Milla felt Hold’s version of her heart beat tremendously, jolting her back into consciousness. She opened her eyes to the familiar white void, and just as she did when she last came to this place, recalled all that had happened before the end. She had survived perhaps another half a second once the explosives went off, only moments ago.

  She heard Wendell murmur, “My God…” and once she turned around to see him staring at the castle in the distance, he looked back and, quite bewildered, added, “Milla… I… I never expected to see a physical structure of any kind in this place, much less an entire castle…”

  Shin asked, “Didn’t you believe me when I told you of this place?”

  “I wanted to, but…”

  “Where’s Gretchen?” Milla asked once she noticed that Xavier was already at her side and simply trying to breath steadily.

  She looked to her left and found her, on the ground and buried in her knees, rocking back and forth gently. Her reaction wasn’t a surprise, but the people surrounding her were. Two men and two women, all of them not much older than Milla, were watching over Gretchen, while looking a little confused themselves. Their clothes were the standard Holdian gowns, but there was something about their self-perceived hairstyles and very demeanors that somehow seemed… dated.

  “Who…?” Milla murmured, and then had a good guess as to the other visitors’ origins. “Were you four… in our sun lamps?”

  “Aye,” one of the men replied and looked around at the void. “And now here we be in Hold. But I don’t understand…”

  “Tis’ odd that all four of us should arrive at the same instant,” the younger of the women finished his thought. “Could you explain, miss?”

  Milla struggled to find the right words, so Shin stepped up with arms crossed and asked them, “You four underwent the sunlamp transfer process together, I take it? Where at?”

  The older of the men answered, “The sunlamp factory in City G. We were promised a tier promotion for a century and one half of service.”

  “Hm… And what year would that have been?”

  “The year was 1915. Have we fulfilled our time?”

  “About fifty years too soon, I’m afraid. But I’m sure that it’ll still count for something.”

  “What… what part of Hold is this?” the older woman asked.

  “That’s… a little tough to explain,” Shin said, eyeing Gretchen. “The sunlamps that you four inhabited were suddenly destroyed… on Earth. Upon losing your life, or… any physical vessel there as an Aurrian, you’ll arrive in a different area of Hold.”

  “And not disappear forever, apparently,” Xavier added.

  Shin continued, “Unless you want to stay in that castle in the distance for a long while, you’ll all be sent back to your most recent birth Cities and… well, come back just as you are now. I’m sure there will be some future shock for you. And right now, Aurra is… You’ll find out.”

  “So, that’s it…” Gretchen said and got back to her feet, though her legs were still wobbly. She looked to have been particularly ‘cleansed’ by Hold, after living so long in a shack in the wilderness. “What you said about this place was true… I… I was a little scared when I arrived here, alone… Though Wendell did join me just seconds later.”

  “You looked pretty traumatized just now. You sure you’re okay?”

  She covered one of her eyes with a hand and muttered, “It was more from that… that eye that kid used on me. It felt like my soul was torn straight out of my body…”

  Xavier noticed something and walked away some as Milla replied, “I’m sorry that we couldn’t fully warn you about him, but we were worried you might not want to help us if you knew too much beforehand.”

  “But what kind of person, even an apostle, could do that…? Who are you people? I thought you were just independent military, maybe specialists of some kind, but now that I think about it…”

  Wendell said with a sigh, “We have a few things to discuss.”

  “Everyone, come over here, look at this…” Xavier said solemnly.

  The others went to him, followed by those who inhabited and had given power to their sunlamps. Xavier was at the edge of a tall drop-off, pressing against an invisible barrier. They looked down and saw what he did: the crowds of the people waiting in Hold. The side coming from Earth was as big as usual in modern times, but in the distance, the separated line from Aurra’s exit was enormous, and divided among large groups.

  Milla exclaimed quietly, “I’ve never seen so many…”

  “Neither have I,” one of the sunlamp residents replied. “Both worlds must have grown considerably since I was last awake.”

  “Milla…” Gretchen spoke up. “What has happened to Aurra?”

  Pristil and Cadius entered the palace’s war room, located deep in its west wing. It had long ago served as a place where members of the security council would meet, but had been shuttered for centuries after all of those meetings were moved to the senate building instead. It had no windows and was never wired for electricity, so tonight, it was lit by the flickering light of several burning torches that gave it the airs of a medieval chamber.

  The long table and most of its chairs were empty, with only two of the division commanders seated at the end, near the small wooden throne reserved for their superior. Terront was waiting patiently and quietly as he learned on his cane, and Savienth, a woman in her sixties with a penchant for wearing hooded coats and a shawl, was trying to read the latest combat reports in the dim, warm light. They turned to Pristil once she entered.

  “No need to stand,” she told them, and instead of taking her place at the end of the table, pulled out the chair next to Terront and all but dropped right into it, with Cadius keeping on his feet behind her. “Where’s Commander Fordein? He knew this was important.”

  “He was off to the clinic,” Terront answered. “Complaining about his pain medication yet again, I believe.”

  “Ma’am?” Savienth asked, her voice and tone just as gritty and direct as ever. Pristil noticed that she had taken out her pouch of cigarettes and nodded, giving her permission to partake in her form of stress management. “Personally, I still wouldn’t trust the man…”

  Savienth held the cigarette in her teeth, took out a match, and swiped it against the metal that made up her right hand—her entire arm up to her shoulder having been replaced by mechanized prosthetics years ago.

  Once the curmudgeonly commander had exhaled a puff, Pristil replied, “Normally I would place him aside during an investigation from the council, but we really do need him for our counterattack. I’ve no choice.”

  Fordein himself entered the room, partly scarred and burned by fire, and now relying on a mechanized left leg after his original had been crushed by debris. Escorting him—and keeping their eyes on him—were Charles and Kae. For the most part, the room was filled with people that Pristil trusted beyond the other pretorians and the majority of politicians, though Fordein had never and would now never be in that circle.

  “Commander,” Savienth greeted him. “You’re looking worse for wear. Too bad about the leg, but welcome to the club.”

  “Not now, Savienth…” Fordein groaned and took a seat several chairs away from the others. “I’m too medicated for your pithiness.”

  “Yet still capable of leading this assault, I hope,” Pristil said.

  “Y-yes, my queen… Of course.”

  “Good. As I’ve already told you three, this will be a joint operation and perhaps our one chance to regain a foothold in Onasia. But it is also a delicate campaign that needs to be handled with care. You are heading out to take a City, not burn one down. Fordein, are your forces in position?”

  “Ah…” He had to take a moment to compose himself. “Y-yes. And despite the severe losses we sustained in our higher ranks, we have more than enough officers to remain combat ready.”

  “Regardless of how we perform, you’re still going to have your day in committee to explain whatever kind of atrocity happened down there,” Savienth promised, nearly crushing her cigarette between her right hand’s metal fingers. “And, Pristil, I must be honest here. I don’t believe I can trust Fordein or work with him until he tells us something. You can’t just transport a tower from one City to another without some black magic.”

  Pristil raised her hand to keep Fordein from responding with hostility and replied, “I understand, of course. And he was about to share with us what he already told me in private.”

  Fordein calmed himself and assured them, “Yes. Y-yes… I was. The tower… was a prototype for a scaled demirriage engine. As you know, Nish Formel re-engineered the technology and had been supplying it to us.”

  “Mm, yes…” Terront grumbled. “In return for our help in establishing his cloning project. Sick and demented are not strong enough words, Fordein. Lontonkon never should have…”

  “Easy, Wade,” Savienth told her old friend. “Your blood pressure.”

  Fordein replied, “I know how all of you feel about what he did. And then to burn down his own lab, and kill all of his… ‘children’…”

  “We couldn’t save them…” Kae lamented.

  Pristil angrily murmured, “I only wished to give them a home, somewhere hidden away, but that man, and my uncle’s vile legacy…”

  Fordein stopped her before he could no longer assert himself, “Yes, yes—we all agree that what Nish did was unforgivable, but there is no need to waste the fruit of his other, unrelated project. To regain our ability to travel anywhere, via modernized demirriage vessel. It’s worth the effort to get it right and implement it, if we want any chance of winning this war.”

  “And… did you get it right?” Savienth asked him curtly.

  Fordein clenched his fists and kept himself from firing back. “It’s ready. We know the technology works. There was just a maintenance issue during our presentation to my division leaders. The engine ran away from us and overloaded. A disastrous accident, but… we’ll learn from it.”

  “I hope you do,” Pristil cautioned him. “And, Commander, should you at any point during this coming battle make me doubt your loyalty or competence, you’ll spend the rest of your life in Z. Now… let’s begin.”

  Following an intense four hours of finalizing the grand strategy to keep Onasia from falling to the Angels, Pristil dismissed the commanders, Kae, and Cadius—but kept in the chamber Mr. Renek a moment longer.

  “We shouldn’t trust him,” Charles said to the queen. “After having lost so many officers in what we can’t prove was an accident, I’m worried that Fordein is poised to run rampant. How will you control him?”

  “It’s an impossible situation,” Pristil admitted. “But properly dealing with him will have to wait. We need his naval power if our next move is to have any chance at success. I’ve already told Terront and Savienth to keep a close eye on him, and should he display any egregious behavior, they’ve been given permission to restrain him, or…”

  “My queen, is there something else you’re keeping from us?”

  After a breath, she answered, “Keep this from the others. Again, I find myself divulging some sensitive information only to you, my friend. Not all of the officers perished by fire or debris. Several uniforms were found outside of the ruin, with tears possibly caused by gunshot.”

  “Implying that there were other survivors, that Fordein…” Charles rubbed his forehead and fell back in his chair. “I’m still trying to understand this world, my queen. It now feels like I had precious little time to study it, before your uncle went mad with power and war fell upon us.”

  “I wish you had seen Aurra during one of its many golden ages.”

  “A selfish wish, I’m sorry to say. Perhaps wish for peace instead. I can envision Aurra’s past better days via my encyclopedic knowledge of its history books alone. I suppose my imagination may even glamorize it more than reality. Still… remnants and stories of those times persist.”

  Pristil smiled and asked him, “You don’t still see yourself as an aberration, do you? There have been newsoul pretorians, appointed by rulers who sought fresh perspective. Please don’t be concerned about precedent.”

  “Only two others, but, no—I try not to dwell on it. I do worry about my family, however, safe as they may be here in A.”

  “Still just the three girls, am I right?”

  “With a fourth on the way… A boy this time. ‘Fight for peace’ always sounds like an oxymoron, but I know that in a war, you are never truly safe if all you do is defend yourself. We must take back Onasia, or risk seeing even A hit by conflict. I’ll see the assault through to the best of my ability, with my loyalty to you before the Guard. Should Fordein show any sign of an ulterior, destructive motive, I’ll kill him myself.”

  “Are you willing to bear the consequence for doing so?”

  “For you, Pristil, yes. I could never fully repay your kindness.”

  “… If only everyone else could see what you do in me.”

  “They will, one day. You aren’t your uncle, and you never will be.”

  “And here we are,” Shin said as she stopped in front of the open gate to Hold’s only, and small, castle. She then motioned to one of the guards, effectively little more than a greeter. “Those four were in sunlamps. The rest of us need to meet with Escellé. Please take care of them.”

  “Of course, Ms. Xin,” the guard replied and walked down the stairs to meet the most confused of the lot. “And welcome back.”

  “Yeah, yeah…”

  Once the sunlampers were escorted inside, Shin huffed and rubbed at her neck. “So, look, Gretchen… Before we head in, we do need to give you a summary of what’s going on in Aurra. There’s a war.”

  “A… a war?” she replied with clear skepticism.

  Milla added, “It began when Lontonkon was still…”

  “Wait, has something happened to King Lontonkon?”

  “Yes… He died, while trying to seek power… This may not make much sense, but he oversaw the creation of a bioweapon, a nova elemental of sorts, and it corrupted him and… in the end, killed him.”

  “Son of a…I mean, I never liked him, but… A-and the war?”

  “It’s been going on for seven years,” Wendell said. “It’s between the Guard and a global, now organized rebel faction called the Angels.”

  Gretchen breathed out and looked towards the void above as she processed the facts, before replying, “Honestly, this is all way above me, though I suppose I would’ve been recruited as a grunt and sent to die somewhere had I been trapped in Aurra… How was it cut off, anyway?”

  Shin answered for her friends—though they would have said just about the same thing. “We aren’t sure. But, Gretchen, you’re going to be presented with a choice when you go inside, and you’re going to see many Guardsmen in the castle that still refuse to swear off their loyalty, some of which hold a grudge against us. So, there’s no point in hiding this…”

  “Why would they hold a…”

  “We’re Angels. We’ve all served them since the war began.”

  “I’m afraid we’re your enemy,” Milla emphasized.

  Gretchen looked at the others several times and then crossed her arms. “I don’t know what to think or say about any of this. I’ve been out of the loop for too long. Maybe… we should just meet this queen first.”

  “Yes,” Shin said. “All we ask is an open mind. Come on.”

  Milla hesitating a moment longer before following Shin, she joined the others and stepped onto the shining blue tile that covered the floor of the castle interior. She was mostly surprised just by the fact that there were dozens of Holdians simply sitting or standing around, some chatting lightly, with few of them looking particularly happy about being there.

  With about as much to do as the people once trapped in the Fragmented City, the Guardsmen from the Sahara battle that still chose to defy a simple change in loyalty were sprawled about, mostly resting against pillars and the castle walls. Several turned to watch the latest visitors arrive, and Milla wondered if any of them would recognize her or Shin.

  “Ignore them,” Shin quietly advised everyone.

  “How did this place get built?” Gretchen wondered.

  “We can transfer in material,” Shin answered. “Though… I’m not sure how myself. It’s a closely guarded secret only a few are privy to.”

  They headed up the steps leading to the throne room, where the waiting guards opened the ornate wooden doors for them. Beyond was a short hallway of hanging artwork, some of them quite famous. Something on exhibit caught Milla’s eye, and she had to stop and look at a painting.

  “Shin…” Milla said, stopping the others as she studied the art. “Is this… Etsid Var Pelitte’s Midnight Butterfly?”

  “Oh? You know that piece?” Xavier replied. “And here I thought I was the only one among us who appreciated art from either world.”

  The work, an oil painting with vibrant colors—some of which were only possible from synthesized Aurrian materials—was considered one of the renown artist’s masterpieces, and a lost one at that. It depicted a pale but beautiful woman in vibrant dress, in contrast to the stormy ocean waves beyond the dreary cliff behind her. She was reaching up to lightly touch the monstrous, cold blue butterfly that had flown down to her, and the tip of her index finger was turning into ice. She seemed to be embracing her fate.

  “It’s an old memory, but…” Milla collected her thoughts and recalled for a moment. “I remember when this was presented in the palace by the artist herself, to me. It was displayed for a year before it returned to her home City—K, I believe—but it was lost, or… stolen en route.”

  “It is quite lovely,” Wendell said after stepping up to admire the work as well. “But how the hell did it end up here of all places?”

  “Don’t know,” Shin replied. “Escellé has quite a collection, and I’ve looked at all these paintings, but this one arrived before I started serving her. Is there something I should know about it?”

  Milla thought for another moment and explained, “This piece was an allegory for a ‘witch’ that had been terrorizing East Onasia, mostly K, on and off for decades. She was said to be beautiful, by the few that saw her and lived… I just… never thought I’d see it again, that’s all. Memories.”

  “I see. Well. Let’s not keep her waiting.”

  Milla kept her eyes on the painting a few more seconds before catching up to the others, who were waiting at the final set of doors as two guards opened them, revealing the dreamlike throne room past them.

  Instead of the queen herself, Milla’s eyes first went to the large stain glass window behind her, depicting the Aurrian sun permanently illuminated by the white universe beyond it. The room had more artwork, along with running fountains and several younger Aurrians dressed in the best clothing the small kingdom had to offer. Upon seeing Shin enter, most of them lazily looked over from the resting places, where they must have been doing nothing else other than day-dreaming or recalling past lives.

  The tall, silver-haired, imposing figure on the throne ended a conversation with one of her subjects to exclaim, “Shinamayu. You’re back so soon… And you’ve brought…” Escellé’s eyes locked right into Milla’s. “Oh. Oh, goodness… I-is that…”

  She stood from her throne and walked right up to Milla before they could get out any proper introductions. Without coming close enough to violate Milla’s personal space, Escellé studied her eyes and face.

  “Mother…” Milla said in a quite emotionless tone of voice.

  “So… you already know. Only your father himself would have told you, so I assume you’ve met him, as well. My, my…” she said wistfully and tried to keep back a reflexive yawn brought on by the lax, dreamy nature of the place. “Shinamayu here didn’t mention such… specifics on her last visit.”

  “There was more than enough to talk about concerning the war,” Shin replied. “I thought personal matters could wait for my next arrival.”

  “And here you are again, unexpectedly…”

  “There was a sudden mission, and complications.”

  After giving Milla a chance to speak but seeing that she still needed time, Xavier timidly introduced himself, “H-hello, Queen… I don’t know if I’ve been mentioned here yet, but I’ve worked under Rivia for some time.”

  “Nice to meet you. He’s been kept busy, I’m sure. Milla, so much has changed since your brother first came here to receive a message from the general. The way I’ve heard the war described… It’s far worse than I could have expected. I still hesitate to lend a hand, but, soon, perhaps…”

  “Mother,” Milla spoke up. “I must ask you something, in private.”

  “Very well. We can do that. You… look so much like your father. First, my manners. Who are you two?” she asked Wendell and Gretchen.

  “Wendell Celin, ah, your majesty,” he replied, reaching to take his hat off before he realized that it was no longer there. “An old friend of Rivia’s. I’ve been fighting alongside your son for some time now.”

  “Gretchen Heartzfel, I’m… new to all this. And I guess there’s no point in hiding it. I… am a Guardsman. So, I suppose you’ll keep me here.”

  “That isn’t necessarily true,” Escellé told her. “Let’s see what kind of Guardsman you are first. Now, please, there will be time to rest and speak upon lighter subjects, but I must know what brought you all here.”

  Led by Shin, who, as usual, didn’t mince words and summarized events the best of all of them, Escellé was brought up to date on the missile silo incident. Everyone in the room knew that it would have to be a story handled carefully and with the utmost confidentiality, to avoid a panic. And if Milla knew anything about her mother, it was that she was a keeper of secrets. She would be one of the very few outside of the burrow that would be aware of the events, at least likely for the near future.

  “Troubling indeed…” Escellé said after the retelling. “Stories and rumors of this William Drides have only just begun filtering into this place, following the lock on transworld travel that Shin was the first to describe to me. I had worried about what happened when my agents stopped reporting, but to think it’s gotten so very much worse than I ever thought…”

  “But what might he try to do with such a weapon?” Xavier asked her. “Do you think, if he wanted to, he could destroy a sun with it?”

  As Escellé pondered, Milla added, “Drides may be our number one enemy by this point, but we know he’s always gone on about how he sees value in life, for what that’s worth… Maybe just hollow words, but still, he never struck me as someone out to commit murder on such a scale.”

  “Consider the delivery of such a weapon,” Escellé suggested. “If he wanted to destroy a sunsphere, placing a bomb at the base of a totem might put enough distance between the detonation and the sphere to keep it intact. If anything, I believe he wouldn’t risk deploying his only weapon on uncertain success. If he were to use alchemagi to send it up to a sun, he would have to sacrifice his own life in detonating it, and he may also be unsure of his ability to reconstruct his body in… such a life-destroying explosion, to say nothing of the total loss of protection in the area.”

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  “I’m impressed,” Milla said. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d know that much about atomic weapons, or reach these conclusions so quickly.”

  “Milla, Milla… My dear daughter. All we do in this place is think.” Escellé smiled. “We’ve all become quite adept at it.”

  Xavier concluded the speculation session, “If anyone tried to deliver the bomb via anything slower than airship, we should be able to shoot it down first. Our greatest threat is probably a fast-moving chariot… that is, if the explosive could fit inside one.”

  “Then we should instruct our Cities to increase anti-air protection around their totems,” Wendell advised. “At least that’s something.”

  Gretchen growled. “I still can’t believe the new leader of the pretorians is a maniac who would go to such lengths to… what? What’s his goal? Nuking a City wouldn’t end the war. It would just turn everyone against the Guard. What happened to the previous head? I heard he was level-headed. What was his name again…? Klowsk? Something like that?”

  “He was… replaced by Drides,” Milla said, keeping any emotions at bay. “But how do you know of him? He was never publicly revealed.”

  “My father was one of his subordinates, so I heard a few stories. But… he disappeared about nine years ago.”

  “They must’ve killed Jeryn’s aides,” Shin whispered to Milla.

  Escellé stood from her throne and told them, “Unless there is anything else of vast importance that has happened since Shinamayu’s previous visit, please, take a moment to rest and gather your thoughts. You should not head back to Aurra too quickly after arriving here. Milla, come.”

  “Are you really her mother?” Gretchen wondered.

  “Yes. But I haven’t seen her since she was a baby.”

  “I’d like to explain everything,” Milla added. “But we need a chance to get to know each other better.”

  “The royal children here will take good care of you,” Escellé assured the others. “Physically, we can do nothing for you, as you do not have actual bodies here. But, mentally… We’ve mastered restorative meditation. Allow them to work their magic.”

  “Royal children?” Milla asked as the others were led away.

  “I ‘adopt’ particularly unique, talented individuals, especially when they have no one else in Aurra. Some have been here for centuries.”

  “My queen…” Shin said from behind them. “I know that Milla deserves your attention, but I must accompany you for a moment as well.”

  “It’s fine,” Milla said to her mother. “I think I know what she wants to bring up with you.”

  “Very well. Join us, Shinamayu.”

  She nodded and followed them up a narrow spiral staircase within a stone tower, to Escellé’s chambers. Her bedroom was small and modest, with a bed, vanity, bookshelf, and only a few odd objects amongst them.

  “I don’t spend much time up here,” Escellé explained once she had closed and locked her door. “In fact, I only really use this room as a place to think privately, usually before a big decision.”

  Seeing that Shin was still working up to it, Milla asked Escellé, “What exactly do your other… children and agents like Shin do?”

  “Oh, mostly gather information and report back. Every now and then, we would put a stop to some manner of devious plot from the Guard, but it’s rarely been anything too big, the kind of story you’d hear about.”

  “We’ve operated in the shadows for a long time,” Shin added. “But never had we done anything as bold as helping a rebel general, or aiding the burrow. Which I didn’t know anything about myself until we first went there. Escellé, I meant to ask my last visit-—what’s your relation to it?”

  “Eden’s Burrow? I’d only heard about it. You got inside for me.”

  “But you had no idea that Leovyn was in charge of the place?”

  “I only had… some feeling that he already had his share of secrets by the time the twins were born and he returned to Aurra without me.”

  Milla replied, “He never tells me about his brief time as a pretorian, but I know he was already an officer in the burrow while in their ranks. I’ve always wondered why he chose to become a full-time burrower instead of remaining with the pretorians, where he could learn so many secrets.”

  “Isn’t it obvious? He chose a life underground to protect you both. The pretorians would have found out about you had he stayed—they would certainly have learned eventually that he was with me on that night, defended me, and helped me… take out so many Guardsmen trying to end my life.”

  “I suppose I just wanted to hear that from you. Speaking of that night and what happened… I wanted to ask you about it.”

  Shin caught the glance Milla had given her, and knew that her time in the room was up. After a deep breath, she passed on the news.

  “My queen. I’m sorry to tell you that Verim… Prince Verim Grenwich gave his life, stopping a plot against the Administration.”

  Escellé only stared at the two of them, processed what she had been told, and then turned towards her room’s one window, which gave her a view of nothing but an endless white abyss. She then bowed her head, sighed with trembling breath, and placed her hand against the glass.

  “I’ve…” She stopped and waited until she could keep her voice steady. “I had a bad feeling recently that something terrible happened. My sweet Verim… Ah. And he must still be here. I’ve seen how long the lines have gotten, from this war… But I can’t even speak with him. Nothing can go past the border that separates us. We may as well be worlds apart.”

  “He was with one of our friends when it happened. She says that he had no regrets at the end. We are… all very proud of him.”

  “The Administration, you say…” Escellé murmured.

  “I’ll take my leave,” Shin said. “Milla, tell her everything you need to. You may never get a second chance.”

  Shin promptly left the room, but Escellé still needed a few more pensive moments. Eventually, she composed herself and turned to Milla, who could tell that she had been crying. It was also the first time she had really studied the queen’s face—and it was remarkable how much they did indeed look alike, apart from the long, flowing, silver hair.

  “Milla. Milla, my dear child. I never got to see you two grow up. I had very much wanted to tell Garder when he was here, but I knew that it wasn’t yet the time. Now we’re together. We may even have a chance to make up for so much lost time…” She went to her vanity, picked up a small stone carving of a bear, and handed it to Milla. “Verim made this for me.”

  Examining it in her hands, Milla replied, “Mother, we…”

  “He was a lost soul when he first arrived, but genuinely kind, despite the bloodshed he had knowingly caused. I had never met anyone quite like him. When I learned of the gift we shared…”

  “I know everything about it. We met Nish.”

  “Y-yes… And survived him, clearly. Shin reported to us when she last arrived that you had gone after him. He must have spoken with you.”

  “He told us what he did to you. And after seeing one of the paintings you have in your hallway, it suddenly occurred to me. You are, or were, the Witch of the Tillethian Winds. You were a true terror.”

  Escellé swiftly turned to her, eyes wide open. “You must never speak of this to anyone else.”

  “So, you aren’t denying it. How do the others not know?”

  “Not even Shinamayu is aware.”

  “Then how has no one else put the dates together?”

  “You were Queen when I was wreaking havoc in an Aurra far less connected than it is now. You and the rest of A were aware of global events, but for most, stories of my actions didn’t make it far past East Onasia. Few here know the witch outside of old spread-about folk tales. I’ve also made them believe that I arrived here a century earlier than I did.”

  “Then what did you do to the people already here?”

  “This kingdom was empty when I arrived. That is the truth. I came here alone, for the first time, following some… event that cleared it of people. Perhaps they simply grew restless and vacated. They left a collection of books behind that detailed the castle’s history and how it functioned, and kept records. Which stopped several years before I stumbled upon this land. I’ve no idea what really happened to its former inhabitants.”

  “Dad always seemed hesitant when I asked for more details about that night the three of us ended up back in this castle. So, Mother, maybe I could ask you… Was the massacre worse than he described?”

  “… You have to understand, I was scared to death of losing you. The Guardsmen were relentless, they came at me with everything they had.”

  “Could I please just have a number? An estimate?”

  “Why does it matter, Milla? Their blood isn’t on your hands.”

  “I want to know what you’re truly capable of.”

  After a long exhale, Escellé gave in and replied, “Over a hundred, possibly. I am a paradigm—an unusually strong one.”

  “Because of what Nish did to you?”

  “My… spells were already quite potent.”

  “I’m not trying to place all the blame on you, but Nish told us… He said you ‘enjoyed the slaughter.’ Is that true?”

  “Why are you asking me these things?”

  “Because I want to know what kind of person my mother is.”

  “Was. I’m trying to put that part of my past behind me. There are so many other topics, my daughter. Why not ask about my past lives?”

  “I’m sorry. I want to. But I know my time is limited, and I have to cover the important questions before I return to N.”

  “You really have become quite the calculating officer, haven’t you?” Escellé’s steady demeanor was finally beginning to waver. “Why don’t you skip directly to what you really want to ask me?”

  “And what do you believe that to be?”

  “If I could come back with you and join in the war effort. You must have considered it often once your father told you about us.”

  Milla sighed and closed her eyes. “I have. And this was my first chance to finally ask. I thought I knew what I wanted. A powerful and wise paradigm, another super-weapon on the battlefield… But as an officer who came to understand the politics of war, I recently began to worry about escalation, and what bringing you in could mean for any peace process.”

  “You earn peace when you’ve beaten your enemy into submission.”

  “You sound like Garder. But I can’t let myself think that way.”

  “Then the Guard must have been easy on you over the centuries,” she said angrily. “You have no idea what they’ve taken from me, over so many lifetimes. Parents, siblings, my dignity. I despise the Guard. Not its individuals—I have little or no disdain for those still inside this castle—but I cannot empathize with them, either. They chose to serve a needlessly and purposefully cruel power. I did, what I did, because I was trying to give them a taste of the fear they bathed the rest of us in every day of every life. My goal was to make people think twice before becoming a Guardsman.”

  “And did it work?”

  “Milla… I hope you aren’t really this na?ve.”

  “My concerns are legitimate. We already have enough brazen fighters ready to kill every Guardsman they see. I’m worried what you might do in Verim’s name. Would you massacre a division for him?”

  Escellé glared at her. “You don’t get to decide—”

  “But I do. I’m one of the higher officers among the Angels. You might even have to answer to me should the witch return.”

  “And what if you suddenly find your side on the verge of defeat?”

  “Then maybe I’ll come back here begging for your help.”

  “You can’t keep me locked away. It’s my choice whether or not to make my return and continue what I began long ago.”

  “I won’t attempt to stop you, but we can’t associate if all you plan to do is cause chaos. We already had to bring Guardfall under control.”

  “This was not how I expected our first meeting to go…”

  “I’m sorry. It isn’t personal. I have to think of the others, the ways in which we’re trying to win, and what we aren’t willing to sacrifice.”

  “I… I see. You may be right. And I am emotional at the moment.”

  “It’s understandable. And… anyway, even if we were to bring you in, now may not be the best time. We’re currently planning our next moves and trying to solidify our standing in Onasia. Should we have a shot at a grand campaign into a new continent, we may still call upon you. In any case, I really should discuss this with the war council first.”

  Escellé seemed to calm down substantially, and asked calmly, “Was there anything else you wanted to know before you return to Aurra?”

  “Y-yes, actually…” Milla looked at the carved bear still in her hands, and gave it back. “I was wondering how you bring material here.”

  “Are you asking for some tactical reason?”

  “I’m just curious. It’s a strange idea, ‘bringing’ anything to Hold.”

  Escellé hesitated a moment but then answered, “Deep under City I, in the lowest levels of its old Administration facility, is a transference device mentioned in the records here. It operates similarly to the Aurrian storage discs, converting matter into energy of some sort. We aren’t certain how it connects to Hold, or where its wires eventually end up.”

  “Can you convert things back, return them to Aurra?”

  “If there’s a way, we’ve yet to discover it.”

  “Hm. Now that Old J replaced I, and is frozen over, after there was already a mess down below… you must not be able to access it.”

  “Perhaps not.”

  “It can’t be a coincidence that a machine that can send things to a different dimension was under a City that went to the Fragmented realm.”

  “We’ve long considered this, yes. But the Holdians that used the machine under I never found any records about its possible involvement in the incident, or its origin. Is that all, Milla?”

  “No. One more question. I know that Caeden… split his soul.”

  “Yes. To give life to you two so that you could go to Aurra.”

  “But… how?”

  Escellé closed her eyes and replied earnestly, “I don’t know.”

  “How could you not? How would he know how to do it? Could you at least tell me, physically, what he did?”

  “How do you think he did it?”

  “Garder told me you have two machines here that can send us back to Aurra. I always thought, maybe, he somehow used… both?”

  “Ah, so you believe it to be a purely physical event, something science could explain. Except that wouldn’t have been possible.”

  “Is there no way to, I don’t know, take up space in both devices?”

  “No. Trust me, Milla, I wish I could tell you. It’s been a great mystery to me as well, but if the part of him that’s within you hasn’t told you either, then we may never know. It may be difficult to accept, but however he did it, it did work. All we have is an inexplicable miracle.”

  “I don’t believe in those.”

  “That isn’t surprising. Regardless, whatever it was he did, he did it without any of us seeing. All we had was his assurance that he knew how to manage the feat. Something happened to you three between Aurra and Hold, in transit. He disappeared on the other side, and you both remained.”

  “… All right. I would like to stay and get to know you better, honestly, but given the situation of our arrival here, we really must go.”

  “Then I will show you to your way home. And hope that in the future, when peace returns, we can spend more time together.”

  “Milla,” Xavier greeted her once she stepped into the small lab-like room, which held the three capsule-shaped devices that could bring them out of Hold. “Did you finish your talk with your mother? Did she tell you how this works? I’m a little nervous about it myself…”

  Shin laughed. “He’s scared he’ll run out of time and become real on N’s main street with nothing on. But you have plenty of time.”

  “Yes, and Garder gave me the rundown long ago,” Milla replied. “Shin, where are we supposed to meet, though? I haven’t been home in years, and I’m sure my apartment was seized and given to someone else.”

  “Mine should be safe. Falsified owner name, locks, plenty of clothes—including a just-in-case pair for guys. I remember it being not too far from your place when your brother came through here.”

  “And what’s your plan, Wendell?” Milla asked him.

  Studying his cleaned-up beard in the glass lining reflection of one of the transfer devices, he answered, “I’ll get back to you down the road. I actually have some business to catch up on in F, anyway.”

  “What happened to Gretchen?”

  “Right here,” she said from the lab’s doorway, flanked by two escorts. The pair of technicians for the room slipped in past her, and she continued, “Apparently there’s a protocol here for Guardsmen, even if we swear to change loyalty… Some kind of two-week ‘cool off’ period.”

  “Are you planning to join our fight?”

  “I mean… I still have a lot to learn. Feels like I’ll need that time just to catch up on what all has happened. But… possibly. I was born in X and was trying to pull myself out of the mud, but if the Angels can give me a better chance, then… Who knows. Maybe I’ll see you again, maybe not.”

  “We could always use more good soldiers. The Angels are full of people who once served the Guard, some even in their present life. You’d have plenty of company.”

  “Never met anyone quite like you, Milla… And, really, thanks for bringing me here. Well, you didn’t, but… you know what I mean. Takes something off my shoulders knowing I’d never actually ‘disappear.’”

  They exchanged a few farewell waves, and the lab door was shut and locked tight for the transfer sequence. Milla exhaled some air that didn’t really exist, meditated, and listened to the machines powering up.

  “How’d your talk with the queen go?” Shin asked her.

  Milla opened her eyes and looked down at her. “Fine. Just… fine.”

  “Is she… you know…?”

  “Maybe, when the time is right.” She then realized something and added in a murmur, “Feels like both sides now have a nuke on standby.”

  “Outpost Coast Watch, report,” the rooftop’s radio operator said. “Repeat. Overlord requesting update from Coast Watch.”

  After a moment, the receiver buzzed and a reply came, “Skies still clear here, Overlord. Nothing off the northern coast.”

  Rivia, his eyes stuck in his binoculars, grumbled and told the others watching for movement, “I don’t know what the Guard is playing at, but we’re keeping at this until we know for certain.”

  Garder, Shiloh, and Bryant with his sniper rifle were also posted on the overwatch camp on top of D’s tallest tower. While most of its fa?ade had crumbled away from battle damage, it was still structurally sound, and its highest few floors were intact enough to hold docks for flying chariots, barracks for their pilots, and a command center. Looming above those on watch was a radio mast, able to reach Cities N, G, and E.

  It was the early morning, and Garder had been posted through the night. In between updates, he had spoken lightly with Rivia and shared some stories, but for the most part, kept to himself, his thoughts now constantly dwelling on Milla and the others.

  “We’re at plus eight hours now,” Shiloh said after checking his pocket watch. “How can there be nothing, not even on the coast yet?”

  The rooftop access door opened, and Yvell emerged, carrying a tray of coffees for everyone while looking exhausted herself. She passed them out, stopping at her uncle first, who had the largest of the cups.

  “Nym, you didn’t pull another all-night, did you?” Shiloh fretted.

  She nodded tiredly. “The hours just fly by when you don’t have a window in your office… Thought I’d come see what’s going before I…” She yawned. “Try to get some sleep…”

  “I’m afraid that if I tell you, you’ll stay up another twelve hours.”

  “Uncle, please. I’ve gone three days without sleep before.”

  Shiloh sighed. “Very well. At 23:00 last night, we got word from our remaining Angels hiding in E that the Guard was on the move. We assumed that they would come straight to D again, but…”

  “Hm. Does the general himself need to be here?”

  “He’s dedicated, I’ll give him that.”

  Garder, resting on a chair with his sword at his side, downed his lukewarm coffee in a few gulps, stood, and rejoined Rivia near the side.

  “I hope you haven’t given up on getting anything on Milla.”

  “I’m sorry, Garder.” He lowered his binoculars and turned to him. “It’s simply been too long. At this point, we have to assume…”

  “I don’t want to think about that happening to her, even while knowing perfectly well she’d just go and meet her mother. But if that did happen, then she’d probably at least be back in N by now.”

  “Yes…” Rivia took a second to think before looking across at the radio operator. “Postpone further contact with the outposts and get in touch with our people in N. We need to confirm some arrivals.”

  “Yes, sir,” the operator replied and began adjusting his dials.

  “N…” Yvell muttered. “There was something about N… Oh, yes, now I remember. The notice got lost in the noise. The supply train hasn’t shown up yet. It usually arrives at about four in the morning.”

  “Supply train?” Garder questioned.

  “Rations, mostly,” Bryant explained. “The few Angels we have in N send a small car of food to us nightly, during the early hours.”

  “But it’s not uncommon for it to be late,” another Angel officer added. “They use caution when they sneak it out, so there are delays.”

  “Mm…” Rivia muttered and concentrated for a tick. “Operator?”

  The young man on the radio shook his head. “No response, sir.”

  “What the hell’s going on out there…?” Rivia then spoke into his shoulder-mounted transponder, which connected to all of the operators and other officers working in the command center a few floors below. “This is Rivia. Pause all non-essential communication and try every channel we have in N. We need to get in touch with one of ours out there.”

  Following another sip of her coffee, Yvell leaned up against the roof access shelter and tiredly watched the sun rise, listening to the wind and the constant response requests of the nearby radio operator.

  “Say again. Nighthawk Post, this is Overlord. Give us your status, over. Nighthawk Post, come in…”

  Yvell shut her eyes, and her senses grew more attuned. She was the first to feel a subtle vibration against her back, from the concrete tower.

  She took in the sensation for a little longer, and identified it as the unmistakable and deep tremors emitted from an airship engine. She had certainly learned her share about their engineering from Menin—who had also taught her how to know when such a powerhouse piece of machinery was off-tempo or in distress. And the vibrations were growing stronger.

  “Nighthawk Post, this is Overlord. Please respond. Say again…”

  Yvell left her spot against the wall, and could now feel the tremors in the air itself. She steadily walked over to the edge of the building and looked into the dark clouds in the distance, ready to unleash a snowstorm.

  “Commander,” Rivia’s transponder buzzed. “We’re having trouble contacting N. None of the stations are responding.”

  “Tune into N’s public access radio,” Rivia ordered. “It still just barely comes through this far out, doesn’t it?”

  “We tried, sir. N may have gone completely dark.”

  “But, why would…”

  Shiloh then noticed his niece’s gaze. “Nym? What is it?”

  She only stared ahead, towards the dark clouds. The others then saw it as well: a burning orange glow that was quickly getting closer.

  Just seconds after all eyes had gone to the same direction, an airship emerged about ten miles away, flying over what was left of D. Its rear engines were on fire, its canopy was battle-scarred with blast marks and more fire damage, and its nose was pitching downward as it lost altitude.

  “They pushed its engines too hard,” was the first thing Yvell said.

  Rivia dove back into his binoculars to study the dying airship and replied, “It’s a big one, but it doesn’t look… Wait. It’s unarmed.”

  “Civilian?” Bryant exclaimed. “Why was it attacked?”

  “I knew I recognized it. That’s the Pearl Folly.”

  “That old floating casino and hotel that always drifted around N?” Garder replied. “W-wait… From N… You don’t think…?”

  “Command, alert the fire teams!” the operator nearly yelled into his headset. “Incoming airship from the west, about to crash land!”

  Feeling utterly helpless, those on the rooftop watched as the hulking recreation vessel finally lost any remaining lift, just as the engine fire began to spread to the rear ballonet. It banked sharply to the right, scraped against a ruined skyscraper, and then slammed down into an empty plaza where the entire upper half of the ship erupted into an inferno.

  Despite being miles away, the rooftop trembled for several seconds, after which Shiloh muttered, “Bloody hell…”

  “They were desperate to get out of N,” Rivia deduced, as fire crews raced to the crash site and several hollowed buildings around it ignited. “I am suddenly very concerned for the City.”

  “Home…” Garder mumbled to himself.

  “Why would they attack N?” Bryant asked. “It’s been as neutral as any City could be in this war.”

  Rivia turned to their radio operator. “Reach out to the other top brass and tell them to gather in the command center. I’m about to make a major announcement.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And, Garder…” Rivia spoke to him in a confident tone. “If the Guard has done anything to N, I will fight right alongside you.”

  Garder looked up and could only give him a small nod.

  Miles away on the street below, Izae’s breakfast came to a sudden and calamitous end when something nearby slammed into the City. Once the dust had settled, she fled from the underground train station that had become a temporary barracks for her and a hundred other Angels.

  She and her brothers in arms made it up to street level and found themselves staring down several City blocks that had turned into a hellscape of fire and smoke. The remains of a two-story gargantuan airship lay burning nearby, and fire control teams were rushing in to assist.

  Already suited up for the day, she reached into her side pack, pulled out her earpiece, slipped it on, and tried to reach her superiors. The fire trucks, which for Aurra were little more than water trucks with ladders and other equipment on the side, pulled up as close as they could to the inferno. The fighters leapt off, opened up the faucets to fill up the streets with water, and then began to use watairre alchemagi to redirect it into the flames in the form of flying, twisting streams. Other firefighters found the nearest hydrants and opened them up, adding more water to the supply.

  “Anyone?” Izae spoke into her earpiece. “Command! What’s happening? We need a response down here! Is this a Guard ship?”

  She watched the many other onlookers as she waited for a reply and the fire teams picked up their pace against the blaze. Once she began seeing people fleeing the airship—many badly injured or themselves on fire—she had to avert her eyes, despite being a hardened soldier.

  “Izae?” Poret’s voice broke through the static. “You there?”

  “Y-yeah. What’s going on? No one’s talking.”

  “I rang you directly. Command’s busy with something; no official news yet. But we saw the whole thing from up here on the Rosely. I’m hearing that it’s a recreation ship from N.”

  “These people are civies?”

  “Wait, are you down there? Don’t get too close.”

  “I might be able to help someone.”

  Once the fire teams had managed to bring the blaze under some control, the surrounding Angels who were adept in watairre alchemagi, including Izae, got in closer to help. Those that weren’t as skilled helped the survivors instead, guiding them to safety before a trauma center was properly set up nearby. Within twenty minutes of the crash, the fire had been reduced to a smolder and all survivors were accounted for.

  Unfortunately, among debris that included hotel room beds, slot machine parts, broken gambling tables, and countless chips, were hundreds of items of burned clothing, all that remained of those didn’t make it.

  Needing a moment to recover, Izae sat on the edge of a ruined fountain and drank from a tin mug, as she tried to clean soot off her face.

  “It looks like they were really overloaded,” a passing medic said to her colleague. “Three hundred or more… and only fifty made it.”

  “There’s still time for that number to go down,” the lower officer escorting her replied just before they entered the nearby triage tent.

  Izae noticed a man from the crash sitting on a curb, wrapped in a thermal blanket and seemingly forgotten by those running around. She got up and approached, curious about who he was—and what they had all fled.

  “Hey,” she said and offered him some of her water. “You must be one of the lucky ones, to have lived through that crash.”

  “Not lucky…” he murmured. “We were cowards… Stormed the ship and ran away, got civilians involved… Should’ve stayed and fought…”

  “Fought? Has the war really reached N? What happened?”

  “The Guard was taking control. I thought we were cooperating, but then…” He sunk his face into his knees. “Oh, God… I failed him. I was a senior aide, and I failed him…”

  “Who?”

  It didn’t seem like he heard her, and he fell into a fearful, regretful stupor. “I failed, and then our military attacked… It all went to hell…”

  “Izae!” her brother’s voice suddenly erupted into her ear. “Get up here, we’re all moving out!”

  She looked up to see Angel airships on the move, the Red Tenor coming up alongside the Blue Rosely as chariots and dropships gathered in the sky like locusts. Around her, infantry began to rush off as well.

  Izae walked away from the survivor and replied, “What do you mean, all of us? Are we really going to N?”

  “Everyone but a small provisional force. This could be a big one.”

  “Yeah. Great…”

  Izae gave the scarred N official a final glance, before leaving him and blending in with all the other dirty faces moving on from D—a once mighty City many were trying to hold despite its near total destruction.

  Milla was about halfway to becoming real and fully physical again when she made it to the elevator in Shin’s apartment tower—but didn’t have a chance to push the button before a family of four walked in and trapped her in the corner. They couldn’t see her, but nor could she reach the panel. They took it up to the thirtieth floor, two above Shin’s. To make things worse, two more people walked in to replace the family, effectively keeping her from managing the elevator herself a second time.

  Instead of risking getting even farther away, she slipped through the doors before they closed, and feeling her weight coming back, ran down the stairwell and made it to Shin’s door just in time. After knocking, she was greeted by the apartment’s owner—or at least, a translucent version of her, already wearing clothes that were floating in nearly thin air.

  Noticing the nearby bathroom, Milla hurried past Shin, grabbed a towel, and threw it on just seconds before she suddenly filled in and could see herself in the room’s mirror. She stopped and stared for a moment, and noticed that it was as if she had just de-aged several years. The turmoil of war, for her most of it emotional, was now gone from her face.

  “Milla?” Shin asked and knocked. “You okay?”

  After taking a deep breath, Milla emerged from the bathroom, with nothing but one of Shin’s black towels to cover herself.

  “I, ah… had a little trouble getting out of the hospital.”

  “Let me guess. You tried ‘sneaking around’ to get out instead of just making a run for it.”

  “I just couldn’t shake the feeling that people might actually see me.”

  “Anyway, clothes are in the wardrobe in my room.” Shin pointed towards a door on one side of her living space. “There should be a few things your size. Xavier’s already here, by the way.”

  “Really…” Milla sounded disappointed. “He beat me here…”

  She proceeded to the living room, where Xavier was looking at his reflection in the glass of the sweeping central window that offered a grand view of N’s towers, bathed in the late afternoon sun.

  “Milla?” he said and turned around. He then turned red in the face and looked back out at the City while tugging at his sleeves. “Sorry…”

  “Don’t worry about it. Um, nice suit.”

  “Y-yeah, it’s a little big and dated, but… I’m just glad to be alive.”

  Milla headed into Shin’s spacious and spartan bedroom, found an old standard N independent military uniform in a dark navy, and changed. It too was a bit oversized when she looked in the mirror, but all that she could really think about was how she suddenly looked almost just as she did when she first left home nearly eight years ago.

  After a few minutes, with everyone solid and clothed again, the three took a moment to relax on Shin’s black suede loveseats, where they admired the view of a City at peace and got back to making plans.

  “So, we should be able to just take a carriage to D through some back channel,” Xavier summarized. “A few of Rivia’s old travel contacts are probably still around. Milla… something on your mind?”

  She snapped out of her thoughts and replied, “I was thinking, Rivia sounded pretty adamant about not sending Garder with us as well. Maybe if we had both been in Hold at the same time, Caeden might’ve…” She stopped when a glass of water on the coffee table suddenly rattled.

  Shin finished her thought, “That he might’ve come out, been made whole again, left you behind? Is that what you’re getting at?”

  “Something like that.”

  Shin shrugged off the glass getting rattled a second time, picked it up, drank, and laid back. “Must be construction going on nearby. “Actually, there’s something I’m wondering about, too. She was hiding off in the shadows and watching us—you probably didn’t see her and I didn’t engage with her—but Irietté was definitely back in Hold.”

  “Irietté?” Xavier wondered.

  “A seldom-seen Holdian agent. One of our few who can operate in the capital. I hadn’t seen her in years. I wonder what… W-what…” Shin, facing the windows, suddenly went quiet as her eyes grew wide.

  “Shin?” Milla exclaimed and turned towards N. “What is…”

  She and Xavier watched as a tower about twenty blocks away collapsed into a cloud of dust. They all stood up and got closer to the window to investigate, in time to see a mobile hammer slam into another tower, bringing it down with a single blow.

  As they processed the sight, they also looked down to see a mass of people fleeing towards the east, running from some unseen malevolence. It then all progressed and became much worse by the second. The apartment lost power right as a heavily armed Guardian airship flew by the window, its engines so close that the glass seemed close to shattering. Escorting chariots blasted past it, and in the distance, a third tower fell.

  Overdue warning sirens then finally filled the air.

  Xavier, Shin, and Milla turned to each other in disbelief, having arrived just before the war had inexplicably reached N.

  “Grab some weapons from my personal armory,” Shin told them once she had managed to compose herself. “We’re leaving in one minute.”

  A large explosion went off nearby, shaking the building enough to send the three to their knees. From that point, the following forty-eight hours became little else than a nightmarish cloud of mayhem.