The path into the jungle was well-marked, at least. For the time being Tara was able to walk on dirt. Her family hadn't tried very hard to teach her woodcraft, but inevitably she had picked a little up from her brothers. Soon she'd be clambering over the boles of trees. Perhaps it wasn't too late to learn a third version of the environmental-protection power, the one that'd keep her safe from plants and bugs.

Animals called from the treetops and from burrows in the forest floor and from everywhere in between. She might have time to hunt, to pick up some new shapes. A bird would be nice, and she wouldn't have to wind her way through the rain forest then. Catching one with just her current powers to work with could be a problem, though.

A colorful lizard darted up the nearest tree as she passed it. Watching carefully despite its blur of speed, she realized it had two heads. The Wyld taint here might prevent her from picking up useful shapes, as Fred had warned. In any case, now that she had the tattoos to protect her it was a good place to practice her powers. A python would be right at home in these trees.

She was just about to make the change when a voice called out, "Hiya!"

"Dawn? Should you be out here?" Shadow would kill her if she got Dawn hurt.

"Here is exactly where I should be," Dawn pointed out, "or deeper even. I don't want to end up like Glory, so I need to at least visit every so often."

"It still seems really strange that you're not afraid of her any more," Tara said. Glory had tried to bleed Dawn dry and destroy the world in the process just to get back to the Wyld.

"It's strange to me too," Dawn agreed, "at least to the part of me that still thinks like a human. And I do sorta want to be cautious around her. But she's different here. This her hasn't been through the stuff that made her crazy. And...also..." She hesitated, studying a frog hiding on tree bark. "In the Wyld, I can make my feelings change. I can kinda even change my whole personality if I take off my body." She gave a nervous giggle. "I could wave my hand and be Buffy's girlfriend instead of her sister."

"But you don't," Tara observed.

"I've been human too long," Dawn agreed. "It seems weird. But it gets less weird every day." She dissolved into mist.

"Dawn? Dawn, are you-?" Tara knew this was a thing spirits could do, but she wasn't any less used to thinking of Dawn as human.

Dawn reappeared at her side-at least, Tara thought she was Dawn. This new appearance resembled Dawn's older-looking "pride form", somewhat, but her skin was orange, her ears were pointed, and her hair was bright yellow fire. All her hair; she was naked and unconcerned. "I want to burn down the whole forest," she said.

Tara jumped. "Please don't, Dawnie."

"You could get to the volcano faster," Dawn argued.

"Dawn, if you want to help, help me navigate. Help me communicate with the things I find here." She put out her arms, pleading a little. "Don't start a forest fire."

"I don't like..." Dawn shook herself a little. "Okay, Tara. I like you more than I hate jungles."

Tara nodded. "Good. Thank you, Dawnie." What would she do if Dawn lost herself entirely? But at the same time, was it fair to expect Dawn not to be what she was?

"Wham bam," Faith said contentedly. "Thank you ma'am!" Anja couldn't respond just yet while she changed back, so Faith leaned as far back as she could and scratched the itchy place on her second set of ribs. "That hit the spot."

"I should hope so," Anja said at last. "Sorry I couldn't be a...'centaur' for you, but I've never so much as seen one till you."

"'S ok," Faith said, trying to straighten her hair with her fingers. "I'm not big on cuddles, so you didn't need arms. Well...you coulda played with my tits, I guess, but I got what I needed. You?" She was trying to be a little more sensitive to her partners lately. It made Amy happy.

"It was exciting," Anja agreed. "I hope the maiden tea worked right, but honestly I don't think you can get pregnant in Creation like this anyway."

"Better not be able," Faith scoffed. "Been through that from the other end lately and it was no fun." She thumbed the bay door controls. "I'll be hella glad when I can get back to normal-I miss beds-but whoo boy this has it's points. Don't guess you know how to brush a horse, though."

"Of course I know how to brush a horse," Anja said grumpily. "My family had money when I was little. Might have to improvise, though. I don't think this place has seen a horse in centuries."

"Good point," Faith agreed. "I can...uh, hello!" She was inches away from a rather petite bronze-skinned woman in a tight top and bell-bottomed pants; a lot of the Tya wore something like that, but this woman didn't have tats. She'd come around the corner in utter silence. "Whatcha lookin for?"

"Faith Lehane," the woman said, "and from the looks of you I'd say I've found her. How is the new eye working out?"

"Sage? It's good. Sees fine, got over bein' disorientated in an hour or so." She paused. "Naw, I told you that. Which one're you? Kolohi? Renjin?" Lunars were confusing when they were being other people.

"None of the above," the woman answered. "I'm pleased to meet one of your potential, to have survived a trip into pure chaos-though not unscathed, it seems." She made a dismissing gesture at Anja, who nodded-just a touch formally-and hurried away. The woman tilted her head, glanced around, and finished, "My name is Leviathan."

Chapter 64-Depth of Field

"I am not here," Leviathan said carefully. "I've begun a new, rather difficult project, and it's best that none of the native Luthans, especially the Luthea, know of my continued presence unless we fight against a common foe. But Dreamer-of-Reason deserves to be able to contact me in time of need."

"Good of ya," Faith said, remembering what Fred had said about the way he'd treated these people. "But I ain't her."

"May we?" Leviathan said, and reopened the bay door without waiting for a response.

Faith shrugged. "A little smelly in there right now," she pointed out. "But we're five by five." She trotted back in and closed the door.

"In my day," Leviathan said without preamble, "only experienced Exalts entered the Wyld alone. Back then it was nearly all pure chaos, not layered as it is now. The Wyld damaged the Lunar Exaltations over the few hundred years we used it as a refuge, and warped the minds of many even after we devised the tattoos that protect our bodies. You have been farther out than many would dare to go, and returned recognizably human and apparently sane-though it seems you did so with raksha aid."

"They weren't all that friendly," Faith pointed out. "I had some lucky breaks."

"Luck is as malleable in the Wyld as all else," Leviathan said, sitting down cross-legged. "And I certainly do not fault you for accepting help, though the Fair Folk are far from reliable allies. The Silver Pact has made common cause with them as needed, in Halta and elsewhere. Other times they have betrayed us, or attacked on sight. They truly are creatures of chaos. Do you know of your previous incarnations, young Night?"

"Well...they told me a little about that goody-two-shoes Kendra," Faith said uneasily, "but I'm guessing you're asking more about Shadow's Grace. I remember more'n I want to of her."

"Shadow's Grace!" Leviathan grinned broadly. "Had there been more like you, much treachery might have been avoided." He sighed heavily. "The past is past. Still, I am no longer surprised you returned. She was one of exemplary virtue and yet had the skill of the aged."

"You're one of the really old ones," Faith said, not worried about insulting him. "You know how to change me back?"

"With Luthe's facilities, perhaps," Leviathan said thoughtfully, "and yet I think perhaps I should let this be an opportunity for your growth. I'm told you speak ill of yourself far too often. It will take skill to restore yourself, Faith Lehane. Develop it."

"Shit, dude, I can't go back like this an' I can't stay here! You don't get-"

Leviathan slammed a fist against the wall beside her head. She hadn't even seen him move. "I like you, young one. Don't change that. Why shouldn't you go back as you are, if you choose? What can stop you?"

What was the matter with this asshole? "They'd cut me open, you-"

"Cut a Solar open? Not unless you allow it, child of Night." Leviathan shook his head. "Learn your potential, girl. I will see you off when you go." He thumbed the door open and strolled casually away.

Faith took a few moments to relieve some tension before leaving. Her fists and hooves didn't make a mark on the pristine walls.

"Tara was upset that you didn't come check on her," Fred said bluntly as they made their way to the conference room.

Willow shook her head vehemently. "I don't want to see her naked. I can't...I can't reciprocate yet."

Fred came to a halt and seized Willow by the shoulders. "What is the matter with you? She loves you. She wanted you there to support her and you didn't show."

Willow's dull black gaze turned toward her. "I'm not blind, Fred. I don't blame either of you, I know what I look like right now, but you could be honest about it."

Fred set her jaw. "If you're really not blind then how come you think we're doing anything? We've been avoiding each other as much as possible because I don't want to come between you two! I did her tattoos because the elders like Sage want to spend less time here and give me room to make my own way, they asked me to, and we stilldidn't do anything else. Crap. Feathered One? I'm sorry. This is a personal matter between me and the Scholar." The frickin' ruler of Wavecrest had ducked around a corner to avoid an argument between Exalted. "If you'll wait in the meeting room for just a couple minutes I'll settle this and we'll be with you."

Willow sagged against the wall with a groan. "I'm sorry, Fred. These days I...I can't focus on anything. If it's not about my friends...and especially about Tara...it's just, um...'Bored now'. Even stuff like studying the Exaltations. I've gotten as far as I have because I need to look like someone she can love."

Fred stepped forward and kissed her on the cheek. "You do. Now let's get negotiating about those First Age ships they have."

"What's this about, Xan?" Faith stared in confusion at the half-disassembled skimmer on the floor.

"You ride a motorcycle, right? Ever worked on one?" Xander lifted the handlebars into position. "I was thinking you might like to modify this into something you could ride."

"Nah, I..." Faith hesitated. There was all kinds of stuff in the pile-outboards she could put her hooves on, safety harnesses that'd keep her from flying off, some sort of jets. It might be fun to work with. "No wheels?"

"I could hook you up with some, but I was thinking more along wave-riding lines. Wheels you'd have to use in the city. There's places though, if you wanna."

"I wanna." Faith hefted a rocket engine. "What's this thing run off? Generator? Natural gas? It's light."

"Pure magic energy," Xander explained. "Hard to find anything between that and muscle power round here."

"Yer joking." Faith studied the cylinders she was sure were some kind of power converter, cracked open an access hatch. "Crystals. You're not joking."

"Nope. Hey, you should see my pet project." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "No more hellmouth."

"Wait, what?" Faith hopped over the pile of parts. "Whaddya mean no more hellmouth?"

"I mentioned to Leviathan I was in construction. He asked if I wanted to learn what construction was like in his day." Xander led her around several workbenches to a table with a scale model. "I've been reading about what they call geomancy here. The hellmouth is an 'uncapped demesne'. Cap it, and no more wacky. Behold the new Sunnydale High!"

Faith studied the model, opening the panels. The corridors looped around several times, circling a huge central atrium below the library. What that meant, though, she had no idea. "If it works, I sure wouldn't complain. And it'd keep the demons away?"

"Not completely. But it wouldn't draw 'em like flies to honey." Xander replaced a section he'd lifted away. "It's still a work in progress."

"What's that thing?" Faith wondered, pointing at a washer-and-drier-size machine sitting partly disassembled between his project and the cycle.

"Complicated," Xander said, scratching his head uneasily. "Some kind of medical cocoon device. It's been outta commission a long time. I wouldn't mess with it. Could give you a fish tail."

"Uh-huh," Faith said. "Wouldn't want that. Well...back to work on the cycle."

"Good luck," Xander said.

Five minutes later, once Xander was off talking to his military command, Faith sidled back over to the medical device. "Hey, Towers?"

"Yes, Shadow's Grace?"

"Ya got a manual on this thing?"

Tara slithered through the trees. It was easy. It was comfortable. It was natural. It was right.

"Keep trying," Dawn encouraged. "You can do it." Being trained by a raksha was none of those things, yet Dawn was correct. Tara should be able to speak to and understand anything that lived. It was a fairly simple thing to do, easier in some ways than the survival charms she'd already learned.

So far Tara hadn't got the hang of it. Maybe it was simple inexperience. Maybe it was the local Wyld taint. Or maybe it was the unsettling thought that if any living creature could converse with a Lunar then beast-people might be the result of consensual sex more often than not; did that make it ok? She suspected psychological hangups were keeping Faith from making herself smarter, so there was no reason the same logic shouldn't apply to her.

Fred had implied that her friends, and Leviathan, and even the Sage, who seemed uninterested in recreational sex, were very persistent in trying to persuade her to produce her own beastfolk to join the Deep Sages and Shadow Swimmers in Luthe. So far she'd put them off with the knowledge that she was carrying Leviathan's child, but that wouldn't last forever, and apparently Leviathan himself had suggested she go deposit some sperm in the local marine life; a half-caste child could handle a brief sojourn Elsewhere while her body was male. Perhaps it wasn't morally wrong, but it would be a long time before either of them could contemplate the idea. Tara's father would have beaten her within an inch of her life for suggesting such a thing, which perversely was its main attraction. Tara's mother would've calmly suggested she was confusing metaphorical legends with literal reality. Though, of course, her mother had never been here to meet a Lunar.

"I know I can," Tara tried to say, but only hisses emerged from her mouth. She wanted to return to human form, but Dawn said she needed to get comfortable using the shapes she liked or needed, not the shape other people expected of her. Which was sensible, perhaps. And a little paradoxical. Dawn herself still walked through the rain forest in a body that seemed sculpted from fire, though she didn't actually burn anything.

The deeper they got into the Wyld zone the more creatures they saw with extra heads and the more heads they seemed to have. Beings that should have been nonviable from the weight alone apparently thrived here. How they made decisions, Tara didn't know.

Loud snarls emanated from the underbrush, followed by a small pack of three-headed wolves. "Cerberus," Dawn grumped, "and all his buds."

Tara began to back away; they were probably encroaching on the pack's territory. Dawn frowned at her in confusion. "Tara?"

"Dawn, let's..." Hissing. Useless. One of the wolves leapt at Dawn, and Tara launched herself forward to coil around it. It snarled and snapped at her but couldn't bend its necks around to bite properly. A second wolf joined in, digging each set of jaws into her sides. Tara squeezed with all her might, and the first wolf dropped twitching to the ground.

Dawn tried to lunge at the second wolf, drawing a shining, burning sword from nowhere, but more of the beasts surrounded her. She leapt up and managed to stab one through the eye, but only that head sagged. Tara began crushing the second wolf to death, but it was a slow maneuver, better suited to taking out lone prey.

Abruptly the third head on the left of the wolf she was squeezing spoke up. "If they'd just stay out of our territory we'd leave them alone. Damn humans think they can go where they please!"

"Well, now we're gonna be-" The first head cut off as Tara relaxed her grip.

"I'm sorry," she said. "If you'll let us withdraw we will. We do have to reach Hamoji, though. Can you tell us another way?"

"Back off, guys!" the middle head barked, and the other wolves retreated from around Dawn. "If you're telling the truth, we'll let you pass through as long as you stay away from our dens. But why you wanna go see him?"

"We need to find out why he's demanding so many sacrifices," Tara explained. "He's devouring the villages."

"Got ya," the third head said. "Right this way. We'll see you on your way,snake-lady. But no poaching!"

"You have my word," Tara said.

"I guess you got it working?" Dawn asked. "I didn't get any of that."

"It was very sudden," Tara said, following the wolves as they turned away. She hadn't felt as if she'd burned any energy. "I guess so."

"So you come from the future?" Nelumbo said wonderingly.

"A future," the Architect said carefully. "This world was already different when I arrived. But I know a version of you. She anchored herself near the Pole of Crystal centuries ago."

"It must be quiet," Nelumbo mused unhappily. The Architect sat there on the bed and shrugged. "Not many of us want to become metropoli, you know."

"There are over two dozen of you at the Pole," TARA explained. "There might be more in other parts of the Reaches that I don't know about. After the death of Creation, the population exploded. There are cities at every pole now, though naturally Crystal has fewest, and all of them Adamant Caste. Lenope hangs at the Pole of Lightning, Sively Loss floats in the Pole of Steam...it's the one thing Autochthon never seems to fail at even in his sleep, managing his greatest champions."

"And you?" Nelumbo struggled to imagine Autochthonia filled with thriving cities. "Do you plan to root down when the time comes?"

"I'm not yet fifty," the Architect said, "and I don't know how my construction will affect my metamorphosis, but yes, when I'm old enough. If we make it that long."

"I still don't understand exactly what's happening to your Autochthon," Nelumbo asked. "You clearly have enough po souls. Is it just the void cancer?"

TARA considered that while tugging at her hair. "No. There's an interconnected series of problems that's hard to explain. The new cities are vital to keeping the Maker in good repair, but they also drain a lot of energy. And then there's Ralacken. As far as we know, Herald of the Black Engine is the only gremlin city, but he's huge. A dozen crusades have failed to root him out of the Pole of Smoke."

"An entire Apostate city," Nelumbo said, disgust twisting her mouth.

"He and his gremlins seem to manifest in many forms and archetypes," TARA said, "most of which you wouldn't recognize. Borg, Terminators, Decepticons, Matrix hunter-killers...that's part of why we're not sure there's really just one. We know he wants to destroy the Maker, and we suspect he's made contact with the Viator, but no one really understands his immediate goals."

"What about us? What's our endgame?"

"I've located the egg of an Autochthonian behemoth in this frame," the Architect said. "I can use it to track down the creature in ours. It was made to re-link Autochthon and the Essence flows from beyond him, from the Wyld and from what remains of Zen-Mu. If it fails, we do have one final contingency to preserve existence. When you metamorphosed, you implanted a kill switch in the Core. If all else fails us, Thanel will execute the Maker's fetich before he dies."

Nelumbo felt her eyes widen in horror, but she answered dispassionately. "Better a Yozi than a Neverborn. Hopefully one who isn't sick."

TARA nodded solemnly. "Yes."

"Should she be working on that thingy?" Shadow murmured. Faith's entire upper torso had been engulfed by the ancient medical device she was tinkering with.

"Yup," Fred said, smiling. "We've finally found something she doesn't think of as so intellectual she can't handle it: mechanical work." The machine jumped a little, and Faith started cursing about her head, but she stayed inside.

"Now carefully detach the transtator core," Towers of Azure monologued. "Its vital programming has been corrupted. Attempting to use the device in its current state would resemble concentrated Wyld exposure."

"Don't want that," Shadow said, still whispering. "What do we do if she actually fixes it?"

"We let her use it," Fred said firmly. "We let any adult who understands what they're doing use it, so long as it can hold up. We want to restore any and all First Age technologies that aren't destructive or require Celestial Exalted or limited resources for day-to-day needs."

Shadow turned a worried frown to her. "I just worry that...what happens if people can change their shape all willy-nilly?"

"I can," Fred said. "Why hoard that to just me? The Scholar's got one thing right: a lot of the problems we cause come from being too far above other people. I'm not sure making a gajillion more Exaltations is a viable solution,but I see where she's coming from."

"Well, where do I get one?" Faith growled in response to something they'd missed.

"There are no functional transtator cores aboard Luthe," Towers said. "One must be constructor constricted constructicated deconstructed...pardon, Shadow's Grace. One must be constructed from crystallized moonsilver imbued with an intemperate heart and the essence of anentropy."

Faith's curses were much louder and more elaborate this time, though Shadow couldn't make out what she was going on about. "Move," Fred whispered, and they ducked out of sight just before Faith emerged from the machine. The disgruntled centaur looked around suspiciously before trotting off.

"Think she can figure it out?" Shadow wondered.

"I'd bet on her any day."

"Could have been worse," Dawn said as they spiraled up the mountain.

"Mmph." Tara was glad for the wolves' help, but they'd eaten way too many other talking creatures for her to really feel comfortable. Maybe she wasn't cut out for talking to animals. "Those birds were...confusing."

"I think they were grelidaka," Dawn said. "They reproduce by splitting in two, but the local conditions got them...mixed up?"

"They looked like some sort of colonial organism," Tara said, "only they could still fly. It was extremely creepy."

They passed a final waystation, a wooden cabin built for the priestesses' convenience. For the moment it was unoccupied, largely because the priestesses were out searching the villages for acceptable sacrifices.

Then out onto black stone like cables coiled under their feet. Thick multicolored smoke hung in the sky over the volcano, though at the moment nothing seemed to be emerging. That could change any moment, though. The Wyld was stronger here.

Tara looked down into the caldera. Bubbling blue rock filled it. Heat rolled off it in waves, so it wasn't some strange thick water-just oddly colored. She could handle that. She took three steps down and set foot on the surface that should have burned her to ash in seconds. "Hamoji? I come to speak to you." Dawn climbed down behind her.

A babble of voices rose from the lava. "An Exalt?" "Speak to us?" "Food for us?" "Sacrifices?" "Where where?" The molten rock parted, and a creature boiled up from the depths, a thing that might have been human if it didn't glow with heat, if its flesh were solid...if it didn't have a baker's dozen heads. All clamoring for food.

"Can we eats it?" Dawn quoted softly. "Wouldn't make above a mouthful."

"You be quiet," Tara said, giving a quick wink to show she wasn't angry. She couldn't have Dawn telling this thing they were burrahobbits, though. "Hamoji? Maybe we can help you."

"Hungry," "Hungry," "So hungry," the many heads of Hamoji said, and he reached down to seize them in his arms.