The ghostly, pale-orange projection of bookshelves appeared all around Ingrid and Vaska. The air of the Firstborn's projection split, opening into a dim room lit by a fireplace. The shadows of armchairs flicked across fine rugs. Vaska stepped through, carrying a thick leather-bound tome. Ingrid followed, and Ashe was the last to leave the portal.

"Welcome home Vaska," the Emperor said.

Ingrid sat down in the armchair across from the Emperor. The man was dressed in comfortable clothes, and a crystal wine glass filled with dark liquor rested on an arm stand. Vaska offered the tome, and he reached out to accept it.

"What is this?"

"A history of House Yorath," Vaska said. "It describes the secret meetings with the other Great Houses where they decided to attack House Veronika. I thought you might appreciate it."

"A wonderful gift," the Emperor said. "I will cherish it. Have a seat. Servants! Bring more glasses and more wine!"

The door to the study opened instantly and a butler in a pure white uniform entered. He held a tray with several additional glasses as well as four dark green bottles. He set the tray on a table by the bookshelves. "Princess Vaska, would you prefer red or white?"

"White and bubbly!" Vaska said.

"I will have the same," Ingrid said.

"I will return with additional bottles shortly," the butler said as he poured the two cups. "And what of you?" he asked while looking straight at Ashe, who sat nearly motionless in her armchair close to Ingrid.

"I do not need to drink, foolish mortal," Ashe replied. The man bowed. He seemed invisible as he offered the glasses and then withdrew silently from the room. The Emperor set the leather-bound tome on his arm stand.

"So it is done then?" The Emperor asked.

"It is done," Vaska replied. "Our enemies have been slaughtered. FIA agents have already identified all of the bodies."

"Even the children," Ashe added.

The Emperor cleared his throat. "Let us not dwell on that. Daughter. Friend Ingrid. I have heard of what was done in the Plane of Heaven. A swarm of drones. Remarkable! And now stealth technology. Vaska, you have done well."

"Thank you father," Vaska said. She held her crystal glass of bubbly wine above her face. The liquid seemed to glow orange in the flickering light of the fireplace. Vaska sucked the entire glass down in one gulp.

"And you," the Emperor said, turning to Ingrid. "You have done more for my family in less than a year than anyone has ever done in a thousand years."

Ingrid was speechless.

"Why should we think you will allow us to purify the Queen of Light?" Ashe asked. "You have every reason to want to dispose of Ingrid right away, now that the other Great Houses are exterminated."

"Normally I would never trust a person who thinks the way you do," the Emperor replied. "But to answer your question, the reason is simple. I am an honest man."

"I don't like you," Ashe said.

The Emperor seemed to ignore the Queen of Darkness. Vaska stood up and walked to the table with the bottles of wine.

"A civilization is more than a currency. A civilization is more than the energy that it consumes. My own highest ideal is now realized. Ever since Ingrid purified the Light Elemental from Taisia and gave it to me. I can now create a civilization built on truth, one where honest people have power."

"I will stop you!" Ashe said.

"Evil gives us freedom," the Emperor said. "We have the right to choose, and we can choose honesty. We can choose to honor our promises, to honor our contracts. The sacrifices were forced into their contracts from a young age. It is not true honesty. It is an abomination." He shook his head. "I hope I have answered your question, Queen of Darkness."

Vaska sat down in Ingrid's chair, pushing her to one side. She tipped her glass of bubbly wine and sucked it down.

"You should slow down, daughter."

"Father, I wish to marry her," Vaska blurted.

Ingrid gasped. She turned to Vaska, and their eyes met. Vaska nodded.

"That is legally impossible," the Emperor said.

"You can change the law!"

"I will not. However, you are free to speak whatever oaths you wish. You both have Light Elementals."

"May I, father?" Vaska asked. "I need you to give us your blessing. I need you to promise me... that you won't give me away for some political reason."

"I have already made that promise, long ago. Ingrid, you have more than earned my blessing."

"Titania!" Ingrid shouted. "I summon you! Show yourself!"

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The Light Elemental appeared, casting a brilliant golden glow on the bookshelves and banishing the darkness from the domed roof far above.

"We would have you witness our oaths!" Ingrid said. Ashe groaned. Ingrid turned to face Vaska once again. It was unusual for the woman to maintain eye contact for long, but her eyes were locked on Ingrid.

"I have never been more certain," Vaska said. "I love you Ingrid, and I will love you forever. I will be yours forever, and I will speak only truth to you. This I promise."

Ingrid envied Vaska's certainty. Trembling, and struggling to breathe, her voice became a sequence of gasps. "I love you Vaska, and likewise I will love you forever. I will be yours forever, and I will speak only truth to you. This is my promise, Vaska."

They leaned forward and kissed. When Ingrid opened her eyes, Vaska was glowing. Then she realized that her skin was simply reflecting the light emanating from Ingrid's own body. Vaska's eyes went wide.

I have heard your oaths, Titania said, her gentle voice sounding somewhat like windchimes in Ingrid's mind.

"What the hell did you do?!" Ashe said. "Titania! What did you do!?"

The oaths were very specific, Titania replied. The glow surrounding Ingrid began to fade.

"You don't just casually make people immortal! I'm going to get back at my sister for this! The idiot!"

You should not have created the Firstborn, Titania said. You provoked Mother into creating me.

"I didn't ask for your opinion!" Ashe hissed.

"Immortal?" Vaska asked. Ingrid shrugged.

"Don't let it go to your head!"

"Ingrid! We can fly together forever!" Vaska said. "The twelve skies will be ours!"

"Twelve skies?" the Emperor asked. Vaska suddenly covered her mouth.

"She is keeping secrets from you!" Ashe said. "They both are!"

"Daughter, what is she on about? What secrets?"

The door to the study opened, and the butler returned with more bottles on a tray. He froze when he saw Titania looming overhead.

"Now is a bad time," the Emperor said. The butler gracefully excused himself from the room.

"Father, me and Ingrid... we may have uh... split a goddess in half."

The Emperor's face twisted slightly, with one eye going wide and the other squinting. "Go no."

"Yes, sorry father. We split the sixth goddess in half and created two new Elemental Planes. The Plane of Spirit and the Plane of Dreams. We also bonded with new High Daughters."

"And does one of these new High Daughters strengthen your spirit?" The Emperor asked. Vaska nodded. The Emperor grunted. "I was wondering how you are able to summon so many Elementals, Ingrid. I ordered FIA agents to acquire multiple bonds from the sacrifices. The best they could accomplish was to summon three or four at a time for a few minutes."

"Can you keep it a secret for now?" Vaska asked.

"As you wish. However, at some point the scholars are going to figure it out. It would be a great boon to our family if we made the announcement."

"At least wait until after the Queen of Light is purified," Ingrid said. The Emperor nodded.

Vaska stood up. "Ingrid, let's go flying!"

"Yeah!"

Titania vanished, allowing the darkness to return to the study. A solid black line appeared in front of Vaska, absorbing the flickering light of the fireplace. It grew into a portal.

"You should come father! You must see what Jack is working on now."

"Oh, I suppose," the man said.

Once the portal closed, the Firstborn's projection shifted to a familiar landscape. Ingrid stepped out into the shady valley of the workshop campus in the Plane of Darkness. The dim lights of gas lamps flickered in the wooden windows of the workshop buildings. Imperial Marines stood guard at the door to one of the buildings. They saluted the Emperor.

Dozens of engineers were drawing engineering diagrams in front of wooden workstations. The man named Jack Vail stood at one end of the room, speaking with two women in lab coats. He sent the two women away when he saw them approach.

"Welcome, my Emperor," Jack Vail said with a bow.

"I have come," the Emperor said, "to see what my money has purchased."

"The prototype is on the taxiway," Jack said. "Follow me."

"You are going to love it father!" Vaska said.

The prototype was solid black in the purple light of the Plane of Darkness. It looked slightly thicker than typical fighter jets, and not as wide. Like the Blackfire, it had a golden tinge to the glass canopy. The Emperor and Jack Vail kept their distance from the machine as Ingrid and Vaska climbed the stairs to the cabin. Marines dragged the stairs away after Ingrid had strapped herself in. Ashe shrank and then fluttered up into the cabin as well.

There was a series of gauges and switches that Ingrid did not recognize, as well as a lever opposite to the throttle labeled Main Shaft Power.

"Ok, we need two Fire Elementals for the engines, six cyan Colored Orbs, and all the other standard Elementals."

"Six?" Ingrid asked. "What for?"

"Shush, just do it."

The engines began to spool, and the machine hummed to life. Vaska finished strapping herself in, and the canopy closed and locked.

"A gift for you, my wonderful wife!" Vaska said. "Open the blue guard on your right and flip the switch, then flip all the other switches in the same panel."

Even before Ingrid finished flipping all of the switches, she heard metal grinding behind her. She spun around to look behind the canopy, and saw black sawtooth panels opening on the back of the fighter jet. It began to make a loud whirring sound. Misty waves began to emanate outward from the unseen belly of the fighter.

"Ok, fully open the throttle, then push the lever on your right up very slowly."

The lever opposite to the throttle seemed to resist being moved, and as Ingrid nudged it upward the ground began to drop away. The airplane was lifting off vertically.

"Whoa!" Ingrid said.

"Lift the landing gear!" Vaska said. "You should try using the stick!"

At full power to the main shaft throttle, the airplane began to float off into the sky. The stick allowed the airplane to shift forward, backward, left, and right, while the rudder pedals allowed the nose to rotate. Ingrid pointed the nose over the dark lake of pure water.

"Push the stick fully forward, and wait for the airspeed to reach the inner green arc. Then flip the switch under the blue guard back down."

Ingrid quickly realized what was happening as she reconfigured the airplane. The switch under the blue guard controlled the angle of the engine exhaust, which could be vectored completely down. The other switches controlled the panels guarding the main shaft fan.

"Three of the cyan Orbs control the three-axis control and stability," Vaska said. "The other three control the motion of the craft when in vertical mode."

The airspeed increased rapidly. Ingrid pulled the main shaft lever fully back to the lowest setting, then shut the sawtooth doors. The white, spore-clad landscape of the Plane of Darkness stretched out below, with its jagged black peaks and rivers of blood.

"Ah! I never get tired of seeing my creation," Ashe said. "I have to admit, this is a good angle."

Ingrid pointed the nose down toward the workshop campus and punched the throttle to full. She could see the Emperor covering his ears as the fighter jet rocketed over the taxiway.

"Vaska, we can land the same way we took off, I am guessing?"

"You idiot!" Ashe said. "Going down is much easier than going up!" Ingrid glared at the little woman.

"Yes. I designed this fighter jet to land at the top of the Golden Tower in the Plane of Light. Father described the tower to me. It has other applications as well. I imagine the Imperial Marines and the Sea Navy will be very interested in this craft."

"Glenice will be happy," Ingrid said. Then she shivered.

The Golden Tower.

It would not be long.