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The city of Babylon towered over them, its thousand-odd blue streetlights blazing bright. Higher still, the great barrier curved from mountainside to city wall, casting a blue tint to the night sky and the blizzard that raged beyond it. Inside the dome, the snow fell gently, coating the wonder's ancient stones and twisting trees in a fine layer of white.

Babylon unlooped his arm from Titan's. "So," he said, with very little ceremony, "This is Babylon."

He certainly hoped that it lived up to the captain's expectations of what he ruled over. And if not... well, there wasn't much he could do about that. Babylon looked down at the alethiometer, but its dial remained dark. He skimmed a finger over his lantern, gathering light, and touched it to the dial - but again, no dice. It glowed for a moment and went dark. "Just as I thought," he said, trying to sound like this was all part of the plan. Truthfully, he had no idea how to get it working again the way it had in his initial tests - but he had a hunch.

"We need to go to the source," he said - and there was the problem, wasn't it? Friend or not, Titan was still a Negaverser. But at least Titan had a code of honor. He was good for his word.

"I'm going to take you to the heart of my wonder," said Babylon. "And I need you to promise that you won't touch anything while we're down there unless I give you permission. It's... delicate."

He'd seen what chaos messing with the heart of Avalon's wonder had done, and he didn't want to repeat that here.

Babylon nodded. He'd thought the city looked like it was sleeping, too, once - but it had been when all of the lights were out and it was waiting for him to return as its rightful heir. Now... the city was empty. Perhaps Titan was right: a dream within a dream. "No," he said, "I'd rather you come with me."

He'd cleared the city of any old ghosts. There was no one here to be angered that he'd brought Chaos to the city - and so, perhaps it was a selfish impulse that made him want to keep Titan by his side. He wanted to show him the parts of the city he was most proud of, its deep, ancient parts seeped in incredible magic.

The walk to the crypt took them deep under the mountain, down a rocky passage lit with blue lamps that ignited at the pair's approach. After... how long? Fifty meters? Seventy-five? The hallway opened up to a vast cavern, the perimeter lined with statues of knights past, their lanterns held aloft in one final vigil. "This is where my ancestors are buried," said Babylon. "Except for the last one. There was... there was no one to bury him or build statue for him. I'll do it someday."

At the center of the room, the floor sloped down into a deep well, from which emerged a column of blue light. "That's the heart of my wonder," said Babylon. "I'd prefer you wait back here. If you get too close, the results might be, um, explosive?"

"Alright," nodded Babylon, tossing a salute Titan's way. He set his lantern down on the floor and approached the well, the alethiometer raised in front of him. Its dial spun wildly, reacting to the magic of his wonder, before coming to stick at Mercury as he began his descent. The floor dropped off quickly, and Babylon stepped into the empty space in front of him.

He'd done this a few times now, so he had a general grasp of how it worked - go into the well, do your thing, float back out. Babylon's feet brushed against the smooth stone at the bottom of the well, and he held a hand out, reaching through the light. It gathered on his fingers like a fine coating of pollen. "I need you to power this," Babylon whispered to his wonder. "Like you power the lantern and the never-go-out lights. The mechanism is all here, it just needs your spark."

He ran his fingers over the dial. It glowed brighter. He heard a sound like a bell ringing in his ears, and improbable as it seemed, Babylon was sure of his wonder's answer.

He closed the case of the alethiometer and kicked off from the ground. The magic caught him and carried him upwards, back to the edge of the well.

Babylon turned towards the waiting Captain. "Are you ready?" he asked. "This is your last chance to back out of knowing."

Babylon nodded to Titan, and opened the alethiometer again. The dial still glowed with his wonder's light - a sign of good things to come, he hoped, and adjusted the outer ring to point to Titan.

The compass spun, ticking back and forth as quick as the eye could track, spinning in wide arcs and then - tighter, tighter, tighter still -

And stuck, firmly and squarely, on Earth.

Babylon looked up at Titan and stepped forward, the alethiometer held out to him like some sort of offering, so that the captain could see. "It's as we thought," he said. "You'd be a knight of Earth."

Metallia usurped the throne, thought Babylon. She's sat on it with no challengers because she set the universe off-balance and Order is only now beginning to catch back up, and we're at such a disadvantage- He cut the thought off at its knees. Pleas to Titan about the nature of Order and Chaos had never done him much good, and even in these hallowed halls, he was sure that jumping straight into an argument about good and evil and their subjective versus objective natures would break whatever spell had fallen over them.

So, instead and thinking of how Avalon had suddenly appeared to human eyes after its magic was interrupted, he said, "Our Wonders are shielded from sight. Like - like the entrances to Faerie, if you've ever read any stories about that? Or, y'know, how Hogwarts looks like a crumbling old castle to Muggles." It was a shot in the dark, but maybe one of the references would hit home.

"I mean," he continued, "if there's all this stuff here on Mercury and all that stuff on Mars and a ******** castle on the moon, don't you think that some space probe would have picked it up by now? People would never, ever shut up. It's visible to me because I'm a knight, and it's visible to you because you're with me. We're behind the walls of Faerie right now, to uh, continue the metaphor."

In retrospect, that was probably where the stories about Faerie had come from.

"There is magic at Nærøyfjord," he said certainly, closing the alethiometer up and tucking it inside his jacket. "You wouldn't be able to see it if you went as you are now - it waits for the day that its knight returns to claim it."

Perhaps he'd been too harsh, thought Babylon - he'd only been trying to be clear, but he saw the way Titan flinched. Open mouth, insert foot. "Hey, I couldn't let a friend down," he said genially, trying to make up for his misstep. "Besides, once Camelot told me there wasn't any way he knew of, I took it as a challenge." And he'd overcome it. A giddy little wave ran down Babylon's spine.

What kind of boon would he ask from a Negaverse captain in his debt? Babylon wracked his brain and came up empty. "You don't owe me anything," he said. "But I appreciate your offer all the same." Hvergelmir had sworn an oath to Avalon, he remembered, not to harm Negaversers - could he ask the same of Titan but in reverse? Perhaps it would be worth it to try. "If you want to help me," he said, "You could do your best to not fight with knights, except in self-defense? I mean, I'm not saying you do a lot of fighting with them to begin with, I don't know-"

Again, open mouth, insert foot. At least he still had another question to move onto. "Yeah," said Babylon. "This'll help a hell of a lot. People... are always more willing to listen when you have something to offer them, even if it's just a weird glowing compass with arcane symbols on it."

He offered his arm to the captain. "How about we head back? Unless you want to go back up to the surface and look around."

Babylon opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it again. Assuring Titan that he did not pose a threat to the city, only to its heart, seemed like a wasted effort. He had already made up his mind, and it seemed foolish to try to convince him otherwise. "Perhaps another time," he said, putting a hand over the Captain's.

He murmured the oath to return them to earth under his breath, suddenly self-conscious of it. What would Titan think of those words, if he heard them clearly? I pledge my life and loyalty to Babylon, and to Mercury...

The familiar shapes of Times Center rematerialized around them, and Babylon loosened his hold on Titan's arm. "Thank you for your service tonight," he said, offering him a chivalrous nod. "You are, quite literally, an inspiration."

A light in the dark - high praise, coming from one such as him, thought Babylon, his face pressed to Titan's chest. As the embrace eased, he raised a hand and scratched his head sheepishly - Babylon wasn't sure of how quickly he'd jump to calling himself a good friend. He was always up and leaving when people needed him (at least he'd remembered to take Avalon with him this time when he left the city).

"You're doing fine, big guy," he said affectionately, tossing the captain a casual salute. "Good night, I'll see you around, and if anyone else gets curious about the alethiometer, send them to me... unless you think they have ill intent. Then don't."

He had a feeling that life was probably about to get interesting either way.