The crystal was a copper-white color, and it gleamed with an oily mother-of-pearl light. The light etched strange rainbows on the inside of the glass canopy. After an initial attempt to resummon the ocular demon, which failed, she tried a different approach.

"Light! I summon you!"

It probably should have worked. And indeed, it did seem to work. A small, child-like being made of pure-light manifested. She, and it was definitely a she, was shaped as if she was wearing a fluffy dress, though she was uniformly copper-white, as if the dress was a part of her being. Ingrid heard a voice in her mind, like windchimes: I can see the stars.

Ingrid looked up at the canopy. She could not see the stars. The sun was already rising and even far before sunrise the twilight sky was pastel and unbroken.

It has been many moons, tens of thousands of moons since I have seen the stars, it seems.

"Who are you?" Ingrid asked.

Mother speaks.

The childlike being of coppery light contemplated in silence for a while. Ingrid was gaining altitude while maintaining airspeed. The snowfields of southern Taisia were growing distant. The mighty mountains below appeared to be little more than ripples on the bottom of a pond, viewed through a glassy surface. Undisturbed.

The Light Elemental regarded Ingrid for a moment.

We must close the portal.

"We?" Ingrid asked.

You were the only one they could agree on.

"Who are they?"

This seemed to disturb the little Elemental. She did not respond.

You have contracts nearby, but I have not claimed them.

This was absolutely not something that Ingrid considered to be a proper response to her question. "What contracts?" The Elemental pointed to the pouch of crystals behind the net near Ingrid's thigh.

Contracts.

"You mean crystals?"

Contracts.

"What do you mean? Can you claim these crystals?"

If you command, I will make it so.

"Who has claimed the contracts now?" Ingrid asked.

Deep underground, another of my kind. They could vanish at any moment. You are in danger. The vessel you occupy depends upon these contracts.

The banks, Ingrid realized. The banks owned these contracts, that's how they could summon the crystals away from people at the end of a lease.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"I do command, claim these contracts."

It is done.

Ingrid shivered. The banks would probably realize instantly that their contracts had somehow been accosted. But would they know it was Ingrid who did it? Who in the world knew she even had the shadow crystal that had suddenly transformed into a light crystal?

Glenice.

And Vaska.

That must be it. Vaska had given the shadow crystal to Ingrid. Could she have known this would happen? Could she have intended this to happen? How would she have known about the battle just before, about the recruits being sacrificed to absorb missiles? This seemed unlikely.

In spite of this, she somehow felt connected to Vaska. "The one who gave me your crystal is named Vaska," Ingrid said. "Do you know of her?"

Dangerous.

"What do you mean?"

Mother speaks.

Ingrid waited. The Elemental said nothing.

We must close the portal. If you fail to close the portal, Mother has permitted me to kill you.

"Kill me!?" Ingrid exclaimed. "Fine! Fine! Tell me how."

There are six crystals in the Elemental Plane of Wind that allow the portal to continue to exist. You must allow me to claim those crystals, then dismiss the Elementals after you leave the Plane of Wind. This will cause the portals on both sides to collapse.

That actually made perfect sense in a way. "So I have to go through the portal?"

Yes.

"How long do I have?"

Ingrid was approaching the portal then. The enemy fighter jets had left to chase down the main force in the south. Most likely Lieutenant Cole would be dead soon. Not a great loss. The air was mostly clear, except for a giant airship that was lurching forward away from the portal.

Toward the town of Wave Crest.

Her question was answered as the airship began to drop something, a lot of somethings. They fell fast, into the streets where Ingrid had grown up as a child, upon the roof of the bakery where she had worked and made a living. The town erupted in light as stone and wood exploded into the sky in great red pillars.

She had rolled slightly as she flew over the harbor to see. She pulled up on the stick to make a long arc over the water, her eyes transfixed by the town below. Her hometown, indeed the very building where she would have been kneading dough at dawn, had just been completely erased in fire and ash.

She would have been doomed, whether she joined the Air Navy or not. She would have died this morning, in that instant. In that moment she wasn't a victim of some Lieutenant's schemes, she wasn't a deserter from her duty to her nation. She was alive in spite of her fate, and she watched her fate play out with detached horror.

There had been children on the roofs of those buildings just days before, throwing confetti down on the parade. Those children had been asleep.

As long as you can tolerate, the Light Elemental said.

Hands shaking once again, Ingrid said: "I will go inside."

She rolled and pulled on the stick to begin to face the portal. Only the one airship had left the portal, and it was busy murdering everyone Ingrid ever knew. She was in the sky, they were not. She had a light crystal, they did not. And if anyone in the world could save anyone still alive, it was her.

She pointed her nose at the portal and then accelerated, full throttle.

"Do you know if there are enemies on the other side?" Ingrid asked.

How would I know that?

"What happened to my ocular demon?"

Once again, no response.

Something is wrong.

"Yes I gathered that. If you can't detect enemies, then what can you do?"

I can claim contracts. I can also bring the contracts close to your being. I can tell when a mortal is lying or telling the truth. I can protect you from some physical harm, and I can kill some mortals who have malice against you. Mother tells me where the portals are.

She was approaching the portal then. Through the dark, glassy opening in space, another world awaited. The sky beyond was black with turquoise clouds in the space where stars would have been. There was a single, massive turquoise moon that dominated most of the sky. Far below, there was a blanket of sand dunes, tiny like the ripples on the floor of some tide pool. All across the horizon there were great vortexes of spinning wind and sand. Castles, floating in the sky, loomed like needles on the horizon.

Ingrid saw two fires floating in that void above the sand dunes. Faint and far away, but instantly recognizable by their shape and speed.

Enemy fighters, in another world.