text: Luna sat with Yisaoh over tea and half of a biscuit, still shivering with the memory of the field of the dead, though ze had cleaned off the mud and sludge from hir face and changed clothes. It had been over an hour, and still no one had opened a wink to them. They sat in a small alcove in what had once been a very grand hall. Tirajista-trained vines covered most of the windows, but light still cut through in places, illuminating the dusty, intricately tiled floor. The people and beasts that swam across the floor's design were utterly foreign to Luna.
  
  "Does this happen a lot?" Luna asked. "Not being able to call on Oma?"
  
  "More than Kirana would like," Yisaoh said. She offered her own biscuit to her daughter, Tasia, who took it and scampered off into the hall. Tasia had insisted on having tea; a treat, here, Luna discovered. Weak tea and moldering biscuits.
  
  "Do you have many children?"
  
  "Three."
  
  "The others went over?"
  
  "Yes, they are living with Kirana in that temple."
  
  Luna could not finish hir own biscuit. Hir stomach cramped painfully. The larvae of little weevils waved their maggoty forms at hir from inside of it as ze set down the rest. More protein, ze thought wearily, and washed it down with the rest of the tea. Hir stomach cramped. Though hunger roared again since ze had eaten, ze knew from long practice that ze needed to go slowly or ze would vomit everything up, or worse.
  
  They sat in silence while the toxic wind rattled the windows and makeshift coverings around the stronghold.
  
  "There are two dozen of us still here," Yisaoh said. "Not a lot, by any standard." She spoke softly, staring into her tea, as if talking to herself. "What are another two dozen dead, after all this blood and sorrow?"
  
  "You destroyed the Saiduan. All of them. For what? For nothing."
  
  Yisaoh sighed. "I cannot make you help us. Nor can Kirana, as much as she would like to believe herself a god."
  
  "You aren't as confident in her anymore."
  
  Yisaoh peered at her. "Perhaps not. She knows that. She knows I question these decisions. As do you, as you have every right to. But Luna… you were willing to die rather than help end all this. What if you chose to live?"
  
  The air around them grew heavy. Luna tensed. Hir ears popped.
  
  A slender tear appeared six paces away, beside the large empty hearth, certainly meant for cooking more than heat here.
  
  "Oma has returned," Yisaoh murmured.
  
  The seam widened, and a jista, Suari, stepped through, flanked by two soldiers.
  
  "Consort Yisaoh? You are well?" Suari asked, tentative, gaze darting about the foyer.
  
  "The child doesn't bite," Yisaoh said. "We had a chat."
  
  "Empress Kirana said to bring hir back immediately, once we held Oma again."
  
  "Where is Kirana?" Yisaoh asked.
  
  "There has been an… incident. Nothing to worry about, consort. But an urgent matter the Empress needed to address."
  
  "There was a time I was her most urgent matter," Yisaoh said, and stood. She offered a hand to Luna. "I'm sorry, but you must go back."
  
  "She will put me in a cell again," Luna said.
  
  "Suari, you will tell the Empress I request that she release Luna when she has helped with the task set her. No more death. No more imprisonment."
  
  Suari's jaw tightened. "Of course, consort."
  
  Yisaoh squeezed Luna's hand. "That's all the protection I can offer you, my word."
  
  "When the ways between are closed… there won't be any more death? No more war?"
  
  "I am weary of war. So is Kirana. We want to raise our family, Luna, as anyone else would."
  
  Luna gazed at where Tasia played in the outer hall, munching on a biscuit as she set her dolls to the task of finding a missing dog, or some such.
  
  Ze nodded, once, not to Yisaoh, but in the direction of Tasia. Then, to Suari, "I will tell the Empress what I know. But only her."
  
  "I understand," Suari said. He glanced at Yisaoh. "I will have her wait in a guest room, until the Empress returns."
  
  Yisaoh inclined her head.
  
  Luna trusted no one. Relied on nothing. But ze had leapt before, and would leap again.
  
  "If I do this – I want to be free, Yisaoh."
  
  "I know. So do I, Luna. So do I."
  
  "What the fuck is it?" Kirana demanded, raising her spyglass to her eye and gazing out over the plateau, toward the massive mountain that had fallen from the sky.
  
  "We've already gotten birds back, and a runner," said Madah, her intelligence officer and a former line commander. "It's not a mountain, it's some kind of boat."
  
  The spyglass gave Kirana a clearer view of the outline of the great shape that marred the horizon. There certainly was something… organic about it. Something alive, as if some great gnarl-skinned monster slumbered out there in the woods.
  
  "Is the stronghold intact?"
  
  "Much of it was crushed," Madah said. "What wasn't crushed shattered in the aftershocks. The temples have held, though."
  
  "Fuck," Kirana said. She took the spyglass from her eye. "Gaiso had charge of that hold. We had thousands of soldiers and sixteen jistas under her there."
  
  "There are still damage reports coming in from the settlements. There… could be some survivors?"
  
  "Fuck! Suari! Where's my wink?"
  
  "Still working on it," Suari called.
  
  "Oma's being fickle," Kirana said, handing the spyglass back to Madah. "Take Mysa Joasta with you and ride out there. I want an in-person report. You may get there before Oma allows Mysa to make a connection again. Bloody fucking satellite."
  
  "Yes, Kai." Madah bowed and hurried across the Assembly Chamber.
  
  Kirana took a deep, calming breath and settled her mind. Tucked away thoughts of Yisaoh and that Dhai girl. Yisaoh could handle the girl, no doubt, but Kirana hated to be cut off from her family. The uncertainty would eat her alive if she stopped to think too hard over it. She went back to her room and spent some time in meditation, clearing her mind. Emotional decisions could wreck them. She needed clarity.
  
  Once her mind calmed, she went to her office and dug through the notes of the accounts her people had gathered from the Saiduan archives about the last rising of Oma and had one of the servants bring them into the Assembly Chamber.
  
  Suari called, "I have Oma again."
  
  As he did, a wink opened just above the Assembly Chamber table. Madah and Mysa peered through. Behind them was the great organic hulk; this close the skin of it was visible, a burnt, scaly black flaking at the edges. It was so enormous it towered outside the frame of the wink.
  
  "Empress, we have a significant force here," Madah said. "They are wounded, shocked, asking for safe harbor. But it's… large."
  
  Kirana jutted a finger at Suari. "Take these two and go retrieve that girl from Yisaoh. Right now!"
  
  Suari opened a wink on the other side of the room.
  
  Kirana fixed her attention back on Madah. "How many?"
  
  "Best guess, several thousand are still alive. Maybe more, once the wounded and dead are sorted."
  
  "They have a leader?"
  
  "Yes, it's one of the near-worlds we've caught scouts from."
  
  "Kalinda? Aradan?"
  
  "No, it's our favorite one. Gian."
  
  "Fuck. I should have known. She was the most stubborn. Any idea how many jistas she has?"
  
  "No, but if you recall, she had those fighting bears."
  
  "I do. Let's hope they're dead. How did we miss her building that monstrous ark?"
  
  "I think she'll deal, Empress," Madah said. "They are worse off than… uh, they are unwell. Food reserves at near zero. This was a desperate act. I think her people will parley."
  
  Kirana knew what Madah had nearly said: "They are worse off than us." She grimaced. She had two options, here: pick them off now, one by one, while they were weak and newly arrived, or work out some deal with Gian so they could align themselves against the other incoming worlds.
  
  "We'll need to know if this is a single event," Kirana said, "or if she's expecting more. Madah, you have authority to call in as many troops as you need. Tell Monshara I need two of her companies."
  
  "Yes, Empress."
  
  From the corner of her eye, Kirana saw Suari return from the other side, escorting Luna with him. Kirana let out a breath, unaware she had been holding one.
  
  Kirana waved at Mysa to end the connection. The wink closed. She rounded on Suari.
  
  "How did Mysa snag Oma's breath before you did?"
  
  Suari stiffened, hand still on Luna's arm. "I don't know. It's highly individualized. Perhaps her position–"
  
  Kirana was keenly aware of witnesses to their discussion, and kept her voice low. "She was clearly still in the temple. Yet she was able to bring herself and Madah there, investigate, and open a wink back here before you even felt it return."
  
  Suari raised his voice. "This one has something to tell you, Empress. Something that will please you." He released Luna.
  
  Kirana noted that in the hour the ataisa had been gone, someone had clearly washed and combed out hir hair, and probably eaten something, based on the renewed vigor in the eyes.
  
  "I met your consort," Luna croaked.
  
  "You did. And did she explain our troubles?"
  
  "I'll tell you," Luna whispered. "But then you let me go."
  
  "When my scholars confirm what you've told me is true, yes."
  
  "So I can go, when I give you this? That's what Yisaoh said. She said you wouldn't harm me. She gave her word."
  
  "Well, I wouldn't want to make my consort a liar."
  
  Luna nodded.
  
  Kirana snapped her fingers at Rimey. "Go get the scholars from downstairs. Have them bring the book."
  
  Rimey ran off to the stairs.
  
  "Will you eat something?" Kirana asked.
  
  Luna nodded.
  
  Kirana called for tea; she wasn't going to waste bread and butter on this one.
  
  Luna sipped the tea as they waited for the scholars to come up. Ze would not look at Kirana.
  
  "You met my wife? My daughter?" Kirana asked.
  
  Luna nodded.
  
  "How is Tasia?"
  
  "She seems well," Luna murmured.
  
  Kirana leaned back in her chair. Perhaps she should not ruin whatever spell Yisaoh had cast on this one.
  
  The scholars arrived, breathing heavily, their coats whirling behind them; Orhin in the lead, face bunched up as if he smelled something terrible; Himsa just behind him, trying to match his great stride; and Talahina, shoulders hunched, eyes big, gaze darting all about the chamber. Kirana had never invited them this far up into the temple before. Talahina held the book, and set it onto the table in front of Kirana.
  
  "Show them," Kirana told Luna, pushing the book at hir. And, thinking of her mother, and Yisaoh's endless patience, added, "Please."
  
  Orhin carefully leaned over and opened the page to the section with the temple diagrams. "We know these symbols here correspond with the type of jista."
  
  Luna's fingers trembled as ze put hir fingers to the diagram. "This explains the machines," she said.
  
  "We gathered that," Orhin said. "We need the key for the language. The diagrams – we can puzzle that out once we have the key. You do… have the key?"
  
  Luna met Kirana's look again. "She promised."
  
  "She did," Kirana said. "I do not make promises I can't keep."
  
  Luna pulled a piece of green paper from inside the book and began to write out a series of symbols. "This is the Kai cipher," Luna said.
  
  "We are familiar," Orhin said, "But that doesn't–"
  
  Luna shook hir head. "It isn't a straight translation. That was the trick of it. Roh understood that." Luna's eyes filled. Some other dead Dhai in Saiduan, most likely. "It reads from left to right, not right to left."
  
  "Oma's breath," Talahina swore, "how did I miss that?"
  
  "It's not that simple," Orhin sputtered. "The Kai cipher was considered and discarded! It was nonsense in relation to this text."
  
  "You can work out the title, here," Luna said, "like this." Luna dutifully translated the title of the book, showing the scholars in detail how ze did it using the cipher.
  
  Kirana leaned back, hands behind her head.
  
  Orhin said, "We'll get to work on this immediately, Empress. All three of us. We'll call in help, also, so we can–"
  
  "Excellent," Kirana said. "Luna, we'll need you here a few more days, in case they have questions."
  
  "Yes," Luna said, softly.
  
  Kirana called over one of her guards. "Take this one back to one of our nicer suites, will you? And ensure it gets something to eat."
  
  When Luna was gone, Kirana addressed her babbling scholars, all of them crowing over the book.
  
  "You're a year behind!" Kirana yelled, and pounded her fist on the table.
  
  They quieted.
  
  "Get back down there and get this done," Kirana hissed.
  
  They bowed and hurried off, so quickly they forgot the book. Kirana grabbed the book and threw it across the room. It rattled the far windows, but did not break them.
  
  "Fuck!" Kirana yelled.
  
  Luna knew hir fate when ze gazed upon Kirana's triumphant face. Though the guards took hir to one of the nicer rooms three floors below where they kept their political prisoners, Luna was still aware of hir status. Luna would only be fed and clothed and tolerated until the book was fully deciphered. After that? Kirana would not keep her promise. It wasn't her promise, after all.
  
  Luna waited for a guard to return with hir meal. Despite it being a better room, ze still tripped on a loose stone in the floor, barely covered over with a rug.
  
  Ze sat meekly at the end of the bed as the guard entered. A young woman, not much older than Luna, truth be told. Luna could not look into her face. Instead, ze held out hir hands for the bowl and eating sticks.
  
  As Luna's left hand gripped the bowl, ze took hold of the eating sticks with hir right, and leapt at the guard.
  
  Luna jammed them into the guard's eye. She screamed and clutched at her face. Luna lunged and picked up the loose stone from the floor. Turned before the guard had recovered, and bludgeoned her head with the rock. She went down, but Luna needed to make sure she stayed down. Luna hit her a second time, a third.
  
  Luna fumbled with the keys on the bludgeoned woman's keyring. Ze darted into the hall, closed the door behind hir, and tucked the rock into hir pocket. Ze went casually to the main stairwell. Two jistas were coming up from below.
  
  Wasn't there another set of steps? One less obvious? Luna cast about for a doorway. There. Six steps down. Luna breathed slowly, carefully, taking the steps without hurry. Hir hand met the door. Ze pushed inward, and came into a tight, narrow corridor. The servants' stair.
  
  Luna went down another flight of steps, then risked going out into another hallway. Yisaoh had dressed Luna in a plain gray tunic and trousers, which was similar enough to what the other servants wore for hir to slip among them without too much trouble. Luna spied a girl dressed much as ze was, pulling soiled bedding from a guest room. Luna waited until the girl's back was turned and then scooped up the discarded towels from outside the door.
  
  Ze still had the keys with hir, and the stone. As ze came to the main floor, hir breath quickened. Hir hands shook. A dozen servants and various officials and soldiers still moved about the space, many of them heading to the banquet hall for the evening meal.
  
  Luna passed into the foyer. Dusk had fallen. Flame flies droned lazily in lanterns set into niches in the walls. Ze went quietly to the great front doors opposite the grand staircase. The doors were closed. One soldier sat on a stool there, dozing with his head against the wall.
  
  Ze steeled hirself and padded to the sally port set in the larger gate. It was locked. Of course. Luna dared not try the keys; ze doubted the guards would have keys to the main gate anyway. Instead, Luna crossed to the banquet room on the other side of the doors. Voices came from the far end, in what must have been the kitchen area.
  
  Windows lined much of the wall that faced the plateau. Luna set down the towels on a table. Ze went to the windows and worked at the latch of one of them. It popped open, about as wide as hir arm from wrist to elbow. Luna did not have time to hesitate. Ze pulled hirself up onto the windowsill and sucked in what remained of hir stomach and pressed through the gap.
  
  Luna had always been a small person, but the body that housed hir before imprisonment would not have fit. As Luna huffed and puffed out the window, ze realized a year of starving and wasting away in the cell below was all that had made this possible.
  
  Halfway through, Luna got stuck, and considered breaking the glass. The voices from the kitchen grew louder. Luna let out hir breath in a rush and gave one final push.
  
  Luna landed in the garden and crawled quickly through the gardens to the stone bridge that crossed the gaping chasm between the temple and the plateau. Ze stayed away from the lighted path, stepping softly among the flowers and shrubs instead.
  
  The bridge, too, had guards. Two on this side and two on the other; there was a wall around this front garden that had not been there the year before. Luna's heart sank. Ze knew this was the only way off the plateau, as ze had noted all the ways in and out when ze had first arrived.
  
  Luna took the stone from hir pocket and threw it into the bushes on the other side, hoping to call the guards' attention, but neither was bothered. The ones on this side were engaged in conversation, too low for Luna to make out. Maybe they would be relieved soon? Maybe they would go to have a meal and ze could get out when they changed the guard?
  
  To have come all this way and get stuck and captured again when they discovered Luna among the other Dhai slaves was too much to bear.
  
  Luna got up and stepped boldly onto the path. The stones poked at Luna's feet, but on ze went, striding confidently up to the guards. All Luna had left was the confidence of knowing that ze had survived a year in this place, and hir whole life in Saiduan, while these people tried to murder hir. That confidence was enough to make the walk.
  
  The guards saw Luna and ceased their chatter. Fear tangled in Luna's guts, but this was the only chance Luna had, to face them directly. Luna could not spend another night in this cursed temple, waiting on Kirana's whim. Luna approached them holding the set of keys in hir hands, like a totem.
  
  One of the soldiers peered at Luna. The other stepped closer to see what Luna proffered.
  
  "Where did you find these?" the soldier asked, in Tai Mora.
  
  Luna waited until the guard's hands were on the keys. Then Luna ducked between the two guards, kicking up gravel as ze went.
  
  "Hey, now!" the soldier yelled, alerting the two on the other side.
  
  Luna was terribly weak, but not as weak as ze had been a few hours before. The two other soldiers moved into Luna's path, blocking hir from the other side.
  
  With a great burst of energy, Luna jumped onto the railing and propelled hirself forward, balancing dangerously on the supports. The Fire River churned below, a great black snake of death. Luna pitched forward onto the plateau on the other side, narrowly missing the grasping fingers of one of the soldiers.
  
  Luna ran blindly, not knowing at all where ze was going. Following the path would mean following the light, so ze abruptly turned away from heading down into the little settlement on the plateau and instead headed out to the east. The soldiers were in pursuit. They were faster than Luna. They would make up the time in mere moments.
  
  Ze changed direction abruptly and ran up the edge of the plateau, following its long curve as hir body broke out in a cold sweat.
  
  Luna bolted across the plateau, as quickly as hir exhausted, wasted legs would take hir. Ahead, Luna saw the breadth of everpines and verdant bamboo carpeting the hills on the other side of the ravine that split the plateau. How far were those hills… an age, an impossible distance, maybe fifty yards? Maybe more. Luna wanted a miracle. Luna wanted to be free, one way or another, wanted to be able to fly across the ravine and land in those beautiful, lush bamboo.
  
  Ze wanted freedom more than anything else. The guards were coming. They would end hir. Luna's feet tangled in the long grass. Ze had a moment at the very edge of the plateau, two steps, in which ze could turn back.
  
  Instead, Luna jumped, hurling hirself into the great black abyss where the Fire River yawned below to embrace hir.
  
  Finally, Luna thought.
  
  Finally, free.