I had expected the ruin of the sanctum to be our only destination, but we split into groups and each went to a nomad camp or a settlement. This time I was with Turk, and in our squad were four other Cataphracts; Zulu, Britton, Greek and Qatar. Other than them were Abdiel, ever by his employer's side, and a dozen promising conscripts; myself among them. Qatar flew closest to me, and I could see from the movements of her head that she was speaking with Turk on a channel reserved for the captains.

"Victor," he said on the common channel, "I want you to form up behind Qatar. Go exactly where she goes, when she goes there. Understood?"

"Yes ser." I remember nodding as if he could see me, and I felt foolish.

The instant I replied, Qatar climbed almost directly upward. I followed, as ordered, and I saw a thing that even Elvedon's mind scriers could not recodify.

Abdiel formed up beside me in Harbinger, the name he gave his pegasus. Mine I named Northwind, and Qatar tipped the spear in Sundance, rocketing towards the veil ahead the clap of our own small storm. A white ring formed before us, or perhaps I merely saw it, and a flock of winged horrors scattered as we came close to the terrible thing I'd seen from so far away as I strode upon waking soil.

What seemed from the ground to be particles of fine dust, or even sheets of grey silk, were rocks the size of a grown man, and Northwind had to leap to the side more than a few times, dodging boulders nearly twice his size. Eels dwelled there, aerial mammoths the size of ships; more of my victims now that this great barrier is being blasted away. But they were lords when I first saw them, dauntless and unassailable, snaking through the migratory flotsam with passive grace. Leeches would drop from their luminescent flanks and claw at us with their tendrils. Qatar flipped Sundance into a barrel roll and shot one down in mid drop, then lured a half dozen more to fall onto a large boulder that tumbled seemingly in place, paced with us as it was so perfectly. When she came about she dropped a scatter bomb on the rock, turning it to many which Abdiel and I then had to dodge. Abdiel was not amused, nor was Qatar after his scolding.

High in the firmament we found a plane of crystalline shards that sped past us, pelting our horses' hides till we became distracted, and we sought refuge behind one of the eels who'd been slowly rising above the plane. The glass rain glittered beneath us, and for a long time I stayed close to one of the eel's many ventral pouches, watching it bulge and shrink hypnotically while the eel serpentined through the sky. I was completely absorbed by the animal's ethereal presence, and so did not hear when Qatar urgently cried out to me over the comms. The eel had climbed high, and I with it, and the lid over our vessel was now beneath my feet.

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Harbinger came to wake me, the sight of his stocky fuselage shocking me out of my trance. He normally roared as he galloped, so loud that I could hear a low hum through my windscreen when he was near. Now he was as silent as a dreamless sleep, and we no longer flew through ambling boulders or clouds of soot, but we flew in a sea of purest black, our prison beneath us, and above I saw that glorious thing that proves our legends true. Before that moment, I did not realize how badly I needed such incredibility confirmed.

I wish I knew a way to convey silence with a pen. Then I could take you with me through that memory as I lived it. Set down my memoir for a moment, precious reader, and close your eyes with the depths of infinity in your mind. See it hanging in emptiness, and it must be alone as it is without peer among all things visible, an orb of power so mighty and ancient you can feel its dominion in your cells. I was mortally afraid, and what terrified me most was the closeness of the Sun, and the imminent reality that closeness confirmed. From the ground it seems like a wishful hope; unobtainably remote, and through our terrible clouds no more than the blood that wells within a bruise. But up there, beyond the firmament, in a place I never thought I'd reach, I saw the Sun to be a manifestation of a living force, if not one itself. It was there, it was real, and it was so fantastic and transcendent that I understood the desire the old world had to worship it.

Northwind whickered, startling me, and I managed to coax my eyes away from the unconquered Sun to see the alerts flashing on my saddle horn. The air at that height must have been hellishly cold, as ice was forming on Northwind's barding. All pegasi housed a jinn within their bridle, and Northwind's jinn appeared to show me a view of his wings and hindquarters. Not only were they covered in ice, but his engine was beginning to sputter and go dim. When I tried to raise Abdiel on the comms I heard a sound like an adder's tail. I spurred Northwind to lower his pitch, seeing Harbinger do the same on my port. I sighed, knowing then and there that I would feel a new and profound reverence every time I thought or heard of any of the Fates; be it Pazuzu, Anpiel, Wukong or Ariel of the Tempest.

There was a pod of gigantic mantas gliding sleepily over the firmament, here and there escorted by eels, and within the vortices that puckered the veil were blasts of yellow lightning. Such a convergence of peaceful meandering and perpetual violence, framed in absolute noiselessness, put a spell on me that softened the blow of leaving Sol's mighty presence. I lamented retreating from that holy place, but I think perhaps that Northwind saved me with his neighing, not only from floating through the abyss until some unknowable traveler stumbled upon a starved, lunatic undead tumbling through etherium on a stolen horse, but from losing my soul, for surely, had I stayed too long in the splendor of the Sun, my spirit would have been consumed by its radiance.

So I refrained from looking up as we glided downward, contenting myself with our rare view of Tarthas, and I sang a favorite song of Kendra's while we descended. Abdiel and I flew astride each other for a moment, skimming over the mean charcoal dome. We had to strain our ears to catch it, but when coasting through their ranks, we heard the mantas sing with nebulous voices in a haunting pitch. We locked eyes briefly, sharing an ambient thought as we drifted out of that alchemical dream. Nothing gold can stay, I continued to sing.