Chapter 5: The Domain of the Queen of Life

It quickly became apparent that Ayaru had been testing the waters with the initial scouting party of fighter jets. In the exact same moment that the portal to the Domain of Wind had opened, three more portals had opened across Taisia. And without Ingrid there to close them, the other three portals became conduits for Ayaruan forces to launch their invasion of the north.

When Ingrid debriefed with the astonished captain of the airship he promoted her on the spot to the rank of Commander, which was the highest rank he could give her with himself being the rank of Captain, and he ordered her to continue her quest to close the portals at the behest of Titania. He placed Commander Ingrid, the Lady Ghost of Taisia, in command of a detachment of five additional fighter jets. With Vaska riding in the back seat they flew north in search of the next portal.

Within two hours they came upon another airship and they landed. The sky to the east was contested and the airship's captain was delighted for the unexpected reinforcements. He gave Vaska a cherry orb, one of the lesser lightning elementals used for communication, and he explained that it was configured to communicate with the ship's Eagle Eye.

A little later Ingrid asked, "What's an Eagle Eye?"

"It's an early warning aircraft. The crew possesses a rare ocular elemental."

"What's that?"

"For most elements, the Daughters are human-like, and the Greater Daughters are more like animals. For example there are fire elementals and phoenix elementals, the latter of which are considered Greater Daughters. However, this relationship is inverted for dark elementals. The Daughters tend to be more animal-like and the Greater Daughters tend to be more human."

"Why is it different?"

"The Queen of Darkness was just being contrary I guess. Either way, an ocular elemental, also known as a seducer, is a scantily-clad female with bat wings and goat horns. Also her eyes are magic."

"And this creature is useful to airplanes somehow?"

"She can see very far away and she can see through fog and other weather. She does this by looking into the Domain of the Queen of Darkness. She can very quickly assess an entire battlefield and sort the souls by their nation. Then she can quickly issue commands to the shadow hunters. Basically, the HE-2 Eagle Eye is a battlefield command center that allows large numbers of dark-three missiles to be sent out at the same time from far away."

Ingrid and Vaska rested a little while and then they went on as before. Not far away from the airship they came upon the HE-2 Eagle Eye. It was high-wing and strut-braced and larger than Ingrid had expected. It had a long flat tail and four vertical stabilizers with two rudders among these. The two jet engines were mounted on pylons, one on each wing, and like the little trainers these engines were connected to propellers. But the most curious feature was that of the observation deck, which was mounted on a mast above the fuselage about halfway between the nose and the tail, a thin disk with an edge composed entirely of pale blue glass windows.

The Eagle Eye was flying at about twenty thousand feet and from that vantage Ingrid could see the portal near Taisia City. An angry emerald ring on the edge of a window to another sky.

Among the ornate and fashionable boulevards of the oldest city in Taisia there were countless plumes of black smoke rising up into the clear sky. Orange pops and black smears marred the horizon as the airship's fighter jets engaged with unseen enemy aircraft.

"This is Eagle Six," a feminine voice said through the cherry orb. "Formation commander, state your call sign."

"This is Lady Ghost," Ingrid replied.

"Lady Ghost, we count twenty-four missiles on the wings of your formation. Twelve missiles are needed immediately. Standby."

Then Ingrid began to hear female voices in her head, speaking in some unknown language. One of the voices was rich and seductive, the others were the older voices of shadow hunters. From their tones Ingrid got the impression that there was some sort of debate.

"Lady Ghost, discharge number one and number four dark-three missiles from all six craft. No incoming missiles. Do not defend."

"Affirmative."

The six fighter jets were spread out in a loose line and when the twelve missiles lanced out through the sky they left streaks of smoke which collectively resembled piano wires stretched out across the verdant farmlands. From pure muscle memory Ingrid wanted to flip over and point the nose at the ground but she restrained herself.

"Eagle Six, this is Lady Ghost," Vaska said. "We need to go inside the portal so we can close it."

"You can close the portal?"

"We closed the portal to the Domain of Wind before. We will be able to close this one but we need to find a specific airplane inside. There is a high probability the craft will be equipped with technology we have encountered once before. It will take at least eleven dark-three missiles to destroy this airplane."

"Are you certain?"

"Yes. One pilot and ten decoys which can be discharged from the craft."

"That is extraordinary. Are you saying this fighter jet is large enough to carry ten disposable people on board?"

"I don't believe so. I believe they are using an unknown technique to keep human souls attached to smaller devices which can be launched overboard with chemical propellants."

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"Understood. We will go into the portal with you."

The flat plane of piano wires ended abruptly when the missiles ran out of fuel. After a while there were many explosions near the portal. Smokey black trails, curled like the legs of a dead spider, descended toward the farmlands outside the city.

"The airspace is clear. Proceed to the portal."

When they crossed the threshold the air beyond was smooth and the altimeter remained constant. Beyond the portal the sky was a very pale green color, almost white, and it was obscured by massive brambles. A single dark emerald moon dominated the horizon, and the moon was somehow closer than the brambles. Far below there was the ocean-like foliage canopy of an extremely dense jungle, undulations of dark green and black without visibility into the space beneath. Gigantic flowers, with stalks tens of thousands of feet tall, were spaced throughout the vast jungle.

The six fighter jets and the Eagle Eye were accompanied by four other fighter jets from the airspace above Taisia City. A Taisian Air Navy ship was visible on the horizon, locked in battle with an Ayaruan airship, and the sky around them was a galaxy-shaped cloud of explosions and tufts of black and white smoke.

"I see it," that seductive feminine voice said in Ingrid's mind. "The contract. I see it. They always leave golden paths in Mother's Domain. Promises which cannot be broken. There are three of them that always stay together."

"Those must be the contracts with the High Daughter!" Vaska said.

"Lead us," Ingrid said.

Two of the fighter jets from Taisia City each launched one dark-three missile and then they began defending. The Eagle Eye banked heaven-ward and Ingrid followed. They followed a long arc around the two airships as they fought, carefully avoiding the enemy fighter jets in that area.

"What is that?" Vaska asked excitedly.

"What?" Ingrid asked.

"Heaven-ward and behind us. There is something huge falling toward the ground!"

Ingrid craned her neck and she saw it. It resembled a massive crystal, ten thousand feet tall at least, made from dark jade and emerald and laced with silvery green filigree. It looked like it was falling slowly but in truth it must have been falling tremendously fast. Ingrid watched it crash into the jungle and then there was an unimaginable explosion of varicolored mist from the base. The shockwave sent the whole jungle reeling and the rainbow clouds poured into the fractures in the foliage.

"I've never seen anything like this before!" Vaska said. "This isn't mentioned in any of the religious texts! Ingrid, this is important. We need to investigate immediately."

"No!" Titania said. She appeared with a golden flash. "Get the contracts first. Once I am satisfied that the contracts are secure you may be permitted to deviate from a direct path out. But that's all. A small deviation and nothing more."

"That airship will need to fly out of here and that might take a long time."

"Very well. You will be permitted to wait until the airship has egressed."

They flew for a long time, and the battle between the two airships raged in the three rear-view mirrors over Ingrid's head. Finally the cherry orb activated again.

"Lady Ghost, this is Eagle Six. Three contacts directly ahead. The ocular elemental reports that one of the contacts contains eleven souls."

"That's our target," Vaska said.

"As soon as you are in range, fire half your missiles. Thirty seconds later I will instruct you to fire the other half. This may give the shadow hunters a chance to change targets if the main target dies early."

The ocular demon and the shadow hunters resumed their debate in Ingrid's mind. They came in range and fired the first volley and then thirty seconds later they fired the second. Luckily one of the first six missiles killed the target and then missiles from the second volley killed one of the two fighter jets which remained. The second fighter jet raced off and Ingrid sent two of her subordinates to give chase. Then she flew down toward the jungle to fetch the contract crystals.

The glowing emerald crystals fell out of the sky toward a marshy clearing in the jungle. Ingrid inverted and flew just over the treetops. Down in the water there was some type of animal. It looked like a reddish horse but it was as tall as the trees and it had very long legs and an overlong neck. It had horns and ears but it did not appear to have eyes. Vaska was instantly fascinated by the alien animal but Ingrid remained focused. Titania claimed the crystals and she summoned them right out of the marsh into the cabin. Then they left.

On the way out they followed Vaska's insistence and they go investigate the huge jade spike that had fallen in the jungle. By the time they arrived the jungle immediately around the spike had undergone a metamorphosis. Full flaps and low power they slowly banked around the thing. In place of green plants which might have been familiar in Ingrid's world there were now particolored flowers as big as buildings. Huge crimson bells dripping with blood-like nectar and vines thick as cities covered in ugly and leperous white suckers like the ones found on some sea creatures. A cacophony of alien plants and animals pouring out from the spike and colonizing the ravaged landscape.

"Fascinating!" Vaska said. "The local flora and fauna is being exterminated by these… these outsiders! Where did they come from? Who made this spike?"

She began scribbling furiously. As they flew Ingrid became aware of something flying off to the life-ward side of the fighter jet. She craned her neck back around to get a better view and to her astonishment it was a flying white horse. It had four white feathery wings that flapped lazily and Ingrid estimated that the rate of flapping would not be fast enough to hold the thing aloft, let alone allow it to fly at the speed of a fighter jet. A woman rode on the back of the horse and she was mostly naked.

"Vaska? Do you see that?"

"What."

"Life-ward side, just behind us."

"Oh wow! Is that a flying horse? How the hell is it flying this fast? Even at this speed we should be moving much faster than the fastest known animal. And who's that woman?"

"I was hoping you would tell me."

As the woman on the flying horse came closer Ingrid estimated that she must be at least eight feet tall. She was almost entirely naked except for a loincloth and some fur armor which covered her breasts. Her coppery skin was painted with elaborate patterns of dark green body paint and she held a huge spear with an obsidian head bound to the shaft with strips of leather decorated by colorful feathers. She held the spear high and proud in salute.

"The scions of House Maryy and House Varelion fly together with Titania," the woman said, her voice resonating in Ingrid's mind like an elemental's voice. "This bodes well for all of us."

"Are you an elemental?" Ingrid asked.

"I am the Elemental Queen of Life, and this is my Domain," she replied.

"Oh!" Vaska said. "What is that spike? Can you tell me about that spike? Did you make that?"

"I did. In my Domain everything is subject to the Law of Life, which is my law. Every creature in the jungle must defend its territory, or be replaced by a creature which does so. Sudden upheavals cause new forms to spread throughout the jungle and the existing life will adapt or it will not. This process is ongoing and it will go on forever."

"Yes! I understand!"

"Mortals. I wish you the best of luck on your hunt. Farewell."

The Queen of Life and her flying white horse both vanished in an explosion of emerald light.