Zenith Dominion - Chapter 13: Scope Creep (Patreon)

Ameno Uzume  

The wind over the Summer Sea had become cold enough to freeze an ordinary man's lungs by the time Hikari stopped climbing. Her six wings spread against the clear sky, holding her above a vast bank of clouds that stretched across the southern horizon. Far below, sunlight scattered over the water in silver flashes, while the coast of Essos had disappeared into the haze behind her. 

She had come up here for some peace and quiet. That had been the intention, anyway. 

The sky was beautiful. Months in this world had done little to diminish her appreciation for a proper blue sky, particularly after growing up beneath the carefully regulated atmosphere of Neo-Tokyo. The Earth she remembered had possessed its own beauty, but much of it came filtered through atmospheric processors, environmental controls and the occasional optimistic public-relations campaign explaining why the latest ecological disaster represented an exciting opportunity for sustainable innovation. 

Planetos had no such conveniences. Its people had spent thousands of years discovering new ways to be cruel to one another, and yet the world itself possessed forests, oceans and enormous stretches of clear air that Earth's richest citizens would have paid fortunes to experience. 

Hikari turned slowly in the sunlight, allowing her wings to adjust without conscious effort. 

She wished Alex were here. 

He would have enjoyed the view for perhaps thirty seconds before investigating why the atmospheric conditions differed from Earth's, whether ambient mana influenced local weather, and how much energy would be required to establish a permanent observation station at this altitude. 

Eventually, he would have noticed she was watching him. 

Then he would have put the calculations aside, at least until she stopped kissing him. 

A smile came to her lips before the familiar pressure returned at the edge of her awareness. 

Someone was praying. Several people, actually, although several had become a rather inadequate description of the problem over the past few days. 

Hikari closed her eyes and allowed the sensation to sharpen. 

Since the ceremony in Qarth, the prayers had acquired a clarity she was still learning to manage. Previously, worship had arrived as a distant accumulation of feeling, a strange spiritual pressure that grew stronger whenever people gathered in her name. Now individual voices occasionally emerged from it, each carrying fragments of thought, emotion and intention. 

The first belonged to an Unsullied soldier in Astapor. 

Mother of Hosts, this one keeps the eastern watch until the morning bell. There are brothers on the northern road. Let them return with their spears and their lives. This one asks for nothing else. 

His prayer came with the impression of a dark watchtower, the discomfort of armor worn too long, and a worry he had apparently decided was unworthy of sharing with his captain. 

Hikari recognized the disciplined construction of the plea. The Unsullied had been trained to make themselves small even in speech. Freedom had given them names and the right to refuse orders, but years of conditioning had left traces that no proclamation could erase. 

She let a little warmth flow toward him. 

Whether he experienced it as anything more than a passing sense of reassurance, she couldn't tell. She hoped his brothers returned safely, although the practical part of her mind immediately wondered why they were on the northern road and whether Hajime had approved the patrol's route. 

Another voice came from Qarth, carried upon a richer current of incense, anxiety and thoroughly commercial ambition. 

O most radiant Winged Majesty, whose golden favor has brought prosperity beneath the heavens, look kindly upon the humble petitioner who lays his accounts before Your divine wisdom. May the spice ships of your servant arrive before the autumn storms, may his rivals suffer only such misfortunes as Your Majesty considers just, and may his eldest daughter find a husband possessed of no fewer than three sound vessels and an honorable disposition toward his father-in-law. 

Hikari almost laughed. 

Three ships. 

Apparently the merchant had revised his requirements downward since the last time she heard him. 

The daughter herself had previously prayed for permission to marry a young harbor clerk with very little property and an excellent singing voice. Hikari doubted the two petitions would be reconciled without an unpleasant family dinner. 

A third voice interrupted before she could consider whether divine intervention in matrimonial negotiations constituted an unacceptable conflict of interest. 

Wings Mother, please. The little one has taken the bread today, and she kept it down. The healer said the fever should pass, only she's still hot when I hold her. I have clean water, like they told me. I boiled it. Please don't let her be taken. I've only just got her back. 

The words came from a former slave in Yunkai. 

Hikari's amusement faded. 

She could sense neither the child's illness clearly enough to diagnose it nor the woman's exact location. What reached her was the fear of someone who had learned to expect every kindness to be withdrawn, and whose daughter had apparently survived long enough to be returned to her care. 

Hikari held the prayer in her awareness for several moments, searching for some means of following it to its source. 

A vague impression of sun-baked brick and a crowded room was all she could obtain. 

She would have to ask the healers in Yunkai to examine their pediatric cases again. Alex could probably devise a way to attach locations to prayers, although she could already imagine his reaction to the idea of building a divine customer-service system without a reliable authentication process. 

Then another prayer arrived. 

By the Winged Goddess's tits, will those bloody goats stop bleatin' for one cursed night!? 

Hikari's eyes opened. 

"Excuse me!?" 

The voice belonged to a farmer somewhere near the Skahazadhan, a man whose exhaustion was accompanied by the unmistakable impression of livestock, bad fencing and an extremely uncooperative breeding season. 

Of all the things he could have invoked, why did it have to involve her breasts? 

She very nearly reached for the prayer again, intending to give its owner a pointed reminder that the divine feminine was perfectly capable of hearing what he said about her. Then several dozen other petitions brushed against her awareness, followed by hundreds more, and Hikari abandoned the idea. At this rate, she would spend eternity conducting disciplinary hearings against people who swore creatively. She pushed the goat farmer into the growing category of matters requiring no immediate divine intervention. 

Perhaps it was time to establish an official prayer policy. 

The thought pleased the corporate heiress in her. 

A clearly defined service charter, perhaps. Categories of petition. Escalation criteria. A distinction between genuine emergencies and requests concerning profitable marriages, missing sandals or goats that refused to shut up. 

She could even establish a celestial help desk. 

The Principality Observations would handle routine petitions, Archangel Flames could receive requests for protection, and the Dominion Authorities would supervise serious matters. Naturally, matters involving unjust death, enslavement or threats to the faithful would be routed directly to her. 

There would have to be performance reviews. 

Hikari imagined presenting Alex with a quarterly report titled Divine Operations: Prayer Intake, Response Times and Stakeholder Satisfaction. 

He would take it seriously. That was the most disturbing part. 

Worse, he would probably find three inefficiencies, reorganize the entire arrangement, and ask whether the souls of the dead required a separate after-sales support department. Her amusement faded at that last thought, because the question had already become painfully relevant. 

Months ago, people praying to her had seemed like an elaborate joke. She had been Hikari Amano, twenty-one years old, an heiress accustomed to expensive shoes, university examinations, corporate succession politics and the occasional argument about how much money a gaming company ought to spend developing a virtual-reality title. 

Then she had awakened inside her YGGDRASIL avatar, and an entire world had begun treating her as a goddess. She had accepted the title readily enough when it frightened slavers and reassured the people she liberated. The prayers had seemed a manageable consequence, something she could tolerate while Alex investigated the larger problem. 

Now she could hear them. 

The strange inheritance left by the Lady of the Spear had settled more deeply into her existence since the blessing of Hajime. Hikari no longer sensed the old goddess as anything separate. What remained of her had become part of Hikari's own instincts, memories and growing authority. 

Some of those instincts were unsettling. 

The Unsullied prayer had brought an immediate desire to stand beside his watchtower with Hastalucis in hand, daring any enemy to approach her soldiers. The former slave's plea had awakened something fiercer: an absolute conviction that a child under her protection must not be taken, and that anyone attempting it deserved no mercy. 

The feeling came naturally. It belonged to her as surely as her love for Alex or her hatred of slavery. 

She could no longer determine how much of that certainty came from the woman who had played Ame-no-Uzume and how much had grown from the divine mantle she now carried. 

That was what frightened her. 

She still enjoyed teasing Alex, still wanted iced coffee and a proper hot bath after a long day, and still found it immensely satisfying to watch pompous men discover that the woman across the negotiating table owned considerably more leverage than they did. 

Yet she could also look upon an army and calculate how much force would be required to destroy it without feeling the immediate human horror she once would have expected. 

Her compassion had grown. So had her capacity for violence. 

Alex had noticed. 

He never said that he feared losing her, although she had caught him watching the new currents of divine power with his Omniscope on more than one occasion. He would explain what he was measuring if she asked, and sometimes even volunteer his latest theory, but he had begun spending far too many evenings among old religious texts and historical records. 

Hikari knew his habits well enough to recognize a problem he believed he could solve if only he gathered enough data. 

She wanted to tell him that she was still here. 

She also wished she could tell him exactly what here meant. 

For a while she remained above the clouds, letting the voices recede to a manageable distance. Then she turned her attention toward the quieter current beyond them, the one that had first become apparent when the dying Lady of the Spear surrendered her mantle. 

The world shifted in her perception. 

She could still feel the wind and the sunlight upon her body, but another landscape now lay across the physical world: currents of pale radiance, immense distances that refused to correspond to geography, and countless flickering presences moving through a region she had no better name for than the realm of souls. 

Some lights were held within old territories shaped by generations of worship. Others drifted between them, following currents Hikari could sense without understanding. 

She recognized a few of the presences attending those passages. There were patient, ancient things that seemed to guide the dead, and smaller spirits whose domains had barely survived the loss of their worshippers. 

Farther away, darker powers moved through the same currents. 

They were difficult to observe. Some withdrew from her attention, while others turned toward it with a hunger that made her wings tighten. 

What little she understood was enough to disturb her. 

Souls were vulnerable here. Their destinations depended upon powers, bargains and traditions that had existed long before Alex and Hikari arrived. Some found shelter. Others appeared to be claimed, trapped or consumed, although Hikari could not yet distinguish every natural process from predation. 

The possibility that one of her followers might die trusting in her protection, only to pass into the hands of something cruel, made the power within her gather. For an instant she wanted to descend upon those distant shadows and burn them from the realm entirely. 

She restrained the impulse. 

An enemy in reach of her spear was a military problem she understood. This place obeyed rules neither she nor Alex had properly mapped, and she would accomplish very little by charging into it without knowing what would happen to the souls caught nearby. 

The Sanctuary project suddenly seemed much less theoretical. 

Their followers needed somewhere safe to go after death, a refuge governed by rules they could trust rather than the appetites of whichever ancient power reached them first. 

Her corporate mind promptly began drafting a business proposal. 

Sanctuary Initiative: Comprehensive Post-Mortem Welfare and Soul Preservation. 

The inaugural service would naturally include indefinite residency, freedom from predatory spiritual entities, and guaranteed protection under the personal authority of the Winged Goddess of Justice. 

No subscription fees. No cancellation penalties. A strict prohibition against unauthorized soul harvesting. And, because Alex would insist, an independently audited security architecture with disaster recovery procedures. 

Hikari found herself smiling despite the circumstances. 

"Congratulations, darling," she murmured to the empty sky. "We've accidentally expanded into the afterlife business." 

The smile did not last long.  

Neither of them knew how to build such a place. They had enormous reserves of mana, extraordinary abilities and access to magical systems that surpassed everything they had encountered on Planetos. But their power remained anchored primarily in their physical existence, while the native gods had spent centuries becoming part of the unseen structures sustaining their worshippers. 

Hikari could perceive some of those structures now. Understanding how to reproduce one was another matter. She had never felt quite so much like the daughter of a corporate dynasty handed control of an unfamiliar company whose previous management had somehow failed to leave an instruction manual. 

Only this company handled eternity. 

She withdrew her attention from the realm of souls. Sunlight returned to its ordinary clarity as the unseen currents receded, although the prayers continued at the edge of her awareness. The farmer was still angry about the goats. Hikari left him to it and began her descent toward Qarth. 

 The Queen's Study remained pleasantly cool despite the afternoon heat pressing against the walls of the Hexarch Bastion. Sunlight passed through the enchanted windows and fell across Hikari's desk, illuminating three separate stacks of correspondence that had somehow grown since she left the room that morning. 

The empire was expanding faster than its administration, which was an impressive achievement considering the latter contained an immortal artificer who treated paperwork as a personal challenge. 

Hikari settled into her high-backed chair, arranging her six wings through the openings in its white-ash frame. Alex had designed the thing after watching her destroy two perfectly respectable chairs by forgetting that her lower wings required more room than human furniture generally provided. 

She reached for the first report. 

The Academy had passed five thousand students. 

Hikari checked the accompanying figures, pleasantly surprised by the distribution. Former slaves formed the largest group, with merchant children following close behind. A smaller but politically significant portion came from the noble families of Qarth and the conquered cities of Liberty Bay. 

The latter required special attention. 

Most of those children had been sent to Qarth under the terms of their families' submission. Officially they were imperial wards, entrusted to the Dominion for their education. In practice, their presence discouraged the surviving Ghiscari aristocracy from behaving quite as foolishly as it otherwise might. 

A hostage system with excellent educational benefits. 

Hikari had insisted upon certain conditions. The children received proper meals, medical care, comfortable quarters, and the right to correspond with their families. They were permitted to retain their household religions, and the youngest received personal attendants familiar with their native languages. 

None of that changed the political purpose of keeping them here. 

Alex had been characteristically thorough in designing their education. Mathematics, history, economics, natural philosophy, and the foundations of Tier Magic formed the core curriculum. Equally important, students from noble households studied alongside the children of merchants and former slaves. 

That arrangement had produced several complaints. 

One Yunkish boy had apparently refused to share a classroom with the daughter of a freed household servant. The instructor had informed him that he was welcome to request another course, provided he could explain why the girl's superior examination results constituted a problem. 

The boy was now taking additional mathematics lessons. 

Hikari made a note to commend the instructor. 

She had spent enough of her old life among wealthy families to recognize the value of humiliating an arrogant heir without making the humiliation the point of the exercise. If the child eventually became a competent administrator, he might even thank them. 

And if his father joined the conspiracies currently troubling Yunkai, the Dominion would already possess a possible successor who understood its laws. 

There lay the more uncomfortable advantage. 

The noble wards were growing accustomed to an empire where ancestry did not automatically confer the right to own other people. A decade from now, they might regard its institutions as entirely natural. Their parents would have a harder time explaining why returning to the old order justified another war. 

It was a rather sophisticated form of political conditioning. 

Hikari had approved it without much difficulty. 

The next report, bearing the seal of the Shadow Demons stationed in Yunkai, explained why. 

Several surviving Wise Master families had begun meeting privately. Their estates were losing money, their former slaves demanded wages, and their household administrators were discovering how expensive a plantation became when its laborers could leave. 

The complaints had progressed beyond economics. 

Weapons were being purchased through intermediaries. Messengers had traveled between Yunkai and Meereen, and certain households appeared to be gathering men who had served the old regime. 

Hikari read the names and compared them against the Academy's registry. Two of the families had children in Qarth. That would become useful if the parents insisted upon continuing down this road. 

She could have ordered arrests immediately. The Shadow Demons possessed more than enough ability to make a handful of elderly conspirators disappear before supper, and the surviving noble houses would probably understand the warning. 

The trouble with that approach was its inefficiency. 

The old networks would survive, hidden behind different names and wealthier intermediaries. Every conspiracy suppressed too early left another collection of disgruntled families waiting for the opportunity to begin again. 

Better to establish who was supplying the money, who intended to command the soldiers, and whether anyone within the provincial administration had agreed to cooperate. 

She dipped her pen and wrote an instruction beneath the report. 

Continue observation. Identify the entire organization before intervention. Protect civilians and prepare simultaneous arrests once the conspirators commit to action. If matters deteriorated into open rebellion, she would crush it decisively. The war goddess growing within her found little difficulty with that conclusion. 

Hikari was increasingly aware of how easily she could reach it. 

Once, the idea of destroying an entire ruling class would have seemed monstrous. Now she found herself considering succession planning alongside the necessary arrests. A rebellious patriarch removed from office could be replaced by his own educated heir, provided that heir accepted the Dominion's authority. 

The children would not need to be harmed. Their families might even survive in a form worth preserving. It was a benevolent policy, by the rather alarming standards of her new profession. 

Hikari set the report aside and reached for the next, a logistical requisition concerning equipment for the new griffin handlers. Apparently, not everyone took to flying as naturally as the Tagaros siblings. Several recruits had developed mild airsickness, while others requested protective gear against the wind and dust. Nothing serious, though she was surprised Alex had overlooked such basic requirements. Her husband really must have been distracted lately. She made a note to approve the additional supplies just as a soft chime sounded from the study entrance. 

Mata stepped through the door, wearing her preferred professional appearance: short black hair, pale eyes, and an immaculate dark dress. The doppelganger's expression remained composed as she approached the desk. 

Mata stepped through the door, wearing her preferred professional appearance: short black hair, pale eyes and an immaculate dark dress. The doppelganger's expression remained composed as she approached the desk. 

"Mistress, Prime Minister Xaro Xhoan Daxos requests an audience. He brings news from the harbor concerning the arrival of foreign dignitaries, and the port officials have confirmed that several vessels entered under ceremonial colors this morning." 

Hikari placed the intelligence report aside. 

"Send him in, Mata. If the ships have brought people interested in signing treaties rather than demanding exemptions from every law we've written, perhaps this afternoon will be more productive than the morning." 

"His request mentions an offer of fealty, Mistress. I shall inform him that you are prepared to receive his report." 

Mata withdrew, and a moment later Xaro entered with a gentle rustle of silk. 

The former merchant prince wore robes that shifted from peacock green to deep purple as he walked. Gold rings adorned his fingers, and a ceremonial badge depicting a tower between two wings rested upon his chest. 

His clothing remained as extravagant as ever. 

His confidence had undergone a more substantial transformation. 

Xaro had once entered royal chambers with the relaxed assurance of a man who believed every problem could be solved by offering the correct amount of gold. His years among the Thirteen had made him wealthy, influential and exceptionally skilled at persuading others that his interests were indistinguishable from their own. 

Then Alex and Hikari had arrived in Qarth. 

The first time Xaro met her, he had attempted to court her. 

Hikari still found the memory entertaining. 

The merchant prince had offered hospitality, expensive gifts and access to his commercial networks. He had also shown an unmistakable interest in the rare artifacts possessed by the mysterious eastern travelers. 

To him, Alex's equipment represented unimaginable wealth. 

To Alex, much of it had been inventory clutter. 

Then the House of the Undying had been destroyed, and the Hexarch Bastion had risen above its remains. 

Xaro had revised his ambitions with admirable speed. 

Now he bowed deeply enough that Hikari briefly wondered whether he intended to kneel. 

"Your Celestial Majesty, radiant sovereign of Qarth and benefactress of all beneath the heavens, this humble servant rejoices that fortune has once again permitted him to stand before Your divine presence. May the treasures of the world continue to flow toward Your throne, as rivers seek the sea and merchants seek the shelter of a prosperous harbor." 

Hikari waited until he finished. 

"Good afternoon, Xaro. You may rise, and I hope the news you've brought is sufficiently interesting to justify interrupting my correspondence. I've already spent the morning reading about Yunkish nobles who apparently consider paying wages an outrageous personal injury." 

Xaro straightened, although he kept his hands folded before him. 

"Then this servant hopes to provide a more agreeable subject, Your Majesty. The Prince-Magisters of Vahar and Faros have arrived with a splendid collection of vessels carrying silk, spices and gifts intended for the imperial household. More importantly, they request the honor of swearing fealty to Your Majesties this afternoon." 

Hikari studied him. 

"Both cities together? I was under the impression that Emox za Maxoc and Raher xo Urazhok had spent the better part of their careers disputing commercial privileges along the northern coast of Great Moraq." 

Xaro's familiar languor returned as he spread his hands. 

"Ah, Your Majesty, merchants may quarrel over a copper coin for twenty years, yet discover the warmth of brotherly affection when a greater fortune appears. Emox and Raher have long competed for the same cargoes, but even men born beneath different banners can recognize when the winds have shifted in favor of a mightier house." 

"And I imagine the conquest of Liberty Bay has given them considerable reason to reconsider their position. Tell me what they're actually hoping to obtain, Xaro, preferably before you compare their loyalty to another merchant's cargo." 

His hands stopped moving. 

A slight tension entered his shoulders. 

"Of course, Your Majesty. They seek protection for their trade routes, favorable treatment regarding harbor duties and assurances that their local offices may continue under Dominion authority. They have also indicated their willingness to accept Your Majesty's laws concerning slavery, though I expect some negotiation over existing contracts and compensation." 

Better. 

Hikari drew the map of Great Moraq closer. 

"What is your assessment of the two men? I have their commercial records, but I would rather know whether we're acquiring capable administrators or another pair of hereditary nuisances." 

Xaro approached the desk at her invitation. 

"Emox za Maxoc is the son of an ancient family, Your Majesty, and has inherited both its wealth and its conviction that noble blood confers wisdom. Raher xo Urazhok rose from humbler circumstances. His grandfather kept a counting house near the docks, and Raher has never forgotten the difference between a merchant who owns a warehouse and one who must borrow the coin to rent it." 

"Which would you prefer to deal with?" 

"Raher, if Your Majesty permits this servant to offer an opinion. A man who has climbed from the counting house to the palace understands that fortune may descend the same road upon which it rose. Emox was born surrounded by silk and servants. He has never been obliged to consider what happens when the accounts fail to balance." 

Hikari glanced at the population estimates. 

Vahar and Faros possessed roughly one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants combined. Their populations were modest compared with Qarth, but their geographic positions made them valuable. 

"Both cities control important stretches of the northern coast. If they join the Dominion, we can secure much of the trade passing through Great Moraq and establish a consistent tariff system instead of making merchants pay separate duties at every harbor." 

"A most admirable ambition, Your Majesty. The merchants of the Jade Sea would offer prayers of gratitude if their cargoes could travel without losing half their value to officials who mistake every passing vessel for an opportunity to purchase another palace." 

"And our treasury would benefit from increased trade volume. I have no objection to merchants becoming wealthy, Xaro, provided they contribute something useful to the economy along the way." 

He bowed his head. 

"Your Majesty's wisdom would warm the heart of any honest merchant. Prosperity grows most readily where the roads are safe and the ruler's hand is steady." 

Hikari turned her attention toward the southern coast. 

"What about Port Moraq and Zabhad? Their harbors would give us control over the southern approaches, but the intelligence reports suggest that Yi Ti still exercises considerable influence there." 

Xaro's fingers tightened around one another. 

"Those ports remain beneath the shadow of Yin, Your Majesty, although the Golden Empire's authority has become... uncertain. Southern officials collect tribute in the Azure Emperor's name, yet some correspond with rival claimants, and merchants are beginning to question whose seals will remain valid when the present disputes are settled." 

"The Azure Emperor Bu Gai still holds Yin, while General Pol Qo has established his own authority at the Trader Town. Then there's the claimant in Carcosa calling himself the Yellow Emperor. From what our agents report, Yi Ti appears to have three competing centers of power." 

"An unfortunate division, Your Majesty. When three claimants reach for the same inheritance, prudent servants begin hiding the silver before their masters draw their swords. Yet even a wounded tiger remains dangerous, and Yi Ti has accumulated wealth and influence over thousands of years." 

Xaro paused, his gaze shifting toward Hikari's face. 

She had been studying the map rather than watching him, but his caution was unmistakable. 

"Your Majesty's power and that of His Imperial Majesty are beyond any comparison this servant could offer," he continued. "Nevertheless, the conquest of Liberty Bay has already attracted the attention of distant courts. To extend our ambitions into the Jade Sea before the new provinces are settled might encourage several powers to discover a common interest in opposing us." 

Hikari considered the warning. 

He had a point. 

She and Alex could annihilate conventional armies without much difficulty. But occupying territories, administering cities and integrating populations required considerably more than overwhelming military strength. 

There were only so many capable governors available. 

"We have no immediate interest in Yi Ti," she said. "Our priorities remain the consolidation of Liberty Bay and the development of Great Moraq. I would rather establish profitable trade relations with the eastern kingdoms than inherit their succession disputes." 

Xaro's shoulders relaxed. 

"Your Celestial Majesty's restraint will bring considerable comfort to the merchant houses. Prosperity requires confidence, and confidence has become a scarce commodity among men accustomed to hearing that another ancient city has fallen before breakfast." 

Before Hikari could answer, a familiar magical pressure touched her consciousness. 

[Message] 

Astrael. 

She recognized the Seraph Aerosphere's signature immediately and allowed the connection to open. 

'Mistress, I humbly report the successful conclusion of the campaign against New Ghis. The Iron Legion made its final stand at the harbor approaches and has been destroyed as an organized fighting force. The surviving authorities have submitted, our troops hold the granaries and docks, and the slave compounds are being secured. New Ghis now stands beneath your sovereignty, and I await Your command concerning its administration.' 

His voice carried the measured authority of a commander delivering the conclusion of a completed operation. Even through the telepathic connection, his loyalty and reverence remained unmistakable. 

'Excellent work, Astrael. Maintain military control until the provisional administration is established, and ensure the surrender terms are observed. No looting, no reprisals against those who have surrendered, and the surviving captives are to receive food and medical care. Send the full report to Qarth when the city is secure.' 

'Your will shall be fulfilled without deviation, my Empress. I shall preserve the peace, protect those placed beneath Mistress's authority, and ensure that no servant under my command mistakes victory for license to commit cruelty.' 

The connection closed. 

Hikari returned her attention to Xaro. 

He had stopped speaking and was watching her with growing apprehension. 

"Prime Minister, you may add New Ghis to the Dominion's territorial records. Astrael has informed me that the city has fallen, and the Iron Legion is no longer capable of organized resistance." 

Xaro stared at her. 

"New Ghis, Your Majesty? The ancient island fortress whose legions have guarded the approaches to Slaver's Bay for generations? Forgive this servant's astonishment, but news of such a victory would ordinarily require days to reach Qarth, even if the swiftest vessel carried the message." 

"Magical communication is considerably faster than a ship, Xaro. Astrael has already secured the principal facilities and is arranging the transfer of authority. We will receive the detailed report shortly." 

The color had drained from his face. 

"Your Majesty's accomplishments continue to exceed the boundaries of mortal understanding. A city believed impregnable yesterday has become another jewel in the imperial crown today, and this humble servant learns of its fall while discussing harbor duties." 

Hikari found his expression almost amusing. 

Almost. 

The political consequences of the victory were substantial. With New Ghis under Dominion control, their authority over the former slaveholding cities had expanded considerably. 

It would also complicate their relationship with the western powers. 

"That brings us to Tolos and Elyria. Both remain independent, and their positions are becoming increasingly awkward now that New Ghis has fallen. How much influence does Volantis exercise over their governments?" 

Xaro glanced at the map again. 

"Enough to warrant caution, Your Majesty. Their rulers maintain commercial obligations to Volantene interests, and several prominent families possess ties to the Old Blood. Though the cities are modest compared with Volantis itself, their submission to the Dominion would be regarded as another sign that the balance of power across southern Essos is shifting." 

"And you believe Volantis might intervene?" 

"Your Majesty, I believe the First Daughter of Valyria will eventually feel compelled to respond. Its rulers possess great wealth, extensive fleets and a population numbered in millions. They are proud of their ancestry and deeply invested in the continuation of slavery. The destruction of that institution across Liberty Bay threatens interests they have considered secure since the Doom." 

He paused. 

Hikari had become still. 

Xaro noticed immediately. 

His posture straightened, and when he resumed speaking, the leisurely ornamentation had nearly disappeared. 

"This servant does not presume to question Your Majesty's strength or that of His Imperial Majesty. I merely fear that a war against Volantis would carry consequences far beyond the defeat of its armies. Its population is vast, its institutions ancient, and its merchants maintain obligations throughout the western Free Cities. Such a conflict could require years of occupation and administrative work even after military victory." 

Hikari regarded him for a moment. 

Then she laughed. 

The sound carried a faint metallic resonance, an involuntary quality of her Seraph body that she had never entirely learned to suppress. 

Xaro flinched. 

"Oh, Xaro, you needn't look as though you've just condemned yourself. Your assessment is perfectly reasonable, and I'm well aware that taking a city is considerably easier than governing one." 

His expression recovered slightly. 

"Your Majesty's gracious understanding brings relief beyond words. This servant has always believed that good counsel should be offered even when its message is unwelcome, though I confess that the practice becomes rather more intimidating in the presence of divine authority." 

"Then continue offering it. I'd rather hear an uncomfortable truth than receive another report written by someone who thinks flattering me is part of his official duties." 

Xaro opened his mouth, then wisely closed it again. 

Hikari rose and walked toward the windows overlooking Qarth. 

"We have no intention of invading Volantis within the next six months," she continued. "The Dominion has enough responsibilities already. We'll consolidate Liberty Bay, develop our industries, establish functioning institutions and demonstrate that free labor can support a prosperous economy." 

Her gaze moved across the crowded streets below. 

From the fifteenth floor, the city resembled an intricate arrangement of stone and color, its people moving through markets, workshops and newly opened public spaces. 

Three months earlier, many of those people had been slaves. 

Now they received wages, attended schools and sought work beyond the households that once owned them. 

The changes were far from complete, but the direction was unmistakable. 

"Let Volantis watch what we're building," Hikari said. "Let its merchants see our roads become safer, our ports more profitable and our freedmen become craftsmen, scholars and soldiers. If the Old Blood have any sense, they'll recognize that their institutions are becoming obsolete." 

Xaro had followed her at a respectful distance. 

"And if they refuse, Your Celestial Majesty? The Old Blood have clung to their privileges for centuries. They may regard the prosperity of freed slaves as an affront to the natural order, particularly when their own wealth depends upon those same chains." 

Hikari turned toward him. 

The divine power within her stirred at the thought. 

There were moments when her growing mantle made certain moral questions appear painfully simple. Men who tortured children, trafficked in human lives and defended slavery as an ancestral privilege were enemies of everything she intended to establish. 

She could feel the impulse to destroy them. 

It would be so easy. 

Yet millions of ordinary people lived beneath the authority of those same rulers, and Hikari had no desire to turn their homes into battlefields merely to satisfy her anger. 

"Then Volantis will eventually have to make a choice," she said. "I won't launch a war simply because its rulers are arrogant, but neither will I compromise the abolition of slavery to preserve their comfort. The moment we freed the Unsullied in Astapor, we challenged the economic foundations of every slaveholding power in this part of the world." 

Xaro stood motionless. 

Hikari's wings shifted behind her, their white feathers catching the light. 

"If the Old Blood decide that their right to own human beings is worth fighting for, we'll defeat them. Their armies can be destroyed, their ruling families removed and their institutions dismantle." 

The final words came with an authority that made Xaro lower his eyes. 

For several heartbeats, he seemed uncertain whether she expected an answer. 

"Your Celestial Majesty's will is clear," he said at last, his voice quieter. "This humble servant shall ensure that our diplomatic representatives understand the limits of any future negotiation. May wisdom prevail among the rulers of Volantis before their pride invites consequences they cannot comprehend." 

Hikari watched him for another moment before returning to her desk. 

"Now, I believe you mentioned two other matters when you requested this audience. We should address them before the Prince-Magisters begin wondering whether I've forgotten their arrival." 

The change in subject restored a little of Xaro's composure. 

"Indeed, Your Majesty. The first concerns the Basilisk Isles, whose pirates and slavers have long profited from the commerce flowing through the Ghiscari ports. With the slave markets of Liberty Bay abolished, those villains have lost some of their most lucrative customers." 

"An unfortunate development for the villains, I'm sure. Have their ships begun attacking our trade routes, or are we still dealing with rumors?" 

"Reports remain uncertain, Your Majesty, though several captains speak of increased activity around the islands. Fortunately, no new Pirate King has risen to unite their quarrelsome fleets. Yet a starving wolf seldom abandons its appetite merely because the shepherd has barred the gate, and I fear the loss of their old markets may encourage attacks against legitimate shipping." 

Hikari considered the distances involved. 

The Basilisk Isles occupied an inconvenient position along the southern sea routes. Their harbors offered shelter to raiders, while the surrounding waters made prolonged naval operations difficult for ordinary fleets. 

Her forces did not suffer quite the same limitations. 

"Have the reports forwarded to Astrael and the naval commanders. I want recommendations for protecting our merchant vessels, particularly those carrying grain and other essential supplies. Once the new trade arrangements are established, we'll have even more shipping to protect." 

Xaro bowed. 

"A most prudent decision, Your Majesty. The merchant houses will be relieved to hear that their cargoes shall travel beneath the protection of the imperial forces. Yet I fear some of the pirate captains may require a more persuasive demonstration before they abandon their accustomed trade." 

"They may have one if they insist. A few of our higher-tier angels should be sufficient to destroy their fortified harbors and burn their ships, and I have no intention of allowing the islands to continue serving as a refuge for slavers." 

She paused, considering the scale of the necessary operation. 

"I would rather avoid destroying entire settlements, but I'm perfectly willing to reduce pirate strongholds to smoking craters if their owners prove incapable of learning. I've already had enough experience dealing with criminals who believed themselves untouchable." 

Xaro's expression tightened at the reference. 

He remembered the House of the Undying. 

Hikari could see it in the way his hands came together again. 

"Your Majesty's mercy toward the innocent is matched only by the severity of Your justice," he said carefully. "I shall ensure that the naval authorities understand the distinction, and perhaps the pirates will discover the wisdom of changing professions before Your divine forces arrive upon their shores." 

"That would certainly save us some trouble. We have enough reconstruction projects under way without adding the Basilisk Isles to the list." 

The Prime Minister appeared grateful for the relatively practical conclusion. 

"Your Majesty, the second matter concerns Qarth itself. There has been considerable discussion among the merchant houses and other prominent citizens regarding the future location of the imperial court." 

Hikari had been expecting that question. 

"The capital, Xaro. You're concerned that Alex and I intend to move the throne to Meereen now that Liberty Bay is under our control." 

His composure faltered. 

"Your Majesty perceives the anxieties of Your servants with extraordinary clarity. There are indeed rumors that Meereen's size and position may tempt Their Imperial Majesties to establish the permanent seat of government there, leaving Qarth deprived of the honor and prosperity that have accompanied the presence of the throne." 

Hikari smiled. 

"Relax, Prime Minister. Meereen will become an important military and administrative center, particularly for projecting our influence into central Essos. Its harbor, population and existing infrastructure make it valuable for that purpose." 

Xaro listened intently. 

"But it isn't suitable as the permanent imperial capital, and we have no plans to transfer the court there." 

The relief on his face was immediate. 

"Your Celestial Majesty has lifted a burden from the hearts of Qarth's loyal citizens. The merchants will rejoice to know that the jewel of the eastern seas has not been forgotten amidst the splendors of Your expanding empire." 

"Don't tell them Qarth will remain the capital forever, either. Alex and I haven't decided where the permanent administrative center should be, and he has several ideas that require more preparation before we make an announcement." 

The relief vanished. 

"Several ideas, Your Majesty?" 

His voice had become carefully neutral. 

Hikari had to suppress another smile. 

"Yes. You'll learn more when we're ready to discuss them. For now, I suggest the merchant houses concentrate on their businesses instead of speculating about which city will receive the next imperial palace." 

"Of course, Your Majesty. This servant shall convey Your wishes with the utmost discretion, and I shall remind the merchant houses that the prosperity of Qarth rests upon its commerce and the favor of Their Imperial Majesties, wherever the imperial court may ultimately reside." 

"Excellent. Prepare the audience chamber for Emox and Raher, and have their formal submissions examined before the ceremony. I also want a banquet arranged for this evening. Use something from the royal wine reserve." 

Xaro's expression brightened. 

"Your Majesty, I shall personally oversee the arrangements. A selection of amber wines accompanied by the finest preserved fruits and seafood of Qarth would surely honor our guests, while demonstrating that the Dominion's generosity is as magnificent as its power." 

"That sounds suitable. Have Mata send me the final seating arrangements before the banquet, and make certain the two Prince-Magisters aren't placed beside one another if their old commercial disputes are likely to spoil the evening." 

"As Your Celestial Majesty commands. This humble servant shall endeavor to make the occasion worthy of the imperial household, and may the heavens grant that our honored guests possess the wisdom to appreciate the generosity extended to them." 

He bowed deeply and withdrew. 

Hikari watched the door close behind him. 

Xaro remained an entertaining man. 

His lavish compliments and elaborate mannerisms could become exhausting, but he understood the merchant world of eastern Essos better than most of the officials they had recruited. More importantly, he was capable of recognizing when his old assumptions no longer served him. 

Survival was an underrated political skill. 

Mata returned to the desk after the Prime Minister departed. 

"Your Majesty, the accession of Vahar and Faros should substantially improve the Dominion's commercial position. The news from New Ghis will also encourage other regional authorities to reconsider their diplomatic arrangements." 

"Fear certainly helps, Mata, but I don't want it to become the only reason people join us. We need the new provinces to become prosperous enough that their neighbors see an advantage in cooperation." 

"That outcome appears increasingly likely, Mistress. Reports indicate growing interest in the Academy, the Dominion's medical facilities and the security provided along the principal trade routes." 

Hikari rose and approached a cabinet containing several bottles of wine brought from YGGDRASIL. She selected a frost-berry vintage and poured herself a small glass. 

The cool sweetness reminded her of evenings spent with Alex before their arrival on Planetos. Back then, their greatest concerns had involved corporate obligations, university examinations and the occasional argument over guild resources. 

Those days seemed very far away. At least the wine still tasted the same. 

"If Alex's Greenhouse project succeeds, we may eventually reproduce some of these ingredients," she said. "I'd rather not spend eternity watching our supply of favorite vintages dwindle into nothing." 

"master's cultivation experiments have shown promising results, mistress. Several species transplanted from YGGDRASIL are surviving within the restored territories, although the magical requirements remain considerably higher than those of native plants." 

"Then have someone remind him about the frost-berries. He'll complain that I'm turning an alchemical preserve into a private vineyard, but he'll probably build one anyway." 

Mata inclined her head. 

"I shall include the requirement in the next agricultural memorandum, Mistress." 

Hikari returned to her chair with the glass in hand. The Shadow Demon report still rested on her desk. 

For a while she studied the names written across its pages. 

She was increasingly aware that her decisions were shaping the lives of millions. Cities rose or fell upon her commands, institutions disappeared beneath her reforms, and the fates of noble families could be settled in a single meeting. 

It was the authority of a tyrant. 

A benevolent tyrant, perhaps, but a tyrant nonetheless. 

She had no illusions about that. 

The power was intoxicating in ways she had not expected. Her Seraph nature made certain moral judgments feel absolute, while the divine mantle she now carried supplied an almost instinctive certainty that she possessed the authority to act upon them. 

The more human part of her remained uneasy. 

She remembered the old Earth, the corporations that governed entire populations and the executives who justified every abuse as an unfortunate necessity of efficient management. 

She did not intend to recreate that world here. 

Yet she was building an empire through conquest, coercion and the careful management of political loyalty. Perhaps the distinction lay in what those methods were intended to accomplish. 

She had abolished slavery, established schools, opened hospitals and begun restoring lands ruined centuries earlier. Those were achievements worth defending. 

But she would have to remain watchful. Good intentions did not automatically produce good government. Nor did divine power make every decision correct. 

Hikari took another sip of wine. 

"Mata, ensure the instructions concerning the Yunkish conspirators are transmitted before evening. I want the Shadow Demons to continue monitoring their activities, but the children currently attending the Academy must remain outside any action taken against their families." 

"Mistress's orders will be conveyed without delay. The Academy's security arrangements are already sufficient to protect the wards, and additional precautions can be implemented if the situation in Yunkai deteriorates." 

"Good. I'd rather educate those children into competent citizens than teach them that the Dominion punishes people for the crimes of their parents." 

Mata accepted the completed report. 

Hikari looked toward the window. 

Another thought had been troubling her throughout the afternoon. 

"Where is my husband, Mata? I thought he was supposed to return from Meereen this morning, but apparently the city's libraries have proved more attractive than his own home." 

"Master remains in Meereen, Mistress. The latest report places him among the archives recovered from the former ruling families, where he continues examining religious manuscripts and accounts of ancient magical practices." 

Hikari leaned back. 

Of course he was. For the past week Alex had devoted almost every spare moment to studying her transformation. Ever since the ceremony in Qarth, when her blessing of Hajime had produced genuine divine power, he had become increasingly determined to understand what was happening. 

She knew he was worried. 

He was trying to preserve the woman he loved, to ensure that whatever divinity now existed within her would not eventually overwhelm the Hikari he had known for years. 

She appreciated that. She loved him for it. She also missed him. 

"Mistress, an invitation arrived from the Lhazareen this morning," Mata continued. "The Godwife requests the presence of mistress and master this evening. The celebration will commemorate the completion of the first major restoration works at Echo Verdant." 

Hikari looked up. 

"Tonight? I hadn't realized the preparations were complete. Are the surrounding villages attending as well?" 

"Representatives from all Lhazareen communities have been invited, Your Majesty, along with the elders and militia officers. The Godwife describes the gathering as a celebration of the restored land and the protection The Dominion have extended to her people." 

Hikari accepted the invitation. 

Echo Verdant lay within the territory Alex had been restoring near the northern Red Waste. With the help of his summoned dryads and ecological magic, he had transformed sections of the devastated landscape into fertile ground. 

The southern regions were being prepared for agriculture, while the territories nearer the Bone Mountains were becoming an alchemical preserve for plants from YGGDRASIL. 

The project had begun with their agreement with the Great Shepherd, an ancient deity who had provided valuable knowledge about the land's forgotten magical history in exchange for protecting the Lhazareen and restoring their home. 

Now the people who had spent generations living under the threat of raids and famine were preparing to celebrate the return of green land. 

Hikari read the invitation again. 

It sounded wonderful. 

More importantly, it offered a perfect opportunity to drag her husband away from his manuscripts. 

"Mata, send our acceptance to the Godwife. Tell her that the Emperor and Empress will attend the festival together, and that we're looking forward to seeing what her people have accomplished." 

"Both Your Majesties, Mistress? His Imperial Majesty has not yet confirmed his availability, and his attendants report that the investigation in Meereen may continue for several more days." 

"He'll make himself available once he hears about it. Send him a message explaining that his wife would like to spend an evening with him somewhere that doesn't smell of ancient parchment." 

Mata inclined her head. 

"Shall I convey that as a personal invitation, Your Majesty, or would you prefer an instruction issued through the imperial household?" 

Hikari considered the distinction. 

Alex could ignore a personal invitation with an apology and a promise to return later. 

An official instruction would probably make him investigate which administrator had authorized it. 

Neither seemed particularly effective. 

"Tell him that if he refuses to attend, he'll be sleeping on the couch for the next month. I don't care if he's discovered the secret of the universe by then. He can write it down, close the book and come to the festival." 

Mata's expression remained composed. 

"Master possesses the ability to construct exceptionally comfortable furniture, Mistress. The proposed punishment may therefore require additional restrictions if you wishes it to produce the intended result." 

Hikari stared at her secretary. Then she laughed. 

"You're absolutely right. Add that he's forbidden from enchanting the couch, creating a replacement or retreating into one of his private sanctuaries. He can come to the festival and behave like a normal husband for one evening." 

"I shall convey the complete instructions, mistress. Master will undoubtedly understand the importance of the occasion." 

Mata departed to arrange the messages. 

Hikari remained by the desk, the invitation resting beside her unfinished correspondence. 

Alex had been distant for a week. She understood his reasons, and part of her shared his fear of what her growing divinity might eventually mean. But she was tired of watching him search for answers while their ordinary life disappeared beneath the demands of an empire. 

They had eternity to investigate the mysteries of godhood. 

Surely they could spare one evening for a festival. 

She finished her wine, set the glass aside and returned to the correspondence while Mata delivered the messages. 

If Alex attempted to escape into another library, she would fetch him herself. 

Daedalus 

The wind descending from the Bone Mountains had always carried dust. Even after months of restoration, Alex could still recognize the dry, mineral scent of the Red Waste beneath the evening air, although tonight it mingled with woodsmoke, roasting meat, fresh grass, and flowers that had no business growing in soil so recently dead. 

From the ridge above Verdant Echo, he could see the festival spreading across the valley below. 

Lanterns hung from the branches of young trees, their light illuminating tents, long communal tables, and the newly constructed houses surrounding the central square. Hundreds of Lhazareen had gathered from the neighboring settlements, bringing food, woven banners, livestock, and enough musical instruments to keep the celebration going until morning. 

A group of children raced between the tables, pursued by an elderly woman who seemed more concerned about the bowl of honey cakes they had stolen than the possibility of catching them. Beyond the houses, the restored fields stretched toward the foothills, their irrigation channels reflecting the last orange light of sunset. 

Alex had spent weeks examining those fields. 

He knew their soil composition, water requirements, projected yields, and the precise concentration of mana required to sustain the more demanding crops. The restoration project was still expanding, but the first successful sections had already begun supporting ordinary agriculture without continuous magical intervention. 

He ought to have been satisfied. 

Instead, he had spent most of the evening watching his wife. 

Hikari stood among the celebrants near the center of the square, her six white wings folded close enough to allow people to approach. Several Lhazareen women had persuaded her to join a traditional dance, and she was doing her best to follow their movements while children crowded around the edge of the gathering. 

Her laughter reached him occasionally when the wind shifted. 

Alex recognized that laugh. 

He recognized the way she covered her mouth when something genuinely surprised her, and how she leaned toward people when listening to them. Even from this distance, he could tell when she was allowing someone to finish speaking rather than using the effortless authority that now belonged to her. 

There were changes as well. 

The light surrounding her seemed stronger when people prayed. Her presence affected the crowd in ways he could measure with [Omniscope] but could not yet adequately explain. Every expression of gratitude, every whispered invocation of the Winged Goddess, fed into a growing structure of divine power that had become inseparable from her spiritual existence. 

The readings troubled him more each time he examined them. 

"You have come a long way to stand apart from your own feast, Black Artificer." 

The voice rose from the wind behind him, low and weathered, carrying a familiarity Alex had learned to associate with the Great Shepherd. 

He turned. 

The old deity stood several paces away, though Alex could not have said precisely when he had arrived. His outline resembled a man wrapped in a shepherd's cloak, broad-shouldered and weather-beaten, with grey hair beneath a simple hood. The moonlight passed strangely through the edges of his form, revealing the stones beyond. 

Alex had seen him appear differently before. The spirit seemed to favor whatever shape best suited the moment. 

"I was enjoying the view," Alex replied. "The irrigation channels are functioning, the northern fields are recovering faster than projected, and the settlement has enough stored food to see its people through the next season. From an operational standpoint, the project is going remarkably well." 

The Shepherd followed his gaze toward the festival. 

"And yet your eyes have scarcely left the Winged One. The land has received its blessing, and my people have their feast, but I think there is another matter upon your heart." 

Alex considered denying it. There was little point. 

"Hikari has been changing. You've probably noticed that much yourself, especially ever since we returned from Liberty Bay." 

"Aye, I have felt it. The prayers of those she shelters have grown strong, and the mantle she bears has settled deeper into her being." 

The Shepherd moved beside him, his bare feet making no sound upon the stone. 

"She walks among my flock tonight with a lighter heart than when last I saw her. I had hoped the same might be said of you." 

"I would like that," Alex admitted. "I'd like to spend an evening with my wife without wondering whether something inside her is changing faster than I can understand it." 

His voice was sharper than he intended. 

The Shepherd made no objection. 

Below them, the dancers changed formation. Hikari followed an elderly woman's example, turning beneath the joined hands of two younger women. The movement made her wings open slightly, scattering a pale radiance across the square. 

The crowd cheered. Alex watched her smile. 

"Can you tell me what the Lady of the Spear's essence is doing to her?" he asked. "I know we've discussed it before, but the situation has changed. I watched divine power form through Hikari herself every time she exercises her magic, every time she blessing someone, be it a child or her own warrior. There was no separate entity controlling the process, no foreign consciousness directing it. The magic behaved as though it had always belonged to her." 

"And this troubles you because you expected to find another hand upon the reins?" 

"At least then I would know what to look for." 

Alex folded his arms, then released them when he noticed how tightly his gauntleted fingers had closed. 

"An independent spirit could be examined. We could establish boundaries, negotiate, perhaps separate the two if necessary. But I can't separate something that has become part of her without knowing what I might damage. I don't even know whether there's a boundary left." 

The Shepherd regarded him for a while before answering. 

"The old Lady of the Spear no longer dwells apart from your wife, Artificer. I told you this when her mantle was first given, though I fear the words brought you little peace. The goddess who answered the Unsullied's prayers surrendered what remained of herself. Her power and her memories passed into the Winged One. There is no hidden queen waiting to seize her throne." 

"Then why does Hikari keep changing?" 

"Because she has received something that cannot remain idle. A spring carried into a dry field will make the earth green, though the spring itself has no wish to become a field." 

Alex gave him a skeptical look. 

"I understand the comparison, but a field doesn't have a personality. My wife does, and I would very much like her to keep it." 

A quiet sound escaped the Shepherd, almost a chuckle. 

"Then let us speak of your wife rather than of fields. What change has frightened you most?" 

The question caught Alex off guard. 

He had expected another explanation of divine essence. 

Instead, the Shepherd was asking him to identify what he had actually seen. 

"Hikari hears prayers now," he said after a moment. "She can sense her followers across distances that should be impossible, and she's begun perceiving parts of the spiritual realm I can barely examine through my own abilities. Her emotional responses are changing as well. She can be compassionate to the point of absurdity, then turn around and discuss destroying an army with less hesitation than she once showed over firing an incompetent employee." 

"Was she ever unwilling to fight for those she loved?" 

"Of course not. She was always protective, sometimes aggressively so. I've seen her argue with our old guild master before, and she could be terrifying when someone pushed her far enough." 

"Then the anger is familiar to you." 

"The scale isn't." 

Alex looked down at his hands. 

"She used to get angry at a our friend when they made inappropriate jokes about us. Now she can look at an entire slaveholding aristocracy and decide that removing it is an acceptable cost. Sometimes I agree with her. That's part of what frightens me." 

The Shepherd's expression remained patient. 

"Power has widened the reach of her choices. That much is true. Yet I have watched the Winged One since she first came among my flock. She was fierce when they were threatened, and tender toward their young. I see those same things in her tonight." 

"People can remain recognizable while changing in ways that matter." 

"Aye. Even those without divine mantles suffer that fate." 

Alex turned toward him. 

The Shepherd continued more quietly. 

"When a child is born, its mother becomes more than she was, and her days are no longer ordered as before. When a warrior returns from slaughter, he carries things his younger self would scarcely understand. Time changes every living soul, though mortals seldom welcome being reminded of it." 

"Ordinary change doesn't usually involve absorbing the remains of an ancient goddess." 

"No, Artificer. Your wife's road is stranger still, and I will not pretend otherwise." 

There was enough honesty in the admission that Alex felt some of his irritation recede. 

He had spent days listening to people assure him that Hikari was magnificent, divine, blessed, and destined for greatness. None of those descriptions answered the question keeping him awake. 

The Shepherd seemed willing to acknowledge that the danger existed. 

"Then what happens when the merging is complete?" Alex asked. "Will the faith of her followers determine what she becomes? The old goddess was shaped by generations of worship. Her domain included battle, sacrifice, and the submission of her warriors. Hikari's followers now call her the Mother of Hosts and the Winged Goddess of Justice. They expect protection and mercy, but they also expect her to punish their enemies. If enough people believe she ought to behave a certain way, can that belief eventually overwhelm her?" 

The Shepherd looked out over the valley. 

"Those born of mortal faith hear its call more keenly than you might understand. A god may grow from the longings of a people, and in time those longings become the bounds of its nature. The old Lady of the Spear was bound closely to the warriors who called upon her. Their victories nourished her, and their cruelties marked her as surely." 

"And Hikari has inherited that connection." 

"She has inherited the power through which it flows. Yet the Winged One was already herself when she received it. She came into this world with a soul, a will, and strength that did not depend upon the prayers of the Unsullied. Their faith may reach her, and she may answer, but it did not bring her into being." 

Alex considered the distinction. 

It agreed with much of what [Omniscope] had shown him. Hikari's Seraph body retained its original magical structure, and her primary reserves of mana did not appear dependent upon worship. The emerging divine authority had attached itself to something already established. 

But that did not prove her identity was secure. 

"You're saying her original nature gives her something to stand on while the divine power changes around her." 

"I believe it does. My kind have known few beings such as you and your wife, so I will not offer a certainty I cannot possess. Yet everything I have seen suggests that her own will remains strong. The old mantle has taken on her character more readily than she has taken on its former master's." 

Alex turned his attention toward Hikari again. 

A child had approached her with a small wooden carving. She crouched to examine it, carefully folding her wings out of the way before accepting the gift. 

The sight should have reassured him. 

For a moment, it did. 

Then he remembered the brightness in her eyes during Hajime's blessing, the unfamiliar power moving through her soul, and the effortless certainty with which she sometimes spoke of divine judgment. 

"I don't want to discover ten years from now that she's become someone else while I convinced myself everything was fine." 

The words emerged more quietly than he intended. 

The Shepherd waited. 

Alex stared at the lights below. 

"There's no procedure for this. No reliable test that tells me whether the person I married is still there. I can examine her body, her mana, even parts of her soul, but I can't measure what makes Hikari herself. And when I think about what could happen, I feel..." 

He stopped, frustrated by the inadequacy of the words. 

"Helpless," he finished. 

The admission hurt more than he expected. 

For most of his adult life, Alex had survived by understanding systems better than the people who controlled them. At his old job, knowledge had been a means of protecting himself against managers, deadlines, and the endless demands of a corporation that valued employees only while they remained useful. 

In YGGDRASIL, mastery had become a pleasure. He could build, experiment, and improve until an obstacle yielded to a better design. 

Now he possessed power beyond anything he had once imagined, yet the possibility of losing Hikari left him with the same sick feeling he remembered from the worst days of his former life. 

The Shepherd's voice reached him gently. 

"Then perhaps you have come upon a sorrow that cannot be lifted by strength alone. You love her, and there are paths upon which love must walk without knowing what lies beyond the next hill." 

"I would feel considerably better if I could at least see the hill." 

"Aye, I think you would." 

Something in the old god's tone drew an unwilling smile from him. 

For a while they watched the celebration without speaking. 

Then the Shepherd asked, "Has the Winged One told you that she fears this change?" 

Alex remembered the evenings they had spent discussing her new abilities. Hikari sometimes tried to make light of them, joking about divine customer-service departments or complaining that worshippers were developing an unfortunate tendency to invoke her anatomy in their prayers. 

But she had also asked him whether the old goddess's memories might eventually become indistinguishable from her own. 

Once, after listening to a desperate prayer from a former slave, she had admitted that the urge to protect the woman felt so powerful she had almost forgotten everything else she was doing. 

"She has," Alex said. "She jokes about it, but I know she's frightened. She asked whether I thought she was becoming someone different, and I started explaining what I'd found in the latest readings." 

The memory made him wince. 

The Shepherd regarded him. 

"And did the readings ease her heart?" 

"I don't think they did. She listened for a while, asked two questions, and eventually told me we should have dinner before the food got cold." 

"Perhaps she had hoped to hear something other than the findings of your instruments." 

Alex let out a slow breath. 

"I know. I've been treating this as a problem to solve because I don't know what else to do. And now she probably thinks I'm watching her for signs that something's wrong." 

"Have you told her how afraid you are?" 

"I've told her I'm concerned about the transformation, and that I want to understand it before we make assumptions." 

The Shepherd gave him a long, almost sorrowful look. 

"Those sound like the words of a wise craftsman, Artificer. I asked what you had said to your wife." 

Alex closed his eyes. 

He had been so occupied with protecting Hikari from something he could not control that he had neglected to tell her the simplest truth. 

"I'm afraid of losing her," he admitted. 

The Shepherd came a little closer, the edges of his form stirring with the wind. 

"Then tell her plainly. The Winged One has faced slavers, warlocks, and the horrors beyond without turning away. I think she can bear the fear of the man she loves, if he will trust her enough to share it." 

Alex's gaze returned to the dancers. 

Hikari had just been pulled into another circle by three laughing women. She made a brief attempt to protest before allowing them to lead her away, her wings folding carefully as she stepped between the other dancers. 

She looked happy. More importantly, she looked like she wanted to be there. 

The Shepherd's weathered face softened. 

"She was pleased when you came. I felt it when she crossed the threshold of this valley. The people rejoiced to welcome their goddess, but her thoughts turned first toward the road by which you would arrive." 

Alex looked at him sharply. 

"You can sense that?" 

"A little. The land knows its children, and the prayers of my flock tell me more than they intend. Yet I needed no such gift to see how often she looked toward the ridge." 

The remark left Alex unexpectedly embarrassed. 

Hikari had threatened to make him sleep on the couch if he refused the festival invitation. He had initially treated it as one of her jokes, although Mata's message had contained a remarkably thorough list of prohibited furniture modifications. 

He had come because he missed her. 

Then the Shepherd requested an audience, and somehow Alex had ended up standing on a hill conducting another investigation into his wife's divinity. 

He could imagine exactly what she would say when she learned of it. 

"I think I've been making this harder for both of us," he said. 

"You have carried a heavy worry. There is no shame in that." 

The Shepherd turned toward the restored fields. 

"But you need not bear it as though you alone must hold up the heavens. The Winged One has strength of her own, and she has chosen to share her days with you. Let her stand beside you in this matter as she has stood beside you in all others." 

Alex considered that for a while. 

There were questions he still needed answered. Hikari's divine transformation had consequences extending far beyond their marriage, and he intended to continue studying them. 

But the Shepherd was right about the way he had approached her. 

He had begun treating her future as something he needed to safeguard without remembering that Hikari had a say in what that future ought to be. 

She had always hated being managed without her consent. It was one of the reasons they got along so well. 

For the first time that evening, the festival below seemed inviting rather than painfully distant. 

The Shepherd followed Alex's gaze toward the young fields beyond the festival square. 

"Before you go, I would have you look upon this land once more. My people have waited many generations to see green grass return to these hills. Some who feast tonight were born knowing only hunger and the fear of riders coming from the east. Their children shall remember a different country." 

Alex looked across the valley. 

The irrigation channels were visible in the moonlight, running between fields that had once been barren. Several newly constructed farmhouses stood beyond the settlement, their foundations set upon ground his dryads had restored only weeks earlier. 

"There is still a great deal to do," he said. "The northern cultivation zones require more work, and we'll need permanent maintenance crews once the farms expand. I also want to improve the roads before harvest season. If the yields match our projections, moving the grain will become a bigger problem than growing it." 

"Then my flock shall have work for their hands. Such burdens I welcome, for they belong to the living." 

The old god spoke with quiet satisfaction, and Alex could hear the gratitude beneath his words. 

"You have kept your oath, Black Artificer. Where the land lay wounded, you have brought healing. Where my children feared to sow, they now prepare for harvest. I shall remember what you and the Winged One have given them." 

"We had our own reasons for undertaking the project. Qarth needs a reliable agricultural base, and the magical preserve will provide resources we can't obtain elsewhere." 

"That does not lessen what you have done." 

Alex considered the response. 

He had become accustomed to viewing the Dominion's projects through their practical value. A restored region meant food production, population growth, commercial development, and a stronger economy. All of those benefits mattered. 

Yet the Lhazareen below were celebrating something considerably more personal. They had homes upon land their ancestors believed lost forever. 

"I suppose it doesn't," he said. "I'm glad the restoration worked, Shepherd. More than I expected to be, actually. There was a time when I wanted nothing more than the chance to build something useful without somebody demanding that I justify every expense." 

"And now a whole people rejoice in the work of your hands." 

"Which is a little overwhelming, if I'm being truthful." 

The Shepherd smiled. 

"Then go among them. They have waited to thank you, and the Winged One has waited for her husband. I have kept you here long enough." 

His form began to fade around the edges, the moonlight showing through his cloak. 

"One last question," Alex said before the spirit could disappear. "You've watched gods change for thousands of years. Do you truly believe Hikari can carry this power without losing herself?" 

The Shepherd remained beside him. 

"I believe the woman you love is strong, Artificer, and that the mantle she bears has found a worthy keeper. I cannot promise that she shall never change, for I have lived too long to make such promises. Yet I see no other will struggling to take her place. The Winged One walks her own road, and she has chosen to walk it with you." 

Alex let the words settle. 

They were less certain than he wanted. 

Perhaps that made them easier to trust. 

"Thank you," he said. "For speaking with me, and for being patient when I asked questions you couldn't possibly answer with certainty." 

"Questions are no burden when a troubled heart seeks peace. Go now, Daedalus, and let the night bring you some joy." 

The Shepherd's shape dissolved into the wind. 

Alex remained upon the ridge for another moment, watching the lights of Verdant Echo. 

He was not suddenly free of worry. The unknowns surrounding Hikari's transformation remained, and his research would continue. There were still dangers neither of them fully understood. 

But he had been approaching those dangers as though he alone possessed the responsibility to keep her safe. 

That had been foolish. 

Hikari had never asked him to bear the future by himself. 

He adjusted the enchantments upon his armor, dismissing the heavy obsidian plates in favor of a dark formal coat. Then he activated [Greater Teleportation] and returned to the settlement below. 

The world folded briefly around him. 

When it settled, he stood near the edge of the festival square, where a group of men were carrying another barrel of drink toward the tables. 

One of them recognized him and nearly dropped his end. 

"Lord Daedalus! Your Majesty, forgive us. We did not see you arrive." 

Alex raised a hand before the others could abandon the barrel to kneel. 

"Please finish carrying that before somebody loses a foot. I was hoping to join the celebration rather than interrupt it." 

The men obeyed, though they exchanged hurried words as they resumed their work. 

Others began noticing his arrival. 

People bowed or lowered their heads as he passed. Some offered blessings, while others called out their thanks for the restored land. An elderly farmer approached to show him a handful of grain gathered from one of the experimental fields, speaking excitedly about the harvest he hoped to bring in. 

Alex listened, asked whether the new irrigation channels were holding their banks, and promised to have someone inspect a section where the water had begun cutting into the soil. 

It was a practical conversation. 

For once, he did not mind that. 

As he continued toward the square, the music changed. 

The lively instruments fell quiet one by one, leaving a low drumbeat that spread across the gathering. A second drum joined it, followed by a deeper sound that Alex felt through the ground beneath his boots. 

The Godwives had gathered around the central hearth. 

Several older men stood among them, their voices rising in a prolonged, resonant chant. The notes were rough and deep, sustained upon a narrow range while higher voices moved above them. A few singers produced a strange overtone, a thin, almost flute-like sound hovering over the lower drone. 

Alex had never heard anything quite like it from the Lhazareen before. 

The rhythm reminded him faintly of recordings of old Mongolian ceremonial songs from Earth, although the words and traditions belonged entirely to the people standing before him. 

A Godwife struck the earth three times with the end of her staff. 

The singers lowered their voices. 

Then the first invocation rose above the drums. 

O heaven wide, O heaven old,  

Thou roof above our father's fold,  

Hearken now, beneath thy blue,  

The folk that death and thirst once knew. 

The gathered people answered with a long, rolling refrain. 

Hoo—o—o, heaven everlasting.  

Hoo—o—o, earth beneath our feet. 

The sound traveled through the square, gathered strength from the voices joining it, and carried outward across the fields. 

Alex stopped near the edge of the dancers. 

The song had the weight of something older than the settlement itself. Its rhythm seemed designed for voices raised beneath an open sky, for people traveling together across grasslands, keeping time with their feet and the beating of simple drums. 

There was little ornament in its words. 

It spoke of earth, kin, hunger, and survival. 

The Godwives began the next verse. 

Ere the sand drank up the spring, Ere the wolf took lamb and king, Our mothers sowed, our fathers kept The hearth wherein our kindred slept. 

Long lay the furrow, cold and bare, Long went our dead beyond our care. Yet seed was held and names were sung, Though grief lay heavy on old and young. 

The refrain returned, now carried by hundreds of voices. 

Hoo—o—o, heaven everlasting.  

Hoo—o—o, earth beneath our feet. 

Alex listened with growing understanding. 

This was not simply a hymn celebrating the restoration. 

The Lhazareen were remembering the land before its destruction, and the generations that had kept their people alive after its loss. 

The drums quickened slightly. 

A circle opened around the central hearth, and dancers began moving in measured steps, turning first toward the mountains and then toward the newly restored fields. 

In the middle of the gathering stood Hikari. 

She wore a long dress of deep-blue silk embroidered with gold, its pattern resembling wheat beneath a field of stars. Her hair had been arranged in an elaborate braid reaching down her back, while her six wings rested close to her shoulders. 

She was listening to one of the elder women explain the dance when she noticed Alex. 

Her face brightened immediately. 

He had seen her smile thousands of times, in private and before the members of their old guild. Yet the sight still had the peculiar ability to make everything else seem less important. 

Hikari excused herself from the elder and approached him. 

"I was beginning to think I'd have to send Mata up the mountain after you," she said, slipping one hand around his arm. "She was quite prepared to remind you that attending this festival was an imperial obligation." 

"I received the message. Including the detailed restrictions concerning the couch." 

"Those were necessary precautions. I know perfectly well what you'd do if I left you any room to negotiate." 

Alex regarded her with exaggerated suspicion. 

"Did you actually instruct Mata to prohibit the construction of enchanted furniture?" 

"She suggested it. I merely approved the recommendation." 

"Remind me never to put the two of you in charge of disciplinary policy." 

Hikari laughed and leaned against him. 

For a moment neither spoke. 

Alex could feel the warmth of her through the sleeve of his coat, and the familiarity of the gesture affected him more strongly than he expected. 

She was still capable of making ridiculous threats about furniture. 

He could work with that. 

"The Shepherd asked to speak with me," he said after a while. "We talked about your transformation, among other things." 

Hikari looked toward the ridge. 

"I thought I felt his presence up there. Was he able to answer any of the questions you've been worrying over?" 

"Some of them. He couldn't guarantee the outcome, though." 

"I didn't expect he could. Alex, I've been trying to tell you that I don't feel someone else taking control of me. There are new instincts, and sometimes they frighten me, but they're still my thoughts." 

"I know you've told me." 

He hesitated, aware of how often he had answered her concerns with explanations of what [Omniscope] revealed. 

"I don't think I've been listening well enough. I've been scared of losing you, Hikari, and I kept looking for something I could fix before it happened. Somewhere along the way, I started treating you like another problem in my laboratory." 

Hikari studied him. 

The singers continued around them, but she made no attempt to hurry his explanation. 

"I never thought you stopped seeing me as your wife," she said. "I knew you were frightened. What hurt was watching you pull away every time you couldn't find an answer." 

Alex felt that more keenly than he expected. 

"I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to wonder whether I was afraid of you." 

"I wasn't worried about that." 

Her fingers tightened around his arm. 

"I was worried you'd spend the next hundred years trying to solve a problem that might never have the kind of answer you want. And I rather hoped we'd find something enjoyable to do during those hundred years." 

He laughed softly. 

"That's a fair criticism. I think I needed somebody to remind me that being clever doesn't give me the right to make every decision for both of us." 

"Good. Because I intend to have a very long marriage, and I don't plan to spend all of it watching you read books or tinkering in your lab." 

The music swelled around them. 

Hikari turned toward the dancers and extended her hand. 

"Come dance with me. The Godwives have spent the better part of an hour trying to teach me the steps, and I would appreciate someone else making mistakes for a change." 

Alex accepted her hand. 

"I should warn you that my understanding of Lhazareen ceremonial dancing is considerably worse than my understanding of local metaphysics." 

"Then this should be a valuable learning experience." 

She led him toward the center of the circle before he could invent another objection. 

The steps were simpler than he expected, though the timing took some practice. The dancers moved in broad circles around the hearth, turning toward one another as the drums struck and stepping apart when the singers raised their voices. 

Alex followed Hikari's lead. 

He missed the first turn. 

She caught his hand before he could collide with a passing elder, and the old woman laughed at his expense without the slightest sign of fear. 

Hikari looked delighted. 

"You're thinking too much again. Watch my feet and try following them instead of calculating where they'll be." 

"That's an exceptionally inefficient method of instruction." 

"It's worked well enough for everyone else." 

He gave up arguing and allowed her to guide him. 

Gradually the movements became easier. Their hands met and parted with the rhythm, and Hikari's laughter softened whenever they drew close enough to speak privately. 

Around them, the chant deepened. 

The lead Godwife raised her staff, and the singers began a verse that had not been heard earlier. 

From the dusk came the Smith in black,  

With stone-strong hand he gave earth back.  

From the morn came the Spear so bright, 

With sixfold wings she broke the night. 

The bonds were hewn, the wells ran clear, The young arose without their fear. Where death had dwelt, the green hath grown; The hearth is warm, the land our own. 

The crowd answered with a louder refrain. 

Hoo—o—o, heaven everlasting.  

Hoo—o—o, earth beneath our feet.  

Let the old Shepherd count his sheep;  

Let the green earth our children keep. 

Alex glanced toward the Godwives. 

"They've already written a song about us." 

Hikari smiled. 

"Several, actually. The first one apparently involved a rather lengthy description of how I destroyed a Dothraki raiding party. I persuaded them to leave out the part where the enemies exploded." 

"That seems an important historical detail." 

"It was rather graphic for a harvest festival." 

He laughed and drew her closer as the dancers reversed direction. 

The songs of the Lhazareen had long been shaped by loss. Their people had endured centuries of raids, drought, displacement, and enslavement. For generations, they had sung of ancestors who once tended flocks upon fertile plains. 

Now they had something else to sing about. 

Alex felt an unexpected warmth as he watched the villagers join the chant. 

The restoration project had begun as a practical undertaking. He needed agricultural land, access to the Great Shepherd's knowledge, and a place where experiments with YGGDRASIL flora would not endanger the population of Qarth. 

He had expected economic benefits. 

He had not expected the sight of a father lifting his daughter onto his shoulders so she could see the dancers, or the old farmer wiping tears from his face as the singers invoked the return of the green earth. 

Those things mattered. 

Hikari seemed to understand what he was thinking. 

"This is why I wanted you here," she said. "You spend so much time studying whether the project works that sometimes you forget to see what it means to the people living here." 

"I've been informed of that particular weakness already tonight." 

"Then the Shepherd and I agree on something." 

"Apparently. I'm beginning to suspect this entire festival was an elaborate intervention." 

Hikari laughed against his shoulder. 

"If it was, the planning committee deserves a substantial bonus." 

The drums settled into a slower rhythm. 

The dancers drew closer together, forming smaller circles around the hearth. Hikari rested her head briefly against his chest, her wings shifting just enough to shield them from the movement of the crowd. 

Alex wrapped his arm around her. 

For a while they moved without speaking. 

The Godwives began the final invocation, their voices deep and resonant beneath the clear night sky. 

Wide is the heaven, old is the earth,  

Blessed the fold and blessed its birth.  

By root and rain, by hearth and stone,  

No child shall walk the waste alone. 

Keep thou our seed till spring return;  

Keep thou the flame within our urn.  

So long as sky o'er field shall stand,  

May peace and plenty bless this land. 

The last refrain began with the elders and spread outward until nearly everyone in the square had joined. 

Hoo—o—o, heaven everlasting.  

Hoo—o—o, earth beneath our feet.  

Under the blue, our oath we keep;  

Under the stars, our children sleep. 

The singers held the final note while the drums continued beneath them, slowly diminishing until only one deep beat remained. 

Then the sound faded into the night. For a moment the square was quiet. 

Afterward, applause and laughter rose around the hearth as the dancers embraced, children rushed toward their parents, and the musicians began preparing for another, livelier song. 

Alex remained beside Hikari. 

She raised her head to look at him. 

"You've gone quiet again. Should I be concerned, or are you calculating the mana requirements of the drums?" 

"Neither, fortunately. I was thinking about what you said earlier, and about how much time I've wasted being afraid of something that hasn't happened." 

Her expression softened. 

"I don't want you to stop worrying about me, Alex. I know you too well to expect that, and I'd be rather offended if you suddenly became indifferent. I just want you to remember that I'm here to face whatever happens with you." 

"I'll remember." 

He took her hand and held it between his own. 

"And I'll tell you when I'm frightened instead of hiding behind another research report. I can't promise I'll stop investigating, though. There are things about this transformation that we both need to understand." 

"I wouldn't dream of asking you to stop. Just remember to come home when you're finished." 

Alex leaned forward until his forehead rested gently against hers. 

"I can manage that." 

Hikari smiled and kissed him. 

It was familiar, warm, and entirely without ceremony despite the crowd surrounding them. 

Someone nearby cheered. 

Several children began laughing, and an elderly woman called out a blessing that caused Hikari to hide her face briefly against his shoulder. 

Alex found himself laughing with her. 

The divine power she carried remained a mystery, and the years ahead would undoubtedly bring changes neither of them could predict. The Shepherd had offered no promise that those changes would be painless. 

But Hikari was standing beside him, complaining about his research habits and laughing because an old woman had apparently advised them to produce a dozen children. 

That was enough for tonight. 

When the musicians began another dance, Hikari caught his hand before he could suggest returning to the tables. 

"One more," she said, pulling him toward the gathering. "And this time I expect you to remember the steps." 

Alex followed her into the circle. 

He missed the first turn again, and Hikari laughed so hard that she nearly missed the next one herself.