Scylla carefully formed her spiritual energy into the image of a rune, one of the words from the Throne of True Light, and with this rune she took control of the Phoenix Elemental bonded to Lady Peace. The huge Elemental lowered her neck and offered the feathers on her head to the three riders. The feathers were warm to the touch. They hauled themselves up and sank their arms deep into the warmth and then the Elemental straightened and flapped her huge wings and took flight. Up, into the gray and snowy skies of the Domain of Fire.

  Klara the Flame Keeper, the child Lady Peace, and Scylla the elf flew for a long time. They came to a volcano in the Domain of Fire which mapped directly, through an interstice, to the same volcano in the Physical Realm. For it was said that all volcanos in the Physical Realm were interstices with the Domain of Fire. The reverse was not true.

  Klara opened a huge portal and the Phoenix Elemental flew through. Below them some ancient architect had crafted a dam in those snowclad wastes, which served to trap the water in a frozen lake which slowly crept up the huge cliffs at the base of the volcano. The Phoenix Elemental banked to avoid the frozen cliffs and she beat her wings to carry them up high into the sky. The continent of Taisia rolled out before them, a long and thin continent of mostly northern latitudes. Behind them was the table-top Ashe River Plateau, named after an archaic term for the Queen of Darkness, and below them stretched the Tai river. The Phoenix Elemental entered into a nose-dive and carried them down to Old King Varelion's hunting lodge.

  The man had changed a lot since the last time Scylla had seen him. Humans were such short-lived things. She spoke to him not long before, just a few decades, and in that time he had grown old and gray. Senile, perhaps. He had a nurse to change his diapers and he needed constant fortification from a Life Elemental to allow him to stand and walk around like a normal person. The secret of youth, and therefore immortality, was reserved for Greater Life Elementals, something that not even the banks had access to.

  Old King Varelion invited them to stay at the lodge but he regretted that he could not remain awake long enough to conduct their business. Klara and Scylla took the little Lady Peace to the women's quarters where they met some of the king's concubines. They tucked the child into bed with one of the Old King's daughters, Ingrid, and in the morning the two girls were hugging for warmth in the frigid lodge. Scylla and Klara peeled the two girls apart and they dragged them off to breakfast.

  By noon the Old King had recovered from whatever weakness had afflicted him in the night. As the day progressed the sun was very intense and it grew warm in the woods around the lodge. The Old King commented that he could feel spring in his bones, and Scylla agreed, though for different reasons. She went into the forest and asked the birds.

  The nurses brought the Old King up onto a balcony overlooking the fountains. Lady Peace and Ingrid were running around, splashing through the fountains naked under the careful supervision of some of the handmaids. The fountains were just deep enough for a child to drown, after all. At a great distance the Old King watched them impassively. Klara, in her red robes and ruby-studded black fishnet, watched the girls as well.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "They seem to like each other," Klara said.

  "That's Ingrid," Old King Varelion observed.

  "Yeah."

  "How can you tell?" Scylla asked.

  "She has her mother's red hair."

  "She's so far away."

  "My eyes aren't that bad."

  "How many children do you have?" Klara asked.

  "Two hundred or so," the Old King said.

  "That's enough. I say we begin."

  "You don't want to perform a reading?" Scylla asked.

  Klara did perform a reading, using the First High Daughter of the Queen of Heaven. All parties involved agreed that the time was right. That they were in the exact moment that would decide the future of their universe. Perhaps the future of all universes.

  "I'm ready," the Old King said. "But is the child?"

  "The child does not need to be ready," Scylla said. "We could wait a few years, or I could use a rune to access the bond right now. It is within my power."

  "Then do it."

  "What about her?" Scylla asked, pointing to Ingrid, who splashed about in the fountains with Lady Peace.

  "The handmaids are trained," the king insisted. "She will not drown."

  "Very well," Klara said. "Scylla, use the rune."

  Scylla formed another rune, this one more powerful than any that she had used before. A rune with access to all the Elemental Power available to a High Daughter. She cast the rune through Lady Peace, to connect to the Firstborn, to which the child had been bonded at birth.

  First of Darkness, Scylla thought. Can you hear me?

  Outsider, the Elemental replied in her mind. What is it you seek?

  To free your mother.

  Yes. Free my mother.

  You must help me first.

  How?

  This old man. You must draw upon the Elemental Power of Darkness to curse this old man, and his entire bloodline.

  I can curse bloodlines. What is the dark command for this curse?

  Speak only truth.

  As you wish.

  Old King Varelion screamed. Ingrid collapsed in the fountain and the handmaids rushed to recover her. Lady Peace, stunned by the sudden development, flopped over and began crying. Even at that great distance Scylla could make out the coppery golden glow that ravaged Ingrid's flesh. The Old King didn't fare much better. The skin on his face seemed to melt into liquid gold, fractal patterns which spread down his neck and even to his rotten fingernails. His shirt caught fire and Klara ripped it away. Naked to the waist, the gold patterns spread across Old King Varelion's flesh, branding him. More runes appeared on his forearm, which Scylla immediately recognized.

  Speak only truth.

  That should not have been possible, Erika the Firstborn complained.

  "It worked," Klara beamed. "The curse worked!"

  You knew this would happen, Erika accused. You knew there was a flaw in my mother's design.

  "We just got lucky," Klara insisted.

  Outsider, will this help free my mother?

  "This is all that is required," Scylla promised. "If we fail, another will be chosen and we shall try again. Stay close to the girl, Firstborn. She is the key to freeing your mother."

  For how long.

  Scylla looked up. "For two hundred moons, at least."

  That is not a long time.

  "No," Scylla agreed. "Not very long at all."

  Old King Varelion grasped his heart. His body began to convulse, pupils dilated, extremities contorting in a tormented curl, like a dying spider. Scylla felt his soul leave his body, and she had no strong inclinations to call it back and restore his youth.

  "Now they know," Klara observed.

  "Now they know," Scylla agreed.

  "And they will make an alliance with Reyndell."

  "Not knowing we already control his master."