The arm-like structure could move, and after the airplane came to a halt, the arm reached out to grasp the door. It was hollow inside, a type of moving tunnel designed specifically to attach to airplanes and allow the occupants to depart. Fiona led them through the tunnel to some type of loading platform with hundreds of seats, huge windows, and a high, vaulted ceiling. Kiera had seen such places near steamboat loading platforms, and they were usually reserved for Heritors and other elites. The sheer quantity of seats befuddled her at first, until she reasoned that the oculomancers might not share her perceptions of commoner and elite. The Elder Saint must value even the most humble oculomancers.

"Fiona," Kiera said. "That craft we just flew in, is that the largest one?"

"The largest airplane?" Fiona asked. "No, that one is actually the smallest one Sophia has designed. The largest type of aircraft was designed to carry the Elder Saint's spirit-lattice spikes. Most of those airplanes are stored in huge hangars in the salt flats near Spire Titania, on the Sister World. The dry climate helps prevent corrosion of the metal components. But there is one such airplane directly below us now."

"What is a spirit-lattice spike?"

"You will see one for yourself very soon."

Fiona led them to a glass-walled conveyance designed to travel up and down. They went down, through a square hole in the ground, into a vast empty space.

"Mother Summer!" Kiera gasped. Sasha and Lucia were both stunned speechless.

The city was shaped like a massive bowl resting atop the uneven stone peak of Spire Annatiki. Rings of civilization rose like stairs, tier after tier, up the slope of the bowl until it became too steep. There were dwellings, restaurants, markets, and huge water wheels, all crafted from shiny white stone which reflected flashes of red-magenta light. Suspended in that vast space was an arched bridge supporting a huge platform, upon which rested a massive black airplane with high wings and six engines.

At the very center of the bottom of the bowl, directly below the arch, a single structure dominated the city, filling the void with bloody light. A pyramid, reaching into every corner of the city, constructed from a glowing crimson material, marbled with mercurial magenta, crackling with red lightning.

"Is that thing a solid aura?" Lucia asked, astonished.

"In a way," Fiona said.

"Can you imagine the wealth?" Lucia continued. "All the Heritors in the world, all the banks in the world, all that spirit-ether combined..."

"Would be a drop of water compared to the ocean," Fiona said. "The Elder Saint has sacrificed nothing to task the Heritors with keeping order. Heritor Alyesha, it may be wise to turn back now."

"No," Sasha said. "If anything, this makes me more determined." But Keira could tell it was a lie. Sasha's face betrayed her fear.

The conveyance reached the bottom of the bowl and the glass doors opened onto a courtyard filled with ponds and stone statues. Fiona led them across the courtyard to the outer wall of the pyramid, and down the street until they reached a doorway leading inside. The interior of the pyramid, including the floor, appeared to be uniformly-constructed from the same strange red-magenta crystal. Kiera felt an alien sensation, an uncanny want from the material, nagging at her. She focused on that sensation, tried to comprehend it, tried to reach out and give herself to that want. What she found was a maze, a shifting, self-healing barrier.

"Don't reach for it," Fiona warned. "Don't reach for it ever again."

"I'm sorry," Kiera said. "I didn't know."

When they reached the end of the hallway, the space opened both above and below. The structure was in fact two pyramids, one inverted, both completely hollow, so that the interior was shaped like a cube tilted on one corner. Flashes of red lightning spanned the void. A red-magenta gantry led out onto a balcony overlooking the empty space, and at the end of the balcony there was a vast throne. Six huge cylinders, also made from the same crystal, were arrayed about the throne, three on each side, suspended by cables. They were all filed down to a point at the bottom end, like railroad spikes.

At the apex of the lower pyramid, the crystal material gave way to raw stone. There was a circular hole, a pit leading down into pulsing red darkness, lined on all sides with the same type of red spike, as if they had been hammered into the wall of the pit. Kiera could feel them, down and down, perhaps all the way to the base of the spire, perhaps all the way to the center of the world.

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A figure in silver robes sat upon the throne. Her face was shrouded by a silver hood, though Kiera could see the faint teal glow of oculomancer scars on her shadowed cheeks. As they approached the throne, Fiona stopped suddenly and fell to one knee. Kiera thought this was a wise thing to do, so she mimicked the gesture.

"Heritor Kiera," the Elder Saint said in a voice devoid of emotion. "You quested for the spirit-ether which belongs to me alone."

"That is partially my fault," Fiona said quickly. "I did not anticipate that she would be able to feel it through the aura I gave her, so I did not instruct her on proper behavior. I will make modifications to the weave encoded on this type of aura, so that this mistake will not be repeated in the future."

"You are telling the truth," the Elder Saint said. "Why are these other Heritors here? They have no business here. They must leave."

"If I may," Sasha began. "As a Heritor of House Varelion, I wish to request aid in my war against the Theocracy of the Lawgiver. Great Elder Saint, it is in the best interest of humanity that I should be successful in my ambition."

"I will subjugate the etherborne," the Elder Saint said, her face still shrouded by the silvery hood. "I will subjugate the etherborne, and you will aid me, or you will be replaced. You can quarrel with the other Heritors if you wish. It is not forbidden to you. Remember your oaths."

"The Eyes of Empire tried to warn us," Lucia whispered.

Sasha nodded. "I am sorry," she said. "I have overstepped."

"Heritor Alyesha, you are dismissed," the Elder Saint said with finality. "Heritor Lucia, you are dismissed."

"Wait for us outside," Fiona said.

The two girls rose and glided away, back along the red crystal gantry toward the exit. When they were gone, the Elder Saint lowered her hood, revealing her face. She looked young, not much older than Kiera, with a certain girlish innocence that Kiera admired. She had shining purple scales on her cheeks and on her forehead, dark purple hair, and the glowing purple eyes of an oculomancer. Her expression was filled with a focused determination.

Mother Summer, Kiera thought. I recognize her from the paintings. What would the world be like if the Bloodraker never died?

"I must decide if I am going to kill you now, Heritor Kiera," The Elder Saint said.

Kiera whimpered. "Have I violated my oaths?" she asked.

"You have not violated your oaths," Fiona said. "Annatiki, I have reached a conclusion."

Oh, Mother Summer, why? Why would you curse this poor woman to live?

"Fjenna, what is your conclusion?" Annatiki asked.

"Heritor Kiera, what is your highest ideal?" Fiona asked.

Kiera was speechless. "I, um... don't know. Please, great Elder..."

"You do know," Annatiki said. "You will speak only truth."

Her voice was the coldest, most emotionless voice Kiera had ever heard before. In that moment, looking into those cold, determined eyes, Kiera felt more than just fear. She felt the other woman's overwhelming pain. The Charlatan King's own daughter, corrupted, tormented. Mother Summer, what I wouldn't give to heal her. What I wouldn't give to undo what her father did to her.

"I wish to care for others." Kiera said truthfully. "I wish I could heal you."

"If I have need of healing I will do it myself," Annatiki snapped.

"See?" Fiona insisted. "Harmless, as I said. She is already subjugated. In fact, she has subjugated herself with her own caring and motherly nature. I think we should take away her aura and begin training her. She can help you in your honorable quest to subjugate the etherborne."

"Do as you please Fjenna. You have not failed me before, not in all the centuries since I killed my father. I will not kill her today. You are free to take her as your apprentice."

Fiona grabbed Kiera by the scruff of her neck and dragged her out of the chamber. "So you live," she said. "That is surprising. I expected that she would kill you."

"You lied to me," Kiera hissed.

"To be fair I did not want you to spend the whole flight brooding over your imminent execution."

"I didn't even know oculomancers can lie!"

"Oh yeah, we lie all the time," Fiona admitted. "For example, that huge propaganda campaign to convince people that the Elder Saint exists. It's the reason we ended up in this situation in the first place, I think. During the war, it was widely believed that our entire world was being punished. Punished for all eternity, for our hubris. We took upon ourselves the eyes which see truth, yet we swore no oaths to speak truth. A powerful being named the Queen of Light repaid our hubris by creating the witchstone."

"I never heard anything like that before," Kiera said.

"We found all the books that mentioned it," Fiona said. "Then we made corrections to those books. We were very thorough."

"So who is this 'Queen of Light?' Is that just another name for Mother Summer?"

"No, Mother Summer and Father Winter fled our world when the witchstone was discovered."

"Sacrilege!"

"It's true!" Fiona insisted. "Reyndell even met both of them. And because I am an oculomancer, I could tell his story was truthful. Father Winter and Mother Summer were humans, not gods. They were in love with each other sometimes, but their mistress, the Queen of Darkness, sometimes made them forget their love. They got spooked by Reyndell's ability to modify souls, so they abandoned our world."

Kiera shivered. "That's a lie. You just admitted that oculomancers can lie."

"Don't worry," Fiona said. "When you get your eyes, you will be able to see for yourself that I am telling the truth."