosette set the crystal cylinder upon the throne and stepped back.

Nothing happened.

"Why isn't it working now?" She stomped a foot in frustration.

"Well," Narshe looked up thoughtfully. "Some really, really complex crystals require multiple aethers. If we tried every combination of lights in all aethers..."

Cosette sighed. "That's impossible. We have to think!"

"Well, who made this thing. That should give some clues." Narshe inspected it again.

"I don't know, for certain... I think it might have been my mother."

"Ah... it was Rozalina's interest that got me into crystal research. She was a theorist if there ever was one." Narshe sighed, thinking back of lost days. "And do we assume it worked for her?" Her eyes were lighting up a little.

"I can only imagine."

"Then the, so to speak, 'keys' to this crystal--for certainly it was built for security" Narshe looked at it up and down once again, "would be things which produced the necessary aethers, and which only Rozalina had access to herself. She wouldn't risk just any relic being able to unlock the secret."

"Right, so the throne." Cosette pointed. "What else?"

Narshe looked about thoughtfully.

"Heh..." Hylie laughed. "I finally get my one chance to call you both fools." She pointed to Cosette. "It's right there on your neck, Knale's Key."

"It's Solomon's Key." She looked down at the pendant.

"Well, that wasn't until she gave it to Solomon, was it?" Hylie crowed back.

"I suppose it's worth a try." Cosette took the relic off from her neck. It had another crystal in its center, which glowed a simple green, but did not emit any substantial light.

"She's right." Narshe looked down at it. "This is another crystal... so if we filter the light from the throne through here, then into the crystal... I think it might work!"

"Let's do it." The heiress was all excitement as she sat the disk upon the seat of the throne, then set the glass cylinder atop it and stepped back.

Nothing happened at first. Just when hopes began to fall, however, a faint glow churned upwards from the throne, and the dark luminance about it seemed to grow greater, channeling into the cylinder. Light pulsed inside it, once then again, at last emerging from each crystal on the side on the cylinder as a separate beam. These black beams deflected themselves around and onto the mural of a world map painted there in the foyer.

"We're lucky a map was here, or it may not have worked after all that." Narshe laughed, but her comment was lost on Cosette who was already looking at the map. It did not surprise her to see that one line had missed the map completely--it was trained on her left breast, above where her heart would be. What intrigued Cosette the most was the three lines that had coalesced into one, and pointed definitively towards North America, the small state of New York.

"So what is it?" Hylie asked.

"It's the way." Cosette said, half to herself. She turned around. "Prepare the spells to move the villa, Narshe. This time tomorrow, we'll be in America!"