Wake up! Another portal! Paranoid whined in the darkness of the morning.

Ingrid sighed as she untangled herself from Vaska's arms. "Where is the portal?" she asked. Vaska groaned.

Heading one-seven-nine, distance four-hundred and twenty-three nautical miles.

"That is near Jelka," Vaska said, her eyes still closed. "The Capital of Ayaru."

"I suppose it was only a matter of time that they learned about us," Ingrid said. She stood up.

"Come back to bed," Vaska said. "There is nothing we can do about it right now."

Ingrid walked to the Colored Orb by the door and activated it. "New portal, heading one-seven-nine, distance four-two-three."

"Heading one-seven-nine, distance four-two-three," the soldier on the other end replied. "That puts it right by the enemy Capital."

"Make sure the Captain is made aware when she awakens."

"Affirmative." The communication cut off.

Ingrid climbed back into bed and was consumed by the tangle of Vaska's greedy limbs. Vaska fell asleep almost instantly, but Ingrid's mind lingered in the darkness. Paranoid floated nearby, casting a faint mother-of-pearl light on the wall.

"What will happen," Ingrid whispered, "if I fail to close the portal."

The Queen of Darkness may break free, and allow evil to seep into the world once more.

"Evil?"

In the time before, the Queen of Darkness released evil into the world. It was a physical thing. The Queen of Light gave humans an example to aspire to. She allowed them to cleanse the evil, if they so wished.

"There seems to be enough evil in the world already," Ingrid muttered. The Elemental did not reply.

----------------------------------------

Vaska called a meeting of the Feathers after sunrise. Elizabeth ordered the ship to change headings in the night, and by morning they were close enough to the Capital of Taisia for Ambassador Rudolf to join in-person. Even Glenice was present, wearing the uniform of a Taisian airman. The final person to join the meeting was, surprisingly, Ervin Dren.

Glenice dropped an envelope filled with papers on the desk, covering the navigation charts.

"What is that?" Ingrid asked.

"I managed to get access to the records office on board our airship," Glenice said. "This is your recruitment profile and personal record."

Ingrid opened the envelope and looked at the first sheet. It still had her signature on it from when she swore her oaths. It was stamped with a red square containing the letters KIA. Ingrid rubbed her finger over the red ink.

"Killed in action," Glenice said. "If the clerks in the records office are to be believed, all the recruits from your hometown were marked KIA before you ever left the ground that morning."

"That means you technically are not a deserter," Rudolf said. "I have good news as well Princess," he said, looking towards Vaska. "I have made a great deal of progress with my schemes in the Air Navy. I have secured six airships and almost a thousand soldiers that we can conscript into your little... group."

"How did you manage that?" Vaska asked. "Actually... I don't want to know."

"I want to know," Glenice said.

"Ah it was a simple matter," Rudolf said. "I started a pyramid scheme that involves promising individual commanders airships that don't exist yet. Think of it as... borrowing airships from the future."

"I will accept that as your report then," Vaska said. "Ivan, what is the status of Ingrid's training?"

"She is able to merge and fly a basic one-circle and two-circle pattern and stay away from my nose well enough. I think that she needs more practice leading with her cannon to compensate for the motion of the enemy as the bullets are in the air."

"Dren," Vaska said. "What do you know about the portal in Jelka?"

"Nothing," Dren said in heavily-accented Imperial. "I only knew about the initial set of keystones that the Keymaker gave us."

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"I did not know you could speak our language," Ivan said.

"I cannot speak a single word of Taisian, but I can manage Imperial well enough," the man replied. "Anyway, I did not know about the keystones to the Plane of Life. Whatever keystones are being used in Jelka right now, must have been given to us after I was captured."

"What about the soldiers that joined when you did?" Ingrid asked. "How did they get the keystones to the Plane of Life?"

"Only one officer had anything to say about it," Dren said. "Secondhand knowledge I'm afraid. Apparently the Keymaker arrived inside the command deck directly, as the airship was flying. She gave the Captain signed orders from his commanding officer, as well as a sack of keystones."

Vaska looked deeply disturbed. "If our enemy can be so precise..."

"This information is not necessarily accurate," Dren added.

"Can we trust any written orders from our own commanders?" Ivan asked.

"Yes, yes," Rudolf said. "This could be a considerable problem if this 'Keymaker' can forge signatures. I will inform the leadership of the Taisian military to get verbal confirmation for orders if they encounter the Keymaker."

"Either way," Vaska said, "we need eyes on that portal. We need spies in Ayaru. Reliable spies. Dren, do you have any contacts back in Jelka that will be willing to feed us information."

"Not in Jelka. I do know of a potential spy in the Ayaru Air Navy."

"Who?" Vaska asked.

"Me," Dren said. "You still have my fighter jet. Let me fly home. I will take a look inside the portal and report back anything I find."

"That would be stupid," Vaska said.

"Not necessarily," Elizabeth said, speaking for the first time. "Ingrid, make your Light Elemental question him."

"Paranoid, show yourself." Ingrid said. The Light Elemental appeared in her armored form, standing on top of the map table and looking down at Dren with contempt. "Tell me if he is lying or being truthful. Ervin Dren, do you intend to betray your oaths to the Order?"

"I do not intend to do so," the man said.

"Will you remain loyal to me and the rest of the Feathers if you are allowed to return to Ayaru?"

"I will do so. The Keymaker is a threat to my nation. Working with you is the best way to save my men and my homeland."

He speaks no lies, Paranoid said.

"I will give the order to prepare his fighter," Elizabeth said. "The choice is yours, Princess."

"I do not like it," Vaska said. "However, I do think that it is our best option right now. Elizabeth, give the order. Dren, you are dismissed."

Elizabeth and Dren stood up and left the map room.

"For my report," Vaska said, "I have located one of my father's black sites and made contact. They are working on some very... disturbing new technologies. Similar to the flares that can distract Ice-Two missiles, the new canisters can distract Dark-Three missiles."

"How did they manage that," Ivan asked.

"I'm guessing that there are chopped up people that are technically still alive inside those canisters," Vaska said. "That would be my guess. Convicted criminals go into the compound and never return."

"That's horrible!" Ingrid said. "It's evil!"

"Let's not dwell on this," Vaska said. "I have my own project that is producing excellent results."

Vaska presented a common metallic-yellow crystal and summoned a cyan Colored Orb. It floated above the map table, bathing the room in a pale blue light.

"I still think it's evil," Ingrid mumbled.

Vaska pressed one finger to her lips and shushed at Ingrid. "I have devised a reliable method of training this type of Lightning Elemental to aid in creating the illusion of aerodynamic stability."

"Astounding!" Ivan said.

"What does that mean?" Ingrid asked.

"It means that we will be able to design aerodynamically unstable fighter jets," Vaska said. "It will allow them to have much more powerful control surfaces for maneuvering. Come with me down to the deck, and I will show you the new airframe that me and the other engineers designed."

Vaska led them to the rear corner of the airship where the new fighter jet was parked by itself. It had almost no resemblance to the little tubes with stubby wings that she had been flying thus far. It was shaped like an arrowhead, more flat and wide with a pointy nose and a large mouth-like air intake underneath that nose. The two wings together formed a giant triangle, and it had no horizontal stabilizer as such. In fact both rear surfaces were pitched down together, being oversized elevators. It had no flaps, instead the giant ailerons were angled down slightly to simulate flaps. A single prominent tail fin with a massive rudder loomed over a single engine.

The other fighters on the deck looked almost comical in comparison. This thing looked like a real weapon of war.

"It is beautiful," Ingrid said. "Let me fly it, right now."

Vaska handed Ingrid the glass box with the cyan Colored orb inside. Soldiers brought out a ladder and Ingrid hungrily climbed inside. There was a gunsight, like a warbird would have, featured prominently above the dashboard.

"Does it have a cannon?" Ingrid asked.

"Just one, yes," Vaska said. "Two hundred bullets, six barrels. Go ahead and shoot the cannon when you are up there and get a feel for it."

After strapping herself in and summoning her Elementals, Ingrid shoed the rest of them away and taxied to the edge of the runway. At full throttle the little arrowhead-like airplane took off rapidly. Ingrid pointed the nose at the sky and the airship shrank rapidly in the mirrors overhead. The controls were very responsive and precise as Ingrid made a series of long sweeping turns through the sky. Clouds seemed to form on the back of the airplane each time she maneuvered.

The sky was a playground for the little fighter jet. Ingrid flew down towards the ground, zipping over the small towns and snowfields outside the Capital. She danced through the sky, leaving long trails of white mist in her trail. When she rocketed past the airship again, Ivan's warbird was busy leaving the deck.

"Are you ready to practice merges?" Ivan asked.

"You want to merge with this?" Ingrid asked.

He did, and so she lined up and merged with him. They ended up in a one-circle, but by the time he pointed his nose anywhere near her direction she was already far above him, ascending vertically above the wispy clouds.

"Where did you go Ingrid?" Ivan asked. "I can't see you."

"I can see you," Ingrid mused as she pulled his tiny warbird into the gunsight.

"Oh, I see you. Ingrid, I've been flying for fifty years, and I've never seen anything turn like that airplane."

"Let's hope the enemy pilots share your surprise."