"Thanks for visiting me," Gugalan said.

  "You're welcome," Sai told him. Something about the minotaur's unchanging presence comforted the orc, and the constancy of their greetings calmed the churning of his mind. Even with the stars watching their every move from the Shadowed Altar at the far end of the room, Sai almost felt like he could relax with Gugalan. Even Cuatete seemed less murdery. "Do you have time to talk?" Sai asked.

  "I have all the time in Serinor," Gugalan responded as ever. Sai almost smiled, and it sounded like the minotaur wanted to as well. "What did you want to talk about?"

  Sometimes, when Sai was passing through the courtyard on his way elsewhere in the Vale, he would stop in just to go through this ritual with the minotaur. "I don't know," he'd say. "Stuff? How's things?" And the minotaur would snort and tell him to go away. But today he had something he wanted to know. "I'm looking for a star," he said.

  "A what?" the minotaur asked.

  "Sorry," Sai said, shaking his head. "It's a Draconic word I loaned into Trotzen. I need one of Syn's lights."

  The minotaur's eyes widened. "You want one of our Master's lights?" he asked.

  "Yes," Sai said. "The Eldritch One needs it to help me…" Sai's voice trailed off when the minotaur's eyes suddenly narrowed. Sai gulped. "…do some stuff," he went on. "That I probably shouldn't tell Syn's Enforcer about. Say, what's all this machinery do?"

  Gugalan considered him through narrowed eyes a moment too long then snorted and turned his head to observe the gearwork on the wall. "The gearwork here controls the portcullises within the citadel," the minotaur said.

  "I thought Syn already opened the gates," said Sai.

  "Most of them," said Gugalan. He pointed out a lever that was in the opposite direction from the others. "This one's still shut."

  Sai knew exactly where the closed gate was. He'd tried to ask Syn why it was still shut, but the Nightmare hadn't answered him. "Can I use that to open the gate?" Sai asked.

  Gugalan snorted and looked down at him. "I doubt you have the strength to work the lever," the minotaur said. "I can open it for you if you like."

  Sai blinked back up at the Enforcer. "Would you?" he asked.

  Stolen story; please report.

  "I suppose," Gugalan said with a shrug. "It'll give me something to do." He grabbed the lever, flexed a bicep that Sai estimated was as big around as the orc's head, and flung the lever across its track with a grunt. Gears and pulleys shrieked and spun with the force of the minotaur's push but soon were still. Gugalan snorted again. "Not much to do, though," he said.

  "Thank you," said Sai.

  "You're welcome," said Gugalan. "Come visit again."

  Sai went straight to the now-open gate and climbed the stairs behind it. The stairwell led into a series of meeting parlors and dressing rooms and royal bedchambers. Unlike the rooms in the rest of the citadel, these seemed to have not been ransacked or looted or ruined. None of the burning torches on the wall cast real light, and the stone walls and floor were the same unhealthy purple in the not-light of the Vale, but it felt more real than the rest of the citadel. Sai wondered not for the first time where the Shadowed Citadel had come from. Everything else in the Vale had an identifiable origin: the Draconic ruins at Somber Tune, the Purrisien farms to the south. But the citadel seemed out of place in its own home.

  Sai's musings were cut short when he noticed something sparkling at the edge of a balcony outside one of the parlors. "What is that?" he asked. Cuatete rushed to the gleaming object and sniffed it, and Sai hurried to follow her. The thing was lodged into the stone floor of the balcony and shone so brightly that Sai couldn't see through the light to see what it was made of. "It looks like one of Syn's stars," he whispered. He looked up into the dark. "Did it fall?"

  "Grrr…" said Cuatete.

  "Hush," Sai told her. He tapped the thing quickly with a finger several times to make sure it was solid and that it wouldn't burn him. But it was cool to the touch, if somewhat tingly. Once he was sure it was safe, he pried it from the floor and stuck it in his pack. "This must be what the Eldritch One is looking for," he said.

  He sighed in relief and leaned against the railing of the balcony. That was one down. Only two to go. He looked out to where the Eldritch One's cave should be and realized it was too dark to see. He reached out a hand, but there was nothing. "Why is it so dark here?" he asked. "I can't see anything past the edge of the balcony." His heart sank as soon as he heard his own question. He gulped. "Though that begs the question of why I can see anything in a place with no light."

  He knew the answer, of course. He could feel Syn nearby, though the god hadn't even laughed at him. Sai closed his eyes. He was not a creature of Syn. He was a child of the Abriasha. But he had asked himself a question, and he could not stop himself from confirming he was correct about its answer. Sai grabbed Syn's power and opened his eyes.

  The Vale stretched out before the Harbinger of Nightmare in all directions. He could see the burned farmland just outside the citadel, the sandy deserts beyond, even the ruins buildings of something to the southwest beyond where he'd jumped into the canyon. Unseen in the distance, Syn's children howled to him. The star-studded Void laughed.

  With a gasp, Sai blinked, and the Vale was dark again. He took a shuddering breath. Then Cuatete came up beside him and put her head under his hand. He smiled down at her and scratched her head. She closed her eyes and chirped. "Come on," Sai told her once he was done. He patted her on the head. "Let's go."

  "Chirp!" said Cuatete, and she darted back inside the citadel.