Dome:

When Soulcatcher and Oracle returned to Dome, Painter had considerable progress to report. "Longshadow is very unpopular with his people. It seems like we could cause him a lot of trouble by trying to stir up unrest. So I've been following Lady's example in producing inspiring characters, and trying to produce some outfits for an anti-shadow character, who I'm calling Lightbringer."

"Not terribly impressed with the name," Soulcatcher commented, "but it might not be a bad idea."

Painter showed her a mask, metal with a lining and with white lacquer on the face, with smoothed features and a shining jewel third eye. "This can be worn either on its own under hood of these robes I've prepared," he indicated bright yellow robes covered with white runes and symbols, "or attached to the helmet of the armor I had made," he indicated a suit of plate, with a bright metal shine and again covered with runes. "Everything is covered with the best protections I could manage against both physical and magical attack, but I'm sure you could greatly improve them."

"They're definitely different."

"Well, you were worried about your enemies knowing what you were up to. This enables you to take some actions that they hopefully won't associate with you. I used your Lifetaker armor to figure out the size for the plate armor. It might be a good idea to make another suit or two, to fit Oracle or myself, with illusions of course so that we don't actually look different, so we can play the role as well if needed."

Soulcatcher examined some of the runes and wards on the gear. "Not bad, but it will certainly require more work."

"I also made a bow. It should imbue any arrows it fires with light, and hopefully make them some use against shadows. But I'm much less sure that will actually work. I remembered that you do know how to use a bow, but that again it's not something that's usually associated with you."

"Reasonable," Soulcatcher commented. She examined the bow. "But I'm afraid I'll probably have to redo this. Still, a good effort. And you should make some Soulcatcher armor for yourself, so you'll be better protected when you try to play me. Include illusions to make you look like me, so you don't have to expend the effort keeping those up. Maybe Oracle can help you as well."

"Neither illusions nor enchanting are specialties of mine," Oracle said, "but I may be able to contribute slightly. It's always good to include wards against scrying and enemy magic generally, and perhaps I can improve on Painter's efforts in those areas."

"That would certainly be appreciated," Painter said. "By the way, the priests were pretty well behaved while you were gone. I think we have them under control; it may soon be possible to leave them on their own for short periods, if there's ever a need for all of us to be out and about simultaneously."

"Good to know. I suppose they had to learn eventually."

"What were you up to on your errand, anyway?" Painter asked.

"Acquiring a flying carpet, for one thing," Oracle said.

"Yes. Howler made that for me. He's providing some inside help with Longshadow. We need to find ways to make Longshadow do worse in the war. Your Lightbringer idea may help, of course, Painter, and Howler has promised to do what he can to undermine the effort without giving himself away."

"We could also take out enemy leaders." Oracle suggested.

"Well, taking out Longshadow is the goal, but he's too well protected for the moment. Howler, of course, is on our side. I think Mogaba could be brought over to our side once Longshadow is removed, and he could be very valuable to us."

"Hmmm."

"That only leaves Blade. And I don't think he's very important to Longshadow's efforts; removing him would probably just increase Mogaba's authority. Besides, if Blade really did have an affair with my sister, he's a reminder to them of a sore spot between them. And I wouldn't want to deprive my sister of that unpleasant reminder."

"As you wish."

"Killing shadowweavers is an option, though. That would hinder Longshadow, and honestly they're not valuable enough that converting them to our side eventually is an overriding priority."

"Worth pursuing. And I guess the other direction to look at for hurting Longshadow is finding ways to help the Black Company."

"Yes. But it's rainy season now; not good for campaigning in any event. We should prepare to have Lightbringer support some rebellions in the shadowlands; perhaps you could try to scout out some likely towns where there's a lot of opposition, Painter? But it's not urgent, and neither is the Black Company. I have another errand of my own, because the last one succeeded; I'm going to be investigating the plain of glittering stone personally. I've found a way in."

"Will that be safe?" Painter asked.

"Certainly not, but I can take care of myself. While I'm gone, Oracle, you need to keep an eye on Shapeshifter. Use the crows and whatever scrying methods you have. I want to know what he's going to get up to now that he's back. Try not to be too obvious, of course; he surely expects us to watch him, but we don't want to antagonize him, so try not to be rude about it."

"Understood."

"And Painter, it seems you have enough projects. Thanks to the carpet, I probably won't be gone long."

The Plain of Glittering Stone:

The Dandha Presh mountains that ran along the eastern side of the shadowlands curved westward in the south, separating the southern part of the shadowlands, where Longshadow had always been based, from the rest. There was only one usable pass between the southern shadowlands and the central regions, at Charandaprash. Soulcatcher's crows reported that Longshadow, in his paranoia, had already started setting up a garrison there. The air was too thin to fly over the mountains. She could conceal herself, and was going to need to count on that when she got near Overlook, but there was no need to press her luck. The mountains didn't go on forever. As they ran west, they shrank into hills as they entered the desert, the Shindai Kus, eventually disappearing completely near the ocean. So the risk of being spotted flying over the pass, while small, could be eliminated by taking the long way around, going all the way west to the desert. With the carpet, it meant that she would take two days to get to the plain instead of only one. It seemed a reasonable price to pay.

There was, however, no way around Overlook. Soulcatcher flew to the edge of the strange, low plateau south of Overlook, stopping out of sight of the fortress. The sides of the plateau were not very steep; it looked like someone could simply walk up them, no climbing required, anywhere around the edge of the plain. The magical barrier around the plain was close to the bottom of the slope.

Soulcatcher used her crows to scout, as usual. Fortunately, Overlook continued to have the same bare minimum garrison. The wall facing the shadowgate didn't even have construction crews, as that part of the fortress was finished. Defending against threats from the plain was the main purpose of the fortress, and so construction efforts had reflected that priority. The only concern, really, was Longshadow himself, who had a strange habit of spending hours in the tallest of his towers, staring at the plain, watching for trouble.

Longshadow had taken to trying to kill off crows, since he suspected that they had been used as spies in the past, but Soulcatcher had had them minimize suspicious behavior, and so it seemed that over time the crows had drifted down on Longshadow's list of priorities. As a result, Soulcatcher was able to watch for a time when it seemed Longshadow had left his tower, perhaps to actually sleep for a bit. It was early morning, which was perfect; it meant the maximum possible time before she would have to worry about shadows. She surrounded herself with the best concealment magic she could manage, to further minimize risk, and flew to the edge of the strange, low plateau behind Overlook.

It took a little time to even find the shadowgate. At one time, it appeared that there had actually been a fortified gatehouse at the entrance to the plain, but that was so long ago that she missed the ruins the first couple of times she went by. Once she had the right general area, her magical senses, with the help of the key, located the actual entrance.

It seemed that it was probably possible to enter the plain at other points besides the gate, but it would require effort to get through the magical barrier, and would leave a gap in the barrier that shadows could escape through. At least with the key, passing through the gate was effortless, and had no effect on the magical barriers. The gate was at the beginning of a magical pathway within the plain, which seemed to have some protection against shadows. However, Soulcatcher could see the damage the shadowmasters had done to the gate, and it looked like damage to the gate would also ruin the protection at the end of the path, so that shadows could get through. It did look like Longshadow's patch had restored the protection of the path, but Soulcatcher wasn't going to count on that. She had her carpet, after all, and shadows couldn't fly. Thus, as soon as she was through the gate, she took to the air.

As she flew above the edge of the plateau, she saw how the place had gotten its name. It was a flat, nearly featureless stone plain, and the stone did indeed glitter. There were no living things to be seen anywhere. Soulcatcher did see columns here and there on the plain, with writing she could not decipher. She considered trying to copy some of the text for later analysis, but decided to postpone that project.

She continued southward and flew higher. Eventually, she could see a vast structure in the distance. It appeared to be more or less at the center of the plain, maybe sixty miles from the shadowgate. As she grew closer, she could see that it was a fortress. The walls were not as tall as those of Overlook but it was perhaps even larger in its horizontal dimensions. It seemed to be poorly maintained, but it had not fallen into ruin. It looked as if it were recently abandoned, or perhaps as if it were being kept up by someone too lazy to fix any but the most severe problems.

In the center of the fortress was a huge dome. The area under the dome constituted much of the interior of the fortress; the dome was perhaps a mile across, and so obviously held up by magic. There were a couple of holes in the dome, enabling light to enter, and enabling Soulcatcher to look in.

Below the dome was a huge circle, which seemed to be a scale model of the plain. In the center of this huge circle was a smaller circle, which seemed, redundantly, to be another scale model of the plain, on a smaller scale. Finally, atop the small circle was a huge throne. It was difficult to judge scale in such a bizarre place, but it was definitely meant for a being far larger than a human. And just such a giant occupied the throne. Daggers were thrust through its hands, securing them to the arms of the throne, and daggers had also been thrust through its legs to hold it in place.

Soulcatcher could sense an immense magical strength in the giant. Much more than a Taken; closer to the power of her former lover, the Dominator. She couldn't tell if the giant was aware of her presence or not, but it seemed to be alive, or at least active in some sense. It didn't look much like any of the representations or descriptions of Kina, and neither did it feel very much like magic she'd felt around the Kina temple in the Grove of Doom. Perhaps this was one of the other beings Oracle had hypothesized.

Soulcatcher decided that approaching the giant was probably not something to rush into, however passive it might appear. She looked around for other entrances to the fortress, and was able to find a doorway into one of the towers guarding the outer walls.

The rooms and apartments in the towers and within the outer walls seemed to be endless. The population of a city could have lived there, if they could have found any way to feed themselves on the desolate plain. But the fortress was completely devoid of inhabitants, apart from the giant at the center. It also seemed as if it had been looted, or perhaps whoever had last inhabited it had taken almost everything with when they left. Still, Soulcatcher found a few artifacts here and there. Most interestingly, as she checked room after room, she would very occasionally come upon a few books or scrolls. Most were in totally unfamiliar languages, but a tiny handful seemed to be in scripts related to those she was familiar with, and she gathered those for future study, placing preserving magic on them to transport them safely.

She had barely made any progress in exploring the vast fortress when night began to approach. She decided that she really needed to spend more than a single day exploring here. If worst came to worst, she could just fly all night, but first she was curious as to whether the fortress had any protection against the shadows, as the roads had seemed to have. The giant wasn't really evidence either way, as she wasn't sure even a shadow could harm the thing. Nor was she sure that the giant counted as alive for the purposes of the shadows' innate desire to kill.

So she set up a small camp on top of one of the towers, setting wards to provide some protection and warning against shadows, and waiting on her carpet so she could leave if things got bad. As she'd hoped, it turned out that the shadows apparently couldn't enter the fortress. At least, none bothered her, though she saw thousands of them milling about on the plain during the night.

The next morning, she continued her hunt through the peripheral chambers and apartments, turning up a few additional texts. It took a few days before she had as many of those as she thought she could comfortably take back with her on her carpet. She still hadn't explored more than a tiny fraction of the outer fortress.

It was more likely than not that the texts would turn out to be useless; she didn't know for certain that she'd ever be able to decipher any of them, and since she certainly couldn't read them now, she couldn't know for certain that any of them contained anything valuable, as opposed to accounting ledgers or love poetry or something equally pointless. She didn't want the trip to turn out to have been a total waste of time, so she decided to investigate the center of the fortress before she left.

The giant continued to show no sign of awareness of her presence. When she actually landed on the floor, she thought she could sense some magic in the circles. They seemed to have some sort of link to the plain outside. She also saw, on one side of the room, a huge spiral staircase leading down.

It looked like the staircase went down for a mile or more, and even from the top of it Soulcatcher could sense a little bit of familiar magic. If Kina was here, she was probably at the bottom of that staircase. Soulcatcher cautiously proceeded downward, staying alert to any magical disturbances.

She found that as the staircase went down, it connected to several different cross passages, leading to caves or underground excavations. In one of them, she found chambers filled with ice, containing people who seemed to be frozen, but who showed signs of life when Soulcatcher examined them with her magic. Oracle had mentioned dreams about such people; apparently her visions had been genuine. None of them seemed to be of any importance, though. She certainly didn't sense any magic comparable to the giant or to Kina in any of them. A few were probably mages, but of those she checked, none even seemed comparable to Oracle.

There were also rooms full of various artifacts and treasures, but Soulcatcher already had her full load of books to take back, so she didn't have much interest in those at the moment; she'd have to investigate more closely during future expeditions. As she made her way down the staircase, the sense of Kina's presence grew stronger, and eventually Soulcatcher decided it was probably best to turn back. She had learned a decent amount. She'd found that there were at least two powers on the plane, Kina and the giant. There could very well be more, of course, in unexplored parts of the fortress or the caves underground, but actually locating those two made the situation no longer a matter of pure speculation. And maybe Soulcatcher would be lucky and there would actually be something in the texts.

She had no more trouble with Longshadow's fortress on the way out than she had had on the way in. Longshadow really wasn't keeping as careful a watch on the plain as one might have expected from his paranoia. Then again, he was most concerned about shadows, and Soulcatcher wasn't one of those. Soulcatcher again took the long way around, through the desert, on her way back to Dome.

Dome:

Upon returning home, Soulcatcher found her part of the temple a little bit more crowded. She questioned Painter and Oracle about the new additions.

"Well, it occurred to us that while the priests recruited any magically talented men in the area, there were likely to be a comparable number of magically talented women," Painter explained.

"Yes, I was able to track down several gifted women," Oracle said. "I decided not to bother with the older women, with families and children; older people don't learn as fast, and their families would be a distraction anyway. But we found a few girls who weren't old enough to be married yet."

"They seemed enthusiastic enough about studying magic, and it only took modest bribes for their families to be content with letting us have them," Painter continued.

"Having more people with magical talent will help, and they'll surely be more loyal than the priests," Soulcatcher admitted. "Though providing magical training will eat into your time in the short term. It's a reasonable trade off. In case I need to talk to any of them, what are they called?"

"The oldest is Destiny, the tall one is Dawn, and the youngest is Dagger."

"I suppose names aren't really important."

"Oh, and one more thing. About Dagger. In talking to her, I've discovered that she has dreams of becoming a great warrior."

"Well, magic can help with fighting. Though being a witch should be exciting enough."

"Yes, magic can help with fighting. In fact, I was wondering if we could use magic to make her bigger and stronger. I know with the animals it seems to work best to alter them when they're very young, but I thought with people with magical talent, there was more flexibility on that score. And she is the youngest of the recruits anyway. Of course, we can teach her to use magic on herself, but you and Oracle could also apply some of your own power to the project."

"Yes, that could certainly be done. We could make a female Bonegnasher. Though I think without the crocodile head."

"Bonegnasher?"

"Another of the Taken. He used magic to make himself into a monster, a giant of immense strength. And, for some reason, he gave himself the head of a crocodile. Or maybe that was a curse he was under; I never asked him about it. Anyway, the animal head seems a needless addition to the giant warrior idea. Which we will certainly employ. By the way, I hope this project hasn't distracted you two from other priorities."

"Not at all," Oracle replied. "I have been keeping a close eye on the recently awakened one. It seems that he and Shadowcat are heading north. Their destination is Cho'n Delor. I'm not familiar with the place."

"It's a ruin, the former capital of the Paingod, centuries ago," Soulcatcher offered. "I've heard a tiny bit about it, because the Black Company worked for the Paingod until he was defeated in the Pastel Wars."

"Hmmm. I wonder why they're going to a ruin. I haven't seen anything informative, I'm afraid."

"There are a number of possibilities." Soulcatcher stopped paying attention to Oracle as she tried to work it out for herself. "The ruin is overrun with spirits, and dangerous magical residues, even after all this time."

"That might have kept looters away. Perhaps Shapeshifter hopes to find that the Paingod left behind some valuable treasures," a greedy man's voice said.

"Possible. But I've never heard that the Paingod had anything exceptional," she said in the voice of a scholar.

"Maybe his interest is in the spirits that haunt the place? Does he plan to try to take control of some of them, to turn them to his own purposes? Minions of his own to match up against the shadows?" she whispered.

"It's strange that nobody else has done that," the serious voice commented. "They must be unusually hard to control. I wonder why Howler didn't explore Cho'n Delor when he was living so near there."

"Well, he was never all that brave," a girl's voice said, "and he had plenty of human minions in his swamp."

"And perhaps he did explore it," a baritone voice said. "Why would he have mentioned it?"

"Of course, Shapeshifter may just figure that the spirits and dangerous magic will keep everyone else away. Maybe Shapeshifter just wants a place where nobody will disturb him," the serious voice mused.

"I suppose we won't know until he gets there." Soulcatcher returned her attention to Oracle. "Keep watching him whenever you get the chance."

"Of course."

"Now, I'm sure you both want to know about the plain." Soulcatcher briefly summarized her trip, describing the fortress, the giant, and the probable location of Kina. "I would like to see if I can make some sense of these texts, to see if they'll give me any ideas for what I should focus on next time I go down there. Oracle, do any of the scripts look remotely familiar with you? Or will I have to do all the deciphering myself?"

Oracle looked through some of the scrolls and books. "A couple of them are written in relatives of languages I've come across, but even in those I can guess at maybe one word in twenty. The rest are gibberish to me."

"Well, take the ones that look vaguely familiar, and see if you can make any progress on them. I'll make a quick trip to Taglios, and see if there are any really old books there that might be intermediate between these texts and languages we're familiar with, as that might provide clues for how to translate some things."

"Maybe you should kidnap a few scholars while you're at it. I'd suggest using the priests, but they have plenty of work to do with enchanting the crows. And they're not very trustworthy."

"Worth considering, certainly. Painter, you have some apprentice training to do, as well as working on enchanting Lightbringer gear, unless that's all finished?" He shook his head. "Well, no rush. Oh and you should get a foal or two and have the priests work on raising some enchanted horses. Having only one is going to start being a little limiting, even with the carpet as well. And the Charm horse won't last forever in any event." Soulcatcher dismissed her lieutenants and rested for a while before departing for Taglios.

A/N: I'm trying to come up with ideas for interesting things to put in the fortress with no name, or in Cho'n Delor for that matter. According to canon, the fortress is huge, and Cho'n Delor is, of course, a whole city that is basically not described in canon at all. But ideas that would fit into the setting and contribute to the story are not particularly flooding in. It's possible that this will slow the pace of updates, though I will try to keep them coming. Suggestions are, of course, very welcome!