text: "There are tumbleterrors out there," Emlee said. "You haven't forgotten them? They've had sightings ever since the funeral."
  
  "I haven't forgotten," Lilia said as she packed her things. She had endured nearly three days of waiting while Caisa worked with her contacts inside Tira's Temple to plan an infiltration. Ahkio's heroics with the tumbleterrors had sent the camp into an uproar. In some ways, that was good. It meant fewer people paying attention to Lilia and her supporters. Meyna kept Ahkio very close; he was never alone, always with either Meyna or Liaro. Lilia had a terrible feeling about all of it; a knot of dread had formed in her stomach, and she had not slept well.
  
  Harina and Mihina had already gone off to gather those who had agreed to join this particular mission. It had been a popular one, among her people. Everyone wanted the chance to ride and work beside Lilia.
  
  "There's one thing I need before I go," Lilia said. Emlee must have seen something in her face, because she recoiled.
  
  "That bit of Hasao's blood I asked you for."
  
  Emlee firmed her mouth.
  
  "You must trust me, Emlee. I could bring the whole child, but I'm not. That blood I asked you for yesterday is all I need. Ahkio said the temple responded to him. It recognized him as Kai. If Hasao is recognized as Kai by the temple, I may be able to understand or access something in Tira's Temple that the Tai Mora have not."
  
  "There is always one more thing you need."
  
  "Emlee."
  
  "You ask too much."
  
  "I will take it myself, then."
  
  The box in the corner rattled again. LIlia shivered. It had been doing that more often the last few days, but she dared not open it. Kalinda hadn't told her to open it, and she was honestly beginning to fear what might be inside.
  
  Emlee frowned at the box. "You should cast that into the sea."
  
  "Let it alone," Lilia said. "The blood? Do I need to get it?"
  
  "No, you are terrible with children. And Meyna will murder you if you approach her."
  
  "Tasia and Namia–"
  
  "They are hardly children. None of the children here have been allowed that. They grow into useful appendages for you, too quickly."
  
  "Will you help or not, Emlee?"
  
  Emlee turned out her kit of vials and potions and took out a small jar usually filled with balm. "There's not much," Emlee said. "It was a routine check I did on the child, and Rhin was close the whole time. Had to say she slipped. She was not happy about it, and nor was Meyna, later."
  
  Lilia stuffed the jar into her pack. "Thank you, Emlee."
  
  "Whatever you're searching for, I hope you find it," Emlee said.
  
  When Harina and Mihina returned, Lilia joined them, and Namia followed. But Tasia, alerted from the front room, ran after her.
  
  "Where are you going, Mother Lilia?"
  
  "Hush, I have an errand. I'll be back in a few days."
  
  "Namia is going! Why can't I go?"
  
  "It may be dangerous."
  
  "Then it's dangerous for Namia too."
  
  "She's older than you."
  
  "I'm just as tough."
  
  Lilia stroked the girl's hair from her face. "I know. But I need someone to look after Emlee. Can you do that for me?"
  
  Tasia pushed out her chest. "I know you're just saying that because you don't want me to go."
  
  Lilia considered how many times her own mother had told her that, and she had completely believed her. Simpler times. "You know I'll come back."
  
  "Everyone says that, but it isn't true."
  
  Lilia could not kneel, as it would be painful. But she bent low and kissed the girl's forehead. "I know it isn't fair," Lilia said, "but you must stay with the others and hide, like a snapping violet."
  
  It was only as Lilia turned away and shuffled down the corridor with Namia, Tasia snuffling behind them, that Lilia realized those were the last words her own mother had said to her before she lost her forever.
  
  But Lilia did not look back. She could not look back anymore. Only forward.
  
  She made her way through the underground camp with Namia, sticking to little-used passages. They went through the emergency route, the long, snaking tunnel that came up in a great stand of willowthorn trees well out of sight of the aboveground staging area.
  
  The other two members of the group waited there: Avosta, arms folded, chest puffed out, and Salifa, who had the drawn look of someone who had either recently vomited or was going to very soon.
  
  "Let's proceed," Lilia said as Avosta passed over the lead of a lean dog for her to ride. Dogs were faster than bears, though bears tended to do better in the woodland. Lilia needed speed, now.
  
  "We go southeast," Lilia said, "following the Fire River, to Tira's temple. Everyone is comfortable with the plan?"
  
  A few nods. Avosta's was the most enthusiastic.
  
  "I'm just… I'm still worried about you going," Salifa said.
  
  "Then it's a good thing you are coming with me," Lilia said. "I promise you, we will blend in. No one will notice us. Those temples are crowded."
  
  "And warded, though," Salifa said.
  
  "Elaiko, and her people there, will take care of that," Lilia said. "Trust that we have worked this out, Salifa."
  
  Salifa gave a little nod. "It's just an awful lot of Tira's power I'm going to have to draw. It could alert them."
  
  "It's far enough away from the temple proper," Lilia said. "Elaiko tested it. Come, now, Salifa. We are going to do a very brave thing."
  
  They camped that night just above the Fire River in a wet glade that smelled of everpine and loamy soil. Lilia slept fitfully, and woke even more tired than the day before. A break in the trees let her sit and gaze at Oma, blinking there in the sunrise, its sister satellites glowing just as brightly.
  
  "Are you all right?" Avosta asked. He had the last watch of the evening, and came over to her from his perch at the edge of camp. A snarl of vines caught at his boot, and he used a small knife to pry it off before it tried to sink its hungry tendrils through his boot and into his flesh.
  
  "Just trouble sleeping," Lilia said. She pointed at Oma. "What if someone told you that the satellites used to be one thing. One object? And it was split apart?"
  
  "I would say that whatever did that was very powerful."
  
  "Where would such a thing have come from?"
  
  Avosta shrugged his large shoulders. "Perhaps it was constructed by jistas. Or by the gods, by Oma itself."
  
  "Oma creating itself?"
  
  "People create other people, don't they?"
  
  Lilia hugged her knees to her chest. "I like puzzles," she said. "The sky is the biggest puzzle of all, though, isn't it?"
  
  "I don't think about it much," Avosta said. "There's no point in agonizing over something you can't control."
  
  "I'd like to control it," Lilia said. "I'd like to have control over far more than I do."
  
  "You have an impact on many of us," Avosta said softly.
  
  Lilia leaned away from him and struggled to her feet, leaning on her walking stick. Namia, beside her, wiggled in her sleep and let out a soft sigh. "Thank you for coming, Avosta," Lilia said. "I know it's a very dangerous endeavor."
  
  "So is being alive," he said.
  
  Salifa woke and yawned. "You two are very loud," she said. "Let's eat."
  
  When the party had eaten and struck camp, they continued on through the woodland, following an old game trail littered with dozens of different species of carnivorous plants. Biting hydraflowers and snaplillies sought out their flesh; the bears flicked their enormous forked tongues and ate the furious flora as they went on.
  
  Lilia knew they were near to the temple when she saw a swarm of dragonflies moving parallel to them; the cloud was so large that the light dazzled Lilia's eyes, reflected from their many wings.
  
  She paused to watch them, entranced.
  
  The ground rumbled. Lilia tensed. Insects dropped from the trees and pattered to the forest floor.
  
  "What was–" Salifa began as they halted their dogs.
  
  A great cracking sound filled the sky. It echoed across the woodland. Startled birds took to the air.
  
  When the trees stilled, Lilia let out of her breath. The dragonfly swarm broke apart and flew higher into the canopy until they were lost from view.
  
  "An earthquake?" Avosta murmured.
  
  The bears snarled and snuffled.
  
  "I don't know," Lilia said, casting her gaze to the treetops that hid the sky. "They don't usually make sounds do they?"
  
  "I don't like this," Salifa said.
  
  Mihina and Harina shared a look, and rolled their eyes.
  
  "Let's keep on," Lilia said. "We're close." If the heavens fell on them, she didn't want to be caught sitting here gawking. She would rather die doing something.
  
  Tira's Temple came into view through a startling break in the trees. A slant of sunlight blinded Lilia briefly. She squinted and raised her hand. Perched atop a cliff in the river valley below, the temple appeared to bloom from a snarl of rock wrapped in flowering vines and great sprays of early spring petals. The temple proper was immune from the encroaching woodland. The green-black fist of the temple shimmered. Its foundation spanned two branches of the river, and water gushed mightily beneath it. The gardens around the temple teemed with life – delicate green shoots and gnarled branches fuzzy with new growth. Unlike Oma's Temple, there was no army camped here, though some force had burned out a great deal of the woodland along the main road that led into the Dhai valley, and had clearly been camping on a blistered black patch of ground not long before.
  
  "I heard it fell quickly," Avosta said, bringing his dog up beside Lilia's. His greasy hair lay knotted against his scalp. "Most of the Oras were called to Kuallina," he continued, rubbing absently at his pocked face. "It's said Elder Ora Soruza and a handful of novices were all they left to defend it."
  
  "A terrible business."
  
  "Did you live in Tira's Temple?" he asked. The others were still coming up the low hill. Salifa was singing to the biting bugs, teasing little carnivorous plants into snapping up the pesky insects.
  
  "No," Lilia said, "just Oma's Temple."
  
  "Did you have people there you cared about?"
  
  Lilia shifted uncomfortably. It could be an innocent question, but Avosta always tried to get too close. "A few, yes."
  
  "I lost many," he said. "Was there… a lover?"
  
  Here it is, Lilia thought. She turned over her answer carefully. "Once," she said. "Her name was Gian." Both of them were Gian, she wanted to add, but that would overly complicate things, and he would want more answers. It had been some time since she said Gian's name aloud.
  
  "Did she perish?"
  
  "Yes," Lilia said. "I… made a mistake. A miscalculation. She suffered for it. I live with that each day."
  
  "I'm sorry," he said.
  
  Lilia waved biting insects away from her face. She turned in her seat to see how close the others were. Nearly there. "In any case," she said, quickly, "they kept a few of the drudges and jistas, but warded them."
  
  Avosta grimaced. "Dirty people."
  
  "They are," Lilia said.
  
  "Well, show me where the crossing is," Salifa said.
  
  "We need to distract the Tai Mora patrols first," Lilia said. "Namia is going to round up the patrols. Mihina, you'll be waiting above that valley choke, there, as we discussed." She pointed to a narrow way between two steep hills just below them. "When the patrols are cornered there, you'll set a fire behind them, trapping them in the valley. Harina, you will accompany Avosta and me up into the temple."
  
  "And Namia? How is she going to escape those patrols once she gets them into the choke?" Harina asked.
  
  "Namia will go up that tree," Lilia pointed to a tangle of vines around a slender sapling. "With all their armor on, they won't be able to follow. Namia and I went through this with Caisa the day before we left. She knows what's expected."
  
  Namia signed at her, "Death."
  
  "Hush," Lilia said, rubbing her shoulder, "not yours."
  
  "They will see you are gifted, Lilia," Avosta said. "You and Harina. They can spot jistas immediately."
  
  "It's all right," Lilia said. "There's a way to mark us as gifted, but warded to the Empress. Salifa, you'll need to train a vine up across the river that carries us up the back side of the temple."
  
  "I got that," Salifa said. "Just show me where. I'm going to need to focus Tira's breath at the base, make it harder for anyone inside to notice it."
  
  "Good," Lilia said. "Once we are in the garden, Elaiko or one of her people will have proper clothes. We will change and proceed to the belly of the temple."
  
  "You're certain of this contact?" Harina said, exchanging a look with Mihina, who shrugged.
  
  "As certain as I am of all of you," Lilia said. "Elaiko has been providing us with information from Tira's Temple for months now. Salifa, I'll want you to maintain your position at the base of the cliff. We'll need your help to go back out that same way."
  
  "What if I'm found?"
  
  "My hope is they'll be concentrating on the fires that Mihina will be manipulating out here in the woods," Lilia said. "If they aren't, do your best to maintain the vines and save yourself. We'll slide our way down if we have to."
  
  Lilia said, "Namia will start rounding them up now. She knows to bring them here once the evening snaplillies open and release their scent. That's when we will begin our climb, so we need to be in position before then."
  
  "This requires a lot of luck," Salifa said.
  
  "Not at all," Lilia said, "it just requires all of us to follow the steps exactly. No mistakes."
  
  Lilia told her mount to sit, and reached out to hug Namia. "You'll do well," Lilia told her.
  
  Namia signed, "Victory."
  
  "That's right," Lilia said.
  
  Namia scampered off through the trees, her form looking small and frail against the monstrous trees and massive tangled vines and shrubs.
  
  "Good luck," Lilia said to Mihina. "Remember, you want to draw the patrols, but don't burn down the wood."
  
  "I'm ready," Mihina said. "I was going to be the one to do far worse to the Tai Mora during Tira's Festival, remember?"
  
  "You may, still," Lilia said. She urged her bear back up and pointed toward the sound of the river. "Let's keep on. It's getting hot."
  
  Avosta kept pace with her, and Harina followed with Salifa at the very back, the four of them keeping to a single-file line in an attempt to disguise their numbers. They stopped twice at the sound of patrols in the far distance, and kept low and silent until they passed.
  
  As they came down the rocky ridge that descended to the rear of the temple, Lilia had them tie-off and muzzle the bears. Going down the steep trail was hard on Lilia's leg, so Avosta carried her. She did not complain. She had a very long way to go yet, and tiring herself out this early wasn't going to help any of them.
  
  Dusk helped mask their approach. Lilia caught the smell of the snaplilies before the others. She hoped Namia did, too.
  
  A gushing branch of the Fire River separated them from the cliff on which Tira's Temple perched. Salifa kicked the rocks and muddy tendrils around them.
  
  "It's going to be very obvious," Salifa said, squinting across the river in the dying light. "Anyone who looks down will see a great tangled vine bridge."
  
  "Our hope is they don't look down," Lilia said.
  
  Salifa chewed her lip. "Lots of hope seems to be required in this entire plan. Li, are you sure–"
  
  "I'm sure," Lilia said. "For me, Salifa. Please. I need to see what they have uncovered. I must see it myself."
  
  Salifa sighed. The air thickened. She closed her eyes.
  
  All around them, tremulous new shoots sprang from the soil. They tangled together and began moving across the water, growing thicker and darker as they met the cliff on the other side and began to tease their way up.
  
  "Start across now," Salifa said, gaze intent on her creation. "I'm going to lower it into the water behind you to mask it. Lilia, here, take hold."
  
  Lilia grabbed the leafy tine of the vine with her good hand. It wrapped around her waist and over one shoulder and scooped her up, out and over the bridge. Lilia let out a little gasp. The others were snarled up into the plant's arms behind her. Lilia was passed from one tendril to another across the whole span of the blue-black water. The plant dumped her into the mud on the other side. She lost her breath a moment, and worked hard to regain control of her breathing. She lifted her head, and stared up and up at the vast distance they still had to travel up the side of the cliff.
  
  Avosta and Harina arrived, and they began the ascent as the bridge of vines behind them sank just beneath the water. The curling tendrils along the cliff clung to their arms and waists and legs, offering handholds and braces, and a little bit of extra help to climb.
  
  Still, Lilia was gasping by the time she was halfway, and had to stop to take a swig from a mahuan-laced water bulb at her hip.
  
  The others slowed to wait for her, but she waved them onward. It was almost full dark now. The lights of the temple were a beacon.
  
  Lilia knew she was close when the lights from above finally illuminated her handholds as the gentle insistence of the vines continued to propel her upward.
  
  Avosta, already at the top with the others, held out his hand and pulled her up the rest of the way. Lilia leaned against him, trying to catch her breath.
  
  A great bone fence, twice as high as they were tall, confronted them.
  
  "What now?" said Harina. A slight drizzle began to fall. Lilia worried about the rain and the fire that Mihina needed to keep kindled, but an overcast sky would further protect their approach and escape.
  
  Lilia wished for Namia up here, in the dark, as Lilia's night vision was not excellent. Namia could have guided them by sound and smell alone.
  
  "We should see a break in the fence here," Lilia said. "Let's look for it."
  
  They tramped around in the dirt until Harina found a broken, out-of-place bone that they could push out of the way.
  
  "I'll go first," Avosta said. When he indicated it was clear, the rest of them followed.
  
  Lilia led them through a great maze of bones to a long-dead bone tree at the center. Lilia had been to Tira's Temple only a few times, but Elaiko had given good directions. The paths were lit with blue phosphorescent lichen that sent up little puffs of spores as they trod across them.
  
  At the base of the dead bone tree, a little Dhai woman Lilia recognized as Elaiko stood hunched, seeking shelter from the rain. Elaiko hugged her arms to her chest. When she caught sight of Lilia, she darted forward. Like the other Dhai who had been made slaves, she wore some kind of collar, and drab gray clothes, like a scullery drudge.
  
  "You're here?" Elaiko whispered. "All of you? I could only get three outfits. Only two collars. Oh, wait, there are fewer of you than I expected."
  
  Lilia frowned. "Yes, we had to leave very quickly. Avosta, stay here and guard our retreat. Harina, you'll come with me."
  
  "I'm Elaiko," the woman said, by way of greeting, to the others. "I'd so love to offer you tea, but the circumstances–"
  
  "That's quite all right," Lilia said, as she began to shed her clothes. The cold bit into her bare skin. She rucked on the too-big drudge clothes, already damp, as quickly as she could.
  
  "I should go with you," Avosta said.
  
  "We need that break in the fence kept clear," Lilia said. She did not look at him, but was keenly aware that he was staring at her as she dressed.
  
  "Quickly, quickly," Elaiko said.
  
  Lilia didn't hear anything, but Elaiko kept looking toward the temple. "Is everything in place?" Lilia asked.
  
  "Yes," Elaiko said, "but you must put on the collars, quickly."
  
  Lilia handed one of the collars to Harina, and took the other herself.
  
  Harina wrinkled her nose, but she took the collar. "These aren't live, are they?"
  
  "No, no," Elaiko said. "That isn't how the wards work. The wards that keep us from injuring the Tai Mora… those are written into our skin. These are simply a marker that it's been done. A shorthand, you could say. If you attract no attention, they will look away, assuming you are warded."
  
  Dressed and collared, the little party started off after Elaiko. "Go back to the fence!" Lilia called to Avosta. He hesitated another moment, but finally complied. She let out a sigh of relief. She needed their love, yes, but more than that, she needed their faith and their loyalty. Love was more fickle than faith. It worried her that Avosta might love her more than he feared her.
  
  Elaiko led them through the bone tree maze and into the rear temple garden. Here, the way was lit with flame fly lanterns. They came inside through the kitchens. The heat and noise assailed them; the drudges were preparing the evening meal. Rice and tender spring shoots, and meat – the smell of the meat made Lilia recoil a little. What animal were they cooking? The Tai Mora love of flesh outside the funerary still disgusted her. They went in pairs, Elaiko and Harina up front, and Lilia behind.
  
  A passing cook yelled at Elaiko, "She wants tea upstairs! Where have you been?"
  
  Elaiko started. Froze. Babbled, "Yes, of course," and went for the tea tray on the big table at the center of the kitchen. Harina lingered with Elaiko. Lilia did not want them going in groups larger than two.
  
  Lilia kept walking, and Harina came with her. The temple layouts were all virtually the same, but she had gone over a rough map of this temple's interior provided by those in the camp who had been there. She was confident she could wait for Elaiko in the foyer if they ducked into the scullery stair. They needed to pick up laundry, and it was a good place to rest and get a sense of their bearings.
  
  Lilia stepped up into the foyer and headed right, passing under a low arch and into the scullery stair. The mouth of the laundry staging area lay open; all the drudges brought laundry from the levels above here, where another set of drudges were usually tasked with bringing it to the proper laundry facility in the basements.
  
  Two drudges were already inside, dropping off laundry. They nodded as they headed out, but one narrowed her eyes, clearly suspicious that she had not seen them before.
  
  Lilia went to the back of the room where it was darker. She shifted a load of laundry toward Harina as she entered. "Let's get ready."
  
  But just as he cleared the threshold, a dark figure blotted the light. A Tai Mora soldier blocked their path. Pointed at Harina. "You, there. Come with me!"
  
  Lilia froze. She needed a very quick story.
  
  Harina, though, was already moving, so fast Lilia did not catch the flash of the knife, though she saw the blood immediately. Harina bumped into the Tai Mora and whirled him around, so now the Tai Mora stood in the laundry room. It was a solid hit that could still have been construed as accidental.
  
  "My apologies, so sorry," Harina said, wiping at the Tai Mora's shoulder, a sleeve. The Tai Mora pushed her away, still so flustered that he was oblivious to the blood pumping onto the floor.
  
  Lilia became alarmed at the amount of blood. She backed up against the bundles of dirty laundry along the rear wall.
  
  "Out of my way!" the Tai Mora insisted, but then Elaiko was there, with the tea, her mouth a wide O.
  
  The Tai Mora slipped in his own blood and went over. He became aware of the pump of blood. His eyes widened. He gasped. But he was already bleeding out. Even as he pressed at the pumping wound, he was going into shock.
  
  "Stay out of the blood!" Lilia hissed at Harina, but it was too late. She was on her knees, holding the Tai Mora down. Blood soaked through her trousers and smeared her hands. A few drops peppered her face.
  
  Lilia hefted what was left of the laundry bag with her good hand and gingerly stepped across the piles of blood-soaked laundry.
  
  Harina became aware of her own bloody clothing. "Sina's maw," she muttered.
  
  "You can't go out like that!" Elaiko said, gaze darting back into the hall. "Quickly! Someone else is coming."
  
  "Stay here," Lilia said, low. "Clean up. Change your clothes. You know where we're going. Follow us."
  
  Harina grimaced, but nodded.
  
  Lilia went into the corridor with Elaiko and closed the door to the laundry closet, leaving Harina with the body.
  
  "If anyone walks in–" Elaiko said.
  
  "I know," Lilia said. "We must keep moving. Ah, your shoes!"
  
  Elaiko made a little peeping sound. Lilia handed her a towel from her bag, and Elaiko scrubbed at her bloody shoes.
  
  Elaiko hissed something. Lilia turned just in time to see two more drudges heading toward them, up the scullery stair. Lilia moved out of their way. The two gave them an interested look, but kept moving.
  
  Elaiko bustled out of the scullery stair and into the foyer. Lilia hurried after her as fast as her limp would take her. The basement doors had a single guard, who opened it to them after asking the day's password. When the door closed behind them, Lilia murmured, "They change the passwords every day?"
  
  "Yes," Elaiko said. Her hands trembled so hard the teacups on the tray rattled. "All the temples now, at the Empress's command. You can't get down here without the daily password. There's been a great deal of activity. Are you… are you sure we can–"
  
  "Courage," Lilia said.
  
  Elaiko pursed her mouth and said nothing. The teacups still rattled.
  
  Lilia dropped the laundry off inside the steamy laundry bay on the first basement level, then continued after Elaiko to the second set of doors.
  
  "Here," Elaiko said, gesturing to an open storage room. "Stay here until I call. There's never more than one person bringing tea. Only authorized people here."
  
  "Still your trembling," Lilia said. "It will be all right. Try not to look at them." Lilia wanted to add, "Because you will give it away!" but did not. Elaiko was already too shaken. What if they didn't drink the tea? If they needed violence here, Lilia would have to turn back. She did not think she had the strength in her one good hand to injure, let alone kill, anyone.
  
  Lilia ducked into the storeroom. But she could not help but peek out and watch Elaiko taking the last long walk to the two guards at the second set of doors. Elaiko offered up the tea tray to the two guards. One gestured at her to set it on the pedestal near them. Elaiko set it down, clanking and trembling only a little, and started back down the hall. She met Lilia's look.
  
  Lilia turned back to the storeroom. She looked through the barrels and boxes until she found the plain burlap bag that Caisa had Elaiko smuggle in the day before. Lilia was relieved to find it. She opened it and dug through the tubers until she found all three of the plain, shelled hazelnuts at the bottom of the bag. She stuffed them into her pockets.
  
  Elaiko met her there and shut the door. She let out her breath, and began to cry. Lilia did not know how to react. She made a comforting noise, but stopped when Elaiko continued to sob.
  
  "It will be all right," Lilia said.
  
  "No, it won't! What have I done?"
  
  Lilia recognized it, then, but still had no time for it. Elaiko had never committed violence before.
  
  "Maybe they won't drink it?" Elaiko said.
  
  "You need to hush."
  
  "What if they drink it?"
  
  "That was the plan."
  
  "I have to–"
  
  Lilia could not help it. She grabbed Elaiko's sleeve. "No. We stick to the plan."
  
  The clatter of teacups. Someone swearing. A cry.
  
  Lilia held Elaiko's sleeve and met her look, daring her to try to pull herself away.
  
  A thump and crash in the hall. Elaiko finally slipped from her grasp and went to go and see what had happened. Lilia limped after her.
  
  The guards lay heaped upon one another. Broken teacups and poisoned tea lay spilled all around them.
  
  Lilia grabbed the keys from the belt of the nearest one, who was still moaning and retching. Doors in the temples were not built with locks. This one had been attached to the door by the Tai Mora, a simple padlock. Lilia unlocked it, but the door resisted her.
  
  "It's warded," Elaiko said.
  
  Lilia pulled one of the little hazelnuts from her pocket and shoved it under the door jamb.
  
  "Stand back," Lilia said.
  
  Elaiko moved behind her.
  
  The innocuous looking hazelnuts were fused with a powerful twining of sinajista and tirajista spells. One meant to explode with great force when triggered.
  
  A whisper of power made the air heavy. Lilia's ears popped. She shifted back on one foot, unsure herself of what she would unleash.
  
  A low pop. A thread of searing red light. When Lilia looked back, a quarter of the door had sheared away. Lilia pressed at the door and it swung open. The light from the hall illuminated a short flight of dark stairs.
  
  Lilia pocketed the keys and grabbed the nearest guard. He was heavy. Elaiko just stared at her.
  
  "Help me!" Lilia said.
  
  Elaiko stumbled forward. Together, they pulled the comatose bodies down the short stair and rolled them into an open storage room. These rooms were usually overflowing with barrels of goods, but were now empty; the Tai Mora had far more bellies to feed than the Dhai.
  
  Their movement awoke the flame flies in the lanterns hung just inside the doorway. When the bodies were pushed aside, Lilia took up a lantern and headed further down the corridor to the next set of steps. Elaiko hurried to catch up with her.
  
  "What if they–"
  
  "Keep moving," Lilia said. "One more level. I've seen the temple diagrams."
  
  The next door required only a key. She found the right one and stepped into the cavernous space. No more corridors, just a massive chamber filled with what appeared to be tangled tree roots, great fibrous monstrosities. Lilia swung the lantern toward another source of light coming not from above, but below.
  
  Some industrious force had torn up a great section of the floor, and a soft blue light emitted from the gaping hole.
  
  "How did she even get down here?" Lilia said. "This took them so many months."
  
  "It was terrible," Elaiko whispered. "When they broke through the floor the temple… moaned. And bled! I thought it would fall around us!"
  
  Lilia poked her head through the hole in the floor to confirm there was no one in the chamber below. She handed Elaiko the lantern and climbed down the ladder precariously pushed against the rim of the wound in the floor.
  
  "Come down!" Lilia called. "I need a light."
  
  As Elaiko came down, swinging the light with her because she had two good hands, the great room came into focus.
  
  Lilia gaped.
  
  The chamber was far larger than her descent made it seem. The ceiling stretched far above her, a perfect dome decorated with twining vines and figures that she thought were geometrical until Elaiko raised the lantern. The twining designs were stylized Dhai characters, glistening wetly as if made of something organic. The air here was much warmer than above. The walls themselves pulsed as if alive.
  
  A massive pedestal took up the center of the room, ringed in four more, all skinned like the walls and trembling faintly.
  
  "Well, here it is," Elaiko said. "You wanted to see it. You need to be quick, though. The guard makes rounds again in an hour. We need to be well gone ahead of that."
  
  Lilia placed her hand on the shimmering green walls. Where the Tai Mora had breached the floor, the wound oozed with a gooey amber sap. Lilia sniffed at some of it that had dropped to the floor: tangy everpine and something more fetid, perhaps fungal. She dared not taste it, but the thought occurred to her. She stepped away from the wound and turned, lantern high.
  
  The pedestal at the center of the room glowed an eerie blue-green. Had her light triggered something within it? She approached and gazed at the great round face of it. There, at the center, was the Dhai word for Kai. Was the Kai supposed to stand here to trigger… whatever was supposed to happen? Surely they would only want… But as she rubbed away the dust and dirt, the symbol became clearer. Not Kai, but something far more abstract: a simple circle with two lines through it. Where had she seen that symbol before? Lilia sneezed at the dust. Tira! Yes, it was the symbol for Tira's Temple that she had seen on the mosaic map of Dhai laid into the round table in the Assembly Chamber.
  
  The puzzle drew her. The intricate symbols, the niches, the glowing light: it was a strategy game.
  
  Lilia dug into her pocket. Pulled out the little container of the child Kai's blood. She rubbed again at the Tira symbol at the center of the pedestal, looking for instructions of some kind. Instead: an intricate pattern of raised metal tiles. As she ran her fingers over them, they lit up, bright blue. She moved her fingers the other way, and they lit up, bright green. She tried a few combinations, tapping at the tiles as if they were keys on some instrument. The pattern was easy to recognize. She tapped in the correct sequence her third try, and all the metal tiles sank into the pedestal. The center, too, sank with it, and from beneath each side a shiny device rose. It clacked together: two plates of some substance much like that of the temple walls. The two plates formed a human face devoid of detail, as if stretched from the mold of a newborn babe. Lilia was not entirely sure what to do next.
  
  She pressed her hand to the face.
  
  It glowed green, faintly, then dimmed.
  
  Nothing else happened.
  
  Elaiko made a little startled noise behind her. Lilia glanced back to see the woman already had one hand on the ladder, as if ready to flee. She did not blame her.
  
  Lilia uncapped the canister of coagulated blood, which was now the sticky consistency of thick mud, and rubbed each of her right fingers into it, then smeared some on her palm for good measure.
  
  She pressed her hand to the face.
  
  A brilliant blue light blinded her.
  
  Lilia yelped. Leapt back. Pressed her hands to her face.
  
  A shushing roar, like the opening of a great dam, filled her ears. Elaiko screamed.
  
  Then silence.
  
  Lilia opened her eyes.
  
  The face, fully aware now, animated, the ghostly features dancing across the mold, peered at her. Said something in a language Lilia did not recognize.
  
  "Get away from it!" Elaiko cried.
  
  Lilia waved her away. "Who are you?" Lilia asked the face.
  
  "Who are you?" it countered. The voice did not come from the mold, but from all around them. It made Lilia shiver.
  
  "I…"
  
  The face trembled. The misty countenance blew away, like a cloud in a storm. The rushing of water sounded again, and the face disappeared back into the pedestal, which closed behind it.
  
  "What was–" Elaiko began.
  
  A shimmering form grew out of the pedestal. Lilia took another three steps back until she bumped into Elaiko.
  
  The ghostly specter wore a long flowing robe and had knotted hair tangled with green ribbons and bits of glass or stone. It did not stand on the pedestal, but floated just above it, and the gaze it gave Lilia was glacial.
  
  "Who are you to try and destroy me?" it demanded.
  
  "We weren't," Lilia said. "You are… you're… what are you? A temple keeper? Like… Ti-Li? The woman unstuck in time?"
  
  "I am the creature. The temple keeper is no more. With Oma's rise, the temple keepers were no longer captive here. They were able to escape to their own times. They have left only the creatures, the beasts. I am the Creature of Tira. What are you? You are not Kai, though you have summoned me."
  
  "Just… Lilia. We were here… you know how to stop people coming here? From other worlds? These worlds are all coming here and killing. They are–"
  
  "Oma has risen."
  
  "Yes."
  
  "Why have you injured me?"
  
  Elaiko said, "The Tai Mora broke in here, not us! They're trying to stop others from entering our world. They're going to use you to do it."
  
  "I wanted to speak to you," Lilia said, "to see if it was really true, that the temples were alive."
  
  "Of course we are alive," the creature said. "More so now that Oma is risen. Why are you still tangling with other worlds when you could simply send them back to their world yourselves with the power of the engines?"
  
  Lilia came forward again. "We could… send back the Tai Mora? To their dead world?"
  
  "Of course. All things are possible, if the creatures work together. We could sink the continent, if you willed it. If the Kai… but… No, you are not the Kai."
  
  "No, but I know where she is," Lilia said.
  
  "You can do anything you like," it said, waving a hand. "You could reshape oceans. Break the world. Sear the sky."
  
  "But I don't want to do any of that," Lilia said. "I want to get rid of the Tai Mora."
  
  "And you could do that," the creature said, curling a lip. "But that is far less imaginative than I'd hoped. All they ever want to do is kill."
  
  "How?" Lilia asked.
  
  A great amber light filled the room, bright as daylight. Lilia shielded her eyes.
  
  A roiling mist bubbled up from the floor and slowly formed a massive series of elliptical rings on which rode twinkling orbs of all sizes and types: greens, blues, reds, swirling with orange waves and flaky white patchwork. The orbs moved along the elliptical orbits, all spinning and sparking. It was like a massive orrery, so tremendous that its dimensions clearly exceeded the size of the room. Many of the misty parts ended abruptly in the walls and ceiling.
  
  "When they made us," the creature said, "we broke the worlds apart. This was not their intended purpose, but it was the final result. Infinite worlds. Infinite timelines. So very many choices. Things go wrong in many of these worlds. What none of them understood, then, was that when their worlds began to break, they would feel compelled to come home, to Raisa, here, where it all began."
  
  A misty blue-green orb was faintly visible all around the creature, as if she were standing now inside a soap bubble. "No single person has the power to move and shape the worlds," the creature said. "There are five great machines, our engines. These temples. Each driven by the power of those who can call on each satellite."
  
  "Five?" Lilia said. "The People's Temple? The Tai Mora have dredged it up."
  
  "Yes, the fifth temple was lost to you after the last rising of Oma. The temple of the People. When the other beasts are equipped with the proper bearers of the satellites' powers, the People's Temple will be fully activated. It will have enough power to do… whatever you like. Send all of those from the other worlds back to their own spheres within the orrery, if that is your wish."
  
  "This temple," Lilia said, "the People's Temple. How was it lost in the first place?"
  
  "I can only tell you what your predecessors spoke of in my presence. Faith and Hahko believed the power too great, that using it would corrupt the society they were trying to build, inciting violence and hatreds and powerful rivalries. They believed the cycles should be maintained, that it was not their place to alter them. I suspect this is why they ensured the temple was forgotten."
  
  "Wait," Lilia said. "You're talking about… Faith Ahya? And Hahko? The first Kai?"
  
  "You met Faith Ahya?" Elaiko said. "But… but I have so many questions!"
  
  The creature waved a hand. The misty image of the orrery blew away, curling up like smoke. The white lights dimmed, leaving them under the glowing blue of the creature alone in the dark, musty chamber. "I can tell you only what I know from times before. You have made a mess of everything, cycle after cycle."
  
  "Not this cycle," Lilia said. "We're going to do it properly this time."
  
  "What are you talking about?" Elaiko said. "We have to stop what the Tai Mora are doing here. We have to… I don't know! Burn the temples? Prevent the Tai Mora from getting in? Seal these back up? You heard what it said! They could break whole continents."
  
  "Don't you understand?" Lilia said, turning to her. "We don't have to wait for anyone else to reshape this world, to make things right. We can do it ourselves."