Chapter 8: She Who Dances

The south-eastern slopes of the Ashe River Plateau were coated in a wintery blanket which reached down almost all the way to the valley floor. High up in the mountains on a long ledge there stood sentinel the ancient hunting grounds of the kings of Taisia and the ancestral manor of the Varelion family. Taisia City, the historic capital, was located just to the south beyond the floodplains of the Tai River.

Ingrid had spent the early parts of her childhood in that house and while she remembered very little from that time she certainly remembered how the place looked. Though she had never seen it from the sky before.

The manor was built right up on the escarpments overlooking the valley. It was three stories tall and the upper floor featured a cacophony of turrets and gables and the ground floor was hidden from above by a veranda. It was shaped like a huge square with a courtyard in the center wherein there could be found a series of connected pools and fountains where Ingrid's father, Old King Varelion, would sit watching the children play in the water while he drank wine fruited with citrus.

The house was extremely large, as it needed to be in order to support hundreds of wives and as many cursed children. When the emperor arrived to occupy Taisia he liberated the denizens of that wretched hive and he sent the children to orphanages across the land. The house had been placed under a steward and it was kept in good condition until the emperor returned. And the emperor did return.

There was a long runway through the forest behind the manor and there were some hangars and the snow had been cleared away in the area. At least twenty fighter jets were parked just off the runway. Ingrid made an unremarkable landing and Glenice landed not long after. Reese approached the runway but then she pushed the engines to full power and she went around.

Imperial marines were waiting for them on the ground. Hulking men with black jackets and white trousers and rifles. Algot Gunn was riding behind Glenice and when he got down on the ground he went to talk to the other marines. Their discussion became rather animated as the marines gestured to the Fat Meg fighter jet on approach.

One of the marines approached Vaska. "We were only expecting two jets, not three."

"That is my new friend Reese. My father will want to meet her."

"Whoever she is, she needs to leave. The emperor summoned the Lady Ghost."

"My new friend is bonded to a High Daughter."

The marine regarded Vaska skeptically.

"Have you ever heard Vaska lie before?" Glenice asked.

"Oh," the marine said.

"Oh," Glenice added helpfully.

Reese landed and they went on. They were led not to the manor but through a long tree tunnel parallel to the runway. Eventually they arrived outside a modest wooden hunting lodge. The yard was buried under a blanket of snow and this added to the charm of the brilliant animal sculptures made entirely out of crystal clear ice. The wind was blowing above the snowclad trees and the air was filled with shining rainbow swirls of fine drifting snow.

A tall man with a graying brown beard waited for them outside the door. He was dressed like a hunter and he had a hunting rifle slung over one shoulder. A dog, which looked half wolf, stood silently at his side. The marines stood at attention and saluted the man.

"Ingrid," Vaska said. "Reese. This is my father, Adrian Maryy, the Emperor of Heyl and Northern Taisia."

"Vaska," the emperor said. "Please introduce your companions."

"Father, this is Ingrid the Lady Ghost. And my new friend is named Reese. She has a High Daughter and I thought you would like to meet her."

"It's a pleasure to meet both of you."

The emperor offered his hunting rifle to one of the marines and that marine took it and then he led the dog away.

"Please, come inside."

Inside the lodge it was warm and dim, lit by flickering gas lamps and furnished with wooden furniture. The walls were decorated with plaques, some featuring the heads of animals, and others featuring long hunting rifles. Servants in pure white uniforms roamed about with trays of delicacies or glasses of bubbly white wine.

They seated themselves in a conversation pit. The emperor sat directly opposite Ingrid and Vaska. Glenice and Algot Gunn sat on the right and Reese took a seat on the left by herself.

"Can I see her?" the emperor asked.

"Titania," Vaska said. "He wants to see Titania."

The light elemental appeared with a flash of golden light. The emperor ran his fingers through his beard and he regarded the elemental for a long time. Finally he nodded.

"Algot Gunn."

"Yes, sire," the marine said.

"You observed the airshow in the Domain of Metal?"

"Yes, sire."

"Did you notice any glowing? Any golden light coming from Ingrid's fighter jet?"

"No, sire."

"That's unfortunate. And this corroborates my intelligence reports. I was hoping that the banks would default on some of the contracts with metal elementals. But that didn't happen."

"You are trying to short-sell the contracts?" Vaska asked.

"What makes you say that?"

"All my life you've been obsessed with the stock market!"

"That was to make you believe that I would take Ingrid away from you," the emperor said. "It was necessary to manipulate the second-order consequences of Erika's curse."

"You tricked me!"

"Daughter, sometimes parents play jokes on their children and those jokes can take decades to mature."

Vaska growled.

"I don't understand what you are saying," Ingrid said.

"I wanted to take control of Titania for my family," the emperor said. "Or rather, I wanted the other great houses to not have control over Titania. I've been planning this for much of my life, ever since I met your father, the Old King Varelion."

Ingrid felt numb.

"So now that you control Titania," Reese said, "what do you plan to do?"

"I want to break the seals and free the Queen of Darkness."

"Excellent. That is what the other Elemental Queens want as well."

"Will you help me?"

"Yes. But I will need to borrow an airplane. Preferably one that can take off vertically. In the previous era we called them 'tilt rotors' but I have not seen these in the Air Navy."

"We have tilt rotors in the imperial marines," Glenice said. "We did not offer this technology to the Taisians."

"Then I need one," Reese said.

"You shall have one," the emperor promised.

"Father," Vaska said. "There is still so much you haven't told us. What happened to the Queen of Darkness? What did our family do? And why?"

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"Daughter. Have you ever come across the term 'Ashynvellemviarius' in your studies?"

"No."

"I know what that means," Reese said.

The emperor gestured for her to continue.

"It is a phrase from the language which was used in the village which existed before the founding of Heyl. Ashyn, a word which denotes a female dancer of high status who performs sacred dances, as opposed to a dancer who performs erotic dances or acrobatics for entertainment. Vellem, the ashes of burning corpses after a genocide. Viarius, the wind which blows from the west to the east in the twilight hours. So a direct translation would be, 'She who dances among the ashes of burning corpses after the genocide while the wind blows from the west at dusk.' In nearly every language in every culture she is named Dancer."

"That's the Queen of Darkness?" Vaska asked.

"Yes. Darkness is associated with the west. With the sunset. With genocide. And with dancing. This is because the Queen of Darkness would often be seen dancing after battles. The modern name Ashe is a corruption of that ancient phrase."

"Now to answer your questions about our family, Vaska, I must first tell you the story of a man named Adone Demetra."

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A cold wind raced across the snowclad wastes in the Domain of Fire, down through a saddle between two icy volcanoes to a vast forest which had been set ablaze by the antics of a playful fire elemental. Onward the wind continued, across the mirror-like surface of a lake which had been frozen since the dawn of existence or at least since last the Queen of Fire had designed the aesthetics of her Domain. Upon that wind there flew a fighter jet, and within the burning heart of that fighter jet there blazed yet another fire elemental, one who happily consumed the spiritual energy required for flight through her mortal bond with the ship's pilot.

Adone Demetra settled his brass-rimmed glass goggles across his eyes as he brought the runway into the center of his gunsight. Drifts of snow fluttered against the glass canopy like confetti, occasionally swirling in tiny galaxies against the purple-gray of the alien sky. Full flaps, throttle to idle, he could feel the disappointment of the fire elemental through his bond. He managed to shed all his excess airspeed before he crossed the runway threshold. It was his first time flying this particular model of fighter jet, but he set the wheels down gently, like one of those coddled Air Force pilots.

Just another set of wings, he thought.

The runway terminated in the maw of a winding chasm, the escarpments crowned with the domed architecture of the Twin Fates Monastery. Adone gently pressed the brakes and the fighter jet came to a halt beside a trio of monks. They all wore furs beneath half-black, half-white robes, and their gleaming oval masks shared these colors in reverse. The monk in the center raised his arms, and Adone felt the distinctive negative G-force that could only come from a bond with a heaven elemental. He released the canopy and levitated down to meet them.

"Welcome pilgrim," the monk in the center said. He sounded very young. "Your flight was forewarned by the phoenix elementals, whose eyes see into every corner of the Queen's Domain. The Twin Fates Monastery welcomes you."

"I would like to speak to the Witness of Second-Order Bonds," Adone said. "If this is not possible, then I must turn the ship around and fly home."

"He is preparing to host you in his quarters even as we speak," the monk said. "Follow us."

Adone followed the monk, while the other two remained to care for the fighter jet. He was happy to be wearing a fur-lined leather jacket, because the air in the Domain of Fire was far below freezing. He dared not summon his fire elemental again. Even if she could keep him warm, he was afraid that she would consume the last of his spiritual energy before he reached the Monastery.

Beyond the edge of the runway the snowdrifts banked up toward a narrow path hugging the obsidian cliffs, twisting in rapid switchbacks to the dizzying heights of the escarpment overhead. They ascended the steps in silence, and in the places where the switchbacks were aligned vertically the monk used his heaven elemental to carry the pair weightlessly across the distance. Together they reached the great stone doors of the Monastery in good time, before the chill had managed to penetrate Adone's bones.

The winding bowels of the Twin Fates Monastery were cut into the obsidian bedrock, but corrupted in places by an odd bone-white stone that must have been imported from another Domain. Masked monks shuffled about beneath the flickering orange light of the sconces which lined the halls. Up and up they went, until they came upon a round stairwell spiraling up to the domed roof of one of the surface towers. With skillful levitation, the monk carried Adone to the top.

Through an ornate wooden door, they came upon the private quarters of the Witness of Second-Order Bonds. The man wore a more elaborate regalia than the other monks. On one half the white cloth was encased in gold filigree, and on the other half the black cloth was encased in silver filigree. The withered old zombie of a man did not wear a mask, nor did he wear a hat to cover his bald, liver-spotted pate. He dismissed Adone's escort with a dismissive wave of one hand. Adone took a seat and the door was sealed.

"A Demetra," the Witness observed. "Have you come from the banks?"

Adone nodded. "I have been given the authority to represent the banks. We want to negotiate an agreement of sorts."

"Interesting. Please continue."

"It would help if I described our problem first," Adone began. "House Varelion has defaulted again, and it nearly took down our entire banking system. The problem is that the light elementals keep forgiving loans. These are big loans too, national debts and the like. In addition, light elementals are forgiving the contracts between the banks and individual bond providers. Our scheme, where we use a monopoly on elementals as a backing for currency, is simply incompatible with the concept of forgiveness."

"It seems like you need to come up with a new scheme," the Witness said. "Unless you think we can help you."

"I was hoping we could corrupt the Queen of Light somehow," Adone said. "We want to remove the concept of forgiveness from the world."

"Corrupt the Queen of Light?" the Witness asked incredulously. He chuckled. "I don't think there is a force in this universe that can corrupt the Queen of Light."

"The dark half of the divine power could corrupt her."

"The dark half is well-guarded by the Queen of Darkness."

"Then we seal her away."

The old man's eyes darted up to regard Adone. "You're serious," he said.

"This is the current agenda of the banking system in the physical realm," Adone said.

The Witness sighed. He stood, shuffled over to a bookshelf in the corner of his room, and plucked two tomes from the top shelf. He set them on the desk and urged Adone's consideration. They were both bound in leather, one white, and one black.

The white book was stamped with gold foil and the edges were gilded gold and sealed with beeswax. The spine was rounded and Adone was certain the book was centuries old. The black book was likewise stamped and gilded but with silver instead of gold.

"I would need to consult with the old methods," the Witness said. "Though I'm not sure if we should approach the problem using Titania or Erika. Most likely Titania, as Erika would not willingly participate in the binding of her own mother."

"So you will consider it?"

"It's an interesting challenge. Perhaps if we trained a child to genuinely believe that sealing the Queen of Darkness away was the best possible fortune, we could take advantage of Titania's luck to accomplish the task. I'm not sure it's even possible, but I think that it's the approach with the highest chance of success."

"Then I would ask your Monastery to get started right away."

"And what do we get out of this?" the Witness asked.

"What do you want?"

The old man grinned. "The same thing we have always wanted. Absolute dominance over the sects in the Domains of the other Elemental Queens."

Damn, Adone thought. House Rosalia was right. Aloud, he said, "That is not completely off the table. However, there are concerns that we are simply transferring the monopoly on elementals to you and your monks. This arrangement will not work for the banks if they are forced to re-negotiate with your descendants."

"Once the Queen of Light is corrupted," the Witness said, "we can establish an unforgivable contract, one that benefits both of us."

Relieved, Adone breathed out deeply. "We think that would be for the best. How soon can you get started? How long will it take?"

"There is a pregnant woman here in the monastery and we can expect the baby to come in three months. After that, it will be twenty years of indoctrination before Titania's bond is passed to the child. It may take several attempts, perhaps a century or two."

"We can live with that."

"If nothing else," the Witness mused, "those bankers are patient folk."

"Is there anything else we need to do?"

"Yes. Once we have dominance over the other sects we will need to isolate them. My ancestors devised a scheme that involved trapping them on floating islands, at least in the Domains which support this concept. Not all of them do, for example the Domain of Water does not. In either case, we expect to be left alone. Forever."

"So you want a promise that the sects will be left alone?"

"No. I want you to eliminate the flying machine as a technology. Including fighter jets."

"We were not expecting this request. However, I am authorized to consider all contingencies and I don't see a problem with this. As much as I like flying, I will not betray the faith the banks placed in me. I accept this requirement."

"Good. We can use Erika to corrupt the dark half of the divine power with an aversion to flying machines. It shouldn't be too hard to do. Once the Queen of Light has been corrupted, she will enforce the prohibition. Maybe."

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"So what happened?" Vaska asked. "Why do we have fighter jets now?"

"I don't know," the emperor said. "Nobody does. Suddenly every nation simultaneously re-invented the airplane and the Queen of Light couldn't keep up. And we are not our ancestors. Once we saw the power afforded by these machines, there was no going back."

He turned to Reese.

"Do you know what happened?"

"I have my suspicions," she said. "Very vague impressions of what might be happening."

"Will you share them with us?"

"As you like. Please note that I cannot guarantee that this is true. When I use my High Daughter it can be very draining. In order to replenish my spiritual energy I need to dream. Those who are experienced, like myself, have found paths to leave our universe while they dream. They can cross the outer dark and pay a little visit to the Goddess of Wishes and her little simulation of a universe."

"That's what I do!" Vaska said.

"The Goddess of Wishes is interested in joining this universe but not while the Queen of Light is corrupted. Either way, she also seems to be interested in 'the dream of flight,' as we call it. I suspect that the sudden impulse to invent the airplane might have been her work."

"That's a good theory," the emperor said. "One that I will assume is correct for the time being."

He stood up and offered one hand to Ingrid.

"Will you help me free the Queen of Darkness and heal the Queen of Light?"

"I will help you," Ingrid said. They shook hands. "I will do anything I can."