The noisy, smelly little steamboat chugged along into the center of Lake Rath, where an imposing structure of pale gray stone was suspended above the waves. It was shaped a bit like a pair of stone octagons, except the horizontal surfaces were very short, the vertical surfaces were twice as long, and the diagonal surfaces were very long. From afar, Kiera mistook the structure for one of the peaked roofs from her hometown in Cloudsea. The two diamond-octagon shapes faced each other with two levels of stone platform in between, held aloft by a stout pillar of the same material. As the boat chugged closer to the structure, she realized that it was not made entirely out of stone. In fact, the darker gray portions were composed of thick, smokey glass.

"Who built this thing?" Kiera asked.

"We don't know," Fiona said. "The oculomancers were operating here long before the witchstone appeared, and the structure predates the first oculomancers. Whoever built it really, really liked mazes."

Kiera did not understand this latter comment until the steamboat arrived at the small stone platform at the very base of the pillar. Both the dark glass and the pale stone were textured with mazes that seemed to glow with their own inner light.

A pair of elderly oculomancers watched the three witches ascend the rope ladder to the lower stone platform. Unlike the oculomancers on Kiera's world, who tended to wear black robes with purple epaulettes, these oculomancers wore white robes accented with a dull, brownish pink color. They bowed to Fiona but otherwise said nothing.

In the center of the platform there was some type of elevator, animated by an unseen power source. The walls, roof, and floor of the elevator were all made of perfectly transparent glass. Once the doors closed, the elevator dropped down through the pillar, where it lingered just above the water for a few seconds before plunging below the surface and sinking. It turned out to not be an elevator at all, but some type of underwater transport capable of moving in any direction.

Unexpectedly, the water below the surface lacked the smokey blackness Kiera had come to expect from the journey on the steamboat. It was perfectly clear and blue. Bone-white stone structures rose above the kelp forests on either side as the transport carried them on their watery journey. Just outside the glass, the water was filled with terrible fishes, monstrous creatures as big as a person with glowing purple eyes like an oculomancer.

"Those fishes," Claire said. "Is that where oculomancers get their eyes?"

"Yes," Fiona replied. "The fishes here have a very strange life cycle. The large ones you see here are all female, and the male fishes are very small. The parasite has a symbiotic relationship with the females. Males attach themselves to the bodies of the females in order to mate. The parasite releases a poison that dissolves the male brain, which prevents them from detaching themselves and attempting to mate with other females."

"Would it dissolve a human brain as well?" Claire asked.

"Yes. That is why men cannot become oculomancers. With prolonged exposure to the poison, their brains would dissolve. The male brain can metabolize very small doses, and when combined with a high dose of the antidote, men can actually survive a sexual encounter with an oculomancer, although I've heard the headache is worse than a dehydrated alcoholic's hangover. We oculomancers don't keep boyfriends for very long."

Claire was grinning wickedly, and Kiera rolled her eyes.

"Not that the child needs to be worrying about boyfriends," Kiera said dryly.

"That's not fair," Fiona said. "I'm guessing you had your share of crushes when you were thirteen. Let me guess? You were madly in love with Sir Zachary?"

"No!" Kiera protested, and immediately regretted it. She had just lied to an oculomancer.

Fiona giggled.

Kiera decided to quickly change the subject. "Why does the water look so dark up above?" she asked. "Down here, the water looks bright and clear."

"I don't know myself," Fiona admitted. "My current theory is that we are no longer in the Elemental Plane of Heaven. This might be an interstice, like the inside of a Founder's Tomb. If we were in the Elemental Plane of Darkness right now, that might explain why the water looks pitch black on the surface. The Elemental Plane of Water is another possibility. That might explain all the mazes."

"Oh right," Kiera said, suddenly remembering. "From The Binding of Ashe. The ocean floor in the Elemental Plane of Water looked like a maze of sand bars."

The elevator stopped below a square opening, lingered for a few seconds, and then punched up into the air. It rose slowly before halting in the center of an underwater chamber, illuminated by the rich blue light of the water beyond the glass. Two more elderly oculomancers waited for them when the doors to the elevator opened. They led the witches out of the elevator chamber to a long diamond-octagon hallway made mostly of transparent glass. The floor of the hallway was also made of glass, just a few inches above a basin of crystal clear water. The air was filled with the pleasant sound of a babbling fountain. It smelled of ozone, like the first rain after a long drought.

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The glowing maze-like patterns which coated all the surfaces in the structure seemed to also emit a breathy, crystalline hum. The interior of the structure also appeared to have its own lighting system, which added a gentle coppery glow to the places where the dancing teal caustics could not reach. Beyond the glass, the kelp forest rose to either side, pillars of green as big as the largest tree Kiera had ever seen.

Beyond the hallway there was a massive vaulted chamber spanned by long transparent tubes. Various types of fish swam through the tubes, navigating the room from above, looking down with disinterest upon the humans who fussed over the room's machines. A shining steel operating table rested in the middle of a small dais in the center of the room, surrounded by middle-aged oculomancers dressed in medical scrubs and aprons. One of the huge parasite-infected fishes was trapped in a tank nearby, under the watchful gaze of a young oculomancer armed with a cacophony of fine blades and hooks.

One of the surgeons approached. "Fiona," she said. "Are these the two witches that need eyes ahead of the next batch?"

"That is correct," Fiona said. "The acolytes are still being initiated. It will be some time before they arrive."

"This one seems somewhat young," the oculomancer said as she pointed to Claire. "Are you sure you want the eyes right now, child? Don't you want to spend a few years chasing boys first?"

"Boys are stupid!" Claire announced. "Suicidal even!"

"She's in love with a man who wants to invent a flying machine," Kiera said.

"I am not!" Claire protested.

"Well," the oculomancer said, "I trust Fiona has things well under control. Perhaps this is for the best. Which one of you wants to go first?"

"Me," Kiera said. "I know what I must do to best serve the Elder Saint. I will not be swayed."

"Then please, lie down on the table."

Kiera did as she was told. Her head pressed against the too-thin paper pillow, and she looked directly up into the purple eye of a fish swimming through the glass tubes overhead. One of the surgeons placed something like a wineskin over Kiera's mouth and nose. Yet another began burning a dream-ether candle, then activated a wind-aspect weave. Kiera felt something like smoke fill her mouth, penetrating her lungs.

"What is this?" she asked.

"Just something to help you sleep," Fiona said. "Unless you want to be awake when they gouge out your eyes."

"It won't be long now," the oculomancer said. "Ten, nine, eight, seven..."

Nothingness.

No time passed. Kiera thought she was dead. She gasped in the darkness. Her mouth felt dry.

"What is happening to me?" she asked.

Mother, a voice said, feminine, distant, and delicate like wind chimes. Mother, the words are in her heart. Shall I witness them? Mother?

"Mother?" Kiera said. "Who?"

High overhead there was a flash of light, a beacon in the absolute darkness. Cascades of colored light expanded outward like a mother-of-pearl flower. The waves of dusty light did not make it very far away from their source before they dissipated, but they were quickly replaced by new waves exploding from the center. Faintly, ever so faintly, Kiera began to make out the tiny stars in the indigo void beyond the places where the light had touched.

Are you certain, mother? the voice continued. As you command. Dream-soul, the words are in your heart, I have sensed them before. I am Mother's witness, and I would hear your words. Speak.

"Who is your mother?" Kiera asked.

Dream-soul, you have read Vaska's holy book. You know the story of the binding of Mother's sister-self. Mother is known to you as the Queen of Light. The words are written in your heart. Speak, and I will witness your words.

"Fiona said that the Queen of Light created the witchstone to punish us," Kiera said. "Because of the hubris of the oculomancers."

Even now the parasite colonizes your body, dream-soul. You have the eyes. Speak from your heart.

"I don't want to lie," Kiera said.

That is not enough.

"I don't want to be able to lie."

Not enough.

"So long as I can see the truth," Kiera said, "I renounce my own capacity to lie. If you are willing to be my witness, then I wish to swear an oath. I swear that I shall speak only truth."

I will witness your oath, the voice finally said. On behalf of Mother and the divine power that she protects, your oath is witnessed and accepted. Speak only truth, dream-soul.

Sudden pain, burning, like white-hot molten metal poured across her body. Kiera screamed.

Blue light filled Kiera's vision. She burst awake, screaming, her throat as dry as sandpaper. The air was filled with the smell of smoke. Her thin hospital gown was ablaze with a golden light, burning into ashes without spreading, leaving her naked on the hospital bed. Her flesh was red-hot, and in some places it appeared that molten gold had been spilled across her body. The pain sank into her, consuming her, but she could not escape into the embrace of unconsciousness, because, she knew, the pain must be witnessed.

"Kiera!" Claire said. "Kiera what's wrong? Kiera, I can't see you!"

Kiera turned to see Claire Aden sitting up in her hospital bed, just across the room. The child's eyes were hidden behind thick bandages. They were both underwater still, in a room lit by gentle caustics that wove and rippled across the pale bedsheets. She looked down at her naked body, tracing the fractures of molten gold that flowed across her skin. On the inside of her right arm, just below the wrist, there was a pattern to the gold fractures, shapes that were unmistakably writing. And while Kiera could not read the language, she understood, deep down, exactly what the golden text meant.

Speak only truth, dream-soul.

Sobbing, she scrambled out of bed and lurched across the room toward Claire Aden.