Late with an emphasis, Naritsune gasped. Gallop was the only way to keep sight of Killyria; when the elf - no, Kyray - didn’t flow into his line of sight. Along the corridor, down some steps; across a hall with star clusters for lamps and into another courtyard with palms, lounges, a pool and leaping fish.

  “What - kind of place - is this?” he said to Feldaner. “A resort?”

  “An up-in-the-stars one perhaps,” Feldaner replied, glancing up at the diamonds and indigo sky. “Everything’s - sharper.”

  “That’s odd,” said Naritsune, also looking. “It was daylight before.”

  “It’s coming back,” Feldaner added, swerving out of the way of a rainbow-trunked palm. “Like a fast-moving sunrise.”

  “Not faster than Lady Killyria. Can’t even see her.”

  “Because you’ve passed her,” Killyria’s voice came from behind and to the side-right

  Naritsune stopped. Turning, he saw Killyria and Kyray near the steps of a twin-pillared and arched door to his right. A door with a surface like light-speckled water.

  “How did you two get there?” he began.

  “Might have seen us if you weren’t looking up,” Killyria replied, pulling back one of her sleeves. “Where’s - oh there he is, behind the tree.”

  “Could hear you, but couldn’t see, My Lady,” Feldaner said, walking over.

  “Trees can do that,” said Kyray.

  “Is this, the place we’re late for?” asked Naritsune.

  “Something like that,” said Killyria, braceleted arm twinkling. “Might want to stand back. Serencia likes to add a special touch every so often.”

  “There’s more - like her…?” Naritsune whispered.

  “Five according to the looks,” Kyray began. “Eight with the gasps. Nine if we include the one who fainted.”

  Naritsune opened his mouth, then closed it as, for a moment, Killyria seemed to glow in all the colours of a sparkling rainbow. A rainbow with an arm stretched out at the light-speckled door. A door that gleamed with the shape of a fireplace - then opened of its own accord.

  “You - can do - that…?” he gasped.

  “Not the hearth,” Killyria said, returning to her usual sheen. “That’s Serencia’s flourish. Although the one with fireworks chased a visitor around the courtyard and the jumping tortoise didn’t please anyone.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “What have I walked into….” Kyray said as Naritsune and Feldaner stared at Killyria.

  “You’ll find out if you step inside,” said Killyria, gliding through the doorway and followed by an open-mouthed Naritsune.

  Kyray turned to go after him, but stopped at the touch of a hard and curved hand on his shoulder. Turning in the other direction, Kyray saw it wasn’t a hand at all, but the gold-decored and gemstone-set crook of Feldaner.

  “I know who you are, Darkyrie,” he said, face devoid of any warmth.

  “This is becoming old ground,” Kyray sighed. “Chastiser of Chieftains and Anointer of Kings.”

  “Yet seems but the tip of an iceberg... Scion of War...”

  Kyray had to stop himself from taking a step back. “... How... do you know that...?”

  “In all the history of Darkristenactt; Fourteen have bourne the title of War. Of the Fourteen, Seven were said to be masters of it. And of the Seven, one was from the House of Melendar.”

  “Whatever you have heard, he is an echo,” said Kyray, trying to block out that - that portrait of the person who looked like his reflection. “An echo of a past we have learnt to put aside.”

  “But those who faced him across the fields of slaughter cannot so easily leave it behind,” said Feldaner, stepping forward. “Those who were caught at Cartenarhys Hill. Who saw first-hand the ruin devised and executed by Kierai Shouray Delmarten-Melendar.”

  Kyray’s mouth opened as each name struck home. “… You - were there…?”

  “Blade-to-blade,” Feldaner grated. “As a High King fell, and a storm made worse what was already a disaster. And the questions I have forged from that day you shall finally answer.”

  “Storm shrouded?” a voice said out of the blue. “The sun’s out.”

  Kyray and Feldaner both looked at each other, then turned in the voice’s direction. A man was jogging towards them from the far side of the pool; crimson bonnet contrasting with an indigo coat. “Are you alright, Feldaner,” he asked, slowing to a walk. “You could stare eye-to-eye with one of the Castle Guards back home.”

  “Why Haronsal,” Feldaner began, stepping away from Kyray and smiling like a sun no longer hidden by clouds. “Glad that you’ve changed your mind. You did have me worried there.”

  “Oh, I thought about it alright,” the fellow named Haronsal said, putting hands on knees. “Didn’t mention this as the prize destination.”

  “Might as well hear them out before deciding,” Feldaner continued. “And spending even a single night in the Celestial Realm is a dream - or nightmare - come true.”

  “Hard to be a nightmare when the foods’ so sparkling,” Haronsal replied. “Plus Lady Killyria would have hunted me down before I could even find where we first arrived.”

  “Plus daymare might be what you’re looking for,” Kyray added.

  “As it happens…” Feldaner said, glancing at Kyray. “Her Ladyship has just passed through this same entrance, Haronsal. The same door Mr Melendar and I are about to go through.”

  “Ah, so that’s the name of your newfound friend,” said Haronsal, looking at Kyray.

  “You could say that,” said Feldaner, gripping his crook. “Kyray, meet Haronsal Bartellan; the other half of my party of two.”

  Kyray gave a nod of acknowledgement; yet found his right hand trapped, then being shaken up and down by Haronsal. “Pleased to meet you, Kyray,” he began. “And love the embroidery. Is it snow thread or irejet?”

  “I-irejet,” Kyray managed between shakes and glancing at his lapels. “But how do you know about-”

  “Never mind how he knows about it,” Killyria’s voice came from the doorway. “Get in here!”

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