"Do you trust him, Astrid?" Rigel asked, his eyes still following Orion.

Once again, his words surprised her. She had never questioned Orion's loyalty, and she didn't know why Rigel should; his distrust made her want to defend Orion.

Forcing herself to ignore her confusion, made worse by the images of her fiancé's recent, changed behaviour which her mind produced, followed by the picture of the gun, gleaming dimly, dangerously in the candlelight, Astrid replied, "I've been promised to marry him ever since I remember, Rigel. I do trust him. I have no doubts that he wants me to succeed in this mission-- I won't be crowned unless I make a new treaty and stop the Black Nights before the world declares another war on the angels."

Rigel sighed, not entirely satisfied with her answer. "No one wants a new war. I'll tell you what I know, but I want to continue on this journey with you once we reach Vesper. I won't return to Starling with the guards, I'll take you and Lord Orion to Vega to meet someone who I think knows more than I do."

Astrid nodded. She had nothing to object to. Rigel was offering her more help than she was asking for.

"Thank you, Rigel," she agreed, and he finally looked into her eyes as he asked, "What do you know about Land's End, Astrid?"

She took a few moments to reign in her thoughts and recall the memories of her geography lessons.

"Land's End is one of Eurovea's many promontories. Surprisingly, it wasn't touched by any major earthquake and remains, more or less, as it had always been," she recited the well-remembered lines.

Rigel nodded, a bemused smile turning the corners of his lips upwards. "And you have never asked yourself why that part of our country was never really touched by an earthquake? Or rather, why the rest of it was, seeing that the northwest of Eurovea lies far from any tectonic plate boundaries?"

Astrid shook her head in answer, feeling a hot blush flooding her cheeks as she realised that she had never questioned or doubted her tutors' words. Or Orion's.

"Are you suggesting," she said carefully after a while when Rigel simply observed her, giving her time to draw her own conclusions, "that the place is protected by magic? Or that the earthquakes were not natural?"

"Both. The earthquakes might have been caused by angel magic. They all happened close to or during the wars. And Land's End may be protected in the same manner."

Astrid frowned, trying to follow the lines of thoughts growing quickly in her mind, forming a complicated spider web of information. The promontory was a tiny, insignificant thing, a few kilometres of bare, rocky land running into the sea.

"The angels can't be hiding at Land's End..." she muttered, her words making Rigel's smile widen.

"Has no one told you of the Land End's Pit, Astrid?"

"No," she replied, frown deepening. The promontory wasn't in a mining region.

"A seemingly bottomless pit was discovered centuries ago at the very tip of Land's End. After the use of technology was forbidden, people started to use it to dispose of devices they could no longer use, things whose keeping became illegal. Some adventurers tried to reach its end, and many desperate people jumped..." His last words came out on a sigh, making Astrid shiver. "But the pit remains a mystery. No one knows how deep it is and what hides at its bottom."

"The angels?" Astrid whispered, mesmerised by the mystery underlying Rigel's words.

"Yes, that's where they might be. But before I'll take you there, I'll make you talk to someone who might know better. It would be a useless waste of time to go all the way to Land's End if I was wrong..." Rigel trailed off, getting lost in his thoughts, letting his horse fall back to leave his place to Orion when he reached them around midday.

"Let us rest a while," Orion said, his eyes darting curiously between Astrid and Rigel, "we won't stop again until we reach the fortress at sunset."

When Astrid told him what Rigel had said once they had eaten and continued on their journey, Orion didn't seem as surprised as Astrid had been.

"I've heard about the pit, but I have never thought it might be the place where they are hiding... Do you believe that we can trust your friend enough to make him come with us from Vesper without the others?" he whispered, looking at Rigel, who was now riding ahead of them, next to Izar.

"I do," Astrid said without hesitation, finding Orion's mistrust of Rigel as unexpected as Rigel's mistrust of Orion.

Why was everyone so suspicious... or was it she, who was too naive? And why couldn't she bring herself to tell Orion anything of what Rigel had told her about the witch trial, about the people's belief that angels were saving those girls capable of magic because... because just like her... they might be part angels...? Why couldn't she tell him that she had seen them?

Because it just sounds impossible, that's why, she mused, allowing Orion to fill the silence between them with an endless monologue about their future as the hours stretched, the forest around them thinned, and the early afternoon morphed into the late evening, until Rigel, sent by Izar, rode towards the couple, announcing that they finally reached their destination.

Astrid smiled at the young guard thankfully, feeling exhausted, leaving her horse to follow the others out of the last trees and onto a vast plain covered in long grass undulating in the wind, bathed in the soft hues of twilight.

A several stories high, tower-like fortress made of dark grey stone stood at the forest's edge close to them, not far from the river. A small water mill's wheel clattered rhythmically as it turned in the current and another mill-- a tall and thin wooden structure topped with turning metal blades-- whirred in the wind.

Achernar at least didn't show off the technology he used, unlike these people, Astrid mused unhappily. Was there anyone at all beyond Starling who respected the prohibition, apart from the most disadvantaged?!

"I don't think this is fair," she told Orion, but he, hypnotised by the unexpected display of technology, forgot all about Astrid and left her behind with Rigel, ignoring her words.

Rigel, smiling at her understandingly, helped her off her horse when they reached the massive main door of the fortress, which opened nearly instantly, revealing the landlord, overjoyed at seeing Izar and his group of guards.

Once their horses were led into the stables by several valets, the guests were invited inside and introduced properly. The moment Lord Acrux and his wife, Lady Alioth, understood who Astrid and Orion were, the two were assigned the best, separate bedrooms of the fortress.

Astrid laughed at seeing Orion's disappointed face when he left her outside her room after they climbed several flights of stairs, marvelling at what looked like electric lights illuminating the windowless stairwell and corridors. He had apparently forgotten that not all the people were as freethinking as her uncle. But they were guests here, and Orion's ingrained good manners did not allow him to question their landlord's hospitality.

Refusing to analyse her joy at having a room to herself, Astrid stepped into the chamber, not quite sure what to expect, baffled by all the unpredictable examples of technology she had already seen.

She had an hour to wash and change, Lady Alioth had said, then the dinner would be served. Before she could even look around herself, someone knocked on the door that had just closed behind her.

"Orion," Astrid muttered on a sigh.

However, it wasn't him, but a maid sent by Lady Alioth.

"I have a clean dress for you, lady, and I was told to show you around and collect all the clothes you might want to have washed," the girl said, curtsying, preceding Astrid into the chamber when she stepped out of her way.

Walking swiftly around the chamber, the girl switched on several lamps by pulling strings or pressing buttons, before she stopped by the canopy bed standing on a wooden dais between two small windows, where she deposited the dress.

While Astrid observed the sky-blue creation of silk and lace, made according to the latest fashion just like the dresses she wore at her uncle's court, the maid walked towards a door Astrid hadn't noticed before.

Following her, Astrid found out that it led to a bathroom, with a marble bath nearly as large as the one Astrid had in the castle. But here, unlike at home where it took several maids to fill it with buckets of hot water, a simple touch of a silvery tap was enough to conjure up a small stream of steaming water, filling the bath fast.

Astrid didn't realise that she was staring transfixed at the running water until the girl smiled at her, "I know, it looks like a miracle, doesn't it? Lord Acrux is a great inventor. Will you need any more help, lady?"

Astrid shook her head, full of questions she couldn't wait to ask Lord Acrux. "I'll be fine, thank you. If you could just wait until I undress, I'll give you all these..." Astrid said, removing her guard's jacket.

"Of course," the girl agreed, opening a wooden chest from which she produced a couple of towels, a pair of slippers, a bar of soap, and a hairbrush. "I'll wait for your clothes in your chamber, and then I'll bring your bags."

"Thank you," Astrid said again, removing her shoes and shedding the rest of her clothes the moment the girl was out, sighing with pleasure when the warm water engulfed her.