The icy coolness of the battle faded. No longer fighting for survival, Shane had time to take in his surroundings. The huge Draconic Paladin named Felix stalked off to beg their master for forgiveness, no doubt. Shane himself knelt in front of the wall of corpses outside the coffee house. Dark blue, nearly-black blood was smeared all across the copper tiles, dripping from the clumped blue hair of his kin, gathering into rivers and pools all around. The air smelled of smoke and burned flesh. The sirens had ended, replaced by the sound of dogs barking throughout the city.

Why would the Blue Dragon do this?

The Quarian citizens, with their distinctive dark-red hair, were beginning to roam about the square once again. Burly men carried wheel barrels and carts. The women carried buckets of water and wool blankets.

And why would the Red Dragon ever let my people live in her lands in the first place?

It was a question that had been bothering him for seven years. Seven years of fear, ever since he discovered that flaw in his soul that would allow the Blue Dragon to destroy him. He lived every moment with this fear. The fear that any moment could be his last, his final sight, his final taste of life. Then nothingness, his corpse animated as a soldier, a small part of an invading army.

And now the moment had passed.

"The smell is terrible!" Astrid cried from behind. Shane instantly stood and faced her. Felix was trotting at her side, his face filled with defeat. "I hate foul smells. They make me so irritated!" Shane suddenly felt the Purple Dragon establish a connection with the Realm of Wind. It was a clean connection, the type that a mage would use. Astrid made no attempt to hide it. With a great teal flash, Astrid drew a surge of power through the connection. Shane shivered.

I would be instantly killed if I tried something like that.

The air in the square began to shimmer. Different smells took on different colors, and began to coalesce into tall pillars. When this was done, the air smelled fresh, like the wind blowing across a mountain ridge.

"Much better. No! You do not need to sing about this place. I can imagine it is quite unpleasant." The Purple Dragon pointed her finger straight at Shane. "Servant! Take us from this place."

"It shall be done, Almighty Dragon." Shane reached out and established three connections: the Realm of Wind, the Realm of Lightning, and the Realm of Water. He drew power through each connection, shaping them into powerful storm sorcery. Lightning rippled across his chest and down his arms. He pulled Felix, Astrid, and the other purple-haired woman with the daggers into the spell. They began to levitate, slowly at first, but rapidly gaining in speed. The ground dropped away.

"Outside the walls!" Astrid shouted. "Find a place that is high, a place where we can rest and overlook the city."

"There are cliffs to the north-west," Felix said. He pointed, and Shane saw the cliffs in question. They were long and thin, clad in trees, rising in layers, gleaming in the sunlight. With a surge of power Shane accelerated the party in that direction.

The city rolled past. Red Drakes hunted the last remaining Blue Drakes in the sky between two airships. Soldiers from the City Guard and thugs from the Heritage Militia worked together to hack away at the reanimated corpses of Rilnese workers. The city walls rushed by below and then they were out over the golden forest.

The cliffs were surprisingly far away. It took much longer than Shane had anticipated to fly across the forest. He had reached the limit of how high he could go. Astrid's blessing gave him the power to fly much higher than normal, but it was not nearly high enough to clear the escarpments. He came to a stop just a few feet away from the gray-brown rock wall.

"Almighty Dragon, forgive me. I can go no higher."

Astrid sighed. "It is unlikely that I will find a better servant on this continent. Alas, it seems I must intervene."

The three connections were ripped away from Shane by some unseen force, a power that was completely unrecognizable as magic. Shane could still sense them, except Astrid was now holding the connections herself. Power surged through her, and they began to float up. The trees below grew smaller and smaller, and the amount of power Astrid drew through the connections increased exponentially as they ascended. Up they went, until they easily cleared the escarpment and settled gently on a grassy ridge overlooking the city.

"Sing to me, of what you see!" Astrid said.

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Shane turned to Felix. The tall man looked uncertain. They both turned to the shorter purple-haired woman. She put one finger over her mouth. Nobody spoke.

Astrid put both hands on her hips. "Ah! Beautiful! This place is perfect! Let us be off, then." She turned and began her march through the forest. Shane watched her feet. He assumed she was blind, but she deftly avoided the knotted roots and muddy puddles between the trees.

They came upon a dusty clearing between the trees. Shane felt a hand on his shoulder. The purple-haired woman was holding himself and Felix back. Astrid moved forward into the clearing.

"I am called Brigid," the woman whispered in his ear. "I would have told you earlier, but you seemed deep in contemplation after the fighting stopped."

Astrid tilted her head back. A blinding purple light flashed from her chest, hidden from direct sight but strong enough to darken the sky. Shane rubbed his eyes and blinked it off. A small purple crystal floated up into view above Astrid's head. It rotated slowly and made a high-pitched droning sound.

Nothing, Shane thought. I detected nothing. Whatever she did was completely unrecognizable as magic.

"Lift us up again," Brigid whispered.

The crystal rushed forward and buried itself in the soil in the center of the clearing. The ground began to tremble. Lightning-like cracks of purple crystal split out in all directions. Shane reached out and established the same three connections again, quickly lifting the party a few feet above the clearing. The purple crystals began to grow upward, violently pushing up above the trees. In a few moments a spire had formed, as tall as the city walls. It was very similar to the red crystal spires that could be found down in the city, with a similar oily, rainbow sheen.

The trembling subsided. Shane set them down again.

Astrid turned around and faced Shane. Her full lips formed into a smile. "Such naughty thoughts!" she said. "Trying to puzzle out the nature of my power? Since you have so tastefully performed your duties as my servant thus far, I shall venture to give you a hint."

She chuckled.

"What type of magic was used to create the Realms, I wonder?"

"Almighty Dragon, I shall contemplate this question." Shane bowed deeply.

"And you, dear Felix. I feel the anxious nature of your thoughts. Shane as well, you both share the same concern. Why would the Red Dragon allow such a thing to happen in her lands? I too would like to know. And so, dear Felix, you shall carry me to the north, so that I might ask the Red Dragon myself."

Felix suddenly seemed animated. "Thank you!" he said. "Thank you, Princess Astrid! As you say, we shall travel together, to the north. To Flood's End."

Another bright flash of light appeared in Astrid's hand, partially hidden by her fingers. She produced a second purple crystal and handed it to Felix.

"Find flat land and burn away the trees with your fire. Plant this crystal, and it shall form into a runway long enough for takeoff and landing."

With a victorious smile, Felix pocketed the crystal and said: "I will go at once."

"When that is done, return to the city and inform the other soldiers of your journey. Return to the spire when you are done. Do not be long." The hulking man marched off into the forest.

Brigid pushed Shane forward gently to follow Astrid toward the spire. "As Astrid's new servant, there are certain facts that you must know about the Princess," she said.

As they approached and then entered the spire, Brigid began listing off the Purple Dragon's titles and her many children, her great deeds, the names of the male dragons that were reserved for her as mates. Shane listened absentmindedly, nodding occasionally, but continuing to ponder Astrid's question.

With a snap of her fingers, dozens of empty suits of armor materialized in the spire's interior. Magenta mist formed into bodies, lifting and then animating the empty sets of armor. They began roaming around the building, casting spells on their own, creating everyday objects such as rugs and lamps. Astrid slapped her hands together in front of her chest, then ripped them apart rapidly. The air in the center of the chamber ripped open, creating a rim of distorted purple light around a solid blackness in the middle.

A portal?

"There!" the Purple Dragon said. "All ready!"

The portal flickered, and with a brilliant flash of light a second Purple Dragon appeared in the room. She was as tall as Astrid, nearly eight feet in height, though her hair was different. She saw Shane and then gasped.

"Another whelp! Oh my! I thought this one was a girl!"

"Shane, you are in the presence of Princess Elvira of House Anna-Rhea. You are invited to bow."

He prostrated himself on the ground. This one named Elvira must be the source of Astrid's power. He thought. Fate Binders always travel with a partner. At least that was the general consensus. Textbooks which happened to mention Fate Binders were very rare and very expensive. However, Shane had found several in the library in the Viscount's palace. The windows on the upper level of the library were generally easy to open with a little magic.

"Come sister, we must decide how to furnish our new room," Astrid said. The two Purple Dragons turned away and began to ascend the growing crystal steps at the far end of the spire. Far above, rings of platforms and spiraling staircases began to form.

"Hold still," Brigid snapped when they were out of earshot. "Princess Elvira finds your long hair offensive."

He felt her hand yank on his hair. He heard the sound of a dagger being drawn. Locks of long, silky, dark blue hair fell away. Shane gasped, but it was too late. Brigid handed the severed locks of hair to a nearby suit of animated armor.

"I have not cut my hair in fifteen years," Shane protested.

"Ask one of the constructs," Brigid replied. "They will give you a proper, masculine haircut."

Outside the spire, Shane heard the sound of explosions. Felix, in his massive red drake form, roamed through the sky outside, blasting the forest away with long bouts of crimson flame. Those flames were not created by a connection to the Realm of Fire. Is it possible that dragon breath uses some type of magic? he wondered. Magic that existed before the Realms were created?

"Now follow me upstairs," Brigid said. "I will show you where you will be sleeping."