I dread to think what Aldia would do to a Giant Queen. Unless of course he actually did.

"Well, the Duke didn't show her any violence – or so he claims. He wouldn't dare damage 'the only sample' he has. He took some blood, of course."

Was the whole expedition the Duke's idea?

"The brothers Vendrick sought only to expand the kingdom's power and their own knowledge. In that, the two were very much alike. Ambition often makes Heirs to Fire easy to manipulate."

Are golems hollow giants, hence the hole for a face, somehow controlled or enslaved? Or purely artificial beings?

"The golems are animated bodies. Not quite artificial. The King's golems, the manikins, and the like were of course inferior to the 'giants' which crossed the sea. The giants were indeed slaves, but it is possible for raw souls to drive the bodies, as with the switches throughout Drangleic Castle.

In the eastern land we've just returned from, the giant-things are called kodama. Ferran knew a little more about them than did Vendrick, thanks to his servant Alonne. A shame that knowledge was lost before the King went to battle with them."

Now, since Mytha isn't exactly an undead, we had to walk back. That gave us plenty of time to discuss her… hangups. Being raised as part of the royal family in an isolated temple-city doesn't exactly teach you common social skills. And then she'd been locked in a tower with golems and a cult that worshiped her as an incarnation of beauty.

It was so bad that this was the first time she'd left the tower since she turned into a snake. Talk about a shut-in.

It was a slightly surreal experience. Everything just parted for us. The manikins, the sorceresses, the grave wardens… We continued down, and then the giant worm guy, the hollow blacksmiths, and so on. They all just stepped aside and bowed as best they could. Mytha gave a couple of orders, but they were just about maintaining things.

We didn't head straight back, though. We wrapped around a narrow, winding path to a tucked-away alcove at the base of the tower. There was an altar there, but the statue had fallen to pieces decades ago.

"My Lord Dragonborn!" she said and… ran…?

What's the word for slithering really fast? Well, anyway, she hustled over to the statue and tried to separate out the pieces.

I said something like, "What's this, then? An ancestor statue?"

And she said, "Only in spirit. The holy Sanctum City Shulva worshiped the flawless eternity of the dragons, perfect in body and spirit, moderate and aware in heart. Most of all, we worshiped Sinh, the great poison-eating dragon around whom my brother built our city.

Yet, the dragons are too great for many to understand. As such, we worship also just one god, the Lord Dragonborn. It is said that he possesses the dragonsblood and turned from his dragonslaying kind to find the old ones a place of respite.

I venerate Lord Dragonborn above the true dragons, for I have often found myself in need of his strength of heart. It is said that his warriors arrive on rays of gold to aid those in need. Long how I had dreamed they would slay my husband and take me home. Alas, a legend is a legend."

I took a deep breath and thought for a moment before speaking.

"Well, do you want to go back to the Sunken Kingdom? I have no idea how you'd get there, but someone in Majula might know."

She held the statue's head in one hand and her own in the other. Now, she sat them down facing each other and crossed her arms, slumping over her coiling body.

"No," she said coldly. "I do not wish to return to that place. Long, it is dead. Destroyed by my son, who sought to claim for his brother the things I whispered to him in his cradle. Even if it stood, I have little love left for my brother the King, who sold me like cattle, to cattle."

I sat down beside her, though the effect didn't quite work as well since she completely dwarfed me.

"What do you want to do then?"

"I want to do," she said. "I have lived in the past for too long. The chains which had bound me are long rusted to ruin. I need only rise to break them."

She uncoiled and picked up her head, extending a hand to me.

"We have not been properly introduced. I am Mytha, daughter of Shulva, son of Shulva. Queen of nothing. It has been a pleasure, and I pray you will continue to tolerate my presence."

I let her pull me up and shook her hand.

"Let's not say 'tolerate.' It's been some time since I had company who can understand machining. Sabela, of the Majula whitesmiths. Sabela Prateiro, formally. Call me Bel."

From then on, we had a rather pleasant journey. Excepting of course that Mytha had to stop and rest. Being a monster basically only made up for her not getting regular exercise. She still got tired after hours of travel, and snakes can't exactly wear shoes to take the load off their feet. Her tail got pretty beaten up for the first time since she'd grown it.

She didn't need to sleep or eat, but we did take regular rests. It was humanizing, to have a regular schedule again instead of going at full power all the time.

As we were leaving Huntsman's Copse, that damned hexer called out, "You…? Wait…"

I drew immediately, prepared to shoot him or his chair. He cowered behind the chair, just barely peeking over.

He said, "N-no… Not you… The tall one… You have the gift…"

Mytha quirked an eye and said, "What, pray tell? Beg pardon, but who are you?"

"Felkin…" he choked out. "The Outcast… A hexer… A student of Dark… I feel it, in you… You have both… both things precious to the art… Blood… and affinity…"

Mytha had a very stiff, flat look on her face.

"Is that so?" she said. "Well, thank you for the information, honorable Felkin. I bid you farewell. I have another task at hand."

Well, Mumbles the Hedge Wizard tried to get her attention, but we both just walked away.

Anyway, we ran around the edge of Majula as quickly as we could. Didn't want to blunder into another Iron Bridge situation. After that, it was mostly uneventful. Aslatiel screamed a bit when he saw Mytha. And of course, being a dragon worshiper, she was less than enthused to see her son had used a dragon skeleton as part of his interior decor.

The hidden room and the hall leading to it were both a little cramped, but Mytha and I squeezed together to speak with Aldia. After seeing all of Ferran's fire and light, she didn't bat an eye at the Duke rising from the bonfire.

"One surprise after another," he said. "You didn't strike me as the social type, 631. Mmm. Mother, it is good to see you well. I hope there are no hard feelings over the situation. I had not imagined you would still be sane. A rare occasion to take pleasure in a miscalculation."

Mytha's face tightened, and she said, "Is that all, Vendrick?"

Aldia chuckled and said, "It has been some time since I was called by that name. It is not unpleasant. I know what you ask, Mother. I will not apologize. I made the best decision for the information I had. Removing you exposes King Ferran to more undead assailants. Better to call it an unexpected blessing that you left of your own will."

The look on Mytha's face was bitter. But I could tell she'd expected this.

Aldia continued, "Before anything else is said, do you have the map?" I nodded quickly, so he moved on, "Good. I will gather the few sane left in this place to decipher it before you go. 631 possess a perfect memory, but it is a pleasant surprise that I will not need to teach musical theory."

"Then you knew the map was a song? You told me to find a metal one."

"Yes," he said. "Yet you carry no such map, nor do you hold a parchment at hand. Given that you spoke with Mother rather than slaying her, it is not surprising that you would speak with my seed donor."

Ouch. Just ouch. This did tell me a little something about Aldia's place in things. Ferran was just a "seed donor" but Mytha was still "Mother." He did still care to some extent or at least wanted to make it look like he did. And Aldia doesn't do things for appearances most of the time.

That wasn't enough, so I tried to get a little more, "So… what, you wanted me to find iron sheet music? Why is the map a song?"

"What else would it be?" he taunted. "There could be no better map to the heavens than a hymn."

I just kind of paused there for a moment. I looked at Mytha, but she didn't know anything and rolled her eyes.

"It's the land of giants," I said. "It's full of really big guys who hit you with boulders. And also a bunch of monsters who do other things. And some humans, I guess. And ghosts. What I'm saying is that it's closer to hell, and I just came back from a fiery pit ruled over by a horned, winged monster."

Aldia just chuckled deep in his throat (that he doesn't have) and ignored me.

"The next item you require is among my greatest discoveries. A fragment of truth. Leave this cage of horrors through the rear gate. Call kindly to the guardian, and she will not harm you. Ascend to the dreamscape beyond. The way will be made clear."

"That's not vague at all."

He continued to ignore me.

"Mother, I do not know what arrangements you have made with 631, but I hope you will undertake this leg of the journey. I do not expect you to be proud of me. I do hope you will enjoy the world I've made."

Mytha started to say something, but Aldia retreated into the bonfire. She sighed and said instead, "Just like his father. I should have never told him of the dragons."

Resigned to follow the terrible directions, we headed back upstairs and spoke with a few of the Duke's astrologers. The ones with the horrible yellow and blue witch outfits. After they converted Mytha's singing to notation, we made our way to the back of the Keep. After a final door, we found the rearmost room of the Keep was totally open to the wilderness beyond.

The sunlight was brilliant, streaming in visible rays. Now, there was an enormous cage ahead of us, the entrance sealed by soul fog. We didn't immediately enter, though. The world below was far too entrancing.

In the distance were the mountains which separated Drangleic from Mirrah and below, the great forest of the Aldia duchy. Strange pillars of stone rose in all directions.

Then I realized the truly wrong thing.

The sun was in the wrong place. Certainly, the sun seems to freeze in place as the Fire fades. Different lands will see the sun in different places or not at all. It is dusk in Majula and night in the Huntsman's Copse. Yet, it is always a decline. It is always after noon.

We'd stepped out into midmorning.

Mytha, not exactly well-traveled, hadn't noticed. She slithered into the sun and did that stretch that the war god's cultists always do.

Well, there was nothing I could do about the sun, so we continued through the fog. Mytha almost squealed. You've seen the so-called Guardian Dragons. Mytha of course knew it was just a wyvern. But imagine you worshiped a dog god and suddenly found the biggest, fluffiest dog you'd ever seen.

I practically had to drag her away. True to Aldia's word, it didn't attack us, maybe because Mytha was already part dragon.

On the other side of the cage, the land was even more wrong. Large parts of the earth had been removed, leading to a great, foggy pit. It almost looked like the land had been torn, like cloth. Only, the jagged edges were too regular. There were pillars of earth in the pit, but they weren't like the pilars of stone. They didn't looke natural.

The edges were all sharp, and they weren't stone but earth. They should not have stood unsupported as they did. The way the dirt was packed was like a cross-section, an illustration or a model. It wasn't as if someone had stacked bricks. The soil shouldn't have been able to stand unmoved.

Another thing to ignore.

Through a tunnel, we found another elevator which was quite too small for a massive snake-woman. We squeezed in together and rose through one of the freestanding stone pillars, seemingly into the sky itself.