The marines sailed northeast from the Azacago homeland with Prince Adrian Maryy aboard. They were flagged down by a Taisian Navy battleship before reaching the mainland. After a brief negotiation the Taisian captain invited Adrian to board the ship, an invitation which he readily accepted. When the battleship landed in the harbor at Wave Crest a royal messenger delivered a handwritten invitation from the king himself.

  Adrian rode a steamboat up the Tai river to Taisia City. That weather in that country had turned to autumn and the deciduous trees were hued with shades of red and gold. Interlaced between the autumn colors were the dark, moody evergreens, coated in a thick and ominous layer of pale spider webs. The foothills south of the Ashe River Plateau had already seen the first snows of the season, and there the Old King Varelion had retired to his private hunting lodge on a ledge overlooking the city.

  As they ascended up into the highlands the snow began to accumulate on the windshield of the king's autocar. The driver summoned a Fire Elemental which he commanded to float just ahead, and after that point they drove very slowly. It was late in the afternoon by the time they arrived at the lodge and the tall evergreens cast long shadows in the dusky light. There were several other autocars parked under the weather shelter and they looked to be quite expensive.

  The interior of the log cabin was warm but dim, with a high roof and a turquoise marble fireplace nestled into the far wall. Taxidermic trophies lined the space overhead while the walls were inset with glass display cases featuring a variety of backlit hunting rifles. Every scrap of cloth in the space, from cushions to rugs to blankets, had been conspicuously upgraded with real animal pelts. The king himself sat facing the fireplace on a chair cushioned with a wolf pelt.

  The old man gestured to the other chair and Adrian sat. A master servant glided to his side with a platter of whisky glasses and Adrian took one. He sat watching the fire in silence waiting for the old man to speak. The servants glided away and they shut the doors, leaving Adrian alone with the King of Taisia.

  "You want to know if I had anything to do with this," the old man finally said.

  "I want you to look me in the eye and say you didn't," Adrian said.

  The old man looked Adrian in the eye. His face betrayed nothing.

  "If this is partially my fault then it's only indirectly," the old king said. "I did not order our Light Matron to start a rebellion amongst those barbarians. However, it is possible that the rebellion would never have happened if it had not been for my other actions. My other decisions."

  He looked away.

  "Such as?" Adrian asked.

  "Prince Adrian, I don't think we can continue on like this."

  "Like what?"

  The old man took a sip of his whisky and he watched the fire. He sat that way for a long time.

  "Servants!" the old king finally cried.

  A master servant wearing a black regalia slipped silently into the room.

  "I will allow the other guests an audience presently," he said.

  "Yes, my king."

  The other guests were extremely wealthy, in Adrian's estimation. They were mostly older men wearing dark and fashionable suits. They were adorned with gold chains and watches. Adrian had seen such men before, and while the fashions might have been different in Taisia, he recognized them as members of a central bank. The oldest among them could easily have been the local chairman. When he saw Adrian his eyes went wide.

  "Prince Adrian Maryy," he said. "Chairman Nadiya, at your service, my prince. I must say, this is quite unexpected."

  "Did you have business with these men?" Adrian asked.

  "They always find a way to make it my business," the king replied.

  "My king," the chairman began. "Please allow me to thank you..."

  "Get on with it," the king snapped.

  The chairman cleared his throat. "As you wish. We, namely, the central banks appointed by the Signatories, have identified an imminent threat to the contract. We have granted ourselves emergency powers in the lands claimed by said Signatories, for the purposes of resisting this threat."

  "What is the nature of this threat?"

  "Taisians all over the world are claiming to have memories of operating flying machines in their former lives. We believe that these claims are truthful. The chairmen of all four central banks are in agreement, as are the chairmen of the auxiliary banks outside Signatory lands. This poses the greatest threat to the contract in recorded history."

  The old king looked skeptical. "How exactly is this a problem?"

  "The descendants of the sects, who are living in the Elemental Domains, and who service the contract crystals we all rely on, are safely kept isolated on floating islands which are inaccessible without flying machines. With flying machines, a threat actor could make contact with the people on the islands and tell them the truth."

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "That doesn't seem so bad," the king said.

  "There's something he isn't telling us," Adrian added. "What's this really about? What do you need from us?"

  "We need help from your secular governments," the chairman said. "We need you to use your various police and military forces to round up these flying machine agitators and turn them over to the custody of the banks."

  "How do you propose we find these people?" Adrian asked.

  "We are developing a new framework. A new standardized set of tests that can be deployed at any educational institution. We are calling this exciting new field 'mencology' and it will allow us to use statistics to determine the probability that a given person has memories of past lives. Early trials are proving to be quite promising."

  "Statistics?" Adrian spat. "You want my soldiers to learn statistics?"

  "No, my prince. Your soldiers will be afforded the opportunity to work with trained and certified mencologists."

  "Trained and certified charlatans."

  "Is there anything else you want?" the old king snapped.

  "We want promises from the secular governments that no actions will be taken against our allies in the press and the intelligentsia. That is, allies of the banks. Our work is very important and political interference will only hinder our attempts to resist this unprecedented threat."

  "You want to exterminate all Taisians," Adrian said flatly.

  The man's face betrayed shock and horror, followed by a sudden, artificial stiffness.

  "What makes you think something like that?" the chairman asked.

  "Your face tells me the prince is right," the old king interjected. "What did my Taisians do to deserve this sudden ire from the banks?"

  The men excused themselves and they chatted in whispers alone in the corner of the lodge. When they returned the chairman seemed to have recovered his composure.

  "There is some additional information that we believe is important," the chairman began. "Knowledge of flying machines has only been observed among ethnic Taisians, both here on the mainland and in the Heylin project. There has been a very, very long-standing conflict among two ancient ascendants, namely, Reyndell the Paladin, and his rival, Klara the Flame Keeper. We believe that the latter intends to find a way to break the contract."

  "What evidence do you have?" Adrian snapped.

  "This is an emergency situation. We do not have the luxury of such considerations."

  "One might contemplate another possibility," the old king mused. "That you are pawns for Reyndell the Paladin. That he wishes you to exhaust your coffers in his own vendetta against the Taisians for their betrayal. For the loss of his precious Twin Fates Monastery."

  "Such contemplations are, once again, not afforded by our situation at this time," the chairman said. "The banks are all in agreement. We would ask for your political support in our endeavors, to complement the support we have obtained in the press and in the intelligentsia. Do not fear for your own bloodlines. Suitable females from other ethnic groups will be furnished when needed."

  The old king seemed to consider this in silence. He took a sip of his whisky. Adrian did the same.

  "Any agreement we make with you now is outside the contract and therefore not binding," the king observed. "So I could simply lie to you about my intentions. However, I have some degree of self-respect and I refuse to resort to deception in such matters. The answer is no. You do not have my support. Furthermore, I will retaliate against any attacks on the Taisian people, up to and potentially transcending what is permitted by the contract."

  "And what about you, Prince Adrian?"

  "I suggest you reconsider your assessment of the situation," Adrian replied. "You don't even know who your enemy is, and therefore your enemy has already won."

  "So you refuse?"

  "I refuse."

  "Then it seems we will need to get the other families involved."

  "So it would seem," the old king agreed. "I eagerly await a formal declaration of war."

  "And I will stand by his side when that time comes," Adrian added.

  The bankers left. Prince Adrian and Old King Varelion returned to staring at the fire while sipping whisky. Adrian was forced to admit the lodge was very comfortable and it had a rugged style that he appreciated. He contemplated the cost of building such a structure in the Heylin Empire, but his thoughts were interrupted when the king asked him a question.

  "Why do we share the world with these charlatans?"

  "The bankers?"

  "The bankers."

  Adrian sighed. He swung one foot over one knee and bobbed his leg up and down. He thought for a long time about his answer, taking frequent sips of the whisky. The libation began to loosen his mind and his lips.

  "I think they think they can just talk to people," Adrian said. "They are bookish types who have never survived a real battle before. They confuse the map for the terrain. Above all, they don't understand that their Light Elementals are redundant. For men like you or me, the spoken word is enough to demand the loyalty of our soldiers."

  "They think money is power," the king said.

  "Bullets are power."

  "And, possibly, flying machines?"

  "Flying machines would be quite the gamechanger on the battlefield," Adrian agreed.

  The king did not continue this line of discussion. After a few moments he yawned and stood.

  "I think it is time for me to retire," he said. "My servants will lead you to your room. I surmise that you fill find the hospitality to your liking."

  Old King Varelion was correct in this regard. Not only was the room well-furnished, but it was already occupied by a naked woman when Adrian arrived. She was absolutely beautiful, quite possibly the most beautiful woman he had ever seen before in his life. Taisian, with a freckled face and bright blue eyes and light reddish-brown hair. Her painted lips twisted into an intoxicating smile. She beckoned him to her and he went.

  She spoke like a whore, quick to complement with a practiced ease.

  Sometime in the night he felt her stir in the darkness. He tried to reach out and arrest her flight but she evaded him. He groaned and rolled upright. The woman was busy dressing herself in silhouette amidst the window panes, a pale blizzard raging against the indigo night.

  "Don't leave," he complained.

  "You should stay under the covers," she warned. "It's going to get very cold in here."

  As his groggy brain attempted to interpret this puzzle, the room suddenly exploded with a flash of red light. The woman, who had before been just a silhouette, was now bathed in sanguine colors which highlighted the thick furs she had equipped in the interim. Across from the woman, blocking the door to leave the room, there appeared a portal to another world.

  Rimmed in a bird's nest of glowing red-orange lines, surrounding a hole in reality which revealed another raging blizzard. Frozen lakes, snowclad peaks, thick white cakes of snow on the trees, and volcanoes as big as planets. The Elemental Domain of Fire, a world of extremes where rivers of lava cut through glaciers like knives. And there, standing ominously and silently in the center of the portal, was the girl in the red robes.

  The woman pranced across the room and darted through the portal. She looked back to Adrian guiltily and then rested one hand on her belly. Swirls of blowing snow wafted into the room and melted on Adrian's face.

  "We will be in touch when your daughter needs additional training," the girl in the red robes said. She sounded quite young.

  Without warning the portal broke and vanished, leaving Adrian alone in the darkness.