The central chamber of Silur's tomb glimmered faintly in the anima-light reflected off soulsteel and underworld jade. Shadows shifted and never-before disturbed fabrics rustled as Harmony climbed into the tomb and was followed by Shoat, Maria Santangelo, and finally Gwen Raiden. Here stands held rich clothing; there a suit of armor lay with a slender black blade atop it; over there stood a cauldron draped in cords of woven orichalcum.

And at the center of it all rested a huge black-crystal sarcophagus draped in smoke-gray cloth.

Harmony walked up to the sarcophagus. The crystal was opaque enough that she couldn't really see if there was anything inside, but she didn't expect there would be. She touched the cloth, feeling gauzy softness like silk, but light as a sheet of fabric softener. Without the slightly-soapy feel, of course. This was it. This was the Mantle of Soot, never before touched by any hand, unless Silur had risen as a ghost and left it here. Harmony picked it up with shaky hands, feeling like a snot-nosed little twerp for putting her grubby paws on it. It was beautiful.

"You know you can't be wearing that when we come back, unless it's night or we come back inside," Shoat said as Harmony wrapped it around herself.

Harmony rolled her eyes. "Save it for someone who didn't spend the last two years as a vampire. I know how to stay out of the sun." She was basically out of energy, but there were glimmering gems scattered through the chamber that she could feel were charged with magic. And at the head of the sarcophagus sat a shiny black hemisphere that pulsed softly in her mind's eye. She picked it up. "Dibs on the hearthstone. Let's get collecting and then work out how to get out of here."

She pulled the hood up over her hair, its filmy fabric essentially transparent. There had to be a mirror here somewhere. And...hearthstone amulet! Harmony squealed with delight.

This was the best tomb since that one with the Gem of Amara. And Harmony Kendall was now officially the most powerful necromancer alive! "Take that, Rosenberg," she murmured. Though, really, she did kinda hope Willow was okay.

Kinda.

Chapter 80-Twilight Kingdom

It was freezing out here!

Willow didn't know how Tara had managed to travel so fast, but she clearly wasn't hanging around in this frozen tundra wasteland overnight. Chill winds cut through Willow's outfit despite her attempt to cover up in a coat before leaving. Why had Tara even headed up this far north? To keep anyone from trailing after her? That wasn't like her. At least summer was just ending, instead of Willow having to track through here in the dead of winter.

If you're going to rest, it's shelter-making time. Snow cave? That would be Salina. She hadn't manifested as a distinct personality in a while, which Willow had taken as a good sign. On the other hand, Willow had spent that time concerned with her looks. Maybe her past life had gone quiet out of disgust.

Ice is easier, she pointed out, and began creating some with bolts of black lightning.

Watch your motonic levels, Salina warned. But it only took a couple of strikes to make a low, two-part dome. Still, she'd been flying for hours and-

Howls rose on the winds. Of course they did. Something was hunting-a fur-clad human form rose suddenly in front of her-not hunting; she'd been found. The howls must be to summon the pack. Was it a human? The blue-white fur wasn't clothing, it was the being's pelt, and the creature had yellow eyes and a mouth full of fangs. Demon, said five years helping Buffy, but she'd seen stranger human creatures here. Salina? Do you-?Salina didn't know anything about it.

There was one other source of information she might try, but the last thing Willow wanted was to open her mind further to the Neverborn. For one thing, they might look back into hers.

The huge figure prodded at Willow's withered frame...and sighed. It howled out something incomprehensible even as others of its kind approached, then held its nose and covered its mouth in an unmistakable gesture. Bad meat. And it turned away, leaving Willow somehow simultaneously relieved and outraged at being dismissed that way.

She drew herself up and channeled energy through her aura, sending a torrent of burnt-black symbols across her skin and through the air around her. "I am the Scholar Hanged from the Tree of Life," she intoned, "and you will aid me!"

The creatures stopped and stared at her, then shrugged and turned away. They didn't understand her! Darn it! Wait. The trip here had somehow converted her primary language from English to something called "Riverspeak". But Willow spoke a lot more than English. She tried again in Spanish and was ignored. Then Latin. The furry things stopped and stared at her.

The one who had given her the stinkface gesture frowned at her, pointed to her, and responded in...whatever her Latin had translated to...with "Scholar?" Or maybe "Savant?" was a better translation. It pointed at itself. "Green Aurora." Back to her. "Rotten meat."

Ugh. "I swear I'm not actually dead, but no, I'm probably not good to eat. Are you human? Or maybe yeti or something?"

The creature waved around at its fellows. "Human." At her. "Not human."

"No, really I-"

At the creatures again. "From Rajtul." Or maybe it was one word: "Varajtul." The...Varajtul beckoned. "Come."

"I think I've got it," Amy said, her tone wavering. "It's like this state of...distracted ennui. Trouble is testing it out."

"I could always just tell you that Spike is bad news," Robin deadpanned, "but you got upset last time I did that."

"We need someone with more controllable, consciously-activated mind control," Sam said, her lips twisted slightly. "Guess we could ask Lilah. Who knows what she'd set us to doing before we figured out how to override her consistently."

Amy rose from the table. "Not an Infernal. Too many restrictions, too much backflow into our own actions, at least with the stuff we know about so far."

Kate looked as if she was about to say something, but a "Woot woot!" rang out from the next room, and Harmony strolled into the office wearing a gauzy gray hooded cloak. "Iiii got it!"

Everyone who wasn't standing already leapt up. "Five Days' Darkness said it was just a legend," Riley blurted out.

"Five Days' Darkness underestimated your resident Twilight," Harmony rang out, and giggled. "The Mantle of Soot is totes real!" She took off the robe, spread it out on the table, and began divesting herself of a massive load of jewelry and mismatched bits and pieces of armor. "We...hit...the jack...pot," she added in singsong.

"Looks like no one ever successfully broke into the Underworld reflection of Silur's tomb," Gwen Raiden agreed. "I can't say I'm surprised. Hard enough getting there, and then you have to let your resolve to get in be worn down till you give up, only without actually dying."

A translucent figure sidled into the office between Shoat and Santangelo, lugging a huge kettle filled with more baubles and assorted gizmos. Shoat said, "It looks as if the Sidereals crammed everything magical they could into Silur's crypt and made it as impregnable as possible. But they did leave an in...for some reason."

"There's always an in," Amy explained. "Sometimes it's better to specify what that is, just like with a curse."

"Well, it's still going to take a dozen lifetimes to figure it all out," Santangelo grumbled. "Maybe not for you guys, at least."

"Did you seriously put on all that stuff without finding out what it did first?" Sam said. "How did you know it wasn't a trap?"

Harmony squinted at her. "You can't see that it all matches? I wouldn't wear non-matching jewelry!"

"Maybe you shouldn't act like it's all for you," Sam suggested. "We could all use some of that... after it's been properly tested."

"Well, I think it looks good on me, whatever it does," Harmony started.

"We'll get on with studying it shortly," Kate said, cutting off the discussion. "You came in on a different problem. Harmony...would you call yourself a people person?"

Harm stood there for a moment with her mouth open before re-adjusting. "Well, like, duh. All I've ever had to do to get what I wanted from most people is let them see some T or A-"

"Confirmed," Petersen said from the sidelines with a wink.

"Ew," Harmony said, blushing, but Amy suspected Petersen would get there eventually if she made the effort. "An-yway, for people who don't go for that, I picked up the rest from my dad or the Cordettes."

Kate nodded. "Harm, I'm reasonably sure I saw you using some...ah, social-fu on people at the mall, but ever since then you've seemed fixed on intellectual things. I don't blame you-we all know what it's like, only more so for you. Thing is, we need someone to practice defending against mind control with, someone who won't abuse it. You want to step up?"

Harmony stood there in shock again for another couple of seconds. "Um...yeah, sure, I'll do that. I can do mind control?"

"With a little practice, yeah. You're actually closest," Amy pointed out, "except maybe me, and it's liable to do weird stuff to my head if I learn the wrong bits."

"Or mine," Robin said sheepishly. "I started this mess. Sorry to drag you into it."

"No, I'm good," Harmony said, chipper as always. "Can I go try and get cataloguing on this stuff first? I could use a new ensemble."

"Sure," Amy said. After Harm bounced out, she turned to Kate. "Seems like we're putting a lot on her."

"We are," Petersen put in. "Madison, this is based on a training plan for...'unconventional Exalted' we came up with with Five-DD. Kendall's obviously out of the 'breakable' stage and ready to get pushed out of her comfort zone. Exalts can't rest on their asses, Solars especially."

"So we're gearing up to make Harmony all she can be," Kate finished. "No point letting her settle into a rut like Faith."

"Where is Faith?" Amy wondered.

"Who knows?" was Riley's answer, and no one else had anything to add.

Things...or people...or whatever...like these Varajtul were supposed to live in caves, or tents, or some little ramshackle village. Not in a city made of shining stone.

It wasn't even a ruined city, not really. Oh, there were bare foundations stripped of their walls and even some collapsed buildings that had been left to crumble. But the areas that were in use were kept in good repair. There was no sign of a latrine area or chamberpots, so they might even have sewers. Heck, they might have running water-the Romans had. Didn't seem likely up here on the tundra, but who knew? This world had come a long way down. This city looked on par with Gem-maybe better off in some ways.

On the other hand, the people wore cords of human ears and noses and toes around their necks. And their first reaction to seeing mummy-Willow had been "bad meat". Suddenly Willow was glad she didn't always look like her living Solar self. It didn't make them irredeemable-right now, Buffy and Sulumor were signing treaties for trade and mutual defense as Buffy tried to wean the Dune People off the long pork-but it sure made them horrifying.

Peace with the Dune People had taken at least three Exalts to even get started-Buffy on one side, Sulumor on the other, and Anya pulling strings on the Loom of Fate. With the Varajtul it might be just Willow. Still, she ought to try.

"Here," said Green Aurora. "You look for Bishop, I think. Bishop leads other not-dead."

Willow doubted she meant a mutant from the future or an android. Too bad, really. "What does the Bishop teach?"

"Here." Aurora led Willow into the building she'd indicated. It seemed to be a temple of some sort, with stone benches for pews and an altar bathed in some sort of blue firelight. Natural gas? Or magic? It looked more like the latter. "Bishop say, Varajtul are true spirits, deserve that false humans serve us in life and death. False humans wish die, pull false Creation down, leave only the True Cities."

"True Cities?"

"Ravenous, City of Hunger. Cadaverous, City of Death. Gateway opens at night, sinks down into True Empire. Empire of Hunger." Aurora seemed to be trying to convey more with hand motions, but Willow was having trouble following. A Shadowland?

"Can you tell me how to get there?" She could travel faster through the Labyrinth. Somehow Tara had gotten way, way ahead of her.

Green Aurora shrugged. "I find you a guide. You are not-dead, but you are not-human." Hmph. Well, it was a start.

Wait. No. She didn't have to settle for a weak start like this. She was Exalted; she was a Midnight. The blue-furred, eight-foot-tall woman loomed over her, but Willow stepped closer until she flinched. "Both of us are human. We look different, but that's not important. I'll prove it."

Willow grabbed her by the arm and sank her fangs in deep. The urge to drain her life as energy was powerful, but Willow ignored it and stole the woman's image instead. When she pulled away, she could look Green Aurora in the eye. That cleared up her own doubts, too. "Green Aurora, I want you to come with me. Or you can stay, and I can eat you."

The Varajtul shuddered visibly, and her fur stood on end. "If I must."

Harmony stuck out her tongue at Five Days' Darkness. The god groaned and put a hand over his eyes. "Tell me it isn't so."

"I cannot tell a lie: I found the Mantle in Silur's tomb." She put her tongue back out, then changed her mind and stuffed another cookie in her mouth. She was so totally hungry after that trip!

"Do you even know what those artifacts do?" It was bad enough that he was a liar, but he was a killjoy too!

Harmony put her chin up. "No. But I know they go together. They match, can't you see it? This is Silur's own personal ensemble. Or somebody she knew, anyway."

Five coughed and shook his head. "And how would you know such a thing?"

"What is the matter with you? Look at the color scheme. Look at this curlicue motif. If it's not hers, or someone close to her, why'd it get buried with her?" Harmony looked down to see that she'd finished off the cookies. Yipes! She was going to ruin her figure if she wasn't careful.

Five bent down to study them more closely. Or maybe just to be a perv and look down her shirt. "I see, and I apologize. You're doubtless right, though I don't remember Silur wearing these. It has been several thousand years, after all. Or perhaps these have been altered by the grave goods transformation."

Harmony snickered. "It's okay to admit you forgot. Hey, is that a pocket full of sunshine, or are you just happy to see me?"

Five straightened up so fast he nearly banged his head on a cabinet. "Excuse me?"

"Come on now, Five. You may be a spirit, but I can see you're a man where it counts." Oh, yeah, she had him off balance now. She wasn't even certain why she was doing it, except that it was fun to make him squirm. Also she was genuinely kind of horny now. At least the cookies had filled her belly. Now she needed something else filled.

Five glared an offended glare. "You may be an attractive young woman, Harmony, but-"

"But what?" She wasn't drunk-why wasn't she drunk, now that she thought of it?-and she didn't feel sick. Why was she acting like this? She peeled off her top. "If I'm so attractive, why don't you come over here and have some fun with me?"

"I can't see how this is appropriate, Harmony-"

"Oh for pete's sake, Five," she said, getting up and sidling over to him. "It's appropriate because we want it. I know I want it, and I can see you want it. Why fight it? Or are you afraid of a strong independent woman like little old me?" She kissed him on the mouth, hard, then pulled his face down to her chest by the ears.

That got his attention. Now to find some wine...

Was she usually this pushy? Ah, who cared?

Okay, so here was the cave...metaphorically speaking. Green Aurora pointed up the mountain. "Here is the place of sacrifice. Open to Creation place. Open to Death place. This world just a...stop between them, Bishop say. Not real place of its own."

So...a Wyld zone and a Shadowland both? That was supposed to be really uncommon, but Willow was hundreds of miles away from the other she knew of, and if anything would do it, a thousand years of painful sacrifice sounded effective. "How do we enter the Underworld from here?" She'd lose Tara's trail from there, but she could always cast a locator spell. Willow was never far from something of Tara's.

"Wait," Aurora said. "Leave at night."

That was less than convenient, but...it wasn't as if she was really losing time. She'd be gaining. "All right," she said crankily. "Tell me about yourself. It's sharing time."

"This can't really be First Age technology," Tara said cautiously. "Weren't there things that only Solars could do?"

For an instant, Raksi's expression was transformed by pure malevolence, and Tara shrank back, but then the madness cleared away, and Raksi just nodded. "It's a good aesthetic facsimile, but much of it is copied from the Shogunate era, with some improvements I invented."

"Did you come up with the cuisine, too?" They were seated at a table in a quiet park, eating food from one of a cluster of open-air restaurants.

Raksi smiled with syrupy sweetness. "I did. You're making progress, by the way."

Tara looked down at herself. Did she mean their nakedness? She was acutely aware of that, but she no longer felt like panicking, and it was suited to the damp heat-not that Tara needed to worry about that any more. Or did she mean that Tara was making magical progress? So far all Raksi had taught her was another environmental mastery technique. Bugs no longer bit or stung-or if they did, she didn't notice-nor did the plants poison or even scrape her. "What do you mean?"

"You haven't asked about your friends today. You trust them, and yourself, to be apart. I suppose you expect them to look for you, but even knowing they can't come here without my leave, you don't expect them to come to harm."

Tara took a bite while she thought that over. The meat was crisp, then tender underneath. She couldn't make out what it was from, though it fortunately didn't resemble pork. "I guess after a while we started thinking of this as a death world. It doesn't have the modern conveniences we're used to, and it's filled with monsters and hostile magic. Except, people lived without all those things for centuries, and there were certainly plenty of monsters in Sunnydale, at least. My friends know how to take care of themselves. And I guess I do too."

"Good, good. Tara, this is the gesture that vines make as they climb." She made a sort of clasping motion with her hands. "I want you to practice it over the next few days. It will let you trap your enemies harmlessly."

Tara made the gesture, but as she expected, nothing happened just yet. Spells took more practice than that, though Raksi had said she was a natural.

"Work on your form. Now...you told me that a raksha tried to teach you to speak with animals?" Raksi gave that notion a smirk.

"Dawn did, yes. She made it happen in the Wyld, but it didn't carry over. She was disappointed."

"All right," Raksi said indulgently. "We'll try again."

"I hadn't thought you'd really just start teaching me like this," Tara said. "Everyone says-"

"Yes, they do," Raksi said, and shook her head. "If I were you, I wouldn't let on to your friends all the things you learn from me...or to anyone, really. I have an unwholesome reputation. Maybe it's best if you tell them I refused to teach you anything till you ate a baby, and whatever you managed to learn here you got for yourself while trying to escape."

After a moment, Tara nodded. There were things you just didn't talk about.

Amy was driving back from the hospital after her latest run through the critical-care ward, pretty much drained. She'd bought a car reluctantly due to the bad traffic here, but the sickly glow after she burned so much energy sometimes made people ill, which was the opposite of what she was trying to accomplish. A car gave her a little privacy.

Hang on. There went two vampires into the alley, "escorting" a struggling young woman. Nobody much was paying attention; this wasn't exactly a good part of town. She'd come this way to avoid the traffic. With a reluctant sigh she turned into the alley herself. She didn't even have to get out. The startled vampires were still turning toward the car when she manifested two stakes from the air and drove them into their hearts.

Except then the girl gasped and stared at her through the window, putting her hand to her face. Amy sighed and rolled the window down. "Sorry, I came to help! I know this isn't good for you to look at!"

The girl shook her head and turned away, pointing at the sky, wide-eyed. She must have seen the reflection? Amy stuck her head out the window and looked up.

The nearly-full moon shone alone in a starless sky. No, not starless-but the stars had turned a dull red. Amy watched as they grew larger, became streaks, and hurtled down from the sky to pelt the city in a rain of fire. "What the hell?"

Harmony. Harmony had cast some idiotic super-spell. That had to be what was happening. Or maybe it was just that a Solar had learned this Void Circle crap Harm kept talking about. But it had to be her. Amy just knew it.

Harmony nearly fell on her back as Five suddenly pushed himself up with all four arms. "Hey! A little warning would be-"

"Get dressed," he said simply. "Visitors will be here shortly." After some hesitation, he added, "I'm sorry."

"Hey now," Harmony said, pushing him back down-or trying to, since he was stronger than she expected. "I'm so not done here!"

The door burst open. "Everyone get-Harmony, what?-Never mind, get dressed!" Kate spun on her heel and ran back out. Five rolled Harmony off him in spite of her best efforts.

"What's going on?" Harmony snapped. "We're not finished here!"

Five fixed her eyes for a moment, and the strange sensation that something was wrong with her returned. "Calibration," was all he said.

Ok, whatevs. Harmony went to the mini-fridge while he got dressed and pulled out a beer and a box of chocolates.

"What did you call it again?" Amy asked as they all stood on the roof. Even Harmony, who was in a bathrobe and drinking a beer.

"Calibration," Five said. "I was god of Calibration. There hasn't been one since Creation died. But this," he indicated the starless sky and flaming rain, "this is unquestionably Calibration. A rather severe manifestation of it, but I can...feel it, for lack of a better term. This was my purview."

The moon, too, had flickered red and gone out like a guttering candle. Lorne shook himself after a few moments, said, "I need a drink too," and went back inside. Shoat scowled openly at the spot where the moon had been.

"Is it related to what you and Harmony were doing?" Kate asked circumspectly.

Five thought that over. "I hope not, but it's possible. It's not as though I've had sex with a Solar in the millennia between then and now. And though it seems a small thing...well, sometimes for Celestial Exalts, the Earth really does move. Why not the heavens?"

Amy tried not to stare. Five had been screwing Harmony? The world really was going all topsy-turvy.

"Anybody want a beer?" Harmony asked. "Where's Faith? I bet she'd like to get drunk with me." Amy squinted at her. Surely she wasn't suggesting what it sounded like she was suggesting. "Five, you wanna come back to bed?"

"All things considered, I think that might be unwise," Five Days' Darkness pointed out.

Harmony sighed. "Anybody?" Buffybot raised her hand. "What the heck," Harm said agreeably. "Can't hurt to try."

"Are you hearing what I'm hearing?" Sam asked after Harmony left. "She's acting extremely weird."

"Well," Amy said, "either it's the weather, or...maybe it's like with Faith. Harmony's got all the conviction of a weathervane, but she's actually pretty straightlaced. She never drinks much, watches her weight, and keeps her shopping trips under budget."

"She wasn't a virgin when we met," Spike said, "but she has standards. Daft standards, but there you go. Hey...goin' below, okay? I've seen enough flaming rain for one night an' not enough naked blondes."

Kate shook her head as he walked off. "Apocalyptic weather: kind of a turn-off for most people."

"Still a vampire!" Spike shouted from the stairwell.

Amy shrugged.

The Empire of Hunger was vast.

The ghosts, it seemed, largely stayed out of the Wyld-tainted Shadowland near the mountain. Perhaps the government didn't let them come there. Whatever the reason, Willow and Green Aurora were no more than a mile from the mountain when they came across a metal road that moaned when they walked on it. Willow thought about walking along the edge, but before long the road was so thronged with ghost slaves and the occasional white-furred Varajtul master that it made no difference where they walked; the road moaned constantly.

The windblade stayed tucked away on her belt buckle, so the going was slower. They'd followed the road for maybe an hour when they were abruptly met by a patrol of black-furred ghosts on some sort of car. It looked steam-powered, but considering it was entirely ghostly it was possible that it ran purely on ghost magic. However that worked. "Here! You two! What authorization you got to be down here, bluefurs?" As they hopped down, Willow saw some sort of badges tied across their chests. Police? Seriously?

Now that she thought about it, though, there could easily be ghosts here from before the Usurpation, or whatever cataclysm had turned these people into furry cannibals. The car shouldn't be a surprise. A stronger social order shouldn't be a surprise. And either these ghosts might object to the cannibalism, if they came from before it...or they might have instigated it somehow.

Willow stood up straight. Down here her magic felt a lot less constrained. She flared her aura and banished the disguise. "This is my authorization! I am the Scholar Hanged from the Tree of Life. I walk where I please in the Underworld and you would do better to aid than impede me. So, um, I need to borrow that car."

The black-furred Varajtul stared at her for a few moments. One actually went slack-jawed. "Very well, great Scholar." Willow caught a sarcastic undertone deep in his words, though. But when he opened the car door for her, she motioned Green Aurora inside. The car shook itself to life and turned about. As long as they were headed into the Labyrinth, Willow didn't care if they thought they were in charge. They had her right where she wanted them.

"What does it really mean?" Tara asked. "If animals can understand me, are they all sentient? Or is it something my magics are doing to them temporarily?" The birds twittered about the weather and politely ignored her.

"You know," Raksi said, "I don't know that anyone ever made a systematic attempt to answer that question. People tended to take philosophical stances on the matter and cling to them without looking for evidence. Me, I think it's mostly the latter. They're piggybacking on your Exaltation. For the moment they can think, but it isn't really their own self, so they don't mind losing it." She dropped from the tree, wings folding, and landed on the ground in human form, naked as always. "If you don't mind, I have needs I should go take care of. You stay here and contemplate your growing bond with nature. Soon you'll learn to resist cold and storms and landslides too."

"You d-don't need any help from m-me, I guess," Tara said reticently. Raksi was much sweeter than the stories claimed. She always wanted to help Raksi, but the ancient Lunar rarely needed anything she could give.

Raksi turned and put her hands on her hips. "Well, in principle you could. You're a Lunar, after all. But let's face it, as matters stand you're just not properly equipped."

Tara tried not to go crimson. Raksi was just achingly beautiful and incredibly sexy. "What would I need to do?"

"Not do," Raksi said with a wink. "Be. But really now, you don't want any part of this, dear sweet little nature girl. You should stay here and, I don't know...meditate or something."

"No, really," Tara said, hopping down from the branch. "I'm game."

Raksi's neatly filed teeth came into view. "Whatever you say."