For many hours the airplane flew north, first over the ocean, then over the snowclad forests of the Heylin Empire. Ingrid sat by the rounded-rectangle window, pressing her forehead against the cool glass. The wing was just behind Ingrid's seat, and she could clearly see the whirling turbine engine. Vaska climbed over Ingrid, supporting her weight by putting one palm on Ingrid's thigh, and pointed out the window.

"Over on that mountain, there is a ski resort where me and my brothers and my sister learned to ski. They have this huge gondola! It's really a marvel of engineering." Vaska looked down at Ingrid. "Oh! Right, personal space. Sorry."

"It's not a problem," Ingrid said as Vaska returned to her seat. "Maybe you can take me to see the gondola sometime."

The engines began to wind down, and the airplane began to tilt forward. They were beginning to descend. Vaska continued to invade Ingrid's personal space to point out every nearby city or volcano. Meanwhile the airplane descended, the flaps changed the shape of the wings, and finally the landing gear deployed with a grinding sound.

"This is my favorite part," Vaska said. "Get ready!"

They were still about a hundred feet off the ground when a sheer cliff appeared just below, wet black rock streaked with veins of ice. Just beyond the edge of the cliff the runway rushed past in a blur underneath the airplane, and in that instant the nose rotated up in a flare. The airplane dropped a few feet with a thud that caused Ingrid to jolt forward in her seat.

"The runway is on the top of a cliff," Ingrid said to Vaska. "Is that what you mean?"

Vaska nodded. "My father's estate is on the top of a plateau on the edge of a forest. It cannot be accessed from the ground by people, so it provides a great deal of privacy and security. There are many mountain goats that live on the plateau, so it makes an ideal hunting ground."

When they deplaned, ten soldiers followed them and lined up outside the airplane. They wore a brand new uniform that Glenice had designed. White trousers and a solid black coat bearing a new crest: ten circles of different colors arranged in a circle. Red for the Plane of Fire, opposite to Blue for the Plane of Water. White opposite to purple for Light and Darkness, green opposite to magenta for Life and Heaven, turquoise opposite to tan for Wind and Stone, and gray opposite to yellow for Metal and Lightning.

The crest of the Order of the Ten Skies.

Ingrid herself wore a black fur coat bearing the crest as well as a silver crown fitted with ten crystals. The gleaming Light Crystal was featured prominently in the center. Her long red hair had been carefully braided and held up by those braids to expose her neck and accentuate the crown. Vaska was wearing a white fur coat complete with her signature golden mesh fitted with dozens of crystals. An ornate horse-drawn carriage waited for them. Ingrid climbed inside the carriage and peered through the velvet drapes out the frosty window. It was only a short distance, however Vaska insisted that they arrive in style.

The soldiers marched alongside the carriage as it strolled through the metal gates of the estate. The estate grounds were a true marvel, and while the grounds were buried under a blanket of snow, this only added to the charm of the brilliant sculptures made entirely out of crystal clear ice, crafted by Water Elementals. It was snowing lightly and the trees were caked in snow.

A tall man with a graying dark-brown beard waited for them when the carriage stopped. He was wearing fur armor complete with a helmet, ornate but also practical, with a hunter's rifle slung over one shoulder. A dog, which looked half wolf, was standing silently at his side. He held Ingrid's hand as she stepped down from the carriage. The soldiers stood at attention and saluted the man.

"Ingrid," Vaska said, "this is my father, Emperor Artem of House Maryy. Father, you look well. Did we interrupt your hunt?"

"Daughter!" he said jovially. "You have come at the perfect time, your brothers and their wives are already inside. Who is your lovely friend?"

"This is Ingrid," Vaska said. "We will discuss Ingrid's business after we have had a chance to dine."

Ingrid's soldiers were sent to the hangar to eat with the pilots. The Emperor led Ingrid and Vaska to the main lodge hidden behind two rows of snowclad trees. The roof was not covered in snow, instead there was a barrier made of snow all along the outer walls of the structure created by intentional avalanches. Inside the lodge it was warm and dim, lit by flickering gas lamps and furnished with wooden furniture. The walls were decorated with plaques featuring the heads of animals or rifles. Servants in pure white uniforms roamed about with trays of delicacies or glasses of bubbly white wine.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Half a dozen children swarmed around in the central room, calling out "Grandpa!" to the Emperor so they could boast about the games they played together. The Emperor's two sons and their wives were already seated in the dining hall when Ingrid arrived.

After a delicious salad drowning in red wine vinaigrette, the main dish seemed to be some type of meat that Vaska did not enjoy, most likely something the Emperor had just killed. It was better than the food back at the orphanage when Ingrid was a child. Vaska sat at her father's right hand, telling him about Ingrid's deeds in the Plane of Wind.

"The first fighter jet killed in the Elemental Planes!" the Emperor exclaimed. "So then, who taught you how to fly?"

"Do you remember Kuzma's daughter Glenice?" Vaska said.

"I do. That man taught the girl to fly when she was still just a child. He also taught Natasha to fly when she was a child."

When Vaska got to the part of the story where they assaulted the castle and found the masked men, she asked her father "do you know anything about those men? Who could they be?"

"I have seen masks like those before. The day I took the crown as Emperor, they took me down below the bank in the Capital to meet the Matron who held the Light Crystal. Her servants all wore masks like the ones you described. Always two colors: white, black, gold. I do say Ingrid, that must be the Light Crystal that you wear on your crown."

Ingrid nodded to him.

"Do you know why Ingrid's Light Elemental would want to kill them?" Vaska asked.

"I'm afraid I know very little about their culture," he said. "I do know that those people are forced to dedicate their lives to the worship of the Elemental Queen of Light. Perhaps your Elemental was afraid those people would break their oaths?"

"I'm surprised she doesn't try to murder your father," Ingrid whispered to Vaska.

"I had not thought of that, good point. Maybe we should move on from this topic." Then, to her father, she said: "After that, Ingrid captured an Ayaruan officer named Ervin Dren. Have you heard of him?"

"The Dren family. Very old blood. Yes, I do know of Ervin. He will make a good ransom. That family is very wealthy, even now."

"Perhaps we can use those funds to further our objectives," Vaska said. "Which brings me to our important business, father."

"Alright then," the Emperor said. "Like jumping into cold water, it's best to just be done with it."

"I wish for you to sign an Imperial Decree, of my own devising, to establish a new Order of Knights under the direct control of Ingrid and myself. The Order of the Ten Skies. This decree would also formally recognize Ingrid's title as Princess of the Ten Skies."

"Sure, I can do that. Is that all? Are you going to ask for half the family wealth to fund this new Order?"

"Ambassador Rudolf is going to pull some strings. We are going to plunder the Taisian military and restructure them, and force them to fund the Order as we get set up."

"Hah! Rudolf is a resourceful man. So, where is the decree? I can take a look at the text right away."

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The beds in the lodge were very fluffy and warm. Ingrid sipped on a glass of that bubbly wine as she admired the signed decree in her hand. After finishing her wine she went to her own private bathroom to brush her teeth with a toothbrush made from ornate, lacquered wood.

Vaska was in her doorway when Ingrid returned. "Ingrid," she said. "Can I sleep with you?"

Ingrid was astonished.

"I'm feeling lonely right now. I hope it's not a problem."

"No, you are welcome to sleep here, these beds are too big anyway."

Vaska doffed her fluffy robe, and climbed under the covers wearing only a thin shift.

"When I was a child," Ingrid said as she climbed into her bed, "the orphanage only had a few beds and I needed to share my bed with several other girls. The first time I slept alone was after I had already started working at the bakery."

"I try not to sleep alone if I can help it," Vaska said. "Natasha used to let me sleep in her bed, but then she got married."

"You know Vaska, if you are ever feeling lonely you can send for me."

"Thank you, most people want to run far away from me. I'm cursed, you know."

"Nonsense," Ingrid said.

"It's true," Vaska insisted. "I have my own personal goddess that follows me around and changes probabilities."

"Probabilities?"

"Don't you know anything about mathematics?"

"I'm not an engineer like you. I know how to calculate sums and give change to customers, but I don't know any more than what I had needed as a baker."

"Probabilities are the chances that something will happen. Like when rolling a die."

"I don't like gambling," Ingrid said.

"So that's why you gamble with your life in those fighter jets?" Vaska asked dryly.

"I don't know what I can say to that. It's just... addicting in its own way, learning how to fly those beautiful machines."

"Anyways, some outcomes are good and some outcomes are bad. The chance for each might depend on some number. For example, say that one in ten times, a bad thing will happen, and nine in ten times, a good thing will happen. My personal goddess reorders the world so that the bad thing happens first every time."

"Sounds like superstition to me," Ingrid said.

"You didn't live my life," Vaska said. "Oh, sorry. I wasn't supposed to say that."

"It's fine."

Vaska hugged her, hard. Ingrid struggled to breathe.

"Excellent, now I don't need to be alone."

"Are you going to let go?" Ingrid asked.

"Nope!"

Ingrid gasped. Maybe this had been a mistake.