Ahead of them they could see a change in the surface of the ocean. There was a defined line where chop and deep swell transitioned into a glassy surface, perfectly still and flat. The reflected moonlight made the area look luminous, and there was no visible end to this change in conditions. They passed, very slowly, over the line. There was an immediate change in conditions, the sounds of the waves completely silenced, the breeze stilled. They drifted a little more, getting lower, and then, with no warning, lights. Hundreds of lights. The flat sea ahead of them burst with lights, as if a curtain had suddenly been pulled away. What looked like hundreds of windows floating above the water and reflected perfectly below it. As they got closer, they saw that many of the window lights were actual windows, sitting in wooden towers that rose out of the sea. Baron and Amy had their heads fully out of the windows by that point, like dogs collecting scents.

‘What do you see?’ demanded Thomas.

‘I …. You have to look. I don’t have the words.’ responded Amy.

‘Me too.’ said Janik, and both Janik and Thomas tried to get their heads through the small window alongside Amy and Baron.

They floated lower and closed in on the lights, still at the same excruciating dream pace. Details were starting to resolve now, as well as windows they could see large circular doors that had been opened to balconies, and backlit figures on the balconies observing them as they inched closer.

‘It goes down!’ exclaimed Baron. Amy followed Baron’s gaze and realised that the lights continued down under the water, there were as many lights under the calm surface as there were in the towers protruding above it.

‘What the hell is this place?’ Janik asked in a hushed and slightly awed tone.

‘I wonder if they have sandwiches.’ added Thomas.

The van was only centimeters above the water now and ahead of them a vertical crack of light appeared. The base was flush with the water and it was taller than all of the wooden towers arranged around it. The light grew wider and Amy realised it was two doors opening, more than wide enough to receive the van, which eased smoothly between them. The van’s gradual descent ended with an almost imperceptible transfer of weight to its wheels, it rolled forward a few meters, then came to rest. Gregor collapsed forward, his head falling on the steering wheel with a thump.

Baron scrambled to the monk’s side, ‘Gregor! Are you alright?’

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The van’s door slid open, and before the occupants could rush out, three men dressed in the same robes as Gregor rushed in, pushed past Jaink and the security crew, and lifted Gergor out of his seat.

‘Will he be ok?’ asked Amy.

These monks shared Gregor’s oversized physique, and lifted him easily out of his seat and towards the van’s door. One of them looked towards Amy who noticed they also shared Gregor’s thick beard.

The monk looking at Amy, who had a dark curly beard and eyebrows that matched spoke, ‘He is exhausted. But he will be fine. He needs rest and support from our health and safety healers’.

It was shocking to hear the phrase ‘health and safety’ in this setting. Such a modern and mundane phrase to encounter inside a floating city of towers.

The monk continued, he had the same accent as Gregor, almost Scottish but not quite. ‘Gregor has a kind heart, but he’s a dimwit. He should have left you with those charlatans to die. You have no power. Gregor has power, but he squanders it on idiots like you.’

Amy was shocked at his hostility, ‘We didn’t ask him to rescue us!’.

Another Monk entered the van, considerably smaller and thinner than the three monks removing Gregor. ‘Enough Dinesh. That isn’t helpful. Come with me children. We’ll get you some food. You must be starving. What a remarkable use of magic on Gregor’s part. The distance you have travelled propelled only by Gregor’s will power, incredible.

‘Children? I’m 27,’ said Amy. ‘But I am starving.’

‘I’m 35,’ chipped in Janik. ‘Just since we’re listing ages. Can you untie me monk? My wrists are rubbed raw.’

The monk snapped all four of his fingers and the plastic tie binding Janik’s wrists fell to the floor. It stopped all four of the non-monks in their tracks. The audacity of it. The display of raw power, no conditions, eyes open, so casually executed. He just clicked his fingers. Like a magic man at a child’s birthday party doing a trick. Janik looked like he had been physically struck.

‘It’s a scam. It must be,’ said Amy, just as confused and triggered by what she has just seen as Janik was.

The monk ignored her. ‘Get out of this van. We have a look to talk about.’

They climbed out of the van into a large space with a high arched ceiling and polished wooden floors. The large doors they had entered through were closing behind the van. The arch motif continued in the windows, one in each wall stretching from the floor to just shy of the ceiling. Out of each window they could see the lights of the other towers. Something seemed wrong about the towers to Amy. They seemed to be growing. She noticed water starting to rise at the bottom of the windows. With a start she realised the towers weren’t growing taller, their room was moving down into the water.

‘Oh,’ she said. ‘This room is sinking!’

‘It’s submerging’ said the skinny monk. ‘It’s a small difference but an important one I’m sure you agree.’

The strangest thing in the space was by far Gregor’s van. The van itself was a fairly typical Hyundai trade van, white and long with painted over rear windows. But crudely welded to the top of it was a large steel barrel, as tall as the van itself.

‘What on earth is in that?’ asked Amy.

‘Aaeron and goat shit.’ replied Janik.

Amy stared at him uncomprehendingly.

‘Come on. We have food for you.’ said the monk.

‘A sandwich would be amazing.’ said Thomas.