After a thousand years of constant development, the city of Saint Ingrid had slowly grown across the channel as a series of geodesic domes connected by arched bridges. Each dome rested on a circular platform of pale yellow stone, a material which had been common in ancient times. According to the religious nutjobs, the stuff could only be manufactured with the help of sorcery. Either way, it was strong enough to support the weight of the seasteads even in the deepest parts of the channel.
One such dome loomed directly ahead, mostly visible in spite of the thin fog. The boat was almost full, dutifully ferrying the occupants toward the indigo lights on the dome's northern dock. Wipers lazily scraped away droplets of rain as they accumulated on the forward windows. The pilot stood beyond a rope, holding the ship's wheel and navigating with a smartphone slotted onto the control column. The engine hummed and gurgled in the water near the back of the boat.
Sweets spoke into her phone, using a language that Locus did not understand. She glanced at him and giggled. She was still smiling after she finished her call. With two fingers pressed against one clavicle, her chest cavity opened with an electric hiss. The phone vanished within.
"What language was that?" Locus asked.
"Modern Heylin," Sweets replied. "For some reason, Grace only ever speaks Imperial-era Heylin on the phone. I ran her voice through an AI translator, but the AI was trained on Middle Heylin, so it makes a lot of mistakes."
"Is she afraid somebody may be listening in?"
Sweets shrugged. "I doubt anyone would be interested in our conversation. Just some logistics. Grace is going to meet us inside the park."
With a masterful twist of the ship's wheel, the tail of the craft began to swing around toward the dock. The assistant pilot reached out and rang the ship's bell, hopped onto the dock, and moored the front of the craft to a post with a rope. Locus watched with some fascination. He imagined a similar boat one or two thousand years in the past. The crew of such an ancient craft would find his era nearly incomprehensible, with the sole exception of naval tradition, which they would find deeply familiar.
The pilot began shouting over the roar of the engine: "Please watch your step as you exit the heaven-ward side of the boat. Enjoy your stay here at Nadiya Land!"
The green/indigo navigation lights of three more boats aligned with identical lights along the length of the dock to the east. White-clad park workers herded hundreds of tourists toward the gates at the base of the dome. Sweets led him away from the congested lanes toward the VIP entrance.
When Locus passed through the gate, his chip began to glow and speak with a gruff voice: "Welcome to Nadiya Land, citizen. My name is Darkstar Crush. You can find me and my brother in the Heroes of Old Taisia District."
Beyond a gap in the geodesics, the interior of the dome was warm and clear. Buildings rose in tiers toward the center, glassy and glowing with neon light. Small airships floated over the inner tiers, fashioned after the steam-powered machines from the Old Taisia universe. The hotel at the very center of the dome was itself crowned with a smaller geodesic dome, filled to the apex with verdant flora. A few other points of interest rose above the horizon: a dark castle, a fake volcano, and a giant tree.
"Have you ever been here before?" Sweets asked.
"When I was a child," Locus replied. "It took my parents a few years of saving, but they were able to buy three-day chips for the whole family. We stayed at a coffin hotel, not far from where I live now. I had to share a single coffin with my brother and two sisters. I remember riding the boat."
Sweets sighed, then tapped her chip. "We need to find the Elemental District."
A feminine voice replied: "The Elemental Mythology District lies to the west, beyond the Heroes of Old Taisia District."
As they passed through Old Taisia, Locus caught a glimpse of Darkstar Crush flexing his huge muscles in front of a crowd. The superhero's steam-powered war hammer rested against a lamppost nearby. Deadscar Cleave sat gravely on the rim of a marble fountain. His weapon of choice rested over one shoulder: an oversized double-barreled shotgun with a wooden stock that gracefully transitioned into a long butcher's blade at the opposite end.
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A tall blonde beauty waited for them when they arrived at the ten-color arch to the Elemental Mythology District. She possessed the slender, muscular body of a dancer, clad in a small navy dress. Her hair was neatly arranged into a crown of braids and she wore an abundance of gold jewelry.
"Hey beautiful," the woman said with an immaculate smile. "And you must be Locus. Sweets, he's so handsome!"
"Locus," Sweets said, "meet Selucia Grace."
He waved to her.
"How exciting!" Grace said. "I love meeting new people. Sweets, you look a little tired. How about we grab some coffee? I'll pay."
Neither Sweets nor Locus protested.
They did not need to walk very far before finding a coffee stall, though the line to order was surprisingly long. According to the sign above the stall, it was named "The Laws of Life and Heaven." The word "Life" was printed in green above a steaming cup of coffee, while the word "Heaven" was printed in indigo above a sweet cheese pastry. Locus surveyed the area with some unease. The Elemental Mythology District featured iconography that in many ways resembled the religious paintings from his master's cabin. Women in colorful, skin-tight, full-body suits played the role of Elementals. They were color-coded and they traveled in pairs. The two baristas in the coffee stall wore green and indigo respectively.
"Is something wrong?" Grace asked.
"I'm not a religious person," Locus replied. "This place feels tacky."
"The Elemental Mythology films were not inspired by the Church of the Lady Ghost," Grace said. "They were inspired by much older stories, from Imperial-era Heyl."
Locus relaxed. "Fair enough."
"According to Heylin Mythology," Grace continued, "there were only ten Elemental Planes. Fire and Water, Wind and Stone, Metal and Lightning, Life and Heaven, Light and Dark. Each of the ten Elemental Queens has a sister-self, and so on. The Church of the Lady Ghost is different. They believe there are twelve Elemental Planes. They teach that Saint Ingrid, the Ghost of Taisia..."
"Split a goddess in half," Locus finished. "My master often spoke of such things."
Their conversation was interrupted by screaming overhead, and the smooth sliding sound of a roller coaster train. Locus noticed the track for the first time, almost imperceptible because of the chameleon coating. The individual cars on the roller coaster vaguely resembled fighter jets. They also appeared to be able to rotate independently, so as the train barreled down the invisible track, it reasonably approximated a flat spin.
"Captain Taisia and the Ten Skies," Grace said. "If you ignore the fact that they gender-swapped Ingrid and added a stupid enemies-to-lovers plot, the films are not too bad."
"I am absolutely not going to ride that thing," Sweets announced.
"You would need to add yourself to the queue and wait a few hours, even with a VIP chip. I just got off the ride."
When they reached the front of the line, Sweets ordered coffee with extra sugar and a cheese pastry with extra icing. Grace began to nudge Locus away from the line. "Off you go, no coffee for you."
"Why not?" Locus asked.
"You'll understand when we get back to my room."
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The lobby of the hotel was illuminated by a skyscraper-sized chandelier, suspended from crossed arches spanning the cylindrical void. Small balconies lined the interior of the open space, level after level, all the way up to the geodesic dome on the roof of the building. The whole of the affair reeked of outrageous wealth, the type of money that could only be acquired either through inheritance or through pyramid schemes.
Thankfully, Grace's room was located on the first floor. By objective standards, it was a modest room with a kitchenette. Compared to a coffin, it was luxurious. Every tabletop and countertop in the room was fashioned from polished marble. The lamps conspired to create triangular blooms of soft, rainbow-tinged light. A huge oil painting on the wall above the beds depicted Mount Saint Glenice, the volcano just south-west of Saint Ingrid.
Sweets locked the door behind them.
"Take off your shoes," Grace commanded.
Locus was suspicious, but he compiled.
Grace walked to the kitchenette and took a seat at the counter, then turned to face him. "This room is clean. It's safe to talk here."
Feeling slightly uncomfortable, Locus glanced back at the door. Sweets was standing guard, leaning back lazily. There's no way I'm getting past all that chrome, he thought.
"Greater Daughter of the Queen of Dreams, show yourself," Grace said.
A flash of cyan light filled the room, so bright that it drowned out the soft lamps. A huge woman appeared, so tall that the top of her head scraped the ceiling. Her entire body appeared to be composed of cyan mist, like some creature out of cyberspace.
Locus could not believe what he was seeing. A second glance at Sweets revealed that she was also dumbstruck. Is this some sort of illusion? he wondered. Am I suddenly trapped in a simstim? But no, that was impossible. He did not feel the uncanny dual-sense of a simstim.
"Shit," Sweets said. "Are you hacking my eyes?"
"I see it too," Locus said. "And I don't have a single piece of chrome in my body."
"Have a seat on the bed," Grace commanded.
The misty cyan creature regarded him with the impression of eyes. It took Locus a few seconds to realize Grace was talking to him. Once again he complied with her instructions.
"Greater Daughter, please guide him to the shared dream."
Suddenly he felt overwhelmingly tired. That monstrous cyan woman suddenly didn't seem so frightful after all. Nothing mattered. He just needed to rest his eyes. Relaxing, he fell back into the soft comforter, and darkness took him.