Cliff walls rose on all sides to circumscribe a sky deeper blue than the sky outside had been. No clouds here, just blue and blue and blue forever.

A trench ran around the caldera’s edge, and water flowed in the trench, so clear as to be visible only by its motion, like a heat ripple in air. Kai stepped over the trench, and felt as if rather than a few inches’ drop she had crossed a bottomless chasm. “Don’t touch the water,” she said to Teo, who replied with a what-kind-of-idiot-do-you-take-me-for roll of her eyes.

When they crossed the water, nothing visible changed. Kai felt steadier, slower than before. She remembered to breathe. You had to remember to breathe, here.

“What is this place?” Teo said. She gasped for air, swallowed it.

“Center of the world.” Kai breathed out and in again. “Or, a center.”

“My heart’s not beating.”

“Rules are different here. Will shaped this place; will matters more than it does outside. Reality’s thinner, pliable. Things only happen because a person demands them to.”

“Gravity still works though.”

“Gravity’s a hard habit to break.”

“So’s a heartbeat.”

“You’ve felt gravity longer than you’ve had a heart.”

She led Teo to the pool.

“This is it?”

Cracked rock ended in a brief pebbled beach. Beyond, the pool spread, either fifty feet or five million across, charged with starlight. “This is it.” Kai’s shoulder ached from holding the cane, and burned also, from inside.

“Where are the other priests?”

“Most of the work’s done in our offices and shrines. Answering letters, inking deals, meeting with foreign Craftsmen and pilgrims. Praying. Lots of praying.” She nodded to the windows. “We only visit the pool on special occasions.” She thought back to Seven Alpha’s death. To the Blue Lady’s death.

“The land of the gods,” Teo said, “and people ignore it.”

“We don’t ignore it. We carry it with us.”

Kai looked down into the pool. Teo joined her. “Don’t touch the pool,” Kai said. “I know it seems obvious, but really. You’re not warded for the work. It’s dangerous down there.”

“I see sparks.”